Liam Nolan Coyne

I realized that I hadn't posted any pictures of our newest family member - Liam Nolan Coyne. Liam was born on May 16 and was 7 lb 2 oz. He is almost two months old now and we are LOOOOOVING having a newborn again (though I may sell my left arm for a bit of sleep!)

In the hospital

On his blessing day last Sunday! I love this gummy grin!!

Thanks for a great semester!

Just wanted to thank all my current students for a great semester! I love teaching this class and you guys were an amazing group! I'm going on maternity leave until January of next year, so I doubt I will be updating this blog very frequently. But feel free to check in occasionally as I'll likely post a few things here and there. I'll for sure post pictures of new baby Coyne when he is born! Wow, we REALLY need to get serious about names...only 1 months left!

Remember, to keep being a critical consumer of media, and keep in touch! If you haven't added me on Facebook and want to, I would love to see what you are up to!

Sarah

Nate's very own pokemon card

The kids were already in bed, so I was slightly annoyed when Nate came out and gave me this note (in the original spelling)

Dear Mom,

I promest my teecher that I would give her a suprize today. And it is going to be a Pokemon named Anna Pulgiano. She will be so surpized and it is a nice thing to do. So I need to make it right now. Love Nate. P.S. I am going to wright a nice note to her.

He did his super cute smile thing as well, and I couldn't say no! So we went to http://www.mypokecard.com/en/ and Nate made her a Pokemon card just for her. Here it is:

We found a picture of his teacher on his school webpage (slightly distorted on the card) and made the card in about 10 minutes. He printed a back to the card as well and pasted it to the front, so it even looks legit. 

Here is the note he wrote to his teacher:

Dear Miss Pugliano,

Thank you for being the best teacher ever. And thank you for teaching us. Love Nate. P.S. I love you.

And then there is a little drawing of two people made out of hearts, one that says "you", and one that says "me".

I thought this was SUCH a cute use of media tonight, and I hope his teacher loves it tomorrow! I'm just saying....how come none of you make a Pokemon card for me? :) Ah, the joys of being a 2nd grade teacher!

Maternity photo shoot

I'm going to get a bit personal here, but pregnancy is TOUGH! Between working a full time job and raising three young kids on top of everything else in my day, I go to bed exhausted most evenings. I've had some health issues that I won't go into here, that have made this pregnancy particularly hard.

Well, my husband is awesome - for Christmas he got me a maternity photo shoot, which I've never done. This is such a luxury I would NEVER think of getting it for myself, but I thought it was such a thoughtful gift that I went along with it. The shoot was a couple of weeks ago and the photographer has a blog (here is my media tie in) that she posts photos from her sessions. I won't be able to view the whole photo session for about another week, but she posted just a few on her blog that have kept me going the last few weeks. Pregnancy really is beautiful and these pictures remind me why I am putting myself through this wretchedness - for FAMILY. It is a sacrifice, but so worth it in the end. I love my little family so much - they mean everything in the world to me, and I'm grateful for these pictures for capturing a few precious moments I will treasure forever.

I've changed my family photo for the blog, and here are two others that I just love! You need to click on the second one to see the great detail, and the look on my baby boy's face! Priceless!

And a plug for the photographer -  her name is Sarah Woods from Remember When photography. This photographer is SOOO talented! I'd highly recommend her for wedding pictures, newborn pics, whatever - she does it all! Her website is www.photographybyrememberwhen.com so check it out if you are looking for a photographer!

Tom Hanks spoofs Toddlers and Tiaras

This video pits one of my very favorite things (Tom Hanks) with one of my very LEAST favorite things (Toddlers and Tiaras). I hope you enjoy Tom Hanks on Jimmy Kimmel spoofing Toddlers and Tiaras. Many thanks to Sadie who sent me the link in the first place. I actually laughed so hard that I cried at little! :)

Suit up!

I saw this in the JFSB office and couldn't resist a picture.

For those of you who watch "How I met your mother", you'll recognize Barney with his classic catchphrase. I like how they called it "How I got my internship" - nice play on the show.

Though I should say that this show is SUPER naughty! Not sure if you've seen it - it is super funny, but I don't think I could ever recommend it because there is a TON of sexual dialogue, especially from this particular character!

My husband likes the show, so I texted him this picture - his text back to me, "are you grabbing his bum?" Yep, my husband is awesome! :)

Yet another Misrepresentation in my day

Today I did a media interview for a new women's talk show on BYU TV. They were interviewing hosts so I was the guinea pig for their potential host to practice on.

The girl who was the host is an actress who lives in NYC! She has been in quite a few commercials(mostly for women's products). Her first name is Kristy and I can't remember her last name or I would tell you so you could look her up.

I've done quite a few media interviews, but this was a bit different. First, I thought it was radio, not TV, so I wasn't prepared for the elaborate set they had (where they film studio C I think). Thank goodness I didn't wear ripped jeans! Also, when I arrived, they had a professional makeup artist do my makeup! I must have looked tired cause she put a lot of makeup under my eyes! :) I was grateful, but felt almost unethical given what we just spoke about today in class!

I chatted with the host a bit about her glamorous lifestyle and she said it is fun, but there is a price. For example, they photoshop everything. Her dentist wanted her to get veneers, but she said, "why? They are just going to lighten my teeth anyway" They typically change her eyes to blue (they are green usually) and completely airbrush her skin. I thought she said something very telling when she said, "I often wish I could walk around with my airbrush face on...so much nicer!" And she was WAY pretty!  She said her best friends all look exactly the same because they all go to the same auditions, so spend a lot of time together. And she got one part because of a tiny line between her eyes (the producers actually told her that). She also said that she recently did an audition with her daughters, but they said she would never get the part because they weren't believable as mother/daughter. Why? She is brunette and her daughter is blond. Crappy Hollywood.

Anyway, the interview was a fun 8 min out of my time (we talked about mean girls, video games, and school shootings) but I think this experience really hit home after what we talked about today in class. It was so interesting to hear this kind of a stuff from an actual actress trying to make it big on actual TV. Absolutely fascinating.

A moment brought to you by the best Disney film ever

This is short and sweet but I had to share:

My husband caught the previously mentioned stomach flu so was in bed all day. I came home right after class and hung out with the kids. Tonight we went to Brick Oven for FHE. After dinner, Hannah (age 5) comes over to me and puts her hands on my face. I thought she was going to say something sweet like, "I love you Mommy", but instead she said, "Did you know you have something green in your teeth, just like on Emporer's New Groove?" For some reason, this complely cracked me up, which cracked all the kids up, even Aidan who had no clue what was going on but thought it was hilarious!

Fantastic use of media!

A pukey media filled weekend

Not the best of weekends - I caught the stomach flu and spent all day Saturday and Sunday throwing up and laying in bed. Which super isn't fun when you are pregnant, because all the stomach indigestion triggered some serious contractions which triggered even more nausea. MIS-ER-ABLE!

Well, I'm better now and apart from the fact that I want your pity, the reason I am telling you all this is because I spent a whole lot of time watching TV. I caught up on Grey's Anatomy  Once Upon a Time, and Nashville, and then spent the afternoon watching a movie I'd never heard of called "The Mighty Macs". It was so surprisingly good I wanted to tell you about it!

It's based on a true story, which is always fantastic. It involves a down on their luck women's basketball team from a Catholic college who get a new coach who turns the team around. It was pretty cheesy, but actually quite good. I found myself cheering for the team and even shed a tear in the last few moments of "the big game". There are a number of good messages about commitment - to your team, to your God, to your self, and to your dreams. PLUS, it's rated G - which you never see anymore! Good ole' family fun. 

Though not everyone will be excited about this movie. Case in point - I was telling my husband about the movie and he said, "why would you want to watch actual women's basketball let alone a movie about it?" PUNK. Let's hope he was kidding....at least a little bit!

Utah baby names - why oh why?

Naming a child is a huge responsibility! So frankly, it drives me crazy with all the.....well.....stupid baby names out there!! My sister works in a doctor's office so she will text me some of the more ridiculous baby names that she sees in any given week. I am constantly amazed by the names that parents come up with - these poor kids are going to have to live with these names forever!

Here is a funny video about actual names from Utah (and why I can post this on my media blog!) I also love the Utah "poof" that appears later on in the video.

What do you say when it is in your own family? I have a (different) sister who named her daughter, Gwenhwyvere (like Guinevere from the King Arthur legend). This poor girl is in kindergarten, but luckily, has half the letters of the alphabet in her name already, so that should help with letter recognition! Fortunately, she goes by Gwen, so that simplifies things. And I can say that here because we now have a running joke (which my sister participates in) about her daughter's name! :)

You would think with a name like, "Sarah" that I would be all for unique and crazy names. After all, Sarah was the number 1 name the year I was born and I regularly had 3 or 4 Sarahs in all my classes growing up. But interestingly, I've gone fairly traditional with our three kids so far (Nathan, Hannah, and Aidan- this last one was a super compromise. My husband really wanted an Irish name and this was the one that I tolerated the most!)

 

So do we have a baby name yet for this new baby boy Coyne? Not yet - my husband is funny about the whole naming process so literally won't discuss baby names until I'm about 38 weeks along. I have a ton in mind, but nothing concrete. I would love some suggestions of boy names if you have them (though be prepared to be mocked if they are too far out there)! However, my youngest is positive that we will name that baby "Tea Party Coyne" (my husband always clarifies that this is in no relation to the policital party!) Aidan loves playing with play food and has pretend tea parties all day long (yep, we are raising one masculine little boy here! :) I guess he wants to name the baby after the thing he loves most!

Valentine's Day - and why this is such a good month to be on a Facebook fast

One very great consequence of my Facebook fast is that I miss out on Valentine's Day on Facebook. I've posted about this before, and call me the Valentine's Day grinch, but I can't stand this particular day on Facebook. It is PDA to the extreme. Everyone loooooooooves their significant other so much and everyone has the BEST significant other in the world. Everyone seems to post all the flowers, balloons and chocolates that their significant other got them. And they all need to publicly tell each other and all their friends so they can prove how good their relationship is. Call me a cynic, but I know for a fact that most of my friends who are the worst offenders of this practice are having the most trouble in their relationship. Of course tell your sweetie that you love him/her, but be secure enough in your relationship to not have to broadcast it to your entire list of 1,000 friends! I know I'm a total brat, but I was glad to miss the PDA insanity this year!

I also never post pictures of food I make (it's one of my Facebook pet peeves....which I soon need to post about). But since you guys asked, and I consider it cultural enrichment, and since it seriously is so stinkin' good, here is a picture of my Raspberry Roulade I made for Valentine's Day!



It's basically meringue, cream, and raspberries all rolled up and it is DELISH! I can't believe we don't have it in this country. Here is the basic recipe in case you want to try it out.

Dr. Coyne's Raspberry Roulade
Beat 4 egg whites until soft peaks form. Then gradually add 1 1/4 c sugar until stiff peaks form. Cover a large cookie sheet (with sides) and cover with wax paper (with 2 inches extending off the ends) and spray the heck out of it with cooking spray. Then pour the mixture on the cookie sheet and spread out, careful not to touch any of the sides. I then crunch up and sprinkle almonds on the top.

Cook for 8 minutes at 400, then reduce temp to 325 and cook 8 more minutes until meringue is light brown. Take out and lift by the wax paper. Flip the whole thing over on your counter on another piece of wax paper and CAREFULLY peel off the top layer of wax paper. Cool for 25 min.

In the meantime, make your cream (I use about 1 1/2 c of heavy whipping cream, 1 tsp of vanilla, 1 tsp of sugar) all mixed up in your blender. When meringue is cool, spread the whipped cream on the top, careful not to touch the edges. Put a bunch of raspberries, strawberries, or whatever on the top of the cream and then carefully roll the whole thing up (starting with the short sides), pulling away the wax paper as you go. Put on a plate and top with whipped cream/raspberries however you like!

Good luck and enjoy!