We love our ob/gyn. A few examples why we think she’s cool.

• Rich and I tend to consult each other the day/night before our next appointment to review any questions we’d thought of that we need to ask her. (I should note here that Rich has come with me to every appointment; it’s so nice to have a second brain there to remember the stuff I don’t!) A few weeks ago, Rich woke up in the middle of the night before our appointment and told me I needed to ask our doctor what we should do in case our baby was born in the middle of a zombie invasion. On our way to the appointment, I asked if he remembered telling me that. He did. We decided to ask.

  At the appointment, I got through the real questions and then Rich said we had one more very important question to ask. So, as straight-faced as I could, I asked, “What do we do in the event our baby is born during a zombie invasion?” Rich chimed in, “Because, you know, hospitals are where the zombies go first, and a screaming baby would just attract them even more.” Honest-to-goodness, our doctor stepped back, sat down, and got a very serious look on her face. Then she said, “You know…I’ve never thought about that one.” She thought a bit more and said, “Well, I live close by and have an extra room – I could deliver the baby there if you needed. Or, really, plenty of people have had home deliveries; you just need to remember string to cut the cord…”

  She had to step out for something, and when she came back in, she told us they just got a new med student/intern, and she said she was totally going to make that the new girl’s first assignment. “I’m totally telling her she needs to research what we should do in case of a zombie invasion and have her write up a flyer for us!”

• Rich told her today about the centrifugal force baby birthing machine, telling her that was our request for the delivery. As he described it to her, she got a huge kick out of it! She told us she’d love to pull a prank on the hospital staff when we came in to deliver the baby and have the print-out of the image of the machine and tell them that we needed her paged immediately so that she could bring it for us!

It’s great to have a doctor who is very competent and caring, and who cheers you along the road of pregnancy. It’s just extra awesome to have one who gets your (and your husband’s) sense of humor!

Saturday, we had some friends from out of town come visit and play games with us. I remembered earlier in the day that I was slated for bringing the monthy birthday treats for Young Women’s, and decided to buy a box of cookies from the grocery store while out picking up dinner since we were short on time. Rich had made some cookies for our company, and, instead of baking them all, saved about half of the cookie dough in the refrigerator.

As I was out picking up the pizzas for dinner, I ran to the grocery store, picked up the cookies, as well as some crackers for the Cougar Gold cheese we had for snacking during the evening, and some candy because I’m pregnant and it looked/sounded good. I walked out with one grocery bag that I thought had everything I’d purchased in it.

Our friends left at about midnight, and as Rich and I were getting things ready for church, I started hunting for the box of cookies I’d bought. They were nowhere to be found. NOWHERE. Rich checked the car twice, and I started really freaking out.

I started a new blog recently called “From Z’s Perspective.” If you’ve read it, you’ll probably seen it’s quite different from this blog. I thought I’d take a quick minute to explain.

This blog, Z’s World, is mainly a personal blog. It will continue to be the place for baby updates and the like.

From Z’s Perspective is more professionally-focused. I subscribe to a couple of newsbriefs via www.smartbrief.com. The articles summarized in these daily briefs deal with online advertising and leadership – two areas of interest for me. A few recent articles really got me thinking, and I thought I’d start a blog where I could exercise my MBA muscles a bit, almost doing mini-case studies when I find articles that intrigue me for whatever reason. Because these expositions are far different in tone than my general blog post here has been, I wanted to make it a different blog. And, truth be told, I’m hoping to add it to my resume in the future as I work towards my career goal of becoming a business consultant. So, the new blog is my outlet for expressing my opinions on business topics, a way to help me stay plugged in to the world of business and exercise the skills I’ve developed there, while also giving me the opportunity to keep learning and growing professionally.

Both blogs are on Networked Blogs, and feed into my Facebook profile. I realized if anyone actually follows those feeds, it might get a little confusing why there are two looks from two blogs popping up.

So, to recap – Z’s World is the personal stuff; From Z’s Perspective is the professional stuff.

Happy reading!

The Seattle, Washington, temple.

Tonight was the youth baptism temple night, and I was able once again participate. For those unfamiliar with LDS baptisms in the temple, we believe in being baptized as proxy for our deceased ancestors. We do this because we believe there are certain ordinances, or actions, that need to be taken to qualify us to live with our Heavenly Father again. One of these ordinances that we believe to be necessary is baptism. However, many have died without the opportunity to be baptized; we believe that, as God is a merciful God and would not deny someone heaven’s blessings because they did not have the chance to be baptized while on earth, we can baptized on their behalf, under specific authority granted by God. The LDS church’s website has a little more about the topic.

Tonight, as one of the adult youth leaders, I helped with the baptisms. I love being with the youth at the temple! However, tonight was a little more exciting than previous youth temple trips have been. Here are a few of the highlights:

1. Being confused as one of the youth. I had taken a family name with me that needed baptism and confirmation, so I was dressed in the clothing for that purpose. Even being 7 months pregnant, the clothing was large enough on me that I just looked a little ill-proportioned, not pregnant. This became obvious when one of the temple workers started talking to me as though I was one of the youth, rather than one of the adults helping with the temple trip! Being days away from turning 30, I was definitely thrilled to be mistaken as being a teenager!

2. Being baptized for someone on my mom’s side of the family. First, having a name that needed baptism on my mom’s side of the family was amazing! She’s from El Salvador, and finding family history records there is difficult, to say the very least. Most of the baptism and confirmation work had already been done for the rest of the family members; this was a new one. However, that wasn’t the only exciting part…I also slipped on the stairs into the baptismal font, giving everyone, including little Magnum, a bit of a scare! Little did I know that the temple worker who had been giving the youth their instructions for how to participate in the baptisms and confirmations had watched and said to the youth, “Right…be careful, the stairs can sometimes be slippery.” There’s nothing quite like leading by example!

3. Just being in the temple. I love the calm feeling of the temple. It’s truly a place where you can leave the world behind and focus on the matters of eternity. I always love going and doing work there!

4. Getting pizza afterwards. When I had first arrived at the church to pick up youth to take to the temple tonight, one of the girls mentioned to her mom (and the rest of the youth and leaders present) that I was definitely waddling. I had to laugh and say, “Hey, just because I’m waddling doesn’t mean you have to point it out!” After the temple trip, we had pizza and cookies for everyone. I was hungry, and after the young men’s leader called out to the hungry teenage boys, “LADIES FIRST!” I mentioned to the young women’s president, “Well, he said ladies first, and this lady is getting some food!” Little did I realize she’d take the opportunity to call out another announcement, “Ladies first, and there is a pregnant lady who definitely needs to eat!” What was super sweet was one of the girls immediately responded, “Sister Z, I’ll get your pizza for you!” Ah, the love. And ah, the pregnancy!

I should also point out that another highlight to the evening was just getting to hang out with the girls and the other young women leaders. I really love working with them all! We have such a fun time together, teasing, talking, swapping stories. I loved getting to drive some of the girls to the temple and chatting with them both on the way there and on the way back.

I’m looking forward to the next temple trip. Hopefully, I’ll still be able to go!

Until today, my pies have mainly either been apple or some combination of berries.  Today was a day for experiments, though.

I’ve had a Best of Country Pies recipe book for a few years.  It’s a treasure trove of recipes, most of which I haven’t gotten around to.  I’ve looked warily at the cheddar pear pie recipe before, uncertain about a pear pie, but we had a few pears just tipping that border between ripe and over-ripe, and this recipe called for the exact number we had on hand.  Pears and cheese sounded like a great combination anyway, so I had to try it.

A note on presentation:  yes, the crust really should be up over the lip of the pie plate, but the filling wasn’t quite enough to reach that level, so I rolled the edge to meet it.  Next time, I might add one more pear to fill the pie plate.

Also, a note on the recipe – I didn’t use the full amount of salt the recipe called for.  For the pears, I used a pinch of salt; for the topping, I used a little more than a pinch of salt.

The flavor was wonderful!  The cheese in the topping wasn’t overwhelming to the pears, instead complementing them well.  Because of how ripe the pears were, it was very juicy – I may have needed more cornstarch for the filling.  Regardless, it was a great kick-off to fall and pie-baking season!

Tonight was the General Relief Society broadcast for church. Relief Society is the women’s organization for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s a world-wide organization, with the motto, “Charity never faileth.” Every woman who is a member of the LDS church, on turning 18 or graduating from high school (whichever comes later) becomes a member of this great organization.

Every year, there’s a General Relief Society broadcast, where women gather all around the world to listen to messages especially for them from the leaders of the world-wide Relief Society and from the prophet. Sadly, though I’ve been a part of Relief Society for almost 12 years, I haven’t attended many of these broadcasts. I’ll read the messages later in the church’s magazines, but I don’t remember attending many of the broadcasts themselves.

Tonight, I was nervous about attending. There was a dinner after the broadcast, and I immediately reverted to that high school/teenager self. “What if nobody I know is there? Who will I sit with?” But more than that, I’ve been fairly whiney and down about things lately. It got to the point this week that I was in tears during a morning prayer, saying things like, “Help us remember that Thou knowest we are here.” Rich told me guilt-tripping God might not be the best approach, but I wasn’t trying to do that as much as plead for help from heaven to keep at least a glimmer of hope in my heart. (This, after posting my Lemons to Lemonade post, I know – it’s not easy remembering the lemonade.) I had a feeling I needed to attend, though I felt like the child who knows she’s in trouble but doesn’t want to hear it and gets defensive, justifying her behavior, even though she knows she’s in the wrong.

The first hymn we sang nearly had me crying: Count Your Blessings. First verse:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

By the third verse, I had to stop singing to avoid the tears:

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold.
Count your many blessings; money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven nor your home on high.

And we’d just barely sung the opening hymn!

The messages were so beautiful. First, that there is strength in the Relief Society, and that the Lord loves us and has a purpose for us, and history teaches us who we are. Second, we have a specific role to play in this life, and we need to stay faithful, say your prayers, study the scriptures, and serve others. Third, to see visiting teaching as a way to bless others’ lives, not just something we have to do once a month, to love as Christ loves. And then, the prophet’s message – do not judge others, but love, instead. While not all necessarily directly related to the employment situation, I felt like I’ve been slacking or failing in each of the areas discussed tonight. I really could be doing much better, being more grateful, more kind, more gentle, more loving, less crabby and grumpy, less judgmental of those I’ve had interviews with who sounded so eager to help me find something and who I haven’t heard back from.

In the end, I felt humbled, and so grateful I went to the broadcast. As I knew in my heart, I definitely needed to be there.

I finally finished the LOTR trilogy; turns out we don’t have the extended version for the 3rd movie, which, honestly, is fine…200 minutes for the non-extended version is good enough, as are the 6 different endings. I still am irritated by the fact they did 6 endings, and did NOT show the cleansing of the Shire. The only ending I really enjoy is the one where Aragorn is crowned. The rest…Frodo’s raised-eyebrow-nearly-crying-kind-of-smiling look just grates on me.

I mentioned in the first movie that one of my random thoughts was the fact that winning a battle with the Balrog makes your hair go straight. It seems that continued in the rest of the movies, as Viggo Mortensen’s hair gets all straight and pretty after the battle at Gondor.

I also love that Samwise Gamgee turns into Samwise Bodybuilder Gamgee at the final moments up the side of Mount Doom. Exhausted, hungry, and parched, he still manages to heft Frodo up the rest of the way to the entrance to the mountain. Impressive.

I usually think of Denethor as one horribly blind and stupid guy, but this time, I realized he was incredibly selfish, too. His army is out battling the orcs and other nasties while he indulges in one heck of a pity party. I wondered if the staff who were with him, complying with his desires to take Faramir to the crypt, were glad when Gandalf showed up? Or were they just glad for the excuse for a few more moments of life away from the battle?

At the end, I realized I needed to find the books to read them. Of course, that’s adding to the list of books to read and re-read after I finish the current series I’m on…Robert Jordan’s 13-book trilogy, The Wheel of Time.

Oh, and for the record, 95% of the laundry got finished by the time I was done with the three movies. (Yes, it was a lot of laundry to catch up on, though, to be fair, the movie did slow me down a bit!)

First, a few notes from the 2nd LOTR series:

1. I’m nearly completely caught up with the ironing. Hurray for the extended versions of the three movies!
2. I posted this on FB, and still think it an overlooked item from movies 1 and 2: when you win a fight with a Balrog, your hair becomes perfectly straight.
3. As I watched the 2nd movie, I kept anticipatiting the scene which apparently is in the 3rd movie with the ruler of Gondor. I forgot about the irritation he caused me in the 2nd movie. Talk about one blind parent.
4. When Gandalf the White rides in with the riders of Rohan at the end of the big battle with the Uru-kai, I couldn’t help but be amazed at the apparent strength he must have with that staff. Where others need swords, he can accomplish the same with the staff. AND come through without a stain on his nice, white robe. Must come with being a wizard.

And now some other thoughts that have occured to me this week.

When I was laid off, I was hurt. Up until that point, I had been blessed with consistent employment. If there’s one thing I fear in life, it’s failure – feeling like a failure, failing at something I’m trying to do, looking like a failure… If it smells like failure to me, I really get scared. The first few weeks after being laid off, I had lots of hope from conversations with contracting companies and other companies who showed a tremendous amount of interest in my skills. I felt hopeful – hopeful that the phase of unemployment wouldn’t be long, and I’d be on to new endeavors soon.

Weeks kept passing, and nothing seemed to happen with all those hopeful interviews I’d had. Then we had ailing family and other concerns that occupied time, so I didn’t really dwell on the situation. Then came a networking meeting-turned interview that I was completely unprepared for. I walked away from the interview feeling like a complete idiot. We’d just returned from helping friends and family, and I hadn’t really done my homework to refresh my memory on what was on my resume at the very least, before walking into that discussion. I had the address wrong, parking blocks away from where the meeting was taking place, and arrived late for the meeting. My head was NOT clear – in fact, it was complete mush. I couldn’t remember names, dates, responsibilities, or, it seemed, how to speak intelligently. I walked away feeling like a failure.

I tried not to let it get to me, but it did. It got to the point that one of our toilets needed to be unplugged, and I worked and worked at it, but nothing would come of it. Rich looked at it and said to just leave it alone, it would probably take care of itself with all the plunging I’d just done. I did, and 5 minutes later, the toilet was fine.

That’s when I broke down. I couldn’t even successfully plunge a toilet.

I like to watch movies while ironing. Today, the movie of choice was the Fellowship of the Ring. It’s been awhile since I’ve watched the LOTR trilogy, and the extended editions of each make for plenty of ironing time!

Today, a few random thoughts occurred to me while I was watching the first half of the movie (watching the two-disc extended edition; I said the movies made for plenty of ironing time, I didn’t claim to actually IRON for the entire duration of the movie!). For your consideration, I share these random tidbits from Z’s brain below:

1. I still don’t particularly like Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins. For that matter, Frodo still annoys me in the movies…Gandalf said don’t put the ring on, it’ll attract those looking for it, and when he’s faced with the wringwraiths, what does he do? PUT THE RING ON! Smart one. (For the record, I get it – the ring wants him to put it on, and the pull is just too strong, etc. etc.)
2. Considering Stryder/Aragorn beat off the wringwraiths with fire, maybe the hobbits having a fire wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Maybe torches would’ve been a better weapon to leave them with than the swords.
3. Humans always get such a bad rap; thank goodness for Aragorn living among the elves so long to save the race from being nothing but power-hungry, easily-corruptible…humans.
4. Viggo Mortensen is, to borrow a phrase from a friend, very easy on the eyes. So glad his son convinced him to play the part!
5. I still think Orlando Bloom makes a better elf than a pirate…
6. Maybe this says something about the movies and/or books I’ve been reading, but who was the first author to portray ravens and crows as being evil, or at least in league with the bad guys? I’m curious if they’re ever the good side’s spies?
7. Christopher Lee (Saruman) just makes a great bad guy.
8. Moths still creep me out, but they get a slightly less creepy quality when helping save Gandalf from Isengard. (Sidenote: that was one huge moth.)
9. When was the last time Gimli actually visited his cousin in the Mines of Moria…?
10. I wonder if Hugo Weaving (Elrond) did the one-eyebrow raised thing as part of his audition? Was that a requirement? Raising both would seem too much when Boromir walks towards the ring, but just raising the one speaks volumes!
11. The exasperated looks from Elrond and Legolas when Gandalf speaks the words on the ring still make me chuckle. You just don’t think elves would gives looks that say, “Ugh. You just had to go there, didn’t you?”
12. Hobbit foot hair must be one heck of an insulator.

Well, there you have it. Z’s random thoughts while ironing and watching the first half of Fellowship of the Ring.