Tagged by Karen (posted by MARY)

I was tagged by my Relief Society President (the Women's organization to that all members of our Church belong to). I don't usually receive tags nor respond to them. I usually feel like there are simply more pressing things to do with my time. However, how can I say that to my Relief Society President?? Karen, just so you know, this post might put Jeff over the edge . . . I think he may finally tell me to get my own blog instead of hijacking his. It is probably something akin to never getting my own plate of food and instead just picking off of his whenever I get the urge. Sorry Jeff! But, hey, this first thing is about you . . .

4 Random Things I Love About My Husband:
His heart is pure and he teaches me how to put the Lord first.
He never complains and yet he doesn't criticize me when I do.
He is an awesome father. He devotes his time, attention, and heart to our kiddos.
He scrubs the bathtub, does laundry, cleans the kitchen, goes grocery shopping with Jane in tow, scratches my back - in short - he is a wonderful husband!

4 Jobs I Have Had:
King Charlies Drive In - you couldn't get the grease to wash out of your clothes!
Front Desk Clerk @ Courtyard by Marriott - I really enjoyed this job except for the occasionally irate customer.
Apartment Manager - we did this for 3 1/2 years and I have vowed to never do it again!
Customer Service Rep for an online book seller - this is my current job. I love that I can do this from home and can set my own schedule. I also hate that I do this from home which means that I juggle it between kids, the house and so forth.

4 Movies I Have Watched More Than Once:
The Great Escape
Spanglish
Undercover Blues
Pride and Prejudice

4 TV Shows I Watch:
We have a tv, but we just use it for movies. We do, however, watch The Office online after it airs. I don't recommend it though -the content which is sometimes crude. I have vowed not to watch it anymore, several times - but I simply love the pranks that Jim plays on Dwight - I need to just let it go.

4 People Who Email Me Regularly:
My sister Jenny
Karen - weekly Relief society updates - by the way thanks for this!
My Mom
My co-workers

4 Places I Would Like To Visit:
Seattle - family & friends
Salt Lake - family & friends
Europe
Philippines - where Jeff served his mission

4 Things I Am Looking Forward To This Year
Meeting my little brother's girlfriend - maybe she is the one??
Jane sleeping thru the night - keeping my fingers crossed
Christmas - I simply love this time of year
Jeff's parents, his brother and his wife and baby Mason might visit for Thanksgiving!!

4 People To Tag:
Sorry - this took way to much time and I have a lot to do today - how can I inflict this on anyone else??

Bites, Biting and a Better Way (posted by MARY)

Nathan bit Sarah pretty hard yesterday (see last post for more details on this). There are two places where his teeth actually gouged away her skin. Poor Sarah was having a hard time dealing with the pain and I was having a hard time consoling her since I was nursing Jane. She asked to speak to her daddy - but I knew that he was still attending his conference. Then she asked me to take a picture to send to daddy so he could see it right now. I sypathetically explained that daddy didn't have access to a computer right now and so he can't see the picture. She seemed to accept that. Finally, she asked me to take a picture and put it on our blog. Here is how the rest of the conversation went:


Me: Why do you want me to put it on our blog?

Sarah: (probably thinking to herself that if daddy was here he would inherently understand the need to blog everything especially this) So that everyone can see it my "owy". (Duh, mom - do I have to spell everything out! - where is daddy??)

Me: Why do you want everyone to see it?

Sarah: So they can know that Nathan bit me and that it hurts.

Me: (I am getting pretty curious at this point as to why she (and all of us for that matter) thinks that everyone else knowing about her pain will affect her somehow) How will that help you?

Sarah: So when all the brothers and sisters look at it and see it they will know that it hurts and they will not hurt each other, but make better choices.


Bravo Sarah! I didn't think of that. And so I share the picture of her bite mark with you - and your children. It isn't very clear because the flash kept whiting it out - but I am thinking that you are probably quite content with that :)

I hope that Sarah will learn this lesson too. She just bit Nathan the other day. Sometimes it helps to experience a little bit of the pain that we inflict on others.

Three Crying Children (posted by MARY)

Jeff has been out of town since early Tuesday morning - he will get back late tonight and the kids will get to see him at Church in the morning. These times always give me a greater appreciation for my marvelous husband who always pitches in and gives me sanity. It also reminds me to reach out to single parents. I get overwhelmed within 3 or 4 days - and cannot imagine the struggles of single parenthood.


Jane hasn't been sleeping very well these last few nights, so neither have I. This morning, I finally realized the alarm was beeping at me a full 15 minutes after it had first gone off. I groggily turned it off and collapsed back on my pillow - fast asleep. A few minutes later, I woke up to the sound of Jane crying over the monitor and I was pretty sure I heard Nathan crying as well. I went to his door and confirmed that he was in fact crying, but I realized that Sarah was as well. All 3 of them were crying!! I wasn't sure where to start. I opened Nathan 's door and discovered that he had manged to wet through his diaper. I told him to lay down and stay put. I entered the girls' room and Sarah was crying about a stuffed animal that was M.I.A. Thankfully, I had seen the errant pup earlier in the night when I put Jane back to bed - so I knew where it was. I gave it to her and tucked her in and gave her a peck on the cheek. Then I scooped up Jane who was wailing because she was A) hungry once again B) unbundled and C) wet through. Jane cried while I changed Nathan's diaper and pjs and convinced him to climb back into bed, after I located his blanket, bear and pacifier and kissed him "goodnight". Jane and I gathered up a new outfit, diaper and wipes and made the swap. I settled down to nurse and said my morning prayer at the same time - a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. A few minutes into nursing and prayer, Sarah walked in with an arm full of blankets and a request for pancakes. I managed to convince her to cuddle for awhile instead. Then, in came Nathan demanding breakfast and there is no diverting this boy on a mission for food in the morning. I finally caved in and conceded - my day had begun - it was 6:25 on a Saturday morning. At least no one was crying anymore.


Fast forward to a few hours later - the kids are stuffed, pancakes are made for tomorrow morning so I am hopeful that the kids and I can make it to church on time to spend a few minutes with daddy, the kitchen's clean, the laundry is sorted and a load is running, and I have finally settled down to finalize my lesson plan for Gospel Doctrine. In case you are wondering - the kids are in pjs still and I in my robe :) My thoughts are pulled away from the scriptures by the screams of two willful children - my angels, Nathan and Sarah. With a sigh and a huff - I leave the peace and comfort of the scriptures and join them in the living room. Sarah is wailing, not screaming - wailing because Nathan has bitten her and Nathan is crying because - well I still don't know what happened to him, but I am sure that something did (no one is innocent in our house). As I try to calm them down - Jane joins in on the action. Apparently, she has chosen this moment to decide that she is famished and exhausted. You got it - once again all three are crying again!! Woe is me.


Sparing the details - Nathan and Sarah are not crying now that an hour has passed and tylenol was administered. Jane is napping - at least I think she is because I don't hear her crying. And I can return to my lesson - but first I had to share the joys of my day with you. No wonder why I have become increasingly sensitive to noise lately. I cannot handle it when I am subjected to more than one or two sources of noise at once - like music, kids, AC, the dryer, etc. I crave silence and serenity. I think I am beginning to understand my elders.

Where are we headed??? (posted by MARY)

Perhaps, many of you are not following what is happening in our market and maybe you don't care. I, myself, have become very interested and highly concerned. I believe 100% that very troubled economic times are ahead of us. I do not understand all the complexities of the market, in fact I probably don't understand much of anything, but I do understand that there are ramifications for living beyond your means. I think that the majority of Americans, especially my generation, has no idea what it really means to live beyond your means. It is much easier to recognize it in others than ourselves.

I worry about the future, not so much in the grand scale, but in the details (things like: will we continue to have employment? how much will food and clothing cost?). I am doing everything that I can now to prepare for the future. We are buying clothing for our kids to grow into and continuing to build our food storage. Jeff and I have cut our spending down to the essentials.

You may wonder why I am sharing this with you. Quite simply - I want to urge everyone to take the time to study what is happening to our economy so you can decide the best possible course of action for your family. (I thought that a well known financial analyst, Peter Schiff, did a good job of explaining why the future is rocky, at best, in simple terms in this interview. You can read it here: http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/17246/) Honestly, it floors me, when I see the complete stranger buying up a cart full of holiday decorations and party platters.

I am appalled by the bailout package and the fact that our government is buying into private banking institutions. I understand why they are doing it, but that doesn't make it right. Good intentions does not make something inherently good. I hope and pray that we, as a people, understand the basics of capitalism, democracy and our constitution enough that we can stem this tide before it goes too far. My greatest fear is that we won't.

What are your thoughts on this.

Jane is almost 6 months! (posted by MARY)

Our little Jane is growing up too quick for me and perhaps right on schedule for Jeff. He is not a huge fan of the infant stage (0-6 months). He prefers them when they start to interact more and then really enjoys them once they reach 18 months or so. And then they turn willful and not so innocent at 3 - and then their "likability" fluctuates depending on the day, hour, and what they are doing. But don't worry he still always loves them! I hope this is an adequate representation of Jeff. He is out of town for a few days and so I decided to hyjack his blog.



Getting back to Jane . . . she is making some really cute noises which I will not try to replicate, because it wouldn't do them justice. She smiles so readily, but we have to catch her at the right moment to get the giggles. She is getting quite mobile with a combination of rolling, tummy rotating, and she is even getting a lot closer to crawling than I remember Sarah or Nathan getting to at this age. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth until she lets go and allows herself to fall forward - this little maneuver gains a good amount of ground.

Last night I was lying on the floor several feet away from her while she played. Apparently, she decided that she wanted to nurse and made it over to me, before i even realized she was coming. I am not ready to have a crawler and Nathan is definitely not ready to have a crawling sibling!! Poor, little, defenseless Jane is not prepared to enter the battleground of train tracks and car lineups. I thought I would post some pictures of her, that I took over the weekend, before she collects battle scars from Nathan. Maybe, just maybe, Nathan will be patient and gentle, but I'm not counting on it. So here you are . . .

Oh, how I adore our sweet, lovable Jane. What would we do without you??

Final Harvest - '08

So about a week and a half ago, we were watching the temperature forecasts here in the area so we could get our last harvest in before the first big freeze here. So it looked like the temps were getting a little iffy so we decided we had better get in everything that we were still leaving on the vine for freshness and in the hopes that it all might get a little bigger. So, Mary had picked a lot of the stuff earlier in the day and it was up to Sarah, Nathan and I to get the stuff inside. The kids had a lot of fun using their wagon to get the butternut squash to the door where I would bring it inside and wash it.



Here is our butternut squash harvest (something I like a lot more then I thought I would... it's pretty good!
Here is our final pepper harvest, though this wasn't the first and only harvest of fruits for us. We hope to be more successful with these next year as they got a late start and struggled for a while before they got going. So none of them turned red and only some of them turned yellowish. But they were a good size and their were plenty of them.

Boy, we were really glad that we picked what we did. The next morning it did freeze and the plants just completely shut-down, as can be observed above. If you look at the first pic on this post you'll see how full and alive the garden was just 14 hours earlier. I couldn't believe how quickly they died as a result of the freezing temps.
Anyway, we were pretty happy and fortunate with our first garden. We look forward to doing it next year with some tweaks. We now have a freezer full of zuchini (yellow and green), peppers, and some butternut squash. And we also have a whole bunch of spaghetti and butternut squash in our cooler pantry (there's no heat in there so the stuff should last a good part of the winter). It was fun for our whole family and provided some good lessons for the kiddos.

Snow... Already?

Yes, it did snow here... and it was a week ago! So last Sunday [yes, October 12th!] it snowed here in Mtn. Home. CRAZY! Here are some internal dialogues/thoughts about the event for Mary and I:

Jeff {who had just come out of his 2nd meeting of the morning at 8:40am}: Oh, wow, it's snowing, this is crazy! I wonder if Mary is going to take a picture. I should call her and ask her to take a picture so I can blog about this. This is crazy. Wait, I can't call Mary right now... church starts in 20 minutes and she's probably scrambling to get three little kids ready for church and trying to be on time. I can't ask her if she took a picture when she gets here because she'll probably look at me like I'm crazy. She's definitely got her hands full, oh well, I can always just blog about how it snowed and explain why we don't have a picture.

Mary {while Jeff is thinking the above thoughts, Mary is thinking the following ones, while being very busy trying to get three kids ready for church} Oh cool, it's snowing. I bet Jeff would love to get a picture of this for the blog. He can't right now because he's at his meetings, but I know he's thinking about it. I better take a picture of this so he can blog about it.... {click}.

Apparently, this was the earliest snow on record in Mtn. Home. It was snowing pretty good and accumulated fairly quickly... but it only lasted for about 30-45 mins and was bright and sunny by the time we got out of sacrament meeting over an hour later, and all the snow was melted. It's crazy to think that it snowed a week ago because it was at least in the 70's today and has been beautiful this whole week with no forecast for precipitation on the current horizon.

General Conference

The 178th Semi-Annual General Conference for our Church was held on Oct 4-5. WOW! I don't think I've been so amazed by the messages as I was this time. It seemed like there were so many where at the end of the talk I said "I have to read that one right away". I was excited when they came out available on-line last Thursday. I can't wait until the Conference Ensign Magazine is mailed to us in November. Anyway, it's a really enjoyable weekend in several ways:

-Amazing Messages

-Participating in Church Services from home... in my jammies, at least on Saturday.

-No, or at least less yard work

-Family Traditions

We try to make this an event for our little family by doing the following traditions:

POPCORN! We all love it and it is an easy snack (just a little greasy) and keeps the kids sitting with us together watching the conference session. It's a nice tradition and Sarah started reminding us about it as soon as the first session started on Saturday morning. It's nice to have the kids excited about something related to this special event.

We do like to dress up a little on Sundays, even if we're not going to go to church.

The second thing we do is Pizza for dinner on Saturday. We usually get pizza from the store but this year we decided to make our own and the kids enjoyed it. They turned out really good and the kids enjoyed them!

This is a cute story below. While Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was speaking the kids were playing on the floor and having a fun time. During his message he told a really touching story about a boy who crossed a dangerous river on his horse to retrieve his family's cows. Anyway, the boy realized he did something he shouldn't have done in crossing the river and said a prayer. Shortly thereafter his Dad came to him and helped him and likely saved his life. Anyway, as Elder Holland was telling the story, Sarah was playing with some animals on the little shelf that supports our computer monitor. I was watching her play and then started paying attention to what she was playing with. Yep, as the pic below shows, she was playing with a horse, a little farmer and a cow. She then recounted the story to us when we inquired about what she was doing with those figures. Kids are always learning, even (and probably especially) when they're playing!
Anyway, what a GREAT weekend! I look forward to studying up on the inspiring messages!

Tags

So I'm not a big fan of tags generally unless they meet two criteria: 1) easy and/or 2) It sounds fun to me. So basically I don't like them, except when I do. The first time I was tagged, it met criteria two but definitely not criteria one, but I really liked it... so I did it. I have been tagged recently by newer blogging friends and my first tag responded to some of those. So here is a link that responds to that first (and since others) tag. In fact, this is one of my favorite posts that I've written because my sense of humor comes out and some of my quirkiness, which usually doesn't come out unless you've known me for a while... and spent a lot of time with me recently. Anyway, please feel free to read the above link, and leave a comment here or there and I'll feel like you know me a little better.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. I was tagged recently by my sis-in-law, Heather. And this one definitely meets criteria one... so of course it gets done. So here you go:

Oh, and I realized another thing about tags... I don't always follow the rules. So the tag is to pick the fourth folder in your pics section and the fourth picture.

So this is the fourth folder from the end of my pics and the fourth picture. This is a picture of some fruit (lemon, lime, and apple) and two special rocks that I have found over the years. The black one was found, I believe on the beach somewhere in Washington (I can't remember if it was at Banks/Roosevelt Lake in E. WA or on the coast/sound). But it was with my best friend Taylor. The other rock is from the 2nd year of the hike with my brothers and my dad up at Lake Dorothy. They are both very cylindrical, though more of an oval than a true sphere. Anyway, they're remarkable rocks and they served as an analogy for my Marriage and Family Therapy Final Paper/Project/Presentation. I related the rocks to [okay this tag is starting to no longer resemble criteria 1, but is starting to fulfill criteria 2, funny!] my experience in life and in my Master's program in terms of being shaped and molded by the situations that I had the opportunity to be in and the trials I had been through. I also, throughout the paper, had many of the verses to Hymn #85, "How Firm a Foundation" so these two things served as a template/analogy for my experience in my program. Anyway, it's a pic that Mary took of the rocks with the fruit for some contrast or something. So there you go.

Oh yeah, and I don't tag other people, but feel free to do the tag if you want to, it is kind of fun!

Blogging for One Year

Today marks the one year anniversary of me blogging.... which is something that I like WAY more then I would ever have imagined and more than most people know. I would love to be a professional blogger... it would be really cool, but the things I'm interested in blogging about would not interest the general public (except sports). Anyway, I've done well over 150 posts in that one year, which means I post, on average, about once every 2.25 days or so. I would like to do it more, but I don't have time to post about a lot of the quirky things that I learn about or read about... maybe in the future. For now, I'm content with my status as a "family" blogger and I love how it connects me to other people. I'm very grateful for my sister encouraging me to start a blog and being such a faithful supporter (read: commenter). A long time ago she commented that she loves blogs because she gets to know me in a way that she may not get to know me otherwise, and I totally agree. So here's to ONE YEAR of BLOGGING! Hooray... many more to come!

It hasn't even been a week . . . (posted by Mary)

We gave Jane some more homemade rice cereal last night. She seemed to enjoy it quite a bit and not so much came back out. Although, I made it quite a bit thicker this time so I think it stuck like super glue to her tongue. Apparently, Sarah thought it was time to move on to other things. When we were getting the kids packed into the car to head home from church - I simultaneously saw Jane vigirously sucking on something with a look of pure delight on her darling face and Sarah holding a half eaten package of smarties. It didn't take too long to put those two images together :) It is a bit more complicated and frustrating at times having a five year old constantly trying to get in on the "take care of baby Jane" action - (like when Sarah decided to transport Jane in a Bumpo seat and I came upon the scene just in time to see Jane tumble out head first onto the linolium floor) but it is also so fun and rewarding to see Sarah's love and concern for her little sis. I am so grateful for each of our children. There are times when I think that there is simply no way I am really me - a mom of 3 kids. And then there are the times when they drive me crazy - and I don't want to be me - a mom of 3 kids. But, in reality, my life is wonderful and if I didn't have any one of them there would be such a void. I love my kiddos!!

Great Question!?

Sarah asked Mary this yesterday: "Mom, if a Daddy says 'Yes' and a Mommy says 'No', who is right?"

Wow, this next decade plus should be a lot of fun!... but thankfully I know the answer to that question (I'll leave that last statement deliberately open-ended and let you make all the assumptions about me you want :*P )

Jane's 1st Solids and a Little Update

Last Friday night Jane had her first taste of "solid" food (besides the occasional miniscule stuff I hook her up with). Why do they call this kind of food "solids" - the stuff is mush at best. They should call it the first food that isn't out of a bottle or a breast. Anyway, it was homemade rice cereal and she seemed to really like it. I love it how their tongue, mouth, and whole body communicates that they want a bite... it's pretty hilarious!


She's over 5 months old now and rolling as a means of travel. She smiles readily and adorably but she's not a huge laugher. She's on more of a sleeping schedule and sleeping in her crib in the room that she shares with Sarah (which Sarah really likes) and she's getting up once per night. Things always change though and that is just how she's been for the last week or so. I'm sure it'll be different soon. She's talking/cooing a lot more and really enjoys being around Sarah and Nathan when they're playing. Nathan is being more attentive to her and actually noticing her existence in a positive way, though he's soon going to find out how interested she is going to be in anything he has once she starts cruising around more. That'll be interesting. There have already been a few instances when Jane has made her way over to Nathan's cars or train track and we hear "Stop it, stop it, STOP IT" from the other room - ahhh good times.

Jane is also very enamored by movies! If she's nursing or doing anything else, if she hears a movie or show on she diverts her attention to the TV or Computer. I promise that we don't set her up in front of the TV in the Bumbo, we just did it cause it makes a cute picture.

Visit from the Stimmel's

So, as I mentioned previously, the Stimmel's dropped by for a brief visit on their way back to Portland from SLC. Taylor has been my best friend since early in my childhood and his family now lives right in front of my parents and they share a driveway. It was a quickly planned visit, but it was so much fun! They got here around 8 pm on Tues and left the next morning aroun 11 am. We let Nathan and Sarah stay up later and play with them and then we didn't send Sarah to school the next day and I went into work late. The kids had so much fun together and you wouldn't know that they've hardly ever played with each other. Taylor and Leah just moved back to the mainland after Taylor finished his Bachelor's at BYU-Hawaii. He started Chiropractic school the day after they got back to Portland. Anyway, we got our kids down around 10 and then we stayed up until 2 AM. I haven't stayed up that long in a while and the time just flew and Mary and I loved all of our great conversations and the personal meaning they held for each of us. It was a therapeutic conversation for me. I wish they could've stayed here longer, but we certainly made the most out of the time we had with them! We hope to find more reasons to be able to meet up with them in the future... but at least Leah blogs a lot!

Here is a pic of the Stimmel's. Such a cute little family and their kids are adorable!
Jane and Paysen really enjoyed looking and making noises at each other. They're only a few weeks apart. Paysen has an adorable little laugh!
Growing up, I would almost always sleep over at Taylor's house and Taylor's wonderful Mom would almost always make us French Toast in the morning for breakfast. It was heaven. When we were able to make it work for them to visit us and when I found out they'd be here for breakfast, I had to make French Toast for Taylor and his family. I really enjoyed that!

Here is a picture of Adi, Sarah and Nathan. Adi loved wearing Sarah's robe and they had a lot of fun together. Sarah, and the rest of us, were very sad to see them go! I know that they took more pics so look for them (soon?) on Leah's blog.

Praying Mantis

A few weeks ago we caught a Praying Mantis. Those things are sweet. It looked like it was pregnant as it had such a large abdomen (we later found out it was just full). It's a good size one too. Anyway, as is our typical routine when we catch something in the yard, we kept it for a day and then let it go. We caught it in the lavender bushes we have in front of our house and that's where we released it. It's been in the same general bush for the last couple of weeks and the kids enjoy checking on it when we come and go. It's probably the closest thing that we've had for a pet (sad, I know). One cute thing that Sarah said when we had caught the Praying Mantis and were looking at it: "Do you think a bug knows it's a bug?" Great question and pretty cute!


A couple of days after my cousin posted about a leaf-bug Mary caught one that was hanging out on our rear sliding door. It was so cool because we had never really seen one and then my cousin posted about it and then we caught one. Cool. Again, we had it for a day and then let it go in the backyard. (We thought we took pics but couldn't find 'em so we stole this one from my cousin)
Then, just a couple of days ago when Mary was coming in the house as usual they checked on our Praying Mantis who had recently caught a nourishing snack: a Leaf Bug. The gory pic is above (but you have to look close to see that it's eating and to see the victim with all the green around!) and if you pay enough attention you can see that he's in the process of devouring the thing... head first of course. We promise we didn't feed the Leaf Bug to the Praying Mantis... but it was a pretty funny coincidence. Be careful it's a bug eat bug world out there!