Friday, August 29, 2008

Home Again Home Again

Flew in yesterday after a rainy departure from Dulles International Airport and had a quiet night. Kerry ran to the hospital to see the Sulin's who had a brand new (premature) little girl (3 pounds not sure oz) They will name her Paige. She should be ok. Natalie went to work this morning. We have struggled with her transportation this week while I was gone. She is home now. I am supposed to be cleaning house for the New Member Social tonight. We also have a baptism for a kid who has been coming to church for several years now and who is finally eighteen and can get baptised. Hoping to see Madi and John in the morning and find out about their fun week at school. Went to my 'meeting'! Did good.... for me. Miss and I need to come to a meeting of the minds. We need to make some progress on wedding plans so she can be more comfortable with where this is going. She is going to spend a few days with Lisa in Logan. That will be fun for Lisa and nice for them to have some time together before the new school year gets fully underway. Cavin went to the doctor for his 4 month check and he is working the weight charts. Actually, he is OFF the weight charts. Natalie said "He is a bouncing baby boy!" Lisa continues to hope for an early walking ability so she doesn't have to carry him! Chris should be home tonight. I probably need to get busy and focus on cleaning! I will post pictures when my cables come from Virginia. I left them there! Sorry Chira!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

DC

We have been hanging here in Virginia since Friday. I got into Dulles ( a very cute little airport that is easy to navigate) Friday afternoon after a flight that was close to perfect. I got to sit by myself on my own side of the plane and we just went up and came down slick. Chira and Caden met me at the airport. We have the cutest little grandson. Chris got home and we had calzones for dinner (y'all really need to get this recipe from Chira) and Chris took off for Germany at 3 the next afternoon. He was delayed getting out of Dulles, therefore missed his flight to Germany and so had to route to Lisbon Portugal and layover four hours before he could travel on to Germany; an eight hour trip turned into a 24 hour gig and we are assuming he is ok. We haven't heard from him since he called and said he had made it to Portugal (we have since heard from him...he is ok but has had no luggage and food poisoning among other inconveniences) Sunday we went to the kids ward. They have a very nice ward. I think there are some very nice people there and was excited to have an idea about who they are/will be working with. Monday Chira and I ventured over to Leesburg. Leesburg is at the beginning (or the end one might argue) of a ninety mile driving route that traces Civil War babttlefield sites! Guess what I will be doing in the not so distant future. We visited Rust Manor and Graydon House (just looked around because they were unavailable for touring) and wandered the outlet mall in Leesburg. Cute black dresses!
Tuesday we attempted a run to the temple and the zoo. The temple is huge and hidden behind a forest. I guess it rises off the freeway if you are coming from the other direction. Lovely visitor center with a map of ancient Jerusalem that I may attempt to 'mock up' just for fun. Then we went to the zoo and saw lions and tigers and bears (pandas) Our route home took us through Gerogetown and out over Lincoln Memorial Drive. It is a beautiful city that I adore and have a better feel for with our little tour. The National Cathedral is impressive! That goes on a list of places to get back to. Wednesday we slummed and went to the grocery and made some fun almond crescent pastries and watched Shear Genius. There is a FABULOUS biking trail that runs for miles back behind the kids town home that was great fun and beautiful to get out on in the morning. Weather delightful. A darling little park that Chira and Caden (and Chris when he is home) get over to every night. Caden loves to go 'side'. And he misses his daddy. He wandered for the first day or two calling for 'da..eee' in the late afternoon hoping daddy would come home. He is a darling and sweet and fun and charming little guy that steals your heart in about 30 seconds. And man does he have an arm. Happy to have a chance to see the kids and see where they live and how their daily life goes. And time with babies that grow too fast in precious. Thanks for letting me come!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Spooky


33 years ago today we were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Fiddler on the Roof was all the rage on Broadway and in the theaters and the immortal words of Tevya's daughters come to mind "Up to this moment I misunderstood, that I could get stuck for good!! Good thing I picked a good guy! So, is this picture scary or what?! A current picture may be scarier! Spooky.....

They have been really pretty interesting years and we have gone to places and enjoyed/survived/been challenged by experiences that I would never/could never have contemplated on that day so long ago. In the beginning I thought that we would live our lives out in eastern Utah and raise a family and grow a garden and do a little church work on the side. I knew where Texas was but only because Dallas was a TV show that was fairly popular in those days. And I was thinking six kids, Kerry was thinking three; I thought Salt Lake City was huge and totally beyond navigation and Kerry thought Vernal was Mayberry; I thought I would be a great little mother and homemaker (ie Mrs. CLeaver) and so did Kerry...OOPS. Kerry thought we would be VERY COMFORTABLE, riding snow mobiles and three wheelers and maybe go to Hawaii some day. Hard to even think what else we were thinking. Anyway, thanks, honey, for broadening my horizons and taking care of us all these many years. Bring on the next 33!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Seven is Heaven






Seven years ago today I was ambling through Southern Utah after having taken Lisa to Utah State and stopping by Provo to see how Corey and Steph were doing. Their baby boy was due anytime but as the birth didn't seem imminent, I hit the road to Texas as Marisa was getting ready to start school and I had been gone a week or two. My phone was low on battery power so I turned it off. At around 4 o'clock and just north of the New Mexico border, I checked in with Kerry and he told me that just after I had left Provo that morning, Stephani's water had broken and the kids were at the hospital. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I spent a few minutes agonizing about what to do and then decided that I wasn't going to wait for a month or two to see our darling first grandchild even though it would require a turn around and an eight hour drive back north. So off we went to see little John! What a sweet and darling baby he was and what a dear and darling young man he has become. Happy Birthday Johnny!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Cute Madi

Madi at the park

Madison is Five


Today is Miss Madison's fifth birthday! She is our beautiful little granddaughter who is starting kindergarten next week, has a hilarious sense of humor and a wobbly tooth! She ate a corndog for her birthday dinner and cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream. She has a new Aladdin and Jasmine doll and cute new clothes for kindergarten and lots of fairies to play with.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Madi! We love you.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Family Photos

I thought I would explore importing pictures and there is nothing I love more than pictures of the children and their darling children. So here is the whole family before Caden and Cavin were born. The weather had been rainy and wet and we look a little windblown because we are. But this is (left to right) Stephani and Corey and Marisa and Natalie and Ragnar and Lisa and Chira and Chris. (Caden is hiding in his mom's tummy) Then John and Madison and Ella and I and Kerry are on the front row. Time for another family picture!
Our Family
Kerry and I at Christmastime 2006 with Corey and Marisa and Natalie and Lisa and Chris

Pals at the Park
Johnny and Madi are Corey and Stephani's darling babies who will both be school kids this year!



A Box is Best
Caden Christopher at his first birthday celebration




Grandpa's Knees
Cavin Ragnar was born in April of this year




Ella in a Basket
Ella Nicole is Lisa and Ragnar's cute two year old

ADD

I am convinced that if I were enrolled in elementary school in the year 2008, they would diagnose me with an attention deficit! Certainly not hyperactivity!! Focus is a huge challenge for me. It may be because I have a bunch of little things on my plate or that I am really bad about 'routine'. I know that the thing that helps kids with ADD the most is structure, and I am bad at structure. I need to teach myself to quit avoiding it! As a result, I am kind of all over the map on 'to do' lists today. I had an assignment at the Regional Employment office but they cancelled us due to the storm (which has been something of a non-event) and it is my temple session day but they closed the temple. So we are scrapbooking and blogging and working wedding budget projections and watching HGTV! I NEED to do some of Natalie's paperwork and my family newsletter and some financial tracking stuff and make french bread to take to Porter's and a bit of laundry. I am going to try to find Nan a movie we can watch later this evening while Kerry is bishoping. I also have a few Relief Society assignments that need attention. Now this is not particularly interesting! That is because there is not anything particularly interesting going on today!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

El Shabat


One of my favorite memories from our trip to Jerusalem was being in the Old City on the eve of the Sabbath and watching all the families dressed in their very nicest clothing making their way to wherever it was they were making their way to for their Sabbath observance. As the sun fell lower on the horizon, the level of hurry-d-ness increased exponentially until in the end, families and individuals were racing to their destinations.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Saturday Is A Special Day

I can tell that it is going to be a challenge for me to get the hang of this. I do love checking in with the kids blogs and have even followed a few links from their blogs to view some of the blogs they keep up on. I love the creativity that is manifest by some of those cute folks and I can see where this is an opportunity to connect and stay connected. So I am going to play with it too. Now, my kids have maintained for years that I don't have anything to do except silly stuff and this may be another piece of evidence to support that theory. But hey, it will make them happy. They love to be right!!!

So for my quick Saturday entry! Nice to have Kerry around for a Saturday. He didn't have anything scheduled except a baptism for a sweet little Jensen fella at 5 pm. So he got the carpet cleaner out and cleaned traffic areas of the carpet for me. I shut myself in the downstairs bathroom and finished scraping all the wallpaper off the wall. I had already started ripping into it earlier this week. I hung it eight years ago when we moved into the house and did a fairly poor job and it needed to be replaced. So, it is off! Now I need to figure out what to do next. I am thinking purple!
Went to my little 'meeting' this morning and am making VERY SLOW progress. But progress.
Been busy helping Ruth with her house and trying to help Becky with her reception and John and Madi are back so I need to get over to see my cute 'babies' (they are so NOT babies anymore!) Wednesday night at the temple is going to work out very well except for the fact that they made me the veil co-ordinator and I really really really would prefer just to work posts; but we serve where we are needed so.................I am having fun with this little effort and thanks for the inspiration!!!

Friday, August 1, 2008

A New Trick

I am going to try a new trick. This blog thing may help prompt my journaling efforts and maybe even my family newsletter efforts. So here we go!