Warm Fuzzies

Christmas is just a few days away... yippee! This has always been my favorite holiday. Everything about just makes me happy inside.

Unfortunately, it seems like there hasn't been enough "warm fuzzies" going around the interwebz lately. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather be thinking about happy, Christmas-y, festive goodness than all the controversial topics that have become the focus the past couple weeks. Thus, here are some of the things that have been giving me the warm fuzzies recently, just in case you need something to get you in the Christmas spirit too. 

1. Dallin sung in our former ward today so I went as well. In that ward, there is a sweet boy who has Down's syndrome that was ordained a deacon not long before we were called to the Spanish branch. One of the duties of being a deacon is passing the sacrament, and it melts my heart to see one of his fellow deacons gently guiding him around the chapel with his arm over his shoulder so he can participate. It always makes me think of Christ and how he helps me handle things that I can't do alone. I love it.

2. This video. If this doesn't make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, you just might be the Grinch himself.

Life is so much better when you are kinder to people around you, whether you think you deserve it or not, and is there any better way to get in the spirit of Christmas than that? 

3. Ingrid Michaelson's version of "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm." It's chock full of happiness. (I'm not sure how legit this website is, but you can listen to it here)

4. Baby boy's wild movements are becoming more recognizable, like maybe there is actually a baby in there instead of an octopus (whew!). It's starting to sink in that he is coming very soon, ready or not. I'm so excited. Whenever I think about this wee babe of mine and how blessed I feel to be pregnant (something I wasn't sure I would get to experience), I get overwhelmed with happiness. Life is so very good. I can't wait for next Christmas, when there will be three of us instead of two.

5. This, which might be my very favorite Christmas song.

I especially love these lines:

Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we

Let all within us praise His holy name

I'm so thankful for my Savior. He means everything to me, and I owe all the happiness, hope, and peace in my life to him. Even though I know I could never repay him for what he does for me, I know I can at least try to help those around me and become a better person, and isn't that what this season is all about? (That, and cookies. Always cookies. The end.)

Have a merry little Christmas! 

Five quick takes

1. I wore heels to seminary today and nearly fell flat on my face when I tried to bend down to pick up a marker I dropped. Bending over is getting hard enough lately... I should have known that trying to do it when I have an extra 2-3 inches to go and a shifted center of gravity would be a joke! Silly, silly Mikaela.

2. I wish all Christmas songs made me as happy as the Hanukkah Song. Pure gold that never gets old. The end.

 

3. If you need a laugh, check out the reviews for these gummy bears on Amazon. I've never really liked gummy bears, but I don't think I'll ever be able to eat one again. Ever ever ever. (Oh, and lest you think I was shopping for a 5-lb bag of sugar-free gummy bears, lemme clarify that I found this because someone shared it on Facebook simply for the comedic value of said reviews, just saying. Haha!)

4. Most of the food I consumed today was peanut butter kiss cookies. I feel like I should be ashamed. Unfortunately, I'm ashamed to say that I'm not ashamed. I blame my husband for not coming home for lunch today, thus sending me into pregnant-couch-potato-with-no-motivation-to-make-food mode. ;)

5. While baking said cookies yesterday I managed to burn my wrist on the edge of the cookie sheet. It's shaping up to be a nice scar, so that's great because what better place to have a scar than on your wrist, right? I promise I'm not depressed, just remarkably prone to accidents lately. Promise.

28 weeks down, 12 to go

I can't believe I'm already in my third trimester. How the heck did that come up so quickly? 

Everything is still going well! I've been feeling really good lately, which has been nice since I have gotten a lot done on the nursery. It's all painted, the crib is set up, I've finally figured out how I want to arrange all the furniture, the four bags of clothes my mom gave me have been organized and put away in the closet, and now I just have some decorating and a couple projects to finish up before it's just right. 

I've been nesting like nobody's business lately, so I'm really thankful that we live in a house where I can paint, decorate, and fuss over baby things to my heart's content, although that means I've been spending a lot more time messing with the nursery than doing the dishes the past few weeks... Oh well. ;) 

Don't be too jealous of my incredibly attractive men's sweats from Walmart. 

He's still really wiggly and has been getting much stronger. It's crazy to be able to see him move instead of just feeling it. I caught it on video when I was waiting for a doctor's appointment last week. Glad he cooperated!

On an unrelated note, school is on break for the whole week so I got to sleep in until 7am. I woke up feeling happier that a bodybuilder directing traffic. It was glorious. Annnnd I get to do that all week. This pleases me very much indeed. The end.

Happy snippets

Seminary went better today than it has in a while. At least, I was more satisfied with my lesson than I have been lately, like I wrote about here a couple days ago. I'll never know whether my sleepy students got much out of it (#holidayweekendproblems) but at least I felt I did my best. To me, that is a victory, and I'm so thankful. I hope things keep improving from here on out.

I'm making big progress on the nursery! We should be ready to paint in a couple days (at the latest) and I've finished painting the ugly brass sliding closet doors. They turned out SO well and I'm really relieved! I was a little skeptical, but they look really nice and it's an enormous improvement on the whole room. Now I just hope that the thrifted glider I'm working on will turn out well too! We should be getting our crib and some other furniture this weekend and I can't wait to set it all up.

Dallin and I made pizza last night and it was amazing. I forgot how much I love that stuff. After a failure of a squirrel hunting trip with Marc and Becca (Dallin's brother and his wife) in which we didn't see one single squirrel, something I didn't think was possible, at least we ended the night with a big fat win. And yes, we are rednecks... and proud of it. ;) (Also, don't tell Dallin... but I'm slightly relieved we didn't get any because eating squirrel meat is definitely not something on my bucket list. I know I'll have to try it though!)

My sister is expecting twin girls due next month, and my youngest siblings still refer to the "babies" in my belly since they seem to think I'm having twins too. It seems like they think I've been gypped because they give me such a funny look when I tell them there is just one in there, not two. Pretty sure they are thinking, "You only got one? Geeze, what a ripoff." If it is a ripoff, it's a ripoff I'm okay with, thankyouverymuch. ;)

On a somewhat related note, Marc, Becca, and their little 2-month-old baby Levi have been living at our house while they work on getting moved into my in-law's empty house (they are on a mission in TX right now). I was facetiming my siblings the other day when my 4-year-old brother Luke saw Levi and ran off yelling, "Mikaela has her baby! Mikaela has her baby!!!!" The whole herd came a-running and were sorely disappointed to find that it wasn't actually my baby. Sorry, kiddos... He still needs to bake for about another three months! ;)

Lastly, please tell me you love this video as much as I do. Hahahaha!

(P.S. All the Captain Literally sketches they've done are excellent as well... if you haven't watched them, DO IT NOW. You're welcome.)



Happy Tuesday, errbody! Hope your holiday weekend was a good one!

Monday pick-me-up

Just in case you are as thrilled about the beginning of another week as I am. ;)

Also, this cracks me up every single time. Haha!
The first time I heard this story and saw him wiggle his ears was in a broadcast for all the stakes in Arizona several years ago. I laughed so hard my sides hurt. Oh, how I love both President Hinckley and President Monson! And oh, how excited I am for General Conference this weekend! :D

"My wife told me not to say that." 

Have a wonderful week!

Need a laugh today?

Then do yourself a favor and check this out.


Way too good. This makes me so happy every time I watch it, and you better believe I've watched it more than a few times today. It kills me every time!

I had an oral surgery earlier this year, and when I was waking up apparently I had a hard time getting my eyes to cooperate with each other. (P.S. You should see Dallin's impression of my confused, groggy face and wandering eyeballs. It's probably even funnier than I was in person.) Anyway, I was trying so hard to focus on Dallin but I couldn't stop seeing double for a little while.

Even though I only have a very faint, dream-like memory of this, and wasn't really all there at that point, Dallin says I smiled in his general direction and said, "Two Dallins? What could be better?" Annnnd then I conked out for a few more minutes before really coming back to life. I must really love him if I'm mushy even when I'm barely conscious, eh? That's nowhere near as great as the guy in this video but it still makes Dallin and I chuckle.

Happy Tuesday! :)

5 happy thoughts

Because sometimes writing them down makes them come into my head, and if we're being honest there aren't very many happy thoughts in my head at the moment as I lay in bed grouchy, sick, and tired.

1. I will be sleeping in my own bed tonight! This babysitting gig has been (for the most part, as seen by my last post) easier and more fun than I was anticipating, but 10 days is a long time to live in someone else's house and it will be nice to get back to normal life.

2. I married a keeper. He really is the best. Patient, sweet, and always making me laugh. I can't believe he was crazy enough to want to marry this crazy goof of a redhead, but I'm sure glad he did!

3. One of the little girls in the family we've been watching loves to come up, pat my belly, and say, "Hi baby" several times a day. She is also really excited to find out whether it is a boy or girl (as am I!) and has made me promise to text her mom when I find out in a few weeks so she can tell her. It is adorable. I might have to sneak her home with us tonight. Her parents won't notice, right?

4. It's Friday! I get my husband all to myself for the next couple of days! Yippee!

5. My almost 2-year-old sister makes my little heart melt every time she tells me "Lah-loo" (Love you) on the phone. She is pretty stinking cute. (And I'm not biased or anything....)

Funny to look back at these happy thoughts and see exactly what is on my mind... sleep, husband, and babies/kids. Must be pregnant or something... eh? :)

On an unrelated note, you should watch this. And all the other Kid Snippets while you're at it, because they are hilarious. Almost as hilarious as listening to the youngest kid we are watching start quoting lines from it at random and then bust up laughing. THE BEST.



Happy Friday!

Bullfight, birthday, and museums (Spain part 4)

(Part one, part two, part three)

I was lucky enough to get to spend my birthday in Spain. It just worked out to be the best time for us to go! We spent most of the day at museums. 

First, we went to the Prado. I didn't take many pictures because I wasn't sure when it was allowed, and being chewed out by angry Spanish lady docents (in Spanish of course) is kind of a scary experience best avoided. Trust me. 

Las Meninas! This photo was taken right at the precise moment one of the said angry Spanish lady docents gave me a chewing out accompanied with a most dirty look. Maybe it's because I'm American because there were definitely a few Spaniards taking pictures and she didn't say nothin'! 

Some big names up there! Although after going to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg I think I'm too spoiled when it comes to museums...

For lunch, we ate at Telepizza! Dallin ate here often on his mission because they have a buy one medium pizza, get one free deal that is perfect for missionaries. We got the carbonara pizza, and it was oh so good! And of course we had to get orange Fanta to drink. I think I drank more soda during the time we were in Spain than I've had all year, and that actually might not be much of an exaggeration. It was just so good! American soda really is crap compared to this goodness. 

We visited the Reina Sofia Museum after lunch. This museum had more modern art whereas the Prado is mostly classical. There were lots of Dalis and Picassos, including Guernica which was even bigger than I expected! Of course, no pictures were allowed of that (and thankfully they actually had signs here letting you know what you could photograph!).

This is the awkwardness that ensues when I ask Dallin to take a picture of me.

One of the many Picassos

We were pretty tired so we took a little break at the hotel during medio dia, or middle of the day, which is when things pretty much shut down for a couple hours in the afternoon. Wish they did that in the US! :)

My birthday palmera and with (of course) orange Fanta. I'd take this over birthday cake any day! 

We did some more exploring and shopping after this. It was really fun to just walk around (holding hands of course) just seeing what we could see. 

I'm really proud of myself... I only bought two scarves this trip!

Dallin finally got his paws on one of the calamari sandwiches he'd been looking forward to! On the outside, this place looked like kind of sketchy (which I think is what Dallin was looking for, to be honest) but they lead us back through the noisy bar to a nice dining area we pretty much had to ourselves.  

I wasn't going to order anything, but I ended up getting the gazpacho. Very... interesting dish. It is a vegetable soup that tasted good but was a little overpoweringly rich. And I was not expecting it to be cold, not at all! Dallin got a big kick out of my reaction that makes me question whether he "forgot" to tell me that it wasn't served warm. ;) It was pretty much a pureed, chilled salad.

More walking around. I think I already mentioned this in a previous post, but I loved all the street musicians. There were quite a few out when we were walking around this time. They must have known it was my birthday or something, right? ;)

Breakfast the next morning: churros and chocolate! It's a good think this isn't something I can find in the US.

This is fat free, right? 

The Temple of Debod, an Egyptian temple that was moved to Madrid around 1970 to preserve it because a dam built on the Nile was threatening it. Pretty cool! I would have liked to go in but there was a herd of people waiting (in the hot sun, no less, a ginger's worst enemy) so we decided to pass.

A beautiful rose garden! 

We went back to the Almudena/Royal Cathedral to climb up into the dome.

View of the Royal Palace

Madrid skyline

There were statues of saints all around the base of the dome.

I like this guy. He makes a good travel buddy. ;)

Inside the cathedral

I loved the ceilings! I don't think it is any secret that I love bright colors and patterns, so this was right up my alley. 

This was a really interesting mix of Gothic and modern art/architecture. The stained glass windows are kind of absract, which wasn't my favorite, but it was interesting. 

The last thing we did on our last day in Spain was go to a bullfight. 

Oh boy, was this an experience. A very intense experience.

 I'm not sure it would be accurate to say I "enjoyed" it, but it sure was something else to see these crazy guys dressed in sparkly outfits elude a 1,400 pound horned beast that wants to (and easily could, if given the chance) rip them to shreds. Oh and by the way the only thing you get to "protect" yourself is a little cape.

If there is anything I learned, it is that becoming a bullfighter is not the career choice for me. No sir.

I didn't know a whole lot about bullfights before coming to Spain. It is more structured and involved than I thought. There's four stages to each bullfight. First, they let it loose and the matadors tease it with pink/yellow capes, as seen above. This was my favorite part because this is when the bull is most active and energetic, and there isn't any blood or gore (Yet! But don't worry, there are no gory pictures here... yuck).

Here's a video from that first segment!  

Then two picadors some out on blindfolded, armored horses with a long spear in hand. The bull charges the horses and the picador spears it in the back of the neck a few times.

After that, the banderilleros come out and have the gutsy task of jabbing short sticks with barbs on the end into the back of their neck, meaning they have to jump up and reach over the horns of the bull. That has to be the worst (as in scariest) job of them all. You don't even get a cape or anything to distract the bull. Yipes!

 Last of all, one matador comes out with a red cape and a sword, and after he teases/weakens it he stabs the bull through the back of the neck and (hopefully, unless he hits a shoulder blade) into the heart. Then some horses come out to drag it away so they can prepare the meat to sell. 

Ugh... this gives me the willies! No thank you!

There are usually six bulls per fight so they repeat this five more times. It's pretty intense! I was sitting anxiously on the edge of my seat the whole time, especially since the first matador got gored and the bull got on top of him. Somehow he avoided getting stepped on (you'd be toast if that happened!) and he got up and finished the job. Another matador got nicked in the face, but again he stayed in and finished. They are very proud and I imagine it would take something pretty serious to get them to give up the fight.

The bullfighting arena

Rather than take the metro back to our hotel we decided to walk because we would have had to buy another pass to get to the airport in the morning. Plus, as Dallin said, it was a lot more romantic than cramming on to the crowded trains. 

We flew home to the good ol' USA the next morning!

We were sad to go, but it is always good to be home. 

Hope to see you again soon, Spain! :)

Five Hap-pay, Hap-pay, Hap-pay Things

I've been in a funk lately that I just can't seem to shake, so here are five happy things to replace the slightly disgruntled post I was writing (because ain't nobody got time for being disgruntled, right?).

Numero Uno: This video of me smashing an egg on my head.

This is what happens when my siblings and I get together. Yes, we are crazy, but the skin on my forehead does feel silky smooth now! ;)

Number 2: These pics from our hike on Saturday. 

This place was beautiful and I'm glad I went through the trouble of waterproofing and lugging along my good camera. 

Thank you Dallin, for being the only person in the world that is whiter than me!

Number 3: Studio C

Dallin and I are a little obsessed. They are just too good. This one is my favorite!

Number 4: Baby hands and dandelions

I made a surprise trip to visit my family a few days ago, and caught my sister E picking (and then squishing) dandelions for my mom. She melts my heart (and makes me exceedingly baby hungry).

Number 5: THE PIANO GUYS!!!!

We are headed to Mesa tonight to see them! Can you tell I'm a wee bit excited??? :D