If I Only Had a Brain

This pregnancy has definitely been an interesting experience for me.  It has made me realize how old I am.  It amazes me that the trend in the world is to start having kids at about 30, because it's right about then that it gets so much harder.  Even the last one, which I delivered at 29, was so so much easier than this one.  (That may also be because this is my seventh pregnancy, and my body is just plain wearing out.)  Whatever the reason, this pregnancy has not been my favorite.  I've only got one month to go, and I'm sure looking forward to having a few things back that I've been missing.  Of all the things I'm missing  ( my waist, my ankles...)  my brain is the thing I miss the most.  It has been on vacation for a few months now, and I'm hoping it will come back to visit for the holidays.
Yesterday Jef and I decided to go the temple, (thanks for the inspiration, Janna), but I had to go to the store first so the kids would have something to eat for dinner while we were gone.  (Not that they ate any of it. I don't think they ever left the couch.  They were all starving when we got home.  Grrrr.  But that's a gripe for another post.)  So I went to the store, got what I needed, took it out to the car, put my shopping cart in the corral, and drove away....   with my purse still in the cart.  I noticed as soon as I got home, which was only two blocks away.  So I hurried back to the store and checked my cart, but of course my purse was gone.  I went in on the off chance that someone had turned it in, and they had!!!  I am so very grateful for honest people today.
So I hurried home and we left for the temple.  But my adventures had taken too long, and we were going to miss the session.  So we decided to go get a hamburger and catch the next one.  We did finally make it to a session, and it was great.  But after we got back to the van, I started looking for my purse...  and it wasn't there.  Because I had left it in the hamburger place!!!   Only about one hour after I had left it at the grocery store!  How could I really be such an airhead?  I wouldn't have even thought it was possible after the scare I had to leave it again only an hour later.
Along with the missing purse, we also noticed that Jef's phone had about 30 missed calls.  Most of them were from home, so we gave the kids a call.  Turns out that "some lady" had called the house asking for me, and then told the kids that she had my purse and I should come get it.  But when I didn't come for it right away, she brought it to our house.  I really hope she was coming this direction anyway, because that would have been almost an hour drive for her.  I have no idea who she was, but I am SO grateful to her.
So my purse made it home safely for the second time that day.  I told Jef that maybe I shouldn't leave the house anymore until after I've delivered this baby. I obviously can't take care of myself anymore.  If I only had a brain!

On Facial Hair

Remember this guy?
Seen him lately?
I haven't, and I sure do miss him! 
Such a good-looking guy...
Sigh

I have, however, seen plenty of this guy.

He was apparently supposed to be the replacement for the guy shown above.

Not much of a trade, if you ask me.

There was a reason to his madness, though.  He was an extra in the Church's New Testament Video Project.  They are filming all of the stories in the New Testament.  Jef got to be part of a lot of cool scenes, including the Sermon on the Mount and Peter's Denial.  So, if your Sunday School teacher is showing a New Testament video in class, then look for this guy. He had a great time, and really loved it.

But then he trimmed his beard a little,
and thought he looked totally different.
He was quite offended when I said it pretty much looked the same. (But really, what do girls know about facial hair, anyway?)

This was my favorite of the beard phases.

I could have survived with this one.

At least it was better than what came next!

They finished up with filming the first week in October, so he was done with the beard, and didn't need it anymore, but it took him days and days to get around to doing anything about it. He was just too emotionally attached. And then he couldn't just shave it off all at once. He had to do it in phases. So he wore this look for a whole day. Definitely not my favorite look for him.

And this look only lasted long enough to take the picture.

I told him it was wrong.  

Just wrong...

And so is this.
Definitely not the guy I married.

And this is pretty much what he looks like right now. He won't let me cut his hair too short, because they're filming again in the Spring, and he doesn't want to be too far behind in the hair-growing department. So he still doesn't look like the guy he used to be, but at least I can see his face. He's already talking about growing his beard back again to get a good start on Spring. But I told him he had to wait until the baby was born so we could get one good family picture before he disappears again.