Our Day As Poll Workers

We were singing that one Simple Minds song as we drove away from South Hills Middle School on Tuesday night. Something about all of us getting in our cars and going our separate ways after such a draining day made it feel like the end of The Breakfast Club. Oh, and the other reason it felt like The Breakfast Club was because Kurt had the biggest baddest packed lunch you've ever seen, just like Andy's.

It was such a long day - 5:30 am to 9:00 pm - and that doesn't even include the couple of hours we had put in on Monday night helping to get everything ready. I actually don't think it would've been that bad, but neither Chris nor I slept very well the night before so we did hit a couple walls during the day. But it was seriously so cool. We got to meet tons of people, for one thing, and get them checked in so they could vote; and for another thing, if you ever find yourself in need of someone who knows how to put up, break down, and work a polling location, well now you know who to call.

Our group of poll workers was terrific. Chris and I actually made up a song about the dynamic of the group. It goes, "So many chiefs, not enough Indians;" we'll sing it for you some time. Seriously, nearly everyone in our group of 9 workers wanted to be in charge, whether it was deciding the correct pronunciation of DeJesus (some voter's last name) or where to hang the sample ballots posters. But let's face it, there was only one Poll Manager, and that was Janet.We really only had one complaint about Janet, our fearless leader, and that was that she just couldn't bring herself to leave her screaming companion behind for the day. I'm talking about the shiny red guy on her chin. OK, that was mean, but Chris and I got some hearty laughs about it because it reminded us of that talking stain commercial; we just couldn't pay total attention to everything she said. No seriously, she was great.

Janet's biggest competitor for being in charge was Phil, the voting machine technician and general poll-worker-know-it-all.
The two receiving tables consisted of me (Poll Book Judge), Chris (Receiving Judge), and Heather (Ballot Judge) at our table, and Peggy (Ballot Judge), Sue (Receiving Judge), and Darlene (Poll Book Judge) at the other table. Heather knew just about everyone who came in the door; I know she knew them because I heard her say, "I know him," about 400 times throughout the day. Peggy is a poll worker veteran of about 40 years, and she gave us several brief narratives about how things have changed over the years. Darlene was quiet and sweet. And Sue was quite a pistol. A few hours into the day Chris discovered that we had processed a lot more people than the ladies at the other table. This spurred him on, and he had a mission to basically blow them out of the water for the rest of the day. They caught on after a while, and a friendly competition ensued. Chris and Sue were trash-talking each other and seriously yelling at unsuspecting voters to come to their respective tables. It didn't get confusing for the voters or old for me at all. Oh, and another fun game we played was keeping a tally of how many times voters asked a variation of this question: Do I just sign the book upside down? Yes, you do. And the grand total was somewhere around 60.
Here's Kurt, the aforementioned marathon eater. He was our Provisional Judge for the day, and he kept pretty darn busy. But that didn't stop him from eating a hoagie the size of your mom's head, a virtual bucket of salad, an orange, an apple, and a banana, 2 64-ounce bottles of Gatorade, and a small Korean family. We would catch him taking huge bites of his food when a patron of his glanced away for a second. He must have the metabolism of a gerbil (I don't actually know if gerbils have high metabolisms, but you know what I mean).
Not included in our team of 9, but welcome additions to our long day were the delightful Marcus Hamblin, our resident pollster representing the Utah Democratic Party......and Rover Cleveland. OK, we don't actually remember this gentleman's name, but he was our rover so Chris named him Rover Cleveland. Clever huh?
Aside from the long hours of sitting on a hard chair, aside from the monotony of listening to person after person state their last name as well as give you the first 3 or 4 letters of it (Barragan...B A R R...), and aside from having a really sad voter turnout, I loved the day. And I'll do it again, rest assured.

Halloween 2008

Gessie (dark fairy); Brandy (vampire victim); Mallory (bumblebee)

Allie (Hannah Montana); Sarah (vampire); Julie (kitten); Madeline (vampire); Samantha (unicorn); Gessie (dark fairy)


Torrance (Hermione Granger); Neily (Harry Potter)


Will the real Dave Eaton please stand up? I just can't tell who's who...


Azalea (the cutest skunk in the world)


Cristian (Igor from Young Frankenstein)


Happy Halloween from the Barragans!

Torrance and Azalea watch 08: Chris' Experience

So here are the sitters:



And...



Here's who we sat:




Dave and Heather Eaton took a trip to Puerto Rico this month. Brooke and I were given the opportunity to take care of their daughters, Torrance and Azalea. (or Toto and Butter Pig)

Each afternoon Brooke would help Torrance with her reading and we'd take turns holding or caring for Azalea. Every evening Torrance, Brooke and I would say prayers together (which when Torrance would say them included a puppy, a lost friend, and Gordon B. Hinckley)

After Torrance went to bed we'd stayed up with Azalea. Then it was time to go to sleep on "Awesome", David and Heather's bed (ironically "Awesome" is not that great. It's a bit too firm.)

Speaking of dying, if you ever get the chance to change Azalea's diaper, you'll know what death is. First off you know it's coming hours before it hits. The toots start coming, then the smell. Oh the smell.

One would think a cherubic infant such as Azalea couldn't dare produce such an odor. But once you open that diaper, you learn pain.

I couldn't believe it, the consistency of mortar and the color as well. A dark gray paste that I think was used to set the capstone of the Salt Lake Temple.



This particular photo illustrates the lengths we would go to avoid dry heaving.

The last time I was given the opportunity to change Azalea she thought it would be a good idea to pee on me. That was just weird.

Torrance left us for a weekend of "High School Musical Three" and Cousin-fun-a-pa-looza. I missed her. She was such a treat. I loved hearing her read and watching over her shoulder. Sometimes she would see a word which she didn't recognize and would use another word that started with the same letter. I'd say the right word quietly to her and she'd repeat it and quickly move on with the story.

Saturday evening and Sunday it was just Azalea, Brooke and I.

I've been told by friends "oh babysitting is great practice for being a parent!" and then I watch four kids that are not mine. These kids have developed their lives without any teaching or discipline from me. That's not practice for being a parent, that's practice for taking care of someone else's kids.

I've also been told "oh having a puppy is great practice for being a parent!" no it's not, its a dog. You put a lease around a dog and tug on it if it disobeys.

But having to take of Azalea, three months old, that was a pleasant introduction to fatherhood. The first couple of days it was enjoyable to see her. She's adorable, she seldom made a fuss. When she did cry it didn't last.

As the days went by I began to feel the need she had for Brooke and I, she was truly helpless. You grow to love someone that needs you like that.

Brooke loved it so much. She said a few times how she couldn't imagine loving someone as much as she loved Azalea. It was the hours of service she gave her. She loves her so much.

There were a couple of accidental moments where Brooke called her Olive. You can tell how ready Brooke is for motherhood and how absolutely she will love our daughter.

Sunday came. Later in the evening Torrance came home. She fell asleep on Brooke's lap. Azalea fell asleep in my arms minutes before Dave and Heather returned. When they got home it was a sweet goodbye. I loved the experience and can't wait for January.

Oh yeah and the best thing in the world... a baby in a turtle neck:

A Week in Training

Chris and I spent the past week in David's and Heather's shoes. They went to Puerto Rico to celebrate their first anniversary and asked Chris and me to take care of the girls while they were gone.

Torrance is 6 and she's in 1st Grade. I've always thought it was delightful to hang out with her, but this week I discovered what a really affectionate and pensive wonder she is. She loves to prance around and hum and tell you the details of her thoughts and what she's up to. Our morning routine was waking up at 8:00, getting dressed and brushing hair, eating a hearty breakfast of a single naked cinnamon Eggo, and waiting for 8:30 to come so she could go to the bus stop. My favorite part of that was listening to her blessing at breakfast. She seldom remembered to actually bless the food, but always remembered a million other things to pray about. Everyday I'd hurry to the window to watch her walk to the bus stop, and when 3:45 came I was looking out the window again for her bus to drop her off. Our after school routine was having a snack, doing homework and having "quality educational time" (per David's instructions), and then "free time". I enjoyed homework time the most. Toto was diligent everyday about getting her work done. She read to me for at least 20 minutes, worked on reading a poem that her teacher gave to her, let me quiz her on her spelling words, and did a math worksheet. If all that didn't take at least an hour, she showed me where some countries were on the globe or we'd read more. I was really impressed with how focused she stayed through all that. Torrance was open and affectionate and silly and funny. Last night when David and Heather got home, she had just fallen asleep with her head in my lap. I loved that.







Azalea got me ready for Olive, probably in ways I couldn't have otherwise anticipated. I kept saying to Chris, "How is it possible that we're going to love someone more than this?" The first night we spent there I kept waking up because I'd hear her shift in her crib or kick or something. But she didn't fuss, and she'd sleep for 10 hours a night. Chris and I loved getting her in the morning and feeding her and cuddling with her and smelling her. I loved that my day's work was spent mostly on meeting her little needs. She did have a couple lethal diapers, and she spit up and even peed on Chris. We thought it was adorable. We were seriously so enamored with her the whole time. She is so lovely, and her voice is so soft and sweet. She was asleep in Chris' arms when David and Heather got home last night. It was really hard leaving her.

I honestly thought I'd be a little more at my wit's end by the time this week was over. But I think we could've kept those girls forever and been just dandy. It makes me feel so excited for Olive to get here. Chris is going to be such a sweet dad, and I'm really beginning to think I'm more cut out for being a mom than I used to think. This morning Olive was moving like crazy, and she somehow seemed so much more real now after spending a week with Toto and Azie.

26 Weeks

A Good FHE

On Monday Chris gave a great lesson about Joseph Smith. And then we all put on some plastic gloves, got some trash bags, split up and went around the neighborhood picking up trash. I kept noticing during my morning 2 miles that it needed a little attention. So we did it. It was fun; I haven't done a service project like that in a while. A little hard work did us all some good.

Here's Ashley, Mallory and Gessie with their bags.

Date Day

So on Friday I was secretly a little bummed because I knew our weekend was going to be crazy and we wouldn't have time for a date night. But leave it to Chris to be wonderful. He showed up back at home before noon and we had a date day. We went to Thanksgiving Point and ate a yummy lunch at the deli and then walked and looked around a bit. It was lovely. Chris is great.

Why was our weekend so busy, you ask? On Friday night we watched Torrance and Azalea while David and Heather...and Neil...went on a date. It was tough work and great practice for when Olive gets here! Here's a picture of the pretty Miss Azalea asleep on Chris' lap. Saturday was Conference, and then Chris went to dinner and the Priesthood session with the boys that night. Sunday was more Conference and dinner at the Cisneros' house. By the way, during one of the Saturday sessions Chris fell asleep and I took advantage of him by writing "POO" on his forehead. Here's a picture. What, I think it's funny.