VOTE!

Election Day is kind of like a holiday at our house. Brent says it's as much fun as sports to watch the different sides go back and forth, yet the results really can change your life. As much as I have always loved voting, I have found that being an informed voter makes it even more fun (imagine that). So here is some info to help yourself be an informed voter. If you live in Utah, there is some great info on the Lieutenant Governor's page on the Utah.gov site. You can get there by clicking here. On the left hand side towards the bottom there are two links that are extremely helpful. The first is called the "Voter Information Website." Here you can enter your name and address and get your polling site (which might have changed because they expect a very high turnout this year have added a lot of sites since last November). On the page that shows your polling site, you can click another link and get a sample ballot. This is nice because you hear about so many races, and it's nice to make sure which ones you get to vote for. Then you can take that sample ballot to see the things you will vote on and look them up in the Voter Information Pamphlet. This is actually online (if for some odd reason you recycled the one you got in the mail). Go back to the Lieutenant Governor's page and go to the second link on the bottom left. It's called "2008 Voter Information Pamphlet." You can go through there and see the different candidates and issues that will be on the ballot. If you would like to discuss the issues and/or candidates, Brent and I always host a gathering the evening before Election Day, in this case it will be next Monday, November 3rd. And just in case you didn't know, Brent frequently votes Democrat and I frequently vote Republican so it's not a "vote for our guy" night. We just have been following a lot of the races for a while now and we can tell you what we have learned about each candidate and issue, then you can make your own choice at the voting booth. We'll have soup and cookies and you can come by anytime in the evening. Those with kids usually come early so they can get home and get the children to bed. Those who work late usually come later. If you print off your ballot ahead of time, it would make it easier for you to know which races are important to you. If you don't we can look them up here. We have the Voter Information Pamphlet, the newspaper voter information article, and some various campaign mailings. If you want to come over, just let us know. You can leave a comment here or email me at onepagemore@yahoo.com. Oh, and for those of you who don't live in Utah, I am sure that your respective states' webpages will have voting information for you as well. Whatever you do, please make your voice heard! VOTE!

Miriam's first talk

Sunday was our Primary Program, and Miriam was entranced with watching all of the kids at the microphone she has coveted for so long. After the program was over and the room and emptied (somehow it takes me that long to get all our stuff organized back into the bag), Miriam found her way up to the microphone and pushed the red button to turn it on. She got the stepstool so that she could stand up close to the microphone. After a few warm-up vocalizations, she clearly said "Poop. Daddy poop. Mimi-a (how she refers to herself) poop. Mama poop." I was so proud. With no prompting whatsoever, she introduced her topic and gave three examples. All she needs now is a clincher of a conclusion and she'll be set. I am unaware of how many people heard her speech, but as we left the building the primary president gave her a cupcake she had left over from congratulating the primary kids on a great program. So Miriam was well paid for an excellent discourse.

We Also Sing!

Back in May, I told you about the "We Also Sing!" choir that I joyously sing with. We have been practicing hard and I am pleased to announce that our concert is coming up! And free tickets are available! And have been for a few weeks. I am cordially inviting you to attend. It will be held in the Tabernacle on Temple Square next Saturday, November 1st. There will be two concerts: one at 5:30 and one at 7:30. The actual concert is a little less than an hour and in my personal opinion should be fantastic. You can get tickets by going to the church's events website (just click here) and following the directions there. You can get them online, but the word on the street is that the online thing is malfunctioning. So it might be better to call. And so you know, each year I type up a listening guide about the songs and different thoughts and other factoids about them, complete with the lyrics. Then those who attend to see me (so far just Brent and Kelsey, bless their little hearts) have a little of my personal insight about what is going on. And really, who wouldn't want some of my personal insight? If you get tickets, let me know and I'll send you a copy of the listening guide for your own listening enjoyment. How's that for service? The picture here is the cover of this year's CD. The lady who designed it talked a little about her inspiration which I thought was kind of cool. "As for the cover, I always get inspiration from some of the music we sing. This year, I felt the front cover should have a very feminine, flowing 'pretty' look. I LOVE gardens and especially flowers: [As a missionary, several of the Nauvoo Restoration Inc. Missionaries I served with would tell me about various plants surrounding our historic sites--and my love of the earth was cultivated there.] So that was my starting point. For this CD cover, I've spent a few lunch breaks walking through and taking pictures of the flowers at Temple Square. Looking closely, I noticed that some of them stand out and are really colorful, some are delicate, some are simple, others bloom in beautiful clusters they come in all different sizes and colors and collectively they combine to create a flower bed that is eye-catching and harmonious. The background has a light pattern of flowers from an old wallpaper sample. Several words have been put on a pink panel in the lower third. Each verb is something from our music, or that has been addressed in various practices." Hope to see you there!

Any thoughts on baby carriers?

When I had Miriam, I knew I wanted something that would help me carry her with me so that she could be with me while I did other things. I got a little snugli pouch, I'm not sure which brand or anything, and we used it, but not extensively. We went on walks when she was little and such, but I had some issues with it. I couldn't take her out of it if she was asleep because she'd wake up. It was awfully awkward to get on and it dug into my shoulders. Miriam loved to be held and carried, but didn't love the snugli pack. She loved being wrapped up really tight, but it was difficult to squish her into the pack with her blanket on. And she didn't like being in there not wrapped up. After not very long at all I quit using it and just carried her. Which helped with her desire to be attentive and involved or else asleep with mom, but didn't really help with the "oh my arms and my back are so tired and I can only use one at a time..." thing. So I decided to get something different for Elijah. This time around, I'll have both the wee little child plus a running and dancing and quite energetic bigger child. I originally planned on a Baby Bjorn because of the rave reviews I have heard about them. But after I borrowed one when babysitting a little child, I was disappointed in how awkward and sore I still felt. So as I started reading about different styles and such I found myself leaning heavily towards a wrap, specifically the "Sleepy Wrap." See their site at www.sleepywrap.com. I really like the different options it has for carrying... both asleep and awake, looking around, legs together or apart, on your back... And I like what it says about having the thing wrap around your shoulders and back so that the weight is distributed throughout the whole area rather than just on your shoulders cause GOSH that hurts. I also like that the material is stretchy and moveable so the kid can move around, but has more substance than just a tee shirt so it supposedly won't get all stretched out. I really am leaning towards this one! Still, I want to know if any of my faithful blog readers have opinions about this. I know I don't have a slew of followers, but I love and appreciate each and every one of you and would like to know about your experiences, if any, with baby carrying and baby wrapping. Have you tried it? Is there something that you loved? Something that you hated? Let me know! It will definately help with the decision to purchase or not. THANK YOU!

Famous!

Every week there is a picture in the Outdoors section of the Salt Lake Tribune asking "Where is it?" Readers can email in their ideas of where in Utah it depicts, and they draw a name from the correct answerers to win a book. Well, last week Brent knew exactly where the picture was, actually emailed it into the guy, AND he was the lucky person to win the book! HOW EXCITING IS THAT?!? Here's the link to this week's "Where is it?" article that says that Brent won. It's a little ironic that the spot is one in Grand Staircase that Brent tried to find but alas couldn't. Still, he immediately knew it was Zebra Canyon. To the left is is the original picture from the paper. Below is a picture of Brent and Miriam enjoying their Dinosaurs of Utah book. And below that is both of them looking up like T-Rex is doing in the book. CONGRATULATIONS, BRENT! WE'RE SO PROUD!!

Fall Cleanup

One thing I love about living in Midvale is their green waste program. Once a month, from April to October, you can set any green waste stuff out on the curb and they'll take it away to make mulch out of it. Well, not grass clippings because nothing can be bagged. And of course, it has to be in four foot lengths or they give you a red tag and don't pick it up. We learned that the hard way. But as a non-truck owner, it is so nice to be able to get rid of yard clippings all at once rather than putting as much as you can into your garbage can each week. It's fabulous. Frequently throughout the spring and summer we set branches and things out of bushes and trees we've trimmed. And every October we set a whole bunch out after our big yard cleanup. Today was such a day because our green waste pickup is Tuesday. We started with the catalpa trees. I don't know where in this world besides our neighborhood that clips catalpa trees back so they look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, but because that's how they are, that's what we do. We also cleared the garden and the bamboo plot. When I was little, we always had a big Saturday yard cleanup day. We pulled and dug and weeded and took the truck to the dump at least once. No green waste pickup in Boise. As I tossed the rotted tomatoes into the garbage can, I remembered chucking similar rotted tomatoes over the back fence into the canal behind my parent's house. I don't know how many made it and how many just splattered on the canal bank. For the next few weeks, joggers probably had to maneuver carefully around that section. I may have jumped the gun a little on the tomatoes this year. The tops of the plants were frozen, but after I had them dug up and carried out to the curb I noticed the lower branches still looked okay. Maybe some of the 95% of our tomatoes that were all still green could have been salvaged. Oh well, this way it's done and I don't have to deal with it. Miriam was a huge help. She picked up the downed branches from the catalpa trees, carried them to the curb and proudly said "STACK" as she piled them up. Until she got tired of that and buried herself underneath the downed branches, as pictured. Then she ate lunch and went down for a good long nap that lasted til we were almost done. What a girl! It's amazing how much two people can do without a little person running around. We are proud to declare that we are done with the annual fall cleanup. Besides raking up the leaves that are even now blowing off the trees, of course.

Is it red?

When Miriam was born, she had definate dark red hair. That all fell out in a stage I refer to as her "little old man" look. It has grown in pretty blonde. I in fact think of her as blonde. But twice in the past week, complete strangers have commented on "what a cute redhead!" And they weren't talking about me. Both of the strangers were at car-oriented places (the gas station and the place we got our state inspection), so maybe it's a car thing. But there is a chance that we still have a redhead on our hands! Above is a picture where I think she could really be red. And below is one from before her dark red hair fell out, then another from her little old man stage cause gosh I thought she was so dang cute (in a really homely sort of way).

OMSI

While we were in Portland, we visited one of the coolest museums I have ever been to. Miriam loved it. It was called OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It was amazing. There was a huge room of science activities for toddlers, then one for kids a little older. Those were the only two rooms we went to before we had to leave, but even just those two rooms were amazing. Here are some pictures from the day because I think seeing what she did will make more sence than me explaining. A picture is worth a thousand words, ya know.






















All of the Levanger cousins minus Henry because he was in blissful morning nap sleep at this point in time. Miriam looks so grown up! I can hardly believe it!


























This was a color wheel talking about how when light particles get smaller they change colors or something like that. As you move the lever up and down, the big circle in the middle changes colors. Miriam really liked this because she's all about naming colors these days.
























A life-sized eagle's nest with life-sized eaglets and life-sized rubber eggs.
























Perhaps her favorite activity was a water area. She didn't really care about the actual activities, but loved using the watering can to take the water from the lake area and dump it into the water erosion area. What fun!
























Miriam was plumb worn out when it was time to go. Here she is with Kelsey, Nana, and Papa on the way to the car. She's in a stroller, despite the wheelchair look, holding tightly onto her fries. Oh she loves fries! She's an Idaho girl at heart.

Self-Sufficient

Our evening routine includes a bath, some quiet playtime, then a bottle to take to bed. Lately, Miriam has been choosing to take her bath in the sink rather than the tub. This is fine with me because if I'm watching the bath I can clean up the kitchen while she plays. The other day I was sweeping I realized things were pretty quiet so I looked to see what she was doing. Apparantly she was ready to go on to the next steps of the routine because she had crawled out of the bath side of the sink and was sitting in the dry side closest to the clean dishes. She had selected a newly cleaned bottle, filled it up with tap water, and twisted a nipple on it tight enough to keep at least some of the water in. I think she's already learned that if mom won't do something for you, sometimes it's easier just to do it yourself!

Portland

Miriam and I spent a quick weekend in Portland, Oregon to attend and celebrate my brother Nathan's sealing to my sister-in-law Penny. We flew out Thursday and back in Saturday and had a fantastic time. All of my siblings were there with their kids and although it got a bit hectic at times, it was wonderful. Miriam had so much fun with her cousins! She has identified them through pictures for a long time, but it was so nice to see that she knows which name goes with which cousin in real life. And still does... a few of Henry's toys got mixed up in our Potato Head bag, and when Miriam comes across one of them she'll pick it up and say "En-y, En-y," and walk around like she's looking for Henry. And it was so nice to be at the Portland Temple with my parents and all of my siblings. What an amazing moment in time! Throughout the weekend and especially at the temple, Miriam's oldest cousin Malone watched out for her. And she loved him for it. Below are pictures of Miriam with Henry in their carseats, and Miriam holding Malone's hand on the way into the temple. Mom, I think I left her new magenta sweater in your purse. I hope so, at least, because it didn't make it back to Midvale with us. We had a wonderful time and I am so glad that I was there.