Ninjas (and Ninjago)

 So, the biggest news of the week in our neck of the woods was the recent mass crash landing of eared grebes. As an amateur bird enthusiast, I found this upsetting, although I was cheered by the enthusiasm of local people to help rescue the birds.

But if you're not a bird-enthusiast (more specifically, if you are a soon-to-be six year old named Andrew), the biggest event of the week was the Ninjago themed birthday party we had on Saturday.

You can always track what's popular at our house by the birthday themes. This year, apparently, Ninjas are in. (And apparently next year, too: Evelyn is already requesting  ninja themed party for *her* birthday. Somehow, I don't think the enthusiasm will last).

 So, after delivering Ninjago invitations (like 3 weeks ago, because apparently I couldn't count how many weeks it was until his birthday party), we finally pulled together the party. I made cupcakes, thinking they would be easier than cake. They were, sort of. This was my first foray into fondant and I have to say, the chefs on Food Network's cake challenges make fondant look *way* easier than it actually is. I have a new-found respect for what they do.

 As appropriate for a ninja themed party, we had to have costumes. I found instructions on an easy ninja costume online (basically it's a T-shirt with the sleeves fastened behind the head) and some cheap t-shirts and voila! Ninjas.

Evelyn insisted on tagging along after the big boys and calling herself (in third person) "The Littlest Ninja." As in, "The Littlest Ninja wants to go next!"

 Then we did some ninja training: push ups, sit-ups, coordination activities (pat your head and belly at the same time), balancing, and spinning (as in circles, not the hard core gym activity). We finished off with several rounds of Red-Light, Green Light to practice stealth training, and then the Ninjas finally faced their mortal enemy: Lord Garmaddon (painted by yours truly on posterboard). I think knocking the poster villain off the chair was one of the favorite activities of the hour.

And of course, even Ninjas need to eat, so we had (with Dan's help) a fabulous Asian inspired meal: chicken katsu (nugget sized), edamame, and the less Asian mock sushi (swedish fish rolled in rice krispie treats--hey, it has rice and fish so it's close!) and carrot sticks.

 We finished with cake and presents (and of course I didn't take pictures of blowing out the candle). This was one happy kid.

Afterwards, we let the kids pain their ninja shirts, which was a little messy but better than having five tornadoes blow through the house (which seemed to be the other alternative). 

All told, a successful birthday.

I just wonder what he'll ask for next year.

This was the kids before church--only, of course, Evelyn didn't end up going because she still has this rattling cough and Dan has flu-like symptoms. So nobody got to see her lovely new Christmas dress. But she was happy in it, and I guess that's what counts. Right?

 

quick update

This is for my critics (here's looking at you Dan!) who accused me of failing in my duty by not posting today.

The highlight of the week was coming north to see Jake get ordained a deacon. He's the first nephew that has reached that milestone. (Full disclosure: Evelyn was sick so I took her home and missed the ordination. But I have it on good authority that his mom and grandmother were both wet-eyed.) But I loved seeing his beaming face up next to the bishop--he looked so grown up.

My mom and I got to squeeze in a little shopping and we also got to see my sister and her kids, so it was a successful visit on multiple counts.

It was a frustrating week in some respects. We missed Evelyn's big dance concert because she came down with croup Thursday night. And we've been struggling a little with Andrew, who has been more destructive of late. In the past week or two, he's cut holes in shirts, Evelyn's bedsheet, and the mesh canopy over Evelyn's bed. I'm not sure if it's excitement, jealousy, or just thoughtlessness, but it's been challenging.

We're staring down the end of the semester--finals this week. Then Andrew's birthday party, Sunday lessons (for some reason, I've agreed to do both the lesson in Young Women's and a Sunday school lesson next week, the day after Andrew's party and three days after finals end. I must be at least a little crazy). But we're looking forward to the Christmas season.

And maybe next week I'll actually have pictures.

Falling into the Season

Christmas season is officially upon us--and not just because we got past Thanksgiving. The tree is up (without any bad words this year! I think we're finally figuring this out), the house sort-of decorated, and piles of snow are on the lawn outside.

Our ward Christmas party was this Friday as well. And while we do love our ward, large group functions like that make Dan uncomfortable, Andrew only wanted to go play with his friends, and Evelyn just wanted to eat the candy off the table. We ended up leaving early, as per usual, to get the kids to bed sort of close to bedtime.

Last, but definitely not least on our list of Christmas-themed events, was the annual Dutch Christmas party (Trisha's mother was Dutch, so the Dutch Christmas gets celebrated by Trisha's half-Dutch siblings, their children, and grand-children). We were supposed to kick off our celebration by viewing the city's Storybook Parade, but the parade got cancelled. (I was secretly glad--I like the parade, but I wasn't looking forward to an hour in cold, snowy weather. Sitting on the curb to watch a parade is fine--except when you have to sit in eight inches of snow). Instead, we gathered at a local church, played games, talked, ate, performed, and exchanged gifts. I think everyone had a good time, until the witching hour hit and our tired children started cracking at the seams.

In between Christmas-themed stuff we spent a busy week trying to gear up for the end of the semester (for Dan, that meant writing tests; for me, that meant grading papers like crazy. This week I had two papers on aliens and one on Bigfoot--all intended to persuade me to believe. Either the papers weren't terribly persuasive or I'm a skeptic, but I remain unconvinced!) I also squeezed in a session with my writer's group.

Wednesday we had dinner with a lovely family who were friends in State College and now work at the same university we do. They have a four-year-old daughter who got along great with Evelyn; Andrew was less impressed, as he's hit the stage where most girls are suspect. (He told me that he doesn't like any of the girls with blonde hair OR red hair in his kindergarten class.)

Tuesday night was the Evening of Excellence for Young Women. My friend and I took on the decorating (the theme was "Becoming a Masterpiece). We had nice 8x10 black and white pictures of the girls, small art cards by women painters, and a collection of poems by classical authors. We covered the tables with butcher paper and crayons (ala the Macaroni Grill) and let the girls decorate their own spots. I was proud of us--I thought we delivered something nice without being cutesy. On the other hand, I thought my friend (an art educator by profession) might  have a heart attack at some of the things that were said in the presentation about masterpieces (my favorite: that Picasso was clearly lazy because the art he produced doesn't look like top quality art). Since I like both people involved (my friend and the speaker), I'll just say that their tastes in art are pretty different.

Whew! I'm tired just thinking about our week. We had fun doing it, but I'm ready for a break. Now we just have to make it past the end of the semester (this week) and finals.

Evelyn's new bed

A bitter sweet day

Today is the last day of a long and lovely weekend--and it has been bittersweet for me. Sweet, because I got to go to church and feel confirmed in my faith; bitter (a little) because my husband and son weren't there (Andrew threw up twice before church--and again after I left). I'm also reluctant to let go of this weekend, which has been mild-weathered and full of food and family (family who are also friends).

I'm not really looking forward to reality again tomorrow, especially since we start our mad dash to the end of the semester and things won't calm down for several weeks.

But tomorrow we're also planning to decorate our Christmas tree for family home evening, and I do love Christmas. I love the camaraderie, I love the decorations and the music, I love planning gifts for people I love--and most of all, I love the time to talk to my children about Christ and about hope.

So, a bittersweet day.

But we have enjoyed our week. We stayed in town, because Dan's brother was visiting. Instead of doing a big dinner on Thursday, we waited to have our feast yesterday, when Dan's sister Sarah could also be present. On Thursday, we still got together with family--everyone brought appetizers and finger food, which was much less stressful than a big meal. We spent the morning making pomegranate jelly and then spent the afternoon hanging out with family.

On Friday, we drove down to SG and enjoyed some beautiful fall weather. We had a picnic, followed by a very short walk and bike-ride with the children. (And yes, a little shopping was done, but not anywhere near opening hours.)

Saturday, I finished up the last batch of jelly (3, if you were wondering), Dan put together a twin bed for Evelyn (now we have to figure out what to do with the toddler bed currently sitting in our living room), we raked the last of our leaves, and then enjoyed our delayed Thanksgiving feast, where we had turkey, ham, rolls, mashed potatoes, beans, sweet potato casserole (our contribution), stuffing (with mushrooms and artichoke hearts--this family doesn't do anything the easy way), stuffed jalepenos, and, of course, pie. Lots of pie. I made a chocolate hazelnut pie that started out smelling like Nutella (but didn't end up tasting like it). It was very rich and Dan made a very strange face when he first tasted it (but later said it improved upon acquaintance. I think that's because he knew I would be hurt if he just left me with the strange faces).

And that brings us to today. I hope all our readers had a lovely long weekend full of things that make them happy (whether that is food, sleep, family, friends, shopping, or whatever the case may be).

So you think you can dance?

Dancing seems to be one of those talents that was disproportionately spread in my family (just ask Jared, the former BYU ballroom dancer, who tried to help me learn a dance for my social dance class once up on a time).

 Evelyn, however, loves dancing. If she hears music, she'll dance. Sometimes she doesn't even need music. So we've signed her up for a weekly dance class. And in this town, that means the occasional performance.

A week or so ago, when we got the dresses for the performance, Evelyn excitedly told her father, "Daddy, my dance teachers bought me a beautiful dress!" Um, no. That dress was paid for by your parents, kid. In any case, we're grateful that she got a cute dress. (Seriously, some of the costumes are just strange).

This Saturday was her first performance, at a local scam talent show, where the dancers get in free but all of their family members pay to get in. (Not much, but given the number of dances, I'm sure they made a pretty tidy profit just off family members.)

 She was pretty excited about the whole thing--from the costume, to the ridiculous little bun she was required to have (seriously, I hair-sprayed and bobby-pinned that thing within an inch of its life), and the lipstick and blush she was also (required) to have.

She still doesn't quite get the concept of smiling for the camera.

 

 

You'll have to pardon the quality of the next several shots--we were in a large commons room at a local high school, and if I used the flash, I got a dim picture; if I didn't use the flash, it was too blurry. One of these days I'll get around to a new camera. In the meantime, you get these highly edited pictures, just to get a sense of the dance routine. (Next time, I'll know what apparently all experienced dance moms know--don't try to take pictures, just record the dang routine).

 

  

 This last one is super blurry (no flash), but I loved the funny little cheek on hands that they used to close the routine. Of course, probably only half of the dancers actually made it into position, but three year olds have a huge advantage on older dancers: they're just as cute when they mess up the routine as when they nail it.

Saturday, in general, was a busy day. We started with Bountiful Baskets (a friend was kind enough to get ours for me, because I was carless, as Dan had driven the car down to SG to help his parents pick up his brother Matt, who's in town for Thanksgiving). Then Andrew had Junior Jazz at 9:00 at one high school, and we had to be at the other high school at 10 to get ready for Evelyn's performance. At 11, Andrew had a pirate birthday party at a friend's house. He's been entertaining us with pirate speak since he got back.

In the afternoon, after finishing a freelance project 6 days early (go me!), we finally finished bagging the piles of leaves that I'd raked up on Thursday (with some help--or interference--from the kids).

This last is just because she's cute and we love her--and she's been a little sick all week.

 

We're all looking forward to a break this week: food, family, books, shopping . . . maybe not necessarily in that order. At least you know what my priorities are, right?

Reflections Update

For anyone who hasn't already heard, Andrew's story (see previous post) was one of the winner's for his school's Reflections Contest! That means he's going on to compete at the district level (whatever that means, exactly). I tried to get a picture, but the gym where the assembly took place was too dim. You'll just have to picture Andrew with the biggest, cheesiest grin you can imagine plastered across his face.

And his aspiring-author mom might have been just a little proud too.

Here's my dim assembly room picture--Andrew's in the front row in the light blue shirt.

Short and sweet

We took a quick jaunt up north to see family (mine and Dan's)--we even got to see Sarah's primary program. The kids did great--they must have a great primary president! :)

We're back now and gearing up for a full week.

In other news, I've decided I should not be allowed to talk to door-to-door salesmen. Apparently, what sounds like "no" to me, doesn't sound like "no" to them . . . You'd think a trained rhetorician could do better than this! (Not to worry--we've already cancelled the order. :P)

School pictures

This morning, as I was getting Evelyn ready for her school pictures, Andrew sauntered into the bathroom. I was using the curling iron to curl her ponytails, and Andrew asked, "what is that?" Apparently, the curling iron doesn't get used very much at our house.

Anyway, thinking about pictures reminded me about Andrew's pictures from earlier this year. I had mixed feelings about his picture. On the one hand, it's a very Andrew expression (he gets this one from his dad, I think). On the other hand, it's not the greatest picture. I was planning on doing re-takes, and then Andrew was home with pink eye the day of retakes and I didn't think a) the school would appreciate the pink-eye or b) that Andrew would look any better with bloodshot eyes. So, here's the picture that will go down in perpetuity as Andrew's kindergarten picture:

I remembered

What else we did this week. Friday was the deadline for the PTA Reflections contest (which I remember fondly from my childhood because I actually won a few times). I spent all week asking Andrew if he wanted to enter. He must have started 20 different drawings, only to give up because the heads weren't round enough, or the colors were wrong. (Honestly, I have no idea where the kid gets his perfectionist tendencies from). In any case, the drawing never happened.

However, Friday morning, inspiration apparently struck. (That, or desperation). Andrew dictated a story the following story for me:

Caleb wanted a toy car, but his mom wouldn’t let him buy one. So Caleb decided to ride his bike to the grocery store by himself.

There were lots of different people at the store. Caleb was the only one with light colored skin. Caleb wanted to hide, but there were too many people.

Then he saw his mom at the store. Caleb decided to run down the aisles because he didn’t want his mom to see him. He got lost. He tried to find his way around, but he couldn’t.

Caleb met a tall man with dark skin. The man walked over to Caleb. Caleb felt a little shy.

The man said, “Are you lost?”

Caleb said, “yes.”

The man helped Caleb find his way back to the check-out line. They walked by the frozen food. Caleb saw some pizza boxes.

“I like pizza!” Caleb said.

The man said, “I like pizza, too!”

Caleb said, “Hey, we both like pizza.”

They found Caleb’s mom. She said, “Caleb, where were you?”

Caleb said, “I went to the store by myself. I’m sorry. But this man helped me find you.”

Caleb learned that some people can help you. Even if you think they’re scary, they sometimes can be like you.

The theme this year is "Diversity." Andrew and I talked about it a lot, but I'm still not sure how much he got from our discussions (as you might be able to guess from the role "diversity" plays in his story).

Post-Halloween

 I'm trying to remember last week, but aside from Halloween, I'm not coming up with much. I suppose that means life as usual.

Here's Evelyn's costume for Monday morning, for her preschool. (One of the women who works at the preschool told me later that when she'd told Evelyn, "you look gorgeous," Evelyn responded "That's because it's Halloween!")

I tried to liven things up during the day by making a special Halloween lunch (which went mostly unappreciated): apple mouths and sandwiches with Halloween shapes pressed in (the shapes didn't show up well here).

 

I helped out with Andrew's Halloween party--I painted faces. I'd forgotten how imitative five-year-olds are. After one little girl requested a princess (one that didn't even turn out very attractively--simple designs are best for face painting!), I must have had another half dozen requests for the same thing. Oh well, at least they all seemed happy. I use the paints again later to paint Evelyn's face. (I offered to do Andrew's, but he wanted the mask. Of course, he pulled the mask off half-way down the street and didn't really wear it again.)

Of course, the kids were most excited about the actual trick-or-treating. We had dinner, and then I took the kids out around 5:30 (Dan elected to stay and pass out candy). We did have one boy at one of the first houses we came to tell us that we were too early for trick-or-treating, but most people were happy to see the kids. We didn't make it far--our street and part of another street--before heading over to Bubby and Poppy's house.

 

 

Aside from this, we don't have a lot to report. It snowed yesterday, which put a halt on our plans to clean up the yard (hopefully it will warm up again later in the week!). Today, both Dan and I taught in church. This was my first time giving a lesson for the young women. The lesson was on missionary responsibilities, and I dug up a bunch of missionary stuff from my mission, so that was fun. I think it went well, except that I finished the lesson with fifteen minutes left and then found myself filling time with mission stories. The girls here are nice--but they're not super talkative!

Hope all our readers have had a fun, safe week.

Almost Halloween

This week feels like it's been a lot of gearing up towards Halloween.

On Wednesday, Dan went to hear a friend of ours lecture about zombies.

Thursday, Evelyn dressed up in her kitty-ballerina costume for her dance class. (She did all her own posing--she's quite the little model.)


On Friday, we were supposed to go to a Halloween party at Evelyn's dance class, or, barring that, to a Halloween carnival, but we opted instead to stay home (much less crowded) and make some bones. Ours didn't turn out nearly as pretty as the picture, but they are all gone now.

Saturday morning, while Dan helped the Elder's Quorum move a family in down the street, I took the kids to meet Bubby and Poppy while we took in the Livestock and Heritage Festival Parade. My mom would have loved it (maybe next year?)--lots of farmers riding horses and vintage tractors. The highlight of the parade was the sheep run--they actually run several hundred sheep down Main Street. And then the street sweeper comes.

In the evening, we went to a friend's house for their annual Halloween party. We were in charge of dessert, so we brought pumpkin cupcakes with the white chocolate bones on top of them, and some swamp juice. I'm not always very good about doing fun food things for holidays, so I was pretty proud of myself. The cupcakes were a big hit, and the swamp juice was mostly gone when we left (although the sour worms did add an odd flavor to the already sour lemonade). The grownups got to chat, the kids played, and everyone had a good time. (Especially our host, who threw several cups of gasoline on the fire to get it to go--and then the fire went "whoosh" when the match hit it).

We endured some snow midweek, but the last couple of days have been beautiful fall weather again. We *finally* got some gutters put up on our house. It was surprisingly inexpensive and easy--if we'd known that, we would have done it long ago.

Our final picture is of a tent we scored off the Woot a few weeks ago. Dan had the bright idea to set it up in our living room. You can see how well it fit. :)

Insert Title Here

I'm currently sitting in the Phoenix airport, waiting for my flight back home.

This has been a mostly good week--but busy. Andrew missed his primary program last week because of pink-eye. Finally, on Tuesday, we cleared him to go back to school.

I also forgot to record that last week, Dan and I had our first real date in some time (I mean, where I scheduled a babysitter and everything). We went bowling, which took all of 45 minutes. We'd told the babysitter two hours, so we still had an hour plus to kill. So, what did we do with our time alone? We went to a local drugstore. And to Walmart. I know, we live exciting lives.

Anyway, back to this week. Monday and Tuesday Dan and I had off school. Dan went in for a little on Monday, until he realized he couldn't get into the computer network and came home.

This--and Andrew's quarantine--turned out to be a good catalyst. While Evelyn napped, Dan took Andrew to a parking lot behind our house and Andrew learned to ride his bike!

Tuesday, flush with his new skills, Andrew wanted to ride again. So we went to a local park with a trail up the canyon, and Andrew rode his bike, I jogged (it was much easier to keep up with him on the uphill stretches, oddly enough), Evelyn rode her trike, and Andrew walked with Evelyn. It was a beautiful, crisp morning and we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Afterward, because we could, we had lunch at the Ninja.

I went to my second Young Women activity that evening--and we went door to door canvasing for money for Primary Children's hospital. It was just about as exciting as it sounds. Luckily, we had treats and games afterward.

Thursday, after class, I packed up and Dan and the kids dropped me off at the airport. A generous friend of mine, Catherine, picked me up on this end and I was able to spend the weekend with her and her lovely family. We went to the Western States Rhetoric and Literacy conference together--I presented on rhetorics of space and Catherine presented on online literacy practices. The conference was decent--some good speakers and ideas, and some mediocre speakers and ideas. Pretty typical. I enjoyed spending time with Catherine and her family much more. Catherine and I met through a mutual friend (thanks, Cristie!) several years ago at an academic conference and have managed to keep touch by meeting up at various conferences and reading each other's academic papers. But I particularly enjoy talking with Catherine because she understands my position so well: we're in the same field, trying to figure out the best way to live our shared faith, put family first, and still keep a toe in the field. Sometimes, it's really nice to have smart friends.

Sometime on Friday I realized that an old roommate from graduate school (Carey, for any PA people reading this) lived in the greater Phoenix area. After a strange conversation with her mother-in-law--"who is this?" "how do you know Carey?" "how did you get this number?"--I finally got Carey's number and was lucky enough to meet up with her yesterday and see her beautiful new baby boy. In the four + years since I've seen her, Carey has had three boys. I gather they keep her pretty busy. It's funny, sometimes, to see how much can change with people and yet they are still pretty recognizable as the same person you once knew.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm home now, glad to be with my husband and kids (although the kids are--I hope--asleep now).

A pinkish kind of week

Our week started and ended the same way: with two cases of pink-eye. Evelyn (as we mentioned last week) had it at the start of the week, but it must have been one of the most short-lived cases in the world, because when we took her in to the doctor on Monday, the doctor said she looked fine.

Several quiet days went by (aside from the usual school, teaching, meetings, etc.) I went to my first young women's activity still wearing the skirt I'd taught in. Only, the young men were in charge and they chose to play dodgeball--so, I did a lot of watching.

Then on Friday, Andrew started showing symptoms. This was particularly sad since Saturday was the rehearsal for the primary program--and a pumpkin festival that he'd been looking forward to all week. But, with pinkeye, anything public is pretty much out of the question. His didn't clear up as soon as his sister's--in fact, this morning, his left eye was infected too. Poor kid. So he missed out on the primary program, and he had his lines memorized and he was going to do a solo too. He cried when I told him he couldn't come, but I kept thinking of all the moms who would hate me if we brought him, and he stayed home.

Dan graciously let me go to a local writer's conference this weekend. I posted about it on my other blog, but it was awesome. Seriously. I love coming away inspired and motivated to keep doing something I love. I just wish I'd started doing this sooner. There was a girl there who's been going to writing conferences with her mom since she was 12, and she's an amazing writer. I wrote a lot as a kid, but I had no idea what I was doing. I couldn't help being a little jealous of her position--she probably won't stop writing for ten years like I did.

Today we went for a drive up a local canyon. The aspens were brilliant gold, the scrub oak was a dull gold, and everywhere we looked we saw flame in the pines. It was beautiful.

a morning of strange conversations

This is what we talked about on the way to preschool this morning.

Evelyn: I love you, mommy.
Me: I love you, too.
Evelyn: I will love you when I'm dead.
Me (thinking): why are we talking about death?
Evelyn: When I die, and then you die and Andrew dies, we will be together.
Me (thinking): yes, but, again--why are we talking about death?
Evelyn: And when Daddy dies, he can be with us too!

I didn't know three-year-olds could be so morbid.

A few minutes later . . .

Evelyn: I wish I could be water.
Andrew: You don't want to be water. People might throw sticks on you.

Learning How to Fail

I'm at Segullah today, looking for advice!

When winter comes early

we distract ourselves with thoughts of warmer times. (In other words, here are the promised reunion pictures!).


Some Lee and Maestri children:

Evelyn on the trail. (I didn't get many pictures of Andrew during the hike, since he was usually way ahead of me with his cousins).



This is what many parts of the "trail" looked like--trekking through water.

At the end, there was this nice little waterfall. The kids loved playing in the water.

Some of the bigger "kids" tried sliding down the waterfall. This is Dan's cousin Anna's husband, Sam.


This was Maggie, at the end of the hike. She had a pretty sweet ride, though.

Our life this past week has been much quieter. This was early week at the school, for parent-teacher conferences. Even though kindergartners didn't have officially scheduled conferences, I went to talk to Andrew's teacher anyway. I wasn't so much worried about his academic performance as I was his social one, but his teacher tells me he's making friends and is good about helping other children when he finishes his work early. (We also talked a little about the possibility of him joining the first-graders for math, since apparently both his reading and math abilities are well above average, but decided to keep him where he is since he seems happy).

Tuesday, we followed Evelyn's preschool class to the pumpkin patch, since Andrew had to miss this same field trip back when he was in preschool. We came home with two pumpkins and lots of prickers in our shoes from the patch.


Then we endured several days of cold weather. It snowed on Thursday and the city turned our power out for some maintenance work. We spent as much time away from the house as we could that morning, going to the library and to Evelyn's dance class and out to eat for lunch.

This weekend, we went north for a *very* short trip to see my parents and celebrate my dad's birthday. The cousins had fun playing together and they didn't make my dad *too* crazy, so I think that was a successful trip. We came down Saturday evening, since my parents were working in the temple and Sarah was entertaining Aaron's parents and so we didn't have anything else to do. For those we missed on our short trip (Jared, Sarah), we're sorry we missed you. You, however, are probably not so sorry to have missed us, since we think Evelyn now has pink-eye. Urgh. She woke up at 4 this morning crying because she couldn't open her eyes--they were stuck shut with the leakage from her eyes. (She'd woken up at 12 saying the same thing, but I was too tired then to realize she was speaking literally--I thought she just meant it was too early for her to open her eyes. Poor thing). Needless to say, she stayed home from church today and we're just hoping no one else gets it.

Dan stayed home with Evelyn today and Andrew and I went to church so that I could get my new calling: first counselor in the Young Women's presidency. I'm excited to work with the girls--the Mia Maids are all former students from when Dan and I were assigned to teach Sunday school. I'm also a little nervous--I haven't been in YW since I *was* a young woman.

In other news, this is one of my favorite things to see around our house recently: Andrew, tucked into the couch with a book. We went to the library twice last week because he read all three of his Magic Tree House books in two days. The bibliophile in me rejoices!


Finally, for the grandparents, here's Evelyn "reading" one of her new favorite books.

In case you can't quite understand her, here's what she's reading: Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate. The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late!" The second one said, "There are witches in the air!" The third one said "But we don't care!" The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run." The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!" Ooooh, went the wind, and out went the light, and the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Hickory, Dickory, Dock

(Still no pictures--I'm sorry! Our camera is dead and we have every conceivable kind of battery except the ones I need. Will be fixed soon.)

Here's this week's excitement:

I was sitting at my computer working on some student papers when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something long, sleek, and dark whiz behind the computer desk. My heart stopped. I didn't know exactly what I'd seen, but I had a strong suspicion, and I didn't like it. It was too big to be an insect, and too fast.

I got down on the ground, moving a few things on the floor to see if I could see whatever "it" was again. Andrew came into the room and asked me what I was looking for. (Evelyn was napping). Just then, it burst from its hiding place, scampered past Andrew to the door of the computer room and high-tailed it around the corner into the TV room. A mouse.

Andrew freaked out and raced upstairs (and refused to come downstairs for the rest of the day). I freaked out too and called Dan three or four times (he wasn't in his office). When Evelyn woke up, we went to ACE, bought a mousetrap, and then waited for Dan to come home so he could help me a) clean up the downstairs so there were fewer hiding places and b) bait the traps. I didn't buy the classic wood traps because I had horrified visions of children with fingers in the traps, so I got traps that the kids couldn't easily stick their fingers in.

For a day or two, nothing happened. Then, finally, yes, we caught the mouse. Part of me feels bad for setting traps that kill mice; but a much larger part of me does NOT want to deal with a mouse in the house. Now, if we could just figure out how it got in . . .

In other pest related news, I opened up my conditioner in the shower the other day and dumped an earwig into my hand. I hate earwigs. Needless to say, this seriously disrupted my enjoyment of the hot water.

I suppose it says a lot for our week that finding a mouse was the biggest event of the week. Dan and I both spent the week playing catch-up from last week's vacation. The kids went to school. I taught a class on personal statements for senior English majors. We have been watching Conference this weekend, which has been lovely.

Next week, I'm hoping for just a little more excitement of the real variety (Evelyn gets to go on her first school field trip and Dan has a conference up north) and less of the animal variety.

Family Reunion

This weekend saw us trekking up to sunny Capitol Reef National Park for a Yssel/Rogers family reunion (the Dutch contingent of Dan's family). Unfortunately, my computer is telling me that it can't detect my camera, so you'll have to wait on pictures until I can figure that out. In the meantime, you'll have to use your imagination.

We got up there just in time for dinner on Friday evening. Bubby and Poppy had kindly set our tents up for us--in the farthest corner of the campground, so we could put our kids to bed early without being disturbed by the other campers. This turned out to be a mixed blessing, as it also meant that we were also the farthest ones from the bathroom (a long, dark trek in the middle of the night).

We had a yummy dinner of taco salad and quesadillas, then the kids ran rampant for a while as parents set up tents and other sleeping accommodations (Jon's family slept on a mattress in the back of their van). Our kids got to bed later than usual--and were still the first ones in bed (by quite a long shot). I was feeling like an unfair mommy while I watched the other children run around with glow sticks--that is, until I saw how tired my kids were the next day and I was just glad they weren't any tireder. They were, of course, the first ones up the next morning, so we took them on a little walk until canyon light started spilling onto the campground and we deemed it safe to return.

We were on breakfast duty with Sarah: breakfast burritos with homemade salsa (courtesy of Dan and Bubby's garden), fruit, go-gurts (we still have a LOT of leftover go-gurts), etc. I meant to help more with breakfast than I actually did--somehow I volunteered to hold Maggie for a little while (she wasn't feeling well and so was more quiescent than usual) and she fell asleep on me, so I missed out on some of the set-up and clean up. (Sorry Sarah!)

The big activity of the day was a Poppy-guided hike to a waterfall (part of the Goosenecks trail). Of course, with nearly fifty people in our group, it took a long time to get everyone together, but we finally succeeded and embarked on our hike. The hike itself was pretty flat--but it also crossed the Fremont River (I think that's the one) several times. Poppy had warned us beforehand to wear shoes that could get wet, luckily. The kids were in heaven: even Evelyn was interested enough in walking in the water that she didn't once ask to be carried. On the way up, anyway. On the way back, I noticed that most of the kids avoided the water for the trail when possible. Evelyn wanted to be carried, and was tired enough at that point that she nearly fell asleep in my arms.

Our particular destination was a little waterfall--it was low enough that several of the braver souls (dads and older children, and some of the littler children--no moms, funnily enough!) actually slid down the waterfall into the pool below. The rest of the kids just enjoyed splashing, getting muddy, and building sand castles.

When we got back to camp, we had lunch and then lazed around until dinner time. I think there may have been a frisbee golf game involved, too, but I have to confess I wasn't paying enough attention. After dinner, I took a couple of the scout-aged boys (including Jake), Andrew, Katie, and Julie (another of the moms) on what was supposed to be a bird-walk for the birding merit badge (I am now an officially certified merit-badge counselor).

Here's what we saw: one bird (a robin), three or four bats, and five deer (including a doe and *three* fawns). Not much of a bird-walk, but the area near the campground was curiously devoid of birds, even at dusk, which should have been prime birding time. It started to get dark, and Andrew started to freak out, so we opted to cut across a nearby horse pasture instead of retracing our steps back to camp. I'm getting too old to clamber through wooden fences.

This morning we packed up camp and said lots of good-byes and returned back to our real lives. Tomorrow, a mountain of dirty laundry awaits me (and this doesn't include the two pair of socks I threw away--one Andrew's, one Evelyn's--as being impossible to salvage. That red-rock dirt doesn't come out of clothing easily). But for today, we're tired, but happy.

Homecoming

The biggest event(s) of the week were associated with the University Homecoming Celebrations. Friday was the opening of the new science building, and since Poppy (as Dean of the College of Sciences) was instrumental in the design and execution--and was conducting the ceremonies--we went. Dan spent most of his free time this past week trying to get things ready for the opening ceremony.

They had a much larger crowd than anticipated--probably because they advertised a drawing for an iPad (for students only). Poppy did a great job conducting, and if a few of the speakers didn't do as good a job keeping their remarks short (Jake said afterward that the prayer was one of the longest he'd ever heard), most of the program went smoothly. The best parts were the flash mob (Poppy even danced for it a little bit) and the ribbon cutting. This was Dan's job--figuring out a flashy way to "cut" the ribbon without scissors. They came up with a method that involved treating cotton with some sort of chemical compound that ignited when water hit it. Dan ran several tests on the cotton before fine-tuning it to his satisfaction.

The only problem, though, is that it was sprinkling just before they were supposed to do the ribbon cutting. Since it was designed to ignite with water, this posed something of a problem. Dan and the other chemistry faculty member (Ty Redd) held the banner closed until just before the cutting so that it wouldn't accidentally light on fire. In any case, it worked perfectly--and Dan, Poppy, and J. Ty ended up with their pictures on the front page of the local paper.

Poppy was out late that night with various homecoming activities--the rest of us had dinner at the Pizza Factory and then the kids (including Sarah's kids, who came down for the festivities) played at our house while Bubby and Sarah got a quick tour of the new building, with Dan acting as tour guide.

Saturday was more hanging out with cousins and getting ready for the Homecoming parade. Dan went up the canyon with the Elder's Quorum to cut wood that morning, but the rest of us spent the morning at Bubby and Poppy's. That afternoon, Dan and the kids lined up with Poppy for the parade while Sarah, Bubby and I found a good vantage point to watch the parade.

I discovered that it's hard to take good pictures of moving targets. All the local grandkids (except Maggi) got to hand out candy with Poppy. I'm not sure what it was out their relatively simple "float" (a red wheelbarrow with a pendant) that so appealed to the parade judges--maybe it was the matching cheerleader outfits the girls wore--but they wound up with 3rd place.

Andrew really got into it. Even when he reached us (about 2/3 of the way through the parade route), he was still bouncing too and from the wheelbarrow throwing candy. I think he even got resigned to not getting his own candy (sort of).


This picture cracks me up--it's hard to see, but if you look in front of the white car, you can see Lydia running for all she's worth to catch up with the rest of the group.


This was Evelyn this morning (pre hair-combing) with the latest in hand and footwear.


There's not much to say about the rest of the week. I met with a maternal specialist on Monday who ran through a list of possibilities as to why we might be miscarrying. Now I have some tests to take and we'll see what happens. I do know, now, that I don't have lupus. That's good, right? (It was actually a little funny. I didn't think, when the doctor ordered the test, that it was much of a possibility or worry--until I talked to my mom and found out that my aunt has lupus, and they think my grandmother might have had it . . . It's funny how medical history has a way of coming out of the closet at unexpected times).

Evelyn gave me her cold at the beginning of the week, so the middle of the week is still a bit blurry for me. At least the weekend more than compensated for a somewhat miserable mid-week!