Adam & Wendy Bowers Family

2...4...6...8...

2012-01-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

We had lots of good things happen over the past few months. The best happened today: Sabrina was baptized. Sabrina turned 8 years old a little over a week ago. We had a great little family party with our best friends the Atkinsons. Sabrina chose to have microphones for her birthday cake. Wendy and Moira did a fantastic job with the dragees.

Brayden was not to be outdone so he chose to have ghosts for his 4th birthday cake three days later. Of course these birthdays happen about a week after Christmas so we have been pleasantly filled with refined sugar for some time now. :) The ghosts were especially popular since they are made with an old-fashioned doughnut hole, covered in whipped cream, with mini-M&M eyes. What's not to love? Cupcakes covered with frosting, sprinkles, doughnuts, cool-whip, & candy? Good thing we made two dozen.

Sabrina was a little nervous at first, but after the ordinance she said she felt so happy she was giddy. Thanks to all the family and friends that came to support her in her big moment. Mom and Dad were so proud we were popping our buttons in between getting all "blubbery". Moira and Brayden were very reverent and didn't have to be reminded once about appropriate behavior. It really was a powerful experience. Thanks for being such a great example to us all, Sabrina.

Where we've been . . . where we're going

2011-10-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hey, we are still alive and well. Lots of stuff is happening but because this is a public blog I can't disclose it until later. I know that will bug some people, but its all good stuff and we are excited. In the meantime, school started at the end of August and the girls are doing great. Moira has become very studious and her reading is improving by leaps and bounds. Mom is spending lots of money on Scholastic book orders to keep her interest. But I think the real key is that she doesn't get hot lunch if she doesn't read 20 minutes a day for five days during the week. That has been a great motivator. Moira is in Soccer on Saturday mornings and our goal has been to be her biggest cheerleaders. Last Saturday's game was a milestone because she scored her FIRST GOAL!!!! We were so proud and she was so excited that she promptly recaptured the ball and took it down the field for an assist on another goal. WOW!

Sabrina is so far ahead of her classmates that she will rush through her assignment and start reading a book, then completely ignore her teacher when its time to move on to the next activity. Working on that one. Sabrina is taking piano lessons from a lady in the next ward, as well as Tumbling classes once a week. She really enjoys these activities.

Wonders never cease, just this past week Brayden started teaching himself to read. He picked up some of Moira's classwork and started sounding out words. Now he's addicted, his favorite book to read is the Webster's Picture Dictionary. He is just doing three letter words right now, but considering that he could barely speak in sentences a year ago that is impressive. Really proud of him, he's super smart just like the rest of them.

Dillon is growing monstrous. I just moved him into 18 month clothing. Yes, he is only seven months old. Biggest kid we've had. Because of his size he doesn't move much, other than rolling around on the floor. He loves to give everyone hugs which is wonderful. He is the only child we've had who likes to give physical affection before two years old. It just melts your heart when he wraps his arms around you and snuggles up tightly. I can just feel those endorphins releasing and my frustrations melt away. Wonderful blessing to have a child like that.

I am staying busy bus-ing everyone everywhere. I have 11 piano students and am really excited about the progress people are making. Other than that I've spent nearly every evening over the past month helping Adam with his current project. I'm weary from lack of sleep, but still manage to get through the day without nodding off, usually.

Adam is exceptionally busy. Besides that top-secret project, he attends city council meetings on Tuesday nights and does his calling on Thursday nights. He got called to be the EQ Pres for the third time in August. We figure this is our opportunity to get it right. Or something. Anyway, he's busy.

Other than that, I promise to be better at keeping our blog updated in the future.

Wedding planning

2011-06-30T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm posting twice today so check out the earlier one about Moira, too.

This summer is very busy for us. I'm teaching 8 piano students, plus the kids are in swimming lessons, then I work out three mornings with a girlfriend, and have a playgroup one other morning a week. And I signed the girls up for a tumbling class to see how they like it. WHEW!! At this tumbling class I happened to run into an old friend from our ward who moved out to Hooper several years ago. I knew her daughter took dance at the same studio because I ran into her at last years dance recital. At that time she told me a funny story about her son Jacob who is Moira's age. They were in Sunbeams together years ago and apparently at that time Jacob was quite taken with Moira (I mean who wouldn't be, she's adorable!).

Well fast forward to last year and Jacob's grandmother was teasing him about "marrying" another little girl who was a cutie. Jacob furiously announced that he was going to marry Moira and nobody else. So when the grandma returned Jacob to his mother she asked who this Moira person was that had Jacob ready to commit at age 5. The mom, Elizabeth, was equally surprised since they hadn't seen our family for two years at that point.

Okay, now fast forward to this year when Jacob and Moira are now 6. Remember it's been three years since they've seen each other. We walk in the first day of tumbling class, which the big sister is also taking during the summer, and Jacob just goes ballistic at sight of Moira. Elizabeth and I just looked at each other and started giggling. I mean, what do you do? Then Elizabeth tells me that a few weeks previously Jacob had volunteered the information that he was going to grow up, marry Moira, become a fireman or a dentist, then move to the ocean (Oregon, I think) and have mom over for Sunday dinners. So then when he saw Moira again, well, of course he was ecstatic! They are a great family and I would be perfectly happy in say, fifteen years if things worked out. In the meantime, Elizabeth went home and told her husband Steve about the whole thing. Steve accused her of encouraging it but she swears she doesn't say anything. I'm thinking it's all Jacob because the second week of classes when given the choice to stay home and play or go sit and wait at tumbling for an hour, he elected to come and sit at tumbling with his mom. You have to admire his constancy. WOW!!!

Oh, is that why?

2011-06-30T11:44:00.000-07:00

Do you have a child that seems just a teensy bit toooo sensitive? Well, I have one of those and there are times when I think, "She's never going to survive teenagehood with all the social pressures." And then: "Wait. . . I'm not going to survive her teenagehood!! Auggghghghhghgh!!!" Yes, I'm referring to Moira. I love on her and compliment her and give her loads of encouragement and coping skills, but I still have to deal with a melt-down at least three times a day (not including the sobbing from Brayden teasing her relentlessly). No, this is about not having the right sandwich, or no friends to play with (even though she spent all morning with the neighbor kids), or her blanket is missing, or she doesn't like the snack.

After all that explanation: Moira came up to me last week and very gravely announced, "Mom, the reason I'm so whiny is because every day I need some whining time."

really . . . . ?? What mother knew that one? Is that akin to snack-time or nap-time? What parenting book is that one in?? I'd like to burn it.

The things you say when heavily medicated . . .

2011-03-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Baby Dillon is two weeks old today. A major milestone for all new moms because it is the official end of all the impossible restrictions that the nursing staff from the hospital give you. Honestly, who can possibly keep from driving a car, climbing stairs, or picking up only ten pounds or less for two weeks!?? In fact, when going through my release paperwork, I laughed hysterically at the idea of not driving for two weeks and the attending nurse said that she would leave that up to my discretion. Wise of her . . .

All that being said, Adam spent the first six days of Dillon's life trying to stop me from doing any and all housework, child-care, or errands. I give him chops for being the only man in my life that I would actually listen to on that topic; but I still did more than I probably should have. So when day number 13 rolled around I was all set and rearing to go to tackle the accumulated grime, dust, etc. that I had impatiently been watching for nearly two weeks. I told Adam that I was going to clean ONE level of the house (we have four levels), just one (showing great restraint, right?). Adam responded with ONE ROOM. And I came back with NO, ONE LEVEL! And so he diplomatically suggested that we compromise and I do half of one level (that is ONE ROOM). Aw come on!!

So I did one level! But I ran out of steam before I finished it, so I guess we both won. Anyway, the next day I was all set to tackle the next level, but I didn't have the time or energy--Sabrina, Moira, and Brayden are all sick with the flu. At the end of the day, when Adam came home from work I proudly announced: "Honey, you'd be proud of me. I didn't clean a single thing today!!" He beamed and patted me on the back. Five minutes later I burst out laughing when I realized what I'd said. I think that was the first time in our marriage that such a conversation took place. And it will likely be the last. How many women can receive such an accolade from their husband after doing as little as possible all day long.

Dillon Isaac Bowers

2011-03-02T10:51:00.001-08:00

Dillon Isaac Bowers was welcomed into this world at 2:36pm on 3-1-11. He was definitely done baking in the oven. He weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs 12 oz. Wendy chose not to have an epidural. The nurses were quite impressed with how well she handled the pain of labor. At 2pm the doctor suggested she rethink the epidural choice, but she insisted that her pain was only at a 6 from 1-10. The nurse gave her a little pain medication in her IV and we were off to the races. The doctor came rushing back into the room at 2:25 and was rushing to get his robes on before the baby came out on his own. Wendy did fantastic and was ready to be done, as you can imagine.

We brought the children over to see their little brother. They were SO excited. We couldn't get a picture that showed their excitement, but this baby is all they could talk about for a week. In their prayers last night they each asked for Dillon and Mom to be OK in the hospital. Babies are the only time they have spent a night without her.

People always seem to ask so here is my answer, "I was done having children at one, but we have four now so you can tell that it is Wendy's decision as to when we are done having kids."

Brayden's first RC car

2011-02-03T10:47:00.000-08:00

For his birthday Brayden got a remote-control car. We knew he would love it because, come on! it's a boy controlling a race car that tears through the house and crashes into stuff and chases his sisters! What's not to love? Well, everybody loved it! Including the big "boy-at-heart" Daddy who is anxiously counting down the years until he can justify buying a "real" RC car/truck/helicopter for them both to play with. This RC car was designed with little boys in mind. Built by Tonka it has soft tires and a soft body, flips over to run on both top and bottom, and has a two button remote that's easy to hold. I am especially grateful for the soft tires and body because otherwise I'd have holes in the walls of the stairwell. Brayden will frequently drive it down the stairs and keep going without a hitch (thanks to that handy flip-feature).

The other day I overheard him talking to the car, bossing it around when it wasn't going the right direction. Apparently they've named both sides of the car! The red and yellow side is named "Arnold" and the blue side is named "Stinky". What? I finally figured out that Arnold must have come from a character on the Magic School Bus series, and Stinky--well, your guess is as good as mine but I'm pretty sure a lively imagination could come up with several possibilities.

Pictures coming soon. . .

Christmas with the sickos

2010-12-31T14:03:00.001-08:00

Not Christmas with the Kranks, because we have loads of holiday spirit around our house, except for Adam who practices great forebearance with my four Christmas trees, garland bestrung railings, and Christmas music turned on full blast the day after Thanksgiving. But definitely Christmas with the flu. For those of you who were wondering about flu shots this year. YES totally worth it--hindsight is 20/20. And I was just informed by last night's NBC nightly news that this years vaccine matches up perfectly with the active flu strains running amok among the populous. AWWW, now you tell me! I lost my bet against the Russian roulette of flu season this year. So, I have been sick for three, count them 3, weeks of December. Not little hack, hack, runny nose sick either. But full on can't breathe, can't move, can't taste anything I put in my mouth sick. The kind of sick where you desperately want to sleep, but can't seem to get comfortable enough and then you find yourself drifting off during episodes of cartoons at 9 a.m. with your kids sitting on your lap. Aww, sleep at last!! To make matters even more fun, all three of our children came down with it on December 23rd. So Christmas morning at our house was not filled with the shrieks and squeals of excited anticipation being gratified, but rather a fairly lethargic, quiet affair punctuated by hacking coughs and noses being blown. I knew that in a few days they would recognize their gifts and begin playing with them, but at the moment No. In fact, we opened all our presents, Adam took us into the kitchen and fed us something (tasteless), then we all climbed upstairs and back into our respective beds. How pathetic is that? Brayden, who seems to have a fairly tough little immune system, was one of the first to recover and so kept Adam occupied while the rest of us spent most of the Christmas weekend in a drug-induced haze. Did I mention that Adam was the only one to get a flu shot and therefore was not ill and became the official nurse? He even made up a batch of homemade chicken noodle soup; very chunky and delicious. What a guy!

Now it's been a week since Christmas and the kids have pretty much recovered. Sabrina still has a cough, she has medication from her doctor to help her deal with that. And I, being seven months pregnant, seem to be somewhat immuno-compromised and therefore weaker than normal and still sick. To add insult to injury Adam came down with a head cold. I think it's all part of the plan. We were supposed to travel to Washington to visit Grandma the week after Christmas, but being sick we decided against it. Good thing, I guess, because a series of nasty snowstorms came through that week and we probably would have been trying to drive through snow-filled passes instead of hunkered down in our beds. But so much for a nice, restful Christmas vacation.

One great highlight of all this sickness: I was so ill I lost three pounds over the holidays! HA!! All that junk food was unappetizing because I couldn't taste it.

To recap: We had a nice, quiet Christmas. Everbody got what they wanted and we spent a lot of our time just hanging out together. Sweet.

Halloween 2010

2010-10-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

Although many things have happened in our life over the past few months we failed to post them here. At any rate let me tell you about the past couple weeks. Today, we decided it was time to take down the trampoline for the winter. As Wendy and I were in the backyard we sent the girls to decorate the front door with little pumpkins. All of a sudden we hear a thump and Brayden (who was supposed to be taking a nap) crying. As we ran to the front of the house we quickly discovered what the fuss was about.

Braden had pushed the screen out of his bedroom window and took a head dive to the ground - 8 feet below! Wendy and I both said quick prayers in our hearts and checked him over. Considering we have a concrete flower box under his window we were extremely concerned. We count it as a miracle that he has nothing more than a couple bruises (and a whopper of a goose egg) on his head. Can you imagine, falling 8 feet from a window and falling through a bush with no sprained wrists, broken bones, scratches or even a concussion? We put an ice pack on his head and knelt down and said a humbling prayer of thanks. Brayden must have something important in his life to be spared such a fall.

Brayden decided it was time to take a nap at that point. We checked on him regularly to make sure he was still doing well. Miracles do happen. Quite humbling when they happen so close.

Since our neighborhood was doing its annual trunk-or-treat we dressed up and shared our breadsticks at the potluck. Here are some pictures.

Brayden is butt naked which is why he is not standing - potty training in progress.

Since we are sharing here you might as well know we are expecting an additional boy to the above photo round about March 1, 2011.

And Murphy strikes again. . .

2010-06-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

Adam mentioned that we just bought a tramp for the kids. They LOVE it! The wonderful thing about having a tramp in the backyard is that when I tell the kids to stay in the backyard they actually obey! Phenomenal! For this reason alone it was worth the money, though we still got a great deal on it. It pays to shop around and watch ksl classifieds.

But life goes on and "Murphy" paid us a visit. (Not meaning any disrespect to my wonderful and adored cousins) For the past year or two I had noticed a hard-water bloom on the foundation wall of the house under the kitchen sink. So we watched it to see if it grew or subsided, it didn't do either. Then two weeks ago when my parents were visiting, my dad rested a hand against the wall of the downstairs guest bedroom while he put his shoes on and the wall just collapsed under him. Oooohhhh, that can't be good. Yeah, it wasn't.

We had a plumber over last week and he diagnosed the problem. We had two hairline cracks in the kitchen drain pipe. And apparently they're pretty old judging by the ruined insulation, wet drywall, and hard water deposits inside the wall. We had a few bids done by reclamation companies who treat mold, and a few calls into our insurance agent, to discover that the cost for said repairs is going to be at least over $1000 out of pocket, possibly more. One bid came in at over $2000. And mold repairs are not covered by most major insurers--those *%^#$*@ insurance companies and their fine print.

I'm reminded of an episode from "The King of Queens" where the Heffernan's find mold in the basement that would cost $12,000 to repair. And apparently Doug was informed of said problem by the agent/seller before closing on the property. When Kari confronts Doug about his "stupidity" he responds with the excuse that mold sounded like a good thing because mold makes excellent gourmet cheeses!

So now, I'm cursing the trampoline and the money we spent on it. Though honestly we didn't pay anywhere near that amount and we did promise the kids we would get them one when our family reached certain milestones. But it always works that way! Just when you save up and buy that more expensive item you're so excited about, "Murphy" sideswipes you with an emergency that hits you in the gut. Not that I'm complaining, it really could be a lot worse. Fortunately, none of us have symptoms from toxic mold, so I'm hopeful that the repair won't be too bad. Here's to calling in the plumber sooner than later.

In a Jam . . .

2010-06-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

Our local grocer had a spectacular sale on red raspberries and blackberries so we picked up a couple flats and made about 18 pints of freezer jam. Some raspberry, some blackberry, and some mixed. All of them are good, but the blackberry is outstanding. I never realized how good blackberries are. We are looking forward to the raspberries in our yard to ripen. I can see that they are loaded this year.

By the way, this is what our backyard looked like a couple weeks ago. I will take another picture in a few weeks. With all of the rain lately our garden has been growing quite well. We also added a trampoline at the kids repeated request.

Where we've been

2010-03-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

We put our rental house on the market for sale or rent (cue the Boxcar Willie music) this past week. We have had two different families in that house over the past 4 years so it has needed a little sprucing up. Fresh paint, a good washing, new carpet and some flowers make a house just like new. At least we hope so. We haven't minded having renters except when they fail to pay or leave the house unclean. Of course, Wendy and our friend Malissa have cleaned every last inch of that house now. It is amazing how much dust can accumulate over a short period of time. I guess we need to stipulate in our next contract that your cookbook must have the deep fried recipies removed prior to moving in to the house. You would think people consider oil an essential vitamin.

At any rate, here are some pictures of the place.

http://www.utahrealestate.com/949232

Busy Busy Busy. . .

2010-02-12T17:49:00.001-08:00

What's been going on the last two months? Well, let me tell you! Christmas was divine, we spent it quietly at our house, enjoyed Christmas dinner (Adam's favorite ham), and played and relaxed. We spent time trying out the new sleds the kids got. And did some fix it projects. In fact, Christmas Eve Adam had all the equipment to replace some baseboard and re-tack some carpet in one of the basement bedrooms that had leaking water last summer. He pulled the baseboard off and noticed some mold growing so he started cutting out the bad drywall. The further he went the worse it got until he had pulled out the bottom half of one whole wall and ripped out all the insulation. Yikes. The verdict is that it looks like we may need to have someone come in and replace all the studs before we can put the wall back together. Adam suspects that water from the roof or sprinklers is pooling against the house which means that he will find himself digging all the dirt away from that foundation wall this summer. Just please don't disturb my favorite lilac bush!! The damage may have extended itself to the bedroom next door meaning that my lovely green guest room might get torn apart as well.

Anyway!! Since that project had to be put on hold I put Adam to work painting our family room a lovely light brown. It is not as dark as the kitchen but in the same color family so it really is pleasant. It makes the whole room brighter. We spent Christmas night painting the family room. Had it all knocked out in about 3 hours. And no taping off. (Man we're good!)

Fast forward to January. We started doing some initial research/preparation for selling our rental house this spring. We know it's not the height of the market but we know it's the right time to do this deal. We spent about three weekends in a row putting tile in the entry and one of the bathrooms. There is more work to do but it's easier to do some things without tenants underfoot. We have scheduled new carpet to be installed the first week of March and plan to have the house ready to go on the market a week later. This has been such a HUGE (and I mean HUGE!!!) learning and growth experience for us. We've learned the most from our mistakes and are grateful that we did enough things right through sheer naivete to keep us from being wiped out like many friends of ours. I recently read "The Richest Man in Babylon" which I have had in my library for years but never got around to reading it. Wow!! The reasons we succeeded in this investment are all outlined in that book. Nice to be able to finally identify what those are! Here's a couple that were pertinent: 1)Set aside ten percent of your monthly income for emergencies, 2)Live within your means and use a budget, 3)When investing don't take on more risk than you have emergency funds to cover, 4) Never invest in things you don't understand or with people who are unscrupulous or naive about the investment. There's more but I don't want to put anyone to sleep.

Now onto February. Our brand new (to us) van started having problems a few weeks ago. Since it's so technologically advanced, the security system is tied to a microchip in the engine deactiving it when the alarm is active. For some reason the alarm has been going haywire whenever we unlock the door meaning that we couldn't start the car. Up til yesterday we've been able to shut off the alarm eventually (after ten minutes of humiliation in a parking lot) and start the car. But not that day. We finally had to disconnect the battery, call a tow truck and have it hauled to a dealership to have the blasted thing repaired. This morning they called and said that the problem was an after-market car alarm that a previous owner had installed. It was messing with the original wiring and causing it to go off at random times. They removed it and the car worked like a charm. YEAH!!! So here's a bit of advice to anyone out there who is thinking about installing some nifty gadget to their car. DO NOT PIMP OUT YOUR CAR! YOU WILL LIVE TO REGRET IT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WALMART PARKING LOT WITH THREE KIDS WHO ARE TIRED OF WAITING FOR TWO HOURS!

Stay tuned for more CREZY adventures . . . !

Christmas Letter

2009-12-18T11:52:00.001-08:00

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. . .

2009-12-11T12:18:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-23T11:34:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-06T15:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

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. . .

2009-09-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

. . . 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

2009-08-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-06T13:47:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-02-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-16T20:22:00.001-08:00

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!!!

2009-01-18T09:13:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-15T20:21:00.000-08:00

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. . .

2009-01-08T12:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-05T12:08:00.000-08:00

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

Hair Cut for Brayden

2008-12-14T17:27:00.000-08:00

We decided that it was time to cut Brayden's hair. It didn't seem that long until it fell into his eyes. However, when we were at the salon and they wet his hair down and pulled it up it was LONG (at least for a well groomed boy). I sat in the chair and was caped, then held Brayden on my lap and was also caped.

According to the Polynesian tradition, you should not cut your baby's hair for the first year of their life. This keeps them "healthy". I think it has more to do with how hair is cut in a 3rd world nation than the timing of when it is cut. At any rate, we decided after 11 1/2 months Brayden would need his hair cut for all of the photos that will be taken in the next month.

In other happenings, Sabrina and Moira traditionally have the same sandwich everyday for lunch. Wendy got the girls their lunch then stepped out of the room for a minute. When she returned Sabrina proudly showed her what she made from her sandwiches. It took Wendy a second to figure out what it was. Here is a picture so you can place your guess.

If you look close you can see that she took bites in just the right places to turn them into a "R" and "L". Pretty clever!

Adam

Personal Revolutions

2008-12-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

As posted previously, I've decided to go back to work, at least temporarily. The more I think about what I'm doing and why, the more I find myself unsure of what label to put on this decision. I'm working again, part-time, in the evenings, for how long? Trying to find the whole work/life balance has seemed elusive over the past two years since I first went back to a full-time job when Moira was one year old. I seemed to drift in and out of working like one drifting in and out of restless sleep. I quit when my balance was off and went back when I regained my equilibrium. In fact, the more I pondered why I did this the more I realized that I always felt this way. Even as a high school and college student attempting to plan out my five and ten year goals, ambitious achievements would top the list. But at the back of my mind was the ever present echo of wanting to marry and have children. I couldn't see how to do both then, and certainly the way is not any clearer now. I did, however, just stumble across an article that articulated my conflict for the first time. I saw myself in some of these women, though certainly not with their list of credentials. Yet, I too was drifting back and forth across the great divide that is career vs. family life.

My first job after three years of maternity leave was at a fast-paced, intense business with many egocentric men. I was only looking for a job. My employer was looking for someone who could keep pace with these high-flyers. After five miserable months I concluded that this environment was not healthy for me or my children. The stress I was under meant that all four members of our family never had a peaceful day. So I drifted out. It took five weeks to reestablish my balance and then I drifted back into another job. I stayed there for six months until my pregnancy became too difficult for my working body. I gave notice and went on bed rest until Brayden was born two weeks later. Then when my son was ten months old my employer contacted me about returning as a Christmas Temp. I considered the idea and decided to go back to work for a few months. Now that I have been working for two months I can see myself working until such time as I don't need it anymore. I drifted back into this position and when I no longer have any use for it I will drift away.

Where am I headed? My long-term goals are consistent, that hasn't changed. But the means I use to get there change as my needs and my families needs change. And I think that is the true definition of freedom: the ability to adapt to one's circumstances without outside constraints.

I know this seems too deep for this blog, but just thought I'd share. If it's too thick, you can come over and try the fudge that I made in my very Susie Homemaker home.

Follow-up on previous posts

2008-11-10T10:18:00.000-08:00

Just to follow-up on some of the happenings in our family:

I took Moira back down to Primary Children's to follow-up on her thumb surgery. It was not releasing like they said it would. The doctor took a look at it and concluded that they had failed to cut enough of the tendon to release her thumb. On the good side, most of her thumb has released and when she does "pop" it up it doesn't hurt her anymore. He explained the procedure like this: With children they have to use anaesthesia for obvious reasons and as such they can't check that they cut enough so they have to use their best judgement. If they cut too much it causes the thumb to not retract, so our result is of course the more desired of the two. Our options at this point? Make her use it until it loosens up and hope she grows through it. OR Have her go back into surgery to have the last little piece cut. He advised just waiting, so I'm going to go with that option. At some point down the road if we decide it's not working then he will go back in and do the surgery. He would rather not have to do it because then his track record of re-do's will double. (He's only had one out of the thousands of thumbs he's done.)

Adam is no longer calling-free. They put in a new Elder's Quorum Pres. last week (recalled the EQ Pres. from our dissolved ward--haha) and he called Adam as an instructor. Adam is happy because he prefers teaching to responsibility. All I can say is that the Quorum should be pretty happy now since they won't have to join the High Priests for lessons anymore. *SNORE* I guess it was pretty boring (there's a reason HP's are known for sleeping).

I stopped doing babysitting/daycare, too much stress on me and the kids. Sabrina was starting to have behavior problems again. I think she's extra-sensitive to stressors in her life. When I was working full-time and had the girls in day care she started stuttering pretty badly. When I quit and we took her out of daycare the stuttering stopped completely in two days. She hasn't been stuttering this time, but she was acting out pretty severely. So I had to quit something to refocus on managing and mothering her. I am still teaching piano and working swing-shift for the Postal Service. They are not time and attention intensive the way daycare is. And Adam does a great job taking care of the kids in the evenings.

We are excited about spending Christmas in Washington this year. We will probably drive up to my parents on Christmas Eve and stay for a week or so. Long enough to celebrate Sabrina's birthday and then come home.

Halloween 2008

2008-10-31T18:54:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2008-10-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Moira's thumb & Brayden's fall

2008-09-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Moira is going to Primary Children's Medical Center in SLC to have her thumb fixed. She is very excited! She has a congenital trigger thumb. In English it means she has a burr or bump on the tendon that keeps getting stuck making it difficult and painful for her to extend her thumb fully. As a result she won't use her right hand for anything--coloring, eating, opening doors, etc. She has learned to compensate slightly but it's obvious that she's not left-handed. The procedure should be fairly quick and simple. I hope to not spend the whole day in the hospital!

Quick follow up on Brayden standing. Monday morning Adam and I were awoken by the sound of a loud "thump" followed by Brayden screaming. Adam went and picked him up off his bedroom floor where he had apparently launched himself after standing up in his crib. Since all of our kids have done this we weren't terribly concerned. But we did lower the crib that morning since Brayden can obviously stand on his own now. They grow up so fast!

Standing for the first time

2008-09-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

Brayden started his army crawl on 4 September 2008 and on 27 September 2008 he stood up in his crib for the first time. We were fortunate enough to be taking a video of him crawling when he stood for the first time.

Today, we went outside for just about a minute to find Sabrina and when we had returned we found Brayden half-way down the stairs clinging on for dear life. That little boy has gone from bump on a log to fully mobile in about a month. He is adding to his "battle scars" daily.

We finding out that we need to baby proof our house more with Brayden than we ever had to with his sisters. The other day we found him munching on the leaves of a house plant. Not that he was hungry, it was just there so he started munching. This might be an example of what is meant when they say, "Boys will be boys."

Brayden

2008-09-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Brayden has broken his first tooth. Yeah! (or not, depending on which perspective you take). I'm still a yeah since it hasn't occurred to him to use me as a human teething ring. It is just barely through on the bottom front. I love this age because all their pictures look so cute/goofy. He has no idea the delights that await him with functioning teeth. Corn on the cob, a juicy steak, chocolate bars, etc. Wow, I'm making myself hungry!

This last weekend we bought a second booster seat for Moira and moved Brayden into her seat--a convertible carseat. He is now sandwiched in between his two sisters facing the back window. He loves it currently but give him 10 years and he will cringe at the mere thought of such a seating arrangement. Good thing those teeth are sheathed, huh!

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for me. . .

2008-09-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

Speaking of canning, Sunday evening after dinner the girls wanted to go for a walk over to a friends house so we pulled out the double stroller and set off. On our way we passed by a home with a peach tree out front just loaded with peaches. Some had already fallen to the ground and had been mowed over. When we arrived at our friends I asked her about the neighbor's tree and she came with me to ask if I could have them. He readily offered them to whoever would take them and so we cleaned the tree off, only leaving the small and bird eaten ones. Once the kids were in bed we set to work bottling them. After two days of working on peaches we had 35 quarts! So excited about it I could barely sleep. I had wanted to do more peaches but couldn't afford the price to can them myself. However, free is always affordable! It is such a testimony builder to see that when we are committed to following the commandments the way is opened up for us to accomplish them. We are contributing to our food storage in earnest now. But even more important than that is that Adam and I are being good stewards of the abundance we've been blessed with. It always bugged me to see some of the stuff in our garden go to waste, but now I can say that we are preserving as much as possible.

Monday, just as I finished cleaning up my kitchen from the peaches, my neighbor called and offered a sackful of peppers to use to do salsa. Wow more food! I already have the tomatoes and onions in my garden, now I just need to add garlic, cilantro, and jalapenos. I love this time of year! Food everywhere. I do love food. If only there was a way to hurry up the tomato ripening process, but no. Fortunately, the weather is optimal for ripening, a blissful 84 degrees. Perfect.

I also need to harvest all my basil and make pesto sauce. Mom said that you can freeze pesto. Great! Now I can have pesto all winter long.

Green Beans, Peaches, Tomatoes, and Rhubarb

2008-09-13T21:24:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy past couple weeks as we have been trying to cram as much fresh produce into canning bottles as we have time for. Today we processed a few jars of green beans (4 pints), stewed tomatoes (5 pints), spaghetti sauce (12 pints), and rhubarb (17 quarts); all from our own garden. We didn't set out to do so much today. We got started and thought, "While we are doing this, let's see if we can do that." And the result was a warm house, hungry kids, and two worn out 30-somethings.

A couple weeks ago a neighbor friend of ours called up and said, "My peaches are falling off the tree. Come get as many as you want." We loaded up the kids, as many grocery bags as we had, a box or two and headed over to glean. We took every last peach off of her tree. They had not been thinned this year because of various reasons and as such the fruit looked more like large apricots than peaches. We didn't mind, the last price we saw for fresh peaches was $21/half bushel. Talk about your price increases! Four years ago you could get the same peaches for $8/half bushel.

We brought home about the peaches and set right to work on canning the first batch. After it was all done we ended up with about 20 pints of yummy peaches. Now, you might be thinking, "I can go buy these things for less effort than what it takes to can them myself." You are probably right. However, there is a sense of pride in knowing you have accomplished something most won't even attempt anymore, no matter how small the deed.

Adam

36 Minutes 12 Seconds

2008-08-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

We are so proud of Wendy! She completed her first 5K run in over 10 years. (probably closer to 15) It was a good experience for her. She was able to start the race with a bunch of friends. Of course, as with any race it doesn't take long to get separated by a stride or two. By the time I was able to get the kids to the race she had finished already. So much for taking 45 minutes!! So we missed the big finish, but we were there to help congratulate all of our friends as they handed out awards.

She finished in a time of 36 minutes 12 seconds. Considering that the course was uphill for the last mile and a quarter and that her treadmill time is closer to 45 minutes that is really good. Her only complaint was that some of the other racers (one in particular) had such an irregular pace and their breathing sounded like a semi-truck gearing down that Wendy had to focus hard to keep her own rhythm. Wendy was undaunted and insists that since she can beat a male police officer "semi-truck" she will keep training for more races. Good for her!! She is setting a great example for her kids.

Adam

It's official

2008-07-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

It's official. I have paid my dues and am now registered for my first 5K race. I'm nervous to say the least! I have been working out consistently for 6 weeks now and would like to say that I can run 3.1 miles in twenty minutes or less. But, no. Try doubling that number. My friend Joanie convinced me to do it (easy for her to say she ran a marathon when her twins were 6 months old!) I figured it's now or never. And I really want to run a half-marathon before the year is over so I have to start somewhere. I do have a goal for myself: I have to finish in 45 minutes or less because Brayden wakes up at 8:00 a.m. for breakfast, which is me. Race starts at 7:00 a.m. Finish by 7:45 a.m. Rush home to nurse baby at 8:00 a.m. A mother's work is never done. I would like to have Adam there to watch me, but unless we can convince someone to watch our kids on a Saturday morning at 7 a.m. it's not happening. Who knows, maybe by the time I'm ready to try a half-Ironman my kids will be old enough to watch themselves and Adam can come cheer me on. One can always dream, right?

Other news: Brayden had his 6 month checkup two weeks ago. He is 19.5 pounds and 28 inches long. BIG KID!! We attended my mother's family's reunion (Sampson family) and compared him to my cousins children that were around the same age. He dwarfed them all. And not by a little bit, either. We are proud, but our arms are sore from hauling him around. Brayden has also discovered his voice and YELLS and SCREAMS a lot. It makes my throat sore just listening to him.

Sabrina is learning to read and write. My mom started us on the program that she teaches: The Writing Road to Reading. It's a phonics-based program which I'm totally impressed with. My little 4 year old can read simple books and is learning to identify more complex combined sounds and recite the rule for each one. I'm enrolling her in Pre-school this fall.

Moira is the great middle child. Happy, funny, sweet, content. She's delightful and wonderful. Currently she enjoys chasing Sabrina around the house and playing with Brayden. Her third birthday is coming up in August and as per our tradition we're going to do a huge party for her. She is so excited and talks about it constantly: "pink cake with pink fwosting and white letters and white frowers". Maybe she'll be an event planner someday. I'm thinking a super-hero theme, that would be fun! Then we could have a slip-n-slide in the backyard and have them practice their super hero flying on it! OOOOH, good idea!

Right now Adam and I are losing weight. I, because I burn a ton of calories every day through exercise and nursing and still eat light; Adam, because he eats watermelon for breakfast, cucumbers for lunch, sensible dinner, and no snacking after 8 o'clock. We both have goals that we're shooting for, he will probably meet his before I meet mine because he has less to lose AND men lose weight more easily than women. GRRRRR. But he's very encouraging, especially with my gym membership and getting out of bed in the morning at 6 a.m., which has proven to be more difficult than I thought. Will update the blog on this topic as noteworthy milestones are achieved.

What's in a name?

2008-07-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

I have been teaching Moira her parents names in case of an emergency. Initially it was pretty rough going: "Damn Jay Bowers". But now she has Adam's name down: Adam Jay Bowers. My name has proved a little more difficult. Every time I ask her my name Moira says:

"Wendy Bowers Awesome."

No joke.

When she was learning and would say my name right I would respond with an enthusiastic "Awesome". Somehow she must have thought that I was correcting her rather than cheering her on. But since the name seems very appropriate to me (what mother wouldn't agree, I ask you!) I have allowed the name to stick!

Maybe by the time she starts school I'll fix it, until then I will enjoy my sweet toddler calling me awesome every time she says my name!

Grandma's visit

2008-06-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Adam's mother came for a visit last weekend. We always enjoy having her and the kids LOVE it! They won't leave her alone. She told me she tried to escape to the guest room in the basement but they followed her downstairs anyway. On Saturday we all went to lunch at Chuck-a-rama for Father's day. Apparently it's the favorite lunch spot for the Senior community. All the grandmas and grandpas oohed and aahed over our kids. They are pretty charming. I'm sure Adam's mom was busting her buttons with pride. Afterwards we went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. Pretty cool! The kids loved the robotic T-rex battling with the Triceratops and her two babies. Sabrina wants to go back and see the "robot dinosaur with the spikes". (a.k.a. Triceratops) They also loved walking through the acres of park with the huge replicas of dinosaurs. Some were even fighting and killing and eating their prey. The sound effects creeped them out a little bit. I imagined myself experiencing the "Land of the Lost" as I wandered through the underbrush hearing dinosaur roars just over the next hill. Surreal! We had a lot of fun despite the mild heat exhaustion we experienced.

Camping trip

2008-06-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

We went camping last weekend with our friends the Atkinsons up at her family's cabin. Very rustic conditions, no running water or heat. And it rained half the time. But the kids had a GREAT time! They loved it and begged us to come back soon. They even dealt with the outhouse situation OK. (And Moira is still potty-training, now that's miraculous!) The cabin is right next to a small river so Adam and Greg Atkinson went fly-fishing to their hearts content. They both caught fish, but Adam accidentally released Greg's fish and out of penance subsequently released his own because he felt so bad. Guys--sheesh.

Meantime the girls--Sabrina, Moira, and the Atkinsons two oldest girls went wandering around the property (a couple of heavily wooded fenced acres) and scared themselves by imagining a bear coming out of the trees. I had just walked out of the cabin to check on them when I heard them shrieking at the opposite side of a large grassy area. I saw Ellie (5) and Abby (3) running towards me and doing that make-believe screaming (any mom can tell the difference) followed by Sabrina (4) who was actually screaming. And trailing significantly was Moira (2) who by this time was screaming and crying in earnest, looking behind her and fully-expecting a bear to come lumbering out of the trees. The poor kid was hysterical! I was expecting one too based on their behavior and raced to get Moira. And as I was running back to the cabin carrying her I scolded the other three about leaving her in the dust while they ran for their lives. We all calmed down enough to realize that Ellie had been pretending and fueled by Abby and Sabrina had started running and screaming, thus creating a real crisis in everyone's mind. Hilarious. I'm just glad there wasn't a real bear. I'm not sure how I would have handled that one.

Gardening

2008-05-10T16:05:00.001-07:00

We bought our house nearly 3 years ago at which time the flower beds were masses of grass and weeds and the lawn was the shade of ripe wheat--dead, dead, dead. Now, 3 years later, I am finally planting flowers everywhere. We went to the nursery today and filled our car with annuals and perenials. Sure love that "stimulus package" check.