Things to Remember

I wrote this post a year ago, but have never taken the time to add pictures to it. I tried to add pictures that are roughly from the same month I wrote this.

Tanner bowling at Triple Play in Coer d'Alene back in February 2011

...It baffles me that no matter the holiday, my kids really don't dive into the candy stash received, and this past Easter has been no exception.  The kids Easter baskets have sat on the counter, brimming with candy. I never tell my kids "You have free reign," but I also have never once told them NOT to eat it.  It's not that they don't like candy, because they do (especially Preston!!). Several journal worthy events have come from this though:

Preston "bowling." I love this shot of his little belly!

..............On Sunday I asked Tanner if I could have a black jellybean, to which he said yes, I could have one. But, after I informed him that I REALLY love black jelly beans, he thought about it and decided to find all of the black ones, and give them to me. Although Nathan claims I manipulated him into giving them to me, I did think it was really nice.

...............Tonight after dinner, I told Tanner that if he cleared all the dishes from the table, he could have any candy in his Easter basket (I doubted it would work, because I figured he knew that he could have his Easter candy, regardless of work he's done!). He was excited, and proceeded to clear the table.  As promised, I gave him his basket, and he chose a commercially-filled egg that had an M&Ms label on it.  I got him a bowl and went upstairs to put Preston in bed.  Tanner hollered upstairs that there were two candy packets in it, and asked how many he could have. I hollered back that because it was all in his one piece of candy, he could choose to eat one or both, but if he only ate one, he could eat the other one tomorrow.  When I came back downstairs, Tanner asked if Preston was sleeping.  I said yes, and he was concerned. "But," he said, "he didn't get to eat his candy."   "What candy?" I asked. "There were two candy packets, so one was for Preston," was his reply.  I am blown away sometimes by what a good brother Tanner is to Preston.

Nathan and the boys in Hungtington, UT at Grandma Hall's funeral in March 2011.  This is the last picture we have with Grandpa Hall, as he died 4 months later.

The boys on Nathan's Uncle Owen's firetruck, named 'Jasper.' This fire truck was all they talked about for weeks, and they always included 'Jasper' in their prayers.

.......Tanner is learning to read!  Being the awesome parent that I am, I had really no idea how well he was doing until my sister in law was reading with him last week.  He has learned about 6 "sight words," such as
the, and, it, on, and maybe a few others. He loves to find the sight words on everything from cereal boxes to the newspapers, and he has been challenging himself to sound words out. He is doing great at sounding out 3-letter words! This whole concept of someone as young as him reading just blows me away, because I remember struggling with that kind of stuff in 1st grade. I ended up being one of the most avid and advanced readers of my classes, so obviously not knowing how to read going into kindergarten didn't exactly hinder me. Thus, I haven't been as concerned that Tanner know how to read by this upcoming school year as Nathan and his family have been. It is exciting nonetheless!

"Wait, these bins are for TOYS? I thought you said BOYS!"

Tanner, Preston and cousin Jessica at Jessica's granda Homer's farm

Matching airplane/helicopter jammies!

Sunday after church, Spring 2011

Tanner took the picture

.....Preston is such a chatterbox. My favorite is when it is just him and me in the car, because he just jabbers away about what he sees. Sometimes he'll be telling me one thing, and before he can finish, he'll be starting a new thought about something else he sees.  I have been trying my hardest to teach him his colors, but those efforts have proved fruitless thus far.  His speech though? It blows me away. More and more of his speech is in complete sentences lately.  One of his recent "speech things" is this: whenever he is asked a question that begins with "Why," he will almost always answer it with, "Why because." It is kind of cute. And repetetive. Frustrating at times. But still funny.  Until yesterday. He woke up early from his nap screaming bloody murder, and as I rocked him, I would ask, "Pres, why are you crying?" Between sobs, all he would say is "Because Why." Yeah. It was awesome.

Tribute to: A Woman of Dignity and Grace

Last month my Grandma McDonnel passed away, reunited with Grandpa after almost 24 years.  It was and has been a bittersweet experience for me.  When 2011 began, Nathan had two living grandparents and I also had two. We lost three of our grandparents last year, making Grandma McDonnel our last living grandparent.  As I have reflected on Grandma and the effect she had on my life, I wanted to write some of them down. And, since I am the world's worst journal keeper currently, this will have to do.

With Grandma in 2005 on my wedding day

Every other summer we would make the trek from Idaho Falls to Arcadia, CA. Up until I was about 12, we would fly. After that, we would drive. By "we" I mean my brothers, me, and our mom.  It became our tradition to stop in Mesquite, NV on the way down for the night.

It was on these bi-yearly trips that I experienced many things for the first time, including:

Subway sandwiches

Six Flags and Knotts Berry Farm

The San Diego Zoo

Riding the trolley/Going to Tijuana

Eating at Sho-Gun (think: Beni-hana)

Eating jicama

Watching television on a big-screen TV

In n Out Burger

Los Angeles Chinatown and Olvera Street

See's Candy

Seeing the route of the Rose Parade and where to Rose Bowl is played

Shopping at Target

Chicken Foot (a dominoes game, not a food)

Christmastime 2010 in Grandma's apartment at The Coventry in Salt Lake

Grandma loved it when we came to visit (and if she didn't, well, she sure didn't show it!), and we would always anticipate that first walk in through the front door, anxiously awaiting THE SMELL of Grandma's house. It was a smell we loved, and a smell we looked forward to.  The saddest part of our trips was always when we would back out of the driveway, watching Grandma standing there waving, all alone. It always broke my heart.

Whenever I would come home from school when I was growing up, my mom always listened with such intent and made me feel like the events of my day were the most interesting thing she had heard, and was never too busy. I think that's something she learned from Grandma, because Grandma was the same way. Unless you were complaining. If you were complaining, well, she didn't much want to hear it.

Grandma, me, and my mom. 3 Generations

Grandma's house was right across the street from Vons, which she referred to as "The Market." If she needed something, why, she would head over to the market to get it.

July 2011--the last family picture we took with Grandma

Grandma spent years in service at the Boys Republic Thrift store, and no trip to California was EVER complete without going to see and help Grandma in the back room(s), and I always came home with some kind of treasures from there. I am now a parent, and one of my favorite thing to do is thrift-store shop.  It was only at the close of the viewing for Grandma that her love of thrift store finds was brought up (and in a very humorous way,I might add). And, after hearing my Uncle Paul's story, I thought about how my grandma's influence has affected me in that way--something I had not considered before.

One final story about Grandma: Nathan and I went on our honeymoon to Los Angeles, and having spent so much on the airfare to get down there, it left almost no money to actually do things. Mind you, I was determined to have a honeymoon that cost no more than $500, and that made for a difficult situation in doing much. The hotel we had booked was a pretty seedy place in a scary part of town, so for the last day of our trip we spent hours on the different commuter trains traveling to the station near Grandma's house. She came and picked us up and took us to go rent a car (we weren't about to rely on public transportation or ask Grandma to drive us back to the Long Beach airport).  After renting a car, Grandma took us to eat dinner at the Claim Jumper restaurant, then back to her house where we stayed the night.  People look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them that we spent the last night of our honeymoon at my grandma's house, but in all reality, after being in the ghetto, it was like staying the night in a palace at her house, and I was thrilled to be able to spend time with Grandma and introduce Nathan to such a meaningful place in my life. The next day she drove us all around to look at the Rose Parade route as well as the "Pillared Palaces" as she called them.

One thing that struck me was when, after the graveside service in California, I was all alone and was hungry. My parents had left already, and my cousins were off doing their own thing. I had no car, so I had to walk to find food. I ended up walking down the street where I'd first eaten at an Olive Garden years earlier.  I saw the Subway I first went to with Grandma. I then looked ahead of me and saw the Claim Jumper--where we had eaten that night on our honeymoon.  It hit me that that chapter of my life is officially closed. Grandma moved to Salt Lake several years ago into a retirement home, so some might say that the chapter closed before then. But as I walked down Huntington Avenue I thought about how many happy memories I have that I will cherish, and how truly grateful I am to have had the priviledge of having such a wonderful grandma, and how much I am going to miss her.

My cousin Whitney, Grandma, and me--the last picture of the 3 of us.  I have many memories with Grandma and Whitney, that is for sure!!

April 2012 Snapshots

Dad, Mom, me and Daniel at the luncheon in So. Cal after the  graveside service for Grandma  McDonnel.  The dress and sweater are thrift store finds {see post about Grandma McDonnel for why that is relevant}.  The necklace I am wearing was Grandma's.

Proof that I am not a COMPLETE failure in the domestic department.  During  the Sunday session of General  Conference, I was determined to make some delicious rolls. Homemade and from scratch, which I have never ever done in my entire life. At least not successfully.  They don't look perfect, nor do I in this picture, but by gollly, I was so darn-tootin-proud of myself! The rolls were good, and I confess, I did serve them with homemade jam that I also made myself, just so that I could lay claim to being the maker of all sorts of deliciousness.  

Easter Sunday. In our "Easter outfits" in front of our near-perfect tulips.

Daffodils from Nathan's parents' flower garden.  Don't they look stunning? I mean, they are  up there in rank--almost as awesome as our tulips. :-)

Saturday March 31, 2012

Not really a day for the record books, but a day with a few moments I need to jot down so I don't forget.

Track Meet @ Southridge High School

Not anything special, aside from lousy, windy, rainy, COLD weather. It was fun being there to cheer on the Richland kids, but also to talk with some of my old runners and fellow coaches from Pasco. There were other coaches from other schools--including Richland--that I talked to. Some days I wonder why I am making the effort to volunteer as a track coach, and other days I think about how much I love it, and how I wouldn't trade it for the world.

For dinner tonight during Priesthood session I made Sweetened Coconut Chicken Fingers.  It calls for dipping chicken tenders in flour, then egg, then the breadcrumb-coconut coating. It became too time consuming very quickly, so I informed Tanner than he was helping me. Fortunately, he was happy to do so. Before long, Preston needed a job, so I asked him to wash the asparagus, which he did. When he finished, he was given the job of rolling the chicken in flour. He then would give his flour-coated chicken to Tanner, who rolled it in egg, then handed it off to me. Assembly line at its finest. We three worked side-by-side to prepare dinner, while I entertained Tanner with stories from Homer's "The Odyssey."  It was a happy moment, having my kids help me as well as learn some classic literature. Unfortunately, with me as their mom, they have a greater chance of being schooled in literature than they do in "classic" movies such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Monte Python, and the list goes on.

Our house is a mess. To say the least.  The boys new bunk bed is built, but their closets are not yet combined. Rather, there are piles of clothes. Some are too small, some are just right, some are on the floor for unknown reasons. An old computer is set up downstairs so that we can pull off old files before getting rid of it. The table is sticky and needs to be wiped off. My perfect entryway table has papers from a certain kindergartener's backpack on it.  The clothes I took to the meet today along with my bread store purchases are littering the kitchen stools and floor. I am overwhelmed with all the messes, and unsure of where to even begin. Or where to use my time when I have a few minutes.

That's all. I'm tired now and have said my piece.