stuff i've been doing

This picture basically sums up what I've been wanting to do ever since we got back in town

It's fall! (It's fall??!) I have had great intentions to do a big catchup post, blah blah blah, and I haven't yet because there's Too Much to catch up on. I just need to muster up the energy to do it. I have been feeling like I have a lot I want to record so while this isn't the most exciting entry ever I'm doing it for posterity. I've been reading President Eyring's biography and I can't help but think the main takeaway from his life is that I need to write in a journal more often. 

We got back from Seattle the first week of August, and then I was here (in Philly) for a week before we left again on our Great European Vacation for 2.5 weeks. Then it was hot and we don't have AC and I couldn't be bothered to do anything but lay across my bed like a starfish to try and cool down. 

The Great European Vacation deserves its own post(s) and I'll get around to that. Eventually.

After our Great European Vacation I went to California for a very quick trip to celebrate my grandma Helen's 100th birthday. Quite an achievement! Her party reminded me a little of Rhoda's first birthday party (it was noisy and crowded and she was slightly disoriented) but it was really great to see all of my family. All seventeen grandkids and many great-grandkids were in attendance and I was also able to fit in a massage with my siblings at my brother's favorite slightly sketchy Chinese massage parlor. Wins all around.

I've been catching up on the third season of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, which is now on Netflix. If I haven't already told you to watch it, you should. If you're into that kind of thing. It's like Foyle's War, but instead of an middle-aged British male detective during WWII it's a sassy/slightly racy Australian lady detective post-WWI. Which means it's actually more like Maisie Dobbs but the main character is not a pain in the neck. (Sorry Maisie. I keep trying to forgive you for turning into a really annoying character.)

I'm suffering from severe allergies. A dermatologist friend told me that since I grew up in the desert I have terrible immunity for allergies, so that's a bummer. And apparently everyone I know who has ever had any kind of hay fever is also suffering big timer right now, so that makes me feel a little better. Someone please tell me when it's going to stop.

Robbie's back in school and gone a lot. Not for school, though—he's usually riding his bike. Thanks to Harry and Bruce, my brother and brother in-law, for making it more of an obsession for him than a hobby.

I'm on track to finish 52 books this year. (Yay!) For some of you this may not seem like much of an accomplishment but please remember that I have a two year old.

Rhoda's funny and awesome and talks a blue streak. She's really into singing these days. Some of her favorites include Happy Birthday ("happy to you, happy to you..."), A-B-C, Twinkle Twinkle, and Five Little Ducks. She also has a freakishly good memory for people's names so she randomly talks about friends of ours that she hasn't seen in months. She'd make a great candidate for public office. Her hair is officially long enough now that people don't mistake her for a boy (you'd be amazed at how many people were still doing that over the summer). 

these happy golden years

Well hi! I really almost forgot I had a blog because I was focused on taking naps during Rhoda's naps instead of updating my blog. I even forgot my blog's birthday (it's January 16th, in case you want to mark your calendar for next year—this year it turned 13!) and I feel bad about that. I love Instagram because it's such an easy way to keep a lot of people posted about my life, but I also love the intimacy of a blog post. Not that I've been super intimate on my blog lately—I think I was too focused on making photos and layout look nice rather than focusing on written content. But now that everyone's on Instagram and blogs are so 2006, I CAN WRITE WHATEVER I WANT!! Bwahaha.

But before I start getting intimate, here's a photo dump and life update from the past couple of months:

Rhoda being super into the planes at the airport on our way to Tucson in December. Entertained her for, oh, five minutes?

I've said it before and I'll say it again—white Christmases are overrated. (So is the movie White Christmas for that matter! I just watched it for the first time last month and I Hated It. It's all about Holiday Inn, you guys!)

Rhoda wearing her cousin Abby's Anna (Elsa? I don't know the difference) wig on Christmas Day

Hanging out in Aunt Bonny's amazing hot tub and never wanting to leave

Walking! (Finally!!!!)

Self portrait on the night this week that Rhoda took three hours to settle down for bed and I thought I was going to go crazy

I've gotten so much more fun and cool since I became a mom

One of the times this week I realized that Rhoda's no longer a baby

Rhoda getting ready for spring break and also giving her big girl shoes a test run

Now for the state of the Hamill family (the Hamilly):

RHODA

• Finally walking. The scoots are tapering off and I bought Rhoda some non-legging pants this week. Also, she suddenly decided to start climbing our stairs with no problem after completely ignoring them for months. Okay then.
• Now that Rhoda's walking, she's also decided to stand up in her crib and SCREAM HER FACE OFF for 45 minutes before she naps or goes to bed. Never have I ever had to do anything but lay Rhoda in her crib at bedtime, but this week she almost broke me. On Tuesday I spent three hours trying to get her to go to bed (see above photo) because I was home alone and this was the first time she'd cried like that before bedtime so I thought maybe she was teething? messy diaper? fever? something? Nope, JUST MESSING WITH ME. By 10 pm she was finally tired enough to just go to sleep without much protest but I'm still mad at myself for three hours of baby wrestling. The crying has slowly tapered off this week after I made her cry it out the next day but dang it, I thought I was done with this part of parenting for now! Robbie told her this week "we don't negotiate with terrorists" after the Tuesday night debacle so maybe she'll start magically understanding that. Anyway, someone please tell me that this is just a phase. Or lie and tell me that it is.
• Talks so much. She doesn't stop talking, except for when she's around strangers (understandable), and even then she warms up after a few minutes and starts it all up again. Some favorite words right now—"kack kack" (quack/duck), "hup!" (help/up/I'm not really sure, but it just means she wants your attention), "achoo" (when you ask her to sneeze). There's a lot more but those ones might be the funniest.

HANNAH

• On track to read 52 books in 2015. Let me know if you have any recommendations! The list of books I've already read is here.
• Not on track to memorize a scripture a week in 2015, which was my other semi-realistic goal this year. But I haven't given up yet. I am going to start with the New Testament scripture mastery list and go from there. Also, I think maybe I'm going to focus more on memorizing references rather than the whole thing? My spiritual take-away of 2014 is that I need to be more of a scriptorian, so there's that.
• Finally maybe adjusting to life in Philly? I like the city a lot, but it took me a little while to really get into the swing of things. The post-Christmas blues really got to me this year and it took a little weekend trip to see family and old friends in DC to really get out of the funk. But I think I'm crawling out now and trying to not hate winter and be social.
• I somehow got roped into being a co-president of the Wharton Kids Club, which isn't as terrible as I thought it would be (the club itself is fine, the leadership just didn't sound like it would be fun). But it's really nice to be in charge of something! I haven't worked and had deadlines to meet in so long that it's been good to feel like I'm contributing to something other than the running of my household. Not like I have real deadlines now either, but you know. You take what you can get.

ROBBIE

• Not in any pictures because HE'S ALWAYS GONE. Okay, not always. But a lot. The first year of business school is ridiculous.
• Went to Cuba for a week on a school trip. No one was jealous of that. Just kidding, everyone was. But he brought me back a nice art print and a dress for Rhoda so all was forgiven.
• Building furniture like a boss. Yes, Robbie decided to enroll in a furniture-building class in addition to his regular classes. So now we have a bookcase and coffee table and another table in the works that we're not entirely sure what to do with.

Everyone tells us that business school is going to be as easy as it gets and we're in a sort of dream state right now. Hard to believe that when you have looming student debt and lots of classes/obligations/hobbies taking up your time, but I'm starting to get it. We'll have been in Philly for a year soon, and then in a year after that it will all be over and back to reality.

I think that's enough of an update to tide us all over till I start feeling like I want to get intimate on my blog, eh? I also think maybe I'm using the word "intimate" too much? I promise I won't make anyone uncomfortable. Or will I..?

and the rain rain rain came down down down

Hello June. Rainy, hurricaney, sticky June. Every year I'm caught a little off guard by this month, because I forget how miserable June can be. Last night I walked to the metro after dinner with a friend and the skies just opened up and poured buckets of hot, sticky rain for about ten minutes, and all I could do was laugh while getting drenched with nasty DC street water because this is just what it's like around here and I need to get used to it. But June is wonderful too, because June is when the public pools open for weekday use in DC.

This has been a really weird few weeks over at the homestead. Robbie was traveling overseas for about three weeks, and the day after he came back, I left for a trip to Minnesota with my mom and sisters (more on that later). Then he left and came back the day after I did, and then two days later we went to Chicago for the weekend (more on that later too). 

And all during that while, I've suddenly started feeling and looking very pregnant. I'm 20 weeks along now so I guess it's about time that started happening. I had to finally break down and buy a pair of maternity jeans (revelation! they are awesome), and the baby has started moving like a crazy person too. Which is really cool, but it is also a little disconcerting because it feels like something is knocking on my belly and trying to get out? Also I'm regretting telling people I've been feeling pretty good so far because suddenly I'm just not feeling super great, mostly because I have developed a cold after all that traveling and sharing airplane air with strangers, so I hope that goes away soon.

But all complaints aside, things are pretty good. Robbie is back for the time being and the weird things that usually happen while he's gone have waited to appear till he is here to deal with them. We came home on Sunday night to a legion of dead termites in our hallway that seem to have appeared out of nowhere (they weren't there when we left for my sister's house that afternoon), and then half of our bedroom flooded last night during a bout of torrential rain. Our house is just kind of a mess and smells like wet rugs and I have no groceries, but at least it's still standing and a tornado didn't hit it? (Though it kind of looks like it on the inside?) Just looking on the bright side here, people. 

the haps

Well, now that the cat's out of the bag (ha! I couldn't resist), anything I have to say after that is less and less exciting until about five months from now. At least for now. I've got nothing! I haven't been updating posts as frequently because my life right now is kind of boring, not because I've been sick. Which is great! I really can't complain. Here's what's happening/what's on my mind these days, in case you are curious:

1. I feel pretty good—thanks for asking. My sisters and mom generally have pretty horrible morning sickness so I didn't really believe I was pregnant for a long time. For most of my first trimester I did go to bed before 10, sleep twelve hours, nap 2-3 times a day and still fell asleep before 10 each night, so I guess that should have been an indicator. Now I'm 17 weeks (~4 months for those who don't measure time in weeks—it's so confusing) and feeling pretty good still, but I am hungry all the time. And still kind of tired. So, not really that different from when I wasn't pregnant. Though I do look far less pregnant when I wake up than I do by the end of the day, which is still a small mystery to me.

2. How are we going to fit a baby in our apartment? This will be a recurring feature from here on out, as I am finding a dearth of resources online for people who don't move to two-bedroom apartments once they have a baby, so I'm going to make it my mission to make this little place feel less cramped. Several people have told me that their kids sleep in their bathroom so I know all is not lost. Also, Robbie made me laugh last week when we were looking at mini cribs online and he said "it's smaller than normal-sized baby stuff; shouldn't it be cheaper?" Oh, Robbie.

3. I'm not ready for crazy summer weather. Last week it dropped below 60 degrees and I needed to turn on our heater because I was So Cold, and today it's supposed to hit the high 80s and the air is supposed to be dripping with humidity. Never a dull moment with DC's weather.

4. Last week I kitty-sat for our friends' two cats, and I spent a good 45 minutes with their purring cat Ira on my lap and I didn't want to get up and go home. So my question is, will Robbie mind if I still beg for a cat even though there's a baby coming?

you'll always be my number one

It's no secret that I love Ben Affleck so I just want to revel a little bit in his Best Picture win last night for Argo. Ben, I know that you made some mistakes along the way, but I never gave up on you. You have a hot wife and three adorable kids now, and you seem to be a genuinely good guy.

Let's reminisce about the early days of my crush on you with some excerpts from my twenty page fan photo album that Robbie made me throw away right before we moved away from Provo:

This thing could have been a collector's item, so I'm a little disappointed that Robbie made me throw it away. (I don't know if it was out of jealousy or what...) I spent so much time as an awkward 13 year old girl, sitting at the computer and searching "Ben Affleck" on Dogpile and AltaVista for pictures to print off on our inkjet printer and meticulously pasting your tough yet handsome visage on paper alongside articles and movie ads that I found in the Los Angeles Times, and then putting the pages in a three-ring binder. Lots of effort for the days before Google Images, I'm telling you. I think I also wrote you a fan letter. I'm not exactly sure what I did with the binder during my teenage years. Did I put it on my bookshelf? Show it off to friends who came over? Did I have friends? I'm not sure anymore.

Anyway, I've basically written this post before, so I'll just conclude by saying that I always held out hope that you weren't a total sleaze, and I was RIGHT! I'll always believe in you, Ben. Love, your superfan.

eternal truths

The best cookies, in my opinion, are the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from Joy of Cooking (omit cinnamon and nutmeg; substitute chocolate chips for raisins)—they are delicious for dessert or for breakfast. Substituting margarine for butter in a pinch does not a good cookie make. And forget about sneaking whole wheat flour into your flour mixture, unless you want to eat hockey pucks the next day.

This PSA brought to you by the sad-looking bag of yesterday's cookies on my table that tasted really good in the first twenty minutes out of the oven.

back in the saddle again

That blogging break was unintentional. I'm sorry. I didn't know it at the time but I was busy prioritizing things that I thought were important, and I think they still are/were important but I let a lot of other things slide through the cracks. The lack of blogging and general lack of desire to come up with anything was just kind of a manifestation of all of those things. But I think I'm ready for my comeback. Do you forgive me?

I have more things to say but I'll just leave you with these three things to think about:

• the Erasure Pandora station is the bomb
• I CANNOT WAIT for the Olympics to start tonight. I've been thinking about it all day.
• this is my mother in-law examining some, er, festive fabric that we found at Joann's on Monday night:

Discuss.

baby, baby, where did our blog go?

I was admonished yesterday for neglecting my blog. I have things to write about, I think, but two forces are at work preventing me from posting my usual insights. One, I've been working a lot (I may or may not have earned 23 hours of comp time last week). Two, I come up with things to write about and then I either talk myself out of following through on that idea or I forget what I was going to write about. Any suggestions on how to deal with any of those problems would be greatly appreciated.

So here is an illustrated list of what I've been up to lately. Philosophical musings on less-important things to come later.

I finally watched the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice! (As you may recall, I had never seen it before.) All in one evening! And, of course, I loved it. In other news, Lizzy Bennet is actually American?? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?

We had a sleepover for work on Friday, and I actually slept over. I use the term "slept" loosely, as it more loosely resembled the sort of restless sleep that happens when you're flying overseas. And then I had to be somewhat presentable for all of the participants the next day as I served them breakfast at 6 am. Sigh.

But in more exciting work news, I totally met Betty White on Thursday. She is a nice lady, and she loves animals. What more could you want in a woman?

Robbie is in Haiti. Again.

I bought four pounds of strawberries on Saturday and I've already gone through them. Here's one of my favorite strawberry recipes so far—a delicious summer salad brought to you by a lovely woman in my ward. You're welcome in advance. (BACON.)

EASY BREEZY SUMMER SALAD
1 package (6 ounces) fresh baby spinach
1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced 
8 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
¼ cup chopped red onion 
¼ cup chopped walnuts (I substituted slivered almonds sautéed in butter until brown)  

 DRESSING 
Whisk together: 
1 cup mayonnaise
 ½ cup sugar 
¼ cup raspberry vinegar

Yield: 6-8 servings

So... what's new with you guys?

hannah and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat

I have had two vivid and slightly disturbing/amusing (?) dreams this week, and I'd love some interpretation if there are any dream experts out there. Wednesday night brought me a dream about my coworker and I needing to go to Utah for some reason, and waking up in a canyon in the middle of nowhere and needing to find out where we were. So we pulled up our location on our iPhones (good thing that worked in my dream) and as we navigated it became clear to us that Utah was flooded and now surrounded by water, and that all of the continents had become some sort of Pangea. (Anyone read the short story "Salvage" by Orson Scott Card? It was kinda like that.)

The second dream (last night) involved us (America?) being attacked on all sides by hundreds of space shuttles, a la Discovery/Enterprise, flown by kamikaze pilots from other countries. The dream was vivid and incredibly detailed and I'm just sad that I didn't write down any of the details when I woke up because now I don't remember them. I think the dream also involved some corrupt police, and me doing some incredibly defensive driving to try and avoid the crashing shuttles. SO WEIRD.

I do not know what these dreams mean or why I'm sharing them (they look really silly now that I've written them down), but I will probably spend the weekend devising a new food storage plan.

this weather is blowing my mind

I woke up this morning to pounding rain, thunder, and lightning. Totally didn't mind that, since the forecast today predicted 63 degrees, and it was 30 degrees and snowing last weekend. So. I left my house with boots, jacket, and umbrella in tow, and by the time I got to work this morning it looked like this:

Again—DO NOT MIND. Thank you January. I was beginning to have a bit of a breakdown because the bitter cold of January seemed to be never-ending. And now the end of January gifted this blue sky to me. Thanks.

February is another story. Shortest month of the year, but the cold makes it feel like it lasts forever. But again, I don't mind, since this year I'll be spending most of it on a beach in southern Thailand. Bangarang.

is it me you're looking for?

Hello there. I have missed this blog. I know I have said some version of that over the past few posts, but it's true. It's like I ran out of things to say—but if you know me then you know that's not possible.

Speaking of possible, how is it possible that things get infinitely busier as you get older? I don't understand. I thought that things would ease up after I quit my job a few months ago, after I finished grad school... it's just not happening for me. 

Also, how is it possible that I'm not spending my free time so well? I feel like I come home, sit on the couch, then go to bed. Sometimes I get home late enough for that to be true, but then there are the other days. I think daylight savings time had something to do with it. I don't want to do anything once it's dark. But then I'm not even not doing anything in a fun way. Like, if I'm going to sit around, why am I not sitting around in front of a fire in the fireplace? Reading a magazine? Drinking hot chocolate? Or something like that. Something you'd see a real blogger doing. It just doesn't happen to me. The reality is that I'm wasting my free time sitting on the couch refreshing browsers and trying to get our internet to work because it's been spotty for the past two months.Yep—pretty glamorous.

On the plus side—DC's had some great weather lately. So great that I didn't even mind the rain today because it has been so beautiful otherwise. So here's a song in honor of November—aptly titled "November."

The end.

waking up before 8 am makes me feel so productive

Who knew??

road warrior

I have been traveling a lot lately, and I can say without hesitation that John Wayne airport is the best southern California airport to fly out of because of its proximity to Disneyland. You really can't be grumpy in an airport when everyone around you is wearing Mickey Mouse ears.

just dance

This has been a slow, sleepy few days. We've been having fun and keeping busy, but I've been feeling sort of uninspired—I just don't have much to say. Well, that's not true—I always have something to say—but I haven't been writing it down. Bad Hanner.

Anyway, my friend Sylvia sometimes jokes before she teaches at church that she would like to teach her lesson through interpretive dance. So since I am feeling uninspired, I will blog my update tonight through interpretive dance, because I cannot help but notice that the last few pictures of me that have been tagged on Facebook are ones where I am dancing sweatily at other people's weddings:

Don't ask me about that second one. Okay, I'll tell you—Sara and I just have really great chemistry.

Anyway, I did not marry a dancer. But that doesn't mean that I can't guilt Robbie into dancing with me at weddings. I always plead with him and say "But we nevvvverrrrr goooo danciiiiing!" and he groans and satisfies my need to dance with a bit of the white boy shuffle. And he has a good time. (I think.) I need more friends to get married so I can dance in public without abandon.

In other news, I let some Christmas music play on my shuffle yesterday without skipping it. There, I said it.

one M, two Ls

Yesterday I was so happy that whoever printed the program at church spelled my last name correctly that I completely missed that they got something else really wrong:

No biggie. Like I said, I'm more concerned with the spelling part. Hamill, as in Mark and Dorothy. Apparently those references are too dated for about 75% of the people who ask how I spell my name but I still use them.

*By the way, I am aware that there is no link for comments on my home page. Sorry :( If you click on the post title, it will take you to the post with a comment form at the bottom. I know it's annoying but I figure most people are using Google Reader/don't leave comments, so I'll stick with this template for now.

every morning at around 5 am

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House
Billy Collins

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.

conversations with robbie

Him: "This morning at around 1 am I woke up on the couch. Do you know how I got there?"
Me: (blank stare)
Him: "I'm still not sure. I was hoping you would know."

Peace and quiet

This is what our tiny, cozy bedroom looks like in the morning. Well, except the bed isn't usually made early in the morning. The light in our bedroom is perfect. And you can hear birds in the magnolia tree out back and there is a nice breeze when the window is open. We have calm, white walls and big windows and waking up in the morning in the spring is so enjoyable, except that I never want to get out of bed.

In one week I'm turning in my last paper for grad school. I'm still a little bit in denial about that. The past few weeks have been so busy with little things—paperwork, errands, callings, etc. are taking up most of my time, and most of that will be over soon. Then maybe I'll have a little peace and quiet, and a little extra time to indulge in the morning light. Right?

Spring fever

I didn't have allergy issues before I moved to DC. Last year I learned that I get really terrible seasonal allergies, and if left unchecked, terrible sinus infections later on. At about four this morning I woke up with an itchy throat. What do you do about an itchy throat?? I can deal with the runny nose, the red eyes and the sneezing. But the itchy throat!! It is a punishment that no one deserves.

If you have any itchy throat advice you'd like to share, please tell me.

A typical conversation

Last night/most nights:

Robbie: What time did you set your alarm for?
Hannah: 7:15.
Robbie: What time are you going to get out of bed?
Hannah: ....

(for the record I got out of bed at 9 am this morning, which is pretty bad)