Sunday Ramblings

My little list of..............
Fun things from today.
Mostly fun because LEWIS was home!!! Well, he was home and asleep when we got home from church (I guess he only had about 45 minutes of sleep last night), but the kids got him up and we partied hard.
We were very busy at church today. The talks got to be a little bit long, so we spent some time composing letters to Santa. Here they are:



Then in the afternoon we tried once again to get the kids to cooperate and take some potential Christmas card pictures. Oh, and if you are a friend who would like a card from us, please email me your address because I probably need it! Notice the short sleeved shirt on Brooks. Shorts would have also been appropriate today. Crazy. I can't say I don't like this weather, I have to admit it is nice. I just wish we could have one nice pretty, fluffy snow storm. Just one.

Lewis' Birthday

Happy 30th Birthday Lewis! Skate or die dude!!


Lewis asked me not to come to work with him and tell everyone that today is his birthday, so this is my next best way to embarass him, no, to celebrate him!
In 30 years Lewis has been quite busy. Before I ever met him, he had already done so much. He was a very sweet little boy (or so I am told) and loved to hang out with his brother Clinton. He did get into his fair share of trouble though, and I hope he never tells our kids half the stories he's told me about blowing things up in sewer pipes, racing in cars like manics, and other wild things. He was Texas State Champion in cross country as well as in several track events. He was always a great student. Someone tried to kidnap him while he was living in Louisiana. He had lived in Utah, Washington, California, Texas and Louisiana. He served a two year church mission in Thailand. Before his mission I met him as a freshman in the dorms and thought he was cute. I wanted to set my friend up with him. In the spring of 2007 we had our first date (girls choice of course) and 10 years later here we are!
We have spent many nights in the wilderness together and have hiked many miles. Lewis has become quite the fly fisherman and outdoorsman. He loves to spend time in the outdoors and is willing to drive overnight to hike for days without rest and end up with gross bloody feet just to see another great place. Together we have driven across the country (twice), lived in 4 states, watched the sun set in Long Beach, Washington and watched the sun rise from Cadillac Mountain in Maine. We have traveled to Thailand, Italy, Austria, and Africa and have many more great trips planned (Fiji?!?!!)
We have had 2 children--scary huh? Lewis has run track and cross country at BYU, and he has run 5 marathons (all while in dental school and he was even the 27th American in the Boston Marathon a couple of years ago). He was an English major then a dental student and now an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Resident. He has worked as an English writing center employee, recycling truck driver and baler, physics TA, Park City Mountain Resort Employee, pest control salesman (lovely job), and now as a surgery intern. He has traveled twice to Paraguay and Argentina to pull teeth. Pulling teeth is exciting for him.
Lewis has a compassionate heart and he doesn't like to see people suffer. He is always doing whatever he can for other people. Lewis is a hard worker and a very honest person. He is full of integrity and considers these to be of the utmost importance. He is always great at everything he tries (this sometimes really frustrates the competitive side of me) and he always beats me at Scrabble. Most of all he really is a wonderful person and the kids and I are so proud to call him ours!
Happy Birthday Lewis WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

(sorry most of my pictures are so recent, but I am having trouble with the scanner. I'm sure Lewis could help, but I wanted to surprise him! I will try to add them later.....)

More on the Safety Kids

So I sort of mentioned A's love of the Safety Kids the other day and have to admit, when she started listening to the tape (yes, tape, that I stole from my parents when they were moving a few years ago) the songs all came back to me at once. Except for the parts I had TOTALLY wrong in my little kid mind. She tells me that "now that I know all the rules I can be a safety kid too." Remember, this is the kid who was TALKING at about a year old and now I think her vocabulary is probably better than mine. Scary. AND since she thinks I'm completely incompetent (if you know her at all you know this too), I'm sure knowing the safety kid rules make her feel much safer.
We also have several children's stories (mostly Disney) on tape and she is loving listening to them, Alice in Wonderland being her favorite. I always thought it was sort of a spooky tale, but she has it bad for Tweedledee and Tweedledum. What are ya gonna do about it? (I guess not let her run around rubbing a cleaning product on her cheeks. Seriously though, what's up with that email going around about the magic eraser burns or whatever? I think anyone who lets their child rub cleaning product all over their face should keep their big mouth shut. Not that I'm an expert on that though....)Back to the tapes.... we also borrow them from the library and she will sit and listen to them over and over again until she memorizes them. We are now the proud owners of one such book because she thought it would be fun to look at it from the bathtub. It got soaked, so I hope she likes "Lily's Purple Plastic Purse".
So while you're here, why don't you sing along? "We're the safety kids, the safety kids, the safety kids..."

B--Our littlest Guitar Hero etc.

Our little B man has become quite the character since recently deciding to talk. He loves to talk with this funny voice (that is cute but really hard to understand) where he poofs out his cheeks and says silly things. He is always keeping us entertained and loves loves loves to make A laugh (when he isn't beating her up). He is also obsessed with super heroes which cracks me up because how on earth does he even know who Spiderman, Batman (his favorite), and Superman are? Usually he will stick his arms in the air and yell "Batman!!" as he runs around the house, hits A, and then says, "Batman nice." in his sweetest voice. But anyway, so he has a little cold--really I can't complain because it's his first since we moved and before that I just thought he had a perma-runny nose-- and his little nose was dripping like a faucet the other day. I said "Hey B, it looks like you have a runny nose, do you want a tissue?" To which he responded "No. Me no want tiss-me!!!!!!" We went back and forth until I finally realized the impossibility of winning an argument with a 2 year old.

Oh, and now I am feeling reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally bad about the fake tree thing since so many people I love and admire own them. Yeah, sorry, I love you all fake trees or not. I think MAYBE I could use a filter once in a while...........I'm still working on that one.

Poetry Break

At the library story time I take my kids to once a week they have a Poe-Tree that gives them a poetry break in the middle of story time. Then at the very end each kid gets their own copy to put on a ring and then they can have a poetry break any time. I love poetry and thought I might share some with you. Oh, and have you read the Gift of the Magi yet? Do it now, it will only take a minute or two........

If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer...
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!


Shel Silverstein

Nativity

Yeah, sorry about that last bitter post, I think I might be a bit testy since we've seen Lewis for about an hour and a half since last Saturday. The guy is completely pooped, he even worked a 40hour stretch in which he didn't even have a minute to lie down. We're all a slight bit burned out here. A few of our moments from this week:

I took the kids Wednesday with me to the church to have the stake president sign my new temple recommend (the ones with the bar codes) and the whole way there Brooks was saying "no church no church no nursery I'll cry. I'll cry. "
After the recommends were signed (hooray, he was nice and signed Lew's too since Lew was stuck in a surgery) I took the kids to get a Christmas tree. They picked it out and we tied it on. Well, a nice guy tied it on, but it still fell off about a half mile from the store. I held it on the roof with my hand the rest of the way home and hit the brakes extra hard to get it to come forward. It was an exciting ride home!! I carried the tree in, shook it out, and put it up in the stand. Lewis got home as I was putting it up and he was on the phone so he waved and walked by. Should I be concerned that he didn't find anything wrong with me getting a tree and putting it up entirely on my own? I guess we're all getting used to this new lifestyle, I just hope it doesn't stick!
Thursday I took a bunch of baked potatoes to the church for a missionary zone conference or something and the whole way there Brooks again was saying "no church no church no church".
Thursday night I got to go to the temple, but barely made the 6:00 session because of crazy traffic. I dropped the kids off at the babysitting and ran into the temple. The guy was really nice, but my barcode wasn't activated yet and he was just beside himself. He found someone who sorted it all out and finally he let me in. I was the last one in the session, but was so glad to be there and enjoy 2 hours of peace!
Friday night I took the kids to a Nativity Exhibit at a stake center about 25 minutes from our house. (they call it a creche exhibit, but I can't bring myself to call it that because I know how to say it in French and it just isn't right to call it crutch or cretch or however they say it here.) It was a lovely ride there in traffic with Brooks screaming his head off, but luckily he fell asleep right before we got there and I was able to keep him asleep in the sling while I enjoyed the beautiful different nativity sets. I was so touched by the beautiful depictions of the Savior's birth and especially loved the ones where the angels are crossing their chest with their hands in amazement of the beautiful child. I know that the birth of every child is significant and wonderful and I can only imagine the moment Mary first laid eyes on her child. I can't imagine the anxiety and loneliness she must have felt giving birth for the first time in a stable most likely surrounded by filth and animals. When I was in Jerusalem for study abroad we went to Bethlehem and spent some time in a field outside the city singing Christmas hymns. It was a wonderful evening (even though some people were overly into it and wanted to stay forever while I was just thinking about how hungry I was--hey I gained a good 12 lbs. over there). I thought about how I might have been in those hosts of angels singing hosanas and feeling the excitement of the moment--it could happen, I could have had a good voice in heaven. Anyway, I really enjoyed the exhibit and can't wait to go back next year. I know that it was a ton of work because my mother in law was in charge of a similar event in Houston for a few years and she pretty much worked on it year round. I for one was grateful for all the hard work and enjoyed it immensely.

This is a picture from the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, at the actually sight of the birth (or so they say)


The Shepherd's Field across from Bethlehem

WARNING: potentially offensive rant ahead!!

Ok, so could someone please enlighten me on a few subjects?
1. fake Christmas trees
2. fancy, fragile, over the top Christmas decorations
3. Focus. On the true meaning of Christmas this time of year.

Wow, all F words. CoOl.

1. Why do so many people own fake Christmas trees? It is so bizarre to me. For one, they are, well, FAKE and ugly. (for the most part very ugly). For two, don't play the frugal card with me because for $30 you can head on over to Lowes and get yerself a real beauty. 6 to 7 foot frasier fir and NOTHING smells better. Not even a candle. Oh, and if you get yourself a jar right now and save less than 3 dollars a month you too can have one next year. I promise you won't regret it. But you might feel bad about throwing the FAKE one into a landfill. At least I hope you do.

2. AHEM What is up with Christmas being the time to go over the top with ta--K fancy breakable decorations. Aren't we celebrating the humble birth and life of our Savior? I know that fancy isn't my style at all, but I just don't get the fancy perfectly coiffed trees and other decorations. My parents were so great, they always let us go to town with the tinsel and I don't think they even took it off when we were sleeping. Isn't that chat Christmas is all about? So my tree is a little heavy on the decorations from 3 and a half feet down, but it looks terrific. I like pretty, but I also like simple.

3. What's up with Christmas being so commercial. I know you all agree with me, but how do you deal with it on a personal level? I don't want my kids to want want want at this time of year. Really, they are getting a couple of gifts this year and we and going to really focus on what is important this time of year and try to not overdo it. I guess I feel like the fake trees and all the fancy decorations and all the shopping and perfect family photos for Christmas cards and parties and gifts gifts gifts and all the other stuff I am forgetting in my haste while I am writing this, I guess I feel like it makes the real thing feel so covered up, so far away and hard to FOCUS on, not just remember. So how do you deal with this? How do you keep the incredible, miraculous event at the core of your holiday season? If you need help starting, read O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi. It always does the trick for me. Oh, and for the sake of the season, I'm sorry if you like fake trees. They just aren't for me. Oh, and don't say I didn't warn you if you are offended, read the title again.

And one more thing, Aiden is in love with the Safety Kids right now, isn't that great?? Do you remember them?