P-Pourri

• I've done a blog post like this before, but about a million years ago. Potpourri is  a common category on Jeopardy and it just means that they had a bunch of random questions they wanted to use, but couldn't come up with an overall theme. That's what I'm doing here. I miss blogging- I love blogging.  I just am the kind of person who can only blog if I have some great inspiration. Sorry to say, I don't have any today. I just want to blog. So I guess I'll just put a couple of bullet points of random Sarah nuggets and we'll call it good, ok?

• Despite the birth of our wonderful little girl, 2012 was a bit of a kick in the pants. (depressionpaid10kinmedicalbillsburnedthecrapoutofmyarmbackfat) So 2013, I welcome the heck out of you. 2013 will be a big year for us. No announcements yet. 

• Not that kind of announcement. My New Year's Resolution is to not be pregnant in 2013. I realized that I was pregnant in parts of 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. I feel like that's a lot. I'm taking some time off.

• My other New Year's Resolutions were: be a better friend; think less critically about others and learn how to rap.  

• I read so much in 2012. It was really crazy and I definitely need to find other hobbies, but me oh my, I do love reading. My favorite book was The Fault in Our Stars. Runner up was America's Women. Some other notables that I liked: For Darkness Shows the Stars; Slammed; Shadow and Bone; Call the Midwife. Also, a billion others. Because I read a ton, and I pretty much like everything. (Does anyone have any good recommendations? I'll probably like it.) 

• I did Avery's hair in pigtails for the first time and it was so hard. It took me about an hour of precious Adam-nap time. Little girl hair really intimidates me. I have no idea if I should cut it (it falls into her eyes, but there's not really any major growth happening in the back) or just let it continue on its way. All I want in life is for her hair to be in the same style as Madeleine's someday. (Hat is optional.)

• We went to this massive fruit stand/restaurant/kiddie park/tourist trap place last weekend and they had a pretty decent candy shop. I bought some Pop Rocks. I really like Pop Rocks. I remember they used to have this version of Pop Rocks where you would dip a sucker in the PR (I think Pop Rocks deserves an abbreviation. Sorry, Public Relations.) and the sucker was shaped like a foot. I loved that PR sucker thing, but I still am haunted by it. WHY WAS THE SUCKER SHAPED LIKE A FOOT? That is just so bizarre. 

• I started watching The Bachelor. I know, I know. I'm not saying it's quality TV or even that it's realistic, but it is fuuuun to watch. And I look forward to Monday all week- I'm totally sucked in. (Huge shout-out to Mary Susan, who told me I should watch it, though I didn't listen.) But anyway, my point is that I had a moment where Jeff was bringing me a bowl of burnt popcorn and a Dr. Pepper and sitting down to watch the Bachelor with me and I thought, "This is true love." (We celebrated the 5 year anniversary of our engagement on January 14th. And by "celebrated,"  I mean "it happened.." But we did get to go back to Memory Grove during the holidays for the first time since we got engaged. )

• Avery started crawling a little before Christmas, and it's just crazy how fast she is now. She just roams around the apartment. I call her "the little feral dog," which probably isn't nice for some reason.

• One of the neighbors below us has taken up playing the trombone at many bizarre hours of the day. It is a running bet between Jeff and I on who the perpetrator is. Jeff thinks it's a 13 year old girl practicing for school (there are a lot of poorly done scales) and I think it's a wanna-be member of a mariachi band (possibly more racist, but definitely more likely). Today we were both thrown for a loop when the perp started playing show tunes. He (I still think it's a man) went through some poor renditions of South Pacific, West Side Story and Wicked. I do not think that he is a good trombone player and I do think he plays at weird times, but I really do respect the guy for sticking to it. I do think my heart has softened towards him now that I've heard him he eek out "A Wonderful Guy" and "No One Mourns the Wicked." Oh, hey! I saw Wicked! It was great! We went to the Orpheum Theater, which is one of the prettiest theaters I've ever been to, though in a weirdly shady part of town, and I got in trouble for taking a picture inside. 

• Last Thursday, Jeff is taught an economics class at Stanford. He doesn't even know anything about economics and now he's teaching it at one of the best universities in the world? What. The. Heck. How he weaseled his way into this is beyond me. (Ok, ok, It was on Siberian economics.) But still.  I'm constantly amazed at the amazing opportunities Jeff gets at Stanford. Also- there is almost always free food lying around. He never needs to bring/buy a lunch. 

• I received a smart phone for Christmas (due in part to maneuverings by Jeff and mostly due to extreme generosity from both sets of parents) and I've been using Instagram, but I'm still not completely sure how everything works. My username is sarycarr and I post about a billion pictures a day. And they're not even artistically done or anything. I just like taking pictures of my kids. See?

• The other day, Adam was walking around on his tip-toes and turned to me and said- "I'm walking on tip-toes! Like Daddy!" This will be hilarious to about the 5 people in the world who have noticed how Jeff (adorably) walks on his toes. Adam is now a part of your ranks.

• Speaking of Adam- we went on a long walk a few days ago, and I picked him a little weed-like flower to hold (jealous, Utahns?) and a few minutes later he took a big bite out of it. The kid doesn't eat ANYTHING, and all of the sudden he decides to eat a flower? I took it from him (I don't want him eating any pesticides or what not) and he got really sad. I guess he liked it? 

• I feel like Avery is leaving the baby stage faster than Adam did. Observe: 

• And just to be fair to Adam, I stumbled back on to this little gem, which is almost a  year old, but still one of my very favorites. 

• I also enjoy this movie, though nothing really happens at all. I just like movies where you don't know you're being recorded. "A lot of Adams!" 

• I'm really worried about Adam's beloved stuffed animal, Ducky (seen below, in better times). He is not in good shape and I do not have any clue how to extend his life. Any tips? Adam adores that duck. Their antics are many.

• Hey! Help me out on something!! I'm having a really hard time following blogs lately because I don't have very many saved in Google Reader and I really really want to follow your blog. I don't care if I don't know you well. I don't care if you only know Jeff. I still probably read your blog. I am the biggest blog-stalker in the world. Please leave a comment or something (actually, there's really no other alternative- leave a comment) so that I can add you. This is not a plea for validation-comments (though, by all means, please validate me.), I just really want to be more current on my friends' lives (see New Year's Resolution) and I don't even have some of my closest friends saved on Google Reader, so please let me stalk you. 

• Whelp, consider this the conclusion bullet-point. I really like the word "whelp", even though I suspect it's annoying. Sorry about that. I guess it also means "carnivorous mammal" or something.