Real Life Commercials

This is a shot of Miriam washing her hair in the bathtub tonight.

After perfecting the quaff, she turned to me and pronounced "I call this one the Santa Claus." She's thinking of opening a beauty salon if anybody is interested in a 'do.

And now Eli's turn.

"It's a pillow. It's a pet. It's a pillow pet."

TRUCKS

My boy Elijah loves trucks. Oh boy oh boy. He loves watching big ones, he loves playing with small ones. He can sit and watch a ten minute youtube video of a garbage truck on its route without moving a muscle. "Truck" was one of his very first words but it took me a surprisingly long time to realize that DRRRRR meant truck. DRRRRR has evolved greatly and now most everybody understands that he's saying "truck." So for Christmas, Santa excitedly purchased a big old bag of matchbox-type cars, along with some track and other sundry truck accessories off of ksl.com. I wrapped up the bag nice and tight and stuck it clear under the guest room bed in the basement, because it was kind of heavy for the top of the shelf that Santa is using for the rest of his stuff. Imagine the joy and excitement that Eli felt in his heart when his random poking around under large objects finally resulted in a huge bag of TRUCKS! HOLY MOLY! I wish I could have seen him find the bag and realize what was in it. Instead, I only saw the utmost radiance around his face after he dragged the bag (and it's not light) to the bottom of the stairs and started unloading it. OH WHAT A FIND! "Can you believe this, mom? Somebody left a huge bag of trucks under the bed down here! I'm sure glad I looked because WOW these are just sitting there doing no good! Aren't you glad I found them?" Please note also the record amounts of snot this boy sports. When he was in the hospital with RSV at 6 weeks, the nurses said he had the snot production of a 2 year old. Now that he's almost two, that has multiplied accordingly. I wish I had taken the camera downstairs with me because once there, I saw that he was taking the cars out one by one and sorting them by type. To his right he has lined up all the van-type/big trucks. On one of the stairs he has the trucks with Sesame Street characters. I told him to help me clean them up and he could go show one to dad. Surprisingly enough, he did it right off. And ran as fast as he could to show his new car (he chose a crane with Bert driving it) to dad. I think Santa made a darn good choice! And Christmas morning will be a HIT!

My recent project

I mentioned that we went to Mexico this April. GREAT TRIP. And it's even greater the farther we get from it because you kind of forget the hard parts (fitting in naps, the torrential rain, the freaking hot sun, two sick kids on the airplane back home etc). Brent's parents paid for the whole thing, and took Brent's two brothers and their families as well. So for Christmas, I decided to document the trip in a scrapbook. I have finally finished and I am quite proud of the result! I'm quite certain that my parents.in.law don't read my blog (if you do, Ron and Judy, you can pretend to be surprised on Christmas) so I'm going to post some of my favorite pages for your viewing enjoyment.

This is the only photo series that has all four grandkids. It made me laugh.

This is the right hand page of the Chichen Itza spread. Please note that the Chichen Itza main temple will go across the whole book. Pretty cool, I know.

I loved the beach in Mexico. By far my favorite.

And this is the cover. Oh I'm excited for the final book to come so I can see it in print!

My foray into couponing

Last year at this time I got into couponing. It started with a seminar by the Grocery Guru and just snowballed from there. For a while I would take the coupons from our paper then go buy two more at the Holiday down the street and spend a couple of hours stapling, cutting and filing new coupons, purging the expired ones, and scouring all the couponing websites for the best deals at all the grocery stores. It was fun. And I got some really good deals. But it really did take a lot of time. And I was always thinking "oh I have to get to this store and I have to make sure I have these coupons and I have to update my coupons to make sure I have the most current ones etc etc etc." And it took so much time to make the list and get my coupons in order and shop for the best best deals that I didn't make my weekly menus and shop for those. And then there was the times that the thing I went for was sold out because everybody else had the same coupons and the same great deals as I did so I would be kind of antsy needing to find another great deal because I didn't get the one great deal and ARGGH. I would end up with some great cheap food but no meals. And no gumption to create meals because I had spent so much energy on obtaining the food. So the grocery couponing kind of settled out of my favor. But don't worry because I haven't given up on coupons altogether! I found that I could get FABULOUS deals on shampoo, conditioner, body wash, makeup, toothpaste, floss, medicines, etc at my local Walgreens. Seriously, I have so much of this type of stuff for virtually free that now I don't even get it unless it is free. I have tons. At least two years' worth and that's not exaggerating. And diapers! Not free, but a lot cheaper than Costco, which is where I was buying beforehand because it was the cheapest I could find. And the good thing about shopping the Walgreens deals were that there were just a few items a week and I could prepare beforehand. So now I don't cut all my coupons when I get them. Which is nice because instead of buying more papers I just asked the neighbors if they would pull their coupons for me. And then I just file them away and when I check my hip2save.com weekly Walgreens list, I just get out the file of the date of the coupon and see if I have it. And I rarely print coupons unless it's for multiple dollars... like on a dvd or diapers. Yeah, it takes a little time but nothing like the overwhelmingness I felt before. And my Walgreens is close (which is why I chose Walgreens over RiteAid or other stores with similar ads)... we frequently walk in good weather and the cashiers all know me and my kids and ask about them when I go without them and ask about me if Brent for some reason stops in without me. It's kind of embarrassing but I'm okay with it. And thankfully I've done it for long enough that I don't have to sit and think and figure for a long time to "get" the deal. And even more thankfully I've done it for long enough to see that the same deals really do keep coming up so if I miss it I don't feel as sad. What I've really gained, though, is just knowing that there are DEALS. If you do this and this you can get this. And I'm much more aware of things like that. For example, I noticed that at Burger King you could get a Whopper combo meal for 2.99 on Wednesdays. Cool. Then I got some BK coupons in the mail and one of them was buy a Whopper combo meal and get another Whopper free. So I went on Wednesday to get my combo meal plus free Whopper for dinner when I notice that on the same sheet of coupons I can get a kids meal for 99 cents with the purchase of a combo. So I added that on top of it. And then got an order of crown nuggets for the kid who wasn't getting the nuggets in the kids meal. SO I ended up with two Whoppers, a drink, fries, two orders of crown nuggets, kid fries, a kid drink, and a kid prize for $5. I was excited. And most of what it took was just being AWARE of the deals and the coupons. I do love seeing people with binders of coupons because I knew exactly what they're doing and how much fun they're having doing it. But I'm glad I've toned it down and am more moderate in what I do than before. Because I still save a lot of money. And I feel a lot calmer in my heart. And there's no coupon for that :)

Holiday home cookin'

Halloween has been a lot of fun this year. My kids go crazy when they see halloween decorations on people's lawns, and OH they love the candy. This past week I have had a lot of fun making Halloween Dinners. Here's a sampling :)

1. Ghostly Shepherd's Pie. I think these ghosts are SO CUTE! They would have been even cuter if the mashed potatoes were a little more mashy, but whatever. Miriam also made ghost cupcakes for dessert for the same meal. Elijah liked them better prior to the cooking.

2. Jack O'Lantern Pot Pie. Miriam liked eating the eye piece slice.

3. Bone rolls. They didn't really turn out as "boney" as they were in my mind, but nobody seemed to mind. We dipped them in soup. I LOVE SOUP IN THE FALL!

Miriam got pretty into the at-dinner picture taking. There is a whole series of me eating this entire dinner. Seriously, there's probably 40 pictures documenting the meal. This is an awesome one of me. I thought I looked cute when I winked, but apparantly I don't.

I started taking some of the other side of the table and got this shot. I was looking at the image thinking "GOSH THAT'S A GREAT ONE" when Brent turned the camera he had to show me what they were laughing at... me winking. Oh well, at least it produced a good picture.

And here's the whole family as we currently stand.

I hope your halloween has been DELICIOUS ;)

Where in the world?

Today Miriam, Elijah and I were at the Conservation Garden Park looking at plants to combine into my park strip. The Turkish Speedwell are doing good, but not thriving quite like I'd like them to. Anyway, I could not find anybody to question and was looking at some pre-planted potentials. I turned and saw Miriam running up the ramp that was behind me. I walked over to her, realizing with each step that Elijah was nowhere in my sight. I went back to the pre-planted tables where I knew he was with me and nothing. I went up the ramp and nothing. I ran partway down a pathway or two and nothing. I sent Miriam down one way while I took another and nothing. I still couldn't find anybody working there to ask for help (but positively didn't have to tell anybody that I'd lost my kid). "Don't worry, Mama," said Miriam. "I remember what he looks like." "Oh yeah?" This while running still, but quite interested to see how Miriam would describe Eli. "What does he look like?" "His face is... (grand pause here while she searches for the right word... and then finds it) ...funny. (Another pause, but shorter this time.) And he laughs." I laughed right out loud. And luckily not long afterwards we found that funny little face dancing and, sure enough, laughing on the rock beds. Being off the paths and trails, I knew he wasn't supposed to be there but I was so relieved to see him I didn't really care.

Boot-Scootin

When I was uploading pictures from my birthday I realized that some of these pictures were in fact in movie form! That makes me really happy because when we arrived at the venue that night, I realized my movie camera's batteries were dead. As a member of the Midvale Arts Council, I participated in some karaoke contests this summer due to lack of a lot of other participation. After 50s night and 80s night, Miriam asked if she could sing on Country night. So she chose a song and worked it up. We did Alan Jackson's Tall Tall Trees. I am admitedly biased, but she did a fantastic job. I sang with her so she could stay "on," but I think she did a great job. AND she got 3rd place and won a $50 gift certificate to WalMart! Not too shabby!

The Prize

I mailed Britney's prize off last week and got a Facebook message from her today saying that she had received it. HOORAY cause the Midvale Post Office has a history of taking a really really long time to deliver stuff. Here is what she got.

And here's a list of the songs on the CD and some of why I included each one. Hmmm. I actually don't have the exact order that is on Britney's CD. But I'll give them to you in chunks.

The first bunch are piano songs. As a pianist, I know more piano songs than other types and I really enjoy piano songs.

1. 12 Variations in C by Mozart. This is the "Twinkle Twinkle" song but in classic Classical form. I love it and really should learn it.

2. Fantasie Impromptu by Chopin. This is an awesome piece that starts with a crazy fast section, then transforms to a slow melodic section and ends up with the fast one again. The middle section's melody was used in the 40s song "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows." I don't think I've ever heard that song, but my mom would sing it whenever I practiced this one. I played it my last semester at Boise State but sure can't any more. Again, I'll have to start practicing.

3. Rhapsodie on a Theme by Paganini. This is the song used in "Somewhere in Time." I played it in high school and is a crowd favorite.

4. Claire de Lune by Debussy. This is also a very popular one used at the end of "Ocean's Eleven," when they're watching the Bellagio's fountains.

5. Reverie by Debussy. Debussy was a composer during the early 20th century. He wrote music to sound like the impressionistic paintings that were popular at the time (think Monet). This piece is one of my favorites. It's not as popular as his Clair de Lune, but I think it's equally as pretty.

6. Prelude in C by Prokofiev. I played this at Ricks the first semester I started studying music seriously. It is one of my favorite styles of pieces: a very busy background with a slower melody over the top of it. I've never heard it anywhere but myself playing it, but if it were up to me, it would be much more popular.

7. Winter Wind Etude by Chopin. I loved this piece upon first hearing it when I was at Ricks. While I've tried to play it, I've never spent enough time to get it past the first few measures. Oh well, I can still listen.

The next section is vocal/opera. I had a hard time in school appreciating classical vocal music. Then I realized that it's like any other style of music... you just have to find the pieces that call to you and then you can totally appreciate it. I didn't ever study vocally nor was I in many choirs in college, so unlike the piano ones, I haven't learned to love these through practice, just listening.

8. Wachet auf from Cantata 140 by Bach. I don't know where I learned of this piece or why it calls to me, but from the first phrase I feel peace. Don't know why, because the words are in German and mean "Wake up!"

9. Barcarolle from Les Contes d'Hoffman by Offenbach. This is the opera that was in the beginning of "Life is Beautiful." Fantastic movie doing a fantastic job of incorporating opera music.

10. O Mio Bambino Carro from Gianni Schicchi by Puccini. Again, I don't know where I learned this piece but I love it. I think Sarah Brightman does a version of it.

Last chunk is orchestral music. Again, none that I've played but many that I love.

11. The Moldau by Smetana. I was at Ricks (living with Britney) when I learned about this song in my Music and the Humanities class. I instantly loved it. It is an aural story that tells of the Moldau, a river which runs through what is now the Czech Republic. There is a "river theme," the river passes by a peasant wedding, moonlight on the river, little woodland animals, and arrives at the castle. I have shared this piece with lots and lots of folk, but it is one that should be listened to much more than it is.

12. Brandenberg Concerto #3 in G by Bach. I think Bach was a genius. When I was working, I always used ribbons when I played this song. It's such a bouncy song that the kids would run around and wave the ribbons and it was so happy!

13. Rhine Symphony in Eflat by Schumann. This is another piece written about a river. The funny thing about this one is that Schumann, being the moody and depressed musician that he was, tried to kill himself by jumping in the Rhine river. Not sure if the jump was before or after he composed this piece, but either way it's pretty funny. There are parts of this song that remind me of the soundtrack to "Willow," which I have seen a lot more often than most people.

14. New World Symphony by Dvorak. This is another classic. I'm not sure if the melody is from a spiritual or if the spiritual resulted from this piece, but the tune is the same as "Goin' Home." Love it.

There you have it. Since compiling this list, I've thought "OH I should have put that song on or OH I should have done that one." But maybe there'll be a volume ii.

And for some other birthday shots, here is Miriam and Brent performing a Scooby Doo puppet show for me. I don't think I've blogged about Miriam's undying love for all things ScoobyDoo yet. I'll save that for another day.

And here's one of Elijah and I. I love this boy!

And the winner is...

Britney!! By way of introduction, Britney is my dear friend with whom I was randomly assigned as roommates at Ricks College. Together we somehow survived homesickness, roommate drama, boy drama, lack of food, and school. We lived together in Rexburg for two school years. She went on a mission to Honduras while I was in Chile (and there's a hazy memory that we were in the MTC at the same time... but that might be just a dream). Afterwards, we both went to Utah State and always took Spanish classes together. She was in love with the way one of the teachers said "Ute and Payute." I never caught the vision, even after he repeated it numerous times, but I remember it to this day. Good times, good times. Britney married Brandon in May (I think it was May) of 2000 (so they don't have to count to know how long they've been married) and I was a bridesmaid. I still have the purpley/diamondy bead necklace we as bridesmaids wore. She currently lives in Idaho Falls area with her four girls, one in 2nd grade, kindergarten, then twin toddlers. And Brandon, of course.
The Happy-Birthday-to-Paige-Prize that Britney has won was inspired by Marika's comment and Ginger's follow-up. And dipping also from Eleanor Roosevelt. Yes, inspiration from Marika, Ginger, AND Eleanor! You can't beat that. A favorite quote of mine from Eleanor Roosevelt is "A day out-of-doors, someone I loved to talk with, a good book and some simple food and music. That would be rest." So to my favorite mother-of-twins, I am sending you REST! Even in Eastern Idaho, September is finally a great season for a day out-of-doors. For the someone I loved to talk with (loved here is used, I believe and at least when I say it, in the subjunctive tense meaning a wish or desire rather than in the past tense meaning the person is gone), you'll get a picture of me! For the good book, I am sending a pre-loved copy of Fannie Flagg's "Can't Wait to Get to Heaven." It is a delightful story that takes very little focus and brainpower, yet brought me such joy. You can keep it and read it, or pass it on if you've read it (or don't like it). For the simple food I am sending my favorite microwave popcorn, Pop Secret Homestyle. If you haven't tried this yet, you're in for a treat. Honestly the best popcorn ever. Well, maybe kettlecorn fresh from the kettle is better but even that's close. And for the music, I will openly admit that my knowledge of current music is pathetically woeful. My favorite song of the past year was Feist's 1-2-3-4, but the Sesame Street version. "1-2-3-4 monsters walkin' 'cross the floor. I love counting, counting to the number 4..." And that's not on iTunes. I know. I've checked. So instead of recent hits, your CD will be Paige's Favorite Classical Pieces. And there you have it. A day out-of-doors, someone I loved to talk with, a good book and some simple food and music. A recipe for rest if I (or Eleanor) has ever heard it.
Thanks to all who participated in my first-annual birthday drawing! It helped make my birthday wonderful.

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my birthday next week. Hooray! I have always loved my birthday, even the years that it's been on the first day of school or in the first week with brand new college roommates. It's always been MY day. Even when things are just normal, like they usually are, they're a little more special because those things are on my birthday. When I see people walking around with a silly smile on their face I think "it must be their birthday." I don't mind the getting older part of it, either. I feel it gives me more clout and authority to say "mid-30s" rather than "20 something." Anyway, this year I'd like everybody else to feel as much speciality on my birthday as I do. So I'm having my first-ever drawing. I'm not quite sure yet what I'll give away as a prize, but if you would like to enter the drawing, simply make a comment on this post. On Wednesday, September 1 (my birthday), I'll put all the names in something or other and pull one out. That lucky person will get some lucky thing from me! I'm going to do the drawing on my birthday even though it may mean that it won't be an on-Paige's-birthday-present for you (of the 5 people that read my blog, only 2 live in Midvale). It's all about me, see, so this birthday activity will be for ME on MY BIRTHDAY. It's kind of like when I mail a birthday package or card to somebody else, I like to do so on the birthday of the person, so that I get to celebrate that person's birthday ON their birthday and to heck with when they finally get the thing. If it gets there late, they can pretend their birthday lasts longer. So, shout out a birthday message to me and get ready to win! Can't lose on this one. Sorry about the generic birthday pic, but I am currently in Boise and don't have access to my pictures. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Family Pictures

We took family pictures back in April. I had the same photographer that Kelsey got for her wedding and I really liked her (www.laf-photo.blogspot.com). She could improve in time-related things (scheduling was hard, then we took pictures in April and I just got the disc now), but otherwise I thought she was great. Miriam was being an absolute pain. She is usually delightful, but HEAVENS she had issues. Kudos to Linnea's husband's doll antics for getting her to smile. Elijah deadpanned a lot, but I'll take that over the girl's scowl. He did smile, but he is trying to escape the family hug. Here are some of my favorites!

I laughed right out loud!

My thoughts on miscarriage

My friend Shauna miscarried last weekend. It made me go through all the emotions and thoughts from our own miscarriage. I have a tendency to analyze, analyze, and over-analyze, but when I have things aligned in my mind it helps me to accept and understand them. So here are some of my personal analyses about miscarriage. My first pregnancy was in the summer of 2005. When I miscarried at 11 weeks, I hadn’t told anybody at all, mostly because it was so exciting having such a huge secret between just Brent and I. I know a lot of women don’t tell people about a pregnancy in case of miscarriage (and that’s absolutely fine for them), but when we miscarried, that was my biggest regret. By the time we told people, the baby was gone. There was no joyous celebration, no exciting loving of a new baby. I felt that I, and in turn my baby, missed out on the happiness of his existence. And I found that it helped when people knew and talked to me about it. My miscarriage was at the ward campout. We left after everybody had gone to bed, and the executive secretary brought things back to my house the next day. He called the bishop from my house, and after the next day’s RS announcement, everybody knew. A lot of women came to talk to me and I was surprised to see how much I loved that and how much it strengthened me. I had a great and strong need to talk about the miscarriage. I felt like it was the only way to still stay in contact with the baby we lost. And I loved talking with women who had also had miscarriages. There is a secret club of women who have experienced this incredibly unique kind of loss and we all band together when a miscarriage happens. The sisterhood that results is a true blessing. It obviously didn’t help to hear “oh, I had a few miscarriages, my cousin Darcy had four, and even our neighbor Stephanie had one…” But it did help when somebody would give me a tight hug and say “I had a miscarriage and I am thinking about you.” I also did a lot of reading about the how and why of miscarriage and found that there is very little that you can do to cause or to stop a miscarriage. The theory that made the most sense to me was that when the chromosomes combine, something doesn’t fit. At every stage of development, everything goes as normal until the stage where the missing/mismatched/wrong chromosomes are needed, whether that stage is 5 weeks, 11 weeks, or whenever. Then the body doesn’t know what the next stage of development should be and stops developing. Meaning it’s not that he would have been “deformed,” but that his body had already developed as much as it possibly could. It made sense to me, but didn't answer the bigger questions. Did the baby I lost have a spirit? Will he be waiting for me in heaven? Or was it never really a body and therefore a spirit never dwelt there and therefore not a person? Each mother has their own answer for this, and I believe each mother is entitled to her own answer for this, and I have heard a lot of different answers from a lot of different women. But since I’m writing, you get to read my answers. In my career, I worked with people with severe disabilities. I saw a lot of broken and virtually useless bodies, each one housing a strong and vibrant spirit. I realized then that on the spectrum of abilities, my “able” body was like a brand new sports car and theirs an old rusty bicycle. But I also believe that after the resurrection when we discard the mortal debilitations we have, our bodies will resemble (in the transportation analogy, of course) a slick, sleek space ship with heated seats and a gravity chamber and a built-in dvd player and more amazing stuff that hasn’t even been invented. Compared to this space ship, the sports car isn’t much better than the bike. We will look back on how we defined abilities and disabilities in this life and laugh because we were all so significantly hobbled when compared to our celestial destiny. Back to my little 11-week fetus-child, I saw his incredibly small and underdeveloped body, but it was still very clearly a precious body that had developed as much as it mortally and physically could. And when compared to how small and underdeveloped we all are compared to what we will eventually become, I felt strongly that his little body was just as capable as housing a spirit as mine, and that with his 11 weeks of development he could absolutely have experienced mortality. There is no specific church policy or stated doctrine about it. The best I found is an opinion by Joseph Fielding Smith about stillborn children. “There is no information given by revelation in regard to the status of stillborn children. However, I will express my personal opinion that we should have hope that these little ones will receive a resurrection and then belong to us.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:280.) But I searched for a prophetic statement or something scriptural to support my emotions and found one of each. Brigham Young taught that “when the mother feels life come to her infant it is the spirit entering the body.” (Journal of Discourses, 17:143.) Through more sensitive instruments, we know now that those tiny babies move and swim and dance very early in development, like five or six weeks. The mom just can’t feel it until he’s big enough to bump into things in there. So if it was the movement that Brigham was referring to rather than the mother’s senses, the spirit joins with the body pretty early in development. I know I’m reading quite a lot into the statement, but I’m okay with that. In Luke 1, we read that when the angel appeared to Mary, he told her that her cousin Elisabeth had conceived a son and “this is the sixth month with her” (verse 36). So five months along. Mary visits Elisabeth and “abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house” (verse 56). It seems that Mary left before John was born. To give her enough time to abide there for three months, she had to have arrived about a month after the angel had first appeared to her. And already, Elisabeth knew that Mary was pregnant with Christ. When Mary showed up on her doorstep “the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost” (verse 41) and she greeted Mary as “the mother of my Lord” (verse 43). Baby John, only in the second trimester of development himself, recognized Baby Jesus mere weeks after conception. I could be completely wrong on my calendaring and the meaning of the statements. And even if I am right, it is absolutely possible that half-God children develop differently than mere full-mortal children. But what I get from it is that it is entirely feasible that an extremely newly developing body can house a spirit. So I feel that there is a spirit waiting for me in the afterlife. If, when I get there, that’s not the case, I’ll be fine with it. I have a friend who says the same thing but opposite. She feels that there is not a spirit waiting for her. If there is when she gets there, then great. Each mother is entitled to her own revelation and there is a huge possibility that each situation is different. So after all of that, what have I done differently because of my miscarriage? First of all, as soon as I found out I was pregnant with Miriam and Elijah, I started talking to them and loving them because I didn’t know how long I’d have with them. We told our families and friends early on in the pregnancies for the same reason. Luckily, they’re now 3 and 1 and I still adore them. I worked to enjoy pregnancy rather than wish it to pass fast and complain about everything because that’s what I didn’t have and wanted so badly for so long. It is also surprisingly nice to be in that club of mothers who have miscarried and it is a unique feeling to be the one to hug another woman and tell her “I had a miscarriage too and I’m thinking about you.” I know that I love my babies differently because of that first loss. I don’t think I love them better or stronger than other mothers love theirs, but it is a different kind of love than I could have given them otherwise. So there you have it. I didn’t realize I was going to be writing a novel, but after I started it just kept coming and coming. It is a topic I feel strongly about and quite frankly there’s a lot I left out. Unfortunately, miscarriages are rampant. More women that I thought possible have experienced it. As much as I would have preferred not to have experienced it, I’m grateful for what I have learned and who I have become because of it. But I’m also glad I only had one.

Sports. And. Us.

I've been planning to do a post on our summer sports adventures. But it's going to be just a list of honorable mentions instead.

I've love the World Cup. Love it. But with the US, Chile, and Mexico being knocked out the passed round, I don't quite know who to watch. Probably Brazil. Maybe Argentina.

Miriam is taking a little sports class. She's pretty cute about it and, biased as I may be, is quite good. She's much better at soccer and kickball than basketball. But she sure is excited for t-ball, which is next week's sport. Not that others have to do poorly for me to think she's amazing, but she was the only one in the class that got the concept of kicking the soccer ball around the circle of moms and arriving back at her own mom. I'm so proud.

I also signed is up for a little dance class. It said 12 months and up and that it was for families, so I figured it would be little-kid oriented with the older kids being okay. When we signed up, Miriam voiced that she did not want to go, so I made a point of saying that it was Eli's class. She sighed and consented to help Eli at his dance class. Well, we showed up and the class was pretty much aimed exactly to a three year old little girl, even one who isn't into the dress-up-ballerina-sparkly-tutu stuff at all. Before I could even get into the circle with Elijah, she was involved and loving it. She jump, claps, turns around, freezes when the music stops and even gets into first position. Of course instead of doing pleis while she's in first position, she likes to "dance crazy." I guess she can't be perfect at everything. Elijah's likes it when we get to dance crazy right by the mirror. Other than he's not too involved. It may be Miriam's favorite 30 minutes of the whole week but she still calls it Eli's dance class.

The Jazz drafted Gordon Hayward from Butler for their #9 pick. I LOVE THIS GUY! He's clean-cut, adorable, humble, underdoggish, but at the same time amazingly talented in terms of both athleticism and leadership. No, he's not the "big guy" we need, but we've needed a good big guy ever since Ostertag left. Or got there :). I think he'll be perfect, I think he'll fit in wonderfully, and being from Indiana I think he and Coach Sloan will have a lot of great crop talk. And to all those who boo-ed when they annouced that Gordon Hayward was the man, I dare you to tell me you didn't like him in March. I dare you to because pretty much THE ENTIRE WORLD LOVED HIM IN MARCH! Or at least everybody but strict Duke fans. So there you have it.

And a non-sports item. Brent's going backpacking in Southern Utah tomorrow. I'm driving to Boise with the two busters. Yep, me driving with two little children. Let's hope for the best.

GO WORLD!

I tried to make us look tough and it worked for everybody but me. I look like I'm trying to get a popcorn kernel out of my teeth. Still, I think Brent and I really could take on Elijah, Miriam AND Barack himself. Enjoy!

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Stuff On My Kids

A book we frequently check out of the library is "Stuff On My Cat A to Z." It goes from A to Z with pictures of stuff on cats. You can see it here. After reading it many times, I started picturing some of my own pictures with my own A to Z stuff and my newest creation began. I put together "Stuff on my Kids A to Z" with my digital scrapbooking software and got it published (Kelsey's wedding guestbook was the first thing I ever published, but this is the first thing I've publish of my stuff for me... oh so exciting!) at an online publisher place. I was even more excited when I got an email from the publishing place (viovio.com) saying that they thought my book was adorable and wanted to feature it in their June/July newsletter! I'll be famous! Of course, they have since told me it will be the August/September newsletter, but still... if it ever is I'll sure and let ya know. Anyway, the book came this week and although it was supposed to be for Father's Day, we celebrated early. Here are some of my favorite pages.

Here are the front and back covers. I am both prejudiced and biased, but I think the whole thing is absolutely adorable!

When the books got here (I ordered a small size which came with two books automatically), we were just leaving for a walk. I opened the package and showed them to Elijah and Miriam. They each took one and plopped down to have a read. Perhaps the Father's Day present won't really be for dad...

Who needs preschool?

Signs that my 3 year old may be watching too much PBS or perhaps may not be watching enough:

While at the aquarium looking at an informational setup on the life of kids who live in the Amazon, she asks "so is this a habitat or something?"

While Elijah spins her in circles in the bathtub, she squeals "he's trying to rotate me!"

Looking out our window and excitedly pointing out the stop sign on the corner, she states "there's an octagon outside our house!"

Feeling much better after throwing up and being sick for a day, she tells me "my immune system chia-ed down my germs." (The term "CHIA" is pronounced like chia pet and is her own verb meaning to kick or punch.)

Gazing up at some seabirds at the beach, she gasps "Mama! They have pteranodons in Mexico!!"

It's EDUCATIONAL television! And we obviously love it at our house!

Buck up, little camper

Miriam is now a camper! Brent took her on her first outside outing this weekend with his parents to Topaz Mountain. It's one of Brent's mom's favorite camping places because of all the topaz chunks to find. It's also where Brent asked me to marry him. Anyway, not being an avid sleep-outsider myself, I was interested to see how she would do. Turns out Miriam is a star camper. She cooked marshmallows on sticks, hammered out rocks, and loved every minute of it. While he woke up every hour throughout the night, Miriam just slept and slept and slept. I was most concerned when it started pouring rain here. I pictured them huddled in a soggy tent with the wind and rain whirling around them. But then I checked the weather radar map. There was a huge red/yellow storm right over Salt Lake County, with a huge circle of green. There was only the extreme edge of the storm, the feathery green parts, over Topaz Mountain. As a mother who has only spent three nights away from her little girl, and all of them in the hospital with Elijah, I think I did as well as she did.

Miriam with her hat, flashlight, bunny, candy necklace, and fanny pack for collecting topaz.

Showing off her topaz.

My Summer Project

In the area we live, many homes (if not most) are fronted by a sidewalk. Between the sidewalk and the road lies a thin strip of landscapable terrain called a park strip. Park strips give pedestrians a cushion of space between them and the road with all its busy cars whizzing by, and studies show that the park strip indeed calms traffic, assumably by making the road appear narrower by separating the sidewalk. These things are all well and good, but gosh the darn things are terribly hard to deal with! When we moved into our home, the park strip immediately in front of us was filled with grass and lined with four stunted catalpa trees. I'm not sure how widespread the custom is, but in our area it was quite popular during the 60s to plant catalpas or other fast-growing trees in the park strip area, then to cap them, cutting off their top branches to create a ball effect each year with the new growth. We call them "Dr. Seuss trees," although I have also heard them referred to as "lollipop trees" and "wow those are really strange trees." Anyway, our four trees were surrounded by grass. Which was very difficult to water. And really bizarre to mow. So we jumped on the Slow-the-Flow bandwagon and ripped our strip. I wanted something in that area which was alive, but required little maintenance, which included water. We decided to transplant some ivy, growing profusely on the south end of the back yard without any help from us, into the park strip. Over the next few years, sections of this ivy flourished and looked beautiful, climbing and winding up the silly little catalpas trunks. The other half of the park strip was less desireable, sporting dead chunks of transplanted ivy. Every year it was the same. Transplant more ivy to bare areas. Watch ivy dry up and die. Despite the water and fertilizer I lovingly gave it. More dead ivy. While I know I'm not a green-thumb-make-everything-outside-gorgeous person, I enjoy growing things and felt like an absolute failure. So I decided to (finally) try something different. After attending a "Simple Solutions for Problematic Park Strips" class and going to the Conservation Garden Park in West Jordan, as well as the Central Utah Gardens in Orem, I realized my fatal flaw. Ivy is a shade plant and literally shrivels up when too much sunlight shines directly on it! The half of my park strip that is empty isn't a sign of my failure, the half that has ivy growing in it is actually a sign of my abilities and successes in the growing world! What I needed was an aesthetically complementary yet sun-loving groundcover which is tolerant of poor soil and drought to put in the patches of park strip where the ivy turned to dust. After much searching, I chose "Turkish Speedwell," a tiny dark green plant which spreads across the entire ground and produces a carpet of beautiful tiny little purpley blue flowers. You can see seasonal pictures of it at this link. I loved this plant at first sight when I saw it in the demonstration gardens, but the bright blooms made me think it required a lot of water or at least shade. Not so! According to one website, "this charmer is as tough as it is beautiful." Turns out it is a very desert-y non-water and sun-loving plant! So last week was action time. I dug out all the dead ivy and prepared the soil, then planted my little Turkish Speedwells. Miriam was a help, but Elijah tended to run down the sidewalk while we were working, so I did it mostly during naptime and after Brent got home from work so he could run after Eli. But my little plants are so dang cute! And I have such high hopes for their prolific survival! They're DESERT plants, after all! I just hope they feel happy and at home in my park strip. Because I sure feel happy with them! It is my summer project to keep them alive and make my park strip a beautifully low-maintenanced area. I'll keep you all updated whether you like it or not ;).

Here is a shot of the entire park strip. You can see some of the bare spots up close, then again surrounding most of the area around the 3rd and 4th tree. You can also see the loveliness of the ivy winding up the tree. I really do love that part.

Here is an above-shot of one patch of my newly planted plants with the soaker hose winding around them to help them get established.

One already has a bloom! SUCCESS!!

"In Praise of Boise"

Just sharin' the love!
Lexington: In Praise of Boise. TheEconomist May 15, 2010

Is GENII the plural of genius?

Cause I've got two of them on my hands! (And perhaps I can add myself, too! It only took me two days to get the video clip saved to my computer and uploaded to blogspot! WOW!)

ELIJAH: He mastered crawling, walking, running, running in circles, and walking backwards. But those darn stairs were giving him fits. We worked and worked and worked on the feet-first-belly-down skooching method. He could cruise right down if I put him on the stairs in the correct position, but he had a heck of a time trying to figure it out. One day he actually fell from top to bottom (thank heavens they're carpeted!). Funniest part of it was that he was wearing a bumble bee costume (Miriam was in a carebear costume and had chosen Eli's outfit). Flight of the Bumblebee if I've ever seen it. He was awfully wary of stairs for quite a while after that. Definately safe. Anyway, he finally got it! He lays down on his belly and then pushes himself backwards until he gets to the stairs. If he hits the wall then he just tries again. Then he just skooches on down and he's in business. He has transferred it to other getting-downs, too. He's aok with beds, tables, and has even tried the trampoline. I helped him on that one. Take a gander at his early technique. Sometimes he would get on his belly and slide for a long time before he hit the stairs, if he ever got there. He's a pro now and can get from standing to the bottom of the stairs in the time it takes him to get in position now, but it still is cute to see!

MIRIAM: After she could identify by sight all capital and lowercase letters, I started on writing. She wasn't ready, though. She just couldn't get the concept. So I dropped it. Then one day at library class, she said she wanted to write her name on the back of her bird craft. She picked up a marker and wrote MiM. I was amazed. I call her Mim all the time, but didn't realize that she knew how to spell it and how to write it. The next day, she asked to write her name. I wrote it out and she copied it directly underneath. She's sporting her dorky smile, but the name is pretty impressive, to her Mama at least. I was amazed. What a girl!

I still have a blog!

"I used to have a blog," I thought the other day. Then with excitement I realized that they usually don't just delete those things and I probably still have a blog! YAY! I DO! And since I quit being a lively blogger...




My baby girl turned three. THREE! Can you believe it? She posed, but see, she's three, so it had to be HER pose. If the camera panned out, you would see she is bent double at the waist and has her arms straight up in the air. Very chique.


My baby boy turned one. I get so dang sentimental on my kids' birthdays and to have both so close makes me kind of basket-case-y for that block of time. He is such a happy boy. He loved his candle and cake. He had that huge smile even though the next day he was finally diagnosed with a raging ear infection. What a trooper!

My baby sister got married. Okay, I don't think I've ever ever called her "baby sister," but it fit so sequentially with the first two that I just couldn't help it. Kelsey and Spencer got married on March 20, and we had a fun-filled two weeks preparing for and enjoying the many festivities that accompany wedding celebrations. Miriam loved it and is all about who is married to who. She is sure that she will marry Elijah when they grow up. Eli seems to agree. I've decided to put off the incest discussion and just appreciate that they like each other.

We spent a week in Mexico. MEXICO! Brent's parents took their three boys, along with wives and children, for a fun-filled weeklong Mexican extravaganza. We visited Chichen Itza and Tulum, some Myan ruins, along with Xcaret and Cozumel. Our favorite times were playing on the beach, building sandcastles, and collecting seashells. It was hot. And it was wonderful. This picture is from a dinner at the restaurant at our resort (yep, right on the ocean!).

Anyway, last week we came back from Mexico with ear infections in both kids. And I'm pretty sure Elijah got some sort of a Mexican virus (or do they prefer the term Latin virus?). And what with the crazy schedule the week before in Mexico along with the various maladies, sleep has been bizarre. Strange. Almost nonexistant. Very hit-and-miss. This morning, miracle of miracles, I woke up in the morning without having been awakened all night long. HALLELUJAH! I could easily have slept a few more hours, but I felt great. It's amazing what the value of non-interrupted sleep is.

And that about sums it up. Hope your lives have been as eventful (and maybe more restful) than ours.