Dye Job

Last Saturday, April 23, in preparation for Easter, we colored eggs.  Audrey eagerly anticipated this event all day.  She had several other fun activities during the day, which I will post about later, but this is the one thing she kept bugging me about.  Actually, for several weeks she had been talking about "painting eggs."  We explained that you dye the eggs and don't actually paint them, but she was insistent.  It wasn't until we finally got everything ready to dye them that she decided it was okay to just dunk them.  Even now though, she talks about painting her eggs.  Maybe next year we'll have to give it a try.

After Truman went to bed we got everything ready.  The one thing we don't do at our house is use one of those packaged egg coloring kits.  I don't have anything against people using them, I just won't use them.  I think they're too expensive and the colors don't come out as pretty as they do with regular old food coloring.  So we do it the old school, cheap way.

Audrey helped count out the drops of food coloring into the cups and got a nice big drop on her nightgown that I still haven't gotten out yet.  I guess that is the one drawback to doing it the old school, cheap way.

 We used crayons to write on the eggs and then placed them in the cups.  Audrey decided to wear the crown she made at her friend Ally's birthday party earlier in the day.  That was one of the fun activities she got to do on Easter Eve.

 Pops got in on the action too.  Audrey was very particular and careful about choosing her colors and mostly chose pinks and purples.  I boiled 14 eggs and only one broke, although I did drop one a couple of times while I was dyeing it.

 They turned out very pretty and bright!

 Audrey was pleased and couldn't wait for the Easter Bunny to come and hide them.

I had to convince her that the Easter Bunny would be able to find the eggs if we put them in the refrigerator.  Once they were safe it was time for bed.  Audrey was insistent that Matt and I immediately go to bed after we put her in bed so that the Easter Bunny could come and hide the eggs.  I love having a little girl who gets so excited about each and every holiday.  Actually, I love this girl.

A Royal Admission

I'm back!  For now at least.  I have to say that using a different computer with a different version of Windows does not make me want to blog.  Figuring out how to upload the pictures and then waiting for them to upload was more than a little annoying.  Then there is the issue of editing.  I am the first to admit that I am no editor.  But with this different program, even my basic skills of removing red eyes, auto-correcting the color, and very rarely cropping, are completely out of the picture now.  (No pun intended.)  But I have a large stock of pictures uploaded now so you can expect several posts.  Maybe I'll get this all figured out someday, probably just in time to get a new computer and have to relearn everything again.

But I'm not here to talk about my computer issues.

I'm here to talk about that wedding!  I admit, I was excited about it.  I have always secretly wished I was old enough to have watched Prince Charles and Lady Diana get married, but I was only three then and my parents aren't the type to have cared much.  But I'm old enough now.  I didn't stay up all night to watch William and Kate get married, even though I really wanted to, because Matt couldn't take off work today and I knew I would be the world's grumpiest mom if I didn't get some sleep.  So I resorted to the magic of our DVR and recorded all eight hours of coverage.  I've only had time to watch the first three hours so far, but rest assured I'll be watching the rest later.

 I decided that it would be fun to watch the wedding with Audrey.  She's little and I know she doesn't quite understand what's going on, but someday she'll be able to say that she watched William and Kate get married with her mom when she was only three.  To make it extra special we waited until Truman went down for his nap and then popped popcorn and ate Easter candy.  I also had a bit of a Cadbury Dairy Milk with Crunchie Bits candy bar that my nephew and his wife sent us from England last Christmas.  It's a big bar and we've been trying to eat a little at a time to make it last.  But today it felt appropriate to have some.

Audrey did get a bit tired after awhile and wasn't as impressed with the real life prince and princess as I thought she might be, but she did pretty well.  She was impressed that Kate wore a tiara and agreed with me that her dress was beautiful.  In all the speculation about her dress that I heard, no one ever mentioned Grace Kelly's dress.  But that was the first one I thought of.  I was happy to see that Kate's dress was reminiscent of Grace Kelly's dress, which has always been my favorite.

It's not that I'm a crazy royal watcher.  I'm not even a celebrity watcher.  I normally don't have more than a passing interest in what all the famous people are doing.  But this was different.  It's such a romantic story, the prince marrying the common girl he loves, and they are so lovely together that I can't but hope that they'll have a long and happy marriage.  A wedding of this magnitude doesn't come along every day and I wanted to be able to say that I saw this one.  But along with the romance, part of the draw for me was the location.  London holds a special place in my heart.

Matt and I honeymooned in London after our wedding in 2003.  Seeing all of the sites we visited back then, on TV today, brought back all of those happy memories.  We stayed at the Park Lane Sheraton, just across the park from Buckingham Palace, so we passed by it, watched the changing of the guard, and just stopped to admire it many times.

 The one thing that's kind of sad is that back in 2003 Matt and I took two cameras on our honeymoon.  He brought his new digital camera and I brought my trusty Canon EOS Rebel 2000--a film camera.  Many of our pictures were taken with that camera and are currently packed in a box in our garage.  So I only have access to the pictures we took on the digital camera, and sadly, they are few.  I wasn't the obsessive picture-taker back then that I am now.  But here is one of the guards and band outside of Buckingham Palace.

 And here is one with me in front of some guys on horses.  I don't really know what was going on here, but they showed up when the band came and they all started doing marching drills.  That's the park you see behind them and the Palace is to my right (if I'm remembering correctly).

Of course, we also made a visit to Westminster Abbey. I can still remember the awe I felt when we entered that building and saw the burial places of so many kings and queens.  I especially loved seeing the Poet's Corner where many writers were buried or memorialized.  I remember exclaiming over the plaques and burial places of Chaucer, Austen, Tennyson, Dickens, Milton, Hopkins, and so many others I spent so many years reading and studying.  It was truly impressive.

 This is one of our pictures of Westminster.  It's even more impressive in person and was just beautiful.

Our honeymoon was glorious.  It was my first real trip outside the U.S., unless you count trips to Matamoros, Tijuana, and the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, which I don't.  London was the one place I had dreamed of going for years.  To spend two weeks there with my new husband was better than anything I had dreamed.  I would love to go back someday.  I don't know if Matt and I ever will, but I'd like to think we'll make it someday.

Someday.

But for today I contented myself by watching a romantic royal wedding, seeing the sites of London that I love so much on TV, and remembering that magical time in my own life almost eight years ago.

MIA

Computer problems.

In case you were wondering, that's why I haven't posted in almost two weeks.  I'm still here, but with technical difficulties.

Actually, the reasons I haven't been able to post are fourfold:

1. The aforementioned computer problems.  About three weeks ago our computer started acting up.  I'd be working on something and the screen would suddenly go black, then blue.  The blue screen had a lot of words on it and said something about making sure software was installed correctly and then at the bottom had the words, "Crash dump."  "Well that can't be good," I would think to myself.  The screen would then go black again and I'd have to hold down the power button to turn it off.  Usually I'd wait awhile, turn it back on, and click the OK button for Windows to check for a solution.  It would work fine the rest of the day but would probably do again a day or two later.  So at the beginning of last week it did it twice in a row, the second time immediately after I logged in.  That scared me a bit so I left it off until Matt could make sure all of our important files (meaning pictures) were transferred over to our external hard drive.  Three and a half years ago the laptop we were using crashed and we lost a few pictures so we got the external hard drive.  Thank goodness.  He didn't get the files transferred over until this week so it was off all of last week, which brings me to number two.
2. I am now working on a laptop.  Late last week Matt brought me his old laptop from work to use.  About all I could do was check my email though.  Now we've got everything hooked up so I have a mouse and printer and can access the external hard drive.  But it's still a laptop.  And laptops are kind of annoying with their small keyboard and screen and keys in the wrong place.  I'm grateful to have it, but it does slow me down and it is slower than our other computer.  Also, it's a computer I'm not as familiar with, which leads me to number three.
3. I don't know how to download the pictures from my camera yet.  I'm sure I could figure it out, but my frustration threshold for technology is quite low and it's probably a safer bet to have Matt help walk me through it the first time.  I like to figure out how to do something and then do it that way forever.  Little things like switching banks (which we recently did) or getting a new cell phone increase my frustration level to a point that I sometimes want to throw things.  This is why I am perfectly happy with my almost three year old slide cell phone with numbers, no full keyboard or touchscreen, that I use to make and receive calls only.  I don't even use the camera function on it.  I have a camera for that.  I know.  I sound like an old lady.  I just don't like have to re-figure out everything I once knew because technology changed. 
4. I have to teach Relief Society on Sunday.  Even though I've had a computer this week, and earlier in the week Matt was home and could have helped me download pictures, I resisted because I knew I had a lesson to prepare.  So tonight while Matt was at meetings I chose a topic and wrote the first draft of my lesson.  Tomorrow night I'll go over it and make any changes and get everything gathered together and printed and then I'll be done.

Friday night I should be back to blogging.  I have a lot to catch up on and I'd like to at least get the Easter pictures posted.  So you can look for me then.  See you Friday!

White Flowers

I posted about the pink flowered trees a few weeks ago.  Now the white flowered trees are blooming.  I love the pink trees because they are always the first to bloom up here.  They give me hope that if I can last a couple more months then I'll have made it through another winter. 

But the white trees are my real favorites because they remind me of home.  I don't know what kinds of trees they are up here, but we had trees with white flowers in my backyard when I was growing up.  I have vivid memories of standing in the dewey grass and smelling the fragrance of the flowers.  They would fall off the trees like rain and their scent would permeate the entire yard.  We had an apple tree and a pear tree and I can still smell them.  We also had a plum tree, but it's weird that I can't remember for sure if those flowers were pink or white.  I think they were white. 

The pear tree is still there but the plum is long gone and the apple died and had to be cut down sometime after Matt and I were married.  But when I see the trees bloom white I am reminded of home.  It makes my heart soar, and ache.

Someday, when we have a real yard, we'll have fruit trees too. 

So that my children too will have the memory of the way the white flowers smell in the spring.

Envelopes

Does everything really need to be kept under lock and key?

 Apparently so.

 Truman's newest favorite activity is pulling all of the small envelopes out of the drawer in the hutch, a few at a time, and handing them to me or throwing them on the floor.

When Mom gets upset he'll sometimes try to help by cleaning up.  But he gets mad and wants help when they don't fit back in the box quite as easily as they came out of it.

K-9

On Tuesday, April 12, the police K-9 unit came to visit Audrey's preschool.  I missed most of the presentation and didn't even catch the officer's name, but the dog was Gus.  He was really pretty and so well behaved.  I guess you have to be when you're on the police force.

 The instant Truman saw Gus he got really excited.  He danced around, pointed, bent down, and yelled.  But the one thing he wouldn't do was pet him.  He's fascinated by animals.  We were in the Wal Mart parking lot last week and he watched and talked and clapped about a crow that was hopping around.  He was ready to take off and chase it.

 Audrey's a little skittish around animals too, but she likes them.  It took her a couple of minutes but she eventually went to pet Gus.  She doesn't mind petting dogs as long as their head is nowhere near her.

 So after the presentation that I missed they went to the parking lot and got to see the police car.  It was interesting to see where Gus gets to ride.  The entire backseat is made of metal and is divided in the middle.  Gus sits behind the driver and the other side is for anyone the police pick up.  The officer said that most people complain that it's cold and they're uncomfortable sitting in a metal seat.

 This was as close as Truman would get to Gus.  But he followed him around and watched every move he made.

 This is Audrey sitting in the perp seat.  I don't think it's called that, but I'm calling it that.  The kids got to sit in the back and the front and even beeped the siren a few times.  The officer was really good with the kids.

 And here is her little class all lined up next to the police car.

Ward Easter Brunch

Last Saturday, April 9, our ward had an Easter activity.  It was a brunch and egg hunt for the kids and turned out really well.  The food was delicious and tons of people showed up.  We feasted on breakfast casseroles, muffins, monkey bread, orange slices, and all kinds of yummy brunch food.  I made a double batch of kolaches that were gobbled up so I hope everyone enjoyed them. 

 Audrey and Truman both enjoyed the little egg candies on the tables and Audrey had fun coloring while we were waiting for the activity to get started.

 Truman had fun playing with some of the young men.  I love that there are so many youth in our ward that like kids.  We busted out one of Truman's summer shirts for the occasion and I think he looks like such a big boy in it!

 After we ate there were two craft activities set up for the kids.  The first was to make an Easter mask.

 Audrey was pretty pleased with hers and wore it a good portion of the day.  The second craft was to make a bag for the Easter egg hunt.  Audrey didn't make one though because we brought her basket.

 After the crafts the kids sat on blankets while the bishop read a couple of stories.

 Even Truman sat and listened to the stories.  Actually, I think he was more entertained by all the kids around, but still.  He sat!

 Then it was time for the much anticipated egg hunt.  It was very well organized.  Different age groups were divided up to hunt eggs in different locations and each child could get 10 eggs.  Audrey and Truman were in the same age group so that made things easier for us.  The second we got outside Truman was ready to go.  It was hard hanging onto him until they told us we could start.  It was his first egg hunt but he seemed to know exactly what to do without any help or prompting from us.

 Audrey also took off as soon as she could and carefully collected and counted her 10 eggs.

 Truman only ended up with 3 eggs because he's small and a little slower.  But I think that next year he'll be a real contender.

 He was so proud of his eggs.  And he was so cute carrying his giant basket around.

 I feel a little bad that we still don't have a basket liner for Truman yet.  I was going to order his this year, but when I finally decided which one I wanted to get, they were out of both my first and second choices. 

Next year little T!  I promise!

 Truman knew there was something in those eggs and was desperate to get them opened.  He managed to get the candy out of one and took a big bite, foil wrapper and all, before we realized what he had done.  Of course, it was a Reese's egg.  So we watched him to see if he had any reaction and he didn't.  Now peanut butter is a go for the boy.

Audrey was pleased with her spoils too.  But she didn't mind sharing with her friend Connor who lost his bag and was a little sad.  What a sweetheart!

I just thought this picture would look kind of cool as a black and white.  But I don't have any editing skills or software so this is what I managed to do.  I think it looks okay.  I was just experimenting.

It was a great ward activity.  Good job Primary!