30 years ago today!

geoffrey david archibald was born, hurray! as i learned from the always informative and sometimes entertaining internet, 30 years ago today was the horrific jonestown massacre in guyana. let's focus on geoff!

i was going to write 30 things i love about geoff, but my 2 month old is freaking out a little here, so let's go with 3. each one stands for ten years. :)

1. geoff is the sort of person who does not require an audience-if he thinks something is funny, he will do it or say it, even if nobody is there to ham it up for.
2. geoff is a thoughtful person, both in how he treats other people, and in how he forms his opinions-he doesn't just spout an idea simply because he heard someone else say it.
3. geoff is a fantastic kisser.

i love you geoff! happy birthday!

the depths of my nerdliness know no bounds...

i am so excited! my awesome sister-in-law sarah is in town visiting with her teeny weeny baby (seriously, georgie is only 2 weeks older than edie but georgie looks like she ate edie) and look what we spent 2 hours doing yesterday!!

before

after

yes. i am a dork to be so happy that my pantry now looks like a grocery store shelf. hurray!!

i'm feeling nostalgic...

i've been inspired by my friend mari's blog--she just wrote the story of how she met and married her husband. i know i always love hearing other people's stories, but if you're not interested in this sort of thing--SKIP IT!

edited to add: this ended up being SUPER long, because i remembered a lot more than i thought i did, and i thought it would be good to get it all down in one place. so if you don' t have a long time to sit and read all this stuff, my feelings won't be hurt, i promise...

geoff and i met in september 1997. we were both attending the st. paul fifth ward (aka singles ward), which met at the institute of religion at the university of minnesota. geoff was a freshman that year, and since he was pre-mission, 2.5 years younger than me, and i was dating someone at the time, i didn't give him a second thought.

this person i was dating was geoff's home teacher, however, and he came to me saying, geoff archibald--you know, the freshman? he's having a rough time in his comp. class, and i was wondering if you'd mind helping him out. i said sure, and set up a time with geoff to work on his paper.

we met in the library at the institute, and worked on his composition-he started out by telling me that his professor actually announced that she doesn't give "A"s. nice! the topic of the paper was his green couch. (riveting stuff!!) we actually had a really good time working on the paper and had fun talking together and getting to know each other. geoff was also dating someone, and the 2.5 year age difference seemed enormous at the time, so there was no flirting or tension-just getting to know each other.

the next week, geoff came up to me and said "we got an A!!" i will always remember that, how he said "we". i thought that was pretty cool. we were good friends from that point, and we hung out together relatively often. since we were both involved with other people, it was usually in a group, but we really had a good time.

this is somewhat unrelated but too funny not to include--that winter, there was a sledding activity-after the activity, there were a bunch of us sitting around at the institute drinking hot cocoa and warming up. geoff and i were sitting next to one another on the couch, and nearby, our friend c.j. was flirting like MAD with this girl tessie. they were talking about the movie "somewhere in time" and one of them was saying that they'd never seen it before. they started talking about how they needed to get together to watch it, and geoff pipes up, "oh, i've never seen that movie before, either." c.j. and tessie completely ignored him and kept flirting, and geoff turned to me and said, "did you see that?? they are totally going to get married!!" and guess what--they did! just a funny aside..

geoff went to his parents home in idaho (they moved there right before he started college) for a few weeks before leaving on his mission to england. he called me from idaho, and i was feeling kind of gloomy because i'd just broken up with someone. (video game guy). i remember that he cheered me up and made me remember all the reasons i'd broken up with video game guy--i promised i would write to geoff, and we hung up.

i DID keep my promise---i wrote to geoff once when he was in the missionary training center, and once right before he came home. :) the letter before he came home was actually to see if he'd want to go out on a date with my sister amy. geoff's brother kent and i had been talking, and we thought it would be fun to set up our siblings. i'd called amy out at byu to tell her i had the perfect guy for her, and she said, "geoff? he's more like my friend--i don't think i could think of him that way." my response? "come on, amy! geoff is a great guy and i want you to marry him so i can be related to him!" (too funny!!!)

geoff came home and we went out--amy (who was home from byu on winter break) and geoff, and me and kent. we had dinner and went to see "o brother, where art thou?". kent and i hung back to let amy and geoff talk, and we thought we were being totally sneaky...

amy went back to school, and i told all my friends in the singles ward to stay away from geoff, since i was reserving him for my sister. (i didn't tell him this, though) geoff didn't have a car, and lived close by me, so i gave him rides often, and we hung out together. then we were asked to be in charge of the activities committee together at church, so we spent even more time together. all this time, we were hanging out, and i thought i was reserving him for amy...

geoff asked me out on a double date, but he did it in such a way that i didn't think he was interested in me, just that he needed someone to go with. we went out together and had a really good time--the story of that date is pee-your-pants funny but this is already getting too long, so i'll save it for another time--after the double date, i started thinking, hmmm, maybe i could be interested in geoff.

i actually called amy up at school and told her i was having a problem, because i was saving geoff for her, and i thought i was starting to like him. she laughed and said to go for it because she wasn't interested. i also told a friend, sara, that i thought i could be interested in geoff. she was excited for me, since i was going on another double date with him the next night. (totally orchestrated by me in a completely manipulative and passive-aggressive, let the guy think he's chasing you but really you're just letting him catch you sort of way)

we went on the double date (to see "the sting" on campus in completely uncomfortable chairs) and after the movie was over, we said good night to the other couple and he asked me if i'd like to go on a walk. it was march 17th. in minnesota. BRRRR...i said of course! we walked around for a few minutes, and when geoff noticed that my face was turning blue, he made his little declaration. it was completely adorable and endearing.

we went back to the car, and i told him i thought he was brave to put his feelings out there when he wasn't sure how i was feeling. he hemmed and hawed, and then admitted that my friend sara "can't keep her mouth shut" vaneps had blown my cover and had told him i was interested. (technically, she didn't TELL him, but she let him know without coming out and saying it. all for the cause, i know! but still!!) we had a good laugh, and then decided to play a practical joke on sara. i called her from the car and told her i was home from the date and that it was a total dud. i told her my crush on geoff had been completely momentary, and i was totally over it. i added that i was SO lucky to have her for a friend, because i could tell her all my stupid secrets and didn't have to worry about anyone ever finding out. poor sara was really squirming at this point, but just to make it really awful, i said, "you didn't TELL anyone, did you?" sara sounded about 2 inches tall and she answered, "ummmm...", but we finally let her off the hook and told her we were just playing a trick on her. not the nicest thing to do to a friend, i know...

geoff and i didn't date too long before getting engaged--just a few months. i know some people would find that foolish, but the nice thing was that we already knew each other really well, since we'd been friends for so long. we were married in the st. paul temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on dec. 28, 2001. we'll be celebrating our seventh anniversary next month, and we've been blessed with 2 beautiful daughters, Quinn and Georgia. it is so wonderful to be married to your best friend.

doings part 2

some of you may know that my sister amy and i are superfans of little house on the prairie--we read all the books, went to the pageant, and raced home from the bus stop to catch the show on channel 9 at 4pm everyday. i even had a little house birthday party one year. so it warms my heart to see my handsome husband wearing his daughter's bonnet. and his "i voted" sticker. what a fashion statement!

georgie's halloween costume. again, note the goofy expression.

geoff and his girls. quinn is holding her baby too.

we carved a jack o'lantern for family home evening one night. quinn really enjoyed it, and made us put the pumpkin facing the house so she could see him from the window.

another picture from the cousin visit. the stuffed dog that quinn is holding was my old dog "arf-arf"-i've had him since i was 2. he is so mangled and nasty, i can't believe i allow my toddler to touch him--he really should be sent up to the great dog bowl in the sky, but i confess it makes me happy to see her playing with him. one of these days he'll just disintegrate completely (does anyone else remember that nasty yellow foam they put into toys in the late '70s? it's coming out of a hole in his neck. nasty.) but until he does, viva arf-arf!

i'm sure i'll post more pictures from the last few weeks soon--and i'm going to try really hard not to get so behind. i'm sorry i've been so lax in posting pictures of georgie, especially. now that she's starting to wake up a bit more we'll have more chances to take good pictures of her with her eyes open.

some of our latest doings..

so i am still somewhat ignorant of how to post pictures--i have a bunch i want to share, but for some reason can only post 5 at a time...i'll end up with multiple posts here, but that's ok i guess.

this is quinn's first official trip to the dentist--of course she's been to the office a million times (thinks she owns the place!) but she's never actually had her teeth checked. she did really well, and barb did a great job of helping her feel comfortable in the chair. thanks barb!
this is a great picture of quinn and her cousin sophie, who came to visit for 2 weeks. we took the kids to the red balloon bookstore in st. paul--this is a fantastic children's bookstore, and the storytime is just the best. well worth the drive. after storytime we walked down the street to cafe latte (the other reason it's well worth the drive) and had yummy lunch. amy snapped this picture of sophie and quinn zipping down the sidewalk with their balloons.
during amy's visit, we also went to pinehaven farm. this place isn't too far from our house, and it has a petting zoo, hay maze, pumpkin patch, and--get this--"minnesota's FIRST pumpkin shooter". amazing, the cultural offerings we have up here in chisago county...:) actually the pumpkin shooter was pretty awesome--according to the guy loading the cannon, the pumpkin comes out at 200 mph, and goes a half mile! modern engineering is a miracle.
here's another shot of the cousins (sophie, quinn, and marcus) on a train ride at pinehaven. quinn and marcus did have a good time, despite the fact that they aren't smiling...
here's a shot of the elusive georgia. she did accompany us to the previously mentioned outings, but she was mostly sleeping, so we figured we'd let her alone and not bug her with posing for pictures. she's just about asleep in this picture too, but since she's only 7 weeks old, that's kind of her main activity. it's kind of hard to catch her awake, and even if you do, she usually has a goofy expression like this one.

i'll post again with more pictures.

this is totally uninteresting, even to me.

i've been lax in posting, not only because we've been busy around here with the new baby and tons of out of town visitors for several weeks, but because geoff and i are super lazy about uploading our pictures from the camera, and i've been stuck in the mindset that i have to have pictures in order to post. wow that was a long sentence, but it's the truth. so more and more time has gone by, and then i feel irritated with myself when i see my friends' blogs--i really enjoy reading them, so i'm assuming they'd like to read mine too. so i hearby resolve to do better, imaginary cyber-friends.

we're starting to fall into more of a routine, which is nice--little Q is finally sleeping through the night again (she would wake up in the middle of the night asking to color, or to ride in the car? i think she was dreaming...), although the baby still needs to eat twice during the night.

i'm finally able to exercise, hallelujah! i haven't managed to figure out how i'm going to do it with the two girls, but at least i have the doctor's go-ahead. so far i've just been doing annoying aerobics videos in my basement and then going running on the days when geoff's home. or at least i WAS running--my feet grew with this baby! they swelled with my first one, but then they went back down. not this time!

so i went to get new shoes this weekend--we were in the big bad city (how i miss you, tall buildings!) and i stopped at running room--can i just say that store is seriously over-rated? at least the grand ave. one is. i found out that i was already wearing my running shoes too tight, and now they're even worse with the extra half size i've gained. after trying on these lovely size tens, i CANNOT go back to my size 9s.OUCH! unfortunately, they didn't have the shoes i wanted in size 10. had to go home and order them...long story short (too late, i know), they are on the way, but the warm weather won't be here for long, and i wanna get out there!! i'm THINKING of trying to run through the winter this year....again, i need to figure out what to do with the girls, but the thought of treadmill running all winter-blahhh...i didn't get to run at all last summer--i miscarried in july--and then this summer i "ran" (ha ha, is it really running when you are shaped like a giant football??) so i've been dying to get out there. this is the deadly dull saga of the running shoes. the end.
p.s. i really am going to post about things worth reading...i promise. just trying to avoid politics for now.