Whats in a name?

I had so many good ideas for girl names. Eowyn, Leah, Naussica. Hava was my top pick. But now that we know a little bit more about our baby, boy names are on the agenda. So I thought I’d share a few of our ideas and see what everyone thinks.

I am a fan of unique names, but I’ve heard a considerable amount of research saying that boys with odd names tend to not fare as well in the business and social world as do those with ‘strong’ names like Michael, John, or James. So it is all a balancing act between tastefully normal, but not too common.

We’ll ignore the fact that my dad suggested I name the baby after the demon, Cthulhu. (Any H.P. Lovecraft fans out there?) I think he was kidding, but you never know.

In no particular order, here are some of the names up for consideration.

Elijah

In Hebrew, Elijah means “My God is the Lord”. Joseph likes Hebrew names because he has Jewish ancestry. I think they’re pretty cool too, even though most of the common names in America are Biblical and generally of Hebrew origin.

We like this one because it sounds really good with Elora, don’t you think? Its becoming more popular unfortunately, and I’ve met a few kids with this name. In fact, some of our friends just named their new baby Elijah. Its not completely off of our list, but it feels like its already been taken.

Eli

Again, this would sound good with Elora. A shorter version of Elijah, basically, meaning “my God”. Joseph also likes ‘Eloi’ but no one would ever say it right I’m sure.

Simeon

At first, I thought this would be a cool name. It’s a character in a book we read together, and its somewhat unique. In Hebrew, it means "Listening". But then I thought about the other meaning of ‘simian’… you know, monkey-like? I don’t think that would go down well when he’s older. Especially if he was a scientist or something, right? So that name is probably out of the picture.

Yehuda

Joseph likes this name, but I have a feeling its presence on our list will be short-lived. Its unique, yes, but maybe a little too different. Also from a book we were reading. It means "Praise" in Hebrew. I was grading papers from an elementary school for my job today and one kid's name was 'Huda.' I wonder if it was the short version of this name?

Egan

Meaning “Ardent, little fire”. I like this one because it is the name of one of my ancestors, and its Gaelic. But with a meaning like that, would you be predisposing him to have a fiery temper? Or maybe just red hair. That would be okay. Joseph isn’t so fond of this name, but I still like it.

Rowan

Yes, I was thinking of Rowan Atkinson, the British actor who plays Mr Bean, Black Adder, and others. I like the name because its more unique and also Gaelic. It means, “Little red one.” But I don’t know if I like feeling like I’m naming the baby after an actor, especially because you never know what that actor is going to do to make their name infamous in the future. Joseph thinks this name isn't masculine enough. Whatever.

Noah

I was very excited about this name for a little while. Its one of those names becoming more popular so that it’s no longer considered odd, but its still a little different. I was thinking it would be cool because the baby will be born somewhere where it rains a lot, and we could tell him that is why we gave him that name. I could totally picture him as some sort of bohemian artist or a business man with this name. But just when it was climbing to the top of my list, my new visiting teaching partner told me her son’s name is Noah. And her sister-in-law had stolen three baby names from them. I couldn’t do that to her too, could I?

Joshua

Out of all of the names on our list, this one is probably the most popular (in the top 10) and most common of all. Yet somehow I keep coming back to it. What do you think, “Joshua Joseph”? No way would we call him JJ though. And I don’t like it shortened to Josh even though I know people will do it anyway. It means “God is help” and I’m sure most of you readers are aware that its another version of the name Jesus.

We’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, here are some other names that have been on our list at one point or another:

Isaiah, Logan (obviously this wouldn’t work anymore when we move), Everett, Atreju (Joseph said no way, but I still think its kind of cool), Jacob (Joseph still likes it, but I have a cousin with this name.)

Does anyone have anymore suggestions?

Do you think the color of the names would influence your choice?

http://www.wesclark.com/ubn/

http://www.babycenter.com/babyname

http://www.babynamesworld.com

http://www.thinkbabynames.com

Random Stuff in My Life

Recently my friend S.O. commented on how our group of friends rarely update our blogs. Being away from home, she looks at everyones blogs much more often to keep up to date. I know exactly how she feels, as I am also living a distance away from everyone else we know.
So I figured I would write a quick blurb about stuff going on with my life, even though its nothing especially exciting. Just to keep up to date, you know.

stripper baby

First, there is Elora and her new fascinating pastime. Elora has decided undressing is the funnest thing ever. We've taken to putting her in dresses during the week because she is less adept at removing this than she is her pants and shirt. This is one of the less explicit pictures I have, which I chose to protect innocent eyes!
The babysitter said she took her to a playgroup with other kids in our ward this week. While they were there, Elora took her pants off then put her hand in her diaper and said, "Poops?" But she wasn't really dirty. Silly girl. Good thing she doesn't do that when we're in nursery at church, or we'd have a room full of twenty little naked two-year-olds!

baby#2 this is his face and some fingers I think. Also one of the less 'explicit' pictures!

Most readers are aware of another focus in our lives right now. Last week we found out that we will be expecting a little boy in June. They also said the date is a week and a half earlier than was first predicted. So it will be here around June....15th maybe? Joseph's graduation is the eighth, my birthday is the 21st (the original due date) and we are scheduled to be moving a month later with my parents' help. That baby better come when it is supposed to, we are on a tight schedule!
I am somehow more nervous about this birth than the first one. I'm not sure if its all the stress with everything else going on, or the thought of unexpected circumstances, like the c-section last time!
Oh, and my dad wants me to name the baby after a demon (Cthulhu) instead of a bible name, because "bible names are stupid." This statement includes everything from Matthew, Jacob, and Timothy to Noah and Mark. My dad is extremely obnoxious....this is just a warning for anyone who ever meets him!

As I mentioned before, we are planning on moving in July. Joseph will be finishing his degree, and we've been deliberating for some time on where to go. Most of the Universities really close to us don't offer bachelors degrees in teaching. Well, the college he's been at does have an extension program through WWU, but we've already discovered theres no way we can afford to live here another year. Prices keep going up on everything, and our rent is going to be rediculously high next year!

Strangely enough, Joseph is the one who keeps suggesting church schools or Utah schools. I have been dead-set on staying in Washington for a while. We had finally settled on WSU, a school in Pullman, WA on the border with Idaho. Logically, it would be a great choice with its world-class programs and great scholarship opportunities.

WSU campus

Unfortunately, the logical choice isn't always the best choice in the long run. I was grateful that Joseph had eliminated BYUI and BYU out of his cache of choices, ( I just really didn't want to live there) but he still had Utah on his mind. In the end, after much deliberation and changing of both of our minds, we have settled on Utah State University in Logan.
I know, weird.
Everyone in his family is going to blame me for taking him away from them, but really it WAS his idea!
There are many reasons for this choice and it was very complicated, but in the end we both agreed this was the best. Now that we've pretty much settled on it (by 95% at least) I am feeling more excited all the time.
I've only been to Logan once to visit a friend, but I really did like it. Its close to Salt Lake, but not a part of the long chain of suburbia. Its also in a mountain valley and somewhat isolated. It reminds me of Cedar City where I grew up, but its bigger. Also, I almost chose to go to school there myself!

Logan, Utah

True, its not as green as Washington. But theres a lot less crime, the school is good, and its about six hours from my family instead of twenty-two. Still far enough away, but not so far we can't visit for Thanksgiving. We'll just have to get snow tires, right? Plus, everyone else can visit me much more easily....if they don't mind screaming babies and everyone taking a nap in the afternoon (including me!)

Anyway, this is just a window into what we are doing right now in our little family. I hope everyone enjoyed the tour.

Short Hair for Christmas

my hair,straightened, summer 2001
self portrait, Bainbridge WA

Well, I did it. Its been a few years, but I've decided to cut my hair short again. I absolutely loved it short the last time. I felt so much cuter. It must have worked for me too, because I met my husband while I was sporting a short coif, and people treated me like I was older. Unless my hair was in little pigtails.


(while dating Joseph)
Curly hair, summer 2003
photo by Sarah on Mexican cruise

But as it took about three years to grow it out, I was somewhat reluctant to make the cut again. Every winter I say I will, because the rain makes it look frizzy and messy. And every summer I consider it, because my short hair looks really good in the summer (as its not frizzy or messy.)

This time around my long hair had been somewhat more attractive than the first time, I felt.
Maybe because I don't have glasses. Or bangs. And my hair is curlier in this climate.



long hair this summer, 2006
Meadowdale Beach, Mukilteo WA

Maybe it was because I worked with the Young Women at Church and they always told me how they loved my hair and they didn't think I should ever cut it. Young Women are like that. Maybe it was because Joseph thinks its so pretty long, though I admit he's very supportive of my shorter doo.
I think part of my decision was due to feeling like I'm in high school again with long hair. What if I see someone who hasn't seen me in ten years? We might possible move back to Utah for Joseph's schooling next summer, so that would be a distinct possibility. They'll have no idea that I actually have had a different look. We can't have that now, can we?
It took a month or two of deliberating, but last weekend I finally went out and did it. Of course, the next day I cut off a few more inches in back my self, as the stylist didn't do what I wanted. But now I love it, so its all okay. Plus, since I donated it to Locks of Love, I got half off. Woo hoo!
I thought seeing my hair lying there would give me a pang of regret, but really I was just thinking, "Yup, there's my hair. Hope someone likes their new wig."
I really like it. One of my hometeachers (who says things that make him seem much younger than he is) asked me, "so what is that, the "mom cut"?" Thanks a lot. He then shared how his wife had cut her hair for cancer kids and he didn't like it, but he didn't care 'cause he hardly looked at her anymore.
I think he was kidding (they've been married as long as us) but it still wasn't a very nice thing to say. But Joseph piped up and told them that he thought I was very cute with short hair, as he'd loved me that way to begin with. So there, stupid boys!

So anywayhere is the new cut ( along with my anniversary flowers :))

Short hair - Winter 2006
bad photo taken with camera balanced on Nativity set

Its a horrible picture of me..whats with my fat neck? But at least the flowers look nice.
What do you think of my hair though?

PS...is this post narcissistic ?

Hidden Blessings

So, I was going to talk about how annoyed I was at our neighbors for turning their bass on so high. (As in music, not fish.)
You can't always really hear their music, per se, but their bass is always turned on so that I can feel the room vibrating, and I get a headache even from the other side of the room. The times I've gathered the courage to go knock on their door, I hear them come to the peep hole and look at me, then they go turn it down without ever coming out to talk. Same thing when Joseph goes over there. Yeah, they know its too loud.

However, by the time I updated my blog to the new 'special' version of blogger, they had turned it off, and I'm not so annoyed anymore. Good thing, since its December, and you're supposed to write nice things in December, right?

Elora and I are enjoying a nice evening at home on a Friday night....as we always do, for my husband works until 11:30 every weekday. But I'm going to take a cue from my friend Julie, and perhaps try to see some of the blessings in my life that I always take for granted.

For instance....
1.Hey, Joseph doesn't ever work weekends! Yay! That means I don't ever have to go to church by myself, and we can always spend Saturday doing whatever we want together. Of course, usually the most exciting thing we do is grocery shopping, but that can be fun, right?

2.Elora has a funny personality. Sometimes, this is rather irritating. I'm trying to get her to close her eyes for bed time but she's making funny faces, pretending to burp, or roaring at me when she's supposed to be drifting blissfully off to sleep. Yet even when she's starting to make me angry, somehow I always end up laughing at her. She'll give me a big fake grin, and keep moving her face closer and closer to mine until I smile back. What other one-year- old already has such a personality? She must get it from her dad.

3.I love my apartment. Compared to the dwellings of most of our friends it is rather small, and compared to those in my hometown we pay a ridiculous price for 813 square feet. But its great! What do I love? We have huge windows, and the living room is not square. Our last apartment was one big rectangle, with two tiny windows at the end of the living room. It was like living in a cave. Here, the living room window is almost as tall as me, and at least as wide as I am tall. Then just a few feet away is a sliding glass door. To top it all off, our view is of a big grassy quad with trees and a basketball court. All the other apartments around here look out onto blacktop. HA HA! My apartment rules.

4. I have so many amenities I take for granted. My sister and her husband own a small home in Texas, which is great for them. But as they are just starting out, they have tons of problems. Their home has little or no insulation in most rooms; their bedroom has especially thin walls and extra doors to outside that cause a freezing draft. Their heaters were all broken except for in one room for a time, and their oven hasn't worked the whole time they've lived there! My sister makes cookies nine at a time in her toaster oven. She and her baby are bundled up all day during cold spells. Wow....I've got heat, and maintenance people who fixed my oven and fridge for free! Talk about a blessing.

5.I like my family. Sure, I talk to some of them more than others, and relationships with individuals are always evolving, but its good. I know so many families who have feuds, backbite, disown each other, or worse. Each of my family members is unique, and maybe thats why we get along. I can talk to one brother about tv and movies, one about art and photography, another about religion. My sister got married two months before me and had her daughter three months after me, so we always have something to talk about. My mom and I talk on the phone almost everyday, while my dad emails everyday. I never would have thought that would happen when I was still in high school. Its amazing how time (and distance) can make things better:-)


6. I've always lived in beautiful places. True, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But I've lived close enough to Zion that my art class went regularly to Kolob Canyon to do plein air pastel paintings. I lived on an island for a year and took a ferry to work across the Puget Sound, which was once voted the best work commute in the country. The building where I worked was right on the bay. In Seattle, I lived only a few blocks from a large arboretum that was bursting with blossoms in the Spring. And even where I am now, we live minutes away from half a dozen beaches, idyllic farming communities, the mountains, or the lights of the city. I know wherever we move from here will be just as beautiful.

I know there are many more things that I have been blessed with, but for now this is the list of those that are probably the most dear.
The End