Happy Thanksgiving

I am writing this in my parent's warm attic, the snow is piled up outside and it is very, very cold. Yesterday the town was buzzing with talk about the storm to end all storms that was to hit last night. School was cancelled, businesses closed. The radio was instructing people to find their flashlights, blankets and to stay huddled in one room to keep warm in case the power went out.

We have Christmas music playing (my mom's new Celtic Woman Christmas album) and serious baking is underway. I am still in my pajamas and just loving being home for Thanksgiving.

Besides turkey tomorrow I am also looking forward to Saturday when we will baptize #1. I keep waking up at night with panicky thoughts. Have we prepared her well enough? Is there anything we forgot? Commandments? Check (I think). Laws and Ordinances of the gospel? Check (I think). Testimony and faith in Jesus Christ? Check (I think).


Have you heard about the adventure we had driving up here? Eightteen hours. Eightteen hours! Through blizzards and over ice and through scary, unplowed snowy canyons. Yikes! We are grateful to be here, alive.

I am grateful for a lot. God has blessed me and my family in many ways, large and small.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Can there be too much?

Basil?

No, I say there cannot.

The world is short exactly 200 million gallons of pesto.

Me and my little desert garden are doing our best to keep the world pesto production moving forward.

Let's do the math.

I have 10 basil plants.

Each plant will produce around 12 cups of basil leaves.

10 x 12 = lots of pesto

lots of pest0 = Merry Christmas to me!



Now, if only I could plant one of those money trees.....

Halloween Write Up

Jack and Sally Pumpkins

We had Cleopatra, (wingless) Tinkerbell and Anakin. Did you know Cleopatra murdered some of her siblings? Not my Cleopatra, the real one.

Unlike last year, where she cowered and clung to my leg all night, Tinkerbell thoroughly enjoyed all the Halloween festivities. She got into the Halloween spirit this year. She memorized and loved to sing "5 Little Pumpkins" and even arranged her own Halloween version of "Happy Family." It went something like this:

I scare Ghostey, he scares me.
We scare Pumpkin, yes siree.
He scares us and so you see,
We are a scary Halloween!

Pretty clever, huh?

Halloween falling on a Sunday really messed things up for Anakin. He has never been too good with chronology or time references. So when Halloween came and went without any real trick or treating, he was very disoriented. For several days after Halloween passed, he still was asking me in the morning, "Today we are going trick or treating?" Poor kid.

I was quite surprised when Cleopatra brought home a note from school stating that her class was going to have a Halloween party. Not a fall festival. Not a pumpkin party. There was no permission slip or alternate activity. Just a good, ole fashioned REAL Halloween party. They got to wear costumes and everything! It was great and Cleopatra was very beautiful.

Unlike the other kids who were a little sad to take down the Halloween decorations, she was rather stoic about it. When I asked her why she didn't care, she just shrugged her shoulders, "Eh, my birthday is in like 9 days and that's better than Halloween anyway." That's my practical girl!

Anakin's classroom Halloween party included cookie decorating.

Out of the mouth of this babe

#3 is so three years old. Her wise cracks have been bringing a smile to my face this week. There has been lots of talk of ghostesses, vampirates and scary mommies.

Jack and the Bean Stalk is her current book of choice before nap/quiet time. She loves the suspense while Jack is hiding in the Giant's oven. I wish I could record her little voice doing the fee fi fo fum part. In her best grumpy voice she says, "Fee fi fo fum! I smell the blood of an Englishmuffin!"

And yesterday, out of the blue, instead of her typical, "I'm not beautiful, I'm #3," response, she came up with this doozey, "I'm not cute, I'm Wallister Jenny." And she stuck with it too. All day she insisted she was Wallister Jenny. Do you know who Wallister Jenny is? I don't.

#3 is a social butterfly. When I take her out with me she is constantly meeting people by asking them frank questions like, What is your name? What are you doing? She mostly meets with friendly responses and people seem pleased to exchange pleasantries with such a little one.

Yesterday we had a close encounter with awkwardness when #3 asked the older man behind us in line at the pharmacy what was wrong with his nose, why did he have bloody on his nose? He had apparently just had some skin cancer removed and his nose was covered in fresh scabs. Fortunately, he was delighted to make conversation with her and he refused my apologies for her forwardness.

And today there was a real encounter with awkwardness.

#3 makes daily observations to the other adults at our bus stop. We are all very friendly by now. But after three months of seeing the same gentleman every single day today she happened to notice that he is black.

"Jimmy, you have earrings? Why do you have earrings? You're not a girl!"

Me: Some boys wear earrings too. Jimmy is wearing boy earrings.

"Oh! I like those boy earrings, Jimmy. I want those earrings too. Hey! You're black!"

Jimmy: Yes I am.

Examining herself, "But I'm white!"

Jimmy: That's ok. White and black. Everyone likes diamond earrings.

me (not knowing what the heck to say): I like diamond earrings.


Why was this awkward? I don't know. It just was.

Have your kids ever put you in an uneasy situation?

Your opnion matters

Thank heaven for 2nd grade writing assignments. Without them I may not know #1's true feelings for her brother. She actually loves him! See here:


Dear #2,

Your are a awsame brother. I would invite you to my party, but it will be a girl party. So I will let you play on my laptop. I wish I could mary you.

Love,
#1



I don't know where she's getting a laptop from, but no bother, the main point is that she actually does love her brother. Celebrate!


Thank heaven for 2nd grade writing assignments. Without them I may not know #1's true feelings for me. She actually...... well, you'll see:


Once upon a time their was a lovley girl. Her name was Crystal Caraline Amyal. She loved to paint, but she was to poor for a paint brush and paint colers. She had to save her money to buy them. But her mother thout that she whanted a boy to mary. Her mother was greedy. But one day a prince came and said he whant to mary Crystal but this time Crystal said yes with a bow. Her mother said NO MARY ME! And for such a compaint she was put to fire. Crystal maryes the prince and they where happy. The end.


Hmmm.

Opinion poll:

Should we start therapy now or wait a few years for these repressed feelings to fully develop into open rebellion?



For now I'm focusing on the positive. She loves her brother. Hooray!

Fall Break; the good news and the bad news

#2 explained our sudden appearance to his Nana,

"Our Great Grandma died and now she's with Jesus. That's the bad news. But we got to fly on an airplane to Nutah, so that's good news. "

That pretty much sums up our fall break. Tuesday night we were told the sad news that Spouse's Grandmother had passed away. We stayed up late into the night doing laundry and packing. We were on a plane at noon the next day.


My kids finally got to see what autumn is all about. My little desert rats have never experienced genuine fall, with crisp-cold mornings, and vividly colored leaves. Now they know it truly exists outside of books.

It's autumn at the cabin

During the week there were lots of healthy questions and discussions about death with my children. #2 was a little nervous to see Grandma's body, he wondered if it would be green. Then after we saw her he wondered about her casket and just exactly how it was going to get into the ground.

I'm happy that the children's first experience with death was surrounded in love and security. Grandma Y. was just weeks away from her 94th birthday. The focus of her funeral was really to celebrate her full, accomplished life and to express gratitude for knowing and being loved by such a gentle woman.

#1 with two of her favorite cousins.

#2 at the graveside service.

That is Spouse reaching to lay a flower on Grandma's casket.

More of the good news: we got to see our not-so-little-anymore nephew one last time before he leaves on his 2-year, LDS mission next week. Holy cow, I remember playing with him when he wasn't much bigger than a baby!

Signs of Life

Excuse me for leaving you all anxiously waiting for my desert garden update. Good news! There are plants growing! And most of them are not weeds. I was very worried about our little garden yesterday during the torrential rains. Our backyard filled up like a pool, covering the tops of some of our young plants. I was very afraid they would be washed away, but they survived. Hooray!

Just like a new puppy my children have quickly lost interest and responsibility of our garden. It's up to me to nurture the tender plants and I must admit to a maternal sort of affection I have for the sprouts. I truly was joyful this morning to see they had survived the storm.

Every spring I set aside a certain amount of physical and mental tolerance to see me through the grueling Phoenix summer heat. But by every September I find myself running on empty. The constant sweating irritates me more. I find the baking sun loathsome. A part of my soul shrivels up and refuses to bloom until the gosh-darned-blankety-blank-blank white-hot heat ends!

Monday and Tuesday it rained. A lot. At first the rain acted like a dipper of water poured onto hot sauna bricks. Nothing but miserable steam. But as the sky kept pouring, the hot earth eventually cooled and yesterday I found myself feeling glad to be outside. This morning on my run I heard birds singing with joy for a cool morning. I felt like singing with them. That poor part of my soul that had gone into hiding, was stretching it's limbs, wondering if it's safe yet to come out.

I've lived here long enough to know that we have a few more weeks before the real respite arrives. But today, I feel renewed and I think I've refilled my tolerance just enough to get me to Thanksgiving.

How about you? Does the weather/temperature affect you like this or am I just nutso?



ps. Happy Halloween!