Christmas Letter

It's the most wonderful time of the year. . .

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone during this blessed season. We have enjoyed a very nice year and look forward to the coming year with anticipation.

Updates on our family:

Adam: Still working for Freedom Roads, telecommuting from an office in Blaine Jensen RV in Kaysville. The option to move to Chicago is still out there apparently, but we're not really interested. Serves as secretary in the EQ and teaches priesthood, too. He is really good at being Mister Mom in the evenings when I'm at work. It's been a great lesson for him to learn patience and humor at the hands of our three children.

Wendy: Still working for the Postal Service part time and teaching 6 piano students during the day. Oh, and raising three kids on the side! I serve as pianist in Primary and like not having to stress about my calling. (I figure the Good Lord knew this is all I could fit on my plate right now!) I volunteer in Sabrina's classroom once a week and teach Moira pre-school at home.

Sabrina: (5 almost 6) Started Kindergarten this year. Loves school and her teacher. Has had some difficulty with finding consistent friends, but we're trying to teach her to be an independent soul and not NEED someone to make her happy. Out of 23 kids in her class, 7 are girls so she plays with boys a lot. She is reading up a storm and excelling at math and science as well. Very smart kid. She is also enrolled in dance classes but keeps telling me that she'd rather play soccer. I tell her that we can sign her up for soccer after she completes a full term of dance. *grumble grumble*

Moira: (4) Is learning to read and write this year from Mommy and looking forward to starting Kindergarten next year. She loves to sing and play by herself (despite Brayden's invasions) and LOVES dance classes. She can't understand why Sabrina doesn't LOVE dance too. She is a very loving little girl and keeps me company with her precocious conversation. She grew out of her toddler bed this year so we got her a regular twin bed and she thought it was an early Christmas!! She is very grateful for all the wonderful things she has and tells us so repeatedly.

Brayden: (almost 2) Has made great development strides this year. He now has a vocabulary of about 30 words or so. But he makes up for it in being able to out run, out compete, and out maneuver everyone else in the family. He is a true boy and loves to throw balls all around the house, climb and jump off of EVERYTHING and tease his sisters to no end. Just yesterday he split his lip on both sides (in and out) and we were afraid he'd need stitches, but not quite thank heavens. Then this morning he climbed four shelves in my pantry to get at a crystal bowl that holds suckers and dropped it on the floor. It shattered of course, very sad since the bowl had been a wedding present. We are looking forward to Christmas with him since it will be the first one he is really aware of. !! How exciting!!

We are grateful for our testimonies of the restored gospel and of our Savior Jesus Christ. We wish His peace and love upon all of you dear friends and family this season and throughout the coming year.

LOVE, the Bowers

Have some Christmas cheer. . .

Our ward party was last weekend, (much more fun than last years!) and I signed up to bring a jello salad. It had been one of those days, hauling three cranky kids to three different stores to get everything that I needed and finally getting them home for lunch and down for naps. I didn't feel like it but I went ahead and started my jello salad and as I was putting it in the fridge I realized that I had to rearrange a few things to fit the 9x13 pan in. I grabbed the pickle jar and was moving it out of the way when pickle juice started pouring into my jello! AUGHGHH!! I confess that I dropped a few choice expletives at this point. And I was on the point of pouring the whole pan down the drain but remembered that I didn't have any more jello and I would have to go back to the store to get some more (Heaven help me, not another trip!). So I did what any slightly insane, sleep deprived mother of many children would do: I tried it! And I could only sense the faintest hint of pickley something in the background so I said "good enough" and popped it back into the fridge. I eventually added canned fruit and topped the whole thing with cool whip. Voila!!! One lovely-looking jello salad that noone would suspect of hiding other flavors! And the best part, people actually ate it! So there, who says we can't mix vegetables in with jello salads!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Like mother like daughter

We attended parent-teacher conferences two weeks ago for Sabrina. The teacher told us that she was curious to see what level Sabrina was reading at since she claimed all the supplementary reading was "too easy". Mrs. Winter pulled out one of her books that her own children read in the second grade and Sabrina read the first page with ease. She says that Sabrina is reading easily at the second grade level. Not bad for a kindergartener. Something must have clicked in the last few weeks because all of a sudden the kid is reading EVERYTHING she can get her hands on. The other day I came in to wake them up for school and found Sabrina already awake and reading in bed. And when I tried to take the book away she freaked and wouldn't let go. She wanders around the house with her nose in a book; bringing them to meals, to have her hair done, and in the car while we run errands. Last night when I went to tuck her into bed I felt something hard inside her pillowcase and before she could stop me I tipped her pillow over and found a small flashlight hidden inside! Moira piped up and said that Sabrina wakes her up reading in bed at night after we've turned out the lights! Sneaky kid. I can see that we're going to struggle with trying to keep her nose out of a book long enough to get other things done. I half expect her to start stashing books throughout her room so I won't confiscate them. (That's what I did growing up.) At the rate she's devouring books she'll probably be a few grade levels beyond where she's at by the end of the school year. She has jumped from pre-k level to second grade level in two months!

How did this happen? I attribute it mostly to you Mom and the Writing Road to Reading Program. Incredible! Thanks!

Halloween 2009

Argh!!

Don't even THINK about it. You ain't gettin' my loot.

See Mom! I learned how to throw my knife!

Ahhhh, a little pre-Halloween snack. And I did it all by myself too.
I made my own snack! Ta-dahhh!

Here's the annual Halloween issue of the blog. I was on top of costumes this year and didn't sew any of them. YEAH. Except for Brayden's sash. I cut a length of orange fabric in half and then sewed the ends together so it would be long enough.

Thank heavens Halloween was on a Saturday this year, no last minute rush by myself trying to get everybody ready. Adam was there for reinforcements, like changing that last-minute dirty diaper.

Sabrina went as a cowgirl, Moira was a witch, and Brayden was a pirate. His shirt says: Cap'n Spooky's Pirate Academy; Surrender yar candy!! I died laughing when I saw it at Target. I even taught him to say AARRRGGGHHH. He did that for a few people and then figured out that everyone else was saying Trick or Treat so he started saying his garbled version of it. (Mostly t's) But the argh was so much cuter and more appropriate for his costume. He was really good about carrying his sword correctly and even tried defending himself with it when he encountered a particular scary costume. I immediately rushed to the rescue to make sure no one got hurt.

Our neighborhood had their annual Trunk-or-Treat at the church parking lot. The kids filled their buckets 2/3 full in about an hour only going around once. Love those trunk-or-treats for efficiency. Afterwards we went to the cul-de-sac around the corner from our house where many of our friends live and did the traditional candy-begging. One homeowner turns his front yard into a haunted corn maze complete with smoke machines, monsters, strobe lights and big candy bars if you make it to the end. The kids say they want to go every year, but usually they chicken out at the last minute. I carried Brayden through, Adam carried Moira, and Sabrina snuck through the back way to avoid all the scariness and got a 3' pixie stick as her reward.

We were home before seven o'clock and the kids immediately dumped their haul on the kitchen table and started stuffing their faces. But we still got them into bed by 8:30 pm and then turned all the clocks back. We stayed up and had a Chuck marathon. LOVE CHUCK!!! We stayed up way too late, but it was fun!

New Car

Well, it is new to our family, anyway. In the metropolis of Salt Lake City all registered vehicles must pass a safety and emissions test to have the registration renewed. Our 1989 Camy was getting to the point that if you filled the tank with gasoline and changed the oil you've added 50% to the value. We did not want to have to put any "fix-up" money into that car. It passed all of the required criteria for having the registration renewed in August of this year. That very day the car started giving us issues. First, the engine fans wouldn't turn off when you turned off the car. Then, the battery died. Then, the dashboard warning lights all lit up like a Christmas tree (for no apparent reason). When the car started shaking at any speed we knew we had better be serious about finding a replacement. It was as though the car was saying, "Just let me die in peace!" We had been praying for a car for a couple months. In September, we included it in our fast. Wendy thought she had found the perfect minivan, but when we wanted to go take a look it was sold. That same day a new ad was posted at a dealership we had visited before. We drove down to the dealership and it was everything we were looking for.

Power sliding doors, alloy wheels, tow hitch, late model year, CD/cassette stereo, stow-n-go seating, great handling, and it fit our budget exactly where we needed it to be. It was a true answer to our prayers. Oh, and it does fit in our garage. If you have seen our garage you will know how amazing that is. The kids love all of the new elbow space. They played with the power doors for a week straight. We have had this van for just short of a month now and Brayden still thinks it is his job to close the sliding doors. We bought the van from Henry Clay motors just off I-215 and California Ave. They went out of their way to make sure the car was reconditioned to like new.

Last night we sold the Camry. There is a mechanic around the corner and he gave us $100 for it. The odometer read over 324,000 miles when we turned over the keys. That car has lasted us just over 10 years and 190,000 miles. I bought it for $5000 out the door. I figured that I have put about $15,000 in fuel, tires, oil changes, and maintenance into that car. If you do the math you will see that paying your tithing pays you back REALLY well. Our prayer now is that the Pathfinder and the Grand Caravan treat us just as well for the next 10+ years.

Quick September updates. . .

. . . Because the month is over tomorrow! Yikes, time flies way too fast! Sabrina has been in Kindergarten for a month now and is loving it! It took her a couple of weeks to make a friend, but now she and Brooke play together every recess. And sometimes they play with additional friends too. Brooke is a fraternal twin (brother, Peter) and we're trying to set up a play date with the whole clan. Sabrina is a smart little whipper-snapper. She is reading up a storm, I have a hard time trying to keep up with her voracious appetite for books.

Moira is enjoying all the private play time she gets with Sabrina in school. She goes into her room and plays quietly for an hour or so until Brayden decides to stage a hostile invasion because he's bored. Then all hell breaks loose upstairs and the neutral country (mom) has to come in to settle differences and convince General Brayden that he really can survive without taking Moira's dollies/Pet Shop animals/Cars/etc.

Moira and Sabrina are both enrolled in dance classes and love it! It's a non-competitive combination class. Sabrina is in the Kindergarten class and Moira is in Pre-School level. They spend time learning tap, ballet, and tumbling in each class. I like it because it's fun and good for their social development. I asked Sabrina after the first class how she liked it and she responded that she'd rather take soccer. So I told her to do dance for a year and next year we can enroll her in soccer classes if she'd prefer.

Brayden is still solidly in the terrible two's which aren't so terrible. I can deal with the destructo tendencies and the random fit-throwing as long as I get moments of joy from the sweet, captivating, hilarious little boy that he is. He is a crafty guy and has the fastest reflexes for grabbing candy or treats of any kid I've had. But he is loving and generous when you reason with him. I decorated my house for Halloween a couple of weeks ago and I have these glass block jack-o-lanterns with lights inside them. Every morning Brayden runs around the house trying to plug each one in (with help of course). He LOVES them. I can hardly wait to see his reaction to Christmas.

Adam and I have been doing a lot of canning over the past month, trying to preserve everything. We have been given A LOT of food for free, some we grew, and some we bought for a steal. We have used up nearly all of the jars that we have. My neighbor just offered me the rest of her apples to make applesauce or pie filling with. I think I might have to go buy more quarts to put them up. What a blessing. Every year the bounty gets bigger and bigger. We have had so many tomatoes this year that I've given away about 6 bushels of tomatoes and I still have TONS out there. This is after I've done two batches of salsa, a batch of spaghetti sauce, and a batch of stewed tomatoes. I think I'll try to put the rest up as stewed tomatoes. We'll see if I can give any more away. So far this year we've put up the above plus carrots, peaches, pears, strawberry jam, and beets. We still have to dig up our row of potatoes and I think I'm going to can them rather than cold storage store them. They don't last longer than 6 months in cold storage. So if you want to know what I've been doing with my spare time: there you have it.

Adam and I have decided that we need to start shopping in earnest for a mini-van. We've been saving money like maniacs trying to outrun the train wreck that is potentially our 20 year old Toyota Camry with 320,000 miles on it. It passed safety and inspection at the end of August by the skin of it's grille. But that evening it started breaking apart on us. This is how we know that Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. We had been fasting and praying that the Camry would pass inspections so we could register it for one more year while we got our finances in order to buy a minivan. Just one more year! Please!!! Adam took it to the shop in the morning, it passed, he drove home from work that night and the car wouldn't shut off when you turned the key. I drove the car to work and had to disconnect the battery when I got there. The next day it worked fine and I took the car again and left the lights on by accident and the battery died. Normally the car has an automatic shut-off sensor that turns off the lights but because the sensor was leaving the interior lights on after the door was shut, Adam disconnected it so now it doesn't shut the headlights off. (Makes sense?) Needless to say I was out in West Salt Lake at 11:30 p.m. with a dead battery. I got somebody to help me jump the car and then drove home. Every couple of weeks something else goes wrong with it and we figure the Lord gave us one more year with this car but that doesn't mean the car is going to last one more year. So, we are shopping for a minivan. We've decided on what car we're going to buy and what price range is reasonable and now we're just watching the ads waiting for the perfect opportunity. Fortunately it's a buyers market for the auto industry, along with nearly every other sector of the economy.

In preparation for General Conference this week I have been inspired by one of my Visiting Teachees to start doing morning devotionals with my family. We hold it in the girls bedroom and read a story out of one of their Scripture Story books (from the Distribution Center) and then have family prayer. They wanted to start with the Old Testament so we're working our way through that. Adam figured if we hold this devo 6 days a week it will take us two months to go through the O.T. and then we can start on the New Testament. I figure that we can get through most of the standard works in one year. They don't make a Pearl of Great Price version so we don't count that. It has actually been very nice to spend this time together as a family. It makes getting organized in the morning a little more hairy but I think the sacrifice is worth it.

Tomorrow's the big day

Sabrina starts kindergarden tomorrow. Wendy and I are so excited for Sabrina to have all of those great experiences. We met with Sabrina's teacher last week and it sounds like Mrs. Winters will be wonderful for Sabrina.

We've been preacticing getting up and ready in time for school this past week. It will be a little adjustment since we like to roll out of bed about 8am at our house. We decided we need to push that up to about 7am. We'll see if we can get Sabrina to school on time.

35 minutes 22/25 seconds

About a month ago it came to our attention that the Roy Days' 5k was coming up. Wendy said she would only run it if she had someone to run with her. I volunteered. We stayed side by side for almost the whole run. My goal was to "not get beat by Wendy." The course is the same as last year which meant that the last half-mile or so was uphill. When we were about 400 yards from the finish Wendy picked up her pace, then again at 300 yards, 200 yards, 100 yards, and by the end we were in a dead sprint. She didn't want to get beat by me and I wouldn't let her get ahead of me. In the end, it was my long legs that won the day. I came in a mere 3 seconds ahead of Wendy. We just about collapsed at the finish line. It was fun for to have that early morning "date."

Brayden the Little Farmer

Since Wendy works four nights each week I get to spend time with the kids alone. This year I decided to try square foot gardening in hopes to keep the weed population under better control. While I was out tending my garden Brayden pulled one the kids chairs out into the garden and plopped himself down on it. I turned around and whipped out my cell phone to snap a quick picture. It matches a picture of my father. Maybe Brayden is growing up to be a little backyard farmer.

Air Show

Salt Lake City was chosen as one of three cities to get an Air Show this year put on by the United States Air Force. I took Sabrina and Moira to the Air Show on Saturday along with about 80,000 other people. Even though we could see the planes from our house it is a different feel when you are there on the tarmac up-close. Sabrina was most interested in seeing an airplane that could fly backwards. I was most interested in seeing the Thunderbirds perform. They were the grand finale, of course, and by then the kids were pretty tired of the airplanes. Luckily, they found some friends to play with so I could watch.

Wendy stayed at home with Brayden which was wise because he wouldn't have lasted 20 minutes. I bought the girls some souvenier jet airplanes and they were thrilled about those and played with them for the next week non-stop.

Watch out for striped skunks

Saturday was our 9th wedding anniversary and I decided that I wanted to do something fun as a family. We spent the day at the Hogle zoo in Salt Lake. The kids loved it! The night before Sabrina made a special map of all the animals she wanted to see and took it with her throughout the zoo. Brayden kept yelling at all the animals and had to be restrained from jumping in with the penguins, and the gorilla, and the meerkats. Moira just wanted to go spend her money on a big swirly lollypop at the gift shop. We walked and walked and covered miles. My feet were ready to fall off but the kids were still going (at least until they got in the car and fall asleep). They rode on the train and the carousel. And they watched the elephant do tricks at the elephant show. Sabrina's favorite part was a giant elephant statue that made sounds and even trumpeted the pop goes the weasel song and squirted water out of its trunk at anyone standing in front of it. Ingenious. The animals were pretty docile, probably due to the humidity and the sheer number of people at the zoo that day. (It was packed, memorial day weekend, of course.)

After the zoo we dropped the kids off at aunt Annalyn's house to eat dinner and play while Adam and I went and spent time doing stuff WE like to do. We went to a restaurant supply store that was totally awesome. I know, how boring can we be, but we love it! I bought a big, giant stainless steel bowl, a one-piece metal pancake turner (they're hard to find), and a small sifter for powdered sugar. Again, how boring, but we loved it!! Then we went to go find a quiet restaurant for some good comfort food. We ended up at Mimi's Cafe which we hadn't been to in years but figured it could be a safe option. Oh, it was heavenly. We were early enough that we skipped the dinner rush and ordered food that wasn't overly seasoned or over-cooked. My requirements were for cushy seats, soft lighting, soft music, and delicious desserts. I got it all as I finished off with a decadent chocolate mousse. I've decided that I LOVE french cooking. Adam even got to have scallops and bread pudding. Not together, but they are his favorite foods (besides ice-cream, of course). It was a short date but we were tired. Grabbed the kids, went home, put everybody to bed and fell asleep at 10 pm. I haven't gone to bed that early in months. Does that mean we're old, now?

Because I feel like it

This aloha print background is pretty cute. But it has no significance other than that I felt like it. No, we're not going to Hawaii for our anniversary next week. That's still on my wish list. But our anniversary did make me think of Hawaii and all my great memories from my mission and meeting Adam, etc. As parents we don't get many opportunities to do something just because we feel like it.

Instead of going to Hawaii we're going to the Salt Lake City zoo with the kids. They are super-excited! Sabrina is telling us how she's going to get a map and go straight to the Lions and Tigers and just stay there all day. I'm looking forward to it too. I think we'll have a lot of fun if we can keep our kids from losing themselves and falling in an animal pit.

And next year Adam and I are planning on a real anniversary vacation: no kids, no schedules, no worries. Wouldn't that be heaven! After ten years of marriage it will be time to take a break. But since I have another year before that happens. . . .

Spring is here

Spring has finally arrived at our house. I know it's been a long time since we posted, but spring is a very busy time at our house. We spend a lot of our extra time trying to stay ahead of the lawn mowing, garden cleaning-out, planting the vegetable garden, spring cleaning the house, etc. It's been hectic. We also had ten windows in our house replaced (actually 9 windows and 1 door). The difference is incredible. I had no idea that we were living in such a drafty house. I just figured we were too cheap to turn up the thermostat.

We've also been having problems with our rental property. Looks like we will be heading to the courts once again to deal with tenant problems. After this experience we have definitely changed our format for handling management issues. Even though it's painful, expensive, and time-consuming I look at the experience this way: the only way we learn is from making mistakes. If we did it right the first time we would have no way of knowing why it worked or if we were just lucky. When we make mistakes it forces us to look at the underlying issues and decide if the problem is us, the tenant, the property, etc. That way we actually know why it works.

Onto lighter topics: everyone's doing well. Adam's job is still there, mine is still there, the kids are still there only a little bigger and suntanned. They keep telling us they need a bigger swingset. We have opted to build them a big teeter-totter in the meantime since it's about one percent of the cost of a swing-set. We'll post pictures when it's done.

I've also been busy making strawberry freezer jam. Trying to keep up with the demand in our household. Little kids will eat a lot of jam if it's good! I confess this is a really good batch. Like candy. I bought a flat of strawberries (8 lbs.) for $4.99, spent $6 on pectin and made three batches of jam. Made about 11 pints of jam. Only 9 pints made it into the freezer. IT'S GOOD!!!

Bearded Baby

I just had to post this picture of Brayden. We checked a book out of the library called Whopper Cake. It is about a grampa that makes a HUGE cake for his wife's birthday. It is so big he has to bake it in the bed of his pick-up truck. At the end of the story they give the recipe. It is one of those old fashoned, made-from-scratch type recipes. We happend to have all the required ingredients so we whipped it up. It baked for 50 minutes even though the book said about 30 minutes. It didn't come out of the oven too pretty because we had to keep checking it and that made the cake fall. It was one of the moistest cakes I have ever had. You will have to check the book out of our library to get the recipe.

New Bread Recipe

On Saturday Wendy's aunt stopped by to visit for a little while and brought over a DVD for us to look at. It was a instruction video from Pantry Secrets on how to make bread in less than 1 hour. It piqued our interest, especially since our bread machine takes 2 hours on the rapid cycle.

This recipe calls for 6 ingredients and about 10 minutes of prep time. It makes 4 loaves of bread, or a few dozen rolls, or pizza crust, bread sticks, hot dog buns, or whatever you want. Pretty amazing. The video calls for the dough to me mixed in a Bosch universal kitchen machine (which we have) but you can mix the dough by hand if you want the exercise.

10 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
3 heaping tablespoons yeast
4 cups hot water
3 tablespoons Soy lecithin

Wendy's aunt figures she can make a loaf of bread for about 12 cents. WOW!! Just that day we had visited the bread store and filled our freezer with about $40 worth of bread. According to her calculations we could have made 300 loaves for the same price as our 30 that we bought.

That convinced us to get some soy lecithin (I mean, who stocks that in their pantry).
After I left for work on Monday Wendy got down to work and whipped up some bread following this recipe. Here are some pictures.






The braided loaf was a desert filled with a sugary cream cheese filling.

Today, Wendy made pizza with this recipe and it was AWESOME.

Rock Band

This morning I was wandering around the house doing the usual mommy stuff and decided to check on the kids. I could hear them up in my bedroom jumping around and making noise so I peeked around the corner ever so cautiously. Moira and Sabrina were in their swimming suits (dancing outfits). Moira was prancing in front of the mirror holding my miniature ironing board in front of her and apparently strumming it like a guitar. Sabrina was standing on the other side of the room in front of my full-size ironing board playing on it like drums or a keyboard. They were both dancing and singing in unison: When I grow up, I want to be a rock star! Hilarious. What surprised me is that it sounded like a real song (maybe from Barney?) and that they knew all the words to the chorus. Brayden just danced around in between them obviously delighted to be in a rock band too (back-up dancer). I was so impressed with how creative they were to use the ironing boards and that they had their first song put together. I'm waiting for the release of their first album, it'll go platinum I can tell!

Looking for some action?

Yes, I'm posting twice today. So go check out the previous one. I just had to write this one down for future generations and to give all my girlfriends something to laugh hysterically about.

A few weeks ago I put the kids down for the night, left Adam home, and ran to Kent's Market to pick up a few items we needed. It had been one of THOSE days. You know the kind: wearing yoga pants, flip-flops, an over-sized t-shirt, no makeup and hair up in a bun. Yeah, I looked HOT!! (not) I'm standing in the check-out line with my few items and this guy behind me starts making conversation about my stuff. We continue talking and I mention how my husband & kids really like this or that. His eyes got really big and he says, "What? You're not wearing a ring! That's false advertising!"

I was floored! What!? Could this guy possibly be hitting on me? or maybe he's just drunk? Cause I know what I looked like at that moment.

I retorted that I wasn't doing false advertising, and he continuted to claim that I was sending the wrong message (to lonely guys like him, apparently). Well, I left the store, went home and told Adam about it. And even though he was likely to downplay the situation I can still proudly claim that a guy tried to pick me up when I looked like a scrub. That night I felt down-right AWESOME!

He's growing up

Brayden started walking about three weeks ago. It took him about two weeks to gain strength and confidence enough to stand up in the middle of a room without aid. And now he is off and running, literally. That boy doesn't have a slow bone in his body. He runs everywhere. But since he's still a little unstable he runs into EVERYTHING: walls, chairs, sisters, my arms. That's the best part, he runs into my arms and gives me loves. I love it!!! Heavenly Father designed this age of development to help parents propagate the species. After a year of caring for a near helpless baby and all the sleepless nights, they reach this stage of development where they are loving and sweet and everything they do makes you laugh and smile. So you decide, Let's have another one! No, I'm not having another one anytime soon. I'm smarter than wanting to have two kids in diapers.

Brayden also just broke his four top teeth at once. After four months of only having the two bottom ones he's finally going to be able to tear into his food in earnest. I'm sure he won't know what to do with himself. No more gumming for this little chap-o!

I'll post some video of him walking. He is a handsome guy! You need to get a close up of his eyelashes, I would die for those beauties!

Thought about time

I hear this country song on the radio that talks about time going by "faster than you think, don't blink." I ponder if I am using each day to the fullest. I am sure there is more I can do, but I have developed habits with those I care about that allow me to "blink" as often as needed. I tell Wendy and the kids each day that I love them. If it to all end tonight I would be content knowing that I have loved and lived well.

Adam

It finally happened!!!

Over the past year we've been updating you about Moira's trigger thumb. She had surgery in October and after one month her thumb hadn't released. I took her back in and the surgeon was stumped. He suggested waiting and watching, but Adam wasn't convinced that her thumb would ever release on its own. We had concerns about her development because she refused to use it and she's getting to the age when she is learning to form shapes, lines, letters, etc. She is naturally right-handed but had to resort to her left hand which was obviously more awkward for her to use. So we called the Dr's office and insisted on another surgery to cut more of the tendon. We were also motivated by the cost (which major decision isn't impacted by money?) since we'd met our yearly deductible between Brayden's birth and Moira's surgery. We didn't want to meet the deductible again the following year if we ultimately dediced to have Moira get another surgery then.
We went back to Primary Children's in December to have Moira go under the knife again. Same as before, no complications. The Dr. said when they went in he checked the tendon over extra carefully and "carved" (his word) those pulleys out as much as he could. The only conclusion he had for why the thumb didn't release the first time was that the scar tissue that formed around the tendon reattached it to the pulleys. He said he'd never seen it happen before but he's not putting anything past the human body's ability to heal itself.
It is a month later and her thumb has fully released!!! YEAHHHH!!!!!! For the first time since she turned two years old she has the full use of her right hand (that's a year and a half). I am so relieved that it worked and she has no side-issues with it. The second time she had surgery I asked Adam to give her a blessing because I didn't want to have to go through this again. Sure love the blessings of the priesthood.

Miracle on the Hudson

I took a late lunch today at work. I flipped on the news and they were talking about the plane that had to make an emergency water landing on the Hudson River in New York today. My first thought was that the terrorists must have found a breech in security somewhere and brought another plane down. Then I learned more details about the event. I said a quick prayer in my heart for the people on that plane. The Spirit let me know with no question that God was well aware of the people on that plane, in the water, and in the surrounding buildings.



Think of it, the Hudson river at Manhattan is one of the busiest rivers in the United States with ferries, tourism craft, major international waterway ports, fishermen and so on. None of these boats were in the way, but there were dozens of ships there just moments after the plane stopped and the doors opened. There are bridges and tunnels, all of these were missed.


Witnesses that saw the plane descending described it in terms of a gentle landing. The only major injury was a single passenger of 150 with 2 broken legs. In my short 30 years I have never seen a real water landing that resulted in the plane staying intact. The former Air Force fighter pilot brought this plane down so perfectly that it stayed in one piece. That is a lot to be said because the plane had no power as both engines were knocked out by a flock of birds.



If you did not believe that miracles exist today, this is a great evidence that they do happen. I thank my Father in Heaven to know he lives and sends angels to do good among His people. God hears your prayers no matter how far "astray" you think you might be.

I thank the crew of the airplane each time I fly because I never want them to think they are merely bus drivers in the sky. They have the life of my wife's best friend, and my children's father in their hands.


Adam

Images courtesy MSN.com

How to occupy yourself at the in-laws. . .

Adam shared our adventurous Christmas vacation travels, but left it to me to discuss the ten days in between. Christmas was wonderful. We haven't spent Christmas with my family in four years, none of the kids had, so we were excited about being able to spend this special holiday with them. Christmas morning was not as chaotic as I expected. My family, my brother Brett's family, my sister Annalyn, and my sister Carmell and her partner were there (plus my parents, of course). So there weren't THAT many presents under the tree. Everybody else showed up later in the day and the house was very full for Christmas dinner. We spent the next three days playing, talking, laughing, shopping, talking, eating, etc. This was the first time in over eight years that my whole family has been together. Sad, I know. Sunday morning saw a mass exodus of everyone but two siblings since a big storm blew in later in the day and everybody was trying to avoid it. So it was just my parents, me & mine, and my sister and her kids (husband went home with another sibling to prep for scout campout that week--yikes!).

Sunday night we were talking to my parents about little projects we could help them with around the house to keep son-in-law (namely Adam) occupied for the next five days. My dad had a knee replaced a few months ago and hasn't been up to doing much since then. We started making lists and one thing snowballed into another and before you knew it we were pulling all the furniture out of three bedrooms and prepping it for new carpet. This carpet is so old it's legendary. All of us children had been after my parents to replace it for the past 25 years at least. I'm still a little awestruck about how, after so many years, I was instrumental in convincing my mom AND my dad to just "get 'er done". Not that I'm the reason, of course, but the stars alligned and my enthusiasm and stamina kept my mom going til the bitter end. Carpet was installed Tuesday and Thursday and by Thursday night we had put the rooms back together, mostly. Plus, we had finished a multitude of other minor projects that are stories in themselves. We also encouraged my parents to turn their office into a multi-use room (office/bedroom) so that the next time all their kids come home they'll actually have rooms to use instead of being shunted from couch to couch. That's the project that's not done yet. My dad is ordering new office furniture so that there will be space for a sofa-sleeper in that third room. And my mom is under orders to take her family history digital. It currently occupies two full bookcases (not including the last five years). There's a lot there!

We were planning on driving home Friday but we woke up to snow and decided to not even attempt the passes again until the next day when things would be clearer and warmer. So we had another day to do stuff. My mom decided she wanted to move her upright grand out of the front room and into the family room (she already had a regular grand in the front room). So the men moved that beast and my mom and I rearranged the furniture that was left. By Friday night we had moved 1 large desk, 1 large buffet, 1 overstuffed chair, a large red sofa, three smaller chairs, and boxes and boxes of junk/papers/paraphernelia out of the house. I promised my parents Sunday night that I would not leave them with a job half-done. It would be finished before I walked out the door to drive home. I knew if I left anything undone it would stay undone until the next time I showed up, so I made sure they visited the dump and DI on Friday to get rid of everything. My brother wanted the buffet and it had been parked in the dining room waiting for him to come get it. Well, Adam decided it was going NOW! So he threw it onto the hand truck and carted it down the middle of my parents street to my brother's house. We were not leaving anything undone, if we could help it. For some reason my parents house had become my siblings storage unit (necessary in some circumstances), I just helped move some stuff sooner than later. Now my mom has more space to move, breathe, and just be. It's much more restful now that the rooms aren't so packed with stuff. They wanted to put baseboards in too, but I convinced them there was no time and to save it until next summer when we could rip out the baseboards, old door frames, and old doors and replace them with new. Plus, scrape the popcorn ceilings, re-texture and repaint the ceilings and walls. Now I just have to enlist the help of a couple of my siblings to get this done. I think all families reach the stage where the parents are too old and too tired to maintain their home on their own, so their children get to step in and do the big stuff.

I was really grateful to serve my parents in this capacity and it helped me build stronger bonds with both my mom and my dad. And it kept Adam busy and happy (always a plus). I'm looking forward to taking some time this summer to get the rest of it done. My mom is really looking forward to the prospect of having everything fresh and neat.

Oregon has it out for us

We had a wonderful trip to Washington for Christmas and New Years Day. We drove up to Washington on 24 December. It is normally an 8-9 hour drive depending on potty breaks. This time it took 12 hours from the time we left our home in Utah until we got to Wendy's parents' house in Washington. We made it to the Idaho/Oregon border in the normal 4 1/2 hours. As soon as we crossed the river into Oregon the problems began.

The roads through Oregon were snowy and icy the whole way. Just on the west side of Ontario there is a hill as you come out of town. As we started up the hill it looked like it would be slick so I decided to take it easy. We got about half-way up the hill, the car shifted down, the rear tires slipped and off the road we went. I threw it into 4-wheel drive and got within 18 inches of the pavement, but we were stuck. We said a prayer, I got out to take a look and a police officer pulled up to help - just that quick. Within 3 minutes of us going off the road there were 3 patrol cars there and 2 of them indicated that they had seen it happen. We hooked up a tow rope and were back on the road in just a couple minutes. As we thought about what had happened we said another prayer of gratitude. If we had gone off the road 20 feet in any other direction we would have hit a sign, guard rail or reflector. Wendy did a great job getting the car out of the snow.

So we were back on the road taking it slow in 4-wheel drive. About 150 miles and 5 hours later we were driving through a white-out snow storm when we get a nail stuck in the rear tire. We pulled off the road at the next off-ramp to take a look. The place where we stopped was completely calm - no snow, no wind, no close traffic, lots of overhead lights. The tire still had air in it. In the time it took to check on the tire at the side of the road it went completely flat. We pulled out the spare tire and got it changed. There were a couple good guys that stopped to make sure we were OK. Wendy was very glad that we had a full size spare. We made it down the next mountain pass pulled into a truck stop and checked the rest of the tires. Everything looked good.

From this point, we only faced freezing rain. When we got to Wendy's parents' place we just about kissed the ground. It took us about half an hour to calm down after we got out of the car. That was a trip we did not want to endure again.

On the return trip, it was just about as bad, but it was during the daylight and there were no flat tires or off-road adventures. Just 6 potty stops. That is why I say, "Oregon has it out for us."

Adam