yesterday (and today for that matter)

i was grateful for snow chains.
and my husband staying calm when i was freaking out.
and my parents rescuing us from being crashed into a snow drift.
and the nice strangers who let us sit in their house while we were stuck.
and the nice guy in a suit & tie on his way to church who helped dig out our car.
and that even after smashing into barriers and snow -twice- we didn't damage our car.
and most especially that when we spun around and stalled on the freeway horizontal across 2 lanes of traffic that no one was behind us. and even when we were facing traffic there were not many cars coming our way. and they all saw us, and were able to slow down. and we could turn around. and keep going.
i am very grateful that Heavenly Father kept us three Barttels safe.

just so you are all aware

the sale of GM today was 9 BILLION dollars less than the bailout they received.

that means the federal government, and ME AND YOU, the taxpayers, just LOST 9 BILLION dollars.

hey- next time a crappy car company makes bad financial decisions and makes cars no one wants to buy, let's not bail them out, k? if they were some regular business, joe's coffee shop, and joe made crappy coffee and gave himself bonuses even when there's no customers, no one would bail HIM out.

and no comments about how it was necessary, please. i listen to this financial stuff ALL DAY LONG.

congrats. your bailout didn't work. i dare you to TRY to find that on the news somewhere. i GUARANTEE its not on nbc.

i find it interesting

that at 26 weeks i decided to get nausea at 9 AM every morning. again.

baby, are you trying to tell me something? you don't like oatmeal anymore? i am your mother and i am not feeding you peanut m&m's for breakfast. end of story.

a nice compliment

someone today told me i am "smart and dependable." i really like this person, we're not that great of friends, but i highly respect her. i don't know how she would know i'm smart OR dependable, but i appreciate the compliment all the same! i feel like sometimes those are weaknesses i have that i am always combating. maybe it will be a self-fulfilling prophesy.

conclusion: people are nice :)

breakfast of pregnant champions

like half a bag of trader joe's milk chocolate covered pretzels. i'm not even close to sorry.
:)

quarter century

thanks for the birthday dinnner with friends friday, family ice cream cake sunday, dinner courtesy of my SIL lauren (delish!) on monday and my husband for the lovely gold chain necklace of which i am now the proud owner.
lots of love. :)

things i learned this week:

1. watching a new friend from europe carve a pumpkin for the first time is seriously great.
2. if you use newspaper under the pumpkin carving, you will be able to read the newspaper on your table the next day.
3. pumpkins always start to mold too soon.
4. having a rat living in your ceiling is not fun.
5. naming the rat after 3 days helps you come to terms with it living in your ceiling.
6. all my siblings can, on command, name a different movie quote about rats.
7. the night it gets caught and dies in your ceiling you sleep like a baby bc its suddenly very quiet.
8. i don't want to have more rats in my ceiling.
9. listening to musicals all day at work makes the day seem brighter and the time go faster.
10. i know A LOT of lyrics to musicals.
11. i want to go back to doing community theatre.
12. my favorite role was the witch in Into The Woods in 8th grade. i still know all the words.
13. it's frightening the volume of words and music i have stored in my brain permanently.
14. if you do laundry, you will inevitably spill your breakfast on your clean dress pants
15. there's nothing like having a full linen closet of perfectly fluffy, clean, folded towels and sheets.
16. we own 25 pillowcases.
17. how did we GET that many pillowcases????
18. i sleep better when not getting charlie horses in my thigh (and there are not rats in my ceiling).
19. i wake up so much happier when i sleep good (not learned this week, just reaffirmed).
20. drinkable organic yogurt is delicious for breakfast (even when it a drip is now smudged on your pants).
21. my baby like yogurt for breakfast. i can tell.
22. my husband is in love with our baby. as am i.
23. we are 23+ weeks along now... and it all seems kind of unreal still.
24. this is too long of a list now.

i know it might seem silly

but i basically cry everytime i remember that my best friend is coming home from her mission TODAY.

i love her.

when she #1 told me she was going on a mission, #2 got her call, and #3 actually left, i was a super excited supportive best friend. and then i got off the phone, called my mother and cried.

i'm a sap sometimes, okay? :)

either way, she's coming in at 11:59 tonight. and i will see her this weekend. my arms have never been so EAGER to hug someone they miss hugging.


conclusion: Heaven Father is very kind. He places people in our lives we can love. And love oh, so much.

give me a K-E-L-L-I

ashley beat me to it. (awesome pictures ash, btw, i love them.) so i will just add this:

kelli is the bomb.

she's my best friend.
she's the first person i told (besides brad) i was pregnant.
we talk pretty much everyday and i love her to pieces.

the end.
happy birthday, kelli!!!

oh hello, little girl :)

she kicks, headbutts, elbows, and sticks her little teeny butt into my sides, bladder, and belly all day long! she is a mover & a shaker! it's hilarious.

its especially awesome for brad bc he can feel her now whenever i lay down and relax! she knows when i'm done moving around it's her time to wake up & party!

warm bread

there is nothing like a slice of warm bread, fresh out of the newly-aquired breadmaker, slathered in homemade peach jam at 11:00 PM. it is still steaming. the jam is runny & warm. the crust warm and crunchy. it warms the soul.

.

it made all the stress, tears, confusion, sickness and HEAVINESS of the world go away. yesterday the world was very heavy on me. the worry consuming.

why oh why is there so much confusion to others about things that are so clear to me? what is the world going to teach this little baby we are bringing into it? will she know of the love her parents, both earthly and eternal have for her?

.

i pray outloud at the kitchen sink, furiously cleaning dishes. it's amazing how many answers have come to me over tears, soapy hands and crusted pots. i highly recommend this method of revelation. it is cleansing in many ways.

i knew very clearly i was going to marry brad over a kitchen sink. it works.

.

i say with assurity i DO trust my Father in Heaven.

.

i know of the love my father and mother on earth, my husband, and my Father in Heaven have for me. brad has large shoulders. they handle the heaviness of the world with greater ease & have lots of square footage to cover in tears & wrap in hugs. he speaks words of comfort and peace, he validates and supports me. conclusion: the bread was delicious, filling & comforting. my heart calmed. my manna from heaven.

i am grateful for many things, among them love, comfort and warm bread. :)

i think they said something about not eating processed foods...

but what if it sounds really good?

one very small foot

I shall kiss this very small girly foot in February. And we are so excited!!

LIES!

Whilst eating some classic Barnums' Animals Crackers today I took a good look at the hippo.

IT IS ANGRY. It does not resemble the calm happy hippo on the box. Its fangs are out ready to SNAP. I was both disturbed and shocked. I mean, come on?? Do we WANT to scare our children into the truth with animal crackers? Do we really want them to learn that "Hungry Hungry Hippos" are REALLY hungry bc they kill more people a year than lions?

Also, while googling an image to put on this post I found THIS and laughed OUT LOUD.

It's like that scene in Armaggedon. So true, Ben Affleck, so true.

8 is GREAT!

quick shout out to my oldest nephew JACOB!!

he's sweet, loves baseball & his little sisters, laughs at ANYTHING his dad says, and insists that his name is not "stinky" and other such names of love which i like to call him.

i remember holding his little teeny body when he was like 2 days old. my first nephew/neice and i was IN LOVE.

tomorrow we get to watch him be baptised! crazy!

if you'd like to see what a STUD he is.. go here.

happy birthday little man, you will always be little to me!

hollywood isn't the same

im adding old movies to my netflix queue and i refound my favorite movie star crush.

so handsome, errol. how do you do it? i've loved you since you saved climbed up the trellis to maid marion's window... sigh.

Mrs. Reily "Roo" Moss

In Logan at USU, I shared a bunkbed and room with this BEAUTIFUL BRIDE for 2 years. I LOVE HER. In fact, she came to visit me last year after returning from her mission, remember?

Isn't she gorgeous!? I wish I had better pictures...

I was at Girls' Camp for her actual wedding day.. (I was so incredibly sad about it, but no matter..it worked out great!) so we went to her second reception in Heber City, UT. I may have cried a little when she ran across the room to hug me as we walked in. It made all the hours of driving & no sleep TOTALLY WORTH IT. We got to see her all beautiful & blushing (as a 2 week newlywed) and got to meet her cute husband, Tyler. HOORAY Mr. & Mrs. Moss!!

It actually worked out AWSOME bc we went to dinner after the reception, just the 4 of us and we had a great visit laughing & talking. You don't get that kind of one-on-one time on the REAL wedding day, so it was PERFECT!

I am so grateful for such wonderful friends I have & I'm so glad we got to see her so happy & married! It was important to me to go & Brad was super supportive. Thanks to my lovely husband for driving 15 out of the 20 hours, he's such gem. :)

Also, on the way we got to go to lunch & see the new SLC pad of my bff Anne!! She is hilarious & I loved seeing her too! Thanks for letting us shower at your house & make fun of your 2pac poster. :) This picture cracks me up.

p.s. Thanks for letting us crash at your house, Tami & Brandon! Seeing your cute little girls was a huge treat! :) ADDED BONUS: we stopped at Kelli's house to visit & saw her cute kid sleeping.. visited Wendy for a some food & then stopped at Melissa's to eat & visit with all the crazies (aka cutest kids alive).

Lots of driving. Glad to be home. SO WORTH IT.

Girls' Camp

5 days of madness. hilarity. spirituality. fun. laughs. I LOVE THESE GIRLS.

my girlies with our bishop :) aren't they so great?whole stake acting like crazies! :)

getting our stake pres & bishops to dance like morons.. priceless.

moved her whole bed outside to the fire ring. FUNNIEST PRANK EVER.

Ahhhhh.. girls' camp skits.Here's to a great week! :)

at this very moment

6 lively hilarious chicas are camped out in my living room giggling to their hearts content. we watched "gidget" as our sleepover movie. OH.MY.HILARIOUS. it was a great movie before- watching it with 12-14 year olds makes it SO MUCH BETTER. hahahah

i love them. so much.

we all go to girls' camp tomorrow. i'm super excited!!

i became the foursome heathnatlinzlaq at girls' camp- the greatest friendship i think i can remember. i love them (heathnatlaq) and thinking of going to girls camp makes me ache for them. to "be attached" to them. to be 14 and not yet have the cares of the world on our shoulders. to light leaves on fire. and hide under beds from "the gestpo". i miss them terribly somedays. our poor adolescence was robbed of so many crazy fun times... but all for the better in the end, i suppose.

i'm grateful to fall asleep (hopefully at some point tonight) to the voices of tween girls laughing & talking. they are funny, and smart, beautiful and i love working with them. i would give up all my tuesday nights for forever to keep this job.

i figured i better blog how much i love them BEFORE i spend 4 days straight trying to keep them from being overly sugared & insane. which they will be. and at the end i will be very tired & ready for a break. :) but i will love them none the less.

and that is really cool.

consider me slapped.

if we all voted for a president, and then someone decided the other guy would do a better job and overturned a public vote- would you feel like your rights had been taken away? WHY DO WE HAVE A PUBLIC VOTING OPTION THEN???

"If Prop. 8 is ruled unconstitutional, that's a slap in the faces of nearly 7-million Californians who voted, in November, 2008, to limit marriage to a man & a woman, and to put that definition in the state constitution."

Read more: http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/08/04/key-ruling-on-gay-marriage/#ixzz0vkiEhJLp

ooooohhh where did the months go?

lets not try to play the catch up game. let's just put up some pictures. :)

solvang is LOVELY.
summer and nature upclose is AWESOME.
family visiting is WONDERFUL.
julie is one of my best friends, we threw her a little birthday dinner and i LOVE HER.
now it is August... oh dear.

Perfect Weekend

Dear Sunshine,

Thank you for being out all day Saturday and Sunday. I had 2 lovely long walks by our house. Brad played volleyball for 4 hours. We got tan lines. We ate at the Chili Cook Off in downtown HB. We watched the surf competition from the pier. Because of your warm rays the salt from the ocean dried on my legs all weird, but thats ok.
You made my weekend. You can stay out all summer if you like.

Your biggest fan,
Lindsey

i love this face.

she comes home from taiwan in 4 months. believe me, you want to be friends with her.

Who is your FAVORITE AUNT?

Well, for 7 year old Matthew, it better be ME! :) I will say it again, I LOVE BEING AN AUNT. I love holding little people's hands and getting to have special time with them. I took Matthew to Disneyland this Friday and we had SO much fun. He was so good and happy and it was a great day! We watched shows I hadn't seen before, rode the train around, saw fireworks, played all over Tom Sawyer's Island, and DEFEATED ZURG!

i confess i love the tiki room. i shamelessly sing along the whole time. lucky for me, matthew loves it too! he sang with me, so we went twice. almost 3 times. :)

BEST SHOW AT DISNEYLAND- go see it!

mmmmm.... churro.
"Aunt Lindsey! It DOES taste kinda like a donut!"

"What do we win if we pull the sword in the stone?"
"You win Disneyland."
He tried to pull it out SO HARD. hahahah