Chapman

Trevor worked like a maniac all week and then we went to Universal Studios with Jonathan and Jaime on Saturday. We went on various rides like “The Mummy” and “Jurassic Park” and those were both so much fun! They are themed rides and so it is really beautiful and neat. I especially liked the Jurassic Park ride where the T-Rex suddenly bears down on you—SOOO scary! Oh! And we went on the Van Hellsing haunted mansion thing and it was SOOOOO SCARY!!! Near the end you see this huge werewolf going crazy silhouetted behind glass and then, at the end, he comes out and grabs you. I thought I was going to have a heart attack!!!! I was clutching Trevor’s hand the whole time and as soon as I saw that guy I tore myself away from Trevor and just ran for it through all the people. It was so scary.

Trevor had the time of his life! He tried out to be on Fear Factor Live and was cast!! So he spent the last 2 hours we were there getting briefed on what he was to do, making a movie of himself, and all kinds of stuff. We all got front row seats at the event. He was so cute! They announced everyone and the contestants would run out one by one (this is a stadium of 2,000 people) and when Trevor came out he was hooting and hollering and making such a show—he was the crowd’s favorite. For the first stunt they were in these harnesses and hung about 40 feet from the ground and they had to hold onto a bar that was slanted. The first two to fall were disqualified. Well, they all came out and the bar dropped. Trevor was doing awesome—the other boys were shaking and you could tell that they were getting really really tired. The first guy dropped after about 45 seconds. The clock kept ticking and ticking—2 of the guys were shaking really really bad. Trevor looked good and strong—he didn’t even look tired. Then all of a sudden—BAM! Trevor and another boy dropped at the same time. We were all SO surprised; he didn’t even look tired! He told us later that his hands were just pouring sweat. Bummer. Trevor was really bugged that he got out—I am happy he got out because I did NOT want him to have to do the next stunts. In the next stunt the people were chained to this pole and they had to twist themselves around really fast until they had undone the chain. Then they had to run over to an aquarium filled with electric eels and grab flags one by one and chain it to this pole that was revolving and crossing over another pole (so you would smash into the stationary one). It was really really scary. After they had all their flags on they had to run over and drink their glass of smoothie. The smoothie (which they made right in front of us and stunk to high heavens) was composed of pig parts (eyeballs, spleen, heart, etc.), rotting fish guts, rotten milk, hissing cockroaches, worms, and grasshoppers. So sick.

The two who won that round went onto the one that I do NOT want Trevor to ever do. They had to turn this thingie as fast as they could and it was putting a constant electric volt through their body. The faster they spun it, and the closer they got to winning, the higher the current of electricity going through their body would be. It was so scary—it could give them a heart attack! This guy in the Airforce won. It was all very very cool. The guy who is in charge of all the scary animals let me look at everything before the show started. I held the back end of a huge python. It was cool. Then I just looked at all kinds of things like 13” long Egyptian Black Scorpions, 5” long Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, Bird Eating spiders twice as big as my hand (HUGE tarantulas), all kinds of terrifying snakes, etc. It was really really really cool!

Trevor was super bummed he didn’t win, so I think we are going back next week to try out again. He’s so cute!

On Monday Trevor instigated a team party. We went down to Red Beach and had a big barbecue and just played in the water. It was a lot of fun. We had HUGE steaks. They were delicious! Trevor discovered a new love: boogieboarding; he boogieboarded for 3 hours straight. Everyone else was sitting on the beach ready to go, but he was still having the time of his life riding those waves. When I called him up to have steaks he complained and said, “I view eating as a necessary evil right now. I just want to boogieboard.” He was really bugged that he had to eat that delicious, thick, juicy steak.

Today I made a pregnancy dress—it is bright pink and super cute! Other than that, all I can say is: why are we the only ones who update their blog? For crying out loud, people! Get on the ball! Oh! And here is my belly at 18 1/2 weeks. 5 months is just around the corner!

**Who thinks Trevor is so beautiful? MEEEEE!!!!** This weekend was a lot of fun. Friday night the whole team went out to Black Angus Steakhouse and stuffed ourselves full of New York steaks (are you jealous, Davy?). It was SOOO good! Well, it was rather unfortunate because we got there at 9:00pm and we had tickets to see the opening of the Di Vinci Code at 10:30pm so we really needed to get our food pretty quick. Well, they didn’t bring out the food until 10:15pm so we had her bring out doggy bags and we took our whole dinners to the theater before we even touched them. It was sad that they weren’t as fresh, but it was fun to eat a gourmet meal while everyone else was munching on stale popcorn.

The Da Vinci Code was AWESOME!!!!! It was wholly inaccurate and the movie might prove detrimental to those with a weaker faith, but for those watching it for what it is—a fictional movie—it is REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I recommend it to ALL!! It is so mysterious and action packed and it keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time. I really really really liked it! I think there were some scary parts, but Trevor always closed my eyes at those parts so I don’t know if it gets gory—I would assume not, but just in case, close your eyes whenever it seems scary. I totally recommend it to ALL!!! IT’S AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday Trevor and I took off with Jonathan and Jaime down to Newport beach. (I know in the picture to the left I look like I have a very pregnant belly, but alas it was only the video camera in my sweatshirt pocket.) We got there around 8:00pm and went to this Pizza place Trevor and I always used to go to down by the pier—Valentinos—and ate our pizzas on the pier as we watched the night fishers. Everyone was catching little mackerel thingies; it didn’t really seem worth the while. However, as we were walking we saw a bunch of kids gathering and yelling around this one kid—he had caught a 10” manna ray and was trying to get it back into the ocean. However, all the kids were terrified of it and so were trying to kick it into the water with their feet (the water being at least 5 feet away and the manna ray being much too sticky to move much with their kicks). I was horrified at the treatment and implored Trevor to save the poor things life. He came to the rescue, “What are you doing, guys? Are you trying to get it back into the water? Are you too afraid to touch it?” “Yes…” they all replied. “All right, let me get it.” So Trevor went down and picked it up like a pro and tossed it over. I was very much grateful and I am sure the manna ray is, too. I hope he didn’t sustain too many injuries during its kicking.

We hung out in Newport for a couple hours and then decided to call it a night. Jaime and I wanted to sleep on the beach to save money, but the boys insisted on getting hotel rooms because “They work so hard.” So we spent the next hour trying to find a hotel that Jaime and I thought was cheap enough. After stopping at 9 or 10 hotels, we finally landed in a hotel that reeked of smoke, had a crazy woman almost drowning to death in the pool, and only one queen sized bed. All four of us were going to try to sleep horizontal on it, but I think Jonathan and Trevor aren’t as comfortable as they were on the mission to sleep squashed up next to each other, so we rock paper scissored for the floor. Trevor and I ended up on the floor; however, we had brought the sleeping bag and were very comfortable.

The next morning we scrambled to get to church. We all got ready in record time, packed up the room, and went to a gas station to find the nearest church. We finally located it, came screeching into the parking lot, ran up the stairs with our scriptures flailing, and missed the bread by a mere 2 minutes. It was very frustrating. So we sat in on that sacrament meeting, then went to the first half of the next sacrament meeting and left after the sacrament was passed. We then went to our favorite beach in the world—Red Beach—and played the rest of the day.

Two absolutely miraculous things happened at red beach. First, Trevor found me two sand dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every single time we have gone to the beach I have spent most of my time scouring the sand for beach dollars and yet have not found one. However, Trevor found me 2 within 10 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WAS SO HAPPY!!! And then, the second neatest thing in the UNIVERSE: We were all playing beach baseball with a piece of driftwood and a tennis ball that washed up. We were just minding our own business when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a sea lion road a wave right onto our beach right in the middle of our game. He scooted around for awhile looking at what we were doing and checking things out. He looked at us for at least 5 minutes, and Trevor was trying to get it to come up nearer to us so we could pet it (it was completely out of the water and beached, but we didn’t want to scare it back into the water by going to it— we wanted it to come to us). Trevor took a few steps toward it and was only 3 feet from it, but then it got scared and scooted back into the water and rejoined its pod. There were at least 15 swimming around together about 100 feet from us. We think they were swimming by, saw us (this is a military beach so we were the only people on it) and sent that sea lion in to check out what we were doing. IT WAS THE COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Besides our babies heartbeat and ultrasound, that is) That is something that you see in the movies—we were 4 feet from it the whole time!!!!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!! And the worst part is none of us had a camera with us!!!!! After that, Trevor sprinted back to where we had left the cameras (about a mile away) and then sprinted back so that if any more came we would have proof. Sadly, we had no more encounters. That was definitely the highlight of the weekend!

Jami and I had a GREAT day yesterday! When Trevor and I went to Universal Studios we got tickets to see Jay Leno. We got some for us and for Jonathan and Jami to go with us. Well, Tuesday came and Jonathan and Trevor made the responsible decision and opted to go to work rather than LA to see Leno. Those fuddy duddies! (Oh and Trevor got 7 sales that day! Isn’t he AWESOME?!!?) So Jami and I decided to make it a girls day out! We drove down to Burbank, found our way and everything, parked, and walked to the NBC studios. When we got there we were AMAZED at how many people were in line to see Leno! We had no idea it was going to be such a big deal! So we got in the back of the line behind about 500 people; we didn’t think we were going to get in. Soon, the ticket taker came around to check our tickets, and low and behold, we had special VIP passes!! She redirected us to the VIP line where we were number 10 in line! So we got in line and waited. The ticket person came around to make sure everything was in order and asked for our ID’s. Jami had left hers in the car which we had parked a mile away. So, Jami ran to the car in the blazing LA sun while I saved our spots. I was getting really nervous that she wouldn’t get back in time, and I wasn’t going to go in without her, so I was getting really worried. Finally, I saw her run around the corner, panting, gasping for air, with ID in hand. Well, it turns out that if you are in the VIP line you don’t need an ID so she was bugged.

We went into the studio and were seated on the balcony right in front of Leno. It was AWESOME to be in a place that you always see on TV! In high school I would do my homework, get ready for bed, and then watch Leno with dad and then go to bed. That was the ritual. It was so cool to be there! Jay came out dressed in a blue jean shirt and faded jeans, made some jokes and then dismissed himself to go put on his “dorky ill fitting suit”. He came out later dressed in a suit, and started the show. Ellen Degeneris and Peter McLellen (is that right? The president’s spokesperson who just resigned? I can’t remember his name) were the guests and the Goo Goo Dolls were the band. They were so incredible. You all have to download the song “Stay With You” so beautiful and AWESOME live. Anyway, the whole show was so funny and it was just so cool to see it all live.

Afterwards we left the studio and were walking around the corner when an intern said, “Would you like tickets to see the Carson Daly show?” We were like, “Sure!” So we took the tickets and stood in the holding line. Then they took us down to the studio—there were about 15 of us. We got there and there were about 120 people waiting in line—they had been waiting all day to get in—but they led us to the front of the line. Once again, we had gotten VIP tickets! So we walked in and they sat Jami and I on the VERY FRONT ROW ON THE FLOOR! We were one foot away from Carson the whole time he was out there. It was cool. And then Carson’s guest—I can’t remember his name (it is that Italian guy from the Sopranoes) brought Carson out this huge 4’ long submarine sandwich. Carson picked it up and gave it to us. He said, “Take some and pass it around.” Everyone was too embarrassed to take any, but I took a HUGE piece because I was starving. That was the life—front row seats with a foot long submarine sandwich. Then, when the band played—Rock Kill Kid—they had us go stand FRONT ROW in front of the singer. The camera man videotaped us a ton and we know we are on TV for at least 20 seconds. It was cool. Jami’s mom recorded the show and we are anxious to see it!

It was a very fun and eventful day! It seems that I was the only one in our family who had a fun day—Trevor has been deathly ill ever since yesterday. He has a really bad fever, soar throat, and keeps coughing up stuff. He stayed home from work today in hopes of recovery. Everyone pray for him—he’s super sick.

We would like to wish a hearty “Happy Mother’s Day” to all the awesome moms out there who check our blog. Namely, Mom Suttner, Mom Chapman, Lia Collings, Dohnele Parker, and Laura Callahan (Laura doesn’t check it, but I am just excited she had her baby!). So Happy Mother’s Day to you all! A more excellent bunch would be hard to find!!!

Following is the only story I remember from childhood and I remember it because I refused to read it because it was so sad and made me cry. I love this story and yet at the same time despise it because it was horrifically ghastly of that little boy to just grow up without even thinking twice about whether or not his mom wanted him to. I, for one, am not going to let Jace grow up. He is promptly getting injected with growth hormone inhibitor so he will always stay a little baby forever and never leave me. However, for all the rest, here is the sweetest most horrible story in the world:

I’ll Love You Forever

By Robert Munsch

A mother held her new baby and very slowly rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she held him, she sang:

I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.

The baby grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was two years old, and he ran all around the house. He pulled all the books off the shelves. He pulled all the food out of the refrigerator and he took his mother’s watch and flushed it down the toilet. Sometimes his mother would say, “this kid is driving me CRAZY!”

But at night time, when that two-year-old was quiet, she opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor, looked up over the side of his bed; and if he was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:

I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.

The little boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was nine years old. And he never wanted to come in for dinner, he never wanted to take a bath, and when grandma visited he always said bad words. Sometimes his mother wanted to sell him to the zoo!

But at night time, when he was asleep, the mother quietly opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep, she picked up that nine-year-old boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:

I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.

The boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a teenager. He had strange friends and he wore strange clothes and he listened to strange music. Sometimes the mother felt like she was in a zoo!

But at night time, when that teenager was asleep, the mother opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep she picked up that great big boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:

I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.

That teenager grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a grown-up man. He left home and got a house across town. But sometimes on dark nights the mother got into her car and drove across town. If all the lights in her son’s house were out, she opened his bedroom window, crawled across the floor, and looked up over the side of his bed. If that great big man was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:

I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.

Well, that mother, she got older. She got older and older and older. One day she called up her son and said, “You’d better come see me because I’m very old and sick.” So her son came to see her. When he came in the door she tried to sing the song. She sang:

I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always…

But she couldn’t finish because she was too old and sick. The son went to his mother. He picked her up and rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And he sang this song:

I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
my Mommy you’ll be.

When the son came home that night, he stood for a long time at the top of the stairs. Then he went into the room where his very new baby daughter was sleeping. He picked her up in his arms and very slowly rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while he rocked her he sang:

I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.