What really happens when you sleep .....

Two nights ago I was sound asleep and woke up to Caleb climbing up the wall in his sleep. He just stood there in bed with one arm on the ceiling and the other on the wall. I touched his leg and told him to lay down, worried he was going to fall (either on me or off the bed) and he laid down and continued to sleep. It made me wonder what in the world he was dreaming about. I wanted to wake him up and ask but I decided to wait until morning. Bad choice. When I asked him about it in the morning he had no idea what I was talking about. He rarely remembers his dreams so I should have known this wouldn’t be any different. I guess we’ll never know.  We can always speculate that he was being chased by a tiger and had to climb high out of its reach. Don’t worry though I was just sleeping so I would have been eaten first. =) Way to think of me Caleb. Which brings me to my next story.

When we were first married we lived in this awesomely ghetto condo. The shower from the people above us was leaking so it was causing damage to our ceiling in the bathroom. At the worst part there were small chunks of the ceiling that would fall in our tub. With that background let me tell you the story. I had a dream that the ceiling in our bedroom right above our bed was sagging like that and about to fall on us so I (honestly) jumped out of bed and woke Caleb up telling him the ceiling was falling. Right about here I was starting to wake up and realize what I was doing. Caleb, being the sweet husband he is looked up at the ceiling and said “It looks like it will be okay until morning, let’s go back to bed” He was basically asleep so he didn’t remember this situation in the morning.  But I was sure embarrassed as I got back into bed with my heart still pounding.

I can think of 3 or 4 different occasions when I wake up terrified standing next to our bed because a spider was about to land on me (in my dream). Dreams are such strange things to me. I can almost always remember my dreams and they are so odd. Plus sometimes I do that weird shake thing when I’m almost asleep and it always wakes me up. Caleb does it too and sometimes it scares me.

Sleeping in the same bed as someone else was definitely a change when we first got married. There were many times when one of us accidentally got slugged by the other. =) A few months after we were married, while sleeping Caleb straight legged me (also known as kicked me) right out of the bed. Who honestly sleeps with their legs straight out? Honestly! I woke him up that time and asked him why he kicked me. He fell back asleep before answering.

I don’t know why I think dreams and sleeping stories are so funny but there is a comedian Mike Birbiglia who sleepwalks and does crazy things while he’s sleeping and I love to hear his stories. Marci introduced us to This American Life where we first heard of him. You'll have to click on play episode to listen.

Rated R

I'm talking about the movie ratings not about Justin from the Bachelorette. =)

In church we got on the topic of movies and it got me thinking. A few weeks ago my little brother and sister went to see an “R rated” movie. I was so upset by this and I tried to talk my sister into seeing a different movie. She didn’t think it was that big of a deal, because it was rated R for violence. I know that I am in no position to tell her what to do; it just seems so pointless to disobey something that is so straightforward. 

I am thankful that that I was able to tell my Young Women that I don’t watch those movies and I don’t plan to. There have been times when Caleb and I see a preview and it looks like a show we’d like but then when we see it’s rated R we’re able to put it out of our minds. We even planned on seeing a show while we were in Texas and drove all the way to the theater until we found out that it was rated R and there wasn’t another movie playing at the time so we drove back to our hotel.

I know we don’t have kids but I think what would we say to them if we watched rated R movies but didn’t think they should. It’s kind of hypocritical. In an article about preparing to go to the Temple Elder Kofford of the Seventy said “All too often, we get ourselves enmeshed in the process of trying to understand why God gave us a particular commandment. We want to rationalize. I don’t know where that is more evident than in watching movies. Young people know they should not watch R- or X-rated movies, and yet time after time I hear them say, “Well it’s only rated R because it’s violent.” What difference does it make why it is rated R? The fact is, a prophet of God has said not to go to R-rated movies (see, for example, Ezra Taft Benson, “To the ‘Youth of the Noble Birthright,’ ” Ensign, May 1986, 45). That ought to be good enough.”

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted or hadn’t seen some shows that were rated R. I am so impressed with my Young Women that were able to say that have not ever watched a rated R movie. In my situation I am blessed to volunteer at the Temple every week so I know I need to keep myself Temple worthy at all times. It makes a lot of decisions easier when I know that I will be entering the Lord’s house later that week.

President Ezra Taft Benson commanded us not watch rated r movies back in 1986 and I am grateful that with all of the things I struggle with, this is not one of them. I know that this is not the popular way of thinking (sometimes even among my LDS friends). But us nerds have got to stick together. =) I want to know what you guys think about this.