A few quick thoughts and images from Christmas 2008

We headed back to Utah for Christmas and since we still own a home there and there are a few more beds than at my mom's house we decided that was place for the holiday festivities. Although, my sister Cindy might not have thought we made such a good decision since the weather kept us at our house throughout Christmas and we didn't make it down to Provo to visit with her until quite late Friday afternoon and I'm sure not all of her lovely Christmas dinner was eaten, but then it just wouldn't be Christmas without leftovers, right? Except that we didn't end up with any leftovers at our house, instead we almost needed to order Chinese because of the lack of food items in that house right now because William decided on several of the trips to Utah to bring my entire food storage to the tiny kitchen in Idaho where we are bursting at the seams, and on Christmas day grocery stores are closed. Luckily, we managed. But that might be jumping ahead just a bit. So back to where we were, we enjoyed the Christmas festivities at our house and how glad we were to have such fun festivities with Uncle Gabe and Aunt Brooke--even though they did miss the fondue and scriptures and stories. (Note to Gabe and Brooke: in our house if we simply say Gabe and Brooke the kids don't have any idea who we are talking about). But they made it over before Santa could be confused about where they would be sleeping that night. And in the morning....our kids slept until 8:15! I thought kids had to keep to code and arise before the sun, but for some reason our kids didn't get the memo this year. Maybe that's because Jane and Mitch were sleeping in the basement and William made them take an oath they wouldn't come upstairs without an adult and I think he must have included some sort of magic sleeping spell in the oath because I was the first person awake in the house!

At any rate, it was a great morning and Luke was thrilled with his Thomas the Train table that is still in Utah because it was too big to fit in the car (I guess Santa didn't really check measurements) and Jane and Mitch got what every other kid seems to have gotten this year: a Wii. I think the elves must have gotten in a groove and really churned those things out. But it's a great toy that really hasn't had a moment of rest since it left the box. Oh and of course there were more legos for Mitch the Builder and Jane thinks she is Julia Child with her new cookbooks, Brooke and Gabe have 101 things they can do with potato, my mom can give her dog a pedicure and William has lots of upcoming adventures. Oh, and William is going to have this fine piece of literature published. What a day!

Here are a few of the scenes:

(Ok, so this wasn't really taken on Christmas, its back in our little temporary condo,but Jane really wanted to include a picture of her new vocation)

Christmas Reflections

Christmas 2007

Forgive me for this post...and don't in any way feel obliged to read it. I just really needed to set a few things down in writing as I remember this past year. In fact, the past few days I've had a lot of trouble thinking about anything except the last year. I know, reflections about the year are supposed to wait until New Year's, but this year when I think of Christmas and the birth of our Savior I can't help but remember a year of loss and enormous change. And as I write this, though the tears are streaming down my face, I have a lot of gratitude in my heart. This is our first Christmas without my dad, my dear, dear friend who I love and I miss. The hole in my heart is huge. But I am grateful for the life he led, his example of faith and determination, his life of hard work and great love. He did everything with great fervor and he taught me to live my life fully. Oh, there are days when I know I don't live up to that, but I have to remember all the times he told me he was proud of me and he loves me and then I can maybe begin to try a little harder. And as I reflect I am so grateful for my Savior, because I have needed to lean on him as I have come to terms with mortality. In my life, it's been one thing to feel like I have a testimony of the plan of Salvation and then, this year, as I've really faced things to put that testimony into action and learn to move forward.

A friend of mine who has seen a terribly difficult year included this quote by Jenkins Lloyd Jones in her Christmas card:

Life is like an old-time rail journey--delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts interspersed only occasionally with beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.

That's what I'm aiming for this year.

Looking back, I also have to admit how grateful I am for the strength of my mom who has in so many ways put aside her grief for a husband of 49 years so she could tend to us, their children, who are devastated by his loss. I think I've probably been a bit selfish in not recognizing her needs enough. We've all probably let her a down a bit in the support category. But I think I'm going to lay the blame fully on her for that because she is too strong! What an amazing woman who had led us all through this with grace and dignity.

Soon it will be Christmas and our home will be filled with the great excitement of my children and the great joy that comes when so many in our family are together. And as we read about our Savior and talk about our Savior, this year in our home we are filled with a greater understanding of His mission and we are grateful for the peace this brings.

May this be a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas.

Dave Anderson, a great man. Moab 2008.

I've recieved an award!!!

Thanks to my good friend Laurie, I have received an award for my blog! I have to admit that this is really quite exciting. In fact, I'm feeling, well, fairly giddy at the moment. Because, as some of you know, I was somewhat coaxed into blogging by my sister-in-law...and I must admit that it has become a great outlet for me. It's an avenue for the inner nerd to truly come out. I'm referring, of course, to my poetry, which is not great but boy when it comes to me I just have to let it out and my kids really appreciate that I don't sing it to them quite as often because now I can BLOG it! So anyway, a big shout out to Laurie who really made my day! And just so you know, she has a fabulous blog found at museummuses.blogspot.com and it is definitely worth a little of your blog stalking time.

But back to the award itself. This is not just any award, no, no, it's an opportunity. An opportunity for me to let you in on a few FABULOUS addictions, five to be exact. So here they are:

1. I love the Potato Museum. I want to be on the board. Or maybe just work there. OK, so really that's probably not going to happen and truly what I love are little, somewhat quirky regional museums. They always have interesting, and sometimes have really weird, objects, but they serve a great purpose and you can always learn something interesting.

2. I love my Ugg boots. They are FABULOUS!!! I never thought I would own a pair because, let's be honest, they're kind of ugly and generally speaking I prefer stilettos. But I live in Idaho and it's beyond freezing and the snow doesn't melt and these boots make my feet feel warm and snugly and, remarkably, I found a very cute pair. They are funky and a little different. Kind of like me, the little bit different part.

3. Jane's fudge. My eight-year old daughter made some great fudge and somehow I seem to be eating most of it, by myself. It's a problem, I know, I should share. Maybe tomorrow I will because I might step on a scale one of these days and I'll know just where my problem started: Jane's fudge.

4. DIET COKE. It's fabulous, in every way. Actually when I stop and think about it, it's really kind of nasty but I love it and I drink it and I don't really know how to feel entirely about this fabulous addiction because my sister who kind of got me hooked has now stopped drinking it and, well I'm at somewhat of a loss. But I'm still addicted and as nasty as it is it still makes me happy.

5. Facebook...some might think its lame, but I have had tons of fun finding all sorts of lost and missing friends and it is my connection to those I've moved far, far away from and it's my lifeline to my new little posse in my new little locale. So truly, it's fabulous.

So now that I've dragged this on and on I get to nominate one or two, OK five really, blogs with the FABULOUS blog award. So here they are and this is why:

eastcoastwalkers.blogspot.com because when Brenda muses about life, I laugh out loud.

I must interject at this point that I would nominate my daughter Jane otherwise known as Jbugalicious, and privately I will, but her blog is just that, private, and unless you're invited you can't read it. So on with the list of nominated blogs you can read.....

gabebrooke.blogspot.com because they gave me my start in the blogosphere, and because they think their blog is the coolest, but I would like to point out to them that I received an award first!

thesewingfriend.blogspot.com because I really want to be a good seamstress and mostly I do shoddy work so I read Gina's blog to see perfect work and secretly wish I could sew like her. And because I thought it was called the sewing "fiend" and I thought that was really cool.

jochim-family.blogspot.com because Jessica has a very active, very cute, very naughty two-year old and adorable not-so good-at-sleeping six-month old twins so anyone who can find time to blog with that is truly FABULOUS in my book.

and......

motherjones08.blogspot.com because Megan has Obama featured prominently on her blog.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

The following are for the recipients of today's FABULOUS blog award:

The rules of this award are this:
1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.
2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.
3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions: On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. To add the award to your post, simply right-click, save image, then "add image" it in your post as a picture so your winners can save it as well. To add it to your sidebar, add the "picture" gadget. Also, don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

The Diaper vs. the Undies: Potty Training Part II

I probably, no definitely more like, should not worry about it so much, but once again today I tried to convince Luke that it was in his best interest to at least try on the underwear and see what they feel like. This was his response:



And because I'm not always the nicest, most flexible mother in the world I decided we should force the issue, gently. Obviously he wasn't game for the experiment:



Maybe its a texture thing because it seems pretty apparent that Luke would rather wear a scratchy diaper than nice cotton Thomas the Train undies.

Yes, that is a diaper. They can call them "training pants" or "pull-ups" or whatever they wish, but really they are simply more expensive diapers....and I'm a sucker. He's my last kid, what can I say. And look at that smile, the little conniver just melts my heart. Potty Training? I don't know what you're taking about.........

Please, Please potty train

This morning Luke did not want his diaper changed. Really, there's nothing new about that. He feels that he is simply too busy following Jane and Mitch around to be bothered with a new diaper. But the problem is that he has a tendency toward terrible diaper rashes if anything sits on his bottom too long. So, as frequently is the case, I had to listen to him yelling that he really does want his bum to hurt and he does want a diaper rash. Of course, he'll change that tune as soon as the rash appears. So, being the good mother that I am and one who is really tired changing a rather large child's diaper I once again tried explaining to him that maybe it's about time that he starts to use the potty. I think this picture might illustrate Luke's response:

He's not about to go anywhere near that thing! And he's laughing his devilish laugh as he taunts me "Mom, I will never go near the toilet!" Maybe he just needs a little space from his dad.

A little of this...A little of that...and Mitchell's birthday, too

I was really worried about Mitchell because he wasn't handling the move very well and then he was getting a little uptight about his impending birthday and I was getting REALLY uptight about the birthday because of the problem of a party, his lack of acquaintances in our new locale, the fact that I'm often neurotic and the potential problem that we were going to be out of town for his birthday. Of course, I seemed to be forgetting that we were going to be in Vancouver, WA with his gramma Sarah who has hosted probably somewhere in the range of a hundred children's birthday parties and knows just what to do: have cake, open presents and play. So we did just that. With lots of cousins. And I think it may have been his best birthday yet. Why do I usually work so hard?



So after Thanksgiving and birthdays and whatnot we had some time to play and being the mother that always promotes learning we needed a visit to Fort Vancouver which is a really fantastic historic site. Fort Vancouver, the original Vancouver, served as a major headquarters and fur trading post for the Hudson's Bay Company during the early/mid nineteenth century. Jane, of course, is working on a report for a homeschooling project. Somehow, its not done just yet....... So I thought I would post a few pictures mostly as a reminder to her.

Grandpa Ron and the blacksmith

Gramma Sarah in the gardens

Justin, Jessica, James and the non J's, Kate and Clara, hidden from view,
snuggled in the stroller.

And possibly the favorite spot at the fort: cannons and cannonballs. Anything that shoots and has ammunition goes over really well with all THREE of my children. Isn't Jane supposed to be very ladylike and enjoy dolls and quiet activities such as reading, sewing and needlepoint?

Of course, we couldn't leave the trip at only one museum. Not with this mom! So we ventured out to Astoria for a look at the Maritime Museum and a rocking and rolling look at the light ship...literally rocking and rolling; Jessica and I felt a little seasick by the time we disembarked.



It was a good thing we decided that we should see everything out of doors at the start of our visit...minutes after we went back inside the museum, the light ship was closed due to really terrible weather. So went inside the museum where we were the only partons for most of the afternoon. Who can resist hanging out in a museum for three hours after you've just driven almost three hours to get there?

Ah, time with cousins: Nathan, Mitchell, Nina, Jane and Ben...minutes before we were sort of asked to leave the museum because the kids were running amok and we had apparently overstayed our welcome.

So our trip was wonderful: Mitchell had a great birthday, Luke relearned how not to sleep from his cousin James, and Jane learned about (in a very literal, trying on sort of way) heirlooms from Gramma. Here she is in her Gramma's graduation dress.

And then I got to fly back, by myself with three children (because William had left a couple days earlier) having just come down with strep throat. Needless to say, there are no pictures from that rather long, difficult day.

The Potato Museum

As I sat down readying myself to write a new post all about our adventures in Washington at Thanksgiving I realized that I had inadvertently forgotten to write about one of our greatest excursions to date in our Idaho experience: The Potato Museum. Yes indeed, the "world famous" Potato Museum. Days before we left for Gramma Sarah's house we decided we had already waited too long to visit this Idaho hot spot. So on a somewhat chilly day we drove down the road about twenty minutes to Blackfoot to learn about potatoes, their history, how they are grown, why Idaho makes such a great place to grow them and how to spell the word "potato" so we never make a nationally known blunder.


No, you are not mistaken. This is a potato signed by former Vice President Dan Quayle. Interestingly, potatoes can last quite a long time if they are properly dehydrated and this was discovered by the Inca, who were the first known culture to cultivate the potato.


Generally speaking, Idaho potato farming has evolved somewhat from the above example, but from Luke's enthusiasm you might think he had won the Idaho lottery by discovering the proper plowing technique.

Thanks to Vanna 1, 2 and 3 you can see that this is the world's largest fake potato. You, too, could win this if the "Price is Right" (Ok, I know I'm mixing up the game shows!).

And here is yet another example of fake potatoes, although this was actually created from potato product: the world's largest potato chip.

I really could go on and on about what we learned because we actually stayed for over an hour in a place where the average museum goer would have experienced museum fatigue within about 10 minutes. But not this group! No, we did not tire for quite some time. But in the end, we did need to have a more hands on approach to potatoes...

...McDonald's and its truly modern, highly developed, greatly processed potato known as: the french fry.

Date Night

I'm not really sure when it happened, but somewhere along the road over these last eleven years date night went from flowers and plays and dinners and museums to.......










....photo booth on the computer after the kids are in bed. Wow, talk about keeping the love alive!

Zzzzzzzzz

So I'm lying in bed wondering why on earth my heart seems to be racing and I cannot, I repeat cannot, no matter what I try, fall asleep. (And I didn't even drink Diet Coke this afternoon.) I realize I have one or two things on my mind. I'm worried about the adequacy of my children's education due to my inadequacies in homeschooling, I'm worried about my house selling, I'm worried about finding "the right" house in my new area, I'm worried about having moved away from my recently widowed mom, I'm worried about my friend who writes the "Blog of an Imperfect Mother," I'm worried about my niece who has whooping cough and my list goes on and on. But really, me, not being able to sleep? That's a bit strange.

Until I remembered that I had a headache earlier tonight...and I took two Excedrin. That about sums up how I'll be spending the rest of night: adrenaline pumping, eyes tired and bloodshot, but headache free!

So here's a brief recap of our life and times since I returned from Chicago:

I returned with a renewed sense of self and a total commitment to making this move a wonderful experience for our family. How about that for positive thinking and self delusion? No really, I decided that yes, I can find fascinating things in Idaho, I can teach Jane multiplication, I can help Mitchell to be happy and I can keep Luke from jumping off of every very surface and seriously maiming himself. Okay, really that one's not working so well, but at least he hasn't broken any bones yet. But here is a snapshot of the peace and harmony that has, for a moment, existed in our home:

Yes, it's true, they are doing schoolwork and Jane is not yelling that it's too hard and Mitchell does have a smile on his face. Can it continue? Stay tuned in the days to come! What I imagine might continue is Luke's obsession with puzzles.



And I'll just take this one quick moment to brag that my little two-year old doesn't need any help putting those puzzles together.

So, all in all it is peace and bliss in our household because the mama had a girls getaway....and it will most likely last one or two more days and then I'll need another.

OPRAH!

Well, this last week held HUGE excitement...and to think that I was so worried about my boys not adjusting to our move that I almost missed it! Yes, the YaYas, as we refer to ourselves, got together for the second annual girls getaway and really I don't know how we can top this in the future, but we found ourselves in Chicago for none other than a chance to go to a taping of OPRAH!!!! And what a show we got! But it was rated TV14 so I don't think we'll actually go into a discussion of the topic, just suffice it to say that there were 4 Mormon girls sitting on the third row, front and center, and when we found out what the topic was going to be we laughed (and maybe blushed) so hard I wasn't really sure we could keep "radio silence" during the taping. But we did. And we are certain to be empowered women now.

The Ballad of the Little Gunslingers

On the dark dark day that they first appeared,
the prairie felt so treacherous and venomous,
that all who saw them greatly feared
life had suddenly become very very dangerous

They were cowboys (and girl) of the oldest kind
They rode that lonely range
And shot a shot as straight as you could find
Yet something about them seemed a little abnormal, a little strange

Perhaps it was the matching cowboy boots
Or maybe the sibling bond that always seemed to thicken
Apparently it was not the fact that the Sheriff and they were in cahoots
I'm guessin' that it was probably the little yellow chicken

Yes indeed, the little one, he chose to ride a chicken
Although folks round here thought he was a bit unconventional
His pace never slacked, but always seemed to quicken
When matching the speed of his siblings who were a bit more...traditional

So into town they came that pleasantly warm dark autumn night
Knocking doors and gathering their huge plunder
Those who saw them willingly gave them what they felt was right
As the trio galloped off whooping up a mighty thunder

The gunslingers were gone almost as quickly as they had arrived
But the townsfolk will never forget the clucking and pecking
Of the little yellow chicken who simply thrived
Because he was being ridden by a little cowboy off trekking

The rebel rousers run amok

My New Community

I've made a new resolution: I must always, I repeat, ALWAYS have a camera with me in my new home town. This is simply because I have now seen some things that I think may possibly be the core essence of my community. So try to imagine..........

I'm driving along through a nice, new development looking at lovely brand new custom homes when I pull up behind a man on his motorcycle...well, his dirt bike. He has on his very safe helmet which my children of course commented on because they notice every person riding a motorcycle and whether that person is wearing the appropriate "safe" gear. This particular man also had on his bomber type jacket, but it wasn't leather and it might have indeed been a Members Only jacket except it wasn't worn in a retro sort of way. And then he was wearing his church shoes. I'm serious. And he was probably 80.

We were on our way to Yellowstone the other day when I turned around in the car and realized that Luke had put himself into the car before we left and no one had noticed that he had done this without putting any shoes on. So we exited at the nearest town that would have a place to purchase shoes and set about trying find such a place. Which meant that William didn't drive particularly fast through the town. He went the speed limit. Which really we've found that in our town most people actually drive right at that set limit. Well, in this other town someone in a jacked up, beat up, crummy old hunting truck didn't like our speed or our out-of-state license plate or the fact that we didn't proceed through a light before it turned green. So we got honked at and glared at and scowled at as he sped around us only to be caught behind a stream of traffic going even slower than us. So we slowly pulled ahead again, only in the other lane. Well, at that moment we happened upon...Walmart! So we changed lanes and it just so happens that as William put on his turn indicator he happened to pull right in front of our friend in the truck who sped up and almost rammed into us as he again honked. Lucky for him he was able to speed around us and cut right in front of us, glaring and scowling, to turn into Walmart. We took the next Walmart entrance and decided on the Payless shoes instead of Walmart just to avoid any further encounters. And we did...except I swear to you when we pulled into West Yellowstone the guy was on the road right behind us. Maybe he was tired of us by then because did not pull into the gas station when we did or maybe he had spotted a deer he couldn't pass up.

But my favorite thing happened this morning, wouldn't you guess, at Walmart. Well, just outside again, actually. I haven't seen a panhandler in this city until today and I'm not really sure you could actually call him a panhandler because of what I'm about to tell you but for the sake of calling him something we'll call him a panhandler. At any rate, as I drove out of Walmart there was a man holding a sign begging for something. I noticed that he was actually quite a well groomed, nicely bearded, probably mid-fifties panhandler. My first thought was "I guess they take good care of themselves here or people are really quite generous to those in need" then I read his sign: Need a (good) wife. I guess he needed to impress. So I immediately got on the phone and called my favorite single sister-in-law and told her she needed to move up here right away. Unfortunately when I returned with my camera and certain questions the man was gone. I guess he found what he was looking for.

All in all, its been an exciting week learning about our new community. Maybe I'll try to fit in a little more. So if you see me next driving up behind you in a beat up, jacked up old truck you'll know I've found the new me!

Onward, Ever Onward Toward New Things (This title pays homage to Luke and his favorite song)

I realize that it has been a very long time since any sort of post came from this author and as I sit here trying to write something I'm at somewhat of a loss as to what exactly I should write. I guess it's some sort of writers block or maybe the fact that I've been so busy with dramatic changes that I just don't know where to begin.

So perhaps I'll just skip the dramatic changes and what led to them and my family's seemingly abrupt move and suffice it to say that we have indeed moved and if you want to buy my house it is wonderful and its for sale because I no longer reside in the same state where it sits so I can't exactly occupy it. See below:
But if you don't want to buy my house but simply want to read this blog instead, I understand. So I'll proceed with a few adventures:

Adventure 1: Staining the fence.

I don't actually have picture of this because the process was so ugly and, although the end result was beautiful, I was simply too utterly exhausted to even pick up the camera.


Adventure 2: A lovely day at the zoo.


A trip to the zoo in the fall is simply a must do for any mother who ferries children here and there. So we took off one day with some of our favorite friends in the whole wide world (Brenda, Noah and Reagan) for the zoo. The day was perfect...except for Luke screaming that he didn't want to go anywhere near the carousel because it was too scary. But generally he loved the zoo so much that he simply could not contain his excitement for each and every animal so he yelled over and over at each animal "Look! Its...something!" "What is it, Luke?" "I don't know! Its something!!!!"






Adventure 3: Prepping the house.

Again, this was too ugly and miserable for any photos, except the end result which didn't really look like my house because it was too clean and perfect with no holes in the walls or dust anywhere and the floors were vacuumed and everything was clean and perfect all at the same time. Amazing! That would never have happened while I lived in it.

Adventure 4: Last days at the old school.

Jane and Mitch had a great last week at their old school because it was the annual pledge to stay away from drugs week where the kids get to wear crazy things all week. The favorite day was "crazy hair day". I'm sure you can see why this was a great day:




Adventure 5: House Hunting.

We have a few houses that we really love and one of these days we'll decide just which one we want to buy. But during our outing showing the kids these particular houses, Luke was a little over-exuberant. He hit the ground running...literally:



This picture looks somewhat yucky. What ended up happening was that the little purple patch on his lip swelled with blood and popped open a couple days later which ended with Luke wondering why blood was spewing from his mouth. Really, it was quite nasty.

Adventure 6: Fitting in with the local cuisine.

So for one or our very first meals in our new part of the country we decided to eat like locals. And while making this meal I realized, because my kids informed this was not how we normally eat, that they had never before had a baked potato. Well kids, that's all about to change!



Adventure 7: The Pumpkin Patch.

So the kids have had to live in a very clean house and one that didn't have any Halloween decorations or really anything fun. So once we were settled in our new temporary home I decided that it was past time to do something to get excited for the upcoming festivities. Just down the street from our new pad is this great little farm where we could pick our own pumpkins.






And these freshly picked pumpkins have now turned into Halloween jack-o-lanterns. Yeah!!! We've (I've) finally settled down and relaxed and we're having quite a time of things.


As a side note, if you'd like to see how I've fully embraced our new home feel free look at this:
http://eastcoastwalkers.blogspot.com/2008/10/poor-poor-carrie.html