Monday, June 30, 2008

A Man and His Garage


This is the relaxed, happy smile of a man who just built himself a garage in about 5 weeks, give or take.  Yes, Jeff has officially completed his major summer project and he has a few new tools and some big muscles to show for it.  He did the last of the finishing work – painting the doors and putting on the doorknobs – on June 17.  He started building around May 7 or 8.  He had help raising the walls and putting on the roof.  Otherwise, he was a one-man-show.  He did a fantastic job!  Now let’s see what other projects I can come up with to keep him busy for the next 8 weeks…

Here are some pictures to show the whole project from start to finish.

















Didn’t he do a great job?  As you can see, we need to do something about the driveway and he’ll be building some steps for the door, but one thing at a time.  We love it!!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

My Little Girl

Sadie loves to dance with us before she goes to bed. When she dances with Jeff, she always has to start with "My Little Girl," by Tim McGraw. Whenever Sadie hears that song she finds Jeff and says, "It's 'Mine Little Girl'! Dad, it's our song!" I am not allowed to dance with her on that song. We have our own songs and she's very particular about keeping them separate. Sometimes, just to let her know it's bedtime, we'll play, "My Little Girl" and she immediately finds Daddy and wants to dance with him. Sometimes she sings it during the day. It's very cute. 

Well, Jeff returned last night after attending an academic conference for 6 days in Tacoma, Washington. We've known about this for several months and honestly, I was dreading it! But WE DID IT!! And we were still relatively sand and happy when he returned. Hooray! However, the hardest part was probably seeing how much Sadie missed him. She's been his little sidekick this summer. She always has to know where Daddy is and she wants to go everywhere with him. I avoided playing "their song" all week. But when I put it on tonight, she was so happy and it was one big bear hug for Daddy until it was over. So cute!! I know Jeff missed her, too. How could you not miss this cute little bug? 


As a side note, Jeff stayed on campus at the University of Puget Sound. The conference was a lot of work, but there was plenty of great food and several activities to break up the work. The weather was perfect (70's during the day and rather cool at night) and campus was beautiful. He took several pictures. Here are a couple of my favorites:



Friday, June 27, 2008

Emmu

My 4-year-old niece, Emma, has been learning her letter sounds and has decided that a “u” at the end of her name makes more sense than an “a” because of the sound it makes. So now she insists on writing her name “Emmu” instead of “Emma”. She sent Sterling a drawing the other day and sure enough, her name was spelled “Emmu”. I think it is so cute!


Everytime I look at it I think “Emmoo” or “Emu”. So I’ve had pictures of ostrich-like birds in my head this week. I think that Emma, who looks nothing like an Emu, was actually pretty smart to come up with this on her own. Way to go Emmu — I mean, Emma!!



Friday, June 20, 2008

St. Louis


We spent the day in St. Louis on Wednesday.  It’s a very family friendly city with a lot of fun things to do.  This is nice because we are in the St. Louis temple district so we head out there several times a year.  Here are the highlights of our day:

  • Spending 5 hours together in the van and spending $92 on fuel, round trip (yikes!)
  • Visiting the Zoo – seeing Penguins (for Sadie), and feeding the fish (for Soren), and looking at everything in between since they were on opposite ends of the zoo!
  • Riding the “Log Ride” simulation
  • Savannah and Soren breaking out in a full-body rash from our new sunscreen
  • Having the playground near the temple to ourselves
  • Jeff and I doing initiatory work for 11 of Jeff’s ancestors

The weather was beautiful (we’re getting a break this week from the humidity).  Overall, it was a great day!



Monday, June 16, 2008

Living in the Land of Lincoln

You just never know who you are going to meet at McDonald’s.

Tonight we took the kids to the church to help fill buckets with cleaning supplies for the flood victims in Iowa. On our way home we stopped at McDonald’s for ice cream. And sitting there, chatting with a group of friends, was Abraham Lincoln. I even asked if I could get a picture with him. He said he wasn’t dressed in his suit and top hat, but he agreed to the picture.


You know how sometimes you meet someone and their resemblance to someone you know is uncanny? Well, this man, B.F. McClerren, is a Lincoln impersonator and as such, he has not missed his calling in life. I remember the first time I saw him a year or two after we moved here. I just remember thinking, “Wow, that man looks just like Abraham Lincoln. I wonder if any one else thinks so!” (Duh!)

Tiffany, this one is for you!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Birthday, Soren

I couldn’t end my day without posting a bit about my Soren boy! He was born on Father’s Day five years ago but he’s definitely a momma’s boy! He’s my little friend. I don’t know how I’ll be able to put him on the Kindergarten bus this fall. I just love my little guy and don’t know how I ever lived without him before he came to our family. Happy Birthday, Soren!

Happy Father's Day


Savannah was asked to give a talk in Primary today. She wrote her talk mostly by herself and Jeff was able to come in and hear her speak. She did a great job and paid a nice tribute to her Dad. Her talk is printed below:

“F” is for fantastic and fun. Once my dad built a two-seater bike and named her “Maggie”, which is short for “Babe Magnet”. You can probably tell that he put this together before he was married. We still have her, and my brothers and I love to ride her around the neighborhood.
“A” is for awesome and amazing. I’m so impressed with my dad. He’s always such a hard worker. If he starts a project, he always finishes it. My dad can do lots of things that most of my friends’ dad’s can’t do. He finished our basement, roofed and sided our house, and built a garage. Plus, he fixes our cars and anything else that breaks, and is an awesome teacher.
“T” is for totally terrific and tough. Really, you should see his muscles after working on our garage for a month. They’re like, even bigger than this. (This is where Savannah flexed her “big” muscles.)
“H” is for happy and heroic. Once, we had a mouse running around our house. My dad caught it and threw it in a field. When he came back, I told him he was my hero. He still is.
“E” is for excellent and energetic. If my dad wants to work on a project, he starts as soon as he can and makes sure he does everything right.
“R” is for righteous and reverent. During church every Sunday, my dad sits quietly and listens to the talks that are given while my mom wrestles the children.
As you can see, these letters spell the word “father”. All of these things listed describe my father. I didn’t have any letters in this word to represent “Priesthood Holder”, but my family and I are so blessed that my dad does hold the priesthood. I’m so glad that he and my family can be together forever. I love my dad very much, and am so glad that he‘s mine. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Dad - The Eternal Optimist

 


I recently attended a “Memoir Writing Group” sponsored by our county Arts Council. Below is the piece I wrote. It’s about my Dad so I’m posting it here as a Father’s Day tribute to him. It’s called “The Eternal Optimist”, which describes him very well. I love you, Dad!

My Dad is no stranger to hard times. He lost his Mom when he was 21. He happened to be living in Switzerland as a missionary at the time and didn’t learn of her death until the day of the funeral. It’s not like she would have been there if he’d rushed home and he felt that she would have wanted him to stay where he was. About ten years later, his youngest brother was forced off the road and killed in what was called an automobile homicide. His Dad passed away a year later from cancer.

Then there were the financial setbacks, like when he got a second mortgage on his home to loan his best friend $30,000. His friend never did pay him back but somehow the friendship survived. Several years later, while working as a stock broker, Dad was sued for 3 million dollars. His brokerage license was revoked during the investigation. The legal bills amounted to over $20,000. Eventually his brokerage license was reinstated as they could find no evidence of wrongdoing on his part. He always maintained that he had done nothing wrong, but he had bills to pay and a family to support so he’d long ago moved on to other jobs. He’s never been the type to sit around collecting food stamps.

Dad hasn’t escaped health problems. Some things were accidental, like the time most of his teeth were knocked out in a car accident shortly before his marriage. Other things were just unfortunate, like when he was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2003. When Dad called to tell me this news, I immediately broke down. But then he started saying things like, “I think this is a wonderful opportunity”, and “Everyone should be given a chance like this to look at their life with a new perspective.” Whatever Dad! I just want to be sad about it, okay? When they found out the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes, Dad didn’t change his tune. That’s when he started saying things like, “I’ll treat this to a point, but I’m not going to jump through hoops to spare my life. I don’t fear death.” Okay, thanks Dad, but I kind of like having you around! He did have surgery to remove the cancerous portion of his intestine and then went through a round of chemotherapy which, by the way, he said he’d never do again. He eats well and walks several miles a day and says he feels better than he has in 20 years.

Despite these trials and setbacks, Dad is an optimist. He always sees the glass as half full. More than once I’ve heard him say, “I refuse to worry about this.” On the other hand, I’ve heard my Mom say, “Dad refuses to worry about this so I have to do all the worrying for both of us!” While growing up I remember thinking Dad would be really upset about something only to find his “no sweat” attitude shining through. Take for instance the time I was driving his little car around and noticed some smoke coming out of the hood. In my limited understanding of cars, I passed it off as steam from the snow that was melting on the car. However when I got home and walked to the front of the car, I saw that the front grille was covered with black oil. I was scared as I walked in the house and said, “Dad, there’s something wrong with the car.” He followed me out, saw the oil, popped the hood, and calmly said, “It looks like we’ve lost the oil cap. No biggie. I’ll take care of it.” And that was the end of it.

Part of Dad’s optimism is a great sense of humor that took me several years to appreciate. My siblings and I were not allowed to date until we were 16. Right about the time my older sister turned 16, there was a rumor that if you wanted to ask her out, you had to have an interview with my Dad. One brave young man, accepting this rumor as truth, called and asked Dad when he could come for his interview. Dad, happy to humor him and torture his daughters, invited him over. My sister and I were horrified and I imagined how miserable I’d be throughout my dateless life! Following the date, my sister informed Dad that he would never do that again. And he didn’t. After that, what usually happened is that Dad would just chat with our date when they came to pick us up. They never knew they were being interviewed and I remember comments like, “Your Dad is cool!” as we left the house.

Dad loves his family and just wants them around him. I remember the time I was living in Columbus, Ohio with my young family. Dad had a business trip 3 ½ hours away from us. As soon as he got off the plane, he drove the 3 ½ hours to see us, spent the night, then drove the 3 ½ hours back in the morning. To him this 7 hour detour was no big deal. He just wanted to see his grandkids. Then there was the time we flew from Columbus to Utah without telling Dad we were coming. My sister arranged a family gathering at her house. When Dad arrived and saw that everyone was there, he didn’t stop smiling for the rest of the evening. He said it was the best surprise he’s ever had.

Years ago Dad told me that his dream was to buy a large plot of land, subdivide it and give each of the kids a lot so that we could all live on the same cul-de-sac. With my parents now living in Nevada, my siblings in Utah, and my little family in Illinois, that dream probably won’t come true. But it’s easy for me to pick up the phone and get a healthy dose of Dad’s optimism when I need his perspective. For example, we both own shares of the same stock and when I called to ask his opinion when it dropped in price, his response was, “It’s on sale! I just bought more!”

One of my kids was being silly the other day. I jokingly told her she gets that from her dad. She said, “Actually I get it from Grandpa because he’s always funny.” I hope all of my kids will have their grandpa’s optimism. It helps to make this world a happier, friendlier place!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

So Pretty

Sometimes Savannah puts makeup on Sadie.


And sometimes Sadie puts it on herself!


So pretty!!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Black Gunk Miracle

Last Fall, we found a rather large bright green caterpillar. It was very fat and reminded me of Heimlich on “A Bug’s Life”.

The kids placed the caterpillar in a large screened cage we used for a monarch a few years ago and waited for it to turn into a butterfly. After only a few days, the caterpillar was gone. The only thing different we noticed in the cage was a bunch of black gunk in one corner sort of hidden by several leaves. We weren’t sure if the caterpillar escaped or turned into slime. We kept the cage on the porch for several weeks, but nothing changed. Finally, as the weather turned colder, the cage got put away for the Winter and forgotten about.

Fast forward 4-5 months. A few weeks ago, one of the kids rediscovered the cage and found what we thought was a huge butterfly. After a little research, we found that it was a Luna Moth. Its wingspan was 4.5″ and it was a beautiful lime green. It was alive and well so it must have only recently come out of its “gunk”. I read on the internet that late season caterpillars will “overwinter” instead of coming out of their cocoon in a few weeks like the earlier caterpillars. That would explain why ours hibernated for so long before making his debut.




Rocket

A couple of weeks ago, the kids found a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. The mother bird was obviously aware of her little one and was still feeding it occasionally, but the kids were so worried about it as the weather was unseasonably cold at the time and the poor little thing kept shivering. So we made up a little shoe box with cut up pieces of an old sweatshirt and placed the baby bird inside. The kids were so happy when the bird was still there in the morning and seemed to be doing well. However, we soon discovered that the mother bird was no longer caring for her little one and the poor baby bird didn’t make it. We’re sad to think that she neglected it because of our interference. We only had good intentions, but now “Baby Bird Rocket” is lying next to “Tweet Tweet” (see the end of Barn Raising) and is happy in heaven as we must needs suppose.




Friday, June 6, 2008

Drenched!

Tonight was very exciting. We were under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning and a Tornado Warning. Sterling was in tears because he was so scared which usually means he feels like he’s going to throw up. Just hearing the word “tornado” is too much for him. We were going to feed the missionaries tonight so we got dinner in the oven and headed to the basement to wait out the storm just about the time the tornado sirens started going off. The storm came on fast and furious and it was pouring sheets with massive winds only moments after the first drops started falling. During the worst of it, Jeff looked out the window and said, “No way! Someone is riding their bike in this!” I had barely processed what he said when we heard the doorbell. It was the Elders. They were absolutely dripping wet. I’m kicking myself for not taking a picture. They said they had been tracting just down the street and planned to head to our house if it should start raining. Because the storm came on so fast, they said it felt like they were in a hurricane — they couldn’t see where they were going and were almost riding sideways because the wind was blowing so hard! We got them dried off as best we could and, once the storm calmed down, Jeff took them home to change their clothes. Then we enjoyed a nice dinner, a spiritual thought, and they were on their way. These Midwest storms are something to see!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Bird Watching

We have a couple of finch feeders outside our dining room window. It’s fun to watch the birds and see their bright colors. We had the feeders out all winter as well and the yellow finches (American Gold Finch) turn a greyish brown during the cold months. It was amazing how quickly they turned bright yellow again when the warmer weather returned. The blue one is an indigo bunting. He is new to us this season. I know finches are pretty common, but they make us happy!