Halloween 2008

Just a quick post so you can see our costumes for Halloween 2008.

Wendy made Brayden's spider costume and Moira's fairy costume. Sabrina was going to be a blue dog, but yesterday she decided she wanted to be Belle instead. They both got gobs of candy. We did the trunk-or-treat at the church again this year. They were very good about saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you." We were most happy about that. Wendy spent so much time working on the kids that she was not able to get into a costume. I wore my graduation cap and gown complete with my ropes and honors medal.

Adam

Everybody does it...at least once

We are so glad to have Annalyn staying with us for a couple weeks. We can hardly wait the next 6 years until we have a built-in babysitter in Sabrina. Until then, we take our chances. Wendy and I were able to go wander through the isles of Wal-Mart and the local grocery store on Saturday because of Annalyn's kindness. No good deed goes unpunished, though. When we got home Annalyn had just left the kids working on a craft project to get ready for work. None of us expected what we found. It only took about 30 seconds to discover that Moira had more crafts on her mind than cutting out paper robots.


In the couple minutes they were left alone, Moira decided she wanted to try her hand at hair styling. She grabbed a couple fist-fulls of hair and snip-snip gave herself a haircut at the kitchen table. She cut off about 6 inches on both sides of her head. I tried to muster up some kind of repremand, but it didn't look too bad to me. Wendy, on the other hand, did not think it was that good. I will let you be the judge.

See, you can hardly tell. Of course, if you look at her shoulder you can see the abrupt length change to her back. We were truly fortunate that she only cut the sides and not the oh-so-typical bangs. Wendy demanded that I call up our hair stylist and get an appointment ASAP. The gal we normally go to was not working on Saturday so I made an appointment for Monday night. That simply would not do for Wendy so I called and rescheduled for that day with anybody that was available.

Not too bad for a patch-job. You know what they say. The difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is about two weeks. Annalyn felt so bad that this happened on her watch, but all I could do was laugh. I mean, we are talking about a 3-year-old. After all, who hasn't tried to give themselves a little trim when they were that age. I know I did - the night before school pictures.

Adam

Back to da grind, mon!

In case you haven't noticed the economy is not doing so good. The prophet's counsel sounds better and better with each passing day. The mantra of living frugally, avoiding excessive debt, and saving for a rainy day is now being touted by society in general. In light of all this, I decided to go back to my old job at the REC Center in Salt Lake as a Christmas rehire. Just for a few months to pay off the car loan. The best part is that I choose my own schedule and I don't have to do all the overtime calls that are a nightly occurrence during the Christmas season due to the inordinately high mail volume. I told Adam today that I might even consider rehiring as a regular if they offer it to me in January. They pay really well, it's a low-stress job, and it's part-time. So, for the next two months I will be spending Mon-Thurs evenings sitting in a chair, staring at a computer screen, and typing away like a mad woman in a massive room that's eerily silent except for the clickety-clackety of 1500 keyboards. I know you're soooo jealous!

Music, again

I got a new calling on Sunday. Actually, they called and asked me Friday night and then I was sustained on Sunday. I'm the Primary pianist. I know you are all shocked that I was asked to do this; it came completely out of nowhere! I've only had music callings for the last 5 1/2 years, not like I could do anything else you know! Forgive me if I sound a little caustic. I'm sure Adam would be feeling this too if he was called into the Elder's Quorum Presidency for 5 1/2 years straight (in three different wards, too). I told my friend Malissa that I am content with serving wherever the Lord called me and that if that meant music callings until the day I died then I was OK with that. But I guess the reality is that I'm feeling a little taken for granted. I do have capacities other than music and I would like to serve and expand my abilities in other ways. And just because other people have dropped the ball on developing their talents and abilities does that mean I have to pick up the slack for the next 50 years. ???

When I was set apart the bishop made some comment about wishing he was musically talented. I kind of got on his case, and the rest of the bishopric too, and said that I hadn't met someone yet who didn't have the capacity to be musically gifted if they chose to apply themselves. The Lord has given us all the ability to do many things and if we, through our agency, choose not to develop those abilities into talents than we miss out on the blessings and also reap the consequences for our weak stewardship.

Sorry to get on my soapbox but I actually gave a talk about this in Sacrament meeting about four months ago. It is a correct principle. I feel very blessed to have had a mother and father who both loved music and played the piano, imbuing me with a love for the instrument. And I'm grateful that my mom continued to sign me up for teacher after teacher as I pushed my way through more and more difficult pieces until I have reached the point where I can serve in the church and not have it be a struggle for me. But I resent church members, and leaders especially, who appear to take it for granted that some people have "got it" (musical ability), and that if they just pray hard enough those people will appear in their ward and the problem is solved. What I have "got" is 25 years of blood (paper cuts), sweat, and tears (fighting about practicing) under my belt until I'm able to perform music with such apparent ease that a bishop has no qualms about calling me to three music callings at a time. Whatever happened to asking people to rise to the call and magnify their talents through the application of prayer, fasting, and hard work? I told the counselor who called me that I had no problem accepting the primary calling as long as they understood that I couldn't play the organ in Sacrament meeting too. I'm still a nursing mother and I need to feed Brayden during the block (11-2 pm). When I went to get set apart, the ward organist was standing outside the bishop's office and made some allusions to the fact that I would be playing the organ for him when he was not available. Adam was quick to remind him that it couldn't happen until my baby was weaned. Thank you Adam! But that didn't stop the bishopric from bringing up my service as a choir director and reminding me of the fact that they don't have a ward choir because they lacked one. I told them that when they found a choir director I would be happy to join the choir!

Now that I've vented I need to go repent of my pride and resentful feelings. But I won't be answering my phone until next year!

Winter is here. BLAH!!!!

Sunday morning I awoke and headed for the bathroom. (You all do it, don't deny it!) As I stumbled for the door I happened to notice that our back lawn was not the normal dark shadow it usually is at 7:30 in the morning. With a great sense of trepidation I pulled the curtain aside and gasped loud enough to wake Adam. He rolled over and said "oh, we got a lot of snow!". Even without his glasses he could see the 6 inches of powder piled up on the deck outside our bedroom. Now, if you guys know anything about me you'll know I hate winter, cold, snow, etc. About the only redeeming thing that can be said for the winter season is that it brings Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in quick succession. Not to mention Sabrina's and Brayden's birthdays. But other than those five things I would be perfectly content without that season. I think we should just eliminate it from our calendars. If I could live someplace that didn't have winter but also didn't get above 100 degrees in the summer I would think life was heaven. Unfortunately about the only place that exists is in Hawaii and the cost of living is too expensive to make it worth my while. Maybe when I'm rich someday (HA!) I'll have a winter condo in Hawaii and retreat there six months of the year. And I will of course invite all of you to come and stay!

By the way, just on the off chance that one of you achieve this first, don't forget that I would've invited you! So, return the favor! (Kind of)

New Ward

Last Sunday was the first time we met as a newly rearranged ward. I've got to back up a little bit. About three weeks ago our stake leaders held a meeting in which they reorganized our stake. They dissolved two of the nine wards and rearranged the remaining wards so that everybody experienced changes. Our ward happened to be chopped into four pieces with each piece going into a neighboring ward. Our bishopric was dissolved and we all got released from our callings with one fell swoop. It was a bit of a shock, but we knew it was needed. As long as we've been in this ward/stake we have noticed that there aren't enough active members to fulfill all the responsibilities of a full ward. I have had as many as three callings at one time. So I really appreciated the inspiration that prompted the change. Of course it is hard not having the convenience of seeing all my friends every Sunday, but I'm not using it as an excuse to never contact them again! The ward we combined with consists of mostly well-established families with older or high school age children. Whereas our neighborhood is mostly young families, so it will create a healthier blend.

So far I am calling-free, as is Adam. But we don't think that will last long. I'm sure they'll come up with something. Though I'm holding out for sacrament meeting greeter! Everybody seems really nice and it's reassuring that people are pretty much the same the world over. We all are trying to do the best we can with what we have. Testimonies sound pretty much the same in the new Springbrook Ward as they did in the old Country Lane Ward.

To prepare the kids for meeting new friends in their classes, we had them practice introducing themselves to others. "Hi, I'm Mo-wa. What's yor name?" etc, etc. After church Adam asked Sabrina to name one new friend she met at church. Her response? "My teacher, but I can't me-member her name." Technically, that was a correct response, but not what we expected.

One thing I'm looking forward to in my new ward? Not having to negotiate Brayden's lunch hunger-pangs around playing the organ in sacrament meeting. The stake music chair happens to be the ward organist! And he's thumping good too!!

Moira's Surgery

One of the waiting rooms at Primary Children's. There are murals EVERYWHERE. Even the ceiling tiles are painted so children on gurneys have something to look at.


Moira had her surgery yesterday and it went better than expected. We had plenty of time to get where we needed to be and lots of toys in the various waiting rooms. Brayden even found toys to play with that kept him busy. Moira knew she was there for surgery and informed everyone that her finger needed to be fixed. The nurses were sure to educate Moira on what was happening next so she would be comfortable.

Moira got to wear yellow scrubs for her surgery. We had talked with Moira about wearing a mask to help her breath. She was so excited about the mask that I think she may have forgotten what it was for. She had her choice of flavors: chocolate, raspberry, root beer, grape, cherry.... When the anesthesiologist listed off the flavors Wendy and I realized it was lunch time and we were hungry. A couple minutes later, Moira was walking down a hallway with the anesthesiologist talking about flavors and we were shut outside the doors. That was a very sad feeling of hopelessness. It gave us a taste of what the first day of school must be like for a parent. Moira had no fears about what was to happen next. She did great. The doctor came out in about half an hour and said everything went well. A few minutes later we got to visit her in the waiting room. By the time I got all of our gear rounded up Moira had already downed two full cups of apple juice. Considering that was all she had eaten in 18 hours it was no surprise to me.

Everyone at the hospital thought Moira was the most darling patient they had ever seen. I take that with a grain of salt because this is coming from workers at Primary Children's Hospital. I am sure they tell at least one parent a day how great their child is. At any rate, that place was wonderful. I have seen ant hills with less workers than what we saw there. We were personally greeted by no less than a dozen employees in the short 4 hours we were there. Not to mention the droves of other personnel there to assist them.

We were told that the digestive system is one of the last parts of the body to wake up from general anesthesia. Knowing that Moira has a 3-year-old's timing for potty breaks we kept asking her if she had to use the bathroom. She repeated again and again that she did not. Wouldn't you know it, we were in the car for 5 minutes and she hollered from the back seat that she HAD TO GO!! We pulled off at some tire place in downtown Salt Lake City (no woman's favorite bathroom spot) and Wendy ran Moira into the loo. Beyond that there were no incidents, although, we do think we saw a street walker and a guy that had just relieved himself against a wall. Not what we would have expected in SLC.

Today, Moira's thumb still looks like it is bent, but we think that might be that she is still cautious with it. The bandage comes off on Saturday and her stitches should dissolve after a couple weeks.