The Whole Watermelon

Last night my husband tried to kill me. Again.

I was sleeping peacefully in my bed when my husband rolled over. He didn't say anything, but I knew with every fiber in my being that he was going to put a rag with chloroform over my mouth and kill me. There was someone else involved too. Someone who had told him to kill me. I think this person might have been H.H. Holmes, the serial killer I just finished reading about in the book The Devil in the White City.

Of course none of this was real. I was having another night terror.

I was not surprised that a reference to this book had worked it's way into my night terror. In fact, while listening to the audiobook version of the novel, I realized that it was a real life version of the night terrors I have been experiencing lately. However, before I go too much into that, let me tell you a brief history of my night terrors.

When I was a child, I would sometimes bolt out of bed and stand shaking against the wall. I just knew there was something in my bed. Sometimes it was a snake, sometimes spiders. I would remain plastered against the wall with my heart beating wildly until I woke up enough to convince myself it was just a dream. When I use the term "woke up" I don't mean that I suddenly broke free from the sleep state. When I am having a night terror I do not feel asleep. So waking up from a night terror is not like waking up from a regular dream. It's like reality slowly creeps back into my mind and I realize that what I had accepted mere seconds ago as reality was completely untrue.

As I grew up, I had a couple of night terrors that my parents were going to kill me. In one instance I ran from my room on the far side of the basement, up the stairs, out the side door of the house, and down the long driveway. Lucky for my neighbor, whose home I was running to for help, I realized I was having a night terror before I reached the end of the driveway.

The worst case of night terrors happened after I got married. Suddenly, after a lifetime of having my own room, there was someone else next to me making noise and sparking all kinds of nightmares. The first month we were married I probably had at least one night terror a week. At first I imagined there was someone other than my husband and myself in the room. My husband would calmly tell me that it was a dream and tell me to come back to bed. Slowly my night terrors changed, and it was my husband who was the bad guy. Now when he tried to soothe me, I thought it was a trick, and usually looked at him with terror and mistrust. He quickly adapted his new strategy for dealing with my night terrors, which was to completely ignore me. I again almost knocked on a neighbor's door one night when I was running away from him.

I still have night terrors, but on a lesser scale than when I was first married. I've been reading up about night terrors on various websites, and have appreciated the information I've found. I particularly have found the nightterrors.org site to be a valuable resource.

I can usually laugh about my night terror experiences the next day, but they are not fun when they are happening. They are so realistic and I have no idea that I am dreaming. Imagine what it would feel like if you really thought that someone or something was trying to kill you. You then are literally running for you life. A lot of times it takes a while for me to settle down afterward. My heart continues to pound hard even after I know it's not real. The author of nightterror.org says "I find the most amazing aspect of night terrors is that it generates a heart rate of 160 to 170 beats per minute. This is much faster than the normal heart rate that can be attained under most stressful circumstances."

His definition of a night terror is "Sudden awakening from sleep, persistent fear or terror that occurs at night, screaming, sweating, confusion, rapid heart rate, inability to explain what happened, usually no recall of "bad dreams" or nightmares, may have a vague sense of frightening images. Many people see spiders, snakes, animals or people in the room, are unable to fully awake, difficult to comfort, with no memory of the event on awakening the next day. ... This, however, is not always the case. Quite a few people interviewed can remember portions of the night terror, and some remember the whole thing." I am one who usually remembers at least portions if not the whole thing.

Night terrors usually happen during the first part of your sleep, within the first hour, before you enter the REM portion of sleep. Usually when I have a night terror, I'm stressed or overly tired and have entered into a sort of restless sleep. One night in this restless state I heard my husband shift and the sound of his body moving on the sheets was so scary to me. On this occasion I was fully aware that it was him moving, but something about that sound was still so unnerving. My husband reports that a lot of times my night terrors are sparked by his movement. I find it fascinating that a slight noise sparks an elaborate story in my mind. My husband turns over, and instantly I have this whole detailed story in my head about him having an evil plot to murder.

I do not know if it is totally true in my case, but I did find it a little cool to read that night terrors happen to those with "active imaginations" and that they happen due to "increased brain activity."

I think it's interesting that so many of my night terrors lately are about my husband trying to kill me. During the waking hours it seems ridiculous to even consider the possibility of that happening. He's a nice, good man who has never shown the slightest hint of violence to me or anyone else for that matter. I think that's what adds to the overall terror of it all. Suddenly he's not the man I know. Suddenly a slow smile comes across his face and he reveals himself as a man who enjoys giving others pain.

This brings me back to The Devil in the White City novel. H.H. Holmes was just like the husband of my terrors. He was a charming and handsome man who seemed generous and kind and then suddenly he would show his true colors, those of a killer.

To me, I can't imagine anything more frightening than someone you love and hold dear revealing themselves to be absolutely evil. Maybe that's why, when my brain feels the need to pick the most frightening thing for my terror, it provides me with this scenario.

Unlike the women in the novel, I am glad that my nightmares can be woken up from, and that my husband is a genuinely nice guy. My heart goes out to those who have experienced the things I have only had to live in my dreams.

A couple of Christmases ago, my husband came up with a brilliant plan. He wanted a new IPod, one with video, but didn't have enough gift money to buy the latest version. He somehow convinced me to buy his used IPod with my gift money for the price he could have gotten by selling it on ebay. He then he used those proceeds to help buy his new model.

I must say I was a bit skeptical about having an IPod. I didn't know if I would use it enough to warrant using precious Christmas money on it. I like music okay, but in general I don't listen to a lot of it, I have very specific tastes, and I tire of songs quickly. I thought I would probably use my IPod occasionally, but thought it was something I could live without.

Shortly after acquiring my IPod, I discovered podcasts. My entire view of my IPod has changed. It's not a little music machine, no, no, it's a little talking machine! I love it! I listen to podcasts when I'm exercising, and when I'm doing dishes, laundry, cleaning, and other domestic agonies. It makes tedious work fun. Or if not fun, bearable.

I've decided to share with you my fav podcasts. They are all available from ITunes if you do a search for them. If you don't have an IPod, you can still download them to ITunes and listen to them from your computer.

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The Dave Ramsey Show
You can get an hour of each daily show free. Since I am usually not driving in the car from 7-10PM, it's nice to be able to get my Dave Ramsey fix.

Astronomy Cast
Mike got me hooked on this. I'm not extremely interested in space like he is, but listening to the podcast is like being in a really cool college class. It's a little like the television show Nova. They talk down enough so that it doesn't go over your head, but keep it intellectual enough that you feel like you're really smart for listening to it. Dr. Pamela Gray is awesome, and has a knack for explaining really hard things.

KEXP Song of the Day
This is one I've just started subscribing to. Every day they give you a new song. It seems like it's mostly self-released songs. They seem to have pretty good taste and a variety of music, and it's nice listening to music I haven't heard a million times already. I listen to the songs, delete the ones I don't care for, and then I'll transfer my favorites to my IPod.

This American Life
Each week they have a theme and tell stories of people relating to the theme. It sounds lame, but it's amazing. It's one of the most popular podcasts for a reason.

NPR Planet Money
A spinoff from This American Life focusing on money. It's a nice way to keep up to date on current events relating to money. They somehow make it fairly interesting.

NPR: Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Podcast
It's a comic gameshow focusing on current news. I like it, and it's funny, but I'm convinced it has a liberal bias to it. Actually, I think all NPR shows have a least a little liberal bias going on, but the other ones try harder to hide it. I haven't given up on it yet though, as it usually makes me laugh a few times per episode.

The official Lost Podcast
If you watch the show, definitely listen to the podcast. They answer questions and erase a little of the confusion.

Pediacast: a pediatric podcast for parents
I used to get Parents magazine, but after a while it started bugging me. This podcast is so much better. Dr. Mike has a down to earth and practical approach to parenting and pediatric advice. His advice has come in handy a couple of times for me.

Stuff You Should Know
I want to like this podcast, and the topics are intereting, but the hosts are so nerdy. I'm not a big fan of their shtick, but the info is good, so I'm sticking around.

TedTalks
These are videos, so I don't download them to my video-less IPod, but they are very interesting talks by all kinds of people. Again, it's like being in college, with guest lecturers coming to the school.

WNYC's Radio Lab
I love this podcast. It's a lot like This American Life, but about science. Very cool.

60-second Psych
60 second commentary on the latest in brain and behavior studies. I've just started listening to it, but so far it's interesting.

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The other think I love to do with my IPod is listen to audiobooks. You can download free audiobooks from ITunes (I recently downloaded Anne of Green Gables), and I also get audiobooks from the library. I really enjoy listening to mysteries. Something about listening to the stories makes them more spooky.

I don't usually keep up with all my Podcasts, but it's nice to know there's always something to listen to when I need to tackle a bunch of laundry.

Now that you know what I like, if you have any Podcast suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

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My final (for now) Michigan post will focus on the drive. Here are a few more things we used to entertain the kids on our long drives to and from Michigan.

Tbese are some of the surprise bags (explained here) I made for the trip.



One of the surprise bags for each kid had a blank journal and a bunch of stickers inside (found in the Target bargain bins). The younger two just transferred stickers into the journal, but my oldest used stickers and coloring to create really neat pictures.



This last trip I packed a bag full of craft supplies. We had pipe cleaners to sculpt designs with, lots of glitter glue, scissors, construction paper, staplers, foam shapes, and a bunch of squiggly eyes and puff balls to make pictures with:



For $5 at Robert's Crafts, I got these foam kits which the kids loved, and which kept them occupied for at least an hour.





We played Car Bingo through Wyoming, which added to the challenge. (You would not believe how long we looked for a bird!)



Balls are fun to throw around if you're in the way back seat.



I bought a bunch of dry erase markers and an eraser, and let the kids draw on board books. They weren't specially bought board books, just ones we had. My 18 month old loved scribbling and erasing on the animals over and over again.



The older kids like drawing clothing, silly glasses, fake eyelashes, spots, etc. on the animals. I love the decorated bunny on this one:



Another great thing to bring along is a cookie sheet. Most are magnetic, so the kids can play with magnets on them. My boys loved to drive their cars on them, and they are also great for drawing on or doing puzzles on (so the pieces don't slide off.)

but the most entertaining thing of all on a long trip is watching Daddy have a little talk with a nice police officer.



(phew, just a warning)

The best part of being in Michigan is hanging with family of course!

In April, Mike's Mom, Barb, got married, and we were all excited to welcome Rick into our family.





On both visits we made sure to drive up to Alma to visit with Mike's grandpa, Grandpa Floyd. In October we went with Mike's mom, and in April we met Mike's mom and Aunt Betty there.






Grandma took us to Uncle John's Cider Mill which had yummy home made cider, bouncy castles and a corn maze.






and of course visiting the zoo with Grandma is a must!





We met with Wayne and Carol (Mike's dad and step-mom), and Jeff (Mike's step-brother) for awesome nachos in Lansing. I just noticed it looks like Alex is chugging a beer. It's root beer of course.



While we were waiting for food, the kids entertained themselves by balancing folded napkin rings on their noses. Their father entertained himself by trying to blow them off.


I entertained Andy with a giraffe puppet.


We stayed a couple of nights with Wayne and Carol. We sent the kids to get their pajamas on, and they came back with a surprise. They had switched pajamas. They thought it was hilarious. I thought it was pretty funny too.




After the kids were in bed, the hard core board game playing began. Notice the cool card holders Wayne made, and the professional baseball caps to cut down on the glare.


And since I don't have a better place to put it, let me finish with a picture that shows just how much Fall in Michigan rules!

Remember my posts on our trip to Michigan? That trip we took back in October? And how there was going to be a "Part Four" to wrap things up?

Well since then, we took another trip to Michigan for Mike's Mom's wedding. So I've decided to turn my Michigan "Part Four" post into a few all encompassing posts about my favorite things we did in the Mason area and on our drives during both trips.

Starting with Impression Five.

Impression Five is an awesome children's science museum in Lansing, Michigan. I much prefer it to our pricey local Utah children's museum. The Utah museum charges $8.50 for each per person, child, and toddler ($42.50 for our family), which seems a bit excessive for a little dress up if you ask me. In comparison, Impression Five charges $5 for adults, and $1 per age of each child ($21 for our family). Plus at Impression Five you learn about science, and science is cool!

Mike and his dad took the older two kids when we were out in October, and they had such a good time that Mike and I took all the kids again when we went out in April.

Here are some of our favorite things at the museum:

Bubbles
(big enough to stand inside of!)






Water
There was a big water table room,


as well as a special toddler room with a smaller version.




Pulleys!
Another fun exhibit was seeing how hard it was to lift yourself using 1, 2, or 3 pulleys.


The shadow wall and magnet exhibits were also very, very cool, but I can't find any pictures of those.

Mike loved Impression 5 so much that he bought places for the older two's hand prints on the wall. We meant to do our youngest's when we went back, but we had too much fun playing and didn't get to it. Now we have a reason to go back!


I almost forgot to post pictures of one of my favorite parts of the museum. They provided yellow pieces of paper where kids could ask science questions, and they would post answers to some of the questions on a bulletin board. We didn't have time to write the questions until we were in the car after we had left, but I really liked my kids' questions.

My 6 year old daughter's:

(Why do wishes not come true?)

and

(Why do worms like dirt?)

My 4 year old son's: