A Story for Sunday-Part 5

Soap Opera Sunday is being hosted here. Part 4 with links to parts 1-3 is here.

The Question.

Joe made plans to go visit his uncle the end of May. His daughter would be out of school by then and the weather would be nice. He wasn’t sure how his uncle would respond to his question. He wasn’t sure how he was going to ask, but he would just feel things out as he went. Ok, so he rehearsed a million ways to bring the subject up and what he would say. He tried to choose just the right words, just the right approach so his uncle would sympathize with him. He still wasn’t sure, but he would find a way.

Joe and his wife and daughter had been at Uncle Alex’s visiting for 3 days now. He still hadn’t broached the subject. He knew he needed to soon, but he also felt like he needed some bonding time before dropping the bomb. His uncle had helped him so much when he was just starting out. He had been the one to give him the opportunity to come to a new land. He had been the one to help him find work and make his way there. He had opened the door for so very many good things in his life. Of course, Uncle Alex had a way of helping on his own terms, but he knew his uncle loved him and meant the best for him, even if they didn’t always agree. Joe’s wife had even suggested that it was possible his uncle or one of his aunts could be his biological parent. If that were the case, he might not tell. He doubted it though. Something just told him he would have already figured it out if that were the case. He really didn’t think his uncle could have let him be adopted by his sister, or have left him behind when he was so young to seek asylum without him. He wouldn’t have left him under the circumstances he lived with throughout his childhood.

So now they were having dinner out on the terrace. The weather was nice and the food was great. He hated to mess up how well things were going but the tension in his mind was at a breaking point. He wondered if his uncle felt his undercurrent of tension. So, when the conversation lulled, he made his break. He felt hot all over. He didn’t know if he looked flushed, but he felt it. “ So, I’ve been wanting to ask you something, uncle, and I really want an honest answer. I just really heed to know who my biological parents are. I know I’m adopted.” For a split second the question hung on the air. Then in one fell swoop, his uncle’s hand slammed down on the table as he stood up, turned and shot into the house. Everyone else just sat looking stunned.

Help Find Daniel and Ashley's Baby

My cousin’s boy Daniel and his wife Ashley are adopting! They need everyone’s help to pass the word along so their birthmother can find them. If you could pass the word on to everyone you know, eventually it could get to the person who needs to know. They are really great kids and will be wonderful parents to some very lucky child. Here’s their info:

My cousin’s boy Daniel and his wife Ashley are adopting! They need everyone’s help to pass the word along so their birthmother can find them. If you could pass the word on to everyone you know, eventually it could get to the person who needs to know. They are really great kids and will be wonderful parents to some very lucky child. Here’s their info:

providentliving.org

itsaboutlove.org then Search Adoption Profiles then DanielAndAshley

Or their family site at www.danielashleyfamily.com

Or itsaboutlove.org then Search Adoption Profiles then DanielAndAshley

Or their family site at www.danielashleyfamily.com

I'm It!

I just got tagged. I must be a full fledged blogger now. Thanks to Cecily my cyber-pal. I mean, she's a human being, but you know what I mean. I'm supposed to list 7 random facts about myself and pass it on to 7 more bloggers.
Ahem!

1. The first thing that comes to mind is I decorate cakes. I used to make them for every birthday or special occasion. I have even made 5 wedding cakes. Now I just frost cakes and stick action figures on them. This comes to mind because I occasionally do cakes again so I can remember why I don't do them and that was a big part of my weekend. Stay tuned for a cake post.

2. I am a retired basketball player. When I was in 5th grade I won the basketball shooting contest for my grade at school and went to regionals. This is really weird seeing as how I'm a terrible athlete and I was probably like 3' tall at the time, maybe. My best friend was like 5'6". The kids called us the Jolly Green Giant and the Little Green Sprout. I practiced a lot though and tied for 2nd place in regionals. Then I retired.

3. I'm a stack person, not a sink person. That means I can't stand two sinks full of dirty dishes, blocking my way to the use of the sinks for other things. So I stack the dishes next to the sink. I would stack them on the floor before I would fill up the sink with them. Sometimes I fill the sink and start washing dishes and get interrupted and then the dishes sit there in the dish water till it's dirty so I am not innocent. My husband is a sink person. He corrupted my kids. I love him anyways.

4. I cannot think of a single random fact about myself at midnight after 2 weeks of uninterrupted interrupted sleep. That's sort of a double negative there. I also can't speak straight in any language after a certain amount of sleep deprivation. Luckily I wasn't too sleep deprived when I made my T.V. debut on Univision. I was interviewed about interpreting and apparently every time they run out of things to air, they show this episode of Aqui y Ahora again, people are always telling me they saw me a few weeks ago. There, eventually I thought of a fact. Or was that three?

5. My biggest fantasy is to be able to communicate by e-mail with family who have already passed on to the next life. Sorta like White Noise but just the written word and no creepy stuff.

6. What are the odds that two independent interpreters would end up accidentally walking into court with a bra in their respective purses? You don't know, but I do... I also have picked up all kinds of little tidbits in court. For example, If you drink half a bottle of tequila for breakfast, you can pretty much expect the day to go downhill from there. I know you were all going to try that, so I saved you.

7. I am luckier than words can say to have been born into the family that I was. They are all wonderful people that I adore and I owe so much to all of them.

O.K. so I will tag Erin, Victoria, Gerb, Trish, Jen, Anna Maria, and Anne. Sorry guys, hope you haven't done this one yet. I tried to avoid people who I saw got it or something similar to it already. This is worse than a chain letter, isn't it?

NEWSFLASH

So, you are all probably wondering how my trip went. First of all, I decided I’d better stop trying to run the show here and just gave a few verbal reminders before leaving; that and some store bought frozen food. I called and J. said everything was fine. Kids were screaming in the background the whole time. That means everything was normal. Guess what? When I got home from my incredible trip, everyone was still alive and the house was still standing and granted it wasn’t clean, but it was pretty much in its normal state of semi-chaos and not total chaos. D&D said they had fun with Papi, everyone made it to everything they were supposed to be at, and I’m impressed. Apparently J. had actually cooked green eggs and ham. I’m sort of hoping that they were supposed to be green, but I didn’t get around to asking about that, because I was too busy telling what I dared about my trip. According to J. everything went fine. Not many details though, so what I don’t know won’t hurt me right? Except the kids told me a bunch of stuff. So far nothing was too shocking. And guess what else? Everyone was happy to see me and I was happy to see them and everyone still loves everyone, and life is good! So our home and family will at least occasionally survive without me for a day or two… I think I’m going to change my job description a little. The nice thing is everyone is really glad I’m back even if I am a pain in the neck and I’m glad to be back even though everyone else can also be a pain in the neck too. Life IS good.

As for the trip, the interpreter conference was excellent, very informative and a nice professional shot in the arm. We have lots of plans for Utah interpreters now and for our own interpreting. There were 7 of us “Utahns” there. I also learned that I can afford to buy a stun gun and where to get one… think that will get me more compliance around here? It could be this generation’s belt! I also met an interpreter whose mother I knew in Chile. What a small world. I’m so glad she is doing great at 80. So cool. What an amazing world it is.

The rest of the trip is largely confidential in details because what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas, or as I say what you spend in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas. I want to keep my friends so I am not going to tell stories about them. I went with 3 other ladies and we had a blast. And we learned to exercise. I haven’t laughed so much and so hard in a long time. We decided it was a good thing we don’t drink since we were bad enough as it is. I also learned that if you leave me alone in a car with 3 friends and for 5-6 hours, I will tell all. No truth serum required. Since they have told too much also we are now sort of a secret combination. The other nice thing about walking around Vegas in a non alcoholic stupor is that nobody whined! We ate at The Cheesecake Factory at Caesar’s Palace and the buffets at Paris and Luxor. Good eats! We brought some cheesecake home with us. OK. Now just so this won’t be too boring I will tell on myself and you will get an idea of what the whole trip was like. Just a series of nutty paranormal or ABnormal events. We sit down at the table in the Paris Buffet and I pick up my napkin and go to roll the utensils out of it and one of them went flying out and down. I look and I’m missing a spoon. SO I look all over and can’t find it anywhere. My bag was on the floor so I thought maybe it fell in there so I checked but there wasn’t anything in there. Of course I eventually just gave up because things have a way of falling into black holes and reappearing in impossible places later around my house. I don’t know why, I’ve just learned to accept it. So the next day I’m digging around my purse looking for something when what do I come across?

I’m a spoonlifter! I’m not sure why. I must be deeply disturbed. My trip mates were a blast.

Now back to real life. My husband just got back from visiting my dad who just got out of surgery, and he is doing good. First he had a back surgery a few months ago and now he had a heart surgery to implant a defibrillator. Now he is bionic! Hopefully his recovery will go great too and he can get back to doing things that don’t involve battery powered tools, etc. I will leave my stun gun at home when I go visit. Promise. But I bet my bro will bring the kid’s racing car remote just to test it on him.
My fearless friends. Can you guess who I am? Tricky, I know.

Random Updates

We went to speech as usual. Then we went shopping. We got a bunch of used pants at Savers and went to Target looking for something, and then trying to extract D1 from the store without a transformer. They are back. Then we ate pizza and D1 had another meltdown over the drinks. C. kept asking me if he could have a skateboard, and when he could have one, and if this or that could he... I was calm. I am so proud of myself. I not only acted like a model parent, I actually felt like one inside too. I must be growing up. That, and there was only one kid misbehaving at a time, which usually helps tons. Maybe they are growing up.
We went to the dentist. Me and the four boys. It was delightful. D1 has E.'s mouth so his teeth coming in will not all fit in his mouth. He has a nice set of cavities in his back teeth since he can't stand toothpaste, except the watermelon kind he can slightly tolerate. D2 screamed over getting his teeth brushed. He has 1 cavity. Hooray. We are going to use the best and most expensive sedative for this one stupid hole in his mouth because just cleaning his teeth is nearly impossible. The rest cooperated but were their usual bouncy selves. G. was perfect, teeth coming in straight, no cavities, I just wish I could sedate him for these visits so he wouldn't get everyone else so wound up. C. had just 1 cavity. I spend the whole time trying to get them all not to touch the instruments. G. sprayed D1 with the water pic wand anyways. D1 Jumped on the end of the chair while the dentist was poking around D2's mouth. It went better than usual. The dentist always comments on how I really have my hands full. Yeah, so someday I wish they would just whisk us in and out the minute we get in there. E. didn't go to the dentist, she went to the doctor instead because she had the flu. Now she doesn't need the shot. Now I know that if I wait at the pharmacy for 40 minutes while they try to find my insurance coverage, (because it is so much harder to get the ID number off an explanation of benefits because E. lost the ID card at the Dr.'s), and then try to get the computer to let them bill the insurance, I will find out that Tamiflu costs $80 because the insurance doesn't think it is worth covering so all you get is a small discount from the pharmaceuticals. I didn't buy it. She got better anyways. But that stuff works great, I used it once before. Get your flu shots! It's going around early this year. It's cheaper than getting sick! I will probably get it before I can actually follow my own advice.
Now I am trying to decide what to do about my trip to Las Vegas next week. Do I actually prepare these people and make food and leave lists or do I just let everything run amok so they will miss me? Actually, they will probably be so glad there will be no rules for 2 1/2 days and when I come home I will have to pay by trying to pick up 3 days worth of mess. J. will be working the game at BYU so he will not be available much to help Saturday at all. Actually, whether I cook and freeze or leave lists, they will probably just ignore it all and eat junk the whole weekend. I probably should leave for a much longer time someday till they all decide they are better off with me. That might be expensive living somewhere else for a year, so maybe I will just give up on being noticed. One day they will grow up and leave and then they will understand.
I tried to tape my floor. You know, for my scientific study of the paranormal phenomenon of things growing out of my floor. But even though the camera was hidden, everyone seemed to walk out of range of the camera and stuff just grew in other spots instead. Really weird. Maybe it can't be caught on tape. Then D&D decided to make juice. I tried to help, but they got in a fight over what to stir with and the whole project got abandoned. Then D1 came back in later and tried to add more water at the sink but just ended up knocking the whole pitcher on the floor. It was amazing. It's incredible how much juice actually fits in a pitcher. It looks like more on the floor. Especially when it's super concentrated because before adding more water, we added more powder. Meanwhile, D2 has gotten a scoop full of powder to dip his fingers in and is spilling it all over the rest of the house as he tries to get away from me. Did I get any of this on tape? NO! It ran out right before the juice making started! So I have about 3 hours taped of a bench and a floor, with occasional shadows and movement on the side. How exciting! Not too different from our other home movies, which are a series of a kid doing nothing, blank look on his face, to the audio of me whining and begging, "Please do Buzz Lightyear again. C'mon, do it again! Be Buzz! Hey Buzz, there's Zord! C'mon, pleeeeese! Do Buzz again.." or "Smile for Mommie, c'mon, smile!" Etc. etc. I can't stand them. It's like the only time they hold still and I'm too busy holding a camera and begging to go enjoy it!
D&D's teacher came out to the hall to stop me the other day as I left. She wanted to tell me about something. For show and tell D1 brought a transformer. Surprise, surprise. He told everyone very earnestly, My mom bought it for me: She's cute! D1 also was playing with a ziplock bag full of water the other day, which he called "Mr. Waggly". Then Mr. Waggly sprung a leak. He went pee pee I was informed. Why do we even have toys?
One day early this week I unplugged all the T.V's and told everyone to get a life. My husband didn't divorce me. He just said, O.K. I'm thinking, why didn't I do that a long time ago. Then as soon as I went to go grocery shopping, they all plugged them back in. I used to think Rodney Dangerfield was so stupid, but now I get him. I don't get no respect around here.
Lastly, we all went to Cornbelly's Corn Maze at Thanksgiving Point. J. deserves a purple heart after walking around the maze with us, everyone running and yelling and doing their level best to get split up from us, all the while G. complaining that no one else will stop and listen to the clues for the treasure we are supposed to be finding. I tried once but D&D were talking (i.e. yelling in English) in my ear, so I gave up. The rest of the stuff was a blast; slides and hayrides, and a big bouncing pillow, and a spiderweb tower. You climb to the top then slide down through the webs and bounce on the tramp at the bottom. And there was much more... Oh the big inflated lizard. You walk in his mouth and get digested and come out the tail. It was mostly just too dark to see where you were going and scared D2's tummy. We stayed till it got too cold and dark.
Here's a few pics:



















After 7 or so more shots like this, (E. refused to be a pig), and discovering that the other 4 can't all be in place at once, we gave up.











































Are we having fun yet?? This is as good as it gets!

Just Passing on a Few Random Thoughts

I loved this post called I could hide it under there... on gerbsrandomthoughts.blogspot.com. Check it out.

Just have to share how my Sunday went down. I love going to church in my pajamas and actually being sure of getting great messages instead of the hit and miss...Well actually I think we usually have good messages, I just can't hear them. We have tried a number of ways to get our kids to sit reverently in Sacrament Meeting. The best way to accomplish it is to just be late enough to miss it or spend the end out in the foyer. Since that makes it kind of hard to take the sacrament, we keep trying other ways. It's easier when J. can be there, since he usually brings candy and keeps bribing them, but it's kinda sticky. And we're still outnumbered and so if you don't balance the stuffed mouths with the sugar rush just right, it backfire anyways. For some reason, there is something about the chapel that just makes it impossible for any one to keep from emitting sounds of every kind from the hum to the snicker to the scream, plus the appendages flying everywhere or the occasional breakaway kid or scuffle with the neighbor. No matter what I bring with me to engage them in quiet behavior they always seem to find a way to make noise with it. My favorite song from the Children's Song Book says "It shouldn't be hard to sit very still and think about Jesus, the cross on the hill, and all that he suffered and did for me, it shouldn't be hard to sit quietly. It shouldn't be hard even though I am small to think about Jesus, not hard at all." I added a little descant to the end though that goes like this, "But it is!"
Anyhow, a few weeks ago J. was going to have to work and I thought, D&D love drawing in their journals at school, I'll just take a little spiral notebook and pencil for each of them to write in. Ha! They stuck the pencil in the spirals and spun them around and poked each other and tried to have a fencing match with the pencils, and even though D2 ate the eraser and smashed up the metal tip of his pencil, it didn't keep his mouth or anybody else's quiet. I ended up getting them all up and marching them right back out after 10 minutes and took them to the Relief Society room, which is supposed to have the audio piped into it, because it comes on all the time when you don't want it to, but it wouldn't then of course, so I separated them into the 4 corners of the room the best I could and tried to get them to practice being quiet. The next week we tried again. It was a little bit better. This week was off! And I actually heard most of the first session in the a.m. even though I grounded the two older boys from the t.v. because they sneaked off to watch a video instead of conference in another room. The talks were obviously exactly what I needed to hear because they are things God keeps telling me over and over again to do, but I keep forgetting to actually do. Then once the last amen was said, I knew how bad the Lord must've wanted to give me those messages, because all heck broke loose. Kids were exploding everywhere.
Finally everyone settled down just in time for me to have a nice visit with my Tio Bruto and family. I am so glad they came, because I forgot they were coming and I would have missed them entirely. Then the second session started. Mr. wheel and deal G. had bargained that if he and C actually sat with me through the whole p.m. session and then could tell me what they learned and what they were going to do about it, then they could watch t.v. this week. SO at 2:00 sharp not only they but the little boys came in and joined E,J and Me and if I thought sacrament was bad, it was all-out chaos. I just sat there and thought, there must not be anything at all that the Lord wants me to know about this session. E. quickly gave up and went to watch downstairs, and I eventually caved and took the little guys to their room and put on a movie for them. Then I looked for one of the missing batteries I got downstairs in the morning, but then I needed to use my hands so I stuffed them down my shirt, because there is plenty of spare room in there. So much so that one fell out while I was visiting because I had forgotten to put them in the remote and then I forgot to pick it up. Suddenly in all the chaos when I was trying to find my son's off button, I remembered the batteries and started pulling them out of my front and J. asked me what I was doing and I told him I was taking out my batteries. I mean hadn't he noticed by now that I am battery operated? I just keep going and going...I was missing a battery though, so I looked around and couldn't find the missing battery or the missing remote, and finally I found it only to discover that someone else already put batteries in it. It wasn't a total wash-up thought because while I was doing that I was remembering how many times I have been inspired to try one on one instead of all together on just about everything with my kids. I just forget or am too lazy to go through every thing 5 times, and it's kind of hard to do family things separately but we will never be able to do it together if we can't do it individually first. I might as well give up and try it His way instead of mine and I can use reminders on this.
By the time I got back, the 3 men left were semi quiet because apparently it is just my evil influence that makes them behave that way (couldn't be D-evil and D-iablo) and then I actually heard more things I actually could need to hear. Not only that, HERE COMES THE SPIRITUAL PART-my boys heard it too. This is paramount to walking on water kind of spiritual because C. doesn't ever get anything. You can read a little story and then try to get him to tell you what it was about, and it is a meandering mess of confusion. But here is what they told me they learned. G. said. I learned about decisions. Some are good, some are better and some are best so I have to think what is the best decision to make. C. said I learned that I should not watch very much t.v. or video games and get some fresh air. sort of ironic, since that's what motivated him to listen... but hey! Elder Oaks gets the prize for the best talk!
Also, while my brain is on the subject of church, I thought I would share this great song that my sister-in-law e-mailed me ages ago. I loved it! It's hilarious. If you're not LDS, you won't get it but you still might find it amusing. You'll at least know we are weird in an entirely human sort of way. I really enjoy laughing at us, because I think if you can't laugh at yourself, you are lost. It is at http://ourldsfamily.com/media/FastMeetingSong.mp3. Let's try not to have too much to laugh about next month though, let's try to focus on the real issue at hand.
Ok, and just because it is Sunday, I will share that I heard a nice talk on the BYU station in the middle of the night once this week because I was still up getting things ready for the next day and it is also located at byubroadcasting.org then you go to search for talks I think and pick Education Week 1999 and then there is a talk on functional families. It's really quite good and I found out what I already know that we put the fun in dysfunctional, but it's better than putting the dis into it, and we're not as bad off as I thought, however there is a lot of room for improvement and this guy did have some good ideas. So the point I am about to make here (maybe, if I can get to it) is that he took notes from a meeting where this scripture was read:
11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.
The point was made that He suffered for all our sorrows and problems, not just our sins. When He suffered in Gethsemane, a bunch of sins didn't pass by him, a bunch of people did. He felt what each of us has or will feel. I know this is true. If only one of us were to take advantage of His atonement, He would have willingly gone through it all, and because He did, he understands us better than anyone, and loves us better than anyone. He really is the Saviour of each one of us. I know He understands me and loves everything about me. I know if I could just learn to listen, remember and do everything he so lovingly tries to help me to do, maybe I could find the key to helping my kids do the same with me. I'm truly trying really hard to think more like Him and love more like Him and act more like Him. I know that he would like us all to come unto him, so he can help us all where we're lacking. I know He's real. There's a lot of things I don't know but this is one thing I'm sure of.

Just how my week's gone...

Well, it’s been a busy week. J. is suffering with his leg, school, work, etc. E. has gotten sick, gone hiking and studying little teeny organisms in the water under a microscope, getting stung by a bee and a wasp and falling and scraping her leg. She changed jobs back to the restaurant. Both she and J appear to be co-dependents of the owner. On top of it all, she got her hair cut. It is really cute, but it is short. I think it’s the first time she has short hair by choice, and so it’s different for her. G and C are settling in well at the new school and work on the outside is moving along. D&D are busy and doing well in their class, amusing their teacher. One day they got too out of control fighting each other or something. So they got pulled outside and the teacher said, “Do you know why you are here?” One responded, “Because our mommy brought us to school!” D1 has made friends with some roly-poly bugs who are guests in his room. He talks to them like you talk to a dog or cat. Both those boys are the crocodile hunters of the insect world.
I’m just trying to survive and take care of the piles of files in my room. I managed to actually move one file box across the floor and look for a paper I needed, then it stayed there till D1 ran into it and hurt himself and I had to move it back to the spot it was at before. It looks like I will be going to an interpreter conference in Las Vegas the weekend of the 20th to get my continuing education hours in.
So I went to the dentist, but I didn’t get to sleep because it was a check-up and the hygienist was entertaining me with stories about her kids. That was as fun as sleeping, and my teeth feel so much better without all that tartar and stuff. I also read about sleep in the Reader’s Digest and saw a picture of a guy who tied enough helium balloons to his lawn chair to fly something like 9 miles through the air. So fun. Hopefully I will get to push a slinky down the Tikal ruins in Guatemala someday too. :)

The night before my birthday I was up late trying to find a shoe for a twin. I wish someone would start selling them in 3’s or 4’s. Is it just me or does anyone else have the lost shoe blues? They have two left Elmo sandals, no rights. And keeping track of 4 tennis shoes is so very hard. I might actually have to pull the weeds out of the garden that are supposed to just disappear under that 4 letter word that starts with S that we keep having sightings of this fall. I cannot tell how many times I have almost had to go out in slippers or two shoes that don’t match thanks to my kids’ playing with them. My new sandals lost each other till fall so I didn’t get to actually wear them really. One year a shoe disappeared one fall only to appear under the living room window in the flower bed next spring when the snow thawed. D&D have actually swapped one shoe with each other to wear mix and match, or if their favorite pair has lost one, they just mix with another pair. Right now they only have the sandals and the tennies and I can’t seem to bear to let them mix them. I’m not sure why open and closed shoes can’t mate, but I guess I’m just old fashioned. Eventually the missing shoe turned up, but it’s gone again now. In any case, I got to bed only to be woken up in the wee hours of the a.m. by a barfing child. Then when I got back to my bed, 2 little people had taken over my place. (sigh). The next day I realized that one switched beds because he got his own wet. More fun for me. I got everyone off to school and worked in the a.m. and then I met with the Blogging Babes for lunch. It was fun. I haven’t had a chance to sit with a bunch of ladies in a long time and they are a group of great and interesting people. I was so excited I won the basket with the chocolate and Candace Salima’s books. I love bittersweet chocolate and drinking the Xoçai is way better than drinking Glucosamine with Chondroitin. I’d like to thank Candace for getting us all together. Then it was off to get the kids, then off to speech, then back to get visit taught, and my VT brought me a cake, which we loved and then I finally got the chance to notice that I got a gift from the Relief Society presidency and from my husband, a wheeled portfolio that holds a laptop and other files together. Cool! My kids meanwhile were rearranging furniture and breaking windows. I gave up on getting a real meal together and just let everyone make kid foods like macaroni and hot dogs. The bishop came by with a birthday card too and then it was time to get everyone to bed again and start the whole shoe routine, which is where we loop back around to the beginning of those 24 hours and start all over again. Yesterday J. took me to Outback and I still have leftovers to eat now.
(AND NOW A REAL UTAH MORMON MOMENT:)
While conference is going on, I’m trying to organize my room and hope against hope something miraculous will happen to the files. The weather isn’t helping my kids go out to play and stay out of my hair, so it’s sort of one of those days where you want to kill the kids so you can hear the talks about how to love the kids and raise them in loveJ. However, it is way easier to hear than Sacrament meeting where they are forced to sit right next to me. At least I can tell you what the talks were about, and thanks to the internet in a day or two I can just go to lds.org and relive the whole experience in just about any language imaginable. So cool. I have to say I think Brother Eyring will be a great counselor. I heard part of a news conference afterwards on the BYU channel and someone said people were out blogging about the new apostle E. Cook being called, because he’s another born in Utah guy. I don’t know him that well, but Brother Eyring assured the press that not to offend anyone but he never thought of Brother Cook as a Utahn. It was something he got over young in life, he went on to become a Californian. Ha! I rest my case. I’ve been sort of bummed that I haven’t had an overwhelming response by people wanting to join :

UTAHNS ANONYMOUS.

(See my very first blog post.) I suppose a lot of people of course don’t actually even live in Utah so they are excused. Of the people who are, a big percentage are born and raised here so what in the heck else could they be? If they weren’t Utahns, the rest of us wouldn’t have anything to avoid being. But where are all the transplants? Were you all just Utahns somehow born out of your element, or have you become closet Utahns who are living in denial and can’t even admit to yourselves what you have become? Or maybe you are just stronger than me and are entirely untainted by the environment in which you live. I would really like to know. These meetings with myself are getting lonely. Yes, this is an overt invitation to you to join, please sign up via comments or e-mail.
Actually, I have a theory about why international people are not being called much to apostleship and it is simply because they are so desperately needed where they are being called to serve in the Seventy callings, out in the world. The growth is so very fast and crazy out in many of these places and more stability is needed there, up close and personal. Whatever the reason, I figure God knows what he is doing, or at least what his kids are up to, and I trust him to handle it just fine :)
And last of all, I have to tell my funny Henry B. Eyring story. When I was a teenager I had a bizarre dream that the second coming of Christ had already happened and I was in a room and someone was telling me that I wasn’t married yet, but I could of course make it into the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom anyways, because they were setting all us single people up with spouses, and they presented to me my spouse who looked a whole awful lot like Bro. Eyring. I said, “I’m sure he’s nice, but don’t you have someone closer to my own age?” When he was called later on to the General Sunday School I recognized him. What a hoot! We actually learned about him in a religion class and he is pretty cool. Gotta go, conference is back on!

A typical Christmas, chez nous

27 Dec., 2004

Sleep in Heavenly Peace?

Never! But we have had a lot of fun! Kids are fun to watch at the holidays, they get so excited they're hyper. Then it's fun to watch them with their presents. How we love all the Christmas Carols, too:

"DECK THE HALLS WITH BALLS OF FLOUR!..." J. paid to have someone clean our couches the 23^rd. Then he stain guarded them when he got home from work. Luckily I heard a noise the 24th right before I got in the shower and found the twins throwing flour around and they had gotten one flour handprint on a cushion already. I shudder to think what might have happened if I'd taken my shower first.

"O HOLY COW! HOW BRIGHTLY YOU ARE SHINING!"

"OH CRISTMAS TREE, OH CHRISTMAS TREE, YOU'RE HAVING A BAD HAIR DAY!" ….

Maybe because: "YOU ARE MEAN ONES, LITTLE GRINCHES, you've got mischief in your smiles! Why do you drag the tree all over, testing it in each electric socket in the house??"... (We will not be putting on ornaments next year either unless I can grow enough hot chile peppers in my garden this year to make a big garland.)

"YOU"D BETTER WATCH OUT, YOU"D BETTER NOT CRY, (you'd better not pour juice on the tree, put eggnog in the couch, throw the big bag of popcorn the neighbors gave us all over the living room, call 911 at your friend's house because he's not sharing, dump out mommy's dresser drawers and then climb them to the scissors and try to chop off your hair, break mommy's glasses and wear her pearl necklace, all in one day especially if that day is the 20th of December,) I'm telling you why, SANTA CLAUSE IS COMING TO TOWN!"

And "POPCORN BURNING IN A MICROWAVE, chalkboard spray paint up your nose*, yule log clonks being swung by a toddler, and folks dressed up in mom's kimono"…*(I made the babies a chalkboard for Christmas, it was ugly outside so I had to do it inside and inhaled a lot. A friend said I could put a piece of chalk up my nose and draw a picture.)

"OH THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL (for Mom), and snow at 10 pm's so delightful (for a kid) and since we've no place to go, we'll go outside and play in the snow." Then drink hot chocolate, and go to bed late but rosy cheeked! That was fun.

Did you know that Jesus got gold, and a “'fume”(perfume) called freakin' scents and myrrh? Just ask G. for more details.

The 24th we had a HUGE dinner with way too much food, J. made a steak, potato and mushroom sauce dish, rice, a shrimp salad, ham, a tomato salad, chips and vegetables and salsa, and lemon pie and torta de hoja for dessert. We had over a class mate of J's family and C. and J. We still had tons of leftovers. The kids loved their presents. Much playing has gone on since then, and some squabbling. C. has had a hard time not breaking things for some reason but seems to be pulling out of the destructive mode. The 25th we visited Mom and Dad and had a nice dinner and we had a lot of fun with all the family that night. Yesterday we went to church and just rested. Today and tomorrow I'm working some. Here are a few more pictures of some works of art:

TELEKINETIC EXERCISES?!

DISCLAIMER: No bodily fluids were used in the making of this work- D.1