Friday, December 3, 2010

 Today it very suddenly got very cold.  And then it snowed!  Didn't stick much, but it made me very grateful for my heater blowing full blast and my cozy bed that night.
 Just look at that little guys' smile!  Can you possibly keep from smiling when you see that face?  The mom in the picture watches Baby A for me when I accompany up at the university - she asked me to take a quick family pic for Christmas cards - I was happy to oblige! :)
 Every time I see something pretty our little town grows on me a little more.  The adjustment is getting easier.
 Baby A got sick tonight.  We woke her up from her nap to take her to a musical fireside we were performing in, and she did okay while we were out, but we got home and she just wanted to snuggle snuggle snuggle.  Which was fine with me!!!  We both fell asleep on the couch while Joseph put the other two to bed (Joseph snapped this picture).
 There is a farmers' field behind our house that was full of soy bean plants when we got here.  One day they turned from green to gold over night, and a week or two later they were gone completely.  Looking at the empty field reminds me of that line from Sunday in the Park with George - "White.  A blank page or canvas.  So many possibilities."  (Like so many things in life, I'm sure that actually farming the land is not as romantic as that makes it seems. :)  But I like the idea anyway.)
Doesn't it look like he's waving off the paparazzi??  He was actually waving goodbye as he headed into school - unlike K-lady with her hard and fast rule prohibiting any verbal expressions of affection in public, this little guy always waves and blows kisses and shouts out, "I love you, Mom!!!  Bye!!!"  Until K-lady finally grabs his hand and pulls him into the school.  :)  
 Veteran's Day parade!  I want one of these little cars.  Probably don't need the hat, but can't you see J-boy terrorizing the neighborhood in one of those cars?  :)
 With all of that getting-stuck-at-the-train-crossing I've gotten pretty good at finding the under-and-over passes in town - I drive this road at least 2x a day now. :)  And my kids groan every time there's a train and I say, "We're going to get run over by the train!  AHH!"  :)  They can't stand my jokes now - just wait till their teenagers!
 K-Lady had her second graders music program at school tonight - I had double booked myself (DOH!), so I couldn't be there, but sent Joseph with strict instructions to video tape the whole thing.  :)  I love to watch her sing!  :)
 We've already addressed this.  Just a few more weeks of diapers, baby - just a few more....
 Getting used to our new town for me means finding pretty things to take pictures of.  We live in a kind of run down part of town, which is kind of depressing to me on occasion.  So it's nice to find spots of beauty here and there. :)
 I love fitting all 6 of these monkeys in my car. :)  We spent Friday night up in the city to play with friends and do some shopping (Joseph got new computers for his practice and wants to trade my home desktop for one of his beefy new ones, but he just reinstalled this one a few months ago....  And my terabyte hard drive is full, so I can't just back up and do it - I have to actually go through all 1000 gigs of duplicate back ups and old pictures and previous computers' files and clean house.  So until I find an entire day with nothing to do, I'll keep plugging away on my old trusty stead - I think she needs a name....  I like Murphey - you know, as in anything that CAN go wrong......)
 Heidi's having a BOY!  That's right, 3 girls and 1 boy to top it all off - a tie-onesie was definitely in order (in my very very very messy craft/food storage/mud room/garage space.
 Baby A loves to look at pictures on the computer (takes after her mother).  She even knows how to open picasa from my desktop and flip through the pictures using the arrow keys.  And she's only two - this child has digi-scrapper written all over her, don't you think?
 Joseph brought a little work home - treatment planning....
 She insisted.  I had nothing to do with this (except for purchasing the potty).  I take the lazy-mom's approach to potty training - do nothing till they do it themselves.  But I'm not ready for this - that's right folks, I'm going to fill our landfills w/ disposable diapers for three more weeks until after our 36 hours of driving time for Christmas vacation.  I'm just not interested in a pee'd-upon car seat on hour 3 of 18.  And I don't have 3 days in a row to stay home between now and then while she gets the hang of it.  (I'm sure she'll get over it, in time, with counselling)  :)
My vegetarian friend got me hooked on mushrooms in my fajitas - yummmm.  But I still stick ckn or steak in there, too.  The best of both worlds, right?
 We caved and let the kids trick-or-treat just our little street on Sunday. :)
Joseph had to do Halloween-Saturday solo (I flew in late late late that night) - I'd say he did pretty good (minus Baby A's lovely pirate wench hair-do. Can I get a bandana please?)  :)

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Planting the WA raspberries Dad brought back after his last trip - note the super muddy jazz hands. You should see Mindy try to 'pull up' her jeans w/ no hands. Just about died laughing.
Actually, that was kind of the whole trip - I think Mindy and I woke Grandma up at night with all our laughing - So Much Fun. I really needed to laugh like that!
I got to go to the Logan temple w/ Mom and Dad my last day home - I am so blessed! I love all of my family so much, and I so want to be with them always. That possibility makes the promise of forever very sweet.
I'm flying!!!!!! :) SO FUN.
So we couldn't find 70 candles, but the candles spell out 70. :) And that's a Costco pumpkin pie. Only the best when dad turns 70! :)
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Mad skillz. :) I got to see the final run through of their marathon practice - so amazing! I had no idea high school marching band was so cool! (In WA it really wasn't cool at all - sorry, Mindy, but it's true) ;)
Delayed flight, missed the connection, waiting 3 hours for the next one. I thought this sign was funny at that point. :)
It's all behind me.... Heading up to the airport, all by myself, in the sweet sweet silence. The radio doesn't work, and I didn't have CD's, and come to find out I really really REALLY like silence. :) (at one point I did burst out into song for about 2 minutes, but other than that...)
We had a really fun night carving pumpkins - Joseph helped J-boy, and I helped K-lady. I think next year I'm going to chuck the patterns, though - WAY too many cuts! I'm glad we got took pictures right then and there - the next day J-boy got angry @ K-lady and broke the cat pumpkin. Gr. Descructo-boy-temper-tantrums have got to stop.
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