Specimen of the Day: Grammie

Many of you already know this, but everyone needs to that know my grandmother is awesome. She will be leaving this life very soon and it has caused me to think a lot about her, the person she is and great life she led.


Name: Grammie (Rosemary Bennett Fletcher)

Nickname: Growing up some of my friends called her grandma green hair because her hair had a slight green tinge to it from being dyed dark for many years.

Age: A lady never reveals her age, but I will say that she was 30 when she had my mother and my mother was 30 when I was born.

Occupation: Wife (to Bob), mother (to 8), grandmother (to 41), great-grandmother (to 13 (?) with 2 on the way)

Our History: I have always been lucky to live close to my grandparents. I grew up just a mile away from them in Belmont. They moved to Salt Lake City when I was a junior in high school and then I came out to BYU for college and have lived by them for the past 6 years.

Personality: Grammie's personality is unforgettable. In the words of Meredith, "Grammie has a combination of character, spunk, and uniqueness. She leaves an impression on everyone she meets." My grandmother has always unabashedly expressed her opinion. Most of the time it is refreshing. For example, during the year we studied Heber J. Grant in RS/Priesthood, my grandmother spoke in many wards because President Grant is her grandfather. His second wife is her grandmother. Grammie has a lot of great personal stories about him. In one presentation I attended she mentioned that oftentimes people in the LDS church try to say Heber J. Grant was not a polygamist, since while he was prophet he only had one wife, but she tells them "If Heber J. Grant was not a polygamist, then that makes me a bastard."

Great Stories: Grammie loves to talk. She also has some great stories. The combination of the two means she tells great stories. One of my favorites is the fact that she sent a picture of herself in a bathing suit to my grandfather when they were engaged. Just so he knew what he was getting I guess.

Skills: 1. Piano-playing. Grammie gave me piano lessons for 5 years, until I insisted on quitting in high school. She always wanted me to at least be able to play hymns, and I'll let you in on a secret; I can play most of them.
2. Singing. Grammie sang the loudest of anyone in our ward every Sunday. I have to think that part of my love of singing hymns in church came from her, even if I was slightly embarassed while growing up.
3. Calligraphy. Grammie always told me the story of her grandfather, Heber J. Grant, and how he worked so hard to have beautiful penmanship. She could do beautiful calligraphy and I tried, unsuccessfully, to learn from her once.

Favorite Food/Drink: No question, DIET COKE. My grandmother is rarely without a cup of diet coke with ice.

Favorite Activity: Sports? Not Grammie. In recent years her activity of choice has been TiVoing "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and then watching it commercial-free. She also loves Perry Mason.

Candy Supply: We could always count on Grammie for a wintergreen lifesaver during Sacrament Meeting. She also had a candy jar at her house she kept stocked with fun-size Snickers and Butterfingers. Every time we went to her house we got to take one home. Sometimes she let me take two after piano lessons.

Thrifty As They Come: Grammie is a bargain shopper. Her favorite store is any kind of Dollar Store. She first introduced me to this store on a shopping outing with her when I was 8. She is one of the only people I know who actually buys some groceries at the dollar store. She also never throws anything away. When my grandparents moved to Salt Lake they insisted on giving my family their food pantry items. One of these items was a syrup bottle from a New Jersey Grocery store, where they had lived 20 years earlier.

Generous As They Get: While she may be cheap, this is not the case when it comes to helping others. She is always eager to help those around her. When Grammie heard I was going maternity clothes shopping with my mother she insisted on pitching in to help me buy some nice things. She is not only generous with her resources, but her time as well. Grammie has spent countless hours visiting with women in need of a listening ear.

Sunday School Teacher: Grammie was my Sunday School teacher when I was 12. To begin a lesson on chastity she said, "Sex is the best thing in the whole world, but only after you are married." She tells it like it is.

Shoe Lover: I have never met someone with more shoes. We are talking multiple closets. However, she has never paid more than $20 for a pair. When we were younger we would ask special permission to go to her room and play dress-up, matching shoes to her also-vast, clip-on earring collection.

Independent Woman: Grammie has always done things the way she wanted to do them. When she was asked to be a seminary teacher to a class of "horrible teenagers" she accepted the call, but only under the conditions that she have a parent of one of the kids teach one day a week and the class not meet on Friday at all. When she was told that Fridays were for learning Scripture Mastery, she said she had it under control. Instead, they spent the first part of each morning learning scriptures and Grammie bragged to me that her kids knew those scriptures the best of anyone in the stake. Grammie isn't a rebel, she just strongly believes in modifying procedures as needed for the individual and/or situation.

Great Friend: Lastly, my grandmother is one of the greatest friends you will ever meet. Up until recently she was still having lunches regularly with her sorority sisters from college. Not only does she keep in touch with people better than anyone I have ever met, but she is a genuine friend. She sincerely cares about the well-being of her friends. She remembers every last detail of their lives and will probably share it with others, unless you tell her not to.

So, now you see, Grammie is one special lady. She will be sorely missed.

A Photo Essay

I apologize; our blog has been entirely boring as of late. Blame it on the fetus. I learned that from Lexie. Maybe I should blame it on her fetus.

Here is a photo essay to update you on the past couple months' happenings:

1. Another Valentine's Day
We revealed that I am with child to some friends using "Yo Gabba Gabba" valentines. Courtney helped me decorate bags that ended up looking like the creations of a child. I guess it fits with the theme of children. As a side note, this was our 7th Valentine's Day together, as we first started dating in February of 2003. Have we come a very far since going to Carabba's and seeing "The RM" as 18/19 year-olds? I'm not sure.

2. A Birthday Season
February and March are birthday season for our families. Happy Birthday to: my brother Matt (Feb. 7), Daniel's sister Courtney (Feb. 7), Daniel's dad Tom (Feb. 14), my mom (Feb. 19), my sister Meredith (Feb. 26), my sister Hillary (March 4), my dad (March 5) and finally, Daniel (March 13). My mom came out to Utah and treated us to a Celtics-Jazz game on her birthday. Unfortunately, the Celtics ended up losing and my mom's favorite player, KG, as she likes to call him, got hurt. At least we could play the "we have a championship and you don't" card to all the irritating Jazz fans. Please ignore how chubby I look in the picture.

3. A good-bye
One of my closest friends from college, Melissa, made the mistake of celebrating her 25th birthday with me. I mentioned how we should get dessert since it was her birthday. The waiter overheard me and brought out this saddle. We all enjoyed the awkwardness as she sat and they sang. This birthday celebration was also a good-bye as Mel moved to on to bigger and better things (and hospitals) in Austin, Texas. This means I will still be able to see her whenever we go visit Daniel's family.

4. A Baby Celebration
I passed a real milestone in my life. I hosted my first-ever baby shower for my good friend, Kristina. No one ran out screaming and I think some people may have even had a good time.
An idea for the non-crafty types (like me): Rice krispie tiers. I realized the chances of me making a cake/cupcakes and then decorating it/them in a non-offensively-ugly way were minimal. My solution? Rice krispie treats. I got a delicious chocolate peanut butter rice krispie treat recipe from my sister-in-law, Carrie. I stacked them in tiers and tied a ribbon around each tier. Apparently, they looked too good to eat because I took this picture after the shower. (I had SO much dessert left over. Lesson learned. Only serve "healthy"--or healthy-looking-- desserts at a party for all women. Women can be so lame! Or they have much more self control than me. I literally ate 7 rice krispies that day. Another 7 the next day. The fetus' fault.) Jen- yes, that table runner is your old window treatment.

5. An Old Man
Daniel has insisted on playing intramural basketball despite the torn ACL. Daniel is the first to admit he looks and plays a little like an old man. He hobbles around with a huge brace setting hard screens, successfully boxing out taller/more athletic players, using all his upper body "strength" to his advantage, and hitting the occasional 3. He has done surprisingly well without his right knee and he plans on having surgery in about a month. We anticipate amazing pictures from that event (a 5'3", 6-months pregnant woman pushing a 6'3", 200 pound man out of the hospital in a wheelchair). Stay tuned.

On this day in 1993...

Let me start by explaining why I was an even weirder child than you may already think. I began writing in a journal just before 3rd grade. In 5th grade (and a couple times in later years as well) I went back and edited all my earlier journal entries. Luckily I can still read my original writing and I missed a lot of mistakes when I was editing. Stupid 5th grader.

Here is my entry from 3rd grade with my 5th grade addition in italics:

"March 9th 1993- I'm sorry I can't write right now. I probally won't get back to you. Sorry I never had time, I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY AM! Love, Carly Oct 23, 1994. NOT Leap year"

In addition, here is a looong entry from a few days later:

"March 12th, 1993- I am sick. I hate being sick. And I hate snow. I'm tired of snow. Snow is stupid. I whant sumer to come right now. I'm sorry I am couldn't talk to you on March 9th because it was time to get ready to go to school. But now I can write all I whant. Geuss what yesterday mom rented six movies! She also bought two bags of chips that are Fritos and Ruffles and she bought two bottles of soda. Orange and Rootbeer. The titles of the moves are: Honey I Blew Up The Kid, Annie, Kiss Me Kate, House Sitter, Chariots Of Fire and Born Free. Matthew is screaming so now I have a head ache. But now he stopped.

You know what you are my very best friend. Not even Abby can beat how nice you are. Thanks. I think your'e pretty too. I love you.

You know when your'e sick it's amazing how many shows you watch that you usually don't watch. Okay I'll name the shows that I watched. Well here it goes Sesame Street, Exuse my spelling, Lamp Chop, Mr. Rogers, Shineing time station and Barner and friends.

Let me tell you a poem that I wrote. I just made it up and it's very short. It's called:

Habits By Carly John
A Habit is biting a nail,
And stepping a pail (by an accident)
A habit is having bad luck,
And not even having a buck (buck means money)

How did you like it I knew you would like it. Any way I have some things more to say about the movies. We watched Housesitter, Kiss Me Kate and Annie. Today we are going to watch Honey I Blew Up The Kid, Chariots of Fire and Born Free. I liked Annie the most then Housesitter then Kiss Me Kate. I might be able to catch you tomorrow.

Guess what I won the dribbling contest in basketball! I am going to have a ceremony at the High School and I am going to get a trophy. But it was pretty easy to beat the oyther kids because they were all pretty slow. Any they kept losing the ball. What you had to do was dribbe around the cones then shoot a basket if you fot it in they would take away two seconds. I got all the baskets in except one. Oh! I'm sorry I forgot to tell you that you go twice.

I only have 86 more pages till I'm done with this journal! I'm sorry. But I am going to transfer you to my new journal. The outside of my new journal is silk! My new journal is Chinese. But I'll always like this journal the best and I'll miss it. Well I'll be back writing tomorrow or in a couple of days. Bye."

There are so many awesome things about this journal entry that I will let it speak for itself.

Belly Shots

*Skip this post if you do not care about the increasing circumference of my belly*

I have had a few requests for some updated pictures of my stomach. I don't plan on posting pictures every two weeks, but my belly is growing rapidly and it is still exciting to me, so I guess I'll make you all read about it.

16 weeks

Oh, and since I know you are wondering, yes, I did get a haircut. Daniel is out of town and he wants to see a picture, so here you go Danielson.

Help! I am Misophonic!

Most of you do not know this about me, but I am very sensitive to noises that most people do not notice. Any sound besides speaking that comes from others mouths, chewing especially, probably bothers me. While growing up my family laughed at me when I stomped away from family meals where people chewed loudly. My brother Anthony is THE worst. Some of you may be thinking "Oh, no! How do I chew? I have never even thought about it!" Well, unfortunately, I can probably tell you how you chew. Lucky for Daniel, he doesn't chew loudly so he escapes my wrath.

Well I have a problem. An acquaintance of mine clears his throat CONSTANTLY. I'm not exaggerating. I have started keeping tallies. Today between 11 AM and 12:30 PM he cleared it over 50 times!!! Then 17 times in the past 20 minutes! I was so bothered that I was shaking this morning.

For years my family and Daniel have told me to just get over it. Deal with it. I am crazy. Well, I decided to do a little un-scholarly internet research to see if I could find anyone with a similar problem. It turns out I have a little thing called misophonia. Read some excerpts below: (Feel free to skim; I have bolded the most important parts)

"Misophonia is a rare and little understood disorder that is characterized by an extreme aversion to selective sounds. The disorder can occur in children and adults of any age. When exposed to the sounds, the person with misophonia, experiences feelings of rage and extreme anxiety. The particular sounds that a misophonia sufferer is sensitive to varies with each person. Chewing is a noise that commonly bothers misophonia sufferers. Other common noise sensitivities are the sound of scratching, tapping, throat clearing and nasal sniffling.

The exact cause of misophonia is unknown. There may be psychological causes, neurological causes or both. A large number of people diagnosed with misophonia also have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), which makes a psychiatric

element to the disorder possible. Because not every person with misophonia has OCD, it is believed that the condition is not purely psychological. It is common for misophonia and hyperacusis, another rare hearing disorder, to coexist, which leads to the theory that misophonia is caused by a neurological condition. The cause of misophonia may be the brain processing sound information incorrectly. Instead of processing the sounds as normal sounds, the brain perceives the sounds with increased intensity and processes the sounds as a danger sound instead of a harmless sound."

"We will discuss forms of misophonia. They are not a separate category of sound sensitivity because the issues we are about to talk do not involve loud sounds. Some individuals are not sensitive to loud sounds but they are unable to tolerate the sound of people eating or chewing. Oddly enough they have no problem tolerating the sound of their own eating. These individuals have a difficult time eating with their family and friends and some insist on eating all by themselves. They become irritated or enraged at meals. This is not hyperacusis. Usually these individuals are sensitive to particular sounds which are not loud in volume. For example, some individuals have a hearing sensitivity to certain consonants (i.e. s, t, p, c)."

Booya! Take that family and Daniel!

On this day in 1992...

This is my first ever journal entry. We can only hope our kid writes magic like this...

"April, 5th 1992
Today for breakfast we had pancakes. Dad made a joke about Hillary because she sneezed and a'lot of burgers [boogers] came out so my dad said since we usualy feed Hillary pancakes she has to eat some thing else he said that because Hillary was eating her burger [boogers]. Well anyway today is Sunday it is general confrence. I just got this journal on April 4th 1992 this year is leap year. I can't wait till EASTER!!! Last night I went to grammie's house. Yesterday it was hot! Alicia went to a birthday party and came back with chalk. So me and Alicia and me went outside and drew with chalk on the sidewalk. Also yesterday Katie arived at belmont Katie our cousin came to our house yesterday. We did hopskotch. We made one hopskotch so long we ended up with thirty-six hopskotch squares. I did it realy fast. I can do it on one foot! Oh I forgot to tell you Meredith my sister and Melissa Oconer and Lisa came outside too. I traced Alicia and we made a'lot of things. I just want to end this story with saying I like to read I like to write. In the name of jesus christ amen. Last night we didn't take our bath so today we have to take baths."

The truth...

I mislead you. I don't look like the photo below anymore. Not even close. Here is what I looked like a couple days ago. That's what a tricky fetus I have. The pictures were taken 2 weeks apart!