Willonanza and Sawyerama

Review

2012-01-30T14:41:00.000-08:00

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Funny, readable, and largely relatable despite the differences between my stay-at-home mom life and the author's movie exec, monied, New York lifestyle. A book of humorous essays, most of which were previously published elsewhere. Clean, unlike a lot of "humor" these days.

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Review

2012-01-30T13:39:00.000-08:00

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School by Alexandra Robbins

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book simply tells you what you already know and could have done so in about 10 pages. Summary: traits that make kids unpopular can be the same traits that later make adults unique, creative, innovative, great leaders etc. The author calls this idea "quirk theory" and by coining the phrase seems to want to claim this discovery as her own. On the way we find out that people's personalities don't change that much as they grow up, that the so-called, self-proclaimed popular kids aren't really very happy, and that it is very difficult (if not impossible) to upgrade your social standing in high school. But if you went to high school you already knew all that. I couldn't read more than a chapter at a time as the writing style is very dry and much of the anecdotes and dialogue seemed forced and unnatural.

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Review

2012-01-30T13:18:00.000-08:00

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An easy read. I always feel like I've had a short visit with old friends when I read McCall Smith.

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Review

2012-01-30T13:14:00.000-08:00

Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As always the author delivers a quick and easy light-hearted read. If you have read his other series you will find yourself mixing up the Corduroy Mansions characters with their doppelgangers in his other books.

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Review

2012-01-30T13:09:00.001-08:00

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am curious if there will be a sequel to this book because it just ends. The plot builds throughout the book and then reaches a crisis in the last few pages and there is not much resolution to the story. The story itself was interesting although I enjoyed the first half of the book much more than the second half. The most interesting part of this book was the note that all of the photographs are real photographs found by the author or borrowed from other sources. The photographs add a unique element to the book and the author is skilled at creating an eerie mood.

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Review

2012-01-30T12:58:00.000-08:00

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was actually surprised to find that this is classified as Young Adult literature- not because there is inappropriate or explicitly mature material, but rather because the story centers on so many adult themes: class distinction, poverty, human relations, and essentially all the reasons that people do the things they do. I think the essay at the beginning of the edition I read explained it well when it said that is it hard to describe what the book is about. It isn't about much of anything really, but it is also about everything. All the major events that happen in a life happen through Francie's eyes. There is a reason it is a classic.

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Review

2012-01-30T12:57:00.000-08:00

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my favorite of all the parenting books I've read...and it isn't a parenting book at all! You won't find any advice on how to get little Jonny to stay in bed or to clean up his toys, but it will make you rethink your most basic parenting actions. Although the book is largely a report on various studies, it is very readable and interesting.

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Review

2012-01-30T12:56:00.001-08:00

Have a New Kid by Friday: How to Change Your Child's Attitude, Behavior & Character in 5 Days by Kevin Leman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found many of the author's techniques helpful. I agree that a parent's job is to be a parent first and foremost and not to concentrate on being your child's friend. The writing is readable and interesting. I appreciated the anecdotes and humor. I think the main failing of this book is that the author doesn't provide alternatives for when the techniques don't work, he simply states that they will work! For example, he suggests that if you are shopping and you tell your child it is time to leave you should say it once and then walk away and don't look over your shoulder or wait. He states that your child will quickly run to catch you when they realize that you are leaving. Well, that may work with some children, but after trying it this weekend I can state that my boys did not care AT ALL that they had been left behind...even after leaving the building and waiting 15 minutes for them to decide they had been left. At that point it wasn't really feasible to leave small children alone any longer and I had to go retrieve them. This is one example of his "guaranteed to work" techniques that do not always work. I also just plain disagreed with some of the material such as the idea that a shy child is a selfish child who is just using shyness as way to gain power and manipulate others. I think that while some children may pretend to be shy in order to draw attention to themselves, many children are actually introverted by nature and it is not fair to force them to play with others or to suggest that they are being selfish if they would prefer to play by themselves. I could go on, but I will end here and in summary say that he has some useful advice, but, let's face it, no one has all the answers when it comes to raising kids!

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1 point to the Mom

2012-01-25T18:51:00.001-08:00

I think I beat my kids today. Not that kind of beat. I mean, I think I was victorious in a major battle of the wills. The wills of Will and Sawyer vs. the will of Mom.

We have a daily problem that strikes at 5 o'clock. The boys decide they want to eat. By this point in the day, they've already had breakfast, lunch, and snack (plus second breakfast and second lunch in Sawyer's case). They aren't suffering from undernourishment. Five p.m. hits and they start scrounging through the fridge and raiding the pantry and all the while I'm yelling "STAY. OUT. OF. THE. FOOD. Dad is going to be home and we are going to have dinner. Get out of the kitchen!" We do this every day. Including today.

Today: Will opens the fridge. I tell him to close the fridge. He stands there, fridge open. I tell him to close the fridge and get out of the food. Will takes out an apple. I tell him to put it back and close the fridge. He takes a bite of the apple. I tell him he has 2 seconds to put the apple away and close the fridge. He hides behind the counter and continues to eat the apple. I tell him to put the apple down and now he has to go to his room. He darts to the stairs, but not quickly enough to conceal that he has the apple hidden under his shirt. I tell him to get back down here and put the apple down and then get back up to his room and not to come out until dinner is on the table. Screaming ensues.

In case you are wondering why I didn't physically take away the apple at any point in this process it is because I was on the couch feeding the baby = my boys think it is total free reign time to do whatever they want because Mom won't get up and stop them.

So Will goes up to his room and screams and kicks the floor and cries and comes out every 2 minutes with a pathetic show of "Can I puhleeeeeaassee come down now?" I tell him he won't be coming out until dinner is on the table.

Meanwhile, Sawyer, lest you think he is innocent, has also been ignoring my instructions to stay out of the fridge. He has removed a cheese stick and is hiding under the kitchen table and cutting it open with scissors.

I would also like to note that I offered them both apples and cheese sticks when Will got home from school and they responded by pretending to gag and proclaimed these options to be disgusting.

Bryce gets home. Will is still howling in his room. I make dinner for us and set it on the table. Will's seat has a plate and the only thing on the plate is a suspiciously familiar apple that is missing several bites. Sawyer's seat has a plate with an unwrapped cheese stick on it. I told everyone to come to dinner.

Now I will admit that the expression of surprise, followed by confusion, followed by sheer horror that played across their faces was pretty much the best thing I've seen all week. Will cried. Sawyer screamed and shouted that he wasn't eating it and that cheese sticks are disgusting and that he wanted salad. He's an odd child. Will cried. Sawyer smashed his cheese stick with the handle of a toy gun and screamed. Will cried. Bryce and I ate our dinner and ignored them.

And you know what? They eventually stopped crying and screaming and ate. Will ate the apple that was now "disgusting" because the places he had already bit had turned brown. Sawyer ate the smashed cheese stick. Then Will made himself peanut butter and jelly and Sawyer got himself a plate of salad.

I think I won.

Like, I seriously beat them. +1 to Mom

And I once had to lick spray Cheez Whiz off of the back steps of my childhood home, so really, I think they got off easy. -10 to Erin

Grumble All the Way - Hey!

2011-12-21T14:39:00.000-08:00

I am actually doing pretty well on my Christmas to-do list this year. Not because I've done anything that amazing...but because I dialed my expectations waaaay down. Neighbor gifts? I won't even tell you what I originally planned to do - the totally-not-going-to-happen-ness of my original plan is ridiculous! So Plan B: dollar store treat bags filled with candy. Candy that I did not make. They are even delivered...well except for the HALF of our list that wasn't home last night. We didn't leave them on the doorsteps because I failed to put our name anywhere on them and by golly if I'm going to pass out candy produced by the good folks at M&M Mars then I want credit for it.

Of course, I probably should have worried about mailing Christmas cards before I worried about delivering treats to people 2 houses away. Last Saturday I managed to buy Christmas cards and printable labels because won't just typing in my addresses and having them all print out be such a time-saver? Actually no. No it isn't. I've been sitting here for 2 hours trying to figure out why the printer has decided to not print anything. It has been "warming up" for hours and has yet to actually do any work. Which is kind of like my approach to exercise, come to think of it. I could have hand-written all of my labels 4 times by now...but that would be letting the machines win. And as Hollywood has taught me, we can't let that happen. So the Christmas cards are sitting here waiting for labels. And stamps. But after my fight with "David" at Walgreens over whether I should be allowed to take my photos home it feels like I've invested way too much in these cards to just let them sit here and welcome 2012.

My shopping? Done. Well, except for a couple things for a certain spouse who came up with a list for Santa on Monday. And a certain oldest son who decided all other requests can fall by the wayside because what he really wants for Christmas is a shiny gold bell from the harness of Santa's reindeer. (Guess who read The Polar Express at school 2 days ago.) 2012 rule: all Santa lists must be submitted by Thanksgiving.

Wrapping? Not even started. Blank notebooks that need to be turned into books for spy maps, codes, and plans? Hmm. Better get on that. Grocery shopping for Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner. Nooooope.

And yet I feel like I'm actually way ahead of where I normally find myself 4 days before Christmas. That is sad.

The baby is screaming - did you know those things like to be fed like every 4 hours?!

Things I'd like to do...

2011-11-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

Update my blog...but typing one-handed is so very slow and tedious.

---I now interrupt this post to transcribe Sawyer's current rant: "It's like you're a big, mean bully. It's like you don't like anything of mine. It's like you're a big robber. It's like I'm about to cut all your hair off. It's like we should live in the jungle and roll around and get covered in dirt. That's what it's like. Would you like that? I wish you were never in our family. Cuz it's not very nice. So I guess I'm thinking I SHOULD put it on the wall. You shouldn't have said that because now I'm very mad. See? I guess I'll say You're Stupid. So I guess I'm saying that you're stupid now. I think I should say you're stupid now...since you were mean and I wasn't. You were mean and I wasn't. You just wouldn't leave me alone. So I guess I changed my mind...I'm not letting you go anywhere. Even not to my birthday. I guess you're not going to get to go to my birthday. I guess you're not going to get to go to my birthday. I guess I changed my mind...we're not going to do anything on my birthday. And William doesn't get to. Only Daddy and me. Only Daddy and me get to do stuff on my birthday I guess. I guess you're gonna just do stuff by yourself. And I guess, maybe, I should wob (rob) your computer. I should wob (rob) it. I should maybe just steal your money...YOUR money. Maybe I should just steal your money. Steal it. Maybe I should steal your money. Maybe I should just steal..(pause)...Anyways, there are no more robbers. None more. Cuz there's no more people that could hurt us. So give me my candy back!! Mom, will you give me my candy bag? Since I ate a swandwich...a piece of bread...that's all I ate. So now can I have my candy? So I guess I changed my mind, we're not going to West Virginia and do fun stuff. And I guess when you make me stuff I won't say 'thank you' - I won't say anything to do. I'll never talk to you if you act like that. I'll never talk to you. I'll never do annnnnnyyything. Maybe I should never let you do anything. Maybe you should still come to my birthday but you don't really get food. And only Daddy and me are gonna get to play games. I guess."

---- This had been going on for probably a good 5 minutes before I decided to start writing it down. And it is all because he made a "hand" by taping together some random scraps of paper and presented it to me as a gift and then said he was going to tape it to the wall and I asked him to tape it to the window instead. Of course, he responded by taping it to the wall and I told him he needed to take it down and tape it to the window. Cue rant. This is the type of diatribe I listen to all day every day from him. I love how he forgets what he is yelling at me for and switches to yelling at me to get his Halloween candy for him. And somehow Will gets dragged into the mix and is forbidden from attending his birthday party as well...because every disagreement ends with him uninviting me to his birthday party. This time he also decided we wouldn't go to West Virginia after all. We have never actually had any plans to go to West Virginia, but I guess now it definitely won't be happening. How it all relates to rolling around in the jungle and getting dirty is a question only Sawyer can answer.

Now back to what I intended to write down. Things I'd like to do...
1. Update my blog.
2. Take a shower without the sound of a screaming baby in the background.
3. Stand up without holding baby.
4. Sit down without holding baby. She's lucky I kind of like her, because this is a baby that likes to be held. As in will scream if she is not being held. No matter how long she has been sleeping and no matter how carefully I slowly transfer her to a bed/couch/crib/playpen and set her down and slowly remove my hands...she will be awake and screaming within 2 minutes. I don't really make any attempts to accomplish anything these days so it isn't too much of a problem - but a 30 minute window to shower and, say, use the bathroom would be appreciated.
5. Wear non-maternity pants. Seriously hips...it has been 10 weeks...feel free to go back to normal width now. And I had a c-section so no need for hip-widening in the first place. But they didn't get the memo.

Time to make the baby mad by putting her in her car seat to go get Will. Sawyer usually rants the entire way to the school and back about how "annoyding" it is to have to go get Will because he "was busy." It's just so unfair that he has to stop doing exactly what he feels like for 10 minutes out of every weekday afternoon.

You're only a day away

2011-08-22T19:28:00.001-07:00

Just heard from the hospital and we are scheduled to meet baby girl tomorrow morning at 7:30. Which means I have to have my showered self at the hospital by 5:30. Officially the world's lamest way to have a baby...but I suppose we'll keep her anyways.

If I haven't mentioned it enough times to anyone within earshot yet, I really, truly did not ever think I would have this baby on the 23rd of August. With my first baby being 10 days early and my second clocking in 22 days early I was very, very confident this baby would choose her own arrival date as well. But she seems content to just hang around in utero forever.

I'm not sure the boys believe us that she will be here tomorrow - or maybe they are just really unimpressed with the idea. They know that the doctors will "cut Mom's tummy open and take out the baby and then staple it up again" and they are entirely unconcerned about the idea. I don't think they have a total grip on the situation though because Will keeps saying that the baby will come out and then I will go to the hospital for a few days to get better while the baby stays home. We keep trying to explain that the baby will come out at the hospital and then Mom and the baby will stay at the hospital. It will be fun to see their reactions tomorrow when they actually see her. The boys had dentist appointments a couple weeks ago and the dentist asked Sawyer if he was going to have a baby sister soon and he replied "Well...maybe...she's been in there a long time!" I think he was beginning to doubt the whole thing. And I can't really blame him since he has been hearing about the baby since February, and seven months is basically as much of his own existence as he can remember.

Here's to an early morning!

Oh...did I never really mention I was pregnant? That is because I am still hoping to get around to adding pictures to all the posts sitting in my drafts section. Also, Will started 1st grade today and once I post about his first day of kindergarten I will be sure and get a post up about his first day of this school year as well. This is the kind of thing that happens when I'm pregnant.

My kids are 'special'

2011-06-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

WILL

While riding in the car the other day...
Will: Mom? You know what I wish?
Me: What Will?
Will: I wish that Ronald McDonald were real and that I could fly.

On Sunday I was in the shower and Bryce was sleeping in. Apparently someone came to the door while we were thus occupied. I asked Will who it was and he said it was two guys. He said one was older and one was more like a kid. Several minutes later he walked up to me and said "Uhhh Mom? Actually I think they were children of men." Ummmm....ok?

We took the boys to the zoo a few weekends ago. It was free military day and the first Saturday without rain in oh, maybe 6 months or so, so it was insanely busy. At one point we saw a kid on a leash. Will was very interested in it. Later on in the day he told me "Mom? If you want to get me one of those leash things that would be ok I guess." I thought it was funny because his tone indicated that he kind of wanted one but didn't want to admit it - why he would want to be on a leash I don't know - but it has certainly crossed my mind before that he ought to be on one.

SAWYER

The other day we actually had some not terrible weather. The boys spent most of the day outside playing. Later in the afternoon we had to go somewhere and I needed Sawyer to put on clean clothes. I went to pull down his pants and he grabbed the waistband of his underwear and said "Don't pull down my underwear!" with a suspicious amount of panic in his voice. I said "Sawyer? Is there something in your underwear?" He said "Nooo." I said "Let's see"...at which point he reached in and removed 12 jumbo paperclips he had been hauling around in there. Then we had a 5 minute fight about why he couldn't put them back in. He finally agreed to leave them on his bookshelf "for later."

Three minutes ago Sawyer walked into the office and said "Mom? Can I have that pair of scissors?" He was holding a notebook. I said "Why Sawyer? Are you going to cut that paper up into little tiny pieces and make a big mess?" (Not that he's ever done that before.) He said "No. I just want to make a project." I handed him the scissors and with a huge grin he whispered "Haha! I'm sneaky!" I said "What did you say?" and he said "I'm so tricky!" I said "What are you going to do Sawyer?" and he replied "Make a mess!" and ran out of the room.

He's a tricky one all right.

While I was in the shower this morning he took a container of blueberries - purchased last night - out of the fridge, dumped them on the kitchen floor, and then stepped on each and every one.

Happy birthday Mom!

2011-05-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hope you have a happy birthday Mom! Wish we could be there to celebrate. The boys ate Bomb Pops in your honor. Hopefully this video works.

To Mom - otherwise known as Moooooooooommm!

2011-05-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day. Hope you had a good day even if you had to spend it lying down. Just think - there were probably a lot of Mother's Days when you wished you could have spent all day doing nothing.

I tried to get a picture of the boys/me and the boys for Mother's Day...but see if you can guess who the problem child is lately.

We tried before church on Easter:

"Sawyer, can we please just take one picture?"

"Come on Sawyer, just one picture for Mom for Easter."

"Sawyer you are driving me nuts. All I want is 1 picture."

We tried after church on Easter:

"Ok. Now let's get your brother and remember to look at the camera."

"Come on Sawyer, it will be super fast, just 1 quick picture."

"Seriously? We can't even take 1 picture."

We tried tonight before bed:

"Sawyer. Look at the camera. 1 picture for Grandma."

"STOP KICKING."

I give up.

Did you really have 6 of these things?

At any rate - happy Mother's Day from this one:

and this one:

and this one (the most cooperative of all...please let it stay that way for a few years at least):

Love, Erin and co.

Correspondence

2011-04-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

Dear This Week,
I hate you.

Dear Weather,
I hate you.

Dear Mouth,
I hate you.

Most sincerely,
Erin

Misc.

2011-04-11T18:20:00.000-07:00

I try to have the boys in bed as close to 7 p.m. as possible. I like them better this way. Lately it is still light at 7 p.m. and apparently it hasn't gone unnoticed.

Last night Sawyer woke up at 2 and was demanding my attention. I was trying to sleep on the couch downstairs so I ignored him for 10 minutes in hopes that someone else might attend to him. It became clear that wasn't going to happen so I went up to see what his problem was. He demanded that I open his blinds so that he could see out his window. Then upon looking outside he declared angrily "It is dark! It was light and now it is dark! It is supposed to be dark and then light and then you wake up! It wasn't time to go to bed!" Can't put one over on that kid.

And in other news, if you want to keep your pregnancy weight gain in check I recommend the following:

11 weeks of constant nausea to be followed by lactose intolerance + heartburn to be followed by 1 week or more of Hand Foot and Mouth disease with oral bacterial infection.

If it worked for me, it can work for you!

At some point I really will post all of the old posts that should be on here. Luckily there aren't any major holidays in the last quarter of the year or anything so it isn't like I am that behind.

I can fly twice as high

2011-04-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

Edit: to include tips from a Delta traveler at the bottom! New and improved!

A friend was recently talking to me about flying with children. And while I haven't done much in the last 5.5 years, I have flown with children over a dozen times or so. And I'm not talking Utah to California type plane rides. These are Utah to the East Coast plane rides = 6+ hours of flight time and 8-10 or 11 hours of travel time. That is what happens when home is 2,000 miles away. Granted, I had another adult with me on all those trips except for two I think.

So here are my semi-pro tips for flying with children (and by semi-pro I mean no one has died yet):

Purchasing tickets:
- Fly Southwest. Then you don't have to select seats when you purchase tickets. Of course, the recent hole-blasting-open-in-the-ceiling incident is cause for some concern.

- At least for my usual destinations Southwest is almost always the cheapest. For a while Delta was cheaper. But they were also horrible. They changed our flight times/schedules/connections almost every single time we flew. Once in a while this worked to our advantage. Like the time my family + Megan + Chad were flying to Connecticut for Christmas, but it was cheaper to fly into New York so we were planning to fly to JFK, take a shuttle to the train station, and take a train to CT. Doesn't that sound fun? As per their usual, Delta began notifying me that my flight had been changed the day before we left. They kept pushing our departure/arrival time back later and later in the day. Finally they pushed it back to so late that we wouldn't be able to get a shuttle/train to CT upon our arrival. I called and complained (I'm good at that) and eventually they agreed to put my whole family + Megan + Chad on a flight straight to CT instead of NY (what we would have preferred all along of course). The flight to JFK would have been direct whereas the new flight to CT wasn't so I also had them arrange for a cart to meet us at the gate to take us to our connecting flight. So when we arrived at our layover there was a golf cart guy waiting for us and we piled on all our luggage and got driven to our next gate. It was like being a celebrity. For about 30 seconds...because our connecting gate was only about 150 feet from our arrival gate. Anyways, what was I saying?

- Oh yes, Southwest is usually cheapest. You get 2 free bags per ticketed passenger so if you plan on bringing, you know, clothes or anything they are always the cheapest these days.

- If you fly Southwest MAKE SURE you check in online 24 hours before your departure time. If you don't and you have kids you can board in the "family group" which is after the A group. But it is still better to be in the A group. Isn't it always?

- If you fly Southwest you can cancel your tickets and still keep the credit or change your plans and just pay the difference without any change or cancellation fees. Which can be handy when you have a baby 3 weeks early and Mom isn't scheduled to arrive for another 2 weeks.

Airport:

- Most airlines allow you to check car seats without counting it towards your baggage limit. They will also provide you with a large clear plastic bag to put them in. If your child has his/her own seat on the plane you can bring their car seat on the plane. Keep in mind their feet will probably be against the back of the chair in front of them while they are sitting in the seat on the plane. And they will kick it. However, if you don't have a car seat then the only thing keeping the wee one in his/her seat is the little seat belt...i.e. they won't be sitting down ever...and especially not when the flight attendants are demanding that they be belted in their own seat for take-off and landing. When Sawyer was 2 we brought the car seat and he couldn't get out and it was great. When Sawyer was 3 there was no way he would have had room for his legs while sitting in a car seat on the plane so we checked it and he also did fine over all. It is your call. When the boys were under 2 they were on my lap which is obviously horrid, but cheaper, so we did it as long as possible.

- Clean out your car seats before going to the airport. If you are bringing them on the plane they will have to go through the x ray machine. And when you flip it upside down on the conveyor belt so that it will fit into the machine you might be embarrassed if 10 pounds of cheerios, fruit snacks, french fries, coins, crayons, etc come tumbling out of it. Not that I'd know.

- Bring a copy of a birth certificate for each of your children. Technically they are supposed to have identification too. If you are wanting them to fly for free you may have to provide one to prove they are under the age of 2. Most of the time they won't ask for them.

- There is usually a "family line" for going through airport security. At the Salt Lake airport there is a sign with a picture of a family on it. This is a shortcut. They take you up to the front and you cut all the suckers, I mean, fellow passengers in line. Of course, they are not traveling with children so we know that they will have the last laugh, but we take what we can get.

- Your children will have to take off their shoes and coats/sweatshirts. If you have a stroller you will have to collapse it to send it through the xray machine. This is challenging if you are holding an infant...and the airport security people WILL NOT hold your infant for 2 seconds so you can collapse your stroller, remove your shoes, and take off your sweatshirt. They are "not allowed."

- If you have a laptop you will have to remove it from your carry on and from its case. You may have to do this with dvd players too depending on who is working that day. You may have to do this with small children's gaming units. If you are lucky you will have to do this with your laptop, your dvd player, and your Leapster.

- Everyone knows the NO LIQUIDS rule, but there is also a YES! LIQUIDS! rule. You CAN bring breast milk or formula. You have to declare it - which just means take it out and show it to them and don't just try to send it through the x ray machine in your carry on. It has to be a "reasonable amount" which means nothing besides whatever they feel like letting you have that day. You can also bring baby food and baby juices. I once brought an 8 pack of juice boxes through along with a bunch of packs of baby food. The employee wasn't happy about it, but she called over the supervisor and when I told her I was going to be traveling for the next 10 hours she said it was fine. Then the first lady gave me nasty looks.

- You can gate check a stroller. This means you can bring a stroller with you through security and when you get to your gate you go to the counter and tell them you need to gate check your stroller. They will put a tag on it for you. You can either gate check it all the way to your final destination or if you have a layover they can bring it up to you and then you can gate check it again for your second flight. I think it is very useful to have a stroller because even if your kids don't ride in it you have something to help haul all your stuff to your gate or to your next flight or down to baggage claim. Once you get your gate check tag you will just fold up your stroller and leave it at the bottom of the ramp right before you get on the plane. And that is where it will be when you get off the plane. Try not to leave your purse hanging from the stroller when you leave it at the bottom of the ramp. It is very hard to get back out to the ramp when everyone is trying to get on the plane. Not that I'd know.

- If you are flying alone with children you can get an escort pass when you check in so that another adult can accompany you to the gate. It is like the old days. They show their pass and go through security and then they can stay with you right up until you get on the plane. This would have been helpful information when I was trying to get through security while holding an infant while employees that were apparently prohibited from being helpful in any way looked on.

Packing:

- Always pack at least 1 bag under your allowed bag limit. If you can bring 4 bags for free then pack 3 + 1 empty bag. If you are like me you will be bringing home more stuff than you left with.

- Do not bother looking at a weather forecast. They are usually wrong and then you will be stuck with shorts and tank tops in 40 degree weather. Pack underwear, socks, a bathing suit, a couple pairs of pants, a couple pairs of shorts, several t-shirts, at least 1 sweatshirt, and a medium weight jacket. Now you can go anywhere! If you are going to have access to a washer/drier then pack 4-5 outfits per person regardless of the length of your stay. If you won't then I usually pack 2 outfits per day per child and 1 per day for me because who wants to try to find a laundromat on vacation? (My mom does...she likes it when kids throw up on the sheets in rental houses in New Hampshire.)

Carry-ons/packing for the plane:

- Keep in mind that a carry-on is the only thing standing between you and utter despair and misery when flying with children.

- Here is an actual useful tip (unlike all of the above): Pack a change of clothes for you and each of the children in your carry-on bag. I usually pack a pair of pajamas + underwear for the kids and yoga pants and a t-shirt + underwear for me. They take up the least amount of room and provide you something to change into should your child happen to deposit any type of bodily secretions on you. You might not be the most fashionable flier if you end up in your t-shirt and yoga pants but people probably won't give you a second glance either.

- If you are flying into the evening change your kids into their pajamas. I usually have them change at a layover, but I have also had them change on the plane. I think it makes them comfy and more likely to calm down and maybe, if you are really lucky, they might even fall asleep. Then you put the clothes they had on in the carry-on so you still have an extra pair of clothes in case of emergency.

- Dress your kids in cute clothes / pajamas for the plane. My kids dress like dirty homeless children 99% of the time, but I find that how they are dressed makes an enormous difference in how other passengers react to them when flying. Sad? maybe...but very, very true. Will has Batman pajamas complete with cape and Sawyer has Superman pajamas with cape and for some reason when they are running around the airport in their caped pajamas people smile and compliment them vs. when they are wearing fruit-snack-drool covered non-matching clothes and doing the same thing people give me dirty looks.

- Planes have 2 temperatures: very hot or very cold. There does not appear to be any in between. I always wear a sweatshirt and the kids always bring a blanket. In fact, they each have an "airplane blanket" that I made for them which includes a cinch-able strap and buckle on one end so that they can cinch it up and wear it like a cape. This means I can just strap it on them and I don't have to pick it up off the floor of the airplane a million times and they can carry it during layovers or to the baggage claim or whatever. You probably aren't really picturing what I'm talking about. That's ok. I'm sure a regular blanket will also work just fine.

- You can't bring bottled water through airport security but you can bring empty water bottles. Therefore I bring a water bottle with a sport-type lid for each of my kids. Once I am through security I fill them up at the drinking fountain. Then I bring an assortment of single-serving (and light-colored) beverage powders such as crystal light, lemonade, and apple juice. Then they can have whatever they want and I don't have to pay airport prices.

- Bring enough food for the entire plane. Your kids will probably eat most of it. If they don't then you will at least have bribing materials for your fellow passengers. Have you ever been stuck on the runway for hours? People become willing to pay good money for a pack of fruit snacks real fast.

- Speaking of food, bring an assortment of snacks. I buy all the snacks I wouldn't usually pay for. Individually wrapped. Such as: granola bars, goldfish, animal crackers, teddy grahams, fruit snacks, candy. Then I add in non-crunchy snacks such as: mini-muffins, snack cakes, peanut/butter jelly sandwiches. Sometimes I add something like little boxes of raisins just so I can claim to have something non-processed. No, it isn't healthy, but my goal isn't to have a well-balanced meal - it is to have something enticing enough that my kids will stop screaming.

- GUM. Chewing gum can help make the kids' ears pop. I have had to hand out gum to children around me whose parents did not bring gum - and the whole plane was glad I did.

- If your child starts screaming on take-off or especially on landing the odds are that his/her ears hurt. Try having them take a drink, or chew and swallow something, or chew gum, or see how wide they can open their mouth. (I know that "their" should be "his/her" but that just gets awkward after a while...or once.) If none of this works then have them bury their head in your lap and put a blanket over them...because they are going to scream until you land.

- Activities: dvd player with headphones. The headphones are a must even though your kid won't want to wear them. Also your dvd player will probably only have 1 headphone jack. Two kids can use it if they each get 1 of the earphones. The earbud type earphones are easier for 2 kids to share, but the old school headband style ear phones stay on better.

- MP3 player. Sawyer doesn't care about listening to music, but even as a 2 year-old Will would listen to his happily for at least an hour.

- EXTRA BATTERIES. You will go through a lot. If you have a layover longer than an hour find somewhere to sit where you can plug in and recharge your laptop/dvd player.

- Coloring books/crayons. My kids aren't really into coloring, but they sometimes like the activity workbook type things.

- Aquadoodle. We have a travel aquadoodle that both of the kids enjoy.

- Any toy that they have never seen before. I usually check out the dollar store/dollar section of Target or Walmart. If you can, pack some things separately so that you can swap out the carry- on items and they will have new stuff on the return trip too. More likely they will get into everything days before you leave and you will threaten them and say you took it all back to the store and then they will be happy to see it again when you fly.

- Be prepared to spend your entire flight taking things out and putting them away. You will do this every 20 seconds. It will go like this: Snack, dropped snack, new toy, dropped toy, different toy, temper tantrum, snack, repeat. Do not bother putting anything in the overhead bin. Put everything under the seat in front of you - you will be accessing it constantly.

- Put baby wipes somewhere where you can reach them at all times.

- If you have kid/s in diapers buy some of those diaper disposal bags. There is not anywhere to change a baby on a plane. As in No. Where. As in when you ask the flight attendant where you could possibly change your 2 year old that is rather too big and rather too smelly to change in your seat on your lap they will look at you like you are disgusting and then say "I guess you could do it on the floor back by the bathroom." Then you will discover that there is no garbage to throw a diaper in. There is not a garbage you can use in the plane bathroom. And the flight attendant will pretend that they can't see you trying to find somewhere to put a diaper. So just bring a disposal bag and double bag it and tie it in a knot and bury it somewhere in the recesses of your carry-on. It is the best you can do.

- Do plan on your child having to use the bathroom as soon as they announce that you are prepared for take-off / the seat belt light goes on / you begin to land. If your child is old enough to be overruled, make him/her wear a pull-up. Better safe than sorry. Sometimes the fasten seat belt light will be on the entire ride and at some point you just have to say "Sorry, but we'll take our chances" and take them to the bathroom anyways even though they will immediately come on the intercom and remind "all passengers" that you have to stay in your seat.

- Children's Dramamine. I'm not suggesting you drug your children. I am suggesting that it is available for purchase at Walmart. Even if it is chewable your child won't chew it. If you slip it into a spoonful of yogurt they won't realize it at all, or not until it is too late. I get motion sickness. It is awful. I don't fly without taking Dramamine. My children don't appear to get motion sickness. But better safe than sorry. And if they happen to be slightly more inclined to fall asleep then I think I speak for the entire plane when I say that it isn't a bad thing.

- Do not bring things that roll or things with small pieces. Toy cars are useless on a plane. There is no where to drive them and they will fall on the floor and roll away to where you can't get them. It is a challenge to pick up anything that falls on the floor since you have to do the awkward shove your cheek against the seat in front of you and grope around blindly on the floor with one hand routine.

- Sticker books, pipe cleaners, band-aids, notebook/pen, calculator, Colorforms, cheap handheld games, Magic pen books, baby wipes = things we have gotten mileage out of on the plane (Sawyer likes to clean things).

- Honestly, it is the best when you can get them to watch a movie. If they watch an entire movie that might be almost 90 minutes of calm! That is unbeatable.

- Do not let them walk up and down the aisle. Some people seem to think this is cute and good for them to use up energy. Really it just annoys everyone.

- I don't let them get a drink from the beverage cart. If they have a drink then you end up with a cup of soda that they don't drink and which you have to try to keep from spilling for the next half hour. And they will already have their water bottles which you filled at the drinking fountains right?

- Letting kids bring their own backpack? This is a toss-up. More than likely you are going to end up carrying it all. And the more bags you have the more likely something will get left on the airplane or in the airport. And if they have their own bag of stuff they will have emptied it all out within the first 30 seconds on the plane and then will say they are bored. If you just have one bag with all the stuff in it you will be constantly giving out and retrieving items. But really you will end up doing that anyways. I tend to favor being the keeper of the bag. Especially if there are no other adults with you to help keep track of bags and such.

That is all I can think of for now. I'm sure you have found this very informative. I should write a book. A long, boring book with no pictures.

******************************************

As another frequent flyer with kids, I can relate!!! A couple extra comments:
1 - Make your carry-on a backpack (not a diaper bag) if at all possible.
2- We usually fly Delta instead of SW because we like the security of knowing where our seats are & that they are together...I had to scramble on SW once to get people to switch seats so we could be together. We have the Delta credit card that allows one free bag per traveler in your party up to 9 people. Usually Delta has been cheaper for us plus they have non-stop flights, which I love. Also, many of them have CHANGING TABLES in the bathrooms!!!
3 - If you have an infant that you will be holding, call the airline ahead of time & make sure they mark your ticket as having a lap infant. If there are seats open, sometimes they will alert the passenger(s) sitting next to you that there will be an infant next to them & give them the option of changing seats before they get on board...this has happened to me a few times.
4 - (Also for an infant) If there are 2 of you & you choose the aisle & window seats, sometimes you'll get lucky & no one will choose the middle seat & you will have the extra space to put your infant car seat (just check at the gate to see if you need to check it or if the seat will be available). If not, I haven't met a person in a middle seat that isn't happy to switch! This has also happened to me a few times.
*********************************
Thanks Jenny! I completely agree with the backpack comment. It didn't even occur to me to mention it because I always, always use a backpack. Lots of room and 1000% easier to cart around.

Jenny has had much better luck with Delta than I! The diaper-changing incident I mentioned was on a Delta flight. And having them change our flight itinerary up to 5 times before each trip was kind of a big pain. Especially when it means the seats I chose in advance or time I wanted to leave/arrive or airport I wanted to go through for a layover now mean nothing. I am sure a lot of it depends on which destinations/airports you are traveling to/through. By all means fly with whatever airline works out the cheapest for you - goodness knows I do!

In the last 3-4 years I have not flown on a single flight that had empty seats.

( In fact, on at least 80% of my flights they are overbooked and asking people to change their plans. If you don't have to be anywhere at a certain time this can be a good deal. When we went to Florida last year they were asking if anyone was willing to change flights. We had 6 people traveling so I went and asked what the deal was. They said we would be on the next flight out (30 mins later) and would actually get in to Florida 10 minutes earlier. And we would have each received a $200 credit. I signed up but unfortunately they ended up not needing us. Darn.)

If there are empty seats and you are flying with a lap child you can put your lap child in a car seat on an empty seat for free. Jenny mentioned this for Delta but it is true for Southwest as well. But if it turns out that someone needs the seat you will have to gate check the car seat. I was never lucky enough to be on a flight with empty seats when I had a lap child...but maybe you will be! Once again, it probably depends a lot on the routes you fly.

If you are flying Southwest and you are worried about getting seats together give the gate employee a heads up. When I go to get the gate check ticket for my stroller I usually say something like "Will this plane already be pretty full when it arrives? I am traveling with x number of small children and I am wondering if I will have trouble getting seats for us." As a result, I have had the boarding employees board me and my kids very first. Goodness knows the employees don't want to have to try to convince people to move so that you can sit next to your 2 year-old. And goodness knows the other passengers would all prefer to know where the little monsters, I mean children, are going to be before they choose their own seats. PS: This tactic gets a lot better response at any airport besides the Salt Lake airport (and possibly the Orlando airport). In Salt Lake they will look at you like "Lady, flying with 2 (or 3 or 4) small children does not qualify you as unusual in any way."

Usually when you buy tickets you will indicate that you have an infant even though you won't buy a ticket for him/her. Even if you don't you do need to tell the counter that you have an infant because they need to be on the passenger manifest. (Interestingly enough, when Will was 18 months old we had to wait for about 20 minutes until a supervisor could clear us to get on a plane - turns out he was on the terror watch list. Our security forces at work.)

And this should be obvious, but if you have a child that is flying on your lap for free...they have to be on your lap. I can't tell you how many times the last few passengers are trying to find seats and the attendants come over the PA system announcing "We have passengers who need seats, if you have a lap child THEY MUST be on your lap." And then they walk past giving you dirty looks and then after a few more minutes they come and accuse you of having a lap child in a seat and I have to pull out my tickets and assure them that Sawyer is a ticketed passenger and, therefore, gets his own seat. He just looks small ok people? And if I could get away with not buying him a ticket I would! But I am always amazed by the people that think if they just keep ignoring the announcement they will get away with having their free child fly in his/her own seat. So don't be those people.

Phew. I think I will start a travel blog. Then airlines will give me free tickets and I can have sponsors and quit my day job. Oh wait, I don't have a day job...or not one that I can quit. Dang.

Sawyerisms

2011-02-08T16:26:00.001-08:00

I have a major list of draft blog posts that I ought to get finished and put on here...but it ain't gonna happen today.

But just to tide you over - a few of Sawyer's latest. (I think 3 year-olds are so funny. They are generally able to express their thoughts and their thoughts are from such a kid perspective that it makes for some hilarious insights. Of course, he just walked over and dumped a bag of cereal on top of me and the computer because I told him he needed to share with Will, so not everything he does is that adorable.)

Last night we took the boys to "Family Math Night" at Will's school. We ended up in a class about ten frames. Which is a math concept I wasn't familiar with which involves putting counters on the squares of a 2x5 grid and is somehow supposed to teach them any number of great mathematical concepts. It seemed a lot more confusing than just counting to me, but whatever. The teacher had a game for the kids to play up at the board where they counted dots and took turns going up to put in the answer. The kids were sitting on a rug on the floor. Sawyer spent the whole time prone on the rug with his legs crossed "writing" on a piece of paper. He didn't appear to be paying any attention to the game. At the very end, Will told the teacher his brother really wanted a turn. Sawyer walked up and took a turn and sat down again and went back to doodling on his paper...he says he is writing but the only letters he writes are Qs and lots of little marks that look like tiny Vs. At the end of the class he handed me his paper and I said "Were you taking notes Sawyer?" and he responded "Yup. I was taking notes of everyone who didn't get a turn."

Then today I was in the shower. It may or may not have been 5 p.m. Sawyer came in my room and kept repeating something I couldn't understand. I told him to come in the bathroom and tell me and he kept saying something about cookies. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but I could tell by the way he kept trailing off and covering his face with his hands that it was a confession of some sorts. As far as I can tell he was saying that he already ate his cookie.....and then he ate all of Will's cookie too. He was apparently coming to tell me as a preemptive maneuver. I said "Oh. Is Will sad?" to which he brightly replied "Not yet!"

When I got out of the shower I heard a scuffling sound coming from the back of our dark walk-in closet. I expected to see one of the boys hiding in the back corner behind where my long winter dress coat hangs. I walked in and pulled the coat aside and found a wall of shoes about 12 pairs high barricading in the back corner and the noise was coming from behind them. I pulled out a shoe and saw Sawyer's eye staring out at me. He said "Mom, can you go out? I don't want Dad to see me in here." I asked, "Why not?" He said "Because he'll think I did this and I'll be in trouble." "I said, "Did what?" and he responded "Built this big wall of shoes!" So I put the shoe back and he sat there in the dark for a while until he got bored.

And I already put this one on facebook, but Sawyer threw a fit about the dinner menu the other night yelling "I only like almonds and figs and olives!" And he really does. A few days later we had Mexican food for dinner and he ate plain sour cream by the spoon full. But the next day he made me take the whipped cream off of his milk shake because it was yucky.

The Primary (children's group at church) sent home a questionnaire for the kids to fill out. Then they use the questionnaires to spotlight different children each week. I was trying to ask Sawyer the questions to fill out the form, but his answer for every question was "Poop" or something using "poopy" as an adjective. One of the questions was "What food do you think is gross?" and Sawyer kept insisting his answer was "poopy flower sandwiches." I told him that wasn't a food and he needed to think of an actual food like that Mom or Dad might give him for dinner. He got upset and said he liked them all and only "poopy flower sandwiches" are gross. We moved on. (I did NOT write poopy flower sandwiches.) Another question was "What makes you laugh every time?" for which his answer was, of course, "poop." Which, while pretty much true in his world, I didn't really want to write. I kept trying to get him to come up with something else, but he was throwing a fit and saying "Poop is the ONLY thing I think is funny." So finally I wrote it down and figured they could just use the other questions. As luck would have it he got to be the spotlight child that very day. And also lucky my awesome friend was the one reading the survey. And possibly because she has a 3 year-old boy of her own so she didn't just skip the "poop" answer. I had stayed home from church because I wasn't feeling well and Sawyer was so proud when he ran in and told me he was the spotlight child. I asked him what they talked about in Primary and he said "Poop!" He was very pleased with himself.

It is a good thing he does some pretty funny stuff sometimes, because some other elements of his current phase I really don't find amusing. Like refusing to get dressed. Ever. Because clothes (or shoes, or underwear, or socks, or whatever) "bug" him. Or screaming for 30 minutes in a biting, flailing rage because I told him he had to wear a swim diaper if he wanted to go to the pool. Or responding to everything he is asked or told to do with a threat. Or using threats to make requests - for example, "If you don't let me have a cookie I will call you stupid, but if you do let me have a cookie I won't!" or "Sawyer, you need to get dressed." "No! Or I'll hit you!" "If you hit me then you'll go to your room." "Then I'll kick my door!"

Happy Birthday Grandpa/Dad!!

2010-12-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

Role play

2010-11-29T21:46:00.000-08:00

Now I know how we fit into Sawyer's world:

Sawyer saying his prayers yesterday night - "Thank you for good food. Thank you for mommies who give us food and daddies who give us freezers for food."

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

2010-11-22T08:01:00.000-08:00

Usually my blog is about my kids and chronicling our (mis)adventures. But some recent news items are driving me a little bit crazy. Rather than upsetting people by responding to facebook posts I will just write my own views here.

1. It is NOT okay to stick your hands in my kids' pants. Or mine. Just because I bought a ticket to fly on an airplane does not mean I want to be radiated, or in the alternative, have your hands in my pants. Make me take off my shoes and sweatshirt. Make me take off my kid's shoes and sweatshirt even though he will immediately go into a screaming fit because he thinks the machine is eating his shoes. Do "additional testing" on my bags because of my son's suspicious Leapster gaming unit. Put me through a metal detector. If that goes off give me the old wand routine. If that still goes off give me a back of the hands pat down. If you still have a problem THEN give me the option of a dose of radiation or an "enhanced pat down." My kids don't need a dose of radiation every time they go see Grandma. And they definitely don't need minimally-trained-and-paid strangers putting their hands in their pants. Yes, I remember 9/11. No, I don't think it is an either/or choice.

2. I vaccinate my kids because I do not want them to die or suffer from preventable diseases. Imagine a disease is spreading through your neighborhood. 8 out of 10 kids that get it die. As in all my kids, and all your kids too. As in 300-500 million people. Then someone tells you "Look! One little poke in the arm and your kids won't get this!" Sweet salvation. Can you imagine the lines? That was called smallpox. Vaccines have eliminated it from our vocabulary and our lives. I won't tell you what to do with your kids and you don't try to tell me I am unintelligent/ignorant/naive/uncaring because I vaccinate my kids. Deal?

3. Leggings are not pants any more than my swimsuit top is a shirt.

4. Chocolate ice cream and vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup stirred in are not the same thing. Please don't put "chocolate ice cream" on the menu if what you really have is vanilla ice cream with various mix-ins available.

5. If your commercial shouts "All jeans on sale!" and then underneath says "Select styles only" you are either lying or in need of a basic dictionary.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Sawyerisms

2010-11-09T09:42:00.000-08:00

While my mom was visiting we took a road trip up to Idaho to visit Megan and see her new house. Trying to get the boys to go to sleep anywhere besides their own beds is always a lot of fun. One night I had put Sawyer back in bed about two dozen times over a two hour period. After being returned to bed yet again he called out that he "needed to tell me something." He came walking back into the living room and I asked him what he needed to tell me. He replied "Hold on. It takes a long time. It's loading." Then he busied himself with playing with the dog. I asked him again what he needed to tell me, but he informed me it was "still loading."

Nice try kid. Back to bed.

Then it was August.

2010-11-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

We spent August pretending it was not the last month before the public school system would take over our lives for the next several decades.

We spent a weekend in Salt Lake and took the boys to a movie and played in the fountains at the Gateway. The fountains were great fun until someone got knocked down and someone else thought it would be a great idea to kneel on the ground and look down into one of the holes the water sprays out of...right before it sprayed out of it.

We also met up with Uncle Michael who was in town for a wedding.

The boys played in a summer rainstorm and I played with my new camera lens.

Sawyer got this little red wiggle car for Christmas the year we went to Idaho. He propels it with his feet rather than wiggling the handle. He has put many, many miles on it and destroyed more than a couple pairs of shoes in the process. He can get that thing going really fast!

Will has the prettiest eyes. They are green and blue and yellow and brown and look different from day to day. Bryce's are the same way.

Next stop: school!

Double the birthday boys

2010-11-08T09:44:00.000-08:00

I fully plan on having a joint birthday party for the boys for as long as I can get away with it. We still do cake/presents/dinner for each of them on their own day, but the joint party is great. Especially since so many of our friends conveniently have kids the same ages as ours. So the guest lists would all be drawn from the same families anyways.

This year Will's birthday was the same day as Bryce's family reunion down in southern Utah. We brought the celebration on the road. I brought a box of supplies and made his cake down there and then he spent his birthday getting very, very dirty while playing with semi-cousins (second cousins?...1st cousins-once-removed? I get those confused).

I think Sawyer has rage issues. And *I* do not put his socks like that.

Some of the girls wanted to perform a musical number but were stalled by stage fright. Will stepped up and did some kind of impromptu dance solo instead.

When exhaustion was imminent we went back to Bryce's grandparents' house and sang and had cake and opened presents.

I think this is the last picture of Sawyer with a binky before it "got lost" (again...but this time for good.)

We got him a bigger bike for his birthday so we had it sitting out on the deck. The best part was when we told him to look on the deck and he ran right past the bike to an old Christmas decoration that was sitting in the corner.

The next day we headed home and got ready for Sawyer's birthday.

The boys both had very specific cake requests this year and I tried my best to honor them. Will wanted a cake that on the inside was "all the colors of the rainbow" and had "chocolate frosting with Fruity Pebbles and Batman on top."

Sawyer wanted a "pink cake with pink frosting and doggies on top."

Sawyer with his favorite present - a box of Rafaello chocolates. Those didn't make it past morning.

Their party had a (very loose) beach theme. They played in the pool and on the slip-n-slide and ran around like crazy things while the parents talked and ate...which makes for a successful party if you ask me. Of course I was running around crazy and didn't take a single picture. I made a sand castle cake using different-sized cake towers and sugar cones with everything coated in a vanilla cookie crumbles/brown sugar mixture. It was a really easy cake. Too bad I didn't take a picture to impress you all.

Yes, their birthdays were in July. Yes, it is now November. That's just how things go sometimes.

4th of July...?

2010-10-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

This year was the year we got up early enough to go see the hot air balloons take off. It was also the year that no hot air balloons took off because of wind at higher altitudes. Of course.

We still had fun seeing the balloons up close and personal. And then we topped it off with McDonald's breakfast. So it was also the year we got up early enough to eat McDonald's breakfast.

We also went to the parade. I've said it before and I'll say it again - the lovely folk of Utah are obsessed with parades. Finding a seat within 20 feet of the road anywhere along the parade route is quite the endeavor.

[Sawyer collecting high fives from parade participants]

We also watched other people set off fireworks.

[All the kids.....................and Sawyer]

[The taste of freedom.]

And went to the downtown Freedom Festival where we enjoyed the liberties of freedom - such as petting a snake and bouncing in bounce houses.

Sawyer is not a big fan of bounce houses. He thinks he is until he gets close and then he refuses to go past the entrance. He did manage to climb up to the top of this bouncy slide. Once at the top he proceeded to throw a crying fit and refused to come down. Somehow it was determined that I had to be the one to go rescue him, so I had to climb the bouncy slide and slide down the bouncy slide in my dress. While Bryce photographed.

The 4th was on a Sunday so on the actual day we did...something. I'm sure. Hmmm. Maybe I should not wait until November to blog about the 4th of July. Oh yes, we had dinner with very lovely neighbors. Actually I think that was Saturday because then we threw kids in pajamas and went to go watch the fireworks...which were on Saturday. Or possibly Monday. This is a most unhelpful family history I've got going here.

I guess I have no choice but to take a flying leap into the realm of imagination. Therefore, on the 4th of July I'm quite certain we went to church in the morning and then spent the afternoon curing cancer.

PS: You know it's serious when they are workin' the tongue.

Boys in their natural habitat

2010-09-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

Summer recap part 2:

At some point we went camping. We only went for 1 night so we only had to bring enough supplies to fill the back of our suv and a trailer. Our water cooler was on the trailer and the lid flew off sometime while we were driving up to camp. We never found it. On the way home one of the oars for the row boat flew off and broke. Success!

The campground was full so we found a place to pull off. It was secluded and would have been a good camping spot...if it had, you know, a bathroom or any running water. The boys didn't care of course since peeing outside is one of their greatest joys in life.

We took the row boat out on the lake when we got there. The boys caught fish that they cooked over the campfire and ate for dinner. I had nothing to do with that entire process. They enjoyed themselves though.

After smores we tried to put the kids to bed. It was about 10:30. That is when two truckloads of college-age party campers pulled in and decided to share our camping spot. They drank and yelled and played their loud, obnoxious music from their truck stereos until about 2 a.m. I love the peace and quiet of the wilderness.

The boys were up with the sun's first light and being the mature, non-passive-aggressive people we are I am confident that no one related to me went and found a cd of Christmas music and blasted it from our car stereo until all of our campsite friends came stumbling out of their tents and left. Then we loaded up and the drove back to the lake so the boys could fish for another half hour before going home. We got home tired, smelling like smoke, and with lots of dirty laundry which seem to be the goals of camping so I guess it was a success!

28 - ain't it great

2010-08-31T09:44:00.001-07:00

Part 1 of the summer recap:

I had a birthday at the beginning of June. I wanted to celebrate with good friends and good food. Unfortunately the weather didn't want to cooperate and the date I originally planned to celebrate turned out wet and cold...not ideal for an outdoor dinner party. So we postponed until the following weekend - which worked out so that Bryce could get laid off a few days before the festivities.

Yes, Bryce got laid off at the beginning of June and was out of work until mid-July which made the birthday and Father's Day and anniversary festivities a little less festive and a lot more stressful, but it all worked out. The problem with getting laid off is that you never know how long it will take before you are employed again, so even if you have money in savings you feel like you can't spend any of it because you might need every last penny if you are still unemployed in six months or a year or what-have-you. And while you'd like to say "Hey, we should use this unexpected free time and go on vacation or re-do the master bedroom or finish the downstairs bath, etc." you don't because you don't want to spend the money. And then you go back to work and have no time to do any of those things again. Being unemployed is definitely not my favorite state of being. We were fortunate to end up no worse for the wear.

One of the first things we did after involuntarily losing our income was to cancel the cable tv. Which led to 2010 being the Summer of No Television. I thought the boys would go into withdrawals, but they were perfectly happy to just watch the occasional movie. I, on the other hand, found my kid-free evenings rather boring and was missing my Food Network shows. Settling for Top Chef on hulu.com just doesn't cut it.

So back to the birthday. I had a birthday. I spent the morning taking the boys to one of their summer movies at the Scera, then had lunch with some friends, then waited for Bryce to come home, then took Will to his baseball practice, and finished with dinner at the Olive Garden and cake back at home.

I tried to keep Sawyer occupied on the playground while Will had baseball. This lasted about 5 minutes and then he went back to whining that he wanted to play baseball too.

Care bear stare.

The following week we had our cook-out. "Now everybody turn around so no one will be identifiable on the internet. Good job." (Yes, this is the best and only picture I had.) It's good to have friends. In my head, this party was supposed to look like this:

(image from jordanferney.blogspot.com via google images)

I'd say we came pretty close. The pompoms on the fence really did it. Did I mention that it is good to have friends who don't care that your parties don't look like this?

1,000 words x about 100

2010-08-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

I finally posted these pictures - all 90 something of them (when you count the color and sepia versions). So sweet. So if you recognize this baby you can look at the pictures in my photobucket album.

World view and evolution of the species

2010-08-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in Salt Lake and while we were there the boys begged some money off of my brother and co. to throw in the fountain on Temple Square. Sawyer loves nothing more than to throw money into fountains. Will used to like it too. This time he kept his pennies in his little fist and then explained "Whenever I throw them in my wishes don't come true...so I'm just going to keep them!" So there universe.

Will was trying to find a lost Walkie Talkie the other day. I was helping him look around the house and he stopped and said "I know! I should say a prayer! My teacher said that Drew lost his squirt gun and he said a prayer and he found it." He immediately plunked down and offered up a little prayer asking to find the Walkie Talkie. As soon as he finished he stood up, looked around the room, and said "That didn't work at all! I don't see it anywhere!" I tried to explain that he also had to put in some effort and look for it - which he did for about 1 minute before giving up. By the next day we still hadn't found it and Will's conclusion was "Well I would say a prayer, but that didn't work at all last time!"

Eventually I will put up some real blog posts with pictures. I just think it will be funny to remember the things the boys said when they were little. Speaking of things that are funny - if you hand Sawyer something that he likes he snuggles it up against his face and makes this noise like "Mmmm meow meow!" I'm not sure why. He will do it with anything - his blanky, a piece of candy, a stuffed animal, a bottle of Powerade - anything that he is happy to receive, especially if you hand it to him when he isn't expecting it.

And he still sleeps in a crib packed full of stuffed animals. He won't let me take any out. There are about 30 in there. He burrows in with them at night and it looks like a big litter of puppies or something. He likes to sleep totally against stuffed animals or the sides or his crib. If he ends up in my bed he will sleep pressed up against me or Bryce or turn sideways so that he is up against the headboard. He was in our bed last night and I woke up to find that he had slid down between two of the log spindles of the headboard and was stuck in a standing position between the headboard and the wall. He didn't seem to care since he was still asleep, but it freaked me out!

We'll see about that

2010-07-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

Tonight at dinner Will announced "Hey Dad - I think your next fortune will say "You are not as smart as your son.'"

We were at a Mexican restaurant. I don't know what prompted his fortune cookie prediction. I predict some rough years in our future with that one.

Mom of the Year

2010-07-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

The other night I was rocking Sawyer before putting him to bed and he leaned into my shoulder and kept sniffing me. Then he sat up and said "What do you smell like?......You smell like.......mommy." And then he snuggled back into my shoulder. Let's hope the Mommy smell is a good thing.

Tonight I asked the boys if they wanted to have cereal for dinner. Will responded by gasping with delight, running over and throwing his arms around me, and announcing "You're the best mommy I've ever seen - I bet other kids don't get to have cereal for dinner!"

Moment of silence for those poor, unfortunate kids whose moms cook dinner.

Little Miss Mabel

2010-07-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

My friend's adorable new baby...

I'm about halfway done editing the pics Jo, but thought I'd give you a peek! She is so dang cute.

SOS: camera help!

2010-07-12T11:16:00.001-07:00

Help! Can someone tell me what setting might be messed up on my dslr that results in all my pictures looking like this? I am seriously hoping it is just a setting I messed up by accident. I generally just leave it on automatic mode, so I don't think that is the issue. This started several months ago and I haven't been able to figure it out yet. Oh, and when I take a picture and then look at it on the view screen on my camera it looks normal...then when I upload them I see that they are all washed out like this.

Help!

Oh..and it isn't all the time. It seems to be only when I'm out in sunlight. If it is evening or in the shade they don't look like this. But they didn't used to look like this in the sunlight.

Aunt Mollie, Your Guilt Trip is Ready

2010-06-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

We put the boys to bed last night relatively peacefully. After about 10 minutes I heard Will sobbing. He wouldn't respond to me until he finally said he wanted me to come upstairs so he "could tell me something." When I went upstairs he was crying in bed for the following reason: (of course this is a good 5 minutes into his fit when I went and got the camera)

[And since there won't be a video when I print my blog - he is sobbing because he misses Aunt Mollie and wants her to come back because she is his favorite babysitter.]

Bath talk

2010-06-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

Just overheard the following from the tub:

Will (to Sawyer): Why do you like that? (A McDonald's Barbie mermaid - which Will was playing with equally I might add.) You're not a grill! (aka 'girl') Don't you want to love a grill? You've got to be popular. Then you can love a grill. Like go to concerts and sing and stuff and then you're popular and get a grillfriend.

Mom: What are you talking about in there Will?

Will: Popular. If you're popular then a grill might come up to you and say "Do you want to get married?"

Sigh.

My #1 Fans

2010-06-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

I overheard the following conversation coming from the back seat of my car today:

Will (to Sawyer): You know sometimes you bug me too much!
Sawyer: No! I don't bug you too much. Our mom does!
Will: Yeah.

Dear Bryce

2010-06-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

8 years ago today I married my best friend. A cliche I know.

So far in 2010 we've been together for better and worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Thanks for putting up with me! (I can live without the poorer and sickness parts for the rest of the year though...and, of course, those weren't our vows so don't feel obligated.)

I leave you with the lyrics to our wedding song. Even though I know you were not aware we had a wedding song. We did. And this was it:

Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be
When our time has come
We will be as one
God bless our love
God bless our love

Grow old along with me
Two branches of one tree
Face the setting sun
When the day is done
God bless our love
God bless our love

Spending our lives together
Man and wife together
World without end
World without end

Grow old along with me
Whatever fate decrees
We will see it through
For our love is true
God bless our love
God bless our love

There and Back Again

2010-05-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

One day there was a certain young man named Kyle who dreamed of seeing a manned space craft take flight. Knowing the opportunities were limited, he researched his quest and found that the best opportunity to see such a sight would take place in May at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. For, behold, the Space Shuttle Atlantis was scheduled to take to the skies at 2:20 p.m. on May 14, 2010. So the young man reserved his hotel room, bought plane tickets, and then sent off an e-mail that would forever change the lives of his parents and 5 siblings - or at least cause them to jump aboard the vacation band wagon.

Yes, all the Dickersons assembled in Florida. And it was relatively successful. Much more so than some of the times that all the Dickersons have tried to assemble in a foreign state. (cough cough Idaho)

My mom found a sweet vacation home rental on the internets. And by sweet I mean awesome. (It is important to explain slang for ancestors...especially when you define slang with more slang.) We rented a 6 bedroom, 6 bathroom house with an enclosed pool and spa, and a game room. Our 1-room share of the rental house cost less than a room at the Super 8. (If anyone is looking for a place to stay in the Kissimmee/Orlando area just ask and I'll send you the link.)

Day 0:
Flew from SLC to Orlando. Long flight. The kids did fine. This was the first time we have flown without either child being in a car seat. Luckily it took Sawyer a while to figure out that he could take his seat belt off and stand up. I think we have flown with the kids enough times to have figured out how to make it bearable. The main trick being to have enough food on hand to feed the entire plane if necessary. And Dramamine. But the children's kind I bought wasn't chewable and they both spit it out.

Day 1:

Slept in after a late-night arrival. Went to Downtown Disney which was totally deserted during the day. The boys had a grand time playing in the fountains.
We found a Ghirardelli chocolate store which allowed me to erase my regret over not buying a Ghirardelli sundae when we were at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco a few summers ago. Not wanting to let the opportunity pass me twice, I ordered the chocolate peanut butter sundae with Rocky Road ice cream instead of the standard vanilla. When they brought out our order, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but TWO huge sundaes. The waitress explained that they had made it with vanilla the first time and rather than throw it away she just brought out both. This resulted in the happiest day of my life. (Ok maybe there are a few other contenders.)

But it quickly became the saddest day of my life. Just couldn't fit in another bite. I looked around desperately for someone to bestow my extra sundae upon, but you order at the door before you sit down so anyone in the restaurant had already ordered and didn't look in need of more ice cream. So sad. There may be an oil spill in the Gulf (or will be...since I am writing this in the past), but this is what true tragedy looks like:

Then back to the house for swimming. I'm sure we ate some food somewhere too.

Day 2:

Magic Kingdom. Otherwise known as "30 minute periods of tantrum-filled whining and waiting followed by 30 second bursts of happiness." Yes, there were lines. Yes, it was hot. Yes, the stroller parking areas rivaled the Disney parking lots themselves. Yes, a single child's admission plus parking is over $100 for 1 park for 1 day. (Bryce and I had free passes from the Day of Service promotion and Sawyer was 2 and therefore free.) But watching my child whine that he just wanted to go back to the house and swim after an hour at the park...so worth it. Overall the kids were pretty good. They definitely enjoyed the rides. They did not enjoy the waiting in line...which we did a good amount of. Sawyer has a bird obsession and he was particularly fond of waiting in line and then suddenly taking off into the crowds in search of a bird he had seen fly by. For anyone considering taking small children to the Magic Kingdom itself, we did it entirely the wrong way. We wanted to be there right when it opened. And we almost made it. We got in about 30 minutes later. Which meant we woke the kids up to get them ready to go. We got to the park along with all the other families that wanted to be there right when it opened. And it was hot. By about 4 in the afternoon the crowds and the lines had cleared out dramatically. And it was significantly cooler out. But the kids were totally exhausted. We hung around for a couple more hours trying to fit in a few more rides and then gave up and went home. We missed the parade and the fireworks. If I were doing it again I would say - 1. Let the kids sleep in...there were no benefits of being there early, except possibly that we waited in a shorter line to meet Mickey because we raced there first thing. 2. - If your kids can't handle a very full day (which they more than likely can not) get to the park later in the day and plan to stay later. Take advantage of the cooling temperatures and the non-existent lines in the late afternoon when the other families with small kids have given up and gone home. 3.- Plan to take breaks. I think my kids had more fun playing in the fountain outside one of the restaurants than they did most of the day.

On the plus side I was very happy about the number of rides the kids were able to go on. We went on different rides all day. I think the only repeat we did was the carousel, because after waiting in line to go on it in the morning, we walked by it again in the afternoon and there was no line at all. The boys both liked the Pirates of the Carribean ride. Sawyer was enthralled by "It's a Small World." Will was scared of "Snow White's Adventures." I have been to Disney World once before, but I had forgotten how many of the rides consist of sitting in a car on a track as you ride past different vignettes. We went on the only roller coaster that the boys were big enough to go on - "Goofy's Barn Stormer." If they let 2 year-olds on it, how bad can it be right? Well, I don't like roller coasters in the first place, but it was a lot more intense than I expected! Way faster and bigger drops than the kids' roller coaster at Sea World. Both of the boys loved it though. You wouldn't have known it by looking at Sawyer, however. I rode with him and he didn't even hold on to the bar or anything. He just sat there, totally expressionless, bumping into the side of the car. It occurred to me after that he couldn't see over the sides or the front of the car, so I'm not sure if he really understood what was happening or if he thought the cart was just bumping around a lot. As I think every child must be, the boys were totally unimpressed by Cinderella's castle. Heck, I was disappointed the first time I saw it and I was almost 17! Looks cool from the outside, but nothing to see on the inside.

Day 3: Launch Day

The way the schedule worked out we had to pack our two busy days right in a row. The day after Disney World was the space shuttle launch. The kids were exhausted and we didn't want to wake them up to get to the Space Center early only to fight through crowds of people all day. So while the other members of the group left early in the morning, Bryce and the boys and I, along with Evan, Laurel, and Paul all left later in the morning. Our tickets said to arrive by 11 a.m. and it was supposed to take about 1.5 hours to get there. We left at about 9. We got to the Space Center close to 2. We were getting very worried by the end of the drive, because the tickets had warned that no traffic could enter the Space Center any later than 2 hours before the launch. And then we got more worried when it took us over an hour to go less than 1 mile and we were still 6 miles from the Center with less than an hour to go before the launch. Just when we thought it was hopeless we realized that we were at the guard station where they were checking for vehicle passes. After watching about 10 cars in front of us argue with the guard and then get turned around, we figured out that the vast majority of cars causing the traffic jam did not actually have passes or tickets to go to the Center for the launch. I do kind of feel sorry for people that spent hours trying to drive there only to be turned around and sent home, but at the same time isn't that something you might look into before going? Rather than just thinking, "Hey, there is a shuttle launching today - let's drive down and go see it!"? We ended up parking and making it into the Center about 30 minutes before the launch.

After watching the launch, Sawyer kept asking when the shuttle was going to take off. I was explaining that we had just watched it take off. He didn't seem impressed. And then we figured out that he thought the mock shuttle we were standing under was going to take off. The poor kid had been waiting for the thing overhead to go somewhere and was not thrilled about the light far off in the sky that we tried to interest him in. Oh well.

After the launch I battled the line in the gift shop for about 45 minutes and then we gave up and left because the entire complex was so crowded that we couldn't really do anything. We knew the one highway back to Orlando was going to be a nightmare so we got off at the first exit and found somewhere to eat. After our dinner we used Bryce's phone g.p.s. to find a backroads way back to the house and managed to avoid the traffic.

Day 4: Citrus Grove and Gatorland

The boys spent the morning swimming and then we went and picked some oranges at a nearby citrus grove. We were well past the peak of the citrus season and we discovered that it was an "organic farm" so the fruit was looking kind of sorry. I'm told it tasted good..somehow I managed to never eat any of it. After the citrus grove we went to Gatorland. Which was pricey and campy and full of alligators. The boys got to sit on a real alligator. I'm not sure if Sawyer knew that it was real, but Will had no fear and ran right out there and plopped down and grabbed its mouth. There was a boardwalk through a bird nesting area which was full of thousands of nests, many of which were close enough to the trail that you could have touched them. We got there late in the afternoon so we didn't have enough time to see everything, but we did find the enclosure where you could feed parakeets. For $1 you got a popsicle stick covered in bird seed and then the birds would swarm and land all over you. Sawyer, our bird lover, loved it. I thought he (and Will too) might freak out when the birds landed all over their hands and arms and heads, but they both loved it.

Day 5: back to Kennedy and the beach

Our launch tickets allowed us to return to the Kennedy Space Center on another day for free. We slept in and then headed back. We saw one of the IMAX movies, although we were lucky enough to watch it right after the 3d thing broke. I don't really understand what you have to have to show the movie in 3d, but whatever it is was broken. So we saw it in regular-d. Will had been very excited to go on the shuttle launch simulator, but when we tried to get in line they said he was too short. I had measured him and thought he was fine, but the workers insisted he was 1/2 inch too short. That led to a meltdown. Evan and Bryce went on it and said the extent of the "ride" was that the chair leaned back and then shook you...but the workers insisted they couldn't let Will on because it was too dangerous. I think we could have gotten him on if he'd been wearing sneakers instead of sandals, but I didn't have any with us. A sympathetic employee gave Will a Space Shuttle Atlantis commemorative token and it appeased him a bit.

After a heated discussion about whether or not to go on the bus tour, we left and went to the beach. Oh come on, are we seriously the only ones who can't go on vacation without arguing at some point? If we are, you can now all feel better about yourselves. You're welcome.

The beach was empty and the kids loved it. What kid doesn't love the beach?

On the way home from the beach we came around a bend and this guy was on the side of the road saying hi:

Just hanging out in between beach parking lots. We took a picture and then turned around so we wouldn't be stopped in the middle of the bend and tried to go back for a better view, but by the time we got turned around some other car had stopped and shooed the alligator back into the brush. No good do-gooders. That night we left the boys at the house and went to Steak 'n' Shake with Michael and Evan. Thank you, Florida, for providing me with a craving that can't be fulfilled in the state of my domicile. Patty melt and Strawnana shake.....mmmmmmm.

Day 6: hmmm
I'm pretty sure we hung around the the house and swam. My mom and siblings took the boys mini-golfing in the afternoon while Bryce and I checked out Celebration, Disney. Celebration is a planned community owned by Disney and it looks like the set of The Truman Show. Everything is perfect. All the houses are perfect. The yards are perfect. The shops are perfect. The street lights are perfect. They pipe music out through a PA system around the lake. Trees line both sides of the streets. Sigh. It was lovely. I am now accepting applications to live in Erintown...a planned community. There is a dress code - no pants or shorts with words across the rear and no halter tops unless on an evening gown. There are a few rules: no letting your dog poop in other people's yards, music playing within your car should not be audible outside your car, kids are required to ride bikes to the drug store to buy milkshakes, old guys are required to meet at the diner for breakfast, you get the idea. If I build it, will you come?

After an entire week of debate about whether the pool was heated (as it was supposed to be), or not, and whether the so-called "spa" was intended to be hot, or not, the maintenance man came out and it was determined that the spa should have been hot and the heat wasn't turned on in the pool. Too bad it was the day before we left. (Everyone point at Mom and whistle now.) After a full day in the pool we went back to Downtown Disney with Evan in the evening, which is apparently when people go to Downtown Disney because it was very crowded and we didn't last long.

Day 7: Swimming, packing, cleaning-up, flying home.

On our flight home we were supposed to have a layover in Denver. That means the first leg of the flight is pretty lengthy. Laurel gave me an awesome tip and said she put Dramamine in her little boy's yogurt and he ate it without noticing. Guess who bought yogurt in the Orlando airport? Yup, me. 1/2 a pill of children's Dramamine in a bite of yogurt for each of them. Guess who was asleep by the time we cleared the runway. Yup, both my boys. Will slept for over 2 hours and Sawyer slept for over 3. And, no, I don't feel guilty because I always take a good dose of Dramamine myself because I get airsick and it turned out to be a turbulent flight and the last thing I want is 2 kids barfing while I feel like doing the same. The fact that it knocks them out is an added bonus. After many hours of flying I began wondering why they hadn't done the "we are now beginning our initial descent" routine. Then the captain announced that there was bad weather in Denver and we were being diverted to Albuquerque to refuel. After another half hour of flying the captain announced that they had changed their mind and we were cleared to head back to Denver. Since our flight time had been extended by over an hour we were a little worried about missing our connecting flight because we only had a short layover. Luckily, everything was delayed so after running to our next gate with Megan and Chad - who were on our same flight home - we found that our plane wasn't even boarding yet. After a short wait they announced that they were going to board our flight. We all lined up and got on board. As we sat there waiting for the rest of the passengers and the baggage we could see the storm in the distance and the lightning flashing. Then the Captain announced that they had to stop loading the bags because of the lightning in the area and that we would have to wait until they could resume. We sat and sat and then the rain started pounding the windows and the lightning was much closer. I was having a good time watching the storm until we heard the Captain again. This time he said that "they had decided it wasn't safe for us to be onboard in this weather and that they needed everyone to leave their bags and get off the plane quickly." Now, I'm the kind of person that when I'm told "Hey, leave your bag where it is and get off quick" I'm inclined to leave my bag and get off. Other people didn't feel that way. We stood there while everyone ahead of us got their carry-ons out of the overhead bins and slowly made their way out. After a few minutes the Captain came on and said "We need to get moving people. Leave your bags and get off the plane." That encouraged people to move a little more quickly, although a good many of them still felt that surely he wasn't talking to them and kept trying to get all their bags. We left everything like the obedient kids we are and got off. The terminal was empty and we immediately stepped over to the windows to have a look at the storm. Then we noticed the airport employee ushering everyone away from the windows. He told us we had to get away from the windows and down to the tornado shelters (a.k.a. restrooms and stairwells). We went in a stairwell. A few minutes later an employee told us we could all come out now. We walked out and headed back towards the gate. We had only been out for about a minute when the tornado siren started going off. An employee told us we had to get back in the shelters. A lot of people just ignored him, but Megan and I weren't inclined to do so and booked it back to the stairwell. We staked out our spot next to the door leading to a down staircase. You had to have an i.d. badge to go down or in the case of an emergency you could "push on the bar and the door would open after 15 seconds." As I pointed out to Megan, 15 seconds would feel like a REALLY long time in an emergency! I can see it now "One-one thousand, two...come on, come on, crap!" You're dead. Seriously. And then Megan and I noticed that the pilot and the flight crew headed straight to the nearby elevator, swiped their badges, and took off for the basement floors. Followed by another airport employee who walked past us, swiped his badge, and went down the stairs. We refrained from screaming "Take us with you!" but we've seen enough movies to know that when the upper ranks take off into the bunker it is bad news for the peons upstairs. I called Kyle who checked the weather and told us there had been two tornado sightings in the area. Megan and I were fully prepared to take off downstairs at the first sign of trouble, and were amused by the girls that pushed past us so that they could "get up the stairs." They just wanted to go up a flight and sit down. Because clearly up in the air is where you want to be in case of tornado. Have it your way. Less competition for the stairs. Where is Bryce in all of this you ask? Standing nearby annoyed by his over-reacting wife and sister-in-law I suspect. But I don't mess around when it comes to tornadoes.

After another few minutes in the stairwell they once again told us we could come out. We went back to our gate and they said they would start re-boarding us soon, but since they had taken our boarding passes from us the first time we would all have to show i.d. and they would have to check us off the flight manifest. We weren't in a hurry to get back on so we waited until the end of the line and then eventually made it back to SLC 4 hours late. I've done a fair amount of Utah-CT etc. flying since coming to college and it was definitely the most eventful trip we've had. It didn't bother the kids at all. At one point the plane took a sudden jump down which about made me throw up, but Will was too busy begging me for more gum to notice. I will be very glad if the kids didn't get my motion sickness gene. I've never found it to be an asset.

And thus, the young travelers, returned to whence they came, having seen a shuttle take to the skies, frolicked through a magic kingdom, bathed in the salt waters of the Atlantic, tamed the ferocious wildlife, and survived the fury of the weather gods one more time.

Provo....on drugs

2010-05-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

This is Provo:

This is Provo on drugs:

I recently (like 20 minutes ago) discovered that the mayor of Provo writes a blog. In reading through past posts I discovered this beauty. The city of Provo will provide $25,000 of the $100,000 it will cost to install this sculpture at the future Frontrunner stop.

$100,000

Now obviously art is a matter of taste. But first of all. Why pay $100,000 for a sculpture? Wouldn't half of that buy you a pretty nice sculpture? I know that I always head straight for the clearance racks, but really, $100,000?

For this???

If I were sitting on the Frontrunner and looked out the window and saw this looming I'm pretty sure I would think, "Not getting off here. Crazytown." and then I would think "Hope they didn't pay more than $10 for that thing obviously designed and constructed by preschoolers." I'm pretty sure Will drew that exact thing yesterday.

Words of the mayor: "In my opinion, it is a worthwhile investment. I believe, under the "no broken windows" theory, that appearances matter, and attractive artwork will help deter crime. It will also likely leave visitors with a favorable impression of our city.

But what I like most about this investment is the city only has to pay 25%. Even in difficult economic times, it makes sense to take advantage of an opportunity like this."

A few points:

A. I see you use the term "investment" loosely. As in "if crazy ever takes off we might be able to sell this thing on e-bay for a small profit...and if not we'll fall back on the hope-scrap-metal-prices-go-through-the-roof plan."

B. Appearances matter.

C. Attractive artwork may very well deter crime. Expensive, ugly things encourage crime. Crazy begets crazy.

D. It will certainly leave visitors with an impression of our city...I'm not sure favorable is the word you were looking for.

E. If you think it makes sense to take advantage of this opportunity then I have a few things I would like to sell you. Like the contents of my garage. A piece of "installation art" entitled "Pile O Crap." On sale until tomorrow only for a mere $75,000. Act now. Don't miss this opportunity.

That is all.

Mooooooooooommmmmmm!!!!

2010-05-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry for all the times you were referred to as "Mooooooommmmmm" in the tattle-tale/I-want-something voice.

Anyways...

Happy Mother's Day Mom! Thanks for not strangling us as children...even though I'm sure you wanted to many, many times.

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be -
I had a mother who read to me.
- Strickland Gillilan (1869-1954)

And to my boys: thanks for letting me be your mom...not that you have any choice in the matter.

Happy Mother's Day...or something

2010-05-08T09:25:00.001-07:00

Certain 4 year-old members of my household are less than enthused about Mother's Day.

Yesterday:
Will: Is Mother's Day a holiday?
Me: Kind of. It is a holiday for mothers.
Will: Is there a holiday for children?
Me: Your birthday.
[Pause]
Will: HOW COME YOU GET TWO DAYS??!!

Wednesday: Will was supposed to bring something that "reminds him of Mommy" for preschool show and tell. He wasn't coming up with anything so Aunt Mollie was trying to help him think of something.

Aunt Mollie: Will, what are things that Mommy likes?
Will: Uhhh....herself....uhhh....money.

Gee thanks Will.

Birds behind bars

2010-04-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

They pooped on the wrong car this time.

The Smart Alec Society...

2010-04-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

...is alive and well in Salt Lake.

Tulip festival

2010-04-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

We squeezed in a very quick trip to the Tulip Festival while my mom was here. The tulips were looking a little battered from the rain/hail storms earlier in the week, but the grounds were still pretty. We happened to go on one of the "Dutch Days" so there were tents with vendors and food for sale...food makes any activity better.

Mollie amongst the flowers.

In the village, the quiet village

2010-04-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

I ended up not going to Idaho for Megan's graduation (logistics problem) so Bryce promised he would take me "somewhere fun" that weekend. Unfortunately for him, I got to choose where I thought would be fun and I chose Gardner Village. The weather was cold when we left for the day, but it was perfect by the time we got up there. We window shopped and got a treat at the bakery. My camera was either struggling with the strong sunlight or is stuck on a setting that makes everything over-exposed. I didn't realize this until just now when I uploaded a bunch of pictures so everything I took over the last month is like that. We'll just consider it artistic license.

Feeding the ducks...or, more accurately, throwing pieces of bread at uninterested ducks.

Gratuitous self-portrait

What will I do when the males in my house refuse to go shopping with me?

Updates

2010-04-28T16:49:00.000-07:00

FYI: I just posted a bunch of back-dated posts that I had sitting around waiting for pictures. They are all dated March 24. Just so that they are vaguely in some kind of timeline. So you will have to scroll if you want to see them. Which I'm sure you are dying to do.

There is also an Easter post dated April 5th.

That is all.

Of Mice and Men

2010-04-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

In mid-April my little sister Megan became a college graduate. She graduated from BYU-Idaho with a degree in music education. With the highest g.p.a. in her college she might like me to add. Two weeks later Mollie graduated from BYU with a degree in psychology. Magna cum laude she might like me to add.

Thanks to their graduating 2 weeks apart my mom was stuck in Utah with nothing to do. Nothing besides volunteering to watch her two adorable grandchildren, that is. This child-free getaway opportunity was discovered months in advance so Bryce and I spent Christmas thinking of all the places we could go...Europe? Argentina? Alaska? Puerto Rico? And then....we realized we didn't have passports. (I've never had one and Bryce's is expired.) And then...we realized that we (ok mostly me) were not comfortable with going out of the country (into the big bad world where people are kidnapped in broad daylight on public streets...or so I've heard) with our two little boys at home. And then...we decided to go to Florida for the shuttle launch in May. And then...I went on my unexpected $2500 kidney stone vacation. And we found our plans scaling down more and more.

Until we ended up with a long weekend in a truly exotic location:

Now that may look like Salt Lake, but it is actually Sweden.

Ok. It is Salt Lake. We take what we can get.

We posed in front of the local sights - such as the martini ad in the elevator. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

It happened to be Restaurant Week so we had a good time eating out choosing different places for 2 course lunches and 3 course dinners. Of course, the thrill wore off when we added up the prices and discovered that the maximum discount we received with our "special Restaurant Week 3 course dinner" was $1. All the food was good though, and I ate entire meals without getting up, cleaning spills, refilling drinks, or having someone snatch food from my plate so that was a bonus.

I had looked up some area flea markets to check out. We went to an indoor flea market on Redwood Rd. one day and an outdoor flea market also on Redwood Rd. the next day. They were pretty much identical except for the roof and walls part. And I'm not sure why I was picturing jolly Santa-esque bearded men with tables full of Antique Roadshow contenders. There were none to be seen. I'm pretty sure that 90% of what was for sale was stolen goods. But, hey, if you are in the market for neon colored bra and underwear sets then it is the place for you. "Four for $10!" My favorite was the booth full of dirty 80's comforters that I'm confident were swiped from motel beds. Oops...I just spoiled the surprise for a lot of your Christmas presents.
After fleeing the flea market we stopped at a gas station. Bryce asked if I wanted anything to drink. I requested a water - the bigger the better. So he bought me a gallon jug. Which I should have expected.

We went to a movie, and ate, and ate, and ate. (The hallmark of a good trip in my book.)

By Monday we couldn't think of much else to do in Salt Lake so we decided to head home and take the boys to a movie. Because even though we had been looking forward to some kid-free time for months, after a couple days we missed those buggers. We're lame like that. We took them to How to Train Your Dragon in 3d and they had a great time.

Over-educated

2010-04-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

Me: Look at that little mouse!
(We were watching the new Life series on tv.)
Will: Oh. Is that a mouse?
Me: Well, it is a shrew.
Will: Oh. A shrew?
Me: Yes.
Will: Is a shrew an animal?
Me: Yes.
Will: Does it carry diseases?

PS: And because of the back-dated posts I just published this is my 200th post. Wahoo.

There goes Peter Cottontail

2010-04-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

We had a week of Easter fun. We started with the egg hunt at the church. Will was very particular about choosing his 6 eggs. Sawyer was not happy that he had to stop at 6 eggs.

Then the boys got Easter baskets in the mail from Grandma. Complete with money-eggs!

The day before Easter we dyed eggs. The kids were not happy that I only had a dozen. But really how many hard-boiled eggs can one possibly use?

This year Easter fell on Conference Sunday (twice yearly televised meeting for all Latter-day Saints worldwide - takes place in Salt Lake City) so we had a casual day at home watching the meeting on tv. In between the morning and afternoon sessions we went for a drive and what do you know the Easter bunny came to our house while we were gone. Will was most excited about getting a long coveted Bakugan action figure in his basket. Sawyer was most excited about his binky that the Easter bunny found in the house and put in his basket. It had been missing for days.
For future reference, it is Mollie (a.k.a. the Easter bunny) in the picture above.

We finished off the festivities with Easter dinner. Why can't ham come in 2 lb. portions?

we gots our hairs cut

2010-04-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

Say goodbye to the everyday ponytail. (In my case anyways.)

We had different stylists, but ended up with similar cuts after telling the stylists to do "whatever."

When I got home Sawyer looked me up and down and said "Is that you Mommy?"..."You got more hair?" (I think he thinks I went and bought it like a wig.)

For Megan

2010-04-01T21:36:00.001-07:00

The boys have a video message for you.
(I can't upload their response to your video - I think the file is too big?)

And here is a dance video they made for you.

And another.

guh...guh...guh...Happy Burfday! (You know like Gus...on Cinderella)

2010-04-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

These two were born 22 years ago today.

Happy Birthday Mollie and Megan!

You two are so....special. Um..yes. Especially Megan (on left).

Hope you guys have a great day! Looking forward to hanging out next weekend.
Love, the big sister.

I gotta feelin...

2010-03-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

that fumes of some type are leaking into my sister's apartment. Megan and husband Chad said they would make a video for Will and Sawyer. Will said he wanted it to include "dancing around, music, and an Easter egg hunt." So they made a video.

Should you desire, you can watch it here: http://megandickerson.blogspot.com/2010/03/and-award-for-best-aunt-and-uncle-goes.html

Bountiful Baskets

2010-03-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

At 6:50 this morning (yes, a Saturday) I was in my car for the sake of produce.

My friend Annie had a post on her blog about "Bountiful Baskets" - they are a food co-op operating in a number of western states. I looked them up and found that they had a pick-up site right on Center Street in Provo.

You pay $15 plus a $1.50 handling fee (plus a one-time $3 charge if it is your first time buying) and you get an assortment of fruits and vegetables. You don't know in advance what you will be getting and you don't get to pick and choose, but they focus on foods that the average family will use. You can pay extra for an all-organic selection. Or you can add on extra products: this week you could add bread, a case of mangoes, or an "Easter egg dying kit" full of veggies that you could boil to produce dyes strong enough to naturally dye your Easter eggs.

I just got the conventional ($15 + $1.50) basket.

The Provo location pick-up time is 7 a.m. and you need to be there promptly. You can send someone else to pick up your baskets, but if you don't pick them up they are donated to the local fire station. I set out early this morning to find the location and was surprised by the number of cars there. This is a very popular little well-kept secret! In fact, I kind of hate to spread the word because I'm just increasing my competition. (They sell out FAST every week. You have to purchase online in advance. Check their website for details.) But I like you, so I'm telling you.

For my $16.50 I got a box of strawberries, a pineapple, a cantaloupe, 8 apples, 6 tangelos, 4 yams, 2 huge heads of green leaf lettuce, a pound of asparagus, 8 cucumbers, 4 zucchini, a head of cauliflower, and 4 bananas.

If anyone in my area is interested in working out a pick-up trade-off schedule let me know! I think I would either buy a basket every week and split it with someone ($8.25 each) and alternate pick-up weeks or I would buy a basket every 2 weeks and only have to pick-up once a month. Or I would just buy once in a while...or, well, I'm open to any ideas! It wasn't a big pain to go get the stuff...I left at 6:50 and was home by 7:20 - it is just a bit early for me! And it isn't a club or subscription so you aren't obligated to keep purchasing. I probably won't buy anything once we have a lot of garden produce of our own to eat.

I knew I was a sucker for a good deal...who knew it would extend to produce?

Uh. Hi.

2010-03-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

Bryce talks in his sleep. (So does Will.) Last night I woke up because Bryce was talking.

Bryce: Why hello little penguin. I'll take care of YOU later.

What the...

I think it is interesting that not only does Bryce talk in his sleep...but everything he says in his sleep is totally strange. (Ex. the night we got married: "There's cheese and peppers over there." - pointing to the corner of the hotel room.)

He has also been known to rock his pillow and then put it in the cradle and, on another occasion, to jump out of bed yelling and insisting the walls are wet and then turn the lights on and off over and over.

My mom says she hopes he isn't just faking to establish a history so that when he does away with me one night he can blame it on sleepwalking. Because that is the kind of comforting thing my parents like to tell their children.

Between my spouse and my children it is hard to get a good night's sleep over here.

Erin Go Bragh

2010-03-24T21:18:00.000-07:00

(Ireland forever)

I always liked St. Patrick's Day as a kid because my name was on the signs. I still kind of like it for that reason. I made corned beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread this year. I decided that I do not like corned beef. Next year I am making pot roast and calling it corned beef. I have authority to do stuff like that because my name is Erin. Even if my name inspiration was from a character on the Waltons and I'm not Irish.

Will spent most of the afternoon trying to catch a leprechaun using a stick and a big gulp cup. Before bed I caught him changing clothes and asked what was going on. He told me that "there was a little bit of pee in his underwear...from a leprechaun...that tricky leprechaun!" Nice try child. About 10 minutes after I put him to bed I heard sobbing and discovered Will crying because he "hadn't caught a leprechaun." I told him that no one had ever caught one. He was insistent that other kids got to see one, but I told him that was impossible because they were invisible. Obviously.

3 Decades Strong

2010-03-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

Bryce turned 30! Not wanting to let such a momentous occasion pass I thought I would throw him a party. And what does Bryce like more than pizza and playing basketball? Errr...well...not much. So I thought I would throw him a pizza andbasketball-playing party at the church since it has a full basketball court in the gym. (Is it weird to have basketball courts in your church? Discuss.)

I thought I'd be sneaky and spread out the food purchases over a 2-month period so the crawl space was full of soda and chips. Which, although carefully transported and covered with a blanket, were discovered by Bryce within days of purchase. Combined with other not-so-stealthy maneuvers on my part I don't think the party was much of a surprise. I suspected that he already knew about it, but you can't really ask someone if they already know about their surprise party. Well, you can...

Am I the only one that still gets really nervous about throwing parties because "what if no one comes?" Not that it has ever happened to me. Oh no. I've always had at least 1 guest come...out of...uhh...let's move on.

I think we had a fun time. Well, I had a fun time. And my kids had a fun time. And Bryce says he had a fun time.

Thanks to friends that helped with food and such. A HUGE thanks to my one friend (whom I won't embarrass by naming) who helped me set up and clean up and a million other things.

Bryce's actual birthday was on a Saturday this year so we went to Tucano's for his free birthday lunch. Later, we ate leftover cheesecake from the party and opened presents.

Happy Birthday honey! I love you! I think you are officially an adult now. Keep that in mind the next time you are tempted to light something on fire. Lighting stuff on fire as a teenager/college student = typical young male. Lighting stuff on fire as a 30 year-old = arsonist.

[I took a few pictures of the birthday celebrations, but they must be on a different card somewhere because I can't find them. Maybe some day this post will have pictures.]

Choices

2010-03-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

I had a follow-up appointment with the urologist. They did 2 x-rays and told me that the stone was gone. Which seemed kind of obvious seeings that I was no longer wanting to cut out my own kidney with a butter knife.

On the topic of prevention the urologist said there "was no magic bullet...but it might help to avoid certain foods - like chocolate." There were more things on the list, but I can handle limiting my spinach and cranberry juice intake.

Chocolate. Hmmm.

Having a kidney stone and lithotripsy was probably the most painful experience of my life. I would have preferred to have a c-section. Especially since a baby is cuter than a kidney stone. And the experience is costing a good chunk of money. Looks like it will be at least $1600 out of pocket.

But I do like chocolate. Hmmm.

And not eating it might help avoid getting stones in the future.

Hmmm.

I think the choice here is obvious.

Brownie, anyone?

Strange things to say before surgery

2010-03-24T20:38:00.001-07:00

While waiting to be put under for lithotripsy, the pre-op nurse took some blood. As she was drawing blood the surgical nurse walked over, looked down, and said:
Nurse: "Oh my gosh. Her blood is black!"
Erin: "Oh. Um. Is that weird?"
Nurse: "Edward would love you!" [walks away]

Ooooooooooooooo-kay.

Traditions

2010-03-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

It is always nice when you get married and get to start your own traditions with your own little family. In our family we have a tradition that goes like this: "If one spouse plans a surprise, non-refundable get-away for the other, the to-be-surprised spouse will end up in the E.R." We are 2 for 2 on this one.

You may recall a couple summers ago when I planned a surprise overnight kid-free getaway to NYC while we were vacationing in Connecticut. The day before our trip Bryce ended up in the E.R. with what turned out to be a gastro-intestinal infection caused by cow-feces-contaminated water consumed at Scout camp a few days before. That put a bit of a damper on our getaway.

This year Bryce planned a surprise kid-free overnighter as a Valentine's Day present. I ended up in the E.R. with a kidney stone. Luckily, I had 5.5 days between my E.R. visit and our trip. Unluckily that time was spent having lithotripsy and not getting out of bed. We couldn't reschedule the trip and it was already paid for and we already had Mollie lined up to stay overnight with the boys so we decided to go anyways. I was still in a lot of pain from the lithotripsy, but I don't pass up opportunities to get away.

We stayed at the Homestead Resort and went to Park City to shop at the outlets and went out to dinner. Later that night we decided to go to the hot tub before it closed. Unfortunately we hadn't remembered that we would have to walk outdoors from our room to the main building where the pool/hot tub are so we looked kind of strange walking around in our bathing suits, coats, and shoes. I thought the hot tub would be a good idea for my muscle pain and it was a good idea at first. But the change from the heat of the hot tub to the freezing cold of the outside as we walked back to our room in wet bathing suits was a very, very bad idea. The sore muscles in my side went crazy and I couldn't move for about an hour until my next dose of painkillers set in.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel (included in the package Bryce purchased) and headed home.

Did I mention Mollie babysat? So we came home to a clean house. It wasn't until the next day that I discovered that she had also cleaned our unfinished laundry room/bathroom area. It was full of construction debris and drywall dust and lint, etc. But now it is all clean. Like even the lint stuck down the side of the drier that would have been there until we moved out of this house. Sorry, she is not for hire. (Especially not now that she is going to Harvard. I don't think we can afford her anymore.)

Dear Bryce,
No more surprise overnighters for each other ok? I am tired of the E.R.
Love,
Erin

May cause kidney stones?

2010-03-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

If you watched any of the Olympics, you probably saw advertisements for 50 McDonald's chicken nuggets for $10. Or $15 if you include 2 large fries and 2 drinks. And if you know me, you probably know that I love me some McDonald's chicken nuggets. Yes, yes, I know. I just like them ok? I happen to think they are delicious. And I can eat a lot of them. Although exactly how many had never before been put to the test.

At home they had $1 four-piece McNuggets on Tuesdays. Tuesdays were good days.

So when Mollie and I saw the ads for 50 chicken nuggets we knew we would have to go get them. And soon. Limited time offer you know. We made our plans and went for a late lunch/early dinner on a Thursday. Only to discover that it was a Friday-Sunday only offer. Not to be discouraged Mollie went and asked if we could get them anyways and they said we could since we asked.

We were both more than a little disappointed to find that we just got 5 of the normal ten-piece boxes. Come on, admit it. Weren't you picturing a giant box full of 50 nuggets? We were. Mollie, Will, Sawyer and I set to eating our nuggets. Will packed in 9. Sawyer ate 3.5. (The playground was just too exciting.) Mollie and I ate until we were full and then counted our boxes. We had both tucked away 17 nuggets (um each. not combined.). Bryce met us there and polished off the remaining few.

Mmmmmmmmm.

We love nuggets.

Connection to the kidney stone I got a few weeks later? Unsubstantiated. Should probably eat more nuggets to test the theory.

Dear Cory Williamson,

2010-03-12T08:42:00.001-08:00

Dear Sir,
Please stop giving out my home phone number as your home phone number. On things like your resume. And to people that you apparently owe money to. I am tired of answering phone calls from bill collectors looking for you. I am also tired of getting your medical bills in the mail.
Sincerely,
Not. Cory. Williamson.

Ulterior motive

2010-03-05T10:26:00.000-08:00

Right when I stepped out of the shower today Will came into my bathroom very carefully hiding a package of Poptarts behind his back.

Will: Uhhh...Mom? I was wondering if you could take a little longer shower.
Me: Why, Will? So you can get into Poptarts?
Will: Uhhh...no. I just want you to be a little...uhh...cleaner.

Aw

2010-03-04T08:37:00.001-08:00

Will said the prayer the other night at dinner:

"And thank you that I have a best friend. And that his name is Bryce. And that he's my dad."

Sawyer kept yelling things after I put him to bed:

"Mom! I wuv you! ... Dad! I wuv you! ... Will! I wuv you! ... Mom! I wuv you! You a sweetie! That means I wuv you!" (This went on for about 40 minutes.)

Bryce came downstairs yesterday morning and discovered that Will was already up.
Will: Dad? Who's the grown-up after Heavenly Father?
Bryce: Uh what?
Will: Who's the grown-up after Heavenly Father?
Bryce: Um. Like who is Heavenly Father's dad?
Will: Yeah.
Bryce: Uhh...I don't really know.

Who knew he wakes up early to ponder the universe? I always thought it was so he could play video games and sneak fruit snacks and pop tarts.

A tale of two kidneys (ok really just one)

2010-03-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

OR "Just in case you got here by googling lithotripsy"

So I'm sure all 4 of you really want to know about all the fun I had last week. If you don't you should stop reading now. Because there is nothing else here.

Last Sunday I woke up with a dull pain in my side - just to the right side of my belly button. I didn't think much of it and figured I had slept funny or some such thing. I showered and got dressed and ready for church. Then I got Will ready for church. Then I went to get Sawyer ready for church. I changed his diaper and leaned over to get some pants out of his dresser drawer. The moment I leaned over the dull pain in my side became a "holy crap did someone just stab me?" pain in my side. I couldn't stand up and was immediately nauseated.

Bryce helped me get to our bed and then he made some phone calls trying to figure out what the problem could be and what we should do. I thought maybe it was an ovarian cyst, but the obgyn thought that was unlikely. He suggested that I should rest for an hour with a hot pack...which suggests to me that he thought the reports of my pain were exaggerated. Bryce was afraid it might be my appendix and I was busy hoping I would pass out so we decided that we needed to get to a doctor. The original plan was to go to urgent care, but I vetoed that idea in the car and we went to the E.R. instead. Somehow this process took about an hour from the sudden onset of pain until we left for the hospital. Decisiveness is not my strong point.

Meanwhile, what were the boys up to? Will kept asking if we had to go to church. We kept ignoring him. Then he asked Sawyer, "Sawyer, do you think we're going to go to church today?" and Sawyer looked around the room and said "Yup." I guess he figured we were all dressed so it was inevitable. On the way to the hospital Will asked again if we were going to church and Bryce said "I don't think we will today...we have to take Mommy to the hospital." Will exclaimed "See Sawyer! I told you we wouldn't have to go to church!" Once we got to the E.R. they took me back to a room and both of the boys started complaining that they were sick. I thought it was sympathy pains, but then it became clear that they were trying to make sure they wouldn't have to go to church. And then they started arguing about who was really sick. And then they started hitting each other and screaming. At which point Mollie arrived and took the boys home which I'm sure the entire E.R. appreciated.

Now here's the thing about the E.R. - I'm sure that if your life is in danger they are capable of moving very quickly. But if you just feel like you are dying they are in no great hurry. The nurse was perfectly nice, but he wasn't about to move faster than his normal mosey. It took another hour before I got any kind of pain meds. A different guy came in and gave me morphine through the i.v. and told Bryce that it should do its thing in 5 minutes. Unfortunately, it never did anything. After another 45 minutes or so the nurse came back and established that the first dose hadn't helped and gave me another dose. That dose didn't do anything either. And when I say it didn't do anything, I mean it didn't do ANYTHING. It didn't effect the pain at all and it didn't make me loopy or sleepy or light-headed or anything. I might have expected this because the same thing happened when they gave me morphine when they were trying to stop me from being in labor with Sawyer. So we have now confirmed that I am resistant to morphine. Therefore, when someone tries to take over the world by injecting everyone with morphine and everyone else is too doped up and happy to care I will do my best to defend the motherland. Otherwise it appears to be a pretty useless talent.

Sometime during this the doctor came in and said that he "would bet it was an ovarian cyst." The plan was to do an ultrasound to find out.

After another 45 minutes the nurse came back and determined that my pain level was, if anything, going up instead of down and said he would go "talk to the doctor and re-evaluate what we are dealing with." He came back with a different kind of pain killer. I wish I could remember the name. He put that one through the i.v. and within 5 minutes I was somewhere else. It is a weird feeling to hear people talking and understand what they are saying, but at the same time you know you are not really acting right. They came to get me for the ultrasound and I know they asked me something which I didn't respond to right and I remember the nurse telling Bryce "Now is the time to pump her for information" and Bryce replied "I don't think she has any" and I would have said something, but my brain wasn't working right. But I didn't care because I wasn't in pain for the first time in 3 hours.

They did an ultrasound which seemed to take forever and then wheeled me back to the E.R. The doctor walked over and asked the ultrasound lady what she found. She told him that I had a cyst on my left ovary. He said something like "I knew it!...wait, what side?" She said it was on the left side. He said "but her pain is on the right side"...then he walked in the room and asked me "where does it hurt again?" I told him it hurt on the right side and he said "Well sometimes the pain can spread." I think he really wanted it to be a cyst like he had guessed. Then he said that they were going to do a ct scan before sending me home "just to make sure they hadn't missed anything." A guy came and got me and wheeled me down for the ct scan. Which, if you ever have to have one, is not a big deal. He injected some stuff into my i.v. and warned me that in 15 seconds I would get a weird taste in my mouth and would feel warm and "like you peed your pants, but you really didn't." And that pretty much sums up how the dye makes you feel. Then he left the room and the machine scanned several times, but the whole thing took about 5 minutes. Then he wheeled me back to the E.R. It took somewhere around an hour for the results to arrive and then the doctor came in and announced "Well it is kind of a surprise, but you have a big kidney stone!" So a good 5.5 hours later we finally knew what the problem was. He said I'd have to go see a urologist and have it broken up because it was almost a centimeter and too big to pass. And in case you are wondering "passing a kidney stone" means that it passes down into your bladder. Once it gets to the bladder it doesn't hurt anymore. And as long as it is in the kidney it doesn't hurt. It is only when it tries to get down the tube in between (or in my case lodges itself so that it is totally blocking the tube) that you want to die.

They gave me some more pain meds by i.v. and sent me home with prescriptions for antibiotics, pain meds, and anti-nausea meds to counteract the effects of the pain meds.

I was able to get into the urologist the next day. I wasn't in a lot of pain, but the pain meds made me super nauseated and dizzy whenever I moved. The urologist did an x-ray and showed us that he couldn't see the stone because my kidney was glowing like a sparkler from the ct scan dye that was still stuck in there from the day before. He said that he would have to insert a tube into my kidney to drain out all of the dye before they would be able to do the procedure to break up the stone (lithotripsy). Otherwise we could schedule the lithotripsy, but if we got there and the dye was still there they wouldn't be able to do the procedure and we'd have to pay for it anyways. The lithotripsy machine travels around the state and its availability also apparently "depends on your insurance" so we weren't sure how soon we would be able to have it done. The urologist made some calls and we decided that I would go in the next day to put in the tube to drain the dye and then would go back on Wednesday to have the lithotripsy done. The doctor had the nurse give me a phenergan shot to help with the nausea and I felt okay that night.

The next morning I had to be at the surgical center by 6:30 a.m. I got there and checked in and they took me back and started an i.v. Then the surgical nurse and the anesthesiologist came and got me and took me to an operating room. The anesthesiologist was asking me questions as he put stuff in my i.v. and it dawned on me that he was asking me questions so he'd know when I was out.

And then I woke up back out in the recovery area. It was about 30 minutes later. My throat felt like it had gunk in it and I asked if I had had something in my throat and they told me I'd been intubated. I hadn't known they would be doing that, although I guess I should have known that was standard procedure when you're put under. They told me that when they went to put the tube in they discovered that the dye had drained out on its own, but they weren't able to just go ahead with the lithotripsy because the machine wasn't there or something like that. The doctor said that instead of waiting until the next day I could come back and have the lithotripsy done at noon. The nurse told me I could just wait at the surgical center, but it was only 9:30 and I decided I would rather go home to wait. I went to change into my clothes and found that I still had EKG nodes stuck all over me. Which was an odd surprise. Bryce said they hooked me into the matrix.

I went home for a few hours and then went back and checked in again. I was not first in line for the lithotripsy machine so we had to wait for several hours. Then my urologist came in and said that he had to be back in his office by 2 and asked if it was ok if another doctor did the lithotripsy. Like I cared who did it at that point. I could hear a doctor talking to a middle-aged man in the bay next to me. He was ahead of me in line for lithotripsy. The man was asking 8 million questions about the lithotripsy and about kidney stones in general and what was going to happen, etc. etc. I felt like shouting "Buck up and get in there! I'm after you and I'm sick of waiting!" The new doctor came over and introduced himself and discussed the game plan. My urologist had said he would leave the tube in until Monday to help any remnants of stone pass through, but that he would leave the final decision to the replacement doctor. I was REALLY not enjoying having the tube in so I was highly against that plan and told them so. Finally the anesthesiologist came and got me again, telling me that "the second verse is the same as the first...a little longer and a little more meds." They wheeled me into an operating room and told me to slide over onto this water bed type of thing. The anesthesiologist had already injected the meds and I made it halfway over to the table and then thought "sorry guys but you're gonna have to do this yourself."

I woke up back in recovery. It was about an hour later. I was very happy to find out that the doctor had been able to break up the stone so completely that he decided it was okay to remove the tube at the same time. Apparently when I was coming out of the anesthesia I was making a fool of myself by asking over and over again if they had taken the stent out. Every time they told me yes I would cheer and give thumbs up. It is very strange to have multiple people telling you about things you did which you have zero recollection of. I "remember" waking up after the procedure, but the moment I remember as when I woke up was a good while after I started talking to everyone. Not only was I talking to people, but I'm told that I had a conversation with the doctor and asked him questions about preventing kidney stones in the future. Isn't it scary to think that your brain can function without you? The anesthesiologist told me that it takes 5 seconds from when he injects the drugs in the i.v. until you are out. There was no "I'm getting sleepy" feeling at all. I was awake and then I woke up somewhere else. Nothing in between. Crazy.

I got back home around 5 p.m. The lithotripsy may have taken care of the stone, but it left me feeling like someone had gone at my side with a baseball bat or ran over me with a truck. I had a hard time controlling the pain and nausea until I gave up on the percocet and switched to good old advil. The advil seemed to do a better job with the pain and didn't make me nauseated like the percocet did. The lithotripsy pain lasted until Sunday.

So it was not a very fun week. In fact, I'd really rather not do that ever again, thank you.

Many thanks to my sweet friends who called, brought food, and took my kids. I didn't see my kids for about 5 days. And I'm acquainted with my kids so I really, really appreciate what it means for someone else to have taken them every day. The boys came up to say goodnight before they went to bed every day and that was it. They were so cute. One night Sawyer brought me his dolphin puppet and said "Here Mom. I'll put this next to your face until you wake up." The next day he brought me his puppy. Then he colored me pictures to "make me feel better." Sawyer kept saying "Are you a little bit sick Mom? Feel better. Wuv you!" Will gathered up all his favorite toys and put them on my bed for me to play with. He kept asking "When do you think your pain will go away?" On Friday I was parenting from the couch (that counts right?) and I told Will to do something. He yelled, "No! You are sick. Remember? You can't be the boss again until you aren't sick!" I guess he figured it was his turn to step in and have a turn being the boss.

And my awesome friends brought 5 days' worth of dinners...not to mention treats. The men in the house weren't complaining about Mom not being able to cook. I think they preferred it actually.

And last but not least my wonderful husband took care of everything that needed to be done. He was my medication distributor and kept track of all my doses and set alarms to wake up at night to make sure I took the next dose and dealt with a lot of vomit. "If that's not love what iiiiisssss?!" And he kept the house cleaned up. Maybe he should be the stay-at-home parent. Hmmm.

Thus ends (permanently...please?) Erin's adventure with kidney stones. I have a check-up with the urologist in 2 weeks, but don't expect it to be anything more than a formality. Oh yeah, and just because I'm extra lucky and have that ovarian cyst as well I have to go back to the hospital to have another ultrasound done at the end of the month.

E.R. copay: $100
Urologist copay: $40
Prescriptions: $33
Deductible paid before they would do the lithotripsy: $1000
20% of hospital, doctors', and surgical fees: ????
Follow up with urologist: $40
Follow up ultrasound: $40 + ????

Having sweet kids, sweet friends, and a sweet husband: priceless.

Not my favorite expensive stone

2010-02-23T19:11:00.000-08:00

Got put under and intubated twice today. I think I've met my quota for the year. Gotta love kidney stones. Sore. And bladder trauma is not enjoyable. In case you were wondering. More later.

Valentine's Day at our house

2010-02-14T18:51:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day from our house to yours!

Notes to Self

2010-02-06T20:18:00.001-08:00

Dear Erin,
When you order pizza online from Papa John's and it says it will arrive in 30-40 minutes and you think "Great! I have time to jump in the shower" (because it is 5 p.m. and you haven't done that yet for the day), you actually DO NOT have time to jump in the shower. Because the pizza guy will arrive in more like 22 minutes and your son will yell through the door "Just a minute! My mom has to get dressed!" and then you will have to answer the door in a towel and bathrobe and it will be awkward for all involved.
Sincerely,
Erin

Dear Erin,
When you are spending your Friday date night shopping at the dollar store (which I know you like to do), watch out for mysterious wet substances raining down on your head from above. Because sometimes when you are perusing the book section, a customer in the next aisle will be testing all of the spray deodorants by spraying them up and over the shelf and on to you...and in the process giving you that special Eau de Dollar Tree to enjoy for the rest of your date.
Sincerely,
Erin

Dear Erin,
When you hear one of your children laughing, the other one is nearby crying. When you hear both of your children laughing, you will be crying shortly when you see what they've done.
Regretfully,
Erin

Dear Mother,

2010-02-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

I would like to thank you for giving my children drums for Christmas.

Was I really that horrible as a child that you feel the need to punish me so?

The children are greatly enjoying them.

Love,
Erin

+ 2

2010-01-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

Remembered a couple more classics...

Sawyer got underwear for Christmas. Exciting I know. At first he refused to acknowledge that they were underwear. He kept insisting they were socks. Then one day a couple weeks later he was suddenly excited to wear his underwear. Unfortunately, he wasn't excited to use the potty. He went through 3 pairs of Sesame Street underwear in under 15 minutes. Then he told me "Sometimes Elmo is mad at me...because I poop on his face." As Bryce pointed out, that would make anyone angry. We've taken a break from underwear for the moment.

Sawyer also seems to be the creator and instigator of a new game the boys like to play. Out of the blue Sawyer will say "Hey Will, let's cry" and then they both pretend to sob until they get bored and go do something else. It is always Sawyer who suggests it.

Instant portraitization

2010-01-21T22:14:00.000-08:00

Santa brought me a netbook for Christmas. It can boot either in Windows or Macintosh. I have never spent much time on a Mac so I haven't learned how to do much with it yet. But it does have a photo booth feature. And the netbook has a built in camera and flash. So now when I feel a need to take my own picture I don't even have to go find a camera. It also takes video. I'm all set to launch a skanky website. The boys think it is hilarious. I think they could amuse themselves for hours just taking pictures of themselves and seeing them show up on the screen.

Look who's - still- talking

2010-01-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

Sawyer has gotten to be almost as much of a talker as Will is. Will does not stop talking. Ever. Even at night when I go in to check on him on my way to bed he talks. If you touch sleeping Will in any way it is like hitting "unmute" and he starts talking. Sawyer tries to hold his own. If Will is not around, Sawyer is pretty quiet. But if Will is there Sawyer talks as much as he does.

All the talking leads to some amusing lines, however.

Will: Daaaadddddd....I NEED a cell phone!
Dad: Why do you need a cell phone Will?
Will: So I can text Sophs! She is going to beg for one too!

Pre-meditated begging. The worst kind.

Will (after being put to bed): Moooooommmm...I want to throw up so I can watch Bolt in your bed!

Sawyer (saying his prayers): And thank you that I a baby.

Will: Sawyer, let's measure you and see how big you are!
Sawyer: No! No! I not big!
Will: Ok, let's measure you and see how small you are.
Sawyer: No! I not small.
Will: Ooookk, let's measure you and see if you are medium.
Sawyer: No! I not med-yum.
Will: Ok, let's measure you and see if you are a baby.
Sawyer: Thank you Will. I a baby.

(Sawyer has a Peter Pan complex. He gets very upset if you tell him he's a big boy. But then he also has a superiority complex when he's around real babies. He has this weird habit of walking up to babies and little toddlers and growling "I Sawyer!" Just so they know who's boss I guess.)

Will has learned about littering. Except he calls it glittering. He saw his dad set a cup next to a full garbage can the other day and yelled "Dad! That is glittering! You will get a ticket! You glitter all over the whole city!" Which makes me laugh just picturing it. If things seem more sparkly than usual you'll know who to blame.

On a prior occasion, Bryce told Will that he needed to take a nap and Will refused. So we told Will that he would be the parent and Bryce and I would take a nap while Will cleaned the house and paid the bills. Several weeks later, on MLK day, Mollie and I took the boys to McDonald's and then stopped at the mall. The kids were being miserable so I told Will that he was having quiet time when we got home. He objected and then said "Do I have to be the parent instead?" I said "Yes, you have to be the parent and I'll take a nap" and he promptly started sobbing. He cried for about 10 minutes until he calmed down enough that we could figure out what he was saying. He was crying "I don't want to give all my money for bills!"

Funny, that's what Bryce does when he has to pay the bills too.

I did a project with Will the other day and he announced "This is fun Mom! This is even more fun than making a mess!" Which just proves that he makes messes purely for entertainment value.

Sawyer calls pistachios "mustachios" and he calls clementines "loventines." I don't correct him because I think it is funny.

This one is old so I might have already mentioned it:
Mom: Sawyer, are you stinky?
Sawyer: No. I not stinky.
Mom: Is that the truth?
Sawyer: No. I lie.
(He was stinky.)

And speaking of McDonald's. I made the mistake of taking the boys to the East Bay McDonald's by the mall. The only other time I have taken them there we couldn't even sit in the play area because there were people camped out at all of the tables. It was annoying but I didn't think much of it. Then on MLK day we took the boys there again and, once again, we couldn't sit in the play area because people were camped out at all the tables. And by camped out I mean NONE of the people sitting at the tables were eating food. They were just sitting while their kids played in the play area. My favorite was the lady who had to take an entire booth for just herself. No bags, no food, not even coats or anything. Just herself sitting in the booth. Whatever. So we ate inside. When the boys had finished eating, but Mollie and I weren't done yet, the lady finally got up and we moved outside so the boys could play while we finished eating. Then another family came in and stood next to my shoulder for a good 15 minutes just waiting for us to leave so they could have our table. My favorite part? This family came into the play area directly from the parking lot with their bags of Subway sandwiches. I'm sorry, but if you want to use the playground your punishment is that at least some of you have to purchase and eat McDonald's food. I also loved the 13? year-old boys running through the play area and knocking the little kids over. I'm sorry again, but if you weigh 100+ lbs it is time to move on from the McDonald's play area. When we left all of the families that were there when we got there were still there. And they didn't have any food when we got there...and they didn't have any food when we left. Apparently you have to arrive at about 7 a.m. to stake out a table at the East Bay McDonald's play area. Is that weird or is it just me?

Ring in the New

2010-01-01T18:41:00.001-08:00

We started off our New Year's Eve celebration by taking the boys sledding. It only took a few runs before the boys were too tired to walk back up the hill and Mom and Dad were waaayy too tired to pull them back up the hill. It was a good sledding day because it was warm and sunny and you weren't freezing.

After sledding we had a late lunch at Costa Vida and let the kids play in the small playground area. Then back home so that Sawyer (and Dad) could have a nap. Later that evening we took the boys to Mimi's and let them choose any dessert they wanted from the dessert tray. The desserts are $5 and they are huge! The kids were in heaven. Will chose the double chocolate brownie and Sawyer chose the apple crisp. Amazingly, they both ate almost their whole plate. So much for me wanting to share with Will! I had 2 bites of his brownie...and then he finished my hot chocolate too.

After dessert we drove down to the mall to watch the 9 p.m. fireworks. We found a place to park and watched the short and sweet fireworks show.

Then back home for a sparkling cider toast before bed. The boys celebrated East Coast New Year's and went to bed at 10 p.m. I stayed up finishing the last 2 months' worth of blog updates. At midnight I watched the time delayed ball drop in Times Square and then went to bed. Pretty exciting.

Happy New Year!

To review

2009-12-31T22:42:00.000-08:00

2000-Dec. 31, 2009:

- Y2K...that was anticlimactic.
- 2000: Graduated from Cromwell High
- June 2002: Got married. New last name acquired.

- January 2003: Had benign bone tumor removed from jaw after confusing multiple dentists.
- April 2004: Graduated from BYU. Major: English
- July 2005: Had a baby boy. Nurses called him the "Miracle Baby" - We call him Will.

- July 2005: Bought our first house and moved out of the trailer park.
- April 2007: Graduated from BYU Law. GPA: no clue, grades still in the filing cabinet, still not looking.
- July 2007: Had another baby boy. Wanted in on Will's bday festivities and arrived 3 weeks early = no bar exam for me. Welcome Sawyer!

- February 2008: Took and passed Bar Exam. Hallelujah!
- May 2008: Sworn in - Officially a member of the Utah State Bar.

- October 2008: Started a very small secret shopping business for the BYU Bookstore
- June 2008 - December 2009: Stayed home with 2 boys and recovered from all of the above (okay, the last year and a half have been pretty uneventful!).

2009:
- Got a new president. Got tickets to the inauguration. Gave them to my brother who went but got stuck in the tunnel of doom.

- Celebrated Sawyer's 2nd birthday and Will's 4th birthday.
- Sawyer started really talking.
- Will started reading and spelling.
- Went to Connecticut and attended Kyle's wedding.
- Went to Texas.
- Went to Idaho for the first time since the ill-fated Christmas 2008 trip.
- Read a lot of books. Did some craft projects, started even more projects that I haven't finished. Started and almost finished the mural in Will's room that was supposed to be completed before Sawyer was born. Learned to bake bread and make that Thai green curry dish Bryce likes. Taught Will to ride his bike without training wheels. Did my church thing (and enjoyed it!). Celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. Turned 27. Did the daily stuff you do most days and then you add them up and a year has gone by!

2010:
- My firstborn starts preschool and then kindergarten.
- If my husband prevails we'll buy a new house. I don't want a new house. We shall see.
- Mollie graduates and goes who knows where for graduate school...taking my only in-state family and free babysitter with her.
- My 10-year High School reunion.
- My hubby turns 30! Let the party planning begin.
- Bryce and I have a one-time window of opportunity to leave the country without children. We'll see.
- Another great big we'll see.

By the end of this decade:
- Maybe we won't live in Utah. If Bryce and I can ever agree on anywhere else to go.
- There will be a teenager in the house! Aaahh!
- Not only will my firstborn have survived kindergarten, he'll be in high school! I need to go work on our college fund now...and finish painting his room.
- I'll be planning Bryce's 40th birthday party. I guess that would make us officially grown-ups.
- Who knows! Let's make it a happy decade, shall we?

This Decade In Memoriam:

September 11, 2001

2001 Not pictured:
Brittney McMurdie

Sarah E. LeFoll

Allison S. Morris

Ilene Adelaide Hunt Hurst

Dr. Gregory Gordon

Prof. Michael Goldsmith

So this is Christmas

2009-12-31T16:55:00.000-08:00

We were able to have some family with us for Christmas after all. It was Megan's year to have Christmas with her inlaws, but her husband had to work until 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve so they weren't going to be able to make it to California in time for Christmas. They drove down on Christmas Eve and left early in the morning on the 27th to fly to California. It was nice to have someone besides ourselves here for Christmas though. The boys are old enough to be REALLY excited for Christmas this year, but it was nice to have company over the age of 4.

Last year my mom gave us The Elf on the Shelf. It is a book that tells the story of an elf who lives with you each December and reports back to Santa about the behavior of the kids in the house. It comes with a little stuffed elf. Every night starting on December 1 after the kids go to bed we hide the elf somewhere new and then in the morning they find it. Or that is the goal. More than once that silly elf forgot to hide somewhere new during the night. The Elf is also the source of our month-long threats. "Will, the elf is watching"..."Will, the elf just saw you take that away from Sawyer"..."Sawyer, the elf is going to tell Santa to put you on the naughty list." Will desperately wanted to help me make chocolates, but I told him he couldn't because he was sick and I didn't want him touching the food. He informed me "Ohhh...the elf is putting you on the naughty list: Doesn't let her kid help. That is naughty. Sorry, Mom. It's not my rule...it's Santa's rule!" Will has also been known to go in the other room so that the elf can't see him be naughty. The elf usually leaves with Santa on Christmas Eve, but I might have to make him a year round resident. Is it bad if my kids have an elf rather than a conscience?

This was the first year that we had the boys buy each other a Christmas present. I'm not sure how I was envisioning that playing out. I guess I pictured them happily choosing a gift that they would lovingly give to each other on Christmas Eve. It ended with Bryce dragging them both screaming out of the dollar store while I stood in line to pay for the things that I picked out for them to give to each other. Amazingly, they only wanted to choose things for themselves. And threw tantrums when I said they weren't buying toys for themselves. So that went well. The joy of giving. I think they've got that down.

Will wrote his own letter to Santa this year. Remind me next year to make him write it earlier. He wrote it on about the 23rd and, of course, nothing on his list bore any resemblance to the things he had been telling us he wanted Santa to bring him. We had to do some explaining on Christmas of why Santa didn't bring exactly the things he wrote on his list. For weeks Sawyer had been telling us that he wanted Santa to bring him "candy." So that was easy enough. Until the 23rd when he started saying that Santa was bringing him a monster truck. Bryce made a last minute lunch break trip to Target to solve that one. I figure, the Santa years are so short that you might as well do what you can to let them believe while it lasts.

Speaking of Santa, in our house all of the presents come from Santa. I know people do things different ways, but that is the way it always was in my house. I hadn't foreseen this causing difficulties until Will started asking what Mom and Dad were giving him for Christmas. He thought it was a little unfair that he was supposed to pick out a present for Mom and Dad, but Mom and Dad didn't have to give him anything. So Mom and Dad gave the boys their own pocket size copies of the Book of Mormon with their names on the cover. They were pretty excited to have their own scriptures (another advantage of youth...I'm sure scriptures won't always receive such an enthusiastic reaction).

I wasn't sure they would make it, but the boys survived to see Christmas Eve. Their excitement level had been rising throughout the entire month until I thought they'd either pass out, make themselves sick (they are my children after all), or bug me enough that they'd be permanently locked in their rooms. On Christmas Eve they put on a little nativity play...complete with a cat pillow as baby Jesus.

We sang some carols and read The Night Before Christmas. Then the boys opened their presents from their aunts and uncles and grandparents on my side (a tradition from my family to separate the family presents from the hustle and bustle of all the Santa presents on Christmas day). They stayed up to see Megan and Chad who arrived at about 9:30 and then we put them to bed at about 10:30. And we didn't hear from them until 8 a.m. Hallelujah!

Christmas was opening presents while Skyping with family in Connecticut, staying in pajamas until about 4 p.m., eating breakfast at 11:30, and all the other great Christmas stuff. Sawyer had a little freak-out in the middle of the present opening. He didn't want any presents and just cried and cried. I think he was a little overwhelmed and a lot tired. Then he snapped out of it and went on with the opening. That night Megan and Chad watched It's a Wonderful Life with me, thereby saving me from watching it by myself. The end of that movie gets me every time. You know, when everybody in town comes running in with the money. And crappy old Potter gets away with it every time, but it doesn't matter because he's just a miserable old man. Sigh. Please tell me you watch this movie.

Another benefit of having Megan and Chad here was that they got primary toy assembly duty. Of course, since I didn't assemble them in the first place I am going to be useless when it comes to the constant re-assembling throughout the year.

Here is a bonus picture of Christmas morning with my siblings. 1991: The year of the perm and New Kids on the Block.

From the south to the north

2009-12-31T16:21:00.000-08:00

This post might have pictures someday, but I'd have to get them from my dad which would mean my brother would have to be in charge of sending them to me. Someday maybe.

My parents flew to Utah 3 days after we got back from Texas. That weekend I kissed my boys (big and little) goodbye and drove to Idaho with my mom, dad, and Mollie. We went to attend Megan's senior clarinet recital. She will be graduating from BYU-Idaho in April, but she is done with all of her classes and will spend the next semester student teaching. She had a piano accompanist and then her clarinet professor accompanied her on one song and a cellist accompanied her on another.

We arrived in Rexburg on Friday evening and went to check in to our hotel...the lovely Super 8. When my mom went to check in the clerk handed her a slip of paper explaining that "due to circumstances beyond their control" and "because of upgrades to the city's power system" the hotel would have no power from 7-11 a.m. the following morning. Being a little dazed we went up to check out the room. Once we looked around for about 2 minutes we figured out that there was no way we were staying there with no electricity. No electricity would have meant all 4 of us having to either shower with the bathroom door open (ummm...awkward) or having to shower in the pitch black. It also would have meant no heat and the high temperatures for the weekend were around 15 degrees. I made a few phone calls and found that there were plenty of rooms available in town, and, curiously, no one else had heard anything about "upgrades to the city's power system." I'm pretty sure the guy at one hotel I called thought it was some weird kind of prank call when I asked "Will you have electricity tomorrow?" There was a long pause and then he said "Umm...yes." I explained why I was asking and he just started laughing and said "Yeah, we'll have power." So not sure what was up with that.

We switched to a hotel that had heat. Unfortunately, the thermostat in our room appeared to be malfunctioning. We set it to 70, left the hotel, and when we came back it said it was 77 and the heat was still blowing. So then we turned it down, but it would randomly turn itself on. The heat was on all night long. We hear it was blowing right on my mom's face all night and she couldn't sleep...or so she told us...many times throughout the next day. Maybe the room temperature was trying to compensate for the lobby temperature. The hotel had a free breakfast and they had tables set up in the lobby. I don't think the lobby got above 50. We had to wear our winter coats to eat breakfast.

The next day we were out running some errands before Megan's recital and she said that she wanted a breakfast croissant from the drive-through at Jack in the Box. That proved to be a fateful request. We got in the drive-through and placed our order. Then we sat and sat and sat and sat. The drive-through had the restaurant on one side and a high wall on the other, so with a car in front of us and car behind us we were totally trapped. After 18 minutes Mollie got out of the car and tried to go inside to figure out what was going on. I say she "tried" to go inside because the door was locked. Some customer let her in and told her that the employees had said "they were really behind so they were just locking the doors." Mollie said the restaurant was full of people sitting around waiting for food. I'm not sure what was going on in the back. I think the cook was in a corner crying. Because no one inside had any food and no one in the drive-through was getting any either. So they locked the doors. Because apparently when the going gets tough in Rexburg you lock the doors and hide. After a good 20 minutes, the truck in front of us drove off. We pulled up to the window and the girl says "So you had the #2 and the #3?" No. We had a breakfast croissant. "Oh," she says. My dad hands her the money and she just looks at it and then looks around the kitchen helplessly. After about 3 minutes she was still just standing there with the money in her hand so my dad said "You know what, just give me the money back." Looking relieved, she handed the money back and we drove away. Just to make things more fun, while she was standing there with the money I noticed the little sign on the window with the customer service number exhorting me to call if we had any problems. So I call the number only to find out that their customer service system is only available on Monday-Friday from 9-5. It being Saturday their recording advised me to "call back on Monday." Touche Jack in the Box.

This is just kind of how Rexburg is.

Then Megan gave her recital which was lovely. And having a weekend with no one requiring that I wipe their rear end was lovely as well. I even ate a meal without getting up 25 times. While I was gone Bryce took the boys to their first ever movie in a movie theater. I thought it would blow Will's mind to see a tv screen that big, but I guess he wasn't overly impressed. They also went bowling, so the boys weren't too upset that I was gone.

On Sunday we drove back to Utah. My parents were here for another week or so. My dad, Sawyer, and I got a Christmas tree while my mom took Will to see The Princess and the Frog. I think he thought it was a little bit scary. My mom and the boys made cookies while I went to the mall with my dad. It was kind of an early Christmas celebration since it was my year to have Christmas with my family...only problem being my family was going to be in Connecticut and we were going to be in Utah. Which makes it a little hard to have Christmas with them.

Next stop, Christmas!

Everything's bigger? Really?

2009-12-30T21:31:00.000-08:00

On November 20th we headed to Texas for an extended Thanksgiving break. We started out by flying to Midland, Texas where Bryce went to high school. Bryce was excited to get together with his friend Wes...but that smart man married a New Yorker and they were back east for the holiday. They very kindly let us stay at their house, however. Bryce was able to see some old friends. I got to eat some good food that I neither cooked nor cleaned up. (Eating out, the highlight of every vacation.) The boys got to play with other kids' toys. We all got to see 2 stuffed chimpanzees driving a zebra-drawn wagon. Who knows why.

Should you find yourself in Midland you can check it out in the Claydesta atrium - Claydesta being the name of an office building in downtown Midland. In case you are wondering, Midland, Texas is where baby Jessica fell down the well. She has since moved on. It is also the home of one of the teams featured in Friday Night Lights. They take their football seriously down there. And I mean frighteningly seriously. Bryce played football there so I have an inside source.

It is also (one of) the hometown(s) of George W. We saw a sign for some former residence of his, but we didn't check it out. So you can see that Midland is a pretty happening place.

New since Bryce lived there was the drive-in movie theater. We took the boys and saw Where the Wild Things Are and A Christmas Carol (the new one). Where the Wild Things Are was totally not worth it in my book. It is kind of a pretty movie to watch...but they took a kids' book and then had to come up with 1.5 hours of movie and did it pretty lamely in my opinion. Having a neglected-misunderstood-feeling child project his emotions and relationship problems onto a group of monsters just isn't that engaging. A Christmas Carol was really dark. Both literally and figuratively. I mean, I know the story, so I was fully expecting the ghosts and haunting visions of the past/future/etc...but Robert Zemeckis always brings in that creep factor. We spent a lot of time making lame jokes trying to keep the boys from having nightmares. Although Sawyer didn't seem to think it was scary. He kept saying "I like that mean guy! I love him!" whenever he saw Scrooge. Sawyer likes everyone and everything and everywhere...and every food. I think it was a bit scary for Will though. The boys both enjoyed playing on the swing set under the screen in the dark before the movie started, so they got the full drive-in experience. I wish drive-ins would make a come back. You can throw the kids in their pajamas, fill the car with treats, and not worry if the boys won't stop talking. Of course, you can't charge $7/person which is what they tried to do at home...because if I'm spending that kind of money I'm getting a babysitter and going to a real movie theater.

Here is ~~the barren wasteland~~ Midland itself. I'm pretty sure Midland, Texas is the exact opposite of my hometown of Cromwell, Connecticut. In every way possible.

(Picture courtesy of somebody whose road trip popped up in my google image search since I left my camera at home and we hadn't bought a substitute yet.)

After several days in Midland we traded in our rental car for a one-way rental car and headed to San Antonio. We got to San Antonio later than we had planned so we didn't see the Alamo or the river walk which were originally on our list. But we saw the Alamo the last time we were in town and I'm pretty sure it hasn't changed much so that was okay. And our real reason for going to San Antonio was to visit Sea World. After consulting with the boys about their life goals (Will wants to be a cowboy/pirate and Sawyer wants to be a lion), we decided we were fine to raid their college fund and hit up Sea World. Sawyer was free and Bryce and I got in at the kids' price thanks to an internet special, but even so our grand total for one day at Sea World was................$190...not including any food...and you can't bring in any food or beverage in case you were wondering. I had never been to Sea World so I think I was more excited about it and enjoyed it more than the boys.

We were there 5 minutes after the gates opened and spent the day running (literally, more than once) from show to show. We squeezed in the rest of the animals and the kid rides and fed the dolphins. At the end of the day we still hadn't seen the penguins so we took off to the other end of the park and, on our way, passed the entrance to the park's biggest roller coaster. Bryce ran in right as they closed the gates for the night. So he got to ride the roller coaster and I got to stay with my 2 feet happily on the ground and watch the penguins. Poor Sawyer was very unhappy that they wouldn't let him ride the Shamu coaster. It's not his fault he got the short genes! On our way out of the park the kid area was totally empty. We let Will take the opportunity to go on the Shamu coaster over and over. Earlier in the day we had only let him ride it once because there was a long line. Poor Sawyer just sobbed and sobbed saying "I want to ride Shamu!" over and over. After Will had gone about 3 times the kid guarding the line asked if Sawyer was mad because he wanted to go on the ride. I said "Yes, but they told us he was too short." The kid said "I'll let him go." Yay for minimum wage 15 yr-old employees! So Sawyer's dream came true and he got to ride the Shamu ride. Will was in the first car and kept his hands up the whole time. Sawyer held on tight, but enjoyed it. Mom was surprised that it was actually a lot bumpier and faster than it looked from the ground!

We left as they were closing the gates so at least we squeezed every dime out of our admission price. All in all, Sawyer seemed to enjoy the animals (no surprise there) and Will spent most of the day whining for popcorn or ice cream or whatever he saw other kids with (also no surprise). Will was a big fan of the rides though.

Highlights included feeding the dolphins - with the low light that Will couldn't reach far enough over the side wall of the tank to touch them..and you are ABSOLUTELY NOT allowed to try to hold him up so he could reach farther.

(This would be 2 seconds before we were told that Will HAD to be on his stomach. Sorry.)
Other highlight: arriving early and sitting in the front row for the Sesame Street Live show...except from our close vantage point Will very quickly figured out that they were people in costumes, but he was still pretty excited when Abby gave him a high five at the end. Other low light: Will fell in the middle of the hanging net playground area and got his arm stuck up to his shoulder. I was watching from below and thought he was just being weird. I walked up a ramp to say hi to him and saw that he was sobbing. I told him to hold still and that Dad was coming. And Dad was coming. But as I mentioned Will was in the middle of the very long suspended play area consisting of nets connected by small tunnels. So Bryce had to climb through the entire thing to get to him and then all the way back out. We had a little crowd gathered by the time he got rescued. Very exciting.

An employee offered to take our picture...the people behind us in line kept laughing and finally someone pointed out that Will kept putting his hands in his pants. Nice one Will.

Other random San Antonio event. We stayed at a new hotel that had only been open for 6 weeks (thanks to hotwire). It was nice, but they were still working out a few things. Like the printer in the business center which wasn't actually hooked up to any computers. We would never have noticed such a thing except that we needed to buy and print out our internet Sea World tickets. When you tried to print you just ended up creating a file on the computer instead. In attempting to figure out what happened and why nothing had printed I discovered an entire list of files that other people had created while trying to print things. Including people's airline tickets, receipts for internet orders, and a 20 page military document marked "classified." All viewable to whoever clicked on them. Whoops! I'm still negotiating a price for the return of the military documents. Just kidding. I deleted them. I'm pretty much a national hero now. And it didn't look like anything interesting anyways...not that I looked at them.

Next stop, Katy, Texas.
We got to Katy the night before Thanksgiving and met up with Bryce's parents and 2 sisters at his parents' house. We stayed at a hotel and I decided it was lovely to go back to a cleaned up room with nicely made beds every night. What? You say I could have a cleaned up room and nicely made beds every night at my own house? How much would that cost me?

We went to the Houston Aquarium (which also, randomly, features a white tiger exhibit) and rode the ferry on Galveston Island. The Island looks a little freaky with the remaining hurricane aftermath. We let the kids play on the beach for a bit until Will fell in and got soaked and wanted nothing more to do with the beach.

Another day, we got together with one of Bryce's friends from Midland that I also knew because he lived at the Glenwood (apt. complex in Provo) the same year Bryce and I did.

The Flagship Hotel with a quarter of the exterior wall missing and all the windows blown out. The pier also has a gaping hole in it...but I don't know if that was hurricane damage or done purposefully afterward so that you can't get out to the hotel ruins. And seriously, it looks like super creepy ruins out there in the water. Much creepier than this picture makes it look. (Picture courtesy the internetz and google image search.)

On December 1st we flew out of Houston and back to Salt Lake. And I'm now a big fan of the travel-size AquaDoodle. It was a hit. The kids did well on the plane and the only time Sawyer cried was when we landed. He kept yelling "Do it again! Do it again!" and refused to get off the plane. I was carrying his car seat so Bryce had to come back on and drag him off. I took enough Dramamine that I made the trip without wanting to die...but it makes me very sleepy and kind of loopy so my apologies to all the ladies that had to see me in action at our Relief Society Christmas dinner that evening! I don't think I was thinking very clearly. We got off the plane to discover that our car which we had left with friends wouldn't start. We tried jumping it for the next two days, but then my Dad flew into town and fixed it all up for us with a new battery which solved the problem. He didn't fly into town just to fix our car...my parents came for Megan's senior recital. Which shall be the subject of the next post.

This post brought to you by the word "creepy" and its variations.

Happy Christmas to All...

2009-12-25T00:49:00.000-08:00

And on that note...to all a good night!

(Will was trying to prompt Sawyer on his line, which was to say "Happy Holidays," but he just said "Holiday" instead.)

2009-12-21T16:44:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to taste a lot like Christmas.

I've never made these before, but they are a winner in my book.
Front to back:
Nutter butter truffles dipped in chocolate
Mint Oreo truffles dipped in creme de menthe coating
Oreo truffles dipped in white chocolate
Golden Oreo truffles dipped in cherry coating

Take 1 pack of sandwich cookies and stick them in a food processor until you have crumbs. Mix crumbs with 1 pack of cream cheese. Roll into balls and chill. Dip in melted chocolate or candy coating. Keep chilled.

5 more days...

2009-12-19T23:07:00.000-08:00

Christmas.

Is.

Almost.

Here.

And so is an update to this blog. As soon as I get the vacation pictures from Bryce. Any day now.

Yes, Virginia... well, actually...

2009-12-07T22:16:00.000-08:00

Tonight when I put Will to bed I asked him what he was going to ask Santa for. Besides the fact that he wants everything he has ever seen on any commercial, he hasn't really given us any concrete ideas of what he is hoping to find under the Christmas tree. With no hesitation he replied "I want a 15-16 robot and it cooks all the food we eat, and cleans up all the stuff in my room, and cleans the whole house, and it puts the laundry away so fast, and it can turn on my fan and if it is dusty it cleans it, and if my shoes are dirty it cleans them, and it doesn't have a remote control, you just tell it what to do."

Dear Santa, that is what I want too.

I think we are going to be equally disappointed.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2009-12-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

I hope you had a great birthday Dad. I spent the day on an airplane with children...thinking about how much more fun it would be to be enjoying your birthday dinner and cake and presents with you! Sorry we missed you. Hope you heard our pathetic birthday singing on the answering machine. Will says he thinks you want "video games and a play station" for your birthday. He hasn't quite grasped that what other people would like is not always the same as what he would like.

In honor of your birthday I am not posting the picture of you and Kyle when you won The Amazing Dickerson Family Race last Christmas (you know...after taking the fast forward and going in the hot tub and then having to walk through the snow and then posing in towels in front of the fireplace). But just remember that I have it.

Happy Birthday! See you Thursday and we'll have a good time.

Love,
Erin, Bryce, Will and Sawyer

I really am talking to myself

2009-11-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

I came downstairs from showering the other day to discover that Sawyer had smeared a stick of butter over every surface he could reach in the kitchen. I responded by chastising him...immediately...repeatedly...and possibly...loudly.

As I was, shall we say, verbally expressing my frustration Sawyer walked over to the junk drawer and started rifling through it. He pulled out of pair of foam ear plugs, stuck one in each ear, said "Too loud in here Mommy" and walked out of the room.

He is 2. I might as well give up now.

Oh, and it appears he smeared the butter because he took a giant bite out of it and was mad that "it not cheese!"

not to mention...

2009-11-12T16:35:00.001-08:00

We returned from Wyoming to find a cleaned-up house (including the boys' bedrooms and the FRIDGE) and a pan of freshly-baked brownies on the counter. There are good elves at my house.

Why, why, why Wyoming

2009-11-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

We spent the weekend in Wyoming. Laramie to be specific. My brother was in Laramie for the week so we drove out to visit. We also went to the BYU vs. Wyoming game that happened to be the same weekend. The boys did remarkably well on the drive there and back. They slept most of the time both ways. Which is good, because if they had acted the way they usually act in the car I would still be recovering from a total mental breakdown. And let me just say, I wasn't even doing the driving, but the drive across Wyoming on 1-80 is one boring drive. And I have spent a fair amount of time as a passenger in a car on some boring drives. (The state of Nebraska comes to mind here too.)

Will got to "hang out with Uncle Evan" which is high up on the list of his favorite activities. Will spent most of the weekend toting around Evan's old still-semi-functioning cell phone. He kept pressing buttons really intently and we asked what he was doing and he said he was "texting Sophs" and "sending her pictures." Oh my. The thought of that child at 14 is truly frightening. We took the boys across the street to the pre-game festivities and Will wanted to go on an inflatable obstacle course. I told him he had to give me the cell phone first. He handed it to me and I put it in the diaper bag. When I looked back at him he was busy "texting" on another cell phone that he had stashed in his pocket. He obligingly handed it over. I put it in my bag only to look back and find that he was now using a THIRD cell phone which he had also stashed in his pocket. Sawyer got to play with Paul and chase the "puppies" which were really cats. Sawyer was disappointed that Paul didn't come home with us and kept asking "Where's Po? Where's Po?" on the way home. Bryce and I spent 3 hours at the football game with no children and also got to hang out with Uncle Evan and Laurel.

A grand time was had by all (well maybe not Laurel and Evan...but that's what you get for inviting us!...but you didn't think we'd actually show up did ya?!) Heh heh heh.

For anyone who doesn't follow BYU sports (cough, cough 90% of the people who might read this)...Wyoming fans are not particularly fond of BYU fans. Like in the physical violence and destruction of property type of way. Luckily, Laurel and Evan provided our boys with some camouflage. And we used it. Don't judge.

And turns out we only spotted one BYU-insulting middle-aged man during our stay. And his biggest insult seemed to be that we "think Provo is so much better than Laramie, but Laramie has everything Provo has...except Provo has a mall." Yes, he actually said this...and meant it to put the BYU-wearing fans in front of us in their place. I guess it is hard to think of much to say when you just got beat 52-0.

Halloween by night

2009-11-10T21:17:00.000-08:00

Mollie was about to change into her costume. (RDRR)

And this is the only picture that was actually taken on Halloween night. Will kept running out the door trying to join up with every passing horde of trick-or-treaters. Sawyer was busy having a melt-down because we woke him up from a late nap following the dinosaur museum. Once they got back from trick-or-treating, Will was too busy tearing into candy to take a picture and Sawyer was too busy having a melt-down every time a trick-or-treater came to the door. He would grasp desperately for the candy bowl screaming "My candy! My candy!" every time I gave some away. He was definitely not okay with the idea of people coming to our door and taking our candy away right in front of him.

Sawyer asked to be Popeye. I bought a box set of the old black and white Popeye cartoons from Big Lots for $3 and the boys love them. I love that they are learning the virtues of random violence, domestic abuse, and ethnic stereotypes. Ah, the good old days. On the plus side, both of the boys are much more willing to eat vegetables.

Will wanted to be Indiana Jones. Actually Will wanted to be Indiana Jones last year...but so did every other boy born in the 2000s and after going to about 5 stores looking for Indiana Jones costume pieces I talked him into being a robot instead. I thought to myself "Surely, he will have moved on and forgotten all about Indiana Jones by next year." Alas, the year came and went and he was still obsessed. So this year he finally got his wish. He also planned out his next 5 years' worth of costumes: "next year Popeye, then a giant lego, then a dad, then a bobblehead." We'll see.

Sawyer still wears his sailor hat all day, every day. I bought it as a decoration for our nautical nursery a good 2 years before he was born, so I guess it was just waiting to meet its true owner all this time.

Halloween by day

2009-11-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

We decided we needed to take advantage of Halloween being on a Saturday and not just sit at home all day waiting for trick-or-treating. Well, ok, I decided we needed to go do something and other members of the household came along for the ride. We took a chunk out of the boys' college fund and went to the Dinosaur Museum. Seriously, that place is kind of pricey. Our later children will probably complain that they never got to go to the museum. Sorry about that later children. We'll make up for it by letting you be the ones to take care of us when we're old! I tried to take the boys over the summer on a $2 Tuesday, but upon seeing the line we quickly bailed out of that plan. Halloween was a perfect day to go. They had some little Halloween activities for the kids and the place was almost totally empty. We saw other people maybe a half dozen times as we spent over 2 hours wandering around. I think we got our money's worth.

They aren't clawing each other's eyes out! That alone is worth $30.

Big dinosaur. Little boys.

They especially loved having the water and sand tables to themselves. Will was a little possessive of his dinosaur parade (and possibly a little possessed too).

Boys at work. Sawyer wouldn't dig for bones until he had hoarded all the brushes.

Son, just send the therapy bill to your father.

Howl-een

2009-11-10T19:40:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure it was gonna happen, but we managed to carve pumpkins the night before Halloween. Neither of the boys would help clean out the insides..."disgusting!" Sawyer helped a little bit, but only with a spoon. Will wouldn't touch it at all and kept complaining about the smell. I'll admit, pumpkin insides do have a rather distinctive smell.

Will carefully planned out his design with a marker.

Wow, good drawing Will! Just kidding...he drew a googly eye-ed face on the other side.

We're just a little tiny bit into Transformers at the moment.

2009-11-09T20:59:00.000-08:00

Bryce bought me this song by request and I used it to make a picture music video for a friend. (Yes, it is from the Jon & Kate commercial, but since we all know how that is going I have no problem appropriating it.) Then I decided I needed my own video and spent an hour looking for another song to go with the pictures...but eventually decided I like this song the best for my own video too. I used the super easy Picasa video maker. The only thing I can't figure out is why the pictures look low resolution and some of the colors get messed up when you put them in the video maker. They don't look that way otherwise. Only biological relations are required to watch a video of my kids. The rest of you (if any) are welcome to go do something more amusing.

What I've read since the Bar Exam

2009-10-21T20:01:00.000-07:00

The last time I updated my sidebar was right after the Bar Exam. Which was February 2008. I guess it is time for an update. I saved a few library receipts so we'll see what I remember about the books I've read in the past year and a half. In no particular order:

Eat cake: a novel
- light and fluffy, like eating cake

The mermaid chair
- What would be better than a story about a bored middle-aged woman having an
affair? Why, if she had the affair with a monk, of course. The other elements
of the story were interesting, but I just wasn't feeling sympathetic towards
the main character.

The tenth circle: a novel
- by Jodi Picoult...need I say more?

Salem Falls
- by Jodi Picoult.

Legally correct fairy tales
- Hmm...I really don't recall at all. Hard to believe that legalese wouldn't be
memorable.

The future homemakers of America
- Fine, but one of those books that doesn't know when to stop. The story went on
a little too long.

The day I ate whatever I wanted: And other small acts of liberation
- A collection of short stories about women and their neurosis of which I
remember very few details.

The sand castle
- A family goes to the beach...and I don't recall too much of what happened there.

Death by cashmere: A seaside knitters mystery
- A slightly mysterious tale

Them
- by Joyce Carol Oates. A story about a depressing life based on letters Ms.
Oates received from a former student. I hope the student's real life wasn't as
bad as the life depicted in the book.

**The Friendly Persuasion
- A set of short stories about a Quaker family. Understated and insightful. I
really enjoyed this one.

"But a woman lived in a house, not outdoors. A sunset didn't come inside, light the wall behind the kitchen range so's she could see it while cooking supper; clouds taking this shape or that didn't settle down on the mantelpiece to keep her company while mending. The prettiness a woman saw, she had to make, she had to build it up from odds and ends. Did Jess ever note her handiwork? The articles embroidered, painted, stenciled, gilded, dyed? The combcases, footstools, doilies, tidies, fire screens, rugs, penwipers, lambrequins? Did he see how the bareness of timber and stone had been hidden and softened, until the room, to her eye, showed itself as prettier than any cloud, and not to be outdone, even, by a rose."

Yesterday's weather
- I very, very rarely do not finish a book. I didn't finish this one. It is a
collection of short stories and I didn't find any redeeming qualities in them.
Bad language and depressing subject matter do not a classic make.

Bee season: a novel
- A book about a little girl who competes in spelling bees...no wait, that is
what I thought it was. Actually a book about a little girl who competes in a
spelling bee in the first chapter of the book and then in the space of a year
her family goes off the deep end while she prepares for the next spelling bee.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency: Books 1-4
- I wouldn't call these suspenseful, or all that mysterious...but they are an
easy, enjoyable read.

The Devil Wears Prada
- Wow, Hollywood actually improved upon a book and made it cleaner at the same
time? Seriously, they did. The book falls short.

Julie and Julia
- Wait, Hollywood made a movie that is better and cleaner than the book again?
Yes, they did. The book has very little driving the plot (if you can call it
that) and even less to recommend it by way of writing style and language.

The 5 People You Meet in Heaven
- Memorable, in an odd sort of way. Not what I was expecting.

The Maytrees
- I don't think I'm smart enough to understand half of what this book was
saying. It did make me want to go hang out on Cape Cod though.

My Name is Asher Lev
- I don't think I know enough about Judaism to really get this book.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
- A quirky book about a quirky kid. An interesting read, but it takes a giant
leap into fantasy at the end of the book. Seriously, I think a fantasy
writer found this unfinished manuscript in an attic somewhere and thought "hey,
I'll just come up with an ending to this book really quick." I'm still
perplexed by what happened there.

Re-reads:

Anne of Green Gables 1-8
- Don't be surprised when you want to move to Prince Edward Island and live at
Ingleside. Beautifully written stories from a long-ago era. Nothing
scandalous need apply.

The Secret Life of Bees
- Some memorable images and an interesting story line. Definitely preferred the
book over the movie.

Wuthering Heights
- I finally made it through the whole book this time. Sorry Heathcliff, but you
just aren't my favorite.

Those are all I can think/find the library receipts for.

On an unrelated note, Sawyer's bedtime prayers lately crack me up. This was tonight's: "Father...Monster trucks jump over cars...pizza, cheese, chicken, juice, napkins, fruit snacks, pickin' carrots...Amen." He just lists things that he likes. Awesome.

Dusk at the Big Red Barn

2009-10-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

I can't figure out how to make these pictures not ginormous. More specifically, I set them all to be the same size so I can't figure out why most are ginormous except the first and third pictures that actually came out the right size. But I'm giving up on messing with it for now.

We went pumpkin picking at our traditional spot. This year we even made it there before dark. And we remembered to buy donuts before going on the hayride so we wouldn't chance them being sold out like last year. And we got to go with friends this year. A successful trip.

[Unlike our attempted trip to Gardner Village on Saturday. We thought we'd go up early to avoid the "Witches' Night Out" crowd (not to mention the $5 parking fee that was supposed to accompany the evening event)...and discovered that half of Utah had the same idea. And they were already charging for parking. Super lame. We detoured to Wheeler Farm instead, which was also busy. Then we went to Target. Where I got super lucky. I was looking for a pair of leather boots that are sold out online and of course the store was sold out too. Until 10 minutes later when I walked by again and saw a pair in my size sitting in a cart. I asked an employee and she said it was a cart of returns and to go ahead and take them. Wahoo! Now to decide if I'm feeling fashionable enough to pull off the tuck-your-jeans-into-boots look.]

Speaking of Target, we stopped there the other day and on the way out we let the boys choose a toy from the $1 section. Will chose a dart gun and Sawyer chose a stuffed lion. No surprises there. That pretty much sums up their differences. On the way home Will announced, "I'm collecting weapons to destroy Sawyer's animals and Sawyer is collecting animals to try to destroy my weapons." Interesting. We saw some kittens for sale at the Farmer's Market last week and Sawyer was in love. Will could not have cared less. He wouldn't even pet a kitty. He was too busy begging us to buy him an inflatable cartoon character on a stick. Once again, that pretty much sums up their different interests.

And lest I forget to ever mention it (since I keep forgetting to take pictures), Will moved up to 2 wheeled transportation a couple weeks ago. No more training wheels! Congratulations Will!

PS: Did you notice anything different about Will? The angioma (red spot) under his eye finally disappeared! I just realized it the other day. I looked through some old photos and it first appeared when he was around 18 months old. They said it would go away eventually and it did. I'll stop messing with this post now. It is probably screwing with you RSS reader type folks.

Breaking news

2009-10-14T17:51:00.001-07:00

Sundance 2009

2009-10-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

2009-10-01T17:39:00.001-07:00

I figured out how to adjust my template. I had to mess with some HTML which was terrifying.

A most delightful melancholy

2009-10-01T16:41:00.005-07:00

(I'm still trying to figure out how to use photobucket...which is why these pictures are all in their own posts...and all pictures are courtesy of the Hartford Courant reader submitted photo file.)

"If you wake up one fall morning and I'm gone, I apologize in advance." This was the warning I gave Bryce last week when the weather changed and it was suddenly fall. It is nothing personal. Sometimes a girl just wants to go home.

Don't get me wrong. I like my little house and my little neighborhood and I'm glad that Utah has fall (in its own fashion), but...it must be said...if you aren't from New England you just don't understand. No offense. My children aren't from New England either. Which is a manageable fact most of the time...except for the months of September and October.

Would anyone like to arrange for me to go home, just for a little while?

My brother, the Photographer, won his Google friend's photo contest and got to choose the September contest theme. He chose "Nothing Gold Can Stay."

Maybe you'd like to read it - isn't this how September feels?

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf's a flower,
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
~ Robert Frost
(born in California, adopted New Englander...maybe there is hope for my children.)

* and no, Mom, I have not been home during the fall since my last year of high school...which was 9 years ago...in case you've lost count.

2009-10-01T16:41:00.003-07:00

These pictures were all taken in Connecticut by readers of the Hartford Courant.

2009-10-01T16:41:00.001-07:00

This one is from Cromwell (my hometown).

2009-10-01T16:40:00.005-07:00

And that is Hartford...just up the road.

2009-10-01T16:40:00.003-07:00