DeFiNe NoRmAl

Where There's a Will...

2012-02-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

You know that old saw, right?

Anyway, this summer when I decided to jump into this crazy idea of going back to school that little saying went through my head..."I'll figure out a way. I've got to to make my life better". I'm telling you, going to college at 47 is daunting. I seriously didn't know if I could make it through my first semester because I knew it would mean quitting my 2nd job and scraping by, and I do mean SCRAPING. Scary stuff when you not only have yourself to support, but your kiddos too.

I applied for a scholarship through our local Soroptomist group that involved a lengthy application, 2 letters of reference and a panel interview. But what do ya know? I got a $1000 scholarship out of it! Wow! I can still hardly believe it!

The scholarship awards banquet will be in April where I will be asked to get in front of the group and explain to them the reason I needed a scholarship and if I am inspiring enough, it will advance me to the regional level where I would be up for a $5000 scholarship! I can't even imagine!

I have been mulling about what is so compelling about my situation that might get me to that level and truthfully I don't have some heartbreaking, touching story the likes you may see on a American Idol hopeful's interview. It's just that I decided that it's never too late to start over and improve your life.

After being laid off from my aide position I faced waitressing and clerking at the grocery store as my options. I ran the numbers and realized that to get by, at least up here in my rural county, I would always have to work two jobs. Two jobs for the rest of my life, and two jobs that I wouldn't be particularly passionate about. My other option? Jump in with both feet and get a degree so that I can continue to work in a field that I love and get paid well for it. Easy math.

So, if you're reading this and feel stuck in your life, jump in and go for it. Whatever "it" is that you've been contemplating and that will bring you happiness and success in life. Life is a journey, but you have to be brave enough to start the adventure if you want to go places!

Sporks are Flimsy! They are NOT Tools!

2012-01-21T10:45:00.000-08:00

I went for a walk and locked my front door as I always do. My girls were with friends cavorting around the neighborhood. I had my cell phone (and dog) with me as always.

When I arrived back from a fantastic walk through the woods on a beautifully warm and sunny January day, I noticed that some of Miss Moo's belongings were on the doorstep. I quickly came to the correct conclusion that she had come home, found the door locked, dropped off a couple things and went back to hanging out with her friend.

Then I tried to unlock my door...and the key wouldn't go all the way in. And you know when something like that happens and you're in denial at first so you try the other key on the keyring, try the right one again, turn it the other way, try a little harder...? Yep, that's what I did until I put 2 and 2 together and figured out that Miss Moo and her friend must have tried to pick the lock with something and messed it up! Ugh!

About this time here comes the culprit and her friend and they begin to tell me, in the overdramatic way that 12 year old girls are so good at, that they have to PEE and I need to open the door NOW!

So I hand my child the key. Knock yourself out, girlie. Then I asked them what the heck they tried to pick the lock with.

And they tell me they used a spork. A flippin' spork to pick a lock with, really? They are flimsy at best for use as a utensil to get food into your mouth, and you're going to move a deadbolt with it? REALLY?

Aye, carumba!

So I call the local locksmith, and it's Saturday and he's leaving town...dang!

Well, we're stuck. The only way to get into my house is through the back sliding glass door which I never keep locked. I never lock it because it's way too high off the ground for anyone to access....unless they go get a tall ladder...and strap it to the top of their Honda Civic...which is what I did.

So, arriving back with the tallest ladder I could find...a sturdy looking 8 footer from Mike's (who is out of town), I find that it falls a little short:

By a good foot and a half...and I'm not really fond of ladders to begin with and especially not standing on the very tip top of a ladder on the thing that says something to the effect of "This is not a step! Don't ever step up on this ladder this high or you will no doubt fall to your DOOM!"

At this point Nat shows up with her friends and after debating with myself, I figure with 5 kids holding the ladder steady, I could probably do it. I'm at the point where I know this is either going to work fine or be a serious regret. So I go for it.

The tricky part is getting from the "top step of doom" to the ledge of my deck with a good grip on something. As you can see I have a bit of plywood to cling to, but somehow it works out and I find myself free of the ladder and hanging onto the outside of my deck. Here is where I hope that I have the upper body strength to pull myself over, because I don't think there's any way I'm going back down the ladder without somehow hurting myself.

As it happens, I am able to pull myself over the rail and Viola! I have access to my house again!

For the next few days I enjoy making passive-aggressive comments to Miss Moo regarding the convenience of not having to worry about having a key to open the door because we can't flippin' lock it anymore! I figure I'm entitled, having put my life and limb at risk so two tween girls could empty their bladders post haste!

What the Heck Happened?

2012-01-07T08:47:00.000-08:00

That's the big question. Everyone wants to know what happened to my blogging and if I'm still alive in the blogosphere. Ok...not really everyone, but 2 or 3 of you care.

Ok, so I decided to go back to school and get a degree as a Speech-Language Pathology Assistant (SLPA, or "slippa", sounds so gangsta', always makes me chuckle when someone says it.) I took 9 units last semester, traveling 2 hours each way one night a week for my core class in Sacramento. The local community college was my home 3 other nights of the week. And I'm doing it all again this next semester which starts next week. I LOVE it. It's super hard working and going to school, but I'm so glad I finally decided to do it.

I got laid off at the end of the school year from my instructional aide position at the special needs preschool, but thankfully was hired back on (with a raise and more hours!) right before school started again. I LOVELOVELOVE that job, but being laid off was kind of the catalyst for me to go back to college. As an SLPA I can still work with special needs kiddos, but have a bit more job security and better pay. For now I'm just SO flippin' happy to be back in the classroom I love with all the kids and the awesome (crazy) women I work with!

(Here's a photo of the best kids on the planet. They're mine. Sorry they are not YOURS. Eat your heart out.)

Bindi Sue and I completed a basic obedience class this fall and she was tested for Therapy Dog certification and of course passed! She is such a sweet dog. She can now accompany me when I do my Griefbusters work (Griefbusters is a volunteer grief counseling for children program run by our local Hospice). I have been working with a young girl at the middle school, and she loves having Bindi Sue come visit her.

(Here is my amazing dog after her first therapy dog visit.)

And then...Mike and I have split up. Not something I'm proud of, and I've beat myself up over why I'm so crappy at being married. Things are good between us though, and we get along SO much better now. It's all about working together for the girls. He's a good guy, for sure.

So lots of stuff has changed for me in a few short months. My life got super busy and stressful, but I hope to begin blogging again on a regular basis (well, you know, in all that spare time I'm going to have... so "regular" will be left to interpretation). And if you are reading this, THANKS!

Summer in San Fran, day 2

2011-07-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

I meant to do these two posts back-to-back, but ended up going camping and having too much fun (that will all be posted at my Unlikely Kayaker blog...um..soon-ish), so anyway, here is day two's highlights.

We started by taking little Wesley to the nearby park for a nice long walk. I'm always a little surprised to see a large natural area in such an urban environment, but it had a very calming and re-energizing effect on all of us.

Well, after Monday's successful drive into the city sans modern navigation devices (I do it OLD SCHOOL with a Google Maps print out, baby!) I was feeling pretty danged confident. I was trying to figure out what the girls and I should do, and thought Chinatown would be cool (despite Cass' warning that it takes advanced parking skills to go there). I had a tourist book and a map, and was feeling pretty cocky.

That confident feeling faded fast when we got down to that area and I realized I was in way over my head! I went to plan B, which was to go where I'm a bit more familiar, so we ended up touring Lombard Street, and heading back towards Crissy Field, but this time we stopped at the marina end for a change of scenery.

~Notice the Segway riders in the background, imagine signing up for a tour and having them try out your skills on that crazy street! No thanks!~

Before we got to our destination we stopped at a sandwich shop called Mr Pickles on Lombard St. It's definitely worth a stop if you need lunch in the city. The sandwiches were delicious and the staff was extremely nice. The young man who rung us up, was very friendly and after handing over our large bag of lunch items, he couldn't remember if he'd put in cookies for the kids' meals so he added 3 more (1 for me!). (And we ended up with 6 cookies to eat, yum!)

The girls entertained themselves trying to outrun the waves, and I enjoyed watching all the windsurfers and sailboats.

We then met up with Cam and Cassie for a visit to the Pirate Store and other interesting shops on Valencia St. (And yes we were mopped.)

Getting out of the city was extremely stressful what with trying to find a gas station (they really don't like people to drive, apparently), Nat's bladder at full capacity, and a scary amount of afternoon traffic.

Both girls were very tired, very cranky and in sensory overload mode. Nat kept going on and on about how the mountains were so much better than the city, so I knew she was homesick! She kept asking on our way home, "Are we in the mountains yet?" When I finally told her yes, I was surprised when she rolled her window completely down.

When asked what she was doing, she told me, "I'm getting all that yucky city air out and letting the mountain air in!"

Yep, it was tons of fun, but also nice to be back in the quiet pines!

...A Summer in San Francisco

2011-07-20T21:28:00.001-07:00

Remember the quote from Mark Twain: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco". Well, unlike old Samuel Clemens' visit, we were just there in summertime and barring a few foggy/windy/chilly moments, for the most part San Francisco was wonderful and quite summerish.

The girls and I took a quick overnighter trip to visit Cam and Cass. Upon entering the city via the Bay Bridge I was greeted by the toll booth attendant with a "Hello, my sistah!" and then upon looking in at the girls, "You all are beautiful!" Well, with a greeting like that, I knew it would be a good trip! (Miss Moo thought he was weird, but I corrected her and told her he was making the most of his job!)

Since Cam and Cassie were working, I took the girls to Crissy Field/Fort Point. Here were the highlights from day one:

It's FREE. Parking and everything! (and one gets bonus points for finding FREE anything in SF!

Yummy sandwiches from the Warming Hut

Beach, beach, beach and stinky crab shells

DOLPHINS!!! Yes, we spotted dolphins in the bay. They are Miss Moo's favorite animal, and everytime they surfaced she was so excited she would let out a little "squeeeeeee!" Very cute!

The Foghorn from the Golden Gate bridge

Fort Point! I didn't even know you could go in that brick building at the base of the bridge and then to find out you could walk through it (for FREE!). It was creepy, and exciting and fascinating and I LOVE old buildings. And a couple was getting their wedding portraits there. This was my personal highlight.

We then met Cam and Cass and went to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie. Cam and Cass both grew up with the original Pooh (well on VIDEO, me, I grew up with him as a tv special) so we all had high expectations. And thankfully, it was very well done, very much like the original, very charming, and lots of laughs. I wonder if any other 24-year-olds would be excited to see it? That's what I love about Cam and Cass--they're still embracing their childhood.

We then spent time with Cam and Cass and their adorable rescue dog, Wesley. It was our first time meeting him, and oh what a charmer he is. So easy going and loveable! He ditched his owners at bedtime and spent the night cuddled up with me and the girls.

The Case of the Shrunken Neck

2011-06-15T15:44:00.001-07:00

Miss Moo got a nasty scratch on her neck playing yesterday with her friend. She was telling me how she put Neosporin on it, but it didn't make it feel better. It made it sting.

Then she brought out the tube of medicine she used to show me.

I asked her if she knew what this stuff was for.

She didn't.

I told her people used it on their BUTTS. She promptly screamed and threw it across the room.

Yep, she used Preparation H on her scratch. Maybe this will get her to read the dang label first!

Disneyland Then and Now

2011-06-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm still milkin' the Disneyland trip. I'm just as shocked as you are.

~And my computer won't go online, so that's why it's taken so long to get this post up.~

Way back in 1972, my parents took my sister and me on our first trip to Disneyland. I was 8 and my sister was 12. My mom, who, let's just say, frequently changed her hair color, was kinda blonde.

In 2011 we took our youngest two girls on their first trip to Disneyland. Nat was 8, Miss Moo was 11, and Sis was kinda blonde. (She also, changes hair color like she her changes socks.)

Back then Autopia was definitely a hit.

And it still is:

Although I have issue with the name Autopia. Cam explained to me that it's all about the Utopia, but I think it's an awkward name and needs and extra syllable. I think it should be Auto-topia. Walt just missed the boat on that one.

One of my favorite rides then:

The Mule Ride! Yep, they had a mule ride. I'm guessing it was where Toon Town is now.

This time one of my very favorites was the Finding Nemo submarine ride which used to look like this:

Getting pictures with the characters is still fun.

Just after this shot, my sister and I moved away, but the big orangutan held on to my curvy cousin and wouldn't let her go! Those hot-pants were working for her...the big ape!

However, Mickey was, and still is, the consumate gentleman and didn't try to accost my curvy daughter.

But, the more things change, the more they stay the same:

These poor suckers are still at the mercy of this rhino.

I'm Cheap, But My Kid Is Smart.

2011-06-01T21:12:00.001-07:00

So this is how the poor folks do Disney:

We packed in a bunch of snacks and water bottles (Disney is ok with this, which is really nice considering they want $2.79 for a stinkin' bottle of water!) Then we ate one meal in the park each day.

The first night we ate at place at the fake wharf at California Adventures where we got sourdough bread bowls filled with delicious soups. Yep, definitely a hearty meal/bargain at $8.99 each.

Thursday night I splurged and bought everyone the picnic meals which also got us entrance to the preferred seating, (well really standing), area for the World of Color show. These came with a dessert, drinks and fancy World of Color reusable bags so at $15 each it wasn't too bad a deal.

Picnics:

We watched World of Color from front row center. It was AMAZING! Definitely a highlight. We were in the splash zone, so we ended up a bit "moist", but it was worth it!

For the girls, I gave them each $25 spending money before our trip. I also extended an opportunity to earn more money with the deal that I would give the $1 for every stuffed animal they were willing to get rid of.

Both of their rooms look like some sort of plushie zoo gone wild, so I figured this would be an incentive to "thin the herd".

Well, Miss Moo completely dismisses my offer. She's not gonna part with even one crittter. Nat however, decides that she'll see what she can come up with. I have to promise that when they are donated some other child will love and appreciate her animals. And I tell her I'm pretty sure they will all go to good homes.

A little while later Nat shows up with a box full of animals. A flippin' box! THEN she goes down to the basement and goes through another box that has been down there since we moved 2 years ago (and you think they forget about that stuff!)

She proudly counts the animals and declares that I owe her 34 dollars!Dang! Now why didn't I offer 25 cents per animal? Holy cats! (and cows, and bunnies, and birds...)

To say the least Nat ended up bringing home a few more souvenirs than her sister! (She even treated herself to cotton candy which I was too cheap to buy for her.)

Both the girls got a set of ears. They went to a shop where you can build your own ear hat. Each girls' hat definitely reflects their personality!

Miss Moo's are funky and sassy just like her, and Nat's are cuddly and sweet. (Shhhh....don't tell Nat, but I'm pretty sure those fuzzy ears are made from discarded stuffed animal hides.)

But the real deal at Disneyland is the build your own Mr Potato Head. You get to fill a box full of parts for $20. These aren't any old parts, they're exclusive Disney parts. Filling up the back of the potato body is ok, and then the rest is like a twisted game of Tetris. The only rule is you have to be able to shut the lid of the box.

Here is Nat's potato. There are still parts in the box too! I don't think there's any way we could get it all to fit in the box again! (I wanted her to get the pirate hat, but the Cinderella hair took up too much room, so she let me stuff in the pirate eyes as a consolation.)

So be frugal when you go to Disneyland, but don't be stupid. Especially when it comes to kids and money!

My, What Big Lapels You Have!

2011-05-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

I was going to make this entry all about the sneaky way I prevented the torture of listening to my husband's choice of radio station on our 7 hour journey (both ways) to Disneyland. (It involved taking the girls to the library to choose some books on tape...Hello, Harry Potter! Oh and yes, I have an old timey thing in my car called a cassette player, so the kids got to finally find out what that hole in my dash is used for.)

Well, I changed my mind when overhearing Nat telling Miss Moo how scandalous it was that her Sunday school teacher at church said the word "lapel" in class today. Shocking, right? He was pointing out a boy's lapels right there in class! So I thought the lapel story might be more fun to tell.

On our first day at Disney, we went right to the town hall and each got a button. Sis got a button saying "Happy Birthday" since her birthday was just a couple weeks prior, and her present from me was her ticket to Disneyland.

Everywhere we went the Disney "cast members" were wishing her a happy birthday. I mentioned to her that it seemed an inordinate amount of male attention was directed her way, and I teasingly told her that maybe it was because of the location of her button.

She told me no, her button was located right where it should be: on her lapel. And of course, I couldn't leave that alone and made some crack like, "Oh is that what you're calling it!" And then for the rest of our time at Disney, Sis and I made inappropriate comments about her lapels.

Well as they say, little pitchers have big ears, and the girls now thought that "lapel" was a rather racy slang word for boob. Which leads us to my Nat in church today, having to hold back her laughter when *smirk* her teacher said LAPEL! (I have so messed up my kids. I'm ashamed!)

The Grim Reaper and The Mad Hatter

2011-05-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

Finally. FINALLY, we were able to make it to Disneyland!

This has been a trip years in the making, and with a little careful budgeting of our tax refund, I was able to make it work this year.

I may blog about this trip for the next month, who knows. I want to remember every nuance and savor it. (like those Godiva truffles my son used to bring me...)

The plan was to work on Monday, and take Tuesday and Wednesday off. With Thursday and Friday being county-wide school holidays for the county fair, we wouldn't miss too much work or school.

Well, Monday at work, I got pulled out of class to meet with the personnel director from the county office of education. She came to notify me I was being laid off. Dang! Due to lower enrollment there isn't a position for me next year. Normally that kind of news would've ruined my day...but not on a day when I was soon leaving for Disneyland!

The personnel director continued to pull aides aside, (I thought it would've been more appropriate had she been dressed in a black cloak and carrying a sickle myself), and most were given news of hours cut or that they could be bumped from their postiton. Not the best day for any of us.

Comparing notes at our staff meeting at the end of the day, I told my co-workers my bad news followed by, "but I'm going to Disneyland!!!"

I decided not to think about the lay off until my return to the real world. (Which is now.)

At any rate, here is a picture of the first person we met as we entered the Happiest Place on Earth on Wednesday.

It just got better from here on out.

I'm a Hillarious and Talitive Mom

2011-05-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

...and no, I didn't forget to hit spell check on that title.

Also, for the record, I'm adventureous, extaordenary, and nice smelling. This according to one of the coolest Mother's Day gifts ever made by my little Nat:

Isn't this great? And I love that the spelling wasn't corrected. Ordinarily that would make me crazy, but in this instance it is charming and sweet.

Some of the other traits I am famous for according to my 8 year old: awesome kayaker, likes reptiles, entertaining, loves family, good example, hard worker and joyous.

Oh, and by the way talitive = talkative. I don't think she noticed she'd misspelled it even after I asked what the word was.

I really, really love this gift.

Go Here

2011-05-04T15:20:00.000-07:00

Go here to find out Why I Hate The Swedes, and you'll be treated to the newest semi-clean swear word now used in my household.

I'll Give This Post A Solid 7, and The Weekend a 10

2011-05-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

As per the challenge from Momza's post I will rate the events of my weekend on a scale of 1-10.

It started Saturday morning waking bright and early to participate in Mormon Helping Hands which is a Church-wide day set aside to do service work. Our ward went to our local fairgrounds and helped spruce it up for our upcoming county fair.

The girls were excited to participate, but I was NOT, having waitressed the night before and wanting to sleep in...but because they were enthusiastic, it made me motivated to get my rear in gear and go. And I was glad I did. (rated: 9)

My friend and I and 6 girls were put in charge of painting frogs on the pavement (our fair's theme is frogs...). It was a lot of fun despite kneeling on the pavement for hours. (rated:9) I wish I had thought to bring my camera!

We then packed up and drove to Sacramento to stay with Grandpa and attend the Walk MS event on Sunday at the state capitol.

This is my 3rd year walking and raising money to find a cure for MS. I previously spent 4 years doing American Cancer Society's Relay for Life in memory of my mom, but switched my efforts to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to honor my sister. It is nice to raise money for a cause when the person affected is right there to appreciate it. It feels good to do something, anything, because it's hard to see someone you love fighting a disease like this. (rated: 10+)

Here we are at the end of the walk. My dog is done for the day!

My brother-in-law and I always walk together while my sister and my girls hang out and wait for us to complete the 5K. This was my first time walking at this venue, and I loved seeing the old historic houses. (rated: 8)

Bro and I had looked at the map ahead of time, and when we came to a certain crossroads, we kind of thought, "Hmmm...thought we were supposed to turn here. How come everyone's going straight?" So we stopped amidst the throng and consulted the map, and sure enough the route turned. So we made the right. Everyone else kept going straight. We're talking about 1000 people! We were the only ones following the ORANGE signs flagging the route.

(Notice lack of crowds of walkers)

Weird. But funny! (rated: a SOLID 10 for map-readers and non-lemmings). Later a couple more people caught up with us who had walked the right way. The majority of the folks screwed up though. Mind boggling, I tell ya!

How cute is my dog looking proud wearing her medal that all of us walkers recieved at the finish line. (She's a 10 for sure!)

The girls and I hung out afterwards and enjoyed the capitol grounds which are always gorgeous, but might I say, spectacular at this time of year. The rose garden especially.

Just wow. (rated: another 10, of course!).

Oh, and Sis (whom we now refer to as Sissy Montana after her recent move) also did the Walk MS up in Billings the day before. I was really proud of her. And then she celebrated her TWENTIETH birthday on Sunday. (20! That means I don't have any teenagers anymore~at least for the next year and a half, anyway!) (rated: 10 for her walking, 10 for her birthday, but a 5 for her being 20 which makes me feel old, which is a 1, but that's offset by no teenagers which is a 9!)

So there's my weekend which also marked the end of our spring break (rated: definitely a 10).

Spontaneity and Recalls

2011-04-27T12:38:00.001-07:00

The girls insisted that we go to Grandpa's house for Easter this year. We still have snow on the ground at home, and they wanted to "go somewhere where it's warm and there's grass."

I love hanging out with my sister and bro-in-law and the girls do too. Dad...well, I do enjoy visiting him, but I have to take him in small doses because of his negativity. I wish we could make his life happier, but I think he would have to make that choice.

We had a great Easter. I convinced the girls to go to church that morning since our festivities wouldn't be until the afternoon. We've never gone to another ward other than our own, and the church we went to was HUGE. Two chapels, and several wards meeting at the same time.

You know, though, it's comforting that wherever you go, it's the same. No matter the size of the building, the teachings, the classes, the friendliness is the same. Made my day.

The next day I had to take my car in for a recall repair. The lady on the phone said to expect to wait for about an hour and a half. There was a waiting area for kids, so we borrowed one of their dvds, got junk food out of the vending machine, took advantage of the free hot cocoa and set up a little impromptu picnic.

Doritos, Red Vines, popcorn, and teriyaki jerky never tasted so good! (And the jerky tasted even better after Nat accidentally spilled it into my cranberry tea!)

Funny, out of all the days and experiences during our stay, this one sticks out. We had a great time. We were even a little disappointed when they told us our car was done early. It made me think of part of a lesson I had heard in church the day before. The teacher asked how we could be as little children as Jesus asked us to do. I think being spontaneous, making the most of a situation and enjoying each other are things that come easy to children and make life memorable and fun.

Being open to the world and living in the moment are things that children are experts at, and if we put our worries and responsibilities aside for a time and quit thinking of that to-do list we need to accomplish we can be more open too---to everything, and the gospel in particular. Hmmm...food for thought. And it only took a Honda recall for me to learn that!

So Stinky!

2011-04-13T18:18:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure what it is with my Nat. She is such an outgoing girl. Since the time she could talk she would strike up conversations with anyone and everyone. She's a total goof, and never holds back on acting silly. She makes friends easily. But...she hates to perform. She somehow doesn't like any extra attention on her.

When there's a school play or the children's classes sing at church, she gets very self-concious and the one thing in particular she says that she hates, HATES when people come up afterwards and tell her, "Good job!" She says it's SO embarassing!

This last Sunday the kids had to get up and sing at church and she really wanted to stay home and get out of it.

It was a beautiful song and the kids did great. When Nat returned and sat next to me, I wanted to tell her she did a good job, but instead, I whispered to her, "You stunk up the place!"

And she looked up at me with the biggest smile on her face!

Just Stuff

2011-04-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

Nat says this morning: Is it going to snow anymore?
Me: I don't know.
Nat: Why don't you know?! Your name is MOTHER and it is about NATURE!

That kid has the weirdest ideas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I subbed in the kids class today at church, and the little 6 year old boy I was sitting next to was getting kind of antsy and fidgety. I figured I'd try a technique we use on the autistic kids at work to see if it calmed him.

I told him, "I'm going to massage your shoulders. It might help you sit still and listen better."

I proceeded to do the deep pressure squeezes that we do with the kids at school, which helps our special needs kids to feel grounded. Sure enough this little guy just melted and relaxed. A little while later he turns to me and says, "Will you do it again?" Too cute.

I'm Ready to Bust Some Grief!

2011-04-09T11:34:00.000-07:00

This week I took a two day training called Griefbusters. It is a program through Hospice that pairs an adult (the Griefbuster) with a child who has lost someone. The Griefbuster meets with the child one a week for about an hour and helps the child work through their loss. (They did train us not to use "lost" or "passed away" or other euphemisms with children, but I know that you know what I'm talking about.)

About 7 years ago I took a grief workshop through Hospice to work through the death of my mom. It was so helpful for me to be able to have a place to go to talk about her, and to know that what I was going through was normal and that others were going through the same things. During that workshop, one of the participants was a woman I knew, but just as the wife of one of Mike's friends. Her 3 year-old son had died. During the workshop we formed a friendship, and since our youngest girls are the same age, we've kept the friendship going.

Well, when I arrived Wednesday morning, I was surprised to see that she was there too. We kind of laughed that here we were doing the grief-thing together again.

Anyway, when I told people I was going to this training, the responses were mostly negative. WHY would I want to do THAT? It would be so hard to see a sad child. It would be depressing. That was what I heard from others. But because the grief workshop I attended was so helpful to me, I want to pass that forward and who is more deserving than a child?

I'm excited to be a Griefbuster, but at the same time I realize that a child has to suffer a tragedy for me to do what I'm trained to do. That's kind of weird. But tragedies are going to happen regardless, so it's good that there is this program to help.

As a side note, the training was held at the county's senior center, so for lunch my friend and I lined up with the seniors in the cafeteria to eat. We'll both be 47 this year, and we joked how it was a milestone for us -- we had our first senior meal!

I liked what one of the guest speakers said during the training, "Grief is not something you fix, it is something that you accompany." And his other piece of advice was, "Stay close and do nothing." Which means we're not there to fix the child, or offer advice, we're there to support them, to listen, to witness their memories.

I can do that.

The Real Difference Between Boys and Girls

2011-04-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

Both the girls had a friend over for a sleep-over last night. It worked out well that they each had their own friend. Girls just don't do well in 3's, I've found. Boys seem to work it out, girls seem to leave one out.

Which brings me to a well illustrated difference between boys and girls from last night.

The girls (all four of them) decided to play a game of indoor soccer (with this cool hovering soccer disk thing we have).

Now boys would just clear the living room and get down to business. The girls on the other hand, started by choosing a name for their teams. Then each team worked on cheers for their team.

The Moons (the 8-year-olds) wanted to actually moon the other team at the end of their cheer, but since I said no, they settled for taping paper moons to their pajama pants instead.

The Raccoons (the middle-school 11-year-olds) huddled in the bedroom and worked on costumes and make-up to go with their cheer. There was paper and pencils and practicing and choreographing going on for quite some time before they all came together, showed off their cheers and team spirit, and started the game.

Which lasted approximately 1/10 of the time the preparation did. That's girls for ya!

Why Cowboys Walk Funny

2011-04-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

The world according to Nat: "I think I know why cowboys walk funny. They probably get a wedgie when they ride their horse and when they get off they don't want to pick it out in public so they walk like this" (doing her best impression of a bow-legged cowboy). So now you know. You're welcome.

Double Standards

2011-03-16T18:47:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my dad the other day and he asked how Sis was in Montana. He then reminisced about a time that he and a friend went to Alaska and then travelled back down through Montana. He told how he would find an odd job to get by, drop in on acquaintances for lodging, or just rely on the kindness of good Samaritans for a meal.

He says it was one of the best experiences of his life and though he wouldn't want to do it again, he was glad to have gotten the chance to travel like that.

Then he said that if he had had a son, he would've given him some money and sent him off to do the same because it was such a great way to see the country and learn about life.

Of course he would never think of doing this with us girls. He was so over-protective of us. I remember a time when I was 18, still at home, and my sister told me of a job opening, running a hot dog cart in front of the state capitol building. I thought it sounded like a good job for me, but when my dad heard about it, he freaked out and forbid me to pursue it. He couldn't possibly stand the thought of me on the street interacting with strangers! And downtown! He would rarely let me drive downtown, let alone actually work there. What was I thinking?!

Yep, that's my dad. But I love him, double standards and all.

Wrappin' It Up

2011-03-13T22:10:00.001-07:00

Well, Sis and Trav made it to their destination in Montana, on time, in one piece and without the assistance of a tow truck. Win. Win. and Win. I'm considering revamping the children's book The Little Engine That Could and have it feature an old red Subaru wagon instead. Could be a hit.

Sis called me when they made it to Idaho Falls. I fell in love with that place just from the photos I found online, and in one of my fantasies, we picked up and moved there leaving bankrupt/ corrupt California behind us.

Then I saw what passes as a "high" temperature in winter there and decided maybe just visiting Idaho Falls someday would probably suffice. (Although Nampa/Boise are looks promising...and by promising I mean warmer.)

Before Sis left we had a mom/daughter weekend in San Fran. It was nice to have time alone just the two of us before she left the state.

The highlights were Lombard St.

We went there Friday night and again on Saturday. We love walking up and down the street, and I let Carley drive my car down it. Such a cool place.

We then went to Coit tower and rode the elevator to the top and enjoyed the views.

We also smashed pennies. Our souvenirs for the day were our smashed pennies imprinted with SF scenes. We're such cheap dates!

Then we enjoyed our picnic lunch at Alamo Park overlooking the "Full House" houses.

And if you're ever in the city make sure you visit 826 Valencia. It's San Francisco's best pirate supply store. I can't even explain this place, but I laughed until I cried at one point, if that gives you any indication of the fun in store...in the store.

On Saturday we spent all of $14, not counting the pennies, and we went to places we hadn't seen before. Definitely a memorable trip!

Yep, it's a wrap. That was pretty much my week.

And...They're Off!

2011-03-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

So Sis and her boyfriend left for Montana early this morning.

I had dinner with her and her boyfriend's family last night to say goodbye.
Her little Subaru wagon was packed as full as I've ever seen a car packed,
with stuff even strapped on top.

You know that saying about the sack? Well I changed it to
"Ten pounds of crap in a Five pound car"!

Boyfriend's mom is an expert packer, so she packed the car,
and all their little things they needed to take, and all their clothes
(he has as much as she does apparently) and several pillows each.
We joked that they couldn't open the back hatch at risk of explosion,
and if all that stuff did come flying out,
there's no way those two kids could fit it back in like his mom did.
It's like playing Tetris with blankets, and bags and pillows.
My hat's off to her!

As always, I'm strapped for cash, so couldn't even send my girl off
with a little pocket money. Made up a goody/snack bag for them instead
with little well-wishes written by me and the little girls all over it.

I hope they have an adventure in Montana. They're going to a small
town, but it's still bigger than any of the towns in our county.
His dad has a store and deli and will employ them and house them.

I will be glad when they arrive and are safe and sound. Did I mention
that the Subaru has 197,000 miles on it? Yep. Let's hope it's up for at
least another 1,000 or so.

Last night I dreamed that I was still trying to fit little things in all
the nooks and crannies of her car. Trying to make sure she had
everything she needed.

I guess that's the reality. I can't give her everything she needs anymore.

Of Being 19 and Adventures

2011-03-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

So, in a couple days my oldest daughter is moving to Montana. A LONG way away.
It's hard for a mom. Not to mention all the worrying I have to do while they drive
for TWO DAYS in an old car.

She's 19. I kind of did the same thing when I was 19. Quit my good job as a printer,
and went to shack-up with my boyfriend on the top of Donner Summit.
Yes, THAT Donner Summit.
Luckily my boyfriend was employed to plow snow, so our driveway was always clear.
That's the only way to go if you're gonna live there.

The little house we rented was really for summer use. And it was COLD. INSIDE.
Ice on the inside of the windows cold. And we only had a fireplace, with green wood.
Couldn't afford to use the electric wall heaters. For some reason it didn't bother me.
When you're 19 it's an adventure. I wouldn't last a day in that house now, let me tell you!

I worked at a ski area and had a fantasy that my boyfriend (of 5 years)
and I would get married in the summer.
It didn't happen.
Why buy the cow when the milk is free and all that jazz, I guess.
It broke my heart. And I broke up with him and moved on.

Oh, to be 19 and going on an adventure.

Meaningful Coincidences

2011-02-24T21:27:00.001-08:00

I picked up a book during lunch in the staff room the other day. It was called Consider the Butterfly. It looked like my best choice from the selections, and I hate not to have something to read while I eat, so I took it.

It looked a bit new-agey for my taste, but I figured I could always put it back. I don't care for books that pussy-foot around or ignore the religious aspect of life. Oh, they'll say "spiritual" but meaning it comes from your own spirit, or they'll refer to "the Universe" making something happen instead of God. Yeah, not my thing.

This book however mentioned God right off the bat, so that was ok. The subtitle is "Transforming Your Life Through Meaningful Coincidence", and she does refer to "the Universe", but I forgive her that since it's obvious she's one of faith.

The book is a collection of "synchronicities" in her life. Little things that have all come together and given her a message or reassurance or added to her faith. We all have things like this that happen. She points out that we should write them down, share them, act on them, enjoy them.

I've had many times of meaningful coincidences and now I want to look back and start remembering them. A lot of time I find synchronicities in numbers. Just last week I had many leading up to my teaching a lesson at church on "Service":

1. Happening upon a newspaper article about vandalism to a local cemetary and how a day was set aside to try to restore it, and how it was expected that a handful of volunteers would show, and 130 people showed up.

2. Taking my girls to their Church activity where they made cookies and valentines to give, and the lesson was on service.

3. We had a substitute in our classroom, and when she found out we desperately needed art supplies she cleaned out her storage and arrived the next day with boxes and boxes of wonderful things for our kids to create with.

4. And then having a youth speaker on Sunday give a talk on serving others just before it was time for me to teach my lesson.

Synchronicity. Gotta love it. I know it is our Heavenly Father taking care of us, answering prayers, helping us, giving us hope, knowledge, laughter, faith.

Oh and the author's name is Carol Lynn Pearson. I ALMOST named my little Nat, Carolynn. "Carol" after my mom, and "Lynn" for my sister's middle name. She got Carol as her middle name instead and was born on my sister's birthday, but this very tiny meaningful coincidence wasn't lost on me.

Come Snow or High Water...

2011-02-20T15:18:00.000-08:00

Today was my Sunday to teach in Relief Society (the women's Sunday school class, basically). I'm assigned to teach on every third Sunday. My topic was "Service" and for the last month I've been excited to teach this lesson. Some of my topics have been hard for me, but this one I KNOW, and I can relate to, and I'm passionate about. Yay!

Well with our crazy blizzard, and feet upon feet of snow, and plow trucks that can't keep up on clearing the roads, travelling down the hill to church was looking a bit iffy. The weather broke yesterday, but the snow on the road was still to deep for my Honda Civic to handle, so I prayed for a plow to come and talked to Mike about Plan B.

Plan B was for him to drive us to church in his ancient rusty Land Cruiser which has no heat, is missing a back window and the girls would have to double buckle in the jump seat in the back. Ugh!

Well, thankfully the road had been plowed this morning and I was able to make it to church and teach my lesson.

We have the greatest group of women in Relief Society, they are all so willing to speak up and be a part of the lesson that it makes my job easy. Today was no exception and everyone had wonderful stories of service to share.

I began by talking to about my grandpa and how he was such a great example of someone who loved to serve others.

Grandpa loved to tinker, so he always had electronics and such laying around his house. He volunteered at the local American Cancer Society thrift store and was their go-to guy when they needed to have something fixed so they could sell it, so all these things were his projects.

Side Note:
I remember my mom telling me about how his love of tinkering got him in real trouble with Grandma one time. She had finally replaced her old ringer-washer with an automatic one. Grandpa was fascinted by it, and wanted to know how it worked, so he took it apart! I could imagine the hot water he was in, 'cause Grandma had a temper!

Anyway Grandpa was also involved in community service groups, and served up until his 80's. He volunteered to deliver meals with the Meals On Wheels group and mom used to kid him about being older than most of the folks he delivered meals to.

Well, I feel like my lesson went well. The time flew, and I only covered about half of the material I had prepared. I touched on the fact that even a small act of service is worthwhile and read this quote from Mother Teresa, "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."

All Fired Up

2011-02-18T20:13:00.000-08:00

Last night during a raging blizzard, our power went off. I'm so thankful that our water is heated by propane and that we have a big ol' woodstove to keep us warm and that we can cook on in a pinch. Makes those power outages so much more bearable.

I gained new respect for Mr Osburn the woodstove (yes that's its brand name, not the Mr though) last night however. It was dark and the only light was from the glass door of the stove where the fire was burning. I was near the hearth, tripped on something, and fell against the woodstove catching myself with my hand. Well, I knew I was screwed even though my hand lit upon the surface for less than a second.

I immediately ran for the sink and dowsed my hand in cold water. I'm extremely proud of the restraint I showed by only muttering, "Son of a nutcracker!" This injury was significantly curse-worthy and I would have been forgiven any serious slips, but amazingly I held back.

I ended up keeping my throbbing hand in a pot of cold water for 8 straight hours. I was finally able to get some relief at about 4am, and got some much-needed sleep! The stinging, burning pain was so intense! I thought it would never quit.

Examining the damage today, about 1/3 of my palm is blistered along with 3 of my fingertips. It's gonna be a while before I can do much with that hand (which is thankfully my left one).

Today was a snow day so I didn't have to worry about work. We have gotten at least 4 feet of snow in the last 24 hours. This is one of the biggest storms I can ever remember, even surpassing our recent Thanksgiving blizzard that gave us an entire week of snow days. The plows haven't been in our neighborhood since yesterday afternoon so there is close to 3 feet of snow on the roads. We are truly snowed in. I've lived up here 18 years and never seen it like this.

I'm thankful that our power has been mostly on today, that we have a generator to run the fridge when it's not, that we have a good supply of food and yes I'm very thankful for Mr Osburn. I've kept my distance from him today though!

Crazy Old Guy

2011-02-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

I had the most interesting experience today.

I was with my co-worker at an all day training getting re-certified in CPR and first aid, and at lunch we went across the street to Taco Bell.

We were just finishing up when this older gentleman came over and sat next to us in the nearly vacant restaurant. We could tell from the get-go that he was a character. He just had that vibe about him.

Sure enough he starts up a conversation with us. He's an entertainer that has traveled all of California playing his guitar, and he happens to do "free" reflexology at one of the local tourist attractions (I'm guessing he's kind of like a street performer). He wants to know where we're from and knows all the areas we mention (but mostly the bars he's played at in those towns.)

Then he wants to know my birthdate. So I play along and he adds my numbers together (or something) and then proceeds to tell me that I'm a people person, that I do best in jobs that involve helping people and he says some other things that are pretty accurate about my personality.

He asks my friend's birthdate and tells her about the same (not knowing that we're special ed aides), but that she would also do well in sales. He seems to have glommed onto me at this point and starts flattering me. He can't have any ulterior motives that I can figure (being that he's got to be in his 70's), so I'm friendly back.

He then wants to know all my kids birthdates and analyzes them. He nails my oldest daughter. Says she got brains to spare, doesn't need college and would do well in any upper management position (telling people what to do). I tell him she will love to hear this! He also nails my youngest. The other two there are lots of traits he describes that pertain to them, but not as accurate as with Sis and Nat.

At any rate, I'm thoroughly entertained at this point. He was a really nice, friendly old gentleman that said I was "a keeper". My friend and I both enjoyed him.

It's funny how just having this man give me a little positive attention really made my day. Of course anyone loves to hear others praise or compliment them, but for me, always having had very low self-esteem, always feeling invisible, especially as a young adult, it really made my day.

Don't get me wrong...I don't take compliments to heart just from any old crazy person I meet on the street. This guy was special! LOL

TV, Bonding, and Memories

2011-01-30T20:34:00.000-08:00

Has anyone been watching Downton Abbey on PBS's Masterpiece Theater? Oh my gosh...what a wonderful show. It's like watching a good novel. A good historical fiction novel (my favorite genre, by the way). The scenery is stunning and you really feel like you're in the mansion, and you see how hard the servants worked and you see the class system, both upstairs and down. Love, love, love it. You can catch up on back episodes until Feb. 22. So worth your time (in my opinion).

At any rate, watching this show reminded me so much of my mom, and I know she would have loved this show as much as I do. I could picture us curling up on the couch together enjoying it, and discussing the characters--hating O'Brian and Thomas, loving Bates and Anna.

I have such fond memories of watching tv in the evening with Mom. We always had a couple must-watch weekly programs. Remember Knott's Landing? St Elsewhere? 30 Something? The Thursday night line-up with the Cosby Show, Cheers and Hill St. Blues? Yep, we watched all of those.

My dad worked a swing shift during the week, so those evenings belonged to us girls (mom, my sister and me). We'd do a simple dinner, maybe eat out, and then spend time watching our shows, chatting and snacking.

Seems like TV was better back then. I don't know. I watch so little of it now (what I can find online since we don't have cable service). Anyway, I'm glad that I found this program to enjoy and to bring back some wonderful memories of sharing time with my mom.

I'm Officially "A Mormon"!

2011-01-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

My profile is up at Mormon.org! I love this site and it's amazing the diversity we have in our religion. Check me out! I would encourage you to watch some of the video profiles, they are very inspiring and none of it is "I'm going to shove this down your throat". You realize that we Mormons come from every walk of life and circumstance there is.

Icy Sheets

2011-01-06T15:54:00.001-08:00

No, literally, sheets of ice!

This stuff has been slipping off our roof for the last couple of days. It gets really long, then crashes against the house. It's a little un-nerving to be honest.

It's these dog days of winter that make me think I can't do another winter in this house in this neighborhood. Our house is dark, and our part of the neighborhood is right against the mountain and we get virtually no sun. I go to other parts of town where there roads are thawing and their houses are being warmed by the sun, and they have actual SUN streaming through their windows, and I'm so jealous!

I keep my eye on the prize though, the glorious days of summer when I'm only a short walk from the lake and that's what keeps me living here in "little Siberia".

Pretzel Baking Goodness

2011-01-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

The girls got a pretzel baking kit from their big brother and Cass for Christmas. Miss Moo was a little more into the baking part of it (Nat helped with the eating part).

The directions said to roll the dough into 3' lengths! I don't think my little kitchen has 3' of counter space, so we did the best we could.

There's the twist...

...and now it looks like a pretzel.

Sprinkling salt (we did cinnamon-sugar ones too).

Ahhh, nothing like warm pretzelly goodness right from the oven!

EMPs, 2012, and Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

2010-12-29T18:19:00.000-08:00

I was reading a blog called Food Storage Made Easy and they had a little something about a book called One Second After. I got curious and read the summary of the book on Wikipedia (the wiki article was enough, reading the actual book would be WAY too scary for me!)

The book basically describes what life would be like should an electo-magnetic pulse happen and everything electrical is wiped out. We're talking power, anything with a computer chip including vehicles, water and sewage facilities (think pumps and such), the list goes on and on, and how we as humans no longer have the knowledge of living/surviving independently of our community infrastructure. We don't have the same skills that people born 100 years ago did, like preserving foods, raising crops, making our own supplies, aquiring fresh water, etc.

Well, with all that rattling around in my brain, I searched for info on an EMP attack (or natural occurance through a solarstorm), which led to a blog called blog.2012pro.com, which led to this interesting bit about "magic":

The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once said: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

This statement is commonly known as Clarke’s Third Law. Many people have heard this quotation, but few people really think about its implications.

We now live in a world that is so completely immersed in advanced technology that we depend upon it for our very survival. Most of the actions that we depend upon for our everyday activities — from flipping a switch to make the lights come on to obtaining all of our food supplies at a nearby supermarket — are things that any individual from a century ago would consider magic.

Very few people in industrialized countries do work that is not directly assisted by electronic computers, although that computerized assistance is often quite invisible to the average person. Few people think about things such as the fact that whenever we buy some food item at a supermarket (and many others are buying the same item), the next time we go to that same supermarket, they still have about the same supplies that they had before. There are invisible infrastructures all around us that are made up of advanced technology. Most of us just take the magic for granted.

Few people stop to consider what would happen if, in an instant, the magic went away. If our advanced technology were suddenly and completely destroyed, how would we manage to survive? A nuclear EMP could make the magic go away. I hope it never happens, and I don’t think that it is at all inevitable. It makes no sense, however, to be blind to the danger. It is both much less likely to happen — and also less likely to have a catastrophic impact — if, both as a civilization and as individuals, we are prepared for an attack on our advanced technology. A nuclear EMP would be a seemingly magical attack upon our advanced technology, the technological infrastructure upon which our lives depend.

click here to read the rest of this article

(I also found good stuff on Modern Survival Blog)

Other research revealed how vulnerable our country's power grid is and that something of this sort could actually happen. Hmmm. (And I really don't buy into the whole "2012" thing, but there is good info on the blog regardless.)

I've been trying to sock away canned goods, but I feel I need to expand my thinking: Long term food storage, water storage, communication devices (and protecting them from EMP so they would actually work afterward (just found out about Faraday cages), ammunition (yep, ya gotta go there) and many other things.

Being Mormon, food storage is no foreign subject and I'm thankful that my church implores us to have food stored away to provide for our families, and gives us resources and information to do so.

Then I also have to think of my older kids who don't live close by. (Guess what kids? Your mama is probably going to show up with some weird things and tell you to store them. Appease her, ok?) And even if an EMP weren't to happen there are always natural disasters, and other kinds of attacks that would more temporarily make life difficult.

So, what do you think? Am I paranoid? A bit crazy? Or are you with me on this? Do you have a plan?

Un-Brace Your Face Day

2010-12-10T00:05:00.000-08:00

...aka "The Great Brace Erase".

Yesterday I got to leave work early and meet Sis at her orthodontist for the great unveiling. This has been 3 1/2 years in the making, with nearly every orthodontic appliance known to man installed in her mouth.

(Ya know why they call them "appliances"? Because you could've bought brand new appliances for your kitchen with what it costs to straighten your kids' teeth, that's why! I guess it's some sort of sadistic orthodontic joke or something. At least that's my take on it.)

At any rate, I've gotta hand it to Sis, because first she had to have an expander put in the roof of her mouth that not only made her talk like Sylvester the Cat (thufferin' thuccotash!), but that with the help of me and a handy-dandy mini allen-wrench, broke apart her palate to make room in her mouth to start her treatment.

THEN, she had to have oral surgery and they went up into her gums and hooked a CHAIN on a tooth that never emerged, for lack of room, and they basically winched the sucker down into place like you'd winch a Jeep out of a rock slide. (The winching took months, mind you, as teeth are more difficult to move than Jeeps.)

Then it was power chains, and rubber bands in all kinds of wacky configurations, molar bands, springs, wires and any other kind of contraption they could think of that would help rearrange her teeth into a proper and attractive alignment.

And ya know what? Not once did she whine or complain about it. Seriously, I can't think of a time. She REALLY wanted her teeth fixed and she was so good about everything.

We knew at her first appointment it was going to be a long haul, because her ortho declared her one of the worst cases he'd ever seen (and he's a specialist that teaches orthodontics, so I don't think he was exaggerating.)

It was hard to believe the day was finally here, and she was finished! Done! Complete!

The last Brace-Faced smile.

And...they're off! (Took only a minute. They just popped them right off.)

The retainers. She got to choose colors and design them. She brought in a little heart sticker that they embedded into the one on the right (her top one) in which she chose clear glitter as the base. The bottom one is glow-in-the-dark green.

(I just couldn't get over the retainers. When I got my braces off they gave me a big rubber mouthpiece retainer (kinda like a sports mouth protector)to wear at night, and it was horrible. I gave up on it after about a week. Had I got to design my own retainer and had something reasonable to wear like Sis' wire ones my teeth would still be perfect.)

The orthodontist gave her some gift certificates for ice cream so that's how we celebrated! Look at that beautiful smile!

A Wake Up Call Dream

2010-12-03T21:18:00.001-08:00

I hate it when I have one of those dreams where I wake up with my heart pounding.

Last night I had one of those.

I dreamt that some "bad guy" was trying to get into the house and only me and the little girls were home. I got to the door and locked it just as he was turning the knob to enter. I was yelling at him through the door that I was calling 9-1-1 and getting a gun, however I knew that was just a threat (9-1-1 never works in my dreams for some reason.)

I wanted to get us out of the house and run, but I realized that there was only one door we could get out of and that's where the bad guy was.

I went back to my room and was trying to figure out how to open the gun safe and realized I didn't know the combination. I thought I knew where Mike hid it -- in another little locked box, but had no idea where the key to that was. About this time the bad guy was there with me insisting that I open the safe for him so he could have the guns. I was trying to tell him I didn't know!

Somehow the girls and I ran out the door and past the bad guy's idleing car in front of our house, I decided against stealing it and we ran through the streets of our neighborhood instead. I remember we were barefooted and the pavement was icy and cold (as it really is right now.)

We ran around the corner and I realized that we didn't really have anyone in the neighborhood that we knew really well who I could run to in this kind of emergency. That felt pretty scary. I finally decided on a lady who babysat the girls a few years back. Just as we were getting to her house, the bad guy came down the hill in his car and spotted us.

That's when I woke up.

As I lay in bed trying to recover I realized that all the scenarios from my dream were true: two of our three doors are currently blocked with snow, I didn't know how to access the guns, we are so far flung that actually getting help from 9-1-1 in the form of a sheriff would likely be a very long wait (thankfully if we needed the fire dept. they are only a mile away), our feet would freeze if we had to run out of our house in an emergency, and we don't have anyone in the neighborhood that we know really well.

I thought about all this and decided we need to sleep with our snow boots next to our beds in case we need to get out of the house in an emergency. The girls can go out the back door from their bedroom, but wouldn't be able to go far in several feet of snow with no boots.

Then today I told Mike about my dream and he showed me how to get to the guns if I should ever need to. That made me feel better.

I can also start getting to know the neighbors better.

My dream taught me that we need to have a plan. It's unlikely that a "bad guy" would come in and attack us, probably more likely we would need to evacuate because of fire, but ya never know. It's good to have a Wake Up Call Dream.

What Game?

2010-11-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

Well, the day I visited my friend in San Francisco happened to be the same day the Giants were playing some sort of big game. I hadn't really been paying much attention, honestly, and if it hadn't been for carpooling to work with my sports-crazy friend I would have been completely clueless.

I called Cam to see if he and Cass wanted to meet us for dinner, then remembering about the World Series I added, "Do you need to stay home and watch the game?" And my son, in all honesty asked, "What game?"

My thoughts exactly. How I love that kid!

On our way to dinner Cass received a text from Sis asking if they were watching the game. When she texted back that they weren't Sis' reply was, "You guys are horrible San Franciscans!"

We went to a little hole in the wall Indian restaurant and of course the game was on. About halfway through our meal the other diners in the restaurant erupted in screams scaring poor Cass almost out of her chair. We looked at the TV screen and figuring that the game was over we then debated amongst ourselves whether they still had another to win or not. None of us were brave enough to ask one of the revelers.

Thankfully the players were soon wearing their World Champions gear, so that little mystery was solved.

As we were leaving we noticed that the folks from the bar down the street had spilled out onto the street where they commenced hooting and hollering and had stopped traffic. Luckily our car was parked facing the opposite direction.

Cam drove us up to Twin Peaks where we could overlook the whole city. We noticed that the dome of City Hall was lighted orange along with the other landmarks. From our vantage point we could hear sirens, horns honking and see illegal fireworks being lit off.

As we drove back through the city people were on the street corners celebrating while others, I think, just got in their cars and decided to drive around honking their horns. We saw one faithful reveler out in the street waving an orange and black bandanna. We obligingly honked for him. We were kind of afraid not to.

All in all it was pretty exciting to be in the city on such a momentous occasion (that I couldn't have cared less about). There's something infectious about city-wide enthusiastic celebrating.

Old Friends Are The Best Friends

2010-11-02T21:03:00.000-07:00

Ah, old friends. There's nothing like them. They're the ones that know you best. They knew you when. They've been through it all with you. I was lucky enough to reunite with one of my best old friends yesterday.

I met K way back in 1975...(go ahead and say that in an old lady voice in your head). She was out from Wisconsin visiting her big sister (my neighbor) for a month. We became fast friends and spent a lot of time together during her stay. She was 14, I was 11. When she left we became pen pals.

Pen pals was much more popular back then. Long distance calling was only for very special occasions, and of course this was looooooong before email! We were very devoted pen pals. We wrote on a regular basis, probably at least once or twice a month, and never forgot to send a birthday or Christmas card.

I had 2 other friends that I also wrote to. I remember sitting down some days and writing out 3 letters, one to each friend, similar in content, but personalized to them. I can't even imagine my kids doing that. My girls have a friend that moved to Oklahoma about a year ago and I have to really encourage them to sit down and write and then to write more than a few sentences. I think it may be a lost art. Sigh...

So, doing the math, K and I have been friends for 35 years! Imagine that! (Dang! I'm getting old!) We've seen each other a total of 3 days during those 35 years. The first time was in 1996, when she was again visiting her sister (who was now in San Francisco), then 2 years ago, and again, yesterday.

For some reason we have a really strong bond, and we don't feel awkward when we see each other. It's like seeing a friend I just saw last week. Strange but really cool at the same time. It's never a feeling of "I need to get to know her again", we just start right in chatting and catching up on each other's lives (because we don't write as often as we should anymore!)

It was a beautiful day in the city yesterday, and we had a great time window shopping and visiting the beach. It was fantastic.

Funny when I arrived, her sister commented on how similarly we were dressed.

Hoodies, jeans and black boots. Yep, there's some sort of wacky bond going on with us for sure! What a blessing old friends are!

Apple Bowling? Apple Rolling? Apples to Applesauce?

2010-10-28T16:57:00.001-07:00

I got the honor of walking the girls to school today. I'm usually out the door and on my way to work before they leave in the morning, but with Mike out of town, I had the job of getting them there.

I didn't realize there was a whole morning ritual to it, but the best part was the Apple Game. Here's how it's played: Everyone chooses an apple from a neglected overgrown tree that sits on the side of the road. Then everyone takes a turn rolling their apple down the very steep hill that leads to the main road. You get points for your apple making it to the main road, and bonus points if a car happens to run over it.

First up: Miss Moo
She chose a plump apple with a promising shape and cut loose bowling ball-style. Her apple was looking good till it hit a bump and veered left. While it made it all the way down the hill, it stopped before it hit the main road.

Next up: Me
I chose an apple from the ground with a nice worm hole in it. I did my best underhand pitch and watched it bump and roll all the way down. Did it make it? It veered right so we wouldn't know until we got down the hill.

Final Contestant: Nat
Nat chose a very small green apple in which I held very little hope. She gave it a toss and that sucker rolled straight and true all the way down!

Once we got down to the main road we looked for my apple, and lo and behold it had made it to the road! I also noticed quite the pile of bruised and beaten apples lining the roadside from past day's games!

Neither apple had been hit and squished by the time we got there, but on my return after dropping off the girls I found that Nat's was now a pulpy mess on the pavement. I guess that means she won.

Our neighborhood is very circa 1938, and this bit of fun this morning reminded me of something that children back then might have played too. (Is there such a thing as deja-vu nostalgia? I get that a lot living here, if there is such a thing.) I can hardly wait for tomorrow's game!

10 Terrific Things on 10-10-10

2010-10-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

We met Cam and Cass at a pumpkin patch to celebrate Cam's 23rd birthday. (I had him when I was 23...how weird to think about that!) What better way to spend 10-10-10 than by doing 10 terrific things. (Not all 10 are illustrated below, I just chose the ten best photos for my post. And I'm sure we did more than 10...)

Zip line ride.

Cam and Miss Moo were the only ones who wanted to do it.

Shooting the pumpkin blaster was definitely a highlight!

Miss Moo and Nat both rang the bell in the nose of the pumpkin and were rewarded with a button. Here is Miss Moo with her button and her ammunition!

On to the corn maze. We were told, "Don't pick the corn, don't eat the corn" when we entered. Yeah. Notice the delinquent in the back with an ear of corn.

It was a perfect day for a pumpkin patch picnic. We had pasties (that's the Cornish pass-tee, not a paste-y, which is a completely different pronunciation and thing), pears, Pringles, peanut brittle, Peeps, and popcorn balls. Fortunately the water was labeled "Premium Bottled Water", otherwise I would've called it purified water.

(I didn't really plan the whole P thing, I just decided on pasties and pumpkin-pecan pie, and then Sis and I were shopping and she suggested the P theme, and we got all excited about it, and the next thing you know I got carried away and there was an embarrassing incident in Rite-Aide in which I yelled out, "Peeps!" at the top of my lungs.)

The birthday boy had pumpkin-pecan pie.

Sis and Trav joined us a little later (just in time for pie of course). Here they are at one of the bridges in the middle of the corn maze.

Snowcones were refreshing. It got really hot! Here Nat shows off her blue raspberry tongue and lips.

And my favorite bunch of pumpkin pickers. (I took the picture and then noticed Nat was absent. She took at least another 20 minutes trying to find the perfect pumpkin in the hot blazing sun.)

Here's the run-down on the Ten Terrific Things:

Zip Line/Pony Ride for Nat

Pumpkin Blasters

Haunted House

Picnic

Pie

Petting Zoo

Train Ride

Snowcones

Corn Maze

Pumpkin Picking

But a great day with my family is always a "10"!

By Gosh, I'll Make A Man Of You!

2010-10-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

My dad called today, and as usual he went off on one of his old stories. Don't get me wrong. I love his stories, and he has a lot of them. That's pretty much what he's famous for. I prefer his stories over his end-of-the-world "Doomsday Dad" predictions. And that's pretty much your two choices when you talk to him. I definitely like to steer him towards recalling the old days.

Today he was reminiscing about the time his father dropped him, his brother and their friend off to go camping. He was 12, his brother 13, and the other boy about the same age. Their dad didn't drop them off at a campground mind you. He dropped them off at a spot where they would hike into a lake. He even gave them a rubber boat to paddle around. They camped by themselves for 3 nights and 4 days.

Dad said in all those days they never saw another person up where they were.

Of course he looks back now and thinks how dangerous it was to leave them there alone, and all the tragedies that could have, but fortunately didn't befall them. Burns, accidently amputating fingers or limbs with axes, drownings, were just a few of the scenarios he came up with.

My dad's dad was German, and very "Old World". He would sit down to dinner and expect to be served by his wife. She could eat after he had been taken care of. The family consisted of 2 girls and 2 boys, and my grandfather told my grandmother that she could raise the girls, but he would raise the boys. He wanted them to grow up to be MEN, after all!

So this story about the camping is just one of the many stories my dad has about how his dad tried to make a man out of him. Dad said his mother must have been worried sick about them the whole time, but she didn't dare go against anything my grandfather did.

Dad said the reason this event stands out so distinctly for him was because at the end of the four days when his parents arrived to pick them up, they had with them his first pair of glasses.

He says he remembers taking them out of the box and putting them on and he just couldn't believe it! He said he kept putting them down his nose and looking over them, then looking back through them in comparison. It was a memory he'll never forget.

It wasn't until his grown-up years did he look back on the trip as yet another risk his dad took with he and his brother all in the name of making men out of them.

Ever Wondered About Adoptive Breastfeeding?

2010-10-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

My friend started a new blog and her first post is about just that. She's an awesome mom with a wealth of knowledge---and the cutest darned baby girl. Enjoy!

Miss Moo's Birthday and My Swan Song

2010-09-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

Miss Moo turned 11 on the 24th. She didn't get a party and a bunch of presents this year because she went to 6th grade coast camp and we had to fork out a chunk of money for that.

As her birthday was getting closer I told her we could do a special birthday dinner for her, but it would probably have to be done on Thursday because I would be working at the restaurant on her birthday.

She thought and thought about it, and as it got closer I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday. She said she wanted to come to the restaurant and have me wait on her! Perfect timing since it was going to be my last weekend to work there.

Mike brought the girls in and Miss Moo ordered the three cheese raviolis:

Nat ordered chicken dinosaurs, but instead of French fries, mashed potatoes:

The thing Miss Moo was really looking forward to was dessert. She knew she wanted Chocolate Lava cake. (That's my girl). Me and the other 2 waitresses and my friend Mary (who was washing dishes that night) came out with the lighted cake and sang to her.

It wasn't too long before we could hear everyone in the whole restaurant join in, with a couple of "awww, she's so cute's" thrown in. (I swear if it had been me at that age I would have crawled under the table.) As you can see, she loved it! (She's wearing big Sis' special tiara for the occasion).

On Saturday night it was my last night at the restaurant. The chef's gave me a hard time when I served my last dinners. They love to tease. I'm gonna miss them.

The chefs always make us an employee meal at the end of the evening. It's usually pasta with leftover prime rib and veggies or sometimes they make us pizza or nachos.

On Saturday they asked me what I wanted for dinner. I said, "What do you mean?" They said, "Anything you want off the menu." I was kind of taken aback. I've never seen them do that for anyone on their last night and I honestly was really touched and got a little teary eyed.

Then I pulled it together and ordered Filet Mignon. Mama didn't raise no fool!

Yes, Teacher!

2010-09-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

I swear, if my little Nat doesn't grow up to be an educator of some sort I will be shocked. I've never seen a kid who likes to play school so much.

Miss Moo, being a couple years older doesn't really like to be taught by her sister, so Nat has taken to teaching the dog. Suey can stay quite attentive when there is a treat involved, and barring that, she will stay in one place when she's napping and Nat brings the lesson to her.

Here is "Mrs. Berry's" lesson on the brain along with doggy vocabulary words.

The diagram on the lower left is Nat's estimate of the actual size of Suey's brain. Notice how she added "or smaller", as a disclaimer.

The other day I spotted an old style school desk on display in front of a thrift store and just had to get it. (When I say "old style" I mean it is exactly like the ones I used to have in school when I was growing up. Aww...nostalgia.)

At any rate, I figured both girls would enjoy it, and maybe Miss Moo would even play with Nat if she had an official desk to sit in.

Here is Nat on the phone to her best friend, telling her all about her desk.

The desk has definitely been a big hit for my little teacher! Let the lessons begin!

Keepin' it Short

2010-09-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

My little Nat made me laugh so hard yesterday. She kind of reminds me of a comedian who states the obvious and makes it funny.

Anyway, some backstory first: My husband is a known "talker". He's Mr. Social. When he goes to the dump (which is 10 minutes away) with 3 bags of trash, we aren't surprised when he doesn't return for 2 hours. He's obviously found someone to talk to. He's never met a stranger, and will strike up conversation with anyone anywhere anytime. For the most part it's nice, but sometimes it gets annoying (to either those of us waiting on him to come back from a short trip to the store, etc, and sometimes to the listener.)

So yesterday Nat says, "I don't get why people call me Mini-Mike." And I told her maybe it's because their personalities are similar. She is also known for striking up conversations, and I told her that maybe it's because she likes talking to everyone she meets.

She says, "Yeah, I guess you're right. But I keep it SHORT!"

I Did It-I Quit it

2010-09-11T11:53:00.001-07:00

I quit my second job!

That was not an easy decision to come to, I tell ya.

When I thought about the wages I was going to miss and the tips I was going to miss it was a very difficult decision indeed!

But when I thought about the evenings I would now be home with my family, the extra hours in the week I could spend with them, the weekends (actual FULL weekends!) that I could take off and do something...like go see my 81 year old dad and see my sister...I think I've seen them twice in 2010 and they only live 2 hours away...and having time to visit my son...

...well when I thought about those things, it was an easy decision. My heart felt lighter just thinking about it!

So, I'll finish up September at the restaurant, then I'll only have one job! I've been working two jobs for over 2 years now, and I'm so excited! I'm a little nervous about our financial situation, but hubby has a house to build so that should get us through the winter.

Yay!

Go Here-Read This

2010-09-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

So I don't have a new blog post....yet, but go over to Momza's House and read her post "Of Rocks and Families". Her perspective on life is amazing!

More Scenes From My Wildlife Camera

2010-08-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

I’ve had my camera out again with limited success. We have a very friendly doe that frequents our yard and surrounding area. I refer to her as “that crazy doe” because I’ve seen her trying to play with the neighborhood cats, and she doesn’t seem fearful of anything.

One night I hung the camera up just across the street and sure enough the next morning I had some 30 shots of the doe. It was very reminiscent of a fashion shoot. As I clicked through it was almost like watching a stop-motion film. She apparently loves the flash of the camera. This has done nothing to diminish her "crazy doe" reputation, I might add.

Towards the very end I saw a little something else pop into the frame.

Then he was gone. Camera shy, apparently.

And another night we got this handsome fella:

Of course he must have heard from the dogs that the rear view is the preferred pose.

Last night we again put the camera across the street. Our cats followed us, and I figured they would turn around and follow us back to the house. Ha! The ensuing cat herding is very meticulously recorded on film.

This is when I went blind. I swear I had an imprint of the flash on my eyes for an hour!

Success at last! You can see Bitty-Bit's rear tucked under my arm.

Today we brought the camera in and relived the frustration of chasing stubborn cats around in the dark...

but then...
wait for it...

Oh, yeah! (By the way the two small rectangles you see in the distance are our livingroom windows.)

Ok, so it's only part of a bear, and a not-so-exciting part of a bear, but at least we're getting closer to a great shot! We're definitely trying again tonight!

Anti-Christ Like

2010-08-27T08:48:00.001-07:00

I got some disturbing news yesterday. It seems the large community church in our town, the one who's parking lot is filled every Sunday, has for a topic of their adult Sunday School class, Mormon Bashing.

Now I don't think that's the actual title, but that's essentially what it is. They spend an hour every Sunday discussing how horrible the Mormon Church is. Really. There's a website and everything for their parishioners to learn more, including hateful cartoons and misinformation. That's fantastic, isn't it?!?

In contrast, we at the Mormon Church spend our adult Sunday School time learning lessons from the Old Testament, and how we can apply those teachings to our lives. Hmmmm. We spend absolutely ZERO time bashing other churches. I know, amazing, huh? In fact I've never heard any disparaging words about other faiths in a lesson or in casual conversation at my church.

The really discouraging part is that this lesson isn't only taught at the community church in my town, but other churches around the country. Is this really teaching people to be "Christ-like"? Is it uplifting to go to church and listen to hate? Are they really this threatened by the LDS Church that they need to spend time convincing others that we're a bunch of whack-o's?

I'm so thankful that I attend a church that focuses on the teachings of Christ and not hate-mongering.

What Would Jesus Do, indeed!

Touched By An Angel?

2010-08-22T21:18:00.001-07:00

I was working the snack bar one afternoon at the lodge, and my co-worker Linda, said to me as she was finishing up handing out soft serve ice cream cones through the service window, "I'm tearing up."

I had no idea what she was talking about and then she said, "See that lady?"

I did see the older lady who was in the group just at our window walking away, enjoying her ice cream cone.

Linda continued, "She looks just like my mom. And when I handed her the ice cream cone she touched my hand and it felt just like my mom's touch. She touched me real gentle like my mom used to and it gave me the shivers."

Amazing, right? That little old lady gave my friend a piece of her mom that day and she didn't even know it.

An Independent Dog is a Good Dog

2010-08-22T21:08:00.001-07:00

It was back to school for the kids this past week and back to my special ed classroom job for me. I wasn't looking forward to the kids going back, but I was looking forward to me going back.

I was working all week fostering independence with the little one that I'm a 1:1 aide with, and getting us both back into the swing of things.

Apparently I took my work home with me, because on Friday I went to feed my dog, and had her dish in my hand. She was at my side, and we headed for the door so she could eat on the porch per usual. The door was cracked open just a little, and without thinking, I told my dog Suey, "Open the door!" She kind of looked at me and I repeated the instruction very enthusiastically and added, "You can do it!"

Being the smart dog she is, Suey nudged the door open with her muzzle, and I stood there laughing at myself when it dawned on me that I had treated her just like the kids in the classroom.

Now that she has the door opening figured out, I guess I'll build on her skills until she can fill her own dish and feed herself! Good Dog!

A Thousand Words?

2010-08-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

Time off from work

last week before school

visiting all my favorite people

Japanese Tea Garden

Swimming

Taco Salad, Cupcakes, Panda Express

Then Camping

baby catfish, granite islands, Uno in the tent

dirt, filthy feet, bear raid, time with cousins

Red Vines, giant marshmellows, dark chocolate

Dakota smoked sausages

chipmunk friends, potty promenade, corn rockets

sand castles

kayaks, ready on the beach

A beautiful end to summer...

Wildlife Camera--There's Just No End To The Fun!

2010-07-29T15:20:00.000-07:00

We are always seeing wildlife in our backyard, from deer to skunks to bears, so I was excited to get a game camera. I think these type of cameras are generally used by hunters, but I thought it would be really cool to get pics of our wild neighbors with it.

You strap the camera to a tree and it has a sensor that is triggered by motion. It has a flash for night photos too.

So far this is what we've captured

Dog butt--center of picture, tan, curled tail

Dog butt---black and white, possible border collie mix

Dog butt--our dog's. Checking out smells from other dog's butt left in her yard.

But wait, there's more. Here are some shots of me and the girls trying to herd cats. We always make sure all the cats are in at night, but last night two of them were being very "playful" and wouldn't come in. I'd just get within reach, and they'd take off. It was such a fun game to be playing at 10 at night, and then add to that the flash from the game cam going off every time I moved.

The glowing orbs are Princess's eyes, and just to the right you can kind of see a gray Jo-Jo running away from me. I'm pretty sure he's laughing. And because no photo is complete without a butt, we have a picture of mine this time.

Here the girls came out to help me. I like how Sis has glowing eyes in this one, and of course we have the obligatory dog butt again.

I think our next plan is to put the camera up in the forest across the street from the house. Hey, we may even get lucky and get a picture of a deer butt! Wish us luck!

Favorite Wildflowers and Stick Horsie

2010-07-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite wildflower

the Leopard Lily.

I'm fortunate to have them growing in my backyard right now.

I have fond memories of seeing these flowers on hikes with my dad. He was big into identifying plants and flowers, and I think this was one of his favorites too.

Dad always called it a Tiger Lily, or "tagger lily" as he would say. I still call it that as well, and was kind of disappointed to know that it had a different name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here is our little Nat. Our friend had this old broom when we were camping and told us just to throw it away when we were done with it. That was all well and good until Nat saw the potential of a stick horse in it.

She gave the broom a bath and then created the face, mane, tail, reins and even a saddle out of paper, and transformed it into Cupcake the stick horse.

I was proud of her ingenuity. What a funny kid!

Camping, Finally!

2010-07-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

I swear, with my schedule it is so hard to go anywhere, but we finally were able to make a camping trip.

Such a gorgeous lake!

My friend made Pineapple Upside-down Cake in her Dutch oven. It was fantastic!

And no, my dog isn't dead, she's sunbathing. I'm surprised there weren't buzzards circling! She's such a freak!

Of course we did lots of kayaking. We explored the granite islands, and saw a bald eagle and lots of osprey. The waves and wind challenged our paddling skills which was fun too.

And we went for a hike. What a wonderful few days.

Fellow Bloggers....Help!

2010-07-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

I keep getting comments in an Asian language. Possibly Chinese. I am not sure. I think this person is really a devout follower of my blog because they never miss commenting on a post.

Anyone else have this happen? I finally have changed my comments to moderated so I can choose to reject them. It's not that I dislike my Asian admirer, but because this is the internet and my blog is rather mundane, I doubt the commentors intentions are pure.

Does anyone know if this some sort of scam or spam or phishing or whatever else? Does anyone else have such an avid foreign admirer? Help please!

(Oh gosh, what I would give for an interpreter to read the comment I get from them on this post! Although I deeply expect the comments are trying to get my to buy a penis enlargement cream.)

Good News, Bad News

2010-07-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

We were at a river on Monday for a picnic, and there was a campground nearby. I took Nat, who has always had a flushing phobia, to the bathroom. It was a pit toilet.

She wasn't that thrilled about that prospect at all, so I told her, "The good news is you don't have to flush!" Which she did really appreciate, and it made her experience more "enjoyable", shall we say.

Then I broke the bad news to her, "The bad news is nobody else had to either." And then I was regaled with lots of "Ewww! Gross mom! Don't say that! Ewww!"

Oh, man, how I love a set-up like that!

Baptized on the Fourth of July

2010-07-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

Well, Nat got baptized today. She is such an awesome little kid. When asked just before if she was nervous, her response was, "Nope!" She was just ready to get the show on the road!

Nat in her 4th of July baptism dress

(Here she is in her church-issued jump suit ready to take the plunge!)

When she went a couple weeks ago to see the bishop for her interview before getting baptized, he told her she could choose anyone who was a priesthood holder to baptize her. We made a list of all the men in church that she knew. She looked at the approximately 12 names, and immediately narrowed it down to 2. One was our home teacher, and one was our former bishop.

Since the former bishop's health isn't that good, I suggested our home teacher, and she was very comfortable with that choice. We asked him, and it was a go.

I absolutely love our home teacher and his wife. He's been visiting us now for about 6 months, and he is so diligent about seeing us every month, bringing a lesson, and saying a prayer for our family. It's just wonderful. His wife is very spunky with a dry sense of humor and a sassiness I didn't expect, and we hit it off immediately. I was surprised to find out that he was 81, because he certainly doesn't seem that old.

At any rate, when we were at our ward's 4th of July party I found out from someone else that our home teacher was so excited to be asked to baptize Nat. They said he was just beside himself, and that this was his first ever baptism. That was so cool. I'm so glad Nat chose him and gave him that honor.

I French braided Nat's hair, just like I did with Miss Moo on her big day. That way it eliminates the issue of hair not going fully under the water,which would mean getting dunked again, and it also makes it easy to just dry off and go back for the rest of the baptism ceremony. In fact, she was the first one dressed and back in the chapel. She beat the young boy who was baptized and the two men who did the baptizing. No one's going to wait around for that girl!

Our former bishop was the one who did the Confirmation after her baptism, so she was able to have him participate in an important part of the ceremony as well.

It was a great day and we're proud of our little girl.

Psychic Dreamer

2010-07-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

We have been looking forward to going to our ward's 4th of July pancake breakfast and pool party all week, so it wasn't too surprising that I dreamt about it last night. However, it was one of those dreams where I was trying to get somewhere and it just wasn't happening. In my dream I was trying to make it to the breakfast, but I ended up running late and I was driving on dirt roads with lots of forks, and couldn't find the right road to turn on. It was very frustrating.

This morning the girls and I got up and headed for the ward breakfast. I knew ahead of time that part of the highway would be shut down for the town parade, but I figured I would be able to get to the detour and get around just fine. Well, no such luck. I could not get out of my own little neighborhood.

I asked one of the guys at the road block if there was a way around to the detour, and he said, no, you're just going to have to hang out for an hour and a half. Easy for him to say! We had pancakes calling our name!

I did some quick thinking and decided to drive on the back roads up the hill to the next town (some 10 miles) then drop back down into our town, hit the detour and make it to the party.

As I was driving on these DIRT ROADS and RUNNING LATE I remembered my dream. Kinda freaky really. It was pretty darned accurate!

Well, we were only 45 minutes late, there were still pancakes left and we had a great time. I don't ever recall having a dream that close to predicting real life though. Weird.

Fourth of July Baptism

2010-07-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

We're planning a Independence Day baptism. I'm really excited for my little Nat. She finally made the big decision to be baptized.

She didn't take this decision lightly at all. We had talked about it as her 8th birthday approached, and she really wasn't sure. I tried to nail down what the issue was. When she was 6 and Miss Moo was baptized she said she didn't want to when she turned 8 because she was afraid of water getting in her nose. I asked if that was still the reason, and she said no.

After much prodding, she finally said, she didn't want to because if she got baptized she would always have to go to church. Smart girl. She knows it's a commitment. (Also there has been a lot of changes in Primary lately, and Nat doesn't always adapt easily to changes. One of the biggest changes is that I'm no longer in Primary with her. So, with all that church isn't as fun anymore.)

I then explained to her, that baptized or not, as long as she was under my roof, she'll be going to church anyway. Then I told her that I didn't go to church for a very, very long time, but because I was baptized I always knew Heavenly Father was with me, and that I was a member of the church, and that got me through some tough times.

Well, last week we were offered to participate in a double baptism with our former Bishop's grandson, and that's when Nat decided to "take the plunge" as it were.

I'm proud of her for thinking this through, and not taking it lightly. I think her baptism after church on our Nation's Independence Day will be a wonderful day for lots of reasons.

Their Compasses Work

2010-06-30T17:31:00.000-07:00

We've always had a health club with a pool in our town, but at the end of summer last year it closed due to financial reasons.

No one was happier than my kids to see that it recently aquired new owners and was once again going to open to the public.

They advertised everywhere with a flyer that read, "Grand opening pool party, everyone welcome". It then listed the membership prices. Well, to me, it read like there would be free swimming, so we showed up on Saturday ready to swim. We soon found out that it was not free at all but $9 for the first person, and $5 for every person thereafter in our group.

I told them I wasn't interested, but took a minute to go say hi to a friend I saw sitting poolside. She said she read the flyer and thought the same way I did, that swimming was free, but since she already told her kids they could go, she paid $24 to swim for the afternoon. She said she was even charged for her infant.

The girls were pretty disappointed. We left and headed for the car and to go swimming at the pool where I work, which is free for us, when the owner came out and said, "Hey, what's it worth for you guys to swim today? Five bucks?" I thanked him, but told him no, I misinterpreted the flyer and we were just going to go somewhere else. Then he said we could just go in for free. Again, I thanked him, but at this point was feeling a bit awkward.

He finally left, and I asked the girls what they wanted to do. They had really wanted to go to this pool with it's fun slide and everything, but to my surprise they said no, they didn't want to go in for free because it wasn't fair. They said how could we got sit next to our friends and use the pool for free after they had to pay so much money?

I was pretty proud of them all. Their moral compasses are working.

I've Finally Graduated!

2010-06-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

I went to church for the first 11 years of my life, then I was inactive for the next 27. About 8 years ago I started going again, and because the girls were little, I hung out in Primary with them, and was soon called as a teacher and then a counselor in Primary. I only got a chance to go to Relief Society a handfull of times, so when I was released from my Primary calling, I was pretty excited about getting to go to Relief Society and hang out with the rest of the ladies.

That first Sunday, as I enjoyed the freedom of going to Relief Society with the women and not having to teach in Primary, I left the room and was immediately motioned over by one of the Bishop's counselors who wanted to "meet" with me. Well, he of course had a calling for me. Dang, those Relief Society women act fast! They just snatched me up before I knew what was going on.

I only have to teach every third Sunday, so it's not as demanding as my Primary calling, but it IS so much more intimidating to teach my peers. Actual GROWN-UPS. Yikes. This past Sunday was my first time to teach, and I was quite nervous. I told the ladies that if they messed with the person sitting next to them, or asked me if they could go potty, it would definitely make me feel more comfortable!

I always felt like my calling in Primary was perfect for me, because after having been inactive for so long, I really needed to start over from the beginning, and teaching the very basic lessons to the kids was perfect. Now that I've got that down, I guess Heavenly Father felt it was finally time for me to "graduate" to Relief Society!

Nuthin' to See Here...

2010-06-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

But there's new stuff at my other blog.

A Heart That Was Heavy And Full At The Same Time

2010-06-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

We live in a small community in a small county. Our county has somewhere along the lines of 50,000 residents, so we're kind of a close-knit bunch. The small towns often come together to support families through cancer or loss of a home through fire or any number of other hardships.

Recently in our little town, we lost one of our young men who grew up here. He was a Marine, killed in action in Afganistan.

Our town puts up flags all along the few miles of highway that serve as our main street, during Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and Independence Day, and as soon as word got around that this young man lost his life, the flags appeared.

Soon thereafter storefront signs changed to show their support of this Marine and his family and we heard that everyone planned on gathering on the highway on Sunday afternoon when the family returned to town to show their support.

After church on Sunday we gathered the girls and headed down to the designated area on the highway. It was overwhelming to see the show of support from our small town. There was an estimated time of arrival, but we were soon told that it would be delayed. The county sheriffs met the family at the county line to give them an escort, and it seems that not only was our town out on the highway, but every town from the county line on in, was out in force, lining the highway, flying flags and showing their support.

Many of us stood in the sun on the side of the road for a good hour and a half to two hours to honor this family and the sacrifice their son made for our country. It only took a few seconds for them to drive by, but it was the most worthwhile afternoon I've spent in a very long time. To see this young man's mom put her hand against the car window as she passed by as if to reach out and touch all those who were there for her was worth it.

My heart was heavy and full at the same time.

A sign in town said it best, "Let us insure that our future was worth all his tomorrows".

It Sure Beats Being T.P.ed

2010-06-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

I had a conversation today about having campaign signs stolen that reminded me of an incident from my teen years.

It happened in the early 1980's. It was election time and there was a candidate running for supervisor who's last name happened to be the same as my first name. All around town were signs proclaiming, "MOODY" in big bold letters and under that, "supervisor".

Well very early one morning, round about 2am, My dad is awakened by someone knocking on our front door. He gets up to answer it, opens the door, and is astonished to see at least a hundred of Mr. Moody's campaign signs in our front lawn, along with a few of his 4'x8' plywood signs propped against the tree and cars.

Dad woke us all up to see this amazing display. I must say I was quite flattered to see my name all over our lawn. It was quite the tribute. However, my dad was FREAKING OUT. He knew we'd get in big trouble if anyone saw all these stolen signs, so unfortunately he plucked them all up out of the grass and stashed them in the garage before anyone else woke up and saw them.

I'm pretty sure my dad surreptitiously got rid of the signs, but thinking back I don't know why we didn't just call this candidate's office and tell him what happened.

None of my friends would ever admit to the mischief, but I pretty much knew who had done it.

At any rate, the gentleman in question went on to be elected and is now a senator, so I guess all those missing signs didn't hurt his campaign too badly. It did however, make a very shy, awkward teenager feel very special.

A New Blog

2010-06-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

So, I decided to start a new blog on kayaking, because I'm such an expert and all now. It's called The Unlikely Kayaker. It has a total of two posts right now, the one featured here yesterday, and a kind of introductory post. Go on over and check it out if ya want...

Being a Dork Pays Off (Finally!)

2010-06-01T08:17:00.001-07:00

(Being nagged by my teenager to update my blog also motivates me, so here I go.)

Back in August when I started my job at the school district, I received my first paycheck and immediately knew they had made an error and paid me WAY too much for just a few days work. So I called the office and told them that they made a big "whoopsie" on my paycheck, but they shouldn't feel bad, because nobody's perfect. The kind office lady told me no, it wasn't a mistake, that they spread my pay out over 11 months and that my check reflected that. Alrighty then!

Well, a couple weeks ago, someone from the office called to talk to me to let me know that when they upped my hours in November that that wasn't included in my regular pay, and I should've been sending in time sheets each month. By the way, she wasn't near so kind and understanding and I got the distinct impression that she couldn't believe someone who worked at a school could be so dumb. (In my defense, I work at the preschool level, so we don't do the higher math!)

Ya see, after the first paycheck incident, I figured the district office knew what they were doing, and so I never worried about my extra hours, because the nice office lady was going to make it all work out, being that she's so smart and all.

Well...luckily I log in every day in the class room, so I had a record of all my hours and I proceeded to fill out time sheets for the last 6 months and turn them in.

Anyhoo...this all coincided with spring weather, and my own case of kayak fever, and a pretty new tandem kayak that I'd been looking at, but couldn't figure out where the money to buy it was going to come from...and that's how being a dork paid off for me! The girls and I brought our new kayak home yesterday thanks to my inadvertent "kayak savings plan".

All weekend the weather had been spectacular (and I of course had been working double shifts at the restaurant so I couldn't enjoy it), but yesterday (heretofore known as "Kayak Day, Woo!"), was cloudy. It was still warm though, so I had no worries that when we got back from our kayak retrieving errand we could still go out for a paddle.

Just about the time we pull up to the house with our pretty new kayak strapped to the top of my car, it's starts to rain. Sigh. I was surprised though, that Miss Moo and Nat still wanted to go out. We put the seats, life jackets and a towel in a plastic bag to keep them dry, put the kayak on it's little cart and took off for the lake (about 2 blocks away).

We only got a couple weird looks for taking our kayak for a walk through the neighborhood. You can tell that Miss Moo is so thrilled to be helping me.

Here is my hearty "crew". As "captain" I sit in the stern of the boat (looking stern, of course) and the crew has to launch us, so I never get wet (hee, hee!). Also of note: this boat has a center seat area in case one wishes to paddle it solo, but I found out that if I strap the seat from my other kayak there, all three of us can fit. It was really a treat to all be in the same boat (cuts down immensely on the whine factor!)

You can see the rain on the lake. It never really amounted to much, or got us very wet, and we had so much fun!

Now don't you wish you were a dork like me?

(Side note: Sis, who was home on her lunch hour from work, had to help me unload the kayak from the top of my car because the little girls wouldn't be able to, and that's why we ended up walking through the neighborhood with the kayak, rather than driving it down to the lake, which made us look like DORKS, but since being dorky is working for me now, I didn't care!)

Best Quotes from My Mother's Day Cards/I Love My Mom Because Cards From School

2010-05-10T22:01:00.001-07:00

"I love u more than my horse collection."

"She is 5'3" but most of it is her heart"

"She loves to go to Walmart to buy hoodies"

"I want u to stay with me all my life."

"Thank you so much for loving me as one of your own" from my son's girlfriend, Cass

3 Things for Mother's Day

2010-05-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

Three things I learned from my mom:

1. Be a good homemaker.

Mom had a saying, "Keep your dishes done and your beds made and everyone will think you're a good housekeeper." There's definitely some truth in that. If your kitchen is clean, and your bedroom tidy, the rest of the house can be a disaster, but it doesn't look as bad somehow.

My mom was an exceptional housekeeper. We always had a picture-perfect, well organized, tidy home, but mom was more than a housekeeper, she was truly a homemaker. From delicious food, to wonderful holidays, she made our house a warm, comforting, fun place to be.

2. Value friendships.

My mom kept in touch with all her friends, from newly found friends to childhood and high school chums, she always made phone calls, sent cards, and took time to visit her friends.

She and her best friend from childhood kept up a monthly family dinner night for as long as I can remember. They would take turns as to who's house we would go to, but once a month I could count on us having dinner with Pattie Anne and her family.

3. Enjoy your children.

Mom truly enjoyed being with us. From regaling us with stories of our babyhood, to cheering and supporting us through each awkward stage of growing up, she was our rock, and she let us know that we were her greatest gifts.

Now for three things I've learned from my kids:

1. Lighten up and be goofy.

Don't worry so much of what people are thinking, just have fun!

2. Don't make assumptions about genetics or gender.

Everyone's unique and full of surprises! That little boy wasn't a handfull, but that little girl sure was! And just because two people look very much alike, their personalities will each develop differently.

3. Always put people before things.

Nothing (no thing) can replace time spent together.

Which brings me to my all time favorite mommy-baby poem:

Rock A Bye by Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep,
I'm rocking my babies, and babies don't keep!

Even though my babies aren't babies anymore, this poem still reminds me to treasure the time I have with them, and that other things can wait. I wouldn't be a mother without them, and that's the greatest gift I've ever been given!

This Was My Week...

2010-05-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

...as a special education aide.

We have an autistic boy in our classroom who's mom was frustrated because it was torture to give him a haircut. She and the boy's dad would usually get the clippers out and while one would physically restrain him, the other would shave his head. It was traumatic for everyone involved, but taking him to a barber didn't work either for the same reasons.

My teacher knows that I used to cut hair, so she asked if I would be willing to attempt cutting this young boy's hair. We figured we could get in a snip here and there during school, and if it took a week, so be it.

Well, Monday was the day, and I began by showing the boy my scissors and combing his hair a bit. He complained a little, but I was actually able to get a few snips in. Then we took him to the computer and while he was watching his favorite little video, I began cutting. If he fussed, we would pause the video, If he was quiet and let me cut, he could watch it. I got the whole right side of his hair done this way.

After lunch the other aide (aka my partner in crime), suggested we take him to play in the sink and see if that would work. He loves making faces in the mirror, so this seemed like a good idea. It turned out to be a success, and I was able to finish his hair. Our teacher called his dad, and told him about the hair cut, and when she got off the phone she said, "You just made that man's day!" Which in turn made my day as well!

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We have another little boy who was a tiny preemie, and one of the things we have to work with him on is his muscle tightness. He walks on his tip toes because he's just strung so tightly. Our teacher has asked me to sit with him and "stretch him" during morning circle, so he's my little buddy now. I sit behind him and we go through our stretches each morning. He has taken to fiddling with the digital watch on my wrist, and the other day he managed to put it on military time AND set the alarm to go off every hour! I couldn't even figure out how to fix it, but it made me laugh. What a little stinker!

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At snack time on Thursday the boys were enjoying peanut butter on graham crackers, and one little guy had got it all over his nose. Another little boy comes up to me and says real quiet, "His 'smell' is dirty." I thought that was just so cute! These little kids just really charm me.

Harbinger of Spring

2010-04-30T16:05:00.001-07:00

Spring has been taking it's own sweet time getting here this year, so any small sign that it might be here to stay is most welcome.

I have gotten into the habit of not shaving my legs in the winter. You know, the added warmth of a "winter coat" and all. (Or laziness...)

For some reason the 25-year-old woman that I work with at the school thinks that this practice is disturbing. Because of that, I felt it my duty to desensitize her by showing her my hairy legs at every opportunity. You can imagine how much she enjoyed that.

Well, the other day I came in and asked her if she knew what a "harbinger of spring" was. She didn't. So I flashed this at her:

She was thrilled to know that I had shed my winter coat and spring had finally arrived at last!

And in a related story:
In our classroom we use "icons" to communicate with the kids who are non-verbal, and they come in everything from foods, to colors, to actions (no spitting!). Well my very thoughtful 25-year-old friend surprised me with this icon today:

Okay, I get the hint already!

So If You See Chocolate In Between My Teeth, You'll Know Why

2010-04-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

I went to the dentist today to get a tooth filled. I'm a new patient of his, and I was feeling pretty comfortable with going to him (well at least as comfortable as I get). I got settled in the chair, was given the tv clicker and was enjoying watching Rachel Ray cook in HD, when the dentist came in.

He asks how I'm feeling, etc.

"Can I get you anything?" He asks?

I say, "No, I'm fine.", but what I'm really thinking is "Yeah, I would kill for some chocolate right now!"

Then he says, "Are you hungry? It's going to be a while before you can eat again."

I tell him yeah, I'm always hungry, but I'll be ok.

"I have some chocolate cookies that my wife made. Would you like a couple?"

[cue sound of needle skidding across record] What the what? Chocolate cookies?!

Gee, let me think... "Um, sure that would be nice."

So, yes, I ate chocolate cookies right before my filling today. My dentist is now my hero, and I am SO his patient for life!

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And off topic, but how ironic is it that while I'm researching how to rid one's home of carpenter ants, one of the dirty buggers waltzes across my computer screen? Yes, irony at it's finest, my little 6 legged friend! [cue crazy evil laughter]

I'm Updating My Blog. I Hope You're Happy Now

2010-04-14T15:03:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm being a bad blogger, because last night I hear a call from the livingroom from my eldest daughter, "Mom! You need to update your blog!"

So, I'll just start with that. The eldest daughter has moved back home, after living with her dad for the last 9 months. And it's good. And she has a LOT of stuff. But it's still good.

I wrote previously about how Mike is the temporary night janitor (till the end of the school year) at the girls' school, and how the girls love going there after hours to hang out when I'm at work. Well now, my little Nat won't even come home. Her dad starts work right when school's out but she prefers to stay instead of coming home so that she can help all the teachers. She loves to sharpen pencils, stack books, sort recycling, or anything else that she's asked to do. I would even go so far as to say she a little obsessed. She's such a funny kid.

Oh, and speaking of that, it's kinda funny how kids have adapted electronic-speak for daily stuff. When I ran my daycare I always thought it was funny how the kids would be playing something (not a video game, mind you) and then say, "let's pause the game". The other night a nude Nat comes running in from the bathroom, and I can hear the water in the tub running, so I ask her what's up, and she says that she wanted to hang out with us until the hot water finished "loading".

Ok, now I've officially updated my blog. Yay.

Great Grandaddy's Legacy

2010-04-01T21:39:00.001-07:00

I recently started a family tree on Geni.com to share with all my far-flung and long lost relatives. Everyone has been very excited about learning about our ancestors and I'm lucky enough to be in possesion of a lot of old photos and other family history tid-bits.

I've always wanted to find a way to share all this with my extended family and now thanks to the internet I can.

My 3rd great grandfather left behind a jounal entry that was translated from Danish. I've always thought that he wrote it for a reason--that being to leave a legacy to his descendants. Up until now, I have been the only one benefitting from this gift, but I am so happy now to be able to share it.

So, without further ado, here is the translation from Danish of my 3rd great grandfather's journal of his conversion to Mormonism and his subsequent immigration to the U.S. He was a Utah pioneer and later, at the age of 55 returned to his homeland on a mission for the Church.

Journal of Niels Hendrick Borreson
Born August 2, 1826

First some incidents from my childhood. I was born Aug. 2, 1826 in Skovhus, Solve, Ostereojborg, Presto Amt on Sjaelland, Denmark. My father was a school teacher for 20 years and was born 1779 on Moen; his name was Peder Christian Borresen. My mother’s name was Maren Kjestine; she was born on Moen March 7th, 1777. They were good to me. I went to school from my 7th to my 14th year, was confirmed by Pastor Sotoft and had second place in the group of confirmants. Then I was apprenticed to a blacksmith, Hans Rasmussen, who was my father’s neighbor. I was here only three months, as the work was too hard for me. For some time I was with Jens Skoffod, a fiddler, but soon gave that up, and May 1st I started working on a large farm for Hans Person of Baggebolleby. There I learned to plow, harrow, and cultivate the soil. Nov. 1st I went to another farmer, Boe Rasmussen, in Kragenby, and there again I cultivated the soil.
In 1846 I went to Copenhagen; arriving there May 2nd, I started working for Captain From. Later I was with a merchant Goldager. Later again with Sjofer. Finally on April 1st 1848 I joined up with the Danish Army and fought against the Germans, who had attacked Denmark. On May 29th I fought for two hours in one battle and on June 5 I fought for 9 hours at Dybbol Hill. Later I was assigned the job of taking care of sick and wounded horses. During the latter part of the war, from ‘49 until April 1st ’51 I was coachman for Lieutenant Borthty (spelling of this name questionable). I left Augustenborg April 2nd 1851; arrived in Copenhagen April 4th and was married to Hanne Marie Nielsen Nov. 1st ’51.
We started a small retail store and I got a position in the Federal Post Office sorting letters to be sent to all the capitals of the world.
During this time I became convinced that the Lutheran Church was wrong in it’s teachings. On Christmas Day 1852 I was in Holman’s church and in the sermon the minister said that though we lied, stole or killed; still the blood of Jesus atoned for all our sins, and we should be saved as the robber on the cross was forgiven. That was not my belief, and when I heard about Mormonism, I realized that was what I believed. I was baptized (Mormon) April 12th 1853, and my wife had been baptized April 8th 1853 by Ebbesen Jessen on Enikeswern, Copenhagen.
We continued our retail store on Reine Street, #200, and I kept my position in the post office until we left Denmark Dec. 25th, 1853 together with my brother Philip Borresen, my sister Anne Marie Olhus Borresen, my niece Trine Amalie and her husband Peder Christensen and their two girls, Anne and Sofie.
When we arrived at Gluckstadt, we stayed there some time, as the frost was so hard and the ice was so thick that the harbor was ice-bound. The people were so mean to us poor Mormons that we had no peace, night or day. Then our President, Mr. Olsen, proclaimed a day of fasting , and we prayed to God to deliver us, and He heard the prayers of 800 to 900 of his children who had left everything for the faith in the Gospel God had given them. The storm came and it rained and the ice broke. As the ship was ready to sail, we left Gluckstadt, but the sailors were bitter and spiteful and treated us poor Mormons very badly. I was seasick and my sister Marie bought a cup of coffee, which I drank. It only made me more sick, as it was made with salt water. This made Marie feel so bad that she cried.
Finally we reached Hull City safely, and from there we went by train to Liverpool, where we had to wait for passage to America. As far as I remember, 32 children died while there, and among them was my 18 month old daughter Herik Jette Marie Borresen. With hearts full of sorrow, we poor fathers and mothers had to leave them behind.
At last we boarded Benjamin Adams, a large ship, and we set sail. A few days out my niece’s little girl Sofie, 8 years old, took sick and died. She was put into a sack weighted with a stone and dropped overboard to the great sorrow of her father and mother, Peder and Trine Amalie Christensen. After nine weeks we arrived at New Orleans where Peder Chistensen died. Four men took him off the ship and we saw him no more.
Now we were transferred to a steamboat and sailed up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. From there we sailed on another steamboat to Kansas City. Many of our dear brethren contracted cholera and died and were buried there. The rest of us bought open and covered wagons and started on the long trek across the desert which took us 17 weeks. The Indians took some of our cattle, so President Olsen commanded us all to carry our guns on our shoulders. When we came to Fort Laramie (Wyoming) the captain with 32 soldiers promised us compensation for our loss. They pursued the Indians, but were ambushed and killed by the Indians, who then took over the fort.
We finally arrived in Salt Lake City October 5th, 1854 and shortly after that my sister Anne Marie Olhus died. We lived in Salt Lake City till the first of February, then we moved to Little Cottonwood and lived in a cellar, but we could find no water. I prayed to God and one day I took my spade and looked for a place to dig a well. As I walked, the word came to me to dig where I was standing, and I’d find water. I obeyed, and when I had dug about 6 feet, the clear spring water gushed out of the ground about 2 feet. Niels Madsen and Frederik Jessen came and got water too from the same well.
Dec. 11th we went to Lehi and on the 14th we went to Provo. Feb. 1st we went to Spanish Fork and the 16th of March as far as I remember, we went to Sandpete and Mount Pleasant. And the first of April 1861 we moved to Spring City.
I fought all through the Black Hawk War. I was out in the mountains during the winter of 1857 to guard Jorgensen’s Army. We captured a picket guard and he said he saw 100,000 harvesters.

My notes: When he talks about his conversion, and that he didn't believe what he heard in the Lutheran church, I think he meant that he didn't believe that you could sin and then repent on Sundays just to sin again. The way it's written almost sounds like Mormons don't believe in the Atonement, which isn't true. I think a little something was lost in translation there. Some of the other references too are a little vague. Not sure what he means in the last sentence about seeing 100,000 harvesters. He really had a rough life as a pioneer (as they all did), and I can't imagine the courage it took to go back as a missionary to his homeland some years later and repeat the trip across country and the voyage across the sea. He is a great example of faith and obedience.

Sharing the Legacy of Family History

2010-03-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

When my mom passed away I inherited all the family history stuff. Among this was a journal from my 3rd great grandfather Niels Hendrick Borreson (pronounced Burson). I've always wanted to somehow share this legacy with others, especially long-lost cousins, so recently I started a family tree website to do just that. I was able to scan the journal entries and a lot of the old photos and upload them to share. I hope that it will inspire my extended family to learn about their ancestors.

My mom's side of the family is rich in Utah pioneering/Mormon history. I knew the maternal side (the Borreson side) was, but with a little searching last night, I am coming to find out the paternal side was as well.

It's exciting, but at the same time humbling to be recording the names and dates of my ancestors. Often there were 8, 9, 10 or more children but several of those little ones were lost in the first few years. As a parent, it really touches me to think about how difficult life was back then.

I found a picture last night of Niels Borreson's house in Spring City Utah:

along with this short description:
"This house, one of the oldest stone houses in Spring City, was constructed of two-foot thick random rubble stone. Borresen, a miller and horticulturalist, was born in Denmark in 1826. He converted to the LDS church in Denmark and came to Utah in the late 1850s. He moved to Spring City in 1860 and had three wives. He was a veteran of the Black Hawk War and was imprisoned twice at the Territorial Prison in Sugarhouse for practicing polygamy. In 1994 a wood frame wing was added and the original house restored by Peter and Inge-Lise Goss."

I knew that this ancestor was a polygamist from my family history research. I didn't know that he went to prison for it however. He married two widows; one who's husband's death was listed as "died at sea - on way from Norway to United States". These women both had 3-4 children and then went on to have 3-4 more with Niels. He fathered his last child at the age of 62!

At any rate, I plan on publishing his journal entry here over the next few days. It's interesting, and someone may just be looking for information on this prolific Utah pioneer and I would love to share what I can.

Pinch Me

2010-03-17T16:20:00.000-07:00

Nat: "Do people have to wear green to bed so they don't get pinched in the morning?"

Mom: "Only if they have a brother. Since yours is in San Francisco I think you're safe."

A Kid's Dream

2010-03-12T22:31:00.001-08:00

So imagine you're somewhere between the ages of 10 and 7, and you get to go to your school after hours and have the place all to yourself to do whatever you want.

You go into the top secret teacher's lounge, where students are strictly prohibited. Then you sit in the secretary's chair and pretend that you're in charge of handing out tardy slips.

You go up on stage and put on an improptu show with your sister that involves hula hoops, dribbling balls and being insanely goofy. You set up the microphone stands and take turns manning the stage curtains.

Then you go to the library to chill out. Do a little browsing among the books, lounge a little on the bean bag chairs, and cuddle with the stuffed animals.

Later you play hide and seek with your sister. So many classrooms to choose from. You find all the secret nooks and crannies, and doors that connect to other classrooms. You run and chase and laugh till you can't breathe.

The best part may be having the entire gym to yourself. You find the stash of balls, jump ropes, and scooter boards and use every one. You put on your Heelie shoes and run and skate with reckless abandon. It doesn't get much better than this!

Imagine how fun it is to explore your school with no rules, no teachers, no time limits.

Yep, that's what Nat and Miss Moo got to do tonight while I worked. Mike has been the substitute night custodian at their school this week, so this evening they got to go hang out with Daddy at their school. I came to pick them up 5 hours later and they STILL weren't ready to leave! They had just WAY too much fun!

I Am A Complete Dork At 2 In The Morning - Consider Yourself Warned

2010-03-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you've all seen this video:

Well, that's what happened to me at about 2:30am this morning, but with the added twist that it was completely dark---the power had gone out, the curtains were drawn and there was no light at all. I literally could not see my hand in front of my face. I drew the short straw, and had to go feed the cat so we could get some sleep, but of course there was no flashlight to be found on either nightstand. I knew I had one in my purse...in the dining room. That would mean running the gauntlet blind through three rooms to retrieve it.

I felt around with my feet on the floor until I found my slippers...as I start to get up I realize they're on the wrong feet. Oh well. The first few feet are easy, I just have to keep my hand on the edge of the bed... but with dread, I know that I'll have to let go of this comforting anchor and navigate No Man's Land across the bedroom unassisted to get to the door of the bathroom.

No Man's Land involved waving my arms in front of my face while sweeping the floor ahead with my foot to avoid tumbling over the dreaded Ancient Sleeping Labrador. I was so worried about this happening that I completely overshot my goal, and ended up in the corner of the bedroom. As my flailing arms start hitting the clothes on top of my dresser I realize how far off I am, and because this so surprises me I start to giggle.

Mike can't tell if I'm laughing or crying at this point, and I'm really starting to lose it, so I can't form a coherent answer to his queries. This makes me laugh even more, and then I think how ridiculous I am flailing around, lost in my own bedroom, with a bad case of the giggles, and well, that really DID IT, and I started to snort!

Oh, gosh once the snorting started I just broke out in hysterical, crazy woman laughing (while I'm still making my way through the house with arms waving and feet darting out feeling for obstacles). I am just delirious and having a good old time by now. I'm giggling, snorting, and tripping over random stuff, which of course wakes up the girls...and the dogs...and the rest of the cats, who are all wondering what in the flip is happening.

I finally find my purse, fumble through it, find the flashlight, feed the *bleeping* cat, and make my way back to bed. The girls are fully awake now, as is Mike, and because the girls are afraid of the dark, I have to go find them a flashlight so that they can go back to sleep.

I woke up this morning and was still chuckling a little about what a spectacle I was in the middle of the night, all because of a pestering, hungry cat!

I Went to a Board Meeting

2010-03-10T21:16:00.000-08:00

I went to my first school board meeting ever tonight. I've always been an involved parent, just not THAT involved.

Our district like many others, is facing a serious budget deficit. On the proposal to be cut are things like the ski program, music, the school nurse among other things and/or jobs. It is scary times, especially in California.

The good news is that we have an awesome school board, a bunch of committed and active parents, and our district gets funding mostly from property taxes and NOT from the state like other districts, which means that we are sitting in a much better position than most.

There were rumors that our small school up here was going to be shut down. Thankfully that is just a rumor and things would have to get really bad before they did that.

It was an eye opening experience, and though I arrived feeling anxious and full of dread, I left feeling hopeful and thankful for our little school district and our close knit small community.

Dental Phobia

2010-03-09T20:20:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I went to the dentist. Big Whoop, you say? It's been 12 years and I'm a dentalphobe, I say!

My main excuse for not going for so long was my lack of insurance. I didn't want to go to find out I needed work only to not be able to afford it. My other excuse was that since as far back as I remember I've had to have dental work, and I never, ever had a time when I went and was told "no cavities". I was happy if I could count how many cavities I had on ONE hand, not two!

But yesterday wasn't so bad. And it was actually the first time I've had "no cavities"! I do have a couple fillings that need to be replaced, but remarkably, nothing urgent, no root canals, no gum disease (my fears) and it will be affordable thanks to my insurance. Huzzah!!!

Today I took my girls to finish up their dental treatment (all my kids have unfortunately inherited my crappy teeth). And in stark contrast to my experiences as a child, they actually look forward to going to the dentist. What's not to love about a safari themed office where you can play video games while you're waiting, bring a dvd to watch while you're getting your work done and nitrous oxide is standard? The dentist demonstrates each tool on their finger (Mr. Thirsty, Mr. Tickle, etc.), and puts a smiley face on their fingernail to show how the sealants work. Afterward they go "shopping" in the toy box and get a balloon.

Yes, dentists have come a long way, and I'm glad for my younger kids that it has. As for me, I'm proud that I finally had the courage to go, and that 12 years of neglecting the dentist wasn't as bad as I imagined.

From the 7-Year-Old:

2010-03-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

Conversing with her 10yo sister, "So you know how cops like sushi?"

WHAT!? Cops like SUSHI? I thought it was donuts or something! Of course her sister goes along with it like this is common knowledge. (And I'm sorry I can't remember what the rest of the conversation was actually about.)

Then later, "I love-slash-hate Tuesdays."

What 7yo says "love-slash-hate"? Where the heck did that come from? And it sounded like it was mostly a hate thing due to what school work is required on Tuesdays anyway. Too funnny.

This Was My Week And It Was Good (not feeling the title today...)

2010-02-27T12:59:00.000-08:00

This week in review...

Saw Cam and Cass' play last Sunday. I had to play hookey from church because Sunday's my ONLY DAY OFF! and I don't even get that off this week...wah! and I have to work 13 days in a row, between both my jobs...wah!, wah!, until March 7th when I get a day off FINALLY!....

...okay, now that I have my whining done...back to topic...

Sis and I drove down to "The City" (ya know, code for San Fran), and saw the play that Cam and Cass have been working so hard on the last couple months. It was at SFSU and they did High Fidelity. It was fantastic, but would have been NOTHING without the fabulous assistant director (Cass) and the drummer in the band (Cam). I was impressed by the talent and it was nice to have a day to hang out with my big kids.

Thanks to Sis for driving all the way home when I got a migraine and had to take my heavy duty prescription medicine. I felt great, but since I was having a hard time putting together a coherent sentence, I figured I shouldn't be operating heavy machinery, even if said machinery is only a Honda Civic.

Another highlight this week was getting my order of Girl Scout cookies. Along with Lemonades and Shortbreads we got a box of the Holy Grail of Girl Scout cookies: THIN MINTS, and I decided, why should we torture ourselves with doling them out one at a time, making them last, rationing, all that hooey...let's just eat the dang things and enjoy the heck out of them. So we did. We ate the whole box in one evening. And it was Gooooooooood!

Then Miss Moo wrote an essay for school featuring ME (of all people!) and how I should get a Best Parent Award:

My mom has two jobs and is not appreciated! I want her to be. Every day she works really hard. My mom absolutely must win an award for being the greatest mom ever.
One reason is she makes me laugh and is very funny. My mom acts really funny around the house. Around the house, she dances even when there isn’t any music on. Sometimes she makes jokes even off topic.
Another reason is she takes me shopping. She takes me shopping for toys, clothes, bikes, and, books. She takes me to a lot of different stores like, Wal-Mart, J.C.Penney, Ross, and T.J.Max. When we go school shopping we go all over the place.
The final reason my mom should win an award is for taking care of me. When I am sick she stays home with me and helps me get better. She cooks delicious food when my dad is not home. When I am having teeth problems she calls the dentist and makes an appointment for me.
My mom should be given an award for being a great mom. My mom helps little kids with autism. You have to give my mom an award for helping people, taking care of me, making me laugh and taking me shopping. You might not know my mom and you might not think she is great but, she is to me.

And this pretty much made my week, 'cause I was feeling like a pretty crappy, neglectful mom. Plus I like the part about me not being appreciated (hee,hee!), and making jokes "off topic". Just to explain the reference to me cooking: luckily Mike does almost all the cooking, but should he be absent, I make an attempt to heat something on the stove, which may or may not be mac and cheese.

And then Sis came up and spent the afternoon with me yesterday, which helped my demeanor immensely, even if she couldn't tell, and I still seemed sullen and whiney.

All in all, a good week!

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

2010-02-23T17:28:00.000-08:00

Funny how I came to work with special needs kids. I mean really. The only experience I had with people who had mental disabilities was from my childhood, and it was extremely negative.

I had a distant cousin who had Down Syndrome. I saw her only occasionally at big family get-togethers, usually at Easter. She was quite a bit older than I was, and I was WARNED about her. Due to an incident involving another cousin of mine, I was specifically warned not to wear necklaces when she was around because she would try to grab it, and would choke me in the process. I was further led to believe that she was abnormally strong, and if she were to latch on to me, I would be lucky to survive.

I was so afraid of this sweet girl. It made me so nervous to be anywhere near her. I really didn't even want to go to any events that she might possibly attend.

I think that this girl probably did touch my cousin's necklace, and I imagine that my cousin over-reacted and her drama queen of a mother embellished the horror (or lack thereof) for her own enjoyment (my aunt was actually the mentally unstable one, as we would all find out much, much later). The story of the necklace grabbing and my cousin's narrow escape from death at the clutches of this girl soon became a family legend of sorts.

Because of this, the mentally handicapped always made me nervous and uneasy. Just by chance I ended up subbing in special ed when I signed on with the school district as an aide. As soon as I met the precious little ones afflicted with Down's, autism and other disorders, all my old fears and predjudices flew right out the window, and I fell in love, especially with the Down Syndrome kids, whom I've come to find out, are the sweetest and gentlest souls on the planet.

Just last week I came across this post which touched my heart. It's encouraging to see that people with special needs are more readily accepted and understood now, and I regret that I lived a good deal of my life with a bias against them.

Milkshakes are Special Ed Approved

2010-02-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

The kids in our class get these little containers of strawberries with their school breakfasts, and being that they're preschoolers, they usually share a container and we put the others in the fridge for another time.

Well, we ended up with a bunch of these little containers and the teacher had an awesome idea...we needed to make strawberry milkshakes!

She went and got some vanilla ice cream then we put some in a cup for each kid, added a little strawberries, a little milk, and had them stir (sequencing and fine motor skills) then they had to suck it through a straw (oral skills), plus they were sitting at the table practicing their social skills. See, it was all in the name of education! (And of course we grown-ups had one too...role modeling, you see...yeah, that's the ticket!)

Trying to Catch Up on This Whole Blogging Thing

2010-02-18T20:49:00.000-08:00

I was just starting to get back into the blogging mode and then hit another one of those "meh" kinda moods. I know my sister appreciates reading my blog, so in honor of her, here is what's been going on in my uber-exciting life.

Well, with the president's holiday weekend, we were very busy at the restaurant and I made good tips both Friday and Saturday. On Friday we were visited by a family that has come before...and we remember them...and especially their children, VERY WELL, if you get my drift...what's a nice way of saying that they were hellions? Well I can't think of a nice way of saying that so there ya go.

This group of people consisted of a couple sets of parents and about 6 kids aged 8-11ish. The hostess and I were literally babysitting these kids as they roamed the restaurant unrestricted by their parents.

Let's see, I had to take salt and pepper shakers away from 2 of the boys who had ventured near the fireplace with them and planned who-knows-what kind of science experiment involving fire, salt and pepper, then I had to run them out of the bar because they decided it would be fun to rearrange all the barstools, tables and chairs in there; after that I shooed them away from the hostess station/cash register area where they were trying to sneak behind the "employees only" gate and steal from the bowl of after-dinner mints that the hostess had to finally hide from them. Later, after they had left and I was bussing their table I found one of our spoons broken in half and another nicely bent. They obviously did that right under their parents' noses. Sheesh! What kind of parent lets their children act like that in public?

The good thing is that since our restaurant is a private, they will be hearing from the general manager, and won't be allowed to come again and let their children behave that way.

We had a huge crab feed at the restaurant on Sunday, which I renamed "Happy Crabentine's Day". We again worked our fannies off, but we all went home with a big bag of fresh crabby leftovers. Yum!

Yesterday Miss Moo went downhill skiing with the school -her very first time at downhill- and ended up falling and hurting her wrist. Nothing broken just a slight sprain.

About an hour before I had to go pick Miss Moo up from the school, I was trying to close one of our old-timey wooden sash windows which was being stubborn because of the wet weather, and ended up slamming the tip of my middle finger in it. Oh, ouch! Surprisingly enough I refrained from using any hard-core curse words and instead muttered "mother of pearl!" and "dammy sammy!" numerous times to spare little Nat's innocent ears. I did have to go lay down for a bit. Holy heck, fingertips are sensitive!

Speaking of curse words, tonight I ran to the store, and playing over the loudspeakers was the song that goes, "Haven't you people ever heard of closing the G-D door?". On the radio they edit out the G-D, but not at our store, apparently. In fact, this was the first time I'd heard that song in it's full curse-word glory. And mind you the G-D part is 80% of the lyrics to the song, so it's not like you could miss it.

I was kind of walking around, thinking, "Seriously? Do they not realize what they're playing? Did some kid say, 'Hey can I play my cd?' and they didn't question it?" I will definitely let them know about it. I'm sure they will hear from a lot of other folks too.

That's about it here in my little part of the world. We've been enjoying our "spring tease" with all the warm weather and sunshine, but we aren't dumb enough to think that spring is actually here. It's nice to pretend for a few days though.

A Nose Like A Bloodhound

2010-02-06T09:38:00.000-08:00

Thursday Mike picked up the girls from school and Nat got into his pick-up and said, "Your truck smells funny Dad." He and Miss Moo didn't smell anything unusual, so he didn't think much of it.

He dropped the girls off at home and drove to the market where his truck caught fire. It was an electrical fire and luckily got put out before it became a major disaster, but definitely put his truck out of commission. Well, that explains what Nat smelled.(Mike will now have to get around in his old Land Cruiser that I swear is held together by rust alone).

Nat has always had a sensitive nose. When she was little, she would cry if we drove past a skunk because the smell was so strong to her. And there was also the time driving through the city, when she announced, "I smell French fries." We didn't come across the fast food restaurant until about 1/2 a mile later. She also can't stand the smell of banana bread baking. I guess it's just too sweet. Strange little kid.

From now on if she says she smells something we are going to take heed. If she says she smells smoke we're going to call 9-1-1 and ask questions later. Someday that nose of hers may just pay off...I wonder if she can sniff out truffles...

He Will Be Missed

2010-02-02T19:29:00.001-08:00

...and remembered.

My Kind of Movie Star

2010-02-02T18:38:00.000-08:00

We have the nicest older gentleman that comes in regularly to our restaurant. He's so kind, and fun to chat with. He likes to side tip the bussers and waitresses rather than add the tip to the bill. He'll call you over real low-key and then slip the money in your hand (and he's quite generous-both with his money and his hugs).

He's been battling cancer, and lost his wife a couple years ago, but his will to live and his love of life are so strong. He never fails to make us all feel grateful and happy when he arrives.

He is a Swiss immigrant and I had heard that there had been a film made about his life. All of us at the restaurant have wanted to see it, but just have never had the chance.

Well, when I started my job at the special-ed preschool, I discovered that one of the other aides was full-blooded Swiss. Being that she was only 24, and obviously not an immigrant, I asked her how that came about in America of all places! She said her parents were both Swiss and happened to meet. Well, I couldn't resist asking if she happened to know our Mr. Ruckli from the restaurant. She said of course she did, he was a distant relative. And I also found out she owned a copy of his film which she was happy to lend to me.

We watched the film the other night. It tells of Fred immigrating to America when he was 19, because he wanted to do better than he could in Switzerland. He wanted the American dream. He ended up working at his uncle's dairy in the SF bay area, but shortly thereafter the Korean War started and he was drafted. If he didn't fight in the war he could not become a citizen, which is what he wanted most of all, so he fought.

Years later he returned to Switzerland and was at a local bar; he told how he was proud of the fact that he could buy everyone there a round of drinks because he was now a successful American citizen. He told them how in America people don't call each other sir, mister or doctor, everyone knows everyone by their first names.

Also in the film, it shows him caring for his elderly wife who suffered a stroke and subsiquently lost her memory. He said now in their later years they could have traveled, but she wouldn't have gotten anything out of it, she was "in her own little world". When Nat heard that she said, "It's just like she's autistic, huh?" Interesting how my girls' understanding of others has expanded by just my working with special needs kids and telling them about them.

A couple days after we had watched his film, Mr Ruckli came into the restaurant with his daughter. I was excited to tell them how I had finally seen the film and how I had enjoyed it. He was surprised when I told him how my 7 and 10 year old watched the whole movie and enjoyed it as well.

It's just a simple little film about a war veteran, a father, a husband, a proud American and a man I know and admire. I would rather recieve a hug from him than any of your "Hollywood types". Mr. Ruckli is my kind of "movie star".

Losing...

2010-02-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

a Father-in-law and a grandfather.

It's rough. He has cancer and won't last for more than another couple days. He has his family by his side which is all anyone would want.

I don't really feel like this is blog fodder, so I haven't posted about it. It's too real...hurts...brings up memories of my mom's death.

I do know that I have a testimony of Jesus Christ, and that He lives and because He lives we will all live again as well. Families ARE forever. This I also know is true. And that's what gives me peace right now.

Tea For Three

2010-01-31T20:11:00.001-08:00

On the way home from church today, the girls decided we needed to have a tea party. I made tea and bagels with cream cheese, and the girls each made their own specialties: Nat made cinnamon rolls (bread spread with butter and sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar then rolled up and cut into small pieces) and Miss Moo made her famous apple crisp which is just apples sliced up with cinnamon, powdered sugar with a little water added. I have no clue why she calls it an apple crisp, but it's good, so who am I to argue? We added some sliced oranges, and some fudge my friend gave me and it was a lovely tea!

One Tough Cookie

2010-01-31T19:52:00.000-08:00

Miss Moo slammed her finger in a door about a month ago. It was pretty nasty at the time and she got very white and almost passed out. From then on every day the finger and nail turned different colors.

Finally the finger recovered and she was left with a black nail. She painted all her nails black, so it wasn't very noticable. Then she and Nat were playing rough and her nail almost came off. Ugh...that was about a week ago.

After wearing band-aids and babying it for a week, she decided the nail had to go. I give her credit. I wouldn't have had the stomach for it. While she watched her favorite show she wiggled that nail and got it off. I know. Ugh, again.

She said that it made her tummy feel weird, and Nat and I said it made our tummies feel weird just to think about it!

After she made the big Nail Detachment announcement, I asked her if she threw the nail away (as in "please, please, for the love of Pete, don't let me see that thing sitting on the coffee table"). She said, "No, I saved it so I can show Dad 'cause he'll want to see it." Being that he's a guy and all, he probably WILL want to see it. As for me...Ugh, ugh, ugh! My tummy feels weird.

Back to Basics

2010-01-27T16:11:00.000-08:00

We’ve had a week of storm after storm and it took a toll on our little town. Sixty-plus electric outages and over 5000 people affected. This is roughly the population of our town and surrounding Podunk suburbs. I was feeling a bit guilty when our little neighborhood only lost power for a few hours and most of those during the night. All around town folks were talking about trees that had come down and taken out power poles, or how long they’d been suffering without their modern conveniences. Yep, we got off REAL lucky.

Then it happened. Out went our phone line on Sunday. Due to our own economic circumstances we’ve been without cable and cell phones for about a month, so we’ve been toughened up a bit by that deprivation. But no phone line? And in our world that equals no internet! Yikes. No contact with the outside world. No watching tv shows on HULU. No local news or weather. UGH!

The first day wasn’t so bad. I broke out the bread machine, dusted it off (it’s been neglected for years) and made bread. We played some games, read, went to sleep early. And with the tons of snow we got I was feeling very Little House on the Prairie-esque.

The second day not so much, the third, forgettaboutit! And the fourth…finally in the afternoon, contact with the outside world again. How Laura, Mary and Pa every made it through The Long Winter is beyond me!
Wow, getting back to basics. Ain’t it grand?

(Here's a photo of what we found upon opening the front door after the last storm)

"Pa! put down that fiddle and get a shovel! A BIG shovel!"

Coping

2010-01-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

A January Paddling

2010-01-15T15:22:00.000-08:00

This week has been filled with gorgeous, if not unseasonable, weather. On Monday I made a plan to kayak today if the weather held (Fridays being the day I'm off work at noon and don't have to show up at the restaurant till 4:30, so I knew I'd have plenty of daylight and time.)

I came racing home, loaded my boat and took it on the short drive to the lake. Ahhhhh...me time. And I didn't feel guilty.

I really wouldn't have guessed I'd get a chance to take my kayak out until spring, certainly January wasn't on my mind at all. I have to confess it was nice to go out just by myself. I love having the girls go with me but there's always someone who's wet, or tired, or doesn't want to go to that end of the lake, etc. It was just too cool to do what I wanted and get it out of my system so that I can really cater to what the kids want to do next time.

Here's my moment of zen...

and just bliss...

I did have to share the lake with my fellow paddlers though:

It Was a Test!

2010-01-02T11:03:00.003-08:00

Remember my post about how I read everything, and the chopped red ants on the order board at the restaurant?

Well, when I worked on New Year's Eve, I had to check out the board. Usually I see if the same stuff is up there that I remember from last time or if there's something new for me to read.

This time among the lists of items I saw a circle with a slash and then "of ur bznz".

They're out of some kind of beans?...none of your beans?

Hmm...no, that's not it....

"None of your business!" I shout in victory!

The chefs just start laughing. "Yeah we put that up there for you to see if you'd notice"

I did. Ha!

Savoring the Last of My Christmas and My Chocolate

2010-01-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

I really think this was one of our best Christmases. Such fun, such laughs, such great times together. For me the best present is always having all my kiddos under one roof enjoying each other's company. That's always the best gift.

Christmas has wound down, the Christmas decorations have been boxed up. Good old 2009 has wound down as well. This is always a melancholy time: the packing away of the Christmas magic and hoping I did a good job to make it special and memorable for my kids the way my mom always did.

Then the whole new year thing, which makes me look back--well, literally because as I put up my new calendar for the year, I look at all the pages on my old one: appointments, work schedules, play dates, birthday parties, short trips, awards, school performances, and I remember what the first of last year was like and it seems like so long ago but not that long ago all at the same time. Weird.

And now our Christmas break is almost over. Only two more days and it's back to work and school. I have so cherished this time. With my school job, I get the same vacation as the kids, and my restaurant job has only worked me 3 days over the last 2 weeks. I haven't had two days off in a row in a very long time and then I get all this! Wow!

The girls and I have totally gotten off schedule. We are such night-owls and sleeper-inners now. That first week back is going to kick our collective butts!

I am proud of myself for getting a lot accomplished with my time off. I have been going through all the boxes that I have been storing (and moving) for the last, gosh, must be 18 years. I have boxes and boxes filled with the kids' school keepsakes. Entire boxes for one grade and ONE kid. Goodness, every lunch menu, spelling test, doodle, worksheet, you name it. I have weeded through each box and kept the treasures and tossed the rest, and I've been making myself be brutal.

My goal is that each kid will have a plastic storage box of special toys, baby blankets, first outfits, etc, a scrapbook of school artwork, and a binder with awards, special cards, stories they had written and other fun things (not counting their photo scrapbooks, but that's a whole other project!) and over the last 2 weeks I've come very close to achieving this goal. (Hearty pat on the back.)

I'm almost at the end of the box of chocolates that my son had given me for Christmas and it reminds me of this time of year...the days (and chocolates) were plentiful at the beginning of our break, we had everything to anticipate and look forward to and it seemed like we had so much, and now my box is almost empty and my days off with my girls are almost gone too. The chocolates taste just as delicious if not more so...I slowly savor each one, as it is with my days, I try to savor that time that I don't have work and can just be at home with my kids. Sweet, indeed.

Why You Dirty...

2009-12-24T11:35:00.000-08:00

The other night we were out looking at Christmas lights and we came upon a house with synchronized lights that was just incredible. I pulled out my camera to take a picture, and wouldn't ya know...the battery was dead.

I kind of muttered, "Why, you dirty baa...Bugger!"

From the back seat of the car I hear Natalie, "Did you hear that? Mom almost said bastard! She was going to say, 'Why, you dirty bastard!'"

How could I NOT laugh after that! I did give a little reminder that if I stop myself from saying a word, chances are it's not appropriate for her to say either!

Be a Reader!

2009-12-19T22:12:00.001-08:00

I certainly can't be the only one who reads everything, can I?

At the restaurant I'm always reading the white board that the chef uses for orders from the suppliers. I'm often sneaking up there and making a correction or two (skewrs? no, skewers!) or asking what something means in messy chef short-hand (chopped red ants? really?! no, actually chopped mxd (mixed) nuts) although after pointing that out, a few days later he did write "chopped red ants" on there just to see if I would notice. I did. Immediately.

One of the waitresses who has been there some 15 years said she didn't know anyone's last name. Apparantly she doesn't read the names on everyone's time cards when she clocks in and out.

I've never really thought about it until the chef pointed it out, but am I really that unusual? I'm sure most people read everything too, right? Box labels, scribbled notes, office memos, signs, t-shirts, those mandatory employee rights posters? Please tell me I'm not the only one. I'm starting to get a complex here.

The Santa Beard Question

2009-12-18T22:10:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I was asked a very good question: If Mike has a big hairy face already, then why the fake beard when he was playing Santa?

Well, he tried it without the beard and it just didn't look Santa-ish enough. There's just something about the flowing white beard that's more Santa like and to be truthful, I'd rather he wear a fake beard than encourage him to grow his beard any longer than it already is. That's just too much hair for my liking.

Here's a couple photos of the girls in their elf suits. The person who loaned Mike the Santa suit had the elf hats and shoes, I made the little felt tunics, and the girls just wore turtle necks and tights underneath.

Here Comes Santa

2009-12-17T16:31:00.000-08:00

Mike got to play Santa today at a local preschool. He has been wanting to do the Santa-thing for years, and I guess if you go gray early and have a big beard, what the heck.

He's been bugging me to be his Mrs. Claus, however I don't think I'm NEAR old enough for that kind of thing! I have a little pride! He did talk Nat and Moo into being his elves though, so the three of them got to ride to the preschool on the fire truck (lights and sirens and everything!) and hand out goodies to all the little ones.

The girls were thrilled. I had kind of coached them the night before about being elfish, talking about the North Pole and such, and having an elf name (Nat was Sparkle, Moo was Ming-Ming). I told them it was like having an acting job. Nat was cute last night studying up on the reindeer names before bedtime. I didn't get to go as I had to work, but one of the helpful firefighters took pictures (I love those guys!)

Christmas Happenings

2009-12-16T21:36:00.000-08:00

Miss Moo had her first concert performance where she played the bells and did a fabulous job. The cool thing about the bells is that they're very easy to hear over the rest of the instruments. I love, love, love kids' band performances. This is my third kid who's blessed me with this treat. I think music is SO worthwhile (even though I dropped band in 5th grade when I found out we had to actually PERFORM--IN FRONT OF PEOPLE. I really missed out and regret not pursuing music when I was young.)

We also went to the best church Christmas party ever. It was a Polar Express theme, and let me tell ya, the couple that was recently called as the ward activities directors really go out when they do a party. Fabulous! All the kids participated in a little skit about the true meaning of Christmas, and then got to sit on Santa's lap.

My little angels waiting for their turn to see Santa.

Not only Santa, but Mrs. Claus too!

Sis and I put together homework stations (got the idea here and here) for Moo and Nat for one of their presents. They turned out so cool, and I know those girls will love them considering how much they love to play school. Whether it will actually motivate them to do their homework is debatable!

(They will have markers, pencils and glue sticks in their plastic pockets on the lower left.)

Snow Day! Wooo!

2009-12-07T18:07:00.003-08:00

A very cold storm blew through last night and into today, leaving us with 18" of snow and several inches in the towns below us that never get snow. We started out getting a call from the schools that it would be a 2 hour delayed start, but a short time later they called a snow day.

I was up getting ready to go when I got the snow day call, and I promptly returned to bed under my down blanket with dreams of hibernation. Bliss.

I woke up a couple hours later to the sounds of the girls playing and a power outage. The perfect day to put up our tree, drink hot cocoa (thanks to our woodstove), play games, and watch the girls go sledding.

As for decorating the Christmas tree, the cats could not believe their good fortune: we brought a tree INTO the house, and put dangly things all over it! Merry Christmas to them! At least that's what they think! There's no way to keep 3 kittens out of the tree, so we put the unbreakable ornaments at the bottom and we're hoping for the best, with the squirt bottle loaded and ready when they get a little too out of hand.

I had a bad angle on this photo of the girls following a crash, but it's so funny. Miss Moo has snow in her glasses and Nat's laid out flat laughing her bum off.

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Just now the girls and Mike are sitting on the couch watching Monday Night Football. Nat asks Mike, "Are you rooting for the Packages?" What?!? Oh, she meant the Packers!!! Too funny! They'll probably be known as the Packages from now on in our house!