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!