Hot Hot Heatons

Beckett's Bonk-a-doo

2012-01-27T20:11:00.000-08:00

Blogger and I have really struggled getting this posts up. One post I did from my iPad got erased, and Blogger insists on importing my pictures sideways and I don't want to take the time to fix them! The point is, Beck got a bad bonk on his nose last Friday in the Chick-Fil-A play area, and I wanted to show off his battle wounds. He started out with a badly swollen nose that changed the whole look of his face. It later developed into and ever-changing rainbow of bruises in his eye area. Here's the poor guy:

Preschool, Prison Break, Pretty Baby

2012-01-04T12:40:00.001-08:00

We/I got an iPad for Christmas, which is totally awesome - except not for blogging, until or unless I get an accessory keyboard. My laptop has a dead battery and a dead charger (new cord on order), so I haven't been using it. Hence, no posts, even though we've been having lots of fun and we have an adorable new baby in the house. I did want to post a couple pictures and updates, though. Please forgive any typos or weird auto-corrects and whatever format and order the pics show up in.

Preschool

Sawyer started preschool yesterday, and loved it. Adelaide woke up screaming right as I was leaving to take him (I had been hoping she would stay asleep at home with sleeping Tyson while I dropped off Sawyer), so after taking care of her we were really rushed to get out the door, so I didn't take a proper picture. Wow, that was an awesome sentence. Anyway, I have two cute pictures of Sawyer smiling, with major interference from the sun, and I have clear ones of him not looking at the camera. It's the first day of kindergarten picture that really counts, right?

Prison Break

Beck has finally moved from the baby jail (pack n play with a zipped mesh tent on it) to a real bed. The transition has not been super smooth, but we're managing. I moved Sawyer out of their shared room to facilitate the transition (the boys tend to play a lot and keep each other up after bedtime, and I figured things would only be worse with Beck on the loose), but Beck was so sad last night I carried a sleeping Sawyer into the room and put him in Beck's bed with Beck and he settled right down. Aw, brother love!

Pretty Baby

Adelaide is growing so much already. I think she'll be out of the newborn size clothes soon, and I'll really be sad to see those tiny, girly clothes go! She is a really sweet, good baby. What a blessing! She smiled for the first (awake) time yesterday, but it will probably be a while before I catch a photo of that.

Beck has warmed up to Adelaide now, though gentleness is still not his strong suit. He likes to provide her with a large selection of toys in her crib, then seems somewhat annoyed when she doesn't play with them. The picture of Adelaide and Beck is from today. The one of her alone is from last week.

Sweet kids I have!

You are so beautiful to me

2011-12-19T22:49:00.000-08:00

Adelaide Josephine Heaton
Born December 9, 2011
Photographed December 12, 2011 by Kara Toone

Thanks to my sister Kara for taking these photos of baby Adelaide. My little girl and I had a difficult time being photogenic simultaneously, but the shots of her alone are gorgeous (the baby's mom said, completely without bias).

Adelaide is a sweetheart who just sleeps well and eats well and is an all around joy. Tyson and I got to enjoy some alone time with her (and with each other) when Grammy (my mom) took Sawyer and Beck to her house for four days last week while Tyson took three days (er, nights) off work for paternity leave. We are glad to have our whole family back together again, but we did relish the time we got to spend getting to know Adelaide under such peaceful circumstances. Our boys are many good things, but "peaceful" is not one of them! Sawyer loves Adelaide very much, and likes to help with her care and sing songs to her. From what I can tell, Beck is not convinced we should keep her. He seems to be adjusting day by day.

Oh, a comment on my last post asked why I had been awake for forty hours when I wrote the post. Here's the explanation, which I guess will serve as Adelaide's birth story. I woke up at 7 a.m.-ish on Thursday December 8th like usual. I got in bed a little after ten that night and was using my computer when I started to feel ill and soon realized I was also having true contractions (around 11 p.m.). I had been burdened by extremely frequent Braxton Hicks contractions for most of the pregnancy, but this was the real thing.

Since I had tested positive for Group B strep, my doctor had advised me to not delay going to the hospital if I thought I was in labor. They would need four hours to get the proper antibiotic doses into my IV before the baby was born. My entire labor with Beck was only five or six hours (he arrived less than two hours after we got to the hospital), so it seemed time might be of the essence. I timed my contractions over the next couple of hours and they were getting stronger, more regular, and closer together. During this time I packed a hospital bag, took a bath and shower, and FREAKED OUT because I hadn't bought one single item of clothing for the baby yet. I had sorted out the gender-neutral items from my boxes of baby boy clothes, but I hadn't washed them yet. I had only done a little of my Christmas shopping. My house was a wreck. Etc., etc., etc. I had gone to term with Sawyer and one week overdue with Beck, so I was fully expecting this baby to arrive on or after Christmas day.

I still wasn't sure this was real labor, but the contractions were telling me otherwise, and I wanted to be safe rather than sorry and get checked at the hospital. Once the contractions became less than five minutes apart I left for the hospital. Tyson was at work, of course, but lucky for me his sister Katelyn had been staying at our house. She was there, so I didn't have to wake the boys or pull Tyson home from work in the middle of his shift. The oddest thing happened as I was driving to the hospital, which is only a few blocks from my house -- my contractions got a little further apart. What?! I arrived at the hospital at 3 a.m., got checked in, changed into a hospital gown, and got attached to a monitor for the baby and a monitor for the contractions. They were showing a regular pattern and intensity, but had slowed to six minutes apart by this time. I was sure I was going to have to do the Labor and Delivery "walk of shame", but the nurse checked me and I had dilated two centimeters since my doctor's appointment on Wednesday, so she decided to wait an hour and check again before deciding whether to fully admit me and start the IV for the antibiotics. After that hour passed I had progressed a little more, but the contractions had slowed further. The nurse decided to re-check again in another hour. Next hour, same story. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless, which is the definition of "true labor", so my doctor advised that he wanted my IV started.

Tyson came from work at about 6:30, and his mom kindly picked up the boys from our house and took them to her house for the day. Tys and I proceeded to while away the next few hours while nothing much happened. I dozed while he ate breakfast in the cafeteria. The contractions had become even milder and further apart, and I was sure they couldn't be causing things to progress, but regular checks proved me wrong. Nonetheless, in the interest of moving things along I was given Pitocin starting mid-morning after I had received all necessary doses of antibiotics for the strep.

After that the contractions and progress picked up, but they still were really easy to handle. Not so once my doctor broke my water at 1:30 p.m.. The contractions finally intensified to what I remembered from my other labors, and Tyson was in danger of having his hand squeezed off. I eventually called for the anesthesiologist so I could have an Epidural, which I also had with my other two babies. Everything was smooth sailing from there :-) . I had a whole new experience with this birth. I didn't have to push. Twenty-four-plus hours of painful labor with Sawyer (8 lbs. 13 oz.), with over two hours of pushing. About six hours of fairly-painful labor with Beck (8 lbs. 6 oz.), and a few pushes. Fourteen hours of easy labor and one hour of pain with Adelaide (7 lbs. 5 oz.) and NO pushing. She just was ready to be born as soon as the doctor walked back into the room. And she really was a girl!!! I hadn't let myself be too sure because the gender had been revealed to me at a hospital ultrasound that was a check-up on some complications I was having (or threatening to have) at about 17 weeks, not at the true anatomical ultrasound you are supposed to have at 20 weeks (and which I never had because it was right at the time of the move). So I never saw any pictures, so I never was REALLY sure, because mistakes are sometimes made!

But she was a girl, and she was beautiful and healthy! By the time she was cleaned up and we were moved to our Mom & Baby room and we had some visitors and I ate a BLT, it was 11 p.m. when I was going to bed and writing that post. So, if my math is correct, I had been awake (except for a half-hour doze while in labor) for 40 hours. But it was all worth it!

An early and welcome arrival!

2011-12-10T10:38:00.001-08:00

Written yesterday, December 9, 2011:

Our darling little GIRL, Adelaide [Middle Name Yet Unchosen] Heaton, arrived today at 3:38 p.m. I must confess that they have just given me an Ambien to help me sleep, and it's probably time for me to stop trying to blog before my ramblings become hallucinatory and I try to buy wildly expensive collectibles on Ebay (true story), I'll press through the wooze to say she weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces, was 20" long, has a little covering of short, dark hair...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Written today, December 10, 2011:

Well, that was a bust. I fell asleep on the keyboard and the nurse later came to check on me and gently suggested it "looks like you're done with your computer?" I was so tired, after having been awake for 40 hours or so, and, you know, delivered a baby.

Here she is. Again, ignore the tired mama and focus on the beautiful baby. She's so cute and seems tiny to me, after her near-nine-pound brothers.

Yay, she's here!

Sawyer and I Have Named the Baby

2011-12-01T21:35:00.001-08:00

The last pictures on my camera are from Sawyer playing in the snow on 11/05, so, whoa, apparently I haven't found anything worth documenting since then, or haven't had the energy to do so. I'll give you a hint...it's the latter. I am past 36 weeks now by all measures (38 weeks tomorrow by the most ambitious measure), and Big Momma is TIRED! I did put up and decorate the Christmas tree, but have done no further decorating, unless you count stacking a few red-lidded plastic bins of decorations against my dining room wall as decorating. And when I say "dining room" I use the term loosely. I own two full dining sets, but the table to one remains disassembled, and we are worried about the chairs to the other scratching the floors, so that whole set is resting under a tarp on the patio until I can find a rug that meets these qualifications: 1) It is the right size (has to be 8' square or round, so kind of difficult right off the bat); 2) I like it; 3) Tyson doesn't hate it; 4) It's as cheap as possible; and, very importantly, 5) It hides stains and/or is easy to clean. So, pretty much a mythical unicorn of a rug. But when I say that, I DON'T mean this:

I really should buy a rug and get that table off the patio before it snows again (and again and again) and we can't bring it in until late May when spring arrives to Cache Valley. Until something gets figured out, we have a card table in the dining area, with three random chairs pulled up to it. Currently it has a big blanket over it and is functioning as a fort. I am also sitting at it to type this post. No one ever sits down to eat at it but me. We eat at the island/bar in the kitchen.

But enough about decorating. Back to...me. And the baby. And the title of this post. As many of you know (and some of you are very frustrated by this fact), Tyson and I do not pick out a name for a baby until the child is born. Tyson is not at all interested in tossing around names. Weirdo. Whatevs. I like to think about names, but realize the conversation will go nowhere, so I don't bring it up. Instead, I make a quite large list of names I like and bring it to the hospital when I go to have the baby, then Tyson chooses something off that list.

Things are a little different this time around. Whereas with my other two pregnancies I didn't have my heart set on any one name, with this pregnancy I do have a name I really like. I have quite a few other names I like a lot, too, and still an even larger list of names I think are worth considering, but yes, I do have a name I like above the others. I haven't mentioned it to Tyson because I don't want him to veto it right away. Sawyer is another matter. Sometimes he asks me what the baby's name is, so I have used him as a sounding board for name choices. For a few months now when he asks that question, I have answered, "How about [...]?" filling in the blank with a name from my top ten or fifteen, but NOT with my #1 pick. Of all the names I threw out for him, the only one he was briefly enamored with was Nora (or Norah), which he could not at all pronounce, since he can't say his letter R. So, "No-yuh" he repeated back to me a few times, but then forgot about.

Well, a couple of days ago I finally pulled out the big gun and floated my top name to see what Sawyer had to say about it. To my surprise, he latched onto it and said, "Yes, that's our baby's name," repeating the name back to me several times. His ability to pronounce it correctly is another mark in its favor, and it sounds so cute when he says it. But then he TOLD ON ME. He went and told Tyson that this was the baby's name! Tyson didn't veto it immediately, but asked if this was the first name or the middle name, and said since Sawyer and Mom picked out this name, he gets to pick out the other name. Sawyer answered that this is the baby's first name, and she doesn't HAVE a middle name -- no naming privileges for you, Dad! Hahahaha. Then Tyson asked a question that brings up a little sore spot with me. See, this name has a common nickname that I don't exactly hate but don't particularly love. There are other (to my mind, better) ways to nick the name, but this is definitely the one that will most easily pop into people's heads or roll off their tongues. Tyson asked Sawyer, "Will we call her [nickname]?" "No," Sawyer said, "Her name is [full name]." Exactly. I explained to Tyson that Sawyer has heard at least ten of my name choices and that this is the first one he has favored. It seemed like this possibly might be enough to seal the deal, and we might choose this name for the baby. I hope so!

And no, I'm not going to spill the beans about the name until/unless we end up going with it when she's born. You're welcome to guess. I'll give you a hint. After hearing the name Tyson suggested a name combination which I vetoed because it has the initials RAH, and that's on my list of initial combinations to avoid (basically any initial combination that spells a word or a less than desirable sound -- think SHH, ECH, BAH, AHH, HAH, etc.). So, the name in question starts with an R or an A. I think I may have mentioned it to my sisters and/or my sisters-in-law before, so you guys keep quiet. I really love this name, but my other reservation is that it is an old-fashioned name, especially when compared to Beck and Sawyer. So, it's not a done deal. We shall see. It's fun to think that in so few weeks the wait will be over and we will have our baby girl here!

Well, I guess that was a long, anti-climactic post, but there you have it.

"Now I Have to Measure Your Hips...Wherever You Think They Are..."

2011-11-08T23:01:00.000-08:00

I had to go to a Health Assessment today at IHC Workmed to see if I qualify for a discount on our insurance premiums because of my good health and habits. My appointment was at 9:00 a.m. I was instructed by the person on the phone to come fasting, even though I am 33 weeks pregnant and that's usually a no-no. I inquired about such, but was told to fast. When I arrived, the person at the desk said, "I hope you didn't fast. You don't have to if you're expecting. [Pause.] You ARE expecting, right?" Um, yeah.

There were hassles with my paperwork and I ended up having to wait a long time to be seen. The forms did ask whether I was pregnant, how far along, pre-pregnancy weight, etc., but the main components of the assessment were blood pressure, blood draw, weight, and body measurements. The young guy who did my assessment said he'd never had to do one on a pregnant person before, and that he thought it was awkward. Really, Jose? Why? Because when you reached around my "waist" with the tape measure it felt like you were giving me an unwanted (by either of us) embrace? Because you were supposed to measure around my belly button so you said, "Is...THAT...your...belly...button?" You seemed confused and frightened by the lump of my popped belly button, so clearly visible through my shirt. Or, best of all, when you said, "Now I have to measure your hips...wherever you think they are?" Haha, who the heck knows the answer to that question? And I love the fact that they're going to be comparing my waist-to-hip ratio (whose measurements were only .5" off from each other) to determine whether or not I am healthy. They also measured my wrist (which remains thin). That ought to throw a wrench in things.

At least I didn't have the boys with me to make the appointment even MORE fun. Tyson had come home from his shift about 40 minutes before I had to leave for the appointment. Since it was bedtime for him he requested that I feed the boys and contain them in their room so he didn't have to actually DO anything. Understandable, yet still kind of funny. I did my best to oblige, but Sawyer, who had stayed up late as usual, wasn't awake yet as the time approached for me to leave. I thought fast and brought a plate of non-messy foods for him and set it near his bed, along with a sippy cup of water. String cheese, a couple wedges of pita bread, grapes, a half a banana. I put Beck in the baby jail and put on a "Blues Clues" video. My plan was that Sawyer would awaken, be enthralled by the video, notice the food and begin eating it, and have no reason to emerge from his room and bother his dad. Of course, I thought I'd be home by ten, if not much sooner, so I thought my plan would work.

I arrived home from the appointment at 10:15, with Tyson calling me as I walked in the front door. When I reached the top of the stairs Sawyer was coming out of my room, where he had been pestering Tyson, and said to me excitedly, "My Sawyers came in the night and left some food for me in my bedroom for me to eat!!! They brought it from the moon!" Oh, those thoughtful Sawyers!

Sawyer followed me downstairs where I broke my fast with a bowl of Cheerios. Yes I put a little sugar on my Cheerios, and yes I had to move aside a package of pita bread to get to the sugar shaker. "Hey!" Sawyer exclaimed. "That's the kind of bread my Sawyers gave me." I said I had bought it at the store, and that they must have gotten some for him out of the cupboard.

"Or they have the same kind on our rocket," he said.

Yeah, or that.

Home

2011-11-07T23:39:00.000-08:00

Unpacking is basically finished, but there is still a lot of organizing yet to do. I organized the herbs and spices today (a rather extensive collection), so that's something, right?

Tyson arrived home safely and got the garage organized. There are still a few pieces of furniture that need to be sold/given away/sent to D.I. before we can park a vehicle in there, but we did get a lot of off-season stuff loaded into the attic space above our garage. We had never used or looked at the attic before, and hadn't realized it would be so large and hospitable for our bikes, camping gear, Christmas decorations, etc. Well... not Christmas decorations yet, because it's about time to use those. Tyson got a good area set up at the end of the garage for all his tools, and even hung up the two cabinets we bought at a yard sale for a couple bucks each just after we moved to Pennsylvania.

I'm having trouble deciding on hardware for my kitchen drawers and cabinets. Also, all the doorknobs in the house are still removed, waiting for me to spray paint them so they're not polished "brass" anymore, but now it's gotten too cold for spray painting so I might just reinstall them and wait until later to paint them. We're getting a little tired of doors that won't stay closed and kids that burst into our bedroom whenever they feel like it. On the other hand, I have kind of enjoyed observing Beck through his doorknob-hole when he is supposed to be settling down for his nap. I can tell he is soooooo tired...he is woozy looking, and wobbles all over the place just sitting there, yet he insists on performing headstands and chattering away to himself or to his array of naptime companions: a tiny stuffed Elmo that vibrates when his string is pulled, a "Buzzyear" soft toy, a traditional-style sock monkey, and a Curious George stuffed animal. He'll be chatting away and then, abruptly, he will fall over asleep.

Speaking of stuffed animals, Sawyer has lately taken to a small stuffed dog he has named "Woofster". Woofster is very affectionate, and we are all well-licked. We had snow (barely a couple of inches) on Saturday, and Sawyer played in it for almost two hours, building a robot snowman. He's eagerly awaiting the next snowfall. In another post I mentioned Sawyer's Sawyers, and said I might explain later. Here's the gist...

Sawyer is apparently the leader of a group of other Sawyers. They all live on the moon (or sometimes on another planet somewhere). They travel to earth on a rocket. On this rocket, and on the moon, they have pretty much everything we have here on earth. For instance, if I give Sawyer something to eat he has never had before, he will say, "We had this already...on my rocket." I wasn't quite clear on the Sawyers...was this just the term he was using to refer to "boys" or "friends"? No, they are clones. "My Sawyers look like me and they talk like me." We hear quite a lot about the moon, and the Sawyers. Sawyer will talk about them at great length with anyone who will listen (and with people who WON'T listen, too). This is just one of several imaginative scenarios that have caught his interest lately, but the others are equally grandiose. For instance we ate lunch at Hamilton's, a local steakhouse, on Saturday, and Sawyer spent quite a long time describing to me in detail how he built the whole building himself, because he is such a good builder. One highlight of the meal was having Bananas Foster prepared (flambeed) tableside for dessert. The kids were quite delighted with the whole thing, but then Sawyer didn't want to eat food that had caught on fire.

I finally did "real" grocery shopping on Saturday for the first time since we've been back in Utah. It's nice to be really cooking again. We made smoothies yesterday (pretty regular thing for us that we haven't been able to do for a long time), and this morning I made Hootenanny (German pancakes) for breakfast. Tonight I made Carnitas (America's Test Kitchen recipe) for dinner, and the whole process was just so satisfying. It feels good to be home in our home.

Some amount of weeks

2011-11-03T13:43:00.000-07:00

I've had some requests for prego pictures of me (gluttons for punishment, I guess?). I have finally been photographed for the first time in this pregnancy. (Well, there are a couple photos of me from Beck's birthday, but they don't show my belly.) Fair warning: I have had quite a few comments lately about how BIG I am. ("Wow, you're so BIG!" "You're REALLY PREGNANT" "WHEN are you DUE!!!???" "Don't take this the wrong way, but, you're a lot bigger than my friends who are pregnant and due at the same time...") Most of these comments came from younger female relatives (both sides of the family) who have yet to experience the joy of having your body grow out of control while inhabited by, basically, an alien parasite for the better part of a year...er, I mean the joy of nurturing a precious and tiny child inside your body for nine glorious months.

I did unpack the calendar wherein I had charted out how many weeks along I would be at any given time, but it's downstairs and I don't want to consult it. I think I'm somewhere between 32 and 34 weeks along, depending if I want to believe the doctor's due date (December 27), the suggested due date from my early ultrasound (December 25), or my originally calculated due date based on LMP (December 16), which I believed to be my due date for the first several weeks of my pregnancy, and which I still mentally clutch like a child clutches a beloved, threadbare stuffed animal, stroking it lovingly and imagining it's real.

Anyway, without further ado... (Apologies for the poor lighting and bad self-timer photography -- also the no makeup (hence the extremely shiny cheeks) and the wet hair pulled up. This is still the best I had looked in days!)

Beck brought me the camera this morning and said "Pictchoo, pictchoo!" very urgently. He gave me the camera, so I obliged and took his picture. This was the face he felt it was so important to have documented. Well, he still melts my heart, even when he's sticking his tongue out at me.

Here is Sawyer modeling some "face armor" he made out of one of his birthday gifts, a starter set of Magformers. He wants me to help him construct some armor that completely surrounds his head!

I've gone about as far as I can go on the unpacking without further help from Tyson. Lots of stuff is stacked precariously in the garage, with tiny passageways between items. I'm sure you realize that the belly pictured above and "tiny passageways through precarious stacks of furniture and boxes" are not a good mix.

One more thing I'd like to mention is how beautiful and LONG this fall (autumn) has been. We still have pretty leaves on the trees and mild weather for playing outside. Thanks, Cache Valley, for gently easing me into your winter this year!

To Halloween, And Beyond!

2011-11-01T00:25:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to be a good, prompt blogger and get these Halloween photos up in a timely manner. Grammy requested costume photos, and Tyson is out of town so he missed the costumes, too. The first couple of pictures are from the North Logan Pumpkin Walk, a fun yearly event in our town consisting of "scenes" featuring pumpkins. This is an Angry Birds scene. Sawyer was having an evening of refusing to be photographed, like he was some celebrity and I some annoying paparazzo. All photos from the evening are variations on this theme:

Beck was much more willing to be photographed, especially in this Buzz Lightyear cut-out. Beck is a huge Buzz fan. He has a beloved "Buzzyear" soft toy that he sleeps with every night, and he often requests to watch "Buzzyear" movies, which are his favorite,

Tyson didn't attend the Pumpkin Walk with us, because he stayed home to put in flooring. Maybe in another post I will write about all the trouble with the flooring (sounds fascinating, right?) but for now I will just post this "semi-After" photo, which depicts the point we made it to before the movers delivered our stuff out of storage last Friday. Obviously it's not DONE done in this photo (note the tape around the still-unpainted window frames, and the baseboards that are merely leaning against the walls rather than tacked in place), but it's come a long way. Now it's a maze of boxes and misplaced furniture (however, the upstairs and kitchen are nearly unpacked).

So, the movers came three days ago. Boy is it nice to be sleeping on a real bed again! And the boys were in heaven opening all the boxes full of their toys. It was like every Christmas and birthday of their lives, combined! I am now drowning in empty boxes and packing paper, however. I can't believe how wasteful professional movers/packers are! When they showed up with our stuff, they had SEVEN crates on a huge flat-bed trailer, plus a medium-sized moving truck. Funny, we moved out there with all the same stuff in two 8'x12' moving cubes. The mystery was solved when I opened one fairly large sized box and dug and dug and dug through layer upon layer of packing paper, to find the box contained a single item: Tyson's old film camera I haven't seen him use since we were married. This was an extreme case, but there are many boxes that contain one or two items and a whole lot of packing paper. I guess packers get paid per box.

Tyson left yesterday for a week-long trip to the home office in Wisconsin. Perfect timing, right? I guess it's semi-fair, because I skipped out on all the moving and unpacking last time we moved into this house (Beck was born on our moving day). I hope Tys can get a little rest and relaxation without feeling buried by house projects the way he must feel here. We miss him, though! I especially wish he could have been here on Halloween to see the kids in their cute costumes.

Beck, the Fireman:

Sawyer, the Chef (his requested costume):

We went to a ward dinner/trick-or-treat activity in our bishop's cul-de-sac, then went to visit Grandma and Grandpa (Tyson's parents). I wanted to pull together a "waiter" costume for Beck, so they could be a matched pair, but I didn't get to it, if you can imagine that. I'm lucky I was able to move the boxes in front of the dress up dresser and locate the elements of the fireman costume. Beck approved. He loved his hat and kept flipping the face shield up and down. Cute boys!

We also celebrated Sawyer's birthday since I last posted, but I need to get some pictures off my mother-in-law's camera before I report on that. Sawyer is one sweet four-year-old!

"Mommy and Daddy Are Sleeping"

2011-10-20T01:02:00.000-07:00

Warning: as far as this post is concerned, there isn't any "there" there. As in, there's really no topic, or event, or news contained herein. I just wanted to post some mundane daily details by which to remember this interesting time in our lives. So here's "A Day in the Life of the Remodeling Heatons"...

This [morning] Tyson and I were slumbering blissfully on our air mattress/memory foam "bed" when we heard our doorbell ring, followed quickly by knocking. (Bed shouldn't really be in quotes, since it is in fact our bed, but unnecessary air quotes are sort of a trademark of mine. This time I'm using them to highlight the fact that our bed is somewhat lacking in true bed attributes such as elevation off the ground, comfort, and ability to stay in one shape or in one place while being slept upon. Most beds don't walk several inches during the night, right? But anyway, I digress.) The doorbell and knocking commotion was followed by a brief pause, then we heard the bell and the knocking again. Then another, shorter pause, and then the knocking became consistent, insistent. Bleary-eyed and croaky-voiced, we each tried to convince the other to answer the door. My main thought was that someone from the HOA was finally coming over to tell us the neighbors were complaining about the noise from our remodel, or that we could no longer leave on our porch 1) Our black garbage can, 2) Our water heater box filled with additional garbage, and/or 3) Our ShopVac. (All three items have been residing on said porch intermittently for the past six weeks -- well, not-so-intermittently in the case of the box from the water heater. It's more of a permanent fixture.)

No one wants a visit from the HOA, but that would be much better than my second thought -- that someone had called the Division of Child and Family Services. Could happen for any number of reasons, such as...we have our children living in a house that is probably not currently up to code in many and various ways...I let my three-year-old and my two-year-old watch "Thor", twice consecutively, the other night...any passerby could wonder what kind of abuse is being inflicted on Beck, who screams like a banshee whenever he is not allowed to do something he wants to do (like play with the matches for the camps stove we used to heat the garage ("kitchen") and which we occasionally cook on). But the most recent questionable even had happened yesterday when I had told Tyson not to let Sawyer play outside in just his underwear! It was only 65 degrees or so, and aren't kids supposed to be dressed by noon? Tyson reassured me that Sawyer wasn't cold. No, he was keeping warm by sunning himself, lizard-style, on the large, metal electrical box right next to the street. At least Beck was warmer, since he was still in his pajamas. And what was I doing, you ask? I was painting cabinet doors and couldn't leave my station right at that very moment because I was in the middle of smoothing out my brushstrokes, and brushstrokes must be avoided at all costs. BRUSHSTROKES MUST BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS!

Then again, maybe it wasn't the HOA or DCFS. Maybe it was our backyard neighbor coming to discuss the present I had left for him a few days earlier. The present being a FULL grocery bag of his dog's feces, which I had gathered from the grass directly outside my patio gate (the grass which belongs to neither of us, but rather to our condo HOA and his apartment community) and left on his back porch along with a note requesting his compliance with the pet waste policy of the community...namely that owners should promptly clean up after their own pets. The apartment renters face steep fines if they disobey this rule, but he has been skirting punishment by directing his golden retriever to venture up the hill and do his business on the HOA property, which is not patrolled by the apartment management.

We were still bickering about who should go to the door ("I'm not wearing a bra" "Well I don't have any pants" "Pants are quicker to put on than a bra" "Well I can't find my glasses" "Well I can't find my glasses either and it's going to take me longer to find mine because my vision is way worse than yours" "What time is it anyway?" "Yeah, and who is at the door?!?") when we heard Sawyer running downstairs. I heard him say, "Maybe it's my Sawyers!" (explanation later, perhaps) but soon he was opening the door and speaking to the male-sounding visitor. "Mommy and Daddy are sleeping," Sawyer said. By this time Tyson had located his pants and glasses, and also his phone, which he glanced at and told me the time. Noon.

Yes, Sawyer was in his pajamas. Yes, Mommy and Daddy were sleeping. Well, technically that's only half true. Daddy was sleeping, but Mommy had in fact been up for an hour between nine and ten a.m., feeding the kids breakfast. She had also been awakened numerous times during the intervening two hours by Sawyer, who alternated climbing into bed next to Mom with pestering Mom with requests for assistance opening yogurt, arranging blankets, using the bathroom, etc. After fulfilling each request, Mom would stumble blindly back to bed again.

The visitor turned out to be a UPS delivery guy, and Tyson did eventually make it downstairs to sign for the package -- a present I had ordered for Sawyer's upcoming birthday. Sawyer brought the small box upstairs and said excitedly, "A man knocked on our door and I opened it and he gave us this box, and Dad wroted his name on the machine," like it was all the most wonderful thing that had ever occurred.

So that's how our day began, I guess, but if we are doing "A Day in the Life" maybe it should begin at midnight instead. So let's rewind twelve hours. At midnight Tyson had been at work at Schreiber for about five hours, and Sawyer was inexplicably still awake. I was painting. Or grouting. Or painting. Or taping. Or grouting. I finished my grouting right around 5:00 a.m., and Tyson soon arrived home from work. He had stopped at Rancherito's on the way home, and he shared with me the remaining quarter of the most fabulous breakfast burrito ever constructed. I ate it ravenously, even though I was in bed and had just brushed my teeth. It had been hours since I had eaten. We both drifted off to sleep around 6:00 a.m., but like I said, I got up three hours later to feed the kids.

Okay, so now it's noon. The kids had been in their room watching and Elmo video for two hours. We let Beck out of his baby jail, showered, dressed, and finally began the day in earnest. Tyson went to lunch with his dad at a new sushi place in town, while the kids and I ate at the Old Grist Mill next door. We made our daily pilgrimage to Home Depot and began work for the day. For me, more painting. For Tyson, laying wood laminate floor. For Beck, napping. For Sawyer, playing computer games or "helping build the house". Soon Beck was awake again and therefore paint work had to cease. We all helped with the wood floor chatted with a couple of our neighbors, and then, before we knew it, it was time for Tyson to go to work again. The kids and I went to D.I. to look at Halloween costumes and play with toys, then we dropped a sandwich off to Tyson at his work and ordered our own dinner from both ChickFilA and Wendy's. (Sawyer claimed that he wanted a hamburger, but once we returned home with our food he clarified that he wanted a hamburger made out of chicken. Okay. We finished dinner and I put the kids in a bath, where they played for a good, long time. By the time they got out it was almost 10 p.m., and I figured surely they would fall asleep quickly. No such luck, though. Sawyer was awake till almost midnight again. I can't start grouting or painting when I might be interrupted, and that's how I ended up staying up so late last night. And here it is again, 2 a.m., and I should go downstairs and finish the grouting. But I don't wanna! Daddy is going to be working night shifts for the foreseeable future, but Mommy can't work night shifts because she has to work day shifts too! Boo!

So really I didn't get all that much done on the house today. I should go finish the grout...

Renovation Explanation

2011-09-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

In a comment on the previous post, my friend Brittney asked "why so many projects?"

Good question. The answer is that when we bought the house we intended to repaint and recarpet it, which it desperately needed. The house was built over 15 years ago and had not seen any new paint in that time. In fact, in many places it was difficult to tell if it had even been painted, beyond primer, in the first place! The cheap, builder-grade carpet was stained and worn, and there were many, many holes in the walls -- not to mention the black staining on all the door trim and baseboards due to some sort of lubricant used on the door hinges. We didn't get around to those projects our first time living here, due to Beck being born on our move-in day and due to our unexpected relocation a few months later. Needless to say, having tenants in the place for the past 19 months didn't help the condition of the place.

But why is the list of projects so long? Because we are doing the work ourselves in order to do it in as affordable a way as possible. If we weren't doing the work ourselves, then the list would be short and would simply say, "Hire someone to install flooring. Hire someone to prep and paint entire house." Things would already be done by now -- but at several times the cost. Or, rather, things would not be done, because we don't have several times the money to put into this project!

Yes, there are "extras" on the list -- a few things we have undertaken to make the house more functional for us and for future owners. These are things like the rebuilt fireplace, the expanded kitchen island, the removal of an odd, space-cutting wall, and the change to the stairway that creates some usable "entry" space. Then there are the additional aesthetic updates, again to make the house more pleasing to us and to future owners. The house can't stay circa 1996 forever! So, away go the shiny brass light fixtures and towel bars and the pickled oak-look cabinetry. And hopefully at some point the peach-gray laminate countertops.

Many of these projects could be handled piecemeal over the course of the next several months (and some of them will be), but we decided to take advantage of the two months of company-paid storage of our goods to really go for it with the renovation. So much easier than moving furniture and shrouding it in dropcloths every time you need to do a project!

I finished painting the second coat in the master bathroom (toilet room) and closet last night, while Tyson painted the downstairs ceiling. The rest of the master bedroom is waiting for its second coat right now, and the downstairs ceiling needs some touch ups. This is the last step in the master bedroom before flooring. Yay! (unless I get around to painting the vanity cabinets right now). I need to paint the trim and walls in the laundry room and powder room downstairs and they will be ready for flooring too. Yay!

I'm on a really slow, "borrowed" internet connection, so I don't want to try to upload too many pics, but "before" pics can be seen here: http://www.1521devonshire.blogspot.com/. It actually looked two to three years worse than this by the time we started this remodel. Hopefully I'll be able to share "after" pics soon. Here's one that shows the carpet and new paint on the new stair landing Tyson built (the large square step replaces a couple pie- or wedge-shaped steps that tripped up our kids and didn't allow for a small corner shelf or coat hook area on the (now gray) wall).

We also try to have a little fun here and there. We have been doing an outing on Sunday before church, since our meetings don't start until 1:00 p.m. We went to the Willow Park Zoo one week, and Ryan's Place Park another. These cute pics were taken at Ryan's Place.

Both boys have had haircuts recently, and Beck especially is looking grown up. He *thinks* he is grown up, too. Very much in a two-year-old phase of wanting to do things by himself that he can't quite do yet, then throwing tantrums when I do the things for him. He has a very engaging and enthusiastic personality and brings lots of smiles and laughter to our home.

Sawyer participated in his first Primary program on Sunday. He had his part all memorized for almost two weeks leading up to the program. The day of the program we were practicing one last time, and he started to say something different...improvising his own part. Uh-oh. His part was to be "When I pray, I am talking to Heavenly Father." He started to tell me he wanted to talk about Jesus Christ instead. I eagerly awaited his turn in the program, to see what would happen. He got up to the microphone and said, "Ummm......." Then went on to talk extemporaneously about Jesus and also possibly mixed in some unintelligible bits of his assigned part. In the middle he repeated, "Ummm...." and went on with his thoughts until he was removed from the microphone by the primary president. Something had me thinking, "like father like son," haha. It was very cute, and the audience got a kick out of it of course. He would have been equally cute saying his memorized assigned part, though. He also exhibited some very squirrely behavior throughout the program. He was kind of "that kid" in the program. Oh well, he's *my* kid, and very cute! Beck kept yelling at him from the audience, and acting extremely squirrely himself. I was exhausted by the time sacrament was over, and to be honest we went home and put the kids (and ourselves) down for naps. "Exhausted" is kind of the theme of my life right now. I'm in my third trimester, I'm a biiiiiig girl, and these kids and projects are wearing me out!

Well, back to my painting!

We are here - in a construction zone

2011-09-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

Let it be known that the boys and I arrived in Utah safely almost four weeks ago now, and Tyson followed safely a week later. Our belongings are in storage and we have been working diligently on the remodeling of our condo. I have lots of good "before" and "during" posts, as well as cute pictures of the kids. However, I can't put my time toward blogging right now. I have to spend it working! (And on Pinterest getting and pinning ideas - http://pinterest.com/venusv/). We spent the last few weeks staying at Tyson's parents' house, which is 25 minutes away from our house. Since Sunday night we have been staying here at our house (now that the carpet is installed in two bedrooms). We are sleeping on air mattresses and camping pads and eating our meals in the garage, where we have set up a makeshift kitchen. I've been painting a couple hours a day while I try to keep the kids occupied with a movie on my computer. We've had generous help from family, especially painting help from my dad and my sister Kara, and associated child care help from my mom and Tyson's mom. Tyson's dad has pitched in on some projects, as have my sister Krista and her husband Chris, and Tyson's younger brothers.

My mom is watching my kids for the next two nights...so I better get back to work while I have the (uninterrupted) chance!

Here is a list of what we've done so far (a lot of stuff), and what we still have to do (a lot more stuff!). This should be sufficient explanation for my absence from blogging.

Done:
Measure to get an idea of flooring costs
Choose main floor and bedroom paint colors
Choose carpet
Order carpet
Choose wood laminate
Purchase wood laminate
Remove outlet/switch covers
Remove nails, drapery hardware, etc.
Remove doorknobs
Clean bedroom walls
Prep bedroom walls
Rip out carpet and pad
Haul to dump
Rip out staples
Demo tile
Demo nook wall
Reinstall electric work from nook wall
Sheetrock and mud nook wall
Remove island
Add crown molding to cabinets
Move up cabinets
Rebuild pie steps
Paint orange wall blue in boys’ room
Touchup white walls in boys’ room
Paint closet in boys’ room
Paint nursery walls blue
Paint trim in nursery
Paint ceiling in nursery
Paint ceiling on landing and stairs
Paint walls on landing and stairs
Paint master ceiling

x Make sure carpet installers will bring extra tack strip and metal pieces for junctions

Boys’ Room
x Check/decide if boys’ closet needs second coat of paint
Buy and install beadboard or other wood/covering for boys’ closet nook “floor” – paint if necessary

Nursery
bleh - Second coat on nursery ceiling
x Touch-ups on nursery trim
x Touch-ups on nursery walls
x Touch-ups on nursery ceiling
x Prep nursery closet
x Paint nursery closet
x Prep nursery window frame
x Paint nursery window frame

Landing/stairs
x Prep linen closet
x Paint shelves in linen closet
x Paint walls in linen closet
x Decide how to paint wood banisters
x Buy paint for banisters
Prep banisters
Paint banisters
x Paint rest of trim/doors in landing
x Paint trim on stairs
Check stairway ceiling for touchups
x Paint octagon window wall gray
Paint octagon window frame white
Paint banister white
Decide what color to paint hardware
Spray paint banister hardware
Reinstall banister

X Have carpet installed

Things to do before wood floors:

Master bedroom/bathroom
Touchup ceiling paint
x Double-check trim prep
x Paint trim white
Finish prepping walls
Paint bedroom walls gray
Paint commode and closet walls white (for now?)
Decide what color to paint vanity (darker gray? Stain dark brown?)
Prep and paint vanity

Living/Dining
x Decide about fireplace niche
x Demo fireplace
x Build out fireplace
x Sheetrock fireplace
Buy/build mantel for fireplace
Buy/install piece of cultured marble for threshold
Prep/clean ceilings, walls, and trim
Paint ceiling
in progress - Paint trim
in progress - Paint walls

Kitchen
Replace can shields
Decide about installing pendant over sink
Remove fluorescent bar fixture
Clean/prep walls, ceiling, and trim
Paint ceiling
Paint trim
Paint walls
x Buy Rustoleum “Cabinet transformations”
Prep cabinets (remove doors, etc.)
Paint cabinets

Other things to do:

Choose and install light fixture for nursery
Choose and install light fixture for master bedroom
Choose and install fixtures in bathrooms (or spray temporarily)
Choose and install light fixtures for stairs and landing (or spray temporarily)
Choose and install light fixtures for living and dining (or spray temporarily)
Choose and install kitchen over-island fixture
Install flooring in master
Install flooring downstairs
x Figure out about island
Build/buy island
Prep and paint upstairs bathroom ceiling, trim, floors
Prep and paint laundry and powder room ceiling, trim, floors
Insulate garage
Prep and paint garage
Paint inside and outside of front door
Choose and install open shelving in kitchen
x Hang extra cabinets in laundry room or hall bath
Paint laundry cabinets?
Install dimmer switches
in progress - Reinstall switch plates and outlet covers

“Future” list:
Replace kitchen counters
New flooring in laundry/powder/hall bath
New appliances?
Replace all bathroom counters

Whew!

Talk to you again in a few weeks!

Supermom?

2011-08-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Today Sawyer asked for his cape.

Cape = white flour-sack dish towel.

I got one for him and tied it around his neck. Next, I was bending over with my back to him and he said, "Mom, you have a cape on, too!?"

Cape = blousy white maternity shirt

I said, no, this isn't a cape. It's just my shirt. It's a big shirt for mommies who are going to have a baby. It's big because my belly is getting bigger.

He said, "Oh. It's kind of an apron shirt."

Yes, I am getting SO BIG. I am only 23 weeks (almost -- or is it 22, almost?) and I look like I'm at least 10 weeks further along! I haven't tried to take any pictures of myself this pregnancy, but I will probably try to do one soon. I know I have one at 25 weeks from when I was pregnant with Beck, so maybe I'll take one at the same point to compare.

----

The crew is coming to pack our house tomorrow, very early in the morning. I have a lot to do before then, and I can't seem to make myself do it. I am so exhausted, mostly mentally. My brain is worn out from dealing with the logistics of this move. No less than 10 companies are involved in the process so far, probably with more to follow. It takes forever dealing with the associated phone calls and emails. When we moved out here, ONE company was involved (well, besides Tyson's employer). It's nice having the moving "taken care of" for us, but it's a hassle in its own way. I guess it beats packing, though! A totally separate company is coming just to disconnect and prep the washer and dryer for moving! Our circa 1996 buff/almond color washer and dryer we bought with our condo in Logan. The ones we packed our coats and sweaters in when we moved out here.

Let me be honest here and report on my worst shortcoming over the past week and a half. I need to go wash some dishes. Some of them have been dirty (well, not DIRTY, I rinsed them thoroughly) since Beck's birthday part 10/11 days ago. We dirtied every serving/mixing bowl I own that day, and a few of them are still waiting for me in a bin under my sink. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Soooooo...now they HAVE to get clean, because they need to be packed tomorrow. Go do it, Lisa. Right now. Stop typing. Stop looking at Pinterest. Stand up. There, there you go!

A review, an announcement, a birthday

2011-08-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

I probably should wait to post this until I have the pictures Tyson took with his phone, but here goes. He took most of them of our EMPTY plates, anyway. I've meant, over time, to do little write-ups on the restaurants we go to out here, because I like to remember that kind of thing, but I haven't kept up with it. Now I have a category on Pinterest for restaurants to try and restaurants tried, so I hope to do better at this in the future.

Anyway...

Casablanca Restaurant - Warrington, PA - 8/13/2011 - **** out of *****. Tyson and I had a prix fixe ($32pp) 8-course dinner here on a Saturday night. It was our first date in months, and I had so much fun and loved the Moroccan food. You eat off those low tray tables, with pita bread as your only utensil (except the couscous course, when you are granted a fork). Our table is the one you can see in the front corner of the picture here http://pinterest.com/pin/124620722/. They give you full-size bath towels to place in your lap.

The Moroccan food was great - our favorites were the dips (baba ganouj and hummus), the salads (an awesome carrot one was my favorite, and there were two others), the rabbit which was so tender and had peppers and dates and a spicy sauce on the side, and the spiced lamb dish -- oh, and the b'stilla (sp?), a powdered-sugar dusted savory pastry that I have been wanting to try forever. So messy, but so good!

There was also couscous, baklava, honeyed lamb with nuts, a huge bowl of fruit, and mint tea. Our server(s) -- and apparently the chef, we were told - were amazed by our appetite and ability to practically lick our platters clean, to the point that the chef started doling out extra food to us to see if we could "handle it". We did! Well, except for we didn't finish an apple and a banana out of our fruit bowl. Just a plum, an orange, a bunch of grapes, and something other piece of fruit I can't remember -- after eating every last speck of our previous six courses and still facing baklava and tea for dessert.

There was supposed to be a belly dancer - a male(!) belly dancer, on the night we were there - but either the entertainment had already gone home by the time we got there, or wasn't there at all that night. I loved the whole experience and if we weren't moving I would definitely want to go back another time with a bigger crowd of friends. They pour rose water over your hands before and during the meal, since it is quite a messy affair. The service was good. The place has a fun, exotic ambiance, very dim and lounge-y, with Moroccan textiles and metallic accents everywhere.

Tyson and I had some good jokes and conversations and it was just a fun, yummy date overall. Oh...our other activities for the night were buying presents for Beck at Target, and browsing Home Depot for flooring ideas for...

...our condo in Logan, UT, which we are moving back into within a matter of weeks!

Most of you who read this blog already know this, I think, but Tyson was offered the job in Logan with Schreiber Foods, and after a little negotiation accepted it, and we are moving back to Utah again. It's so funny, we really aren't trying to "settle down" in Logan for the rest of our lives, but we sure keep ending up there! Well, for the next few years we think this will be a great situation for our family. Our moving truck leaves a week from today, the boys and I fly out later that night, and Tyson flies out exactly a week later. In two weeks we will all be Utahns again!

I really am sad to be leaving Pennsylvania so very quickly, though. I thought I would have several more months here. There are many more things I still wanted to see and do in the Northeast, and some things I've already done that I want to do again. There are people I will really miss, and others I still wanted to develop friendships with and now I'll never get the chance. But on the other hand I am so excited to get back to my family and my lifelong friends, excited to feel more a part of my community, excited to fix-up our condo and move back into the place that is "ours", excited to have my baby in a familiar place with support close by. Not excited for? ANOTHER Logan winter...and another, and another, and... Why is it I keep missing summer in Logan, but keep hitting winter? Boo.

In other news, Beck turned two on Sunday, and we celebrated his milestone with a barbecue and cake and ice cream party with many of our PA friends. I guess it was sort of a going-away shindig, too, and a "use up all the meat in the freezer because we can't move it" party. Beck was spoiled with many fun presents, and the kids have loved playing with his new toys. Oh, Beckett -- he is at the cutest, most mischievous stage. The kid doesn't have an appropriate, life-preserving fear of climbing things or jumping off things. About one of his favorite activities, which he repeats every evening when Tyson comes home from work and is relaxing on the couch, is jumping from a chair behind the couch onto the back of the couch, landing on his belly, and thrusting his weight forward as much as he can to topple forward onto the couch. It's a big jump, too! So, basically I am always terrified watching him and all his antics. I'm surprised he hasn't already had stitches. He has tons of words and a cute way of speaking. He is very much in an "I'll do it by myself" phase -- buckles, stairs, feeding, it's all "MY DO! MY DO IT!" I can tell he's already interested in potty-training, so we'll probably tackle that when we get settled.

Here are some pictures of the birthday boy and birthday festivities. Look at all that loot! The yellow horse is a bouncy toy called the Rody, and it is an awesome and hilarious toy that the kids love. I saw it at a toy store here and determined I would get it for Beck's birthday. My mom was the one who ended up ordering one for him. Thanks, Grammy! The sunglasses were one of the presents from Grandma (Heaton)...isn't Beck cool! Tyson and I bought him one outfit (the poor kid only gets about three new outfits a year. Not that he really needs them with all the hand-me-downs from Sawyer and their cousin Benson.) and a few new toys at Target, including the sock monkey. Sawyer and I got him some other fun toys, puzzles, and books from Care & Share, our favorite thrift store, including the shape sorter, which he loves. The other toys and books were from our kind friends, including that bubble-blowing Mater push toy. Thanks, friends!

Happy birthday, Beck! We love you!

Relaxation

2011-08-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

Sooooo...I really should post a big, long update to push all those disgusting rash pictures further down the page, but really, I don't have much to report, and I don't have any new pictures.

Tyson flew out to Utah on Monday, August 1. After much waffling and deliberation, in the end he DID end up taking my little William Beckett with him on the journey. What a trooper! Tyson, I mean, not Beck. Beck, on a lap, on a flight, is anything BUT a trooper. He's wiggly, naughty, messy, loud, stinky, sugared-up, a rabid attention-seeker, and has his every whim catered to. He rarely holds still, and even more rarely sleeps. Of course he is super-duper cute, as always, but it's generally not a smooth or relaxing experience for the "lap".

What Beck's absence afforded me was a chance to catch up on a little sleep, quite a bit of housework, and a lot of laundry. Yes, I can and DO do these things when Beck is home (well, not the sleep part), but he undoes everything the second I do it. Literally, he follows me around, the Great Un-Doer. It was so relaxing to have my work stay "done" for a while. I cooked really low-key dinners (other than one night when I made baked tilapia and some yummy sides), and I only had to run my dishwasher ONCE the whole week. I went SIX FULL DAYS without changing a diaper. I also applied Tyson for over 40 jobs (anyone who's done this knows that takes FOREVER), and Sawyer and I had some fun play time and a few outings, too. Basically, I lived a life of leisure for a week.

But, I missed my littlest and biggest boys! I'm so glad my little Beck-monster is back I'm so glad to have his smiles and his loves and his words and his messes around again. I missed Tyson, too. It's so nice to have everyone together again.

Millions of thank yous go out to those who got to take care of Beck and have all THEIR work undone by him this week: my sister Kara, my mom, my mother-in-law Charlene, and of course Tyson. From what I hear, Beck had a great time.

He wasn't sad at all to say goodbye to me and get on the airplane with Dad when they left. He was literally, like, "Seeya, Mama!" I don't think he was homesick or Mama-sick while he was gone. But he WAS glad to see me when he got back. The look on his face, it was like, "It's you?! You ARE real, not just a memory!?!? I LOVE YOU!!!!" It was very cute to see the brotherly love between Sawyer and Beck, too. Of course, as of today they are back to their squabbles...but it's all good.

Beck spent the first part of the week with Kara while Tyson went to his family reunion at Lava Hot Springs. I'm sure Beck would have had fun, but having a two-year-old to take care of single-handed does sort of put a damper on the types of things you do at Lava -- golfing, swimming, tubing the river, staying out late playing Rook -- so I can see why Tyson went on his own. This was my first "miss" of the reunion since Tyson and I met in 2005, so I was kinda sad about that. I hear it was fun.

Charlene picked Beck up from Kara's and they all enjoyed a couple nights in Cache Valley. Tyson had a lot of phone interviews and appointments on Wednesday, and on Thursday he had his job interview/plant tour pretty much all day. He came away from the interview even more impressed by the company than he was before. It's kind of funny to say, because usually Tyson is pretty nonchalant/nonenthusiastic (even maybe pessimistic?) about things, but this time he really sounded excited about the possibility of being offered the job. Soooooo...that's NOT FUN! Isn't it just sometimes a pain to WANT something and not know if you'll get it? Because HE wants it, now I want it, and it makes me think of how easy and nice things would be if we got to move back to Cache Valley. Our condo is coming vacant this month and we could just move right in...fix it up a little? find a neighborhood preschool for Sawyer? eat REAL wheat bread? enjoy Sunday dinners full of garden produce with the Heatons? go to church right down the street? WALK into the foothills of REAL mountains? pay way less than $4.50 a gallon for milk? I could go back to school? have a baby in Brigham City again with my familiar doctor? visit my family easily? not die of poison ivy or humidity? potentially have Tyson home more than one waking hour per day (ok, who knows, no promises, it is still the food manufacturing business)?

It makes it all feel like I have a big, sore CRUSH on someone! I thought I was past that! Oh well, we should know in a matter of days, and then even if we do get an offer we will still need to pray about things and see what decision seems correct. Urgh, wouldn't it be awful to get the offer and then to somehow feel it wasn't the right move?

So, I hesitated to post all that, because now I might end up having to come back here and say, "It didn't work out." But really, it's okay if it doesn't work out. Tyson HAS a job, and there will be other opportunities.

While Tyson and Beck were gone, Sawyer and I hung around home a lot and had some park visits. We also went to a Young Women swimming activity, which Sawyer loved. A highlight of the week for me was a visit to Longwood Gardens on Thursday. Longwood Gardens is one place I'd really miss if we moved away from the Philly area -- there is nothing comparable in Utah, though Red Butte is a lovely garden. I still need to post the pictures from my sisters' visit so you can see how ah-maze-ing Longwood Gardens is. This was my fifth or sixth visit there, and I finally saw the rest of the garden I hadn't seen yet (yes, it took that many visits to see the whole thing). We visited the fun outdoor children's garden (there is an indoor one, too, which we've visited every time, as well as three treehouses we have visited multiple times), the waterfall, "Eye of Water" water feature, Chimes tower (which has a 64-bell carillon that plays on the hour), idea garden (which includes the most fabulous vegetable garden, amazing outdoor floral beds, and butterflies and bees everywhere), outdoor rose garden (too bad I missed this when it was in its prime), large fountain garden, and topiary garden. Whew! We also made a quick pass through the indoor conservatory garden to see what was new this season, and took a look at the water lily garden in full splendor. Maybe some pictures would have made all this more impressive? Well, I was relishing my week of not having to carry a diaper bag and/or big purse, so all I brought in was my membership card and my debit card. We also ate lunch together in the cafe, which was pleasant and tasty. We stopped at an Anthropologie on the way home, and Sawyer kept telling me to try on all sorts of fancy shoes. He picked out an awesome pair for me. (MotherBoy XXXVII, here we come.)

On Saturday we had our big day of fun. We went to lunch at an Indian restaurant which I have to say had the most fabulous lunch buffet I have ever seen at an Indian restaurant -- soup, three kinds of naan, seven appetizers, 14 entrees, 8 desserts, 6 chutneys, fruits, vegetables, mango lassi included...for $11...WOW! I have been craving Indian, and that hit the spot! Then we went to buy some toys at our favorite thrift store in Souderton, Care & Share, and visited Sawyer's favorite play place, Mr. B.'s. We came home for dinner, then wrapped up the night by going to Sawyer's first movie in the movie theater (and my first in the past two years, I think). We saw "Smurfs" so, um, if I were choosing solely for me I probably would have chosen differently. If I were choosing solely for Sawyer I would have chosen differently, but Cars 2 and Winnie the Pooh didn't have any evening showtimes. So....I had extremely low expectations for "Smurfs", which it managed to exceed by a little. But don't go running out to see it! Sawyer loved the whole experience, though. He kept getting up to hug me during the movie and saying, "I LOVE this, Mom!" So very cute. So very EXPENSIVE! My ticket was $11, and Sawyer's was $8.50. What a rip-off! We got a popcorn and a drink, too, so you can only imagine! Oh well, it was a fun date for the two of us. Maybe we can go again in a year.

Well, that was a really wordy, no-picture post. I guess I have to "journal" somewhere. Many thanks again to everyone who watched Beck in Utah. I have truly amazing family members -- especially Kara, who took on having FIVE kids (and sometimes six or seven...she was tending extras all week), just so I could relax with ONE. What a gem!

"This is My Favorite Rocky Land!"

2011-07-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

I'm well aware no one really wants to see more pictures of rashes, or hear me say the word "ooze" ever again. So, let's go back to a happier, less-itchy time in our lives...

We let Sawyer go a really long time without a haircut before finally taking the clippers to him a few weeks ago. He wanted to keep growing his hair even longer, but it looked too sweaty and hot in this weather. And poofy. He doesn't need any help making his head look big. His preferred long-hair look is shown below. Now, in Sawyer's world this look is not known as a fauxhawk, but rather as his "crest". As worn by various types of dinosaurs on "Dinosaur Train".

Oh, my Sawyer, you are so adorable!

After the haircut he was really sad that his crest was now only a half-inch long. Also, the haircut really messed with the satisfaction he gets from his notable self-soothing behavior of sucking the thumb of one hand while reaching behind or on top of his head and stroking his hair with the other hand. Okay, I realize he's getting kind of old to be sucking his thumb. I don't really know what, if anything, I'm going to do about it.

I know I said this post wouldn't be about rashes, but in case anyone is worried about Sawyer I will give an update. By the end of the day yesterday his rash was even worse than pictured in the last post, but the treatment seems to be working and I definitely saw some improvement by the end of today. I hope it stays on that track and never...you know... oo**s.

The next few photos are from July 4th, when we visited a county park north of here called Ringing Rocks. We'd read about it somewhere and we were exploring outdoorsy things in our area that weekend, and we thought, "Hey, we'll check it out."

It was kind of funny. It's a big boulder field with rocks that are renowned for the ringing sound they make when struck with a hammer. Not all the rocks ring, though. Just some of them. It's up to you and your hammer to find out which ones.

We parked our car in the lot and took a not-particularly-well-marked trail we assumed must lead to these amazing rocks. When we got "there" we saw a big boulder field. This was pretty anticlimactic for Tyson. I guess he was expecting Stonehenge or something. The best part was that the boulder field was full of people scampering everywhere and hitting rocks with their hammers. Maybe it just seemed so funny because we hadn't brought any hammers, so we just got to observe this somewhat bizarre behavior. Or maybe it seemed funny because we overheard so many conversations about which rocks were the "special hollow ones", and other funny explanations about why certain rocks were ringers, and how best to figure out which ones. (Besides just the process of elimination of hitting every single rock in sight with a hammer, which was definitely the preferred method.)

Well, there's no big secret. Big rocks that were balanced on other rocks and had space underneath them were ringers. Rocks that didn't have any empty space around them were not. You could make your own ringing rocks at home, if you wanted to! (But why would you?) And no, they didn't really "ring" so much as they sounded like rocks being...hit by a hammer.

But...the kids were BIG, BIG fans of clambering all over the boulder field. Sawyer kept exclaiming, "This is my favorite rocky land, Mom!" (But he says "favorite" more like "fay-bit", so it's even cuter.) He's been asking a lot to go back to "my rocky land".

Beck also loved the rocky land. Even falling over and somehow wedging his head between three boulders couldn't dampen his enthusiasm. Awww, look at him! My baby is getting so big!

Tyson was decidedly less impressed than the kids, but got in some good Kindle time.

All in all it was a fun end to a holiday weekend during which we relished three consecutive days with Tyson. The REAL Tyson, not the one who's at work, thinking/talking about work, or recuperating from/resting up for work. The real Tyson is but a distant memory with the way his work has been lately. I feel like we get Tyson for about a half hour each night and maybe two hours on the weekend. By the time he gets home and gets out of working/thinking about work mode, it's time for him to go to bed and go back to work. Lucky for him he gets to be real Tyson for the next nine days. He flies out to Utah on Monday morning, and I'm so jealous. I'm not just jealous that he's going home and I'm not. I'm jealous that everyone at home gets to be with the real, non-work Tyson I miss so much. I'm kind of sad that he's using five of his limited supply of vacation days and that the rest of us don't even get to benefit. However, I know how much he needs the break. (And it's not JUST a vacation. Technically it's a job interview trip, and we all know how FUN job interviews are!)

I've given up the idea of driving out there, for a few reasons.

1) Because it takes a lot of hours (about 36 driving hours, and if I'm going by myself, lots of stopping/sleeping hours, too) and a lot of gas/money to get there, and I did barely just get back from there seven weeks ago.

2) Because things are just kind of up in the air too much right now, and I don't know if logistically it's the best idea, whether or not Tyson is offered the job and takes it.

3) Because I am on heavy antihistamines and steroids, and maybe I shouldn't try to operate a motor vehicle for 16 hours a day?

4) Because it will be more of a break for Tyson without us there. I mean, maybe he will miss us, or maybe it would be more fun in some ways if we were all together, but without us it will certainly be easier, and he'll get to do just what he wants, when he wants. (Hmm, that DOES sound nice. When's MY turn for a solitary vacation?)

5) Perhaps one of the biggest reasons is that I just barely started to catch up on laundry, and therefore I couldn't have packed for the trip and left at the best time (which would have been today or very early tomorrow, in order to arrive ahead of -- or at the same time as -- Tyson, on Monday.

So, that's that. However, I am still contemplating ignoring #4 and throwing a wrench in Tyson's unencumbered vacation. A Beck-shaped wrench. See, Beck still flies for free (if you don't count the mental costs of holding him on your lap during a flight), so Tyson could bring him along on the trip. Hey, Tyson was the one who first threw out the idea, but I think he wanted to backtrack as soon as he had mentioned it. We'll see.

And, thus ends my communication with the outside world for the day. My hives are preventing me from wearing clothes that are appropriate for venturing out in public, so the internet is sort of my connection to the outside. You know that thing that women wear, that rhymes with...pra? Well, I became so hypersensitive to my "pra" that you can now see a clearly delineated, continuous hive in its exact shape where it once was. A Hive Bra, basically. There, I said it. Soooooo, I've been going pra-less the past couple of days, wearing Tyson's big t-shirts and my yoga pants. Super-cute maternity look. I have hives all over my face, so no make-up. (I do have to count my blessings that the hives on my face aren't nearly as bad as most of my other ones...or wait a second, was my skin already so bad that I just can't notice that much of a difference?...could be.) Wearing my hair down is too hot and also gives me hives wherever my hair touches, so I have a constant ponytail/bun. My arms that look like Freddy Krueger's face...if he had the addition of hives. That song "She's a Beauty! One in a Million Girls" is just running through your head right now, isn't it? And now I have Rash-Face as my cute mini-sidekick. Yeah, public's not really ready for us.

Oh shoot, I said this post wasn't going to be about rashes. Maybe next time...

Ohhhhh Nooooo!

2011-07-28T11:37:00.001-07:00

This was my left arm two days ago:

Here it is today. It's...different. Different is good, right?

Here's something not good. I don't know if you can tell from my neck/chest below, but two days ago I developed itchy hives all over my body. Apparently my immune-response function is so stressed out by the intense poison ivy that it created its very own, special histimine reaction. Wha??? But that's definitely not the worst...

Look at my poor baby! I'm so upset! Last night Sawyer had a few small red spots on his left cheek. I put Cortaid on them and hoped for the best, but he woke up up looking like this:

We went to the dermatologist together today and got all kinds of creams and prescriptions. I hope by medicating his rash early we can keep it from turning into a case like mine. Also, I need to try to identify what remaining item in our home has not been rid of poison ivy oil, and thoroughly clean it. (Or throw it away. Considering doing that with my dirty dishes.) I don't understand what could have the oil on it and could come in contact with only his face and neck, and only within the past 48 hours (now that it's been 11 days since we were originally around the poison ivy, and no one else has had any new outbreaks). The doctor wasn't entirely sure Sawyer has a poison ivy reaction, but is at a loss as to what else it could be. I feel completely awful. Like the worst mom in the world. The thought of Sawyer going through the pain and discomfort I experienced is worse than going through it myself.

From what I hear, my dad is recovering will from his heart attack. I still don't like it, though. Not one bit! As excited as Tyson is to be going on vacation to Utah without us, I'm still entertaining fantasies of driving out there with the kids. And...never coming back??

Tyson's job seems to be running a little more smoothly this week. It would about have to be!

Well, THAT was a week

2011-07-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

Let's just go chronologically:

Sunday, July 17: We had a nice visit from our friends Sam and Kate, who are living in the Baltimore area this summer. We took them to High Rocks vista at Ralph Stover State Park in Tinicum, about 20 minutes north of Doylestown where we live. This is the first place we have found since moving to Pennsylvania where we feel like we are "away from it all" enjoying nature. Sure, there are actually houses within a mile, but if you hike down to the Tohickon Creek, you can't see anyone. Bonus, the water in the creek is so much warmer than our mountain creeks in Utah. You can actually wade in it and keep your feet in for hours and enjoy the pleasant sound and sensation of the water. The kids entertain themselves in the shallow water while we sit nearby.

Ah, bliss!

Little did I know what those moments in nature would lead to...

Monday, July 18: Tyson had to fly out on short notice to visit a customer in Pittsburgh. The crook of my left elbow started itching a little.

Tuesday, July 19: I had a 10 a.m. appointment at the hospital for an ultrasound to follow up on a pregnancy complication that had been apparent in my previous ultrasound. Children aren't allowed at these appointments, and now Tyson was out of town and couldn't watch ours. My teenage babysitter has moved away, my one friend was on vacation, my other friend moved away, and my other friend had just had her first baby four days earlier. Thankfully, my kind visiting teaching companion was able to watch the kids for me.

The appointment went great. The concern has resolved itself and I was told I could go back to regular activity. I also found out we are having a GIRL! I was very surprised, for some reason, and I still haven't really gotten used to the idea. A girl seems basically like an alien, at this point. I have to admit I am very excited to have a little more balance in our household! I'm measuring for right around Christmas Day. My official due date is December 27th. I previously thought my due date was going to be December 16th, so we'll see what happens. It will be a busy, crazy holiday season!

I also had blood work done at that appointment. By that time the rash on my left arm was looking much worse (angry red and bumpy), and more rash was showing up on the inside of my upper right arm.

Tuesday was also the first day of an awful heat wave. It was already 90 degrees and 40% humidity when I dropped my kids off at 9:30 in the morning!

Tyson got home from Pittsburgh late that night. Little did he know what a crazy week he had ahead of him!

Wednesday, July 20: My rash started spreading, blistering, and oozing. Moving my arms (especially my left one) became extremely painful. I hardly could do a thing. Clean laundry started going unfolded, kids watched a LOT of TV, and I sat at my dining table with my arms outstretched with a fan blowing on them. The cool air eased the pain and itching a little, and also dried the ooze. If I got up to walk around, I had to have my arms out to the front/side, JUST like the pose of the Christus:

What does it say about me that this is the SECOND time I've used this picture, less-than-reverently, on my blog? (See first one here.)

Around mid-morning, Tyson called and told me his boss, the General Manager at the beef plant where he works, had been fired. This is quite a blow because Tyson respects this boss, is loyal to him, and considers him a friend. It's not my place to talk about any details here, but one thing is for sure...this will be a rough transition at the plant and it may leave Tyson in a bit of a precarious position job-wise. We had been keeping our eye out a little for other opportunities for Tyson because we felt it might be good if he had the option of a new position/company next spring, and in this economy who knows how many months that could take! The firing of Tyson's boss encouraged us to put that job search into overdrive, just in case Tyson is next. We were glad we got a jump on things, because due to our earlier efforts Tyson actually already secured and interview for a position in Utah. He'll be flying out there next week.

By the time Tyson got home that day my arms looked absolutely disgusting (probably the rest of me, too, as i hadn't managed to shower. He greeted me in the kitchen with a lovely term of endearment, "Heeeeey there, Scary Jesus." (Apparently I wasn't the only one who notice the similitude of my posture.) Here is the bright side to that day. An overwhelmed Tyson came home from work the earliest he ever has since his promotion: 5 pm. Crazy! We're used to not seeing him until about 7, sometimes later. Yes, he leaves our house for work before 5 a.m. each morning.

These are the pictures of my arms that day. I had determined that Beck must have gotten into poison ivy when we were outdoors on Sunday, and I got it on me when I picked him up. Apparently kids don't start developing the sensitivity until they are three years old, while I already knew I was highly sensitive. I had a bad poison oak reaction on my legs several years ago. Oh, and it wasn't just my arms that were affected. I also had/have the rash on my chest, neck, and face, and a couple small patches at the waistband of my pants. So lovely.

That was the last day I managed to get dinner on the table. We spent the whole day having power brown-outs due to the grid being overloaded because of the heat and therefore the power use from air conditioners. That night the power actually went out completely for almost an hour around 10 p.m. I was about to evacuate us from our suffocating house to sleep in our air conditioned van when the power came back on. Phew!

Thursday, July 21: Most of the awesomeness of this day goes to Tyson. My poison ivy just continued to get worse, but i did manage to apply Tyson for about 13 jobs that day. (Since about the only thing I could do was sit at the computer with a fan blowing on my arms, typing with one hand.)

As for Tyson, that day at his plant a cow got loose right at the point when it was supposed to be getting humanely killed, wreaking havoc on the plant floor and getting the plant shut down for the day by the USDA. (The animals are supposed to be treated humanely at all times, of course, and this did not qualify. You don't want further details.) Tyson spent the rest of the day working with others on the team on answering the USDA so they could have the plant up and running again in the morning. This involves a lot of paperwork and promises and stuff I don't really understand or know about, but what I do know is that Tyson didn't get to come home from work until almost 10:30 p.m., so that was a 17+ hour workday for him. And yes, he had to go back the next day at 5:00 a.m. again.

I ordered pizza from Papa John's for dinner that night. Had to pay extra for delivery because I was completely incapable of loading the kids in the car and driving, due to the massive weeping wounds now covering my arms.

Friday, July 22, AKA the worst day on record in a long, long time: I decided I had to push through the pain and take a shower. Miserable, but felt so good to be clean! I also managed to bathe the kids, but by the time I finished that I was about to pass out. This was the worst day of the heat wave. It was 101 degrees, and over 50% humidity, so the heat index was 114 degrees. My poor kids were so stir crazy! When it's this hot we usually go to a big indoor play place to play and get the energy out, but I just couldn't do it! I couldn't even hold and love them properly. Beck was spending way too much time strapped in his high chair or zipped into his baby jail, watching movies. The kids were staying up until ungodly late hours because they weren't expending any energy during the day. I couldn't sleep, either, because I was in such excruciating pain and if I did fall asleep I would soon wake up in a soggy puddle of ooze.

Tyson called mid-morning that day to say that he would be home late from work again. Things had gone wrong, very wrong, at the plant. The line got started late that day because the paperwork was still going back and forth with USDA and they didn't have the go ahead to start production on time. Because of the extreme heat and the late start, cattle started dying while waiting on the trucks and in the barn. The first time he called, twenty had already died. The next time, it was eighty. By the end of the day over 200 head of cattle had died because of the heat and conditions. Just awful, no matter what way you look at it. Needless to say this causes more USDA trouble for the plant, but more than that it is just sad, sad, sad for the cattle to die that way. I know that may sound silly because they are already facing their imminent death, but when done in the usual way they go without fear, and with their dignity. This is entirely different.

I have to admit that throughout this week I had been wishing there was ANY way Tyson could take some time off work to take care of me and the kids, but it just wasn't in the cards, obviously. I had run out of gauze and bandages for my wounds and had taken to taping damp washcloths on my arms instead, just to be able to do ANYTHING (change a diaper, put cereal on the table, etc.). My entire left arm was swollen to 150% its normal size, like a big sausage, and my upper right arm was equally swollen. When it became clear Tyson would not be able to come home I finally had to admit defeat and ask for outside help. I texted my friend Allyson, now back from vacation, and asked her to call me when she had a minute, that I needed a little help. She called a few hours later after waking up from a nap, and I asked her to go to the store and get me some Benadryl and some gauze. Boy, I HATE asking for favors and inconveniencing people. But I couldn't take care of myself and my kids anymore.

She shortly arrived with supplies and with her husband, a former EMT. He fixed me up and gave me a regimen for caring for my rash. While he was medicating my wounds I got a call from my mom...

...from the hospital...

...my dad had had a heart attack...

World. Crumble. Now.

She said he was in the cath lab (surgery) being worked on, and that he had seemed relatively fine going in, but that she wouldn't have real details until he came out and they heard what the doctors had to say.

Well, I completely lost it.

The week had been so hard and now this.

I just lost it.

Why am I so far away from home?

I want to see my dad!

Will he be okay?!

Should I come home?

But how...I'm in no condition to fly or drive?

I started to bawl, all the while with my friends sitting there wondering what on earth is going on.

My mom said she didn't know if she should call me, because she knew I would just feel worried and powerless. She tried to assure me that medical attention was prompt, Dad seemed like himself going into surgery, he had good color, things would be fine, don't cry honey, things will be fine...

...but I couldn't stop. The week had just been too much. But I told her, don't worry Mom, I'm fine. I kind of needed to cry. This is just a better reason than my other ones. That seemed to make her feel a little better.

She said she would call again when she had something to report.

I tried to regain my composure and told my friends what had happened. Geez, I bet they felt awkward, but they were very sweet and offered to take my boys home with them for the evening. I agreed. I was sooooo grateful for the boys to have a proper dinner and some attention and loves and cuddles (my boys ADORE Allyson, Scott, and their teenaged daughters).

When they were gone I took some Benadryl and wrapped my wounds. My phone rang and the caller ID said it was my mom. I said hello and was greeted by my dad, who was trying to sound super chipper. It felt good to hear his voice. He had had a blockage in his left artery and had two stents put in. Prognosis is good and tomorrow they would have results back on an enzyme test that would assess the damage to the heart. He would be in the hospital for a couple of days. We didn't get to talk for long because the doctors came in so my parents had to go. Talking to him was a comfort, and that, combined with the Benadryl, was enough to knock me out for a much needed nap.

I woke up feeling well enough to fold a little laundry, and when Tyson came home he had a few minutes to relax without being attacked by our attention-starved kids. Allyson and Scott returned with the kids and we got them to bed. I zonked out on the couch with my arms elevated.

Saturday, July 23: Tyson had to work again, unfortunately, but he came home a little before noon. I made it out of the house for the first time since Tuesday, when Tyson drove us to Wendy's for lunch and to Rite Aid for more gauze and surgical dressings. The air conditioning in the car felt blessedly wonderful, and that effect, combined with calamine lotion, benedryl, Tylenol, and the cold compresses I had taped to my arms, had me feeling the best I had in days. I even got to stop by and see Brittney's new baby, though I felt a little out of it what with the Benadryl. I received a call from my parents, assuring me that the results of the enzyme test were encouraging and that the damage from the attack was relatively minimal. Dad would be able to go home the next day.

I bought some huge surgical dressings (pads) at Rite Aid, and got all bandaged up for the night ahead. They are supposed to be for "heavily draining wounds" but nonetheless they were completely soaked when I woke up, and I was in pools of ooze again. Sick! This picture of my left arm is from Saturday. Friday it looked and felt worse, but I was not even up to taking a picture.

Sunday, July 24: I didn't make it to church, but word got around a little and a ward member texted to say she was bringing dinner. As much as I would have loved to say, "Oh, no, no, no...no need!" Yes, there was a need. The idea of someone bringing us a warm casserole was...wonderful! I showered again and properly dressed my wounds and finally, finally, I felt that I had turned the corner and was starting to get better.

When I called my parents' house to see if they were home from the hospital, I heard my dad in the background playing with my sister's kids. Her family had joined my parents for a heart healthy Sunday dinner. I spoke to my dad again and asked about his doctors' recommendations. Yes, he will have some adjustments in his diet, even though his cholesterol level was actually moderate. My mom will be making him get more of the right kind of exercise. And, most importantly, he is going to scale back on some of his commitments and take life a little easier. He just Works. Too. Hard. He always is the last one at the office and then heading straight from there to church responsibilities. Never getting enough sleep. Hopefully he will find a way to change these longstanding habits. (Good thing he has Boss Lady to help him...hi, Mom!) We want him to be around for a long, long time!

So, THAT was a week.

"What's The Haps?"

2011-07-05T17:42:00.000-07:00

Edited to say: You're killing me Blogger! What happened to my photos? They were fine when I looked at my blog a minute ago, and now they're gone! Grrr!

Edited again to say: Okay, I spent the time to re-load the missing photos. I probably won't blog again for months.

The title is a Dad-ism for "What's going on?" or "What's been going on?" I check my blog list every day (sometimes more than once a day) to see if anyone has updated, then I get frustrated if no one has. Silly, because I'm one of the worst offenders! This post contains some of the Heaton "haps" dating back to early March. Part of what has kept me from blogging is my extreme lack of photography skills. I'm usually pretty bad, but lately have been worse than usual. I often forget my camera, or if I bring it I only take it out once to take what turn out to be really sub-par pictures. So that's what you get in this post.

The first few photos are from little vacation to Williamsburg, VA that I never wrote about when in happened back in early-mid March. My parents got a great deal on a timeshare trade there for a week following a business trip they took to DC, and treated us to accomodations. My Aunt Klaire got in on the deal and treated my cousin Song and her family. Tyson, and Song's husband Mike, were only able to join then fun for a couple of nights, but we were glad to have them for even that short time. I drove Tyson back to Philly (area) for work and we took the long way, along the coast. I then returned to Williamsburg and enjoyed all the historical attractions with the boys and my parents.

We learned that Sawyer has an indefatigable attention span at museums. He goes through them with same thoroughness and at the same pace as his Papa, which is to say he does not miss a thing and he takes forever! Chasing Beck showed the rest of us just how fatigable we really are. (By the way, Blogger spell-check tells me "fatigable" is not a word, but my printed 6-inch-thick dictionary says otherwise.) We arrived on Saturday and did some exploring of the timeshare property. Sunday involved church and a nice family dinner, followed by games. On Monday we got up early and visited Historic Jamestowne, which is a living history re-creation of the Jamestown Settlement. The pictures below were taken in huts in the "Powhatan Village". Sawyer was a little scared of the animal skins, hence his somewhat worried expression!

The "Edit Image" feature in Blogger Draft allowed me to rotate the picture below, which Blogger had imported sideways even though it was properly oriented in its original version. I'm sure everyone has been wishing for Blogger to have this feature for a long time. So, yeah, it let me rotate the picture, but this is what resulted... (Thanks, Blogger, you're super awesome.)

Anyway, the next few were taken on the ships -- reproductions of the three ships on which the Jamestown settlers made the Atlantic crossing from England. Beck and Sawyer were huge fans of the ships.

In the reproduction fort there were little sets of breastplates and helmets for kids to try on. Isn't my little settler cute? Soon after this picture was taken he was reprimanded by a "cast member" for chasing a rooster around the fort.

We had lunch at the Old Chickahominy House, which is famous for Virginia ham on flat biscuits, then Tyson and I headed North. The route by which we traveled home took us over the very long Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (4.3 miles) and up the eastern shore of Virginia and Maryland. We saw some interesting sights. A house on stilts...

A house on even smaller stilts...

An old boat...

A confused GPS. (The bridge has been rebulit in a new location, and since our GPS doesn't have updated maps it thought we were driving through the water.) This was on our way back onto the mainland from Chincoteague, where I really did see a wild horse. But, typical of me, I didn't take a picture of that (or the ocean, or Tyson), and instead took a picture of the GPS...

We ate a nice dinner at a sushi restaurant at Rehoboth Beach, DE, which looks like a lovely beach town we might try to return to with the kids for a little getaway. The next day I spent some kid-free time packing in Souderton, then returned to Williamsburg. The next few days of touring included Jamestown Settlement (the archaeological dig site of the real Jamestown, and my personal favorite of the trip). But of course I took no good pictures there.

At Yorktown Victory Center (another living history interpretation, this time of the Yorktown Battlefield) Sawyer tried on some colonial clothing. I'm not going to subject this picture to the same fate met by the one above. I missed taking any pictures at Colonial Williamsburg, but if was really neat. I especially enjoyed the Folk Art and Decorative Arts museums that are on the premises. The boys brought home cute three-corner hats courtesy of my Mom.

One night my parents and the kids and I ventured far afield to a seafood shack called Captain Chuck-a-Mucks in Rescue, VA, which was quite remote and quite delicious, with a beautiful waterside setting. My kids are good little seafood eaters, and we had all manner of seafood goodness. We took the Jamestown-Surry ferry back to Williamsburg, which may have been the highlight of the trip for Sawyer. He's still talking about "when we drove our car on a boat".

During a few free hours I took the kids to a huge Yankee Candle Company store, where Sawyer got to dip his own dinosaur candle. The place had a lifesize Christmas village with real "snow" that falls every five minutes, and all manner of other attractions.

Skipping forward a little over a month, we were pleased to have a visit from Song, Carmen, Ethan, and Ashlynn. We visited Longwood Gardens but encountered some traffic snags along the way. One thing I've skipped here are the visits from the Heatons and my sisters. I hope to do justice to that in another post. Here are Song and Ashlynn in a treehouse...

A few kids enjoying a fountain...

Cute Ethan...

Our house has a big apple tree out front. See the swing?

Our landlord made it for Sawyer and Beck. It's reversible; Sawyer's name is on one side and Beck's is on the other. So cute!

We went to Virginia on Mother's Day weekend to see Song and Mike and chill with Corbrett and meet his new wife at his wedding celebration gathering. On the way home we went to Longwood Gardens so I could see the Flower Garden Walk while it was in full bloom. My men were unwilling participants in a Mother's Day photo in the Silver Garden, which is mainly full of cacti.

One of Sawyer's pastimes around our home is working on his "tulleckshin" (collection). He likes to gather flowers, leaves, seeds, sticks, etc. and display them. Here he is with one collection...

Another pastime is climbing up and sliding down or running down the cellar-style door to the basement.

We checked out a book called Play With Your Food from the library. These were a couple of our resultant efforts...

Between here goes the unphotographed trip to Utah. Shortly after our return we made a visit to say goodbye to our beloved babysitter Mary, who graduated from high school and is moving to Utah to attend BYU. Her family is actually moving to Utah as well, due to a job change, so we have little chance of seeing her, even on her school breaks. Sawyer wants to "Mewwy Mewy in the temple." He loves her! She is the best babysitter ever. I think she is working at a scout camp this summer. But if anyone in Utah Valley wants her contact info for the fall, let me know.

My mom came out to the east coast on tour with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They had no free time while they were in Philly, but they had a few hours of personal touring time in D.C. so my kids and I made a valiant attempt to meet up with her. After leaving our house at 7:30 in the morning and not making it across the Pennsylvania state line at 10:30 (only about 40 miles away), we gave up and turned around. On a whim I took the kids to the Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia's highly-rated children's museum. The kids had a blast, and completely wore me out. I only took (poorly executed) pictures in the first of the nine exhibit areas (which include several mini-areas each). After that I had to fully dedicate my hands to keeping tabs on my two energetic little boys! You can't tell, but the first two pictures are from the water-play area. I think this was their favorite part - moving rubber duckies and boats and water all over the place.

Sawyer was my date to the Tabernacle Choir's Philadelphia concert at the Mann Center (an outdoor performance venue in Fairmount Park, just up the street from the Please Touch Museum). I enjoyed the concert even more than I expected I would. I guess I thought that as far as the Tab Choir is concerned I had already "seen it", since I've been to many Christmas concerts, Music and the Spoken Word broadcasts, seen conference live many times, and attended other concerts -- or at least "heard it" since I have a pretty good source for CD's. However, the concert included some new brand new pieces and repertoire new to the choir, spanning a wide variety of genres. It was a whole new thing for me!

Sawyer did great, considering he is only three years old. Clapping might have been his favorite part - after the spirituals and solos (including some dancing) by Alex Boye. As much as we all love the choir's most well-known pieces ("The Battle Hymn of the Republic", "Come, Come, Ye Saints", and "God Be With You Till We Meet Again"), I know they must all be sick of them! Still, it was a treat to hear these live. Again, they aren't all that often performed at concerts in Utah. "Come, Come Ye Saints", particulary, was touching for me. The choir just sounded beautiful and sang with emotion, and as trite as it sounds, the Spirit was very strong. This tour was quite a grueling effort for the choir. I hope they know how much we out here in the "mission field" appreciate it!

After the concert we were able to meet up with my mom for a half-hour visit in the parking lot. What a treat to see Grammy! Sawyer and I had also gone down to the foot of the stage at intermission, where we were able to catch her attention with our huge waves, and she was able to return to us an extremely subtle one. It was important to me for Sawyer to understand that Grammy was singing to us. He was so proud of her, and I think she was pretty proud to show him off to a few of her choir friends, too.

On June 25th we made the summer's first trip to the shore (that's what they call the beach over here), in celebration of our friend Bruce's birthday. This is where my photography skills really UN-shine. Here's all I got...

Again, I had to spend much more time keeping kids from drowning, than photographing them. Also, I absolutely love the ocean, so I spent to much time too wet and/or sandy to touch my camera. The kids love the beach, too. Sawyer made up a song, "I love the sand. I love the sand. I love the sand. It makes me so happyyyyyyyyy! I love the water. I love the water. I love the water. It makes me so happyyyyyyyyyy!" Beck wasn't as wnamored with the water as he has been on other trips, but he LOVED the sand. He would actually lie down in it and roll around in it adoringly...like a dog in something stinky! It was hilarious. We were in Seaside Park, which is a nice, low-key beach area just south of Seaside Heights, which is famous for being where much of MTV's "Jersey Shores" was originally filmed. We took a walk up the boardwalk and saw many a Situation and Snooki. Many, many, many. Wow, quite the place!

There was a huge highlight of Seaside Heights, though. Pizza from Maruca Tomato Pies. I make it a point to suss out any foodie must-visits before I go anywhere (I usually use chowhound.com to get started in the right direction). I would return to Seaside Heights just to eat this pizza again! The crust is so crisp and delicious, the sauce just right, and the toppings don't overpower the delicious crust. Now I'll be on a hunt to find something similar here in the Philly area. We have about at least one pizzeria on every block here, so I've hesitated to try to identify a "good" place, but now I have a reference point for asking on Chowhound, so maybe I'll give it a go. Must have more of this crust!

Okay, that brings us up just about to the 4th of July weekend, which I'll cover in another post. It was a fun-packed weekend, during which I took only two pictures. :-( I'm lame!

Utah Not Pictured

2011-06-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

The boys and I returned yesterday from our trip to Utah. We were there for 2.5 weeks. Unfortunately I was sick for the first two weeks of the trip (REALLY sick for the first week, bleh), so that cut down on our fun a little and I didn't get to see some dear friends I really was hoping to spend time with. I guess there will have to be a next time!

I forgot my camera, so the only pictures from the trip are on my cell phone. We visited my grandparents in Monticello, spent a week in Park City with my family, and spent a nice (partial) weekend in Paradise with Tyson's family. My dad also treated us to a fun day at Liberty Park, where the boys got to ride the little rides, feed ducks, and play at the playground, and we all enjoyed a nice lunch. I got to see my Short Girl Posse for a few hours at Emily's house, but I did not get to see any other friends. Boo!

Back to real life now. This morning I have been unpacking and sorting clothes the boys and I are growing into/out of. Such a fun chore! I have about 15 loads of laundry ahead of me and the house needs a thorough cleaning. Yippee.

It is great to be back home to Tyson. We all missed him a lot while we were gone. However, I find myself feeling not just homesick for friends and family (like I have been ever since we moved), but actually homesick for Utah or maybe just the western/mountain states in general. I miss the mountains and the open space and the friendly people and the low prices and the dry air, etc. Hopefully this homesickness will wear off as I get back into the swing of things here in Pennsylvania and as I make it a point to enjoy all the things out here that Utah *doesn't* offer -- proximity to the ocean, big cities, historical sites, cheesesteaks, etc.

I must say it's a shame that Utah is not pictured. It was as green and beautiful as I have ever seen it. I swear to you that the Mt. Sterling/Wellsville area of Cache Valley could have been Ireland! Even though it snowed on us several days in Park City, it was gorgeous there, too. I got to see flowering trees in Logan, officially making this the longest spring I have ever experienced. Trees were just starting to bloom in Williamsburg, VA when we were there in early March. Soon after I saw spring again in Washington D.C., then it came to Doylestown, and now I got to see it in Utah as well, three months after my first glimpse. I'll try to let the memories of a long and beautiful spring tide me over through what is looking to be a hot and humid summer. I think it's supposed to be 98 degrees here tomorrow, which I promise feels a lot hotter than it sounds! Wish me luck!

How to Succeed at Craigslist Without Really Trying...

2011-05-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

The headline is true, minus the "without really trying" part, that is. Succeeding at Craigslist involves a lot of watching, waiting, haggling, driving, emailing, having people flake out on you, etc. But I do have to say I have had some major successes buying and selling things on Craigslist. My cheapskate tendencies combined with my copywriting background have allowed me to get some killer deals and then sometimes sell with some killer markups. I'm trying it again right now, selling off some things I love, but that just look plain silly in our 1930s caretaker's cottage. I bought most of these things (but not all) with the idea of selling for a little profit down the road, but it's still hard to let them go. That's why I'm willing to sit on them for a long time to get the price I want. Literally, SIT on them, since most of them are chairs.

I just want to memorialize these things so I can remember that I had them once upon a time. See, in the last few years I have developed a little interest in furniture, interiors, design, etc. I don't think it's something I'll ever really be good at, but it's something I enjoy looking at. I go through days or weeks occasionally where I keep up with apartmenttherapy.com like it's my full-time job. I have a folder in my Pictures folder called "Decor", and within that folder are 68 more folders, breaking down inspiration pics into different rooms (Entry, Dining, Master, Kids Rooms, etc.), different pieces of furniture (Chairs, Card Catalogs, Sofas, Window Seats), and even quirky, weirdly specific categories like Peacocks, Houndstooth, Black/Yellow, FurnitureWithFaces, and Slanted Ceilings. Now, I am so incredibly paralyzed by indecision and perfectionism and anxiety that I rarely implement any "decor" of my own. (No, I still haven't hung any photos or art at our new house...what if I ruin the plaster and the whole house comes tumbling down around me?!!) Still, I like to look. And I like to own, if only briefly.

I know my taste does not align with most anyone else's. It's not really the "Utah" style. (I'm not knocking the Utah style...the rustic, comfortable look is appealing in itself just like nearly every look has its own appeal). So I'm not expecting anyone to be over the moon about the pictures I'm about to post. I'm just posting them to keep track of their time in my life and home(s). So, without further ado... (trying out draft.blogger.com's new multiple photo uploading here. I hope it's a million times better than the usual uploading procedure!)

Whew, that multiple upload was smooth! Yay, Blogger! I hate you less now!

Now, some of the inspiration pics that go along with these. Sorry, I am not going to attribute on these. Most from apartmenttherapy.com. some from Domino and other places.

Sorry, lame post! I finally have started putting together photos from our trip to Williamsburg in March and my sisters' trip out here, so, wrap-ups of those great times will be along...someday.

Oh yeah, there was a tornado yesterday in Philadelphia, and a tornado warning out here in the suburbs! It has been raining like crazy all week. Today has been pretty nice, but as I started writing this post it got dark as dark outside and now the rain is coming down again. I hear the weather's not much better in Utah, but I'll see for myself in a few days! Yes, the boys and I are flying out Saturday for a 2.5 week visit home. Tyson can't join us, due to work, but we are going to love seeing all our family and friends. I'm so excited!

Don't Cry For Me, Pennsylvania

2011-05-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

I just went to add a link to the blog of a friend here in Pennsylvania, and I had to create a new header for "Pennsylvania Friends" to add a link to this ONE friend's blog. So, basically, it's been a whole year and it appears I've made one friend. That's not true, actually. I've made four friends (I think) and several nice acquaintances. It's just the other three friends don't have blogs. Don't worry, if a person doesn't have a blog, she still exists. (Much like if something cute or funny happens and I don't take a picture or blog about it...IT STILL HAPPENED (I have to remind myself of this sometimes)).

Unfortunately, one of my three friends is moving to North Carolina next week. Boohoo! (Unfortunate for me, but fortunate for her and her husband -- he is taking a promising new job.) I'm excited for her, but I'll miss her and her sweet little girl.

We just switched wards, of course, and I've met many nice acquaintances here. I hope some friendships develop. It's hard to make friends once you're an adult. (Especially if it was already hard enough when you were a kid!)

---Important Interjection: Sawyer has torn apart an empty Herr's Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips bag and is LICKING the salty-sour residue from the inside of the bag. I think we know whose child this is! ---

Okay, back to the difficulty of making friends. (Hmmm, maybe the fact that I'm the type of person from whom a child could learn something like that has something to do with my inability to make friends?) This post about missing friends, especially when family is far away too, on the blog Ali Loves Curtis really struck a chord with me. (Ali was the mastermind of dearly-departed Your Heart Out -- no new content since January 2010, but still lots of great stuff in the archives, so go ahead and click that link). I look at that post and think, if someone cute and funny with an up-to-date wardrobe and haircut and a knack for graphic design, writing, and photography, who can manage to get noticed by Elle Decor --- if this person is having a hard time making meaningful connections in a new town, what hope do I, having NONE of those things, have? Of course, I made most of my best friends when I looked like this (or previous years' versions of the same basic look), so let's say looks aren't everything when it comes to making friends. But what is? How do you do it? Who are your closest friends right now, at this phase of your life, and how did you make those connections? Tell me your experiences and give me your best advice.

By the way, this post isn't meant to be sad. That's why it's called "DON'T Cry For Me, Pennsylvania". I like it here and there are lots of great things to see and do, and many nice people. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to my vacation to Utah in two weeks, and hoping to see as many friends as possible while I'm there!

Farewell Red Ranger...

2011-04-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we said goodbye to our 1996 Ford Ranger, affectionately known as "Red Ranger". Even though it was time for the Ranger to move on, this is a sad farewell for me because the Ranger served us well and was part of a lot of great times.

The Ranger sort of brought us together. After Tyson broke his foot the first weekend we met, he couldn't drive the truck. Meanwhile, my car had broken down that same weekend. So, a relationship was born when Tyson let me borrow the Ranger for several days. I would pick him up in his truck and drive him to the places he needed to go, and he would come along as I drove the Ranger to the places I needed to go (work, etc.). We ended up spending most of every day together, when we'd only known each other half a week. The rest is history.

When we were first married, the Ranger was our only vehicle for several months. Later we added Pepe the Sentra (aka "The Silver Bullet"), but a couple years later we sold Pepe, and the Red Ranger was our only vehicle again for the better part of a year. During this time the Ranger took us on our biggest adventure, all over the western states in Sept. - Oct. 2008. During that time the Ranger wasn't just our only car -- it was our only house!

Yes, a family of three can live in a Ford Ranger. Tyson built a hinged platform on which we placed a memory foam. All our things were stored underneath the platform. Sawyer slept on a mini-crib mattress in the extra-cab. By day we all rode in the front seat and saw the world!

The Ranger was my faithful companion on many a D.I. run and garage sale escapade. The Ranger hauled my card catalog. The Ranger helped us move 11 times! The Ranger hauled (or attempted to haul) our silly pop-up camper shell on our ill-fated trip to California [or to Elko, as it turned out], and acquired some burn marks in the upholstery as a reminder. Good try, little Ranger! The Ranger has been really good to us as far as repairs are concerned -- no mechanical issues that Tyson hasn't been able to fix himself, and even very few of those (a clutch replacement a few years ago, mainly). Tyson bought the Ranger, with its shell, for just over $4000 a few months before we met. So we've owned it for six years, and can't have put more than $1000 into it (not counting gas, of course, but even the gas mileage is pretty good). Good return on investment, little Ranger!

But now the Ranger needs to be registered in Pennsylvania. Needs a new windshield, new tires, some brake work...and that's just for now. Anyone who drives it would be able to tell that some major transmission work is on the horizon. Tyson has been talking about getting a new truck. A big truck, a fancy truck. But then we decided to be more practical. We traded in the Ranger and bought a minivan. They gave us $1000 for the trade. Thanks, Ranger. I guess that's who we are now -- not adventurers who can hop in a red pick-up and live like vagabonds for a month, but a family with a minivan. Just kidding. Last night after I brought the van home, Tyson was already inspecting it to figure out how sleeping arrangements for four could be accommodated (without disruption in driving accommodations for four). He's almost got it figured out. Yes, there will be a platform involved.

I don't have a picture of the van yet, but it's a 2008 Toyota Sienna, in a brown color they call "Sand Mica" or something like that. So, it's sort of a Sienna Sienna. If I was choosing based on color alone, this wouldn't have been my choice, but since I was choosing on features and price, this is what I got. It's got all the convenient bells and whistles, like all the automatic doors, the seats that fold into the floor, the DVD player, about 18 cup holders, etc. In other words, it's totally awesome! Thanks Tyson!

Here are a couple of sweet nothings we would often whisper/yell to the Ranger:

"Red Ranger Away!"

"Go Go Red Ranger!"

I'll miss you, Ranger. You weren't even really "mine", but I loved you anyway!

Okay, anyone else as silly as me, and felt sad saying goodbye to a car? Tell me...

Falling into the toilet

2011-04-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned previously, my darling, dear sisters visited me last week. Krista left a few things behind: a shirt, and two teeny tiny elastics she uses to put cute pigtails in her hair. (Sidenote: I cannot, and never have been able to, put cute pigtails in my hair. No matter how much I try to poof up my hair and have it look tousled and cute before putting in the elastics, I always end up looking like Wednesday Addams. Like, seriously, because I ALREADY look like Wednesday Addams. Anyway...)

Sawyer, for whatever reason, dropped one of these tiny elastics in the toilet yesterday morning (into unused toilet water, just to clarify). Probably to see if it would sink or float. "Sink or Float", a game he plays on sesamestreet.org, is causing some problems around here. Well, it sunk. Then, he wanted to reach in and retrieve it -- or he wanted ME to reach in and retrieve it. No way! We had to have a discussion about toilets, and germs, and how we never EVER drop things in the toilet, and we also never retrieve what is in the toilet.

Well, clearly there are some exceptions to that retrieval rule, and I had to exercise one mere hours later. My cell phone flew from my back pocket into the toilet, thankfully ALSO into unused water. I reached in and snatched it out as fast as I could, with Sawyer (yes of course he had followed me into the bathroom, despite what I was about to do in there) shouting, MOM! NONO! THE TOILET! GERMS! RESCUE IT!!!!!!!

Now, this is a brand new phone. It is only 2.5 weeks old. I had been using my old phone for nearly three years. I used the previous phone for more than two years before that. This should illustrate both that I don't let things happen to my phone, and that I don't ever have a new phone. I don't "upgrade". So, what I'm saying is, this phone was brand new and precious. And soaking wet with toilet water.

Here's what I did: powered it down, took apart all I could, dried it, and put it in a bowl of uncooked rice (trick I had read about some time ago online). It's supposed to remain in the rice for at least 24 hours, perhaps longer, and when I remove it, charge it, and power it up, it's supposed to be good as new. We'll see. Pending that it does actually continue to work, how do I ever get over the fact that it was in my toilet? Is it bad to douse it in hand sanitizer or something. Ugh.

Sorry, totally lame blog post.

Just to make it more lame, I'll follow up on my pickled eggs. I bought a jar in Lancaster, PA from an Amish guy at the Central Market. They were pink! I couldn't resist. Like those shown here: http://edibleearthscape.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/easy-pickled-beets-and-eggs-recipe-by-camille-armantrout/. Beautiful! And soooooo good! They taste like pickled beets (as in, there was plenty of sugar as well as spices in the pickling brine, not to mention beet juice)...but better? Problem is, eggs don't exactly have the calorie/nutrition profile of beets. You'r not supposed to eat, like, six eggs in a sitting, right? Well, I did, yesterday. And Sawyer ate two. Except he won't eat yolks, so I ate his yolks too. Beck doesn't like them. More for me. I finally was able to put the jar away, but got it out again today. Sawyer ate one and I ate two. Then I just decided I had to eat the last one so they would just be all gone and out of my life. I want to make some for myself, but I see that it is dangerous to my cholesterol levels.

So, my verdict: pickled eggs, YES!

(Toilet phone, NO!)

Pickled Eggs...Yes or No?

2011-04-13T12:51:00.001-07:00

Pickled Eggs.

Maybe you've seen them in the gas station, in their huge jar. Maybe you've wondered, shouldn't those be in a refrigerator?

Does just the idea of pickled eggs make you sick? Or have you tried them?

I tried one once in at a Maverik in Hyde Park, UT. It was very sour (fine by me). The texture wasn't what I expected (the "white" is hard and almost dried out). It was a garlic pickled egg (not sure I was a fan of that, and I am sure Tyson was not a fan of that). Overall, I definitely liked it, but not enough to buy them often from communal jars at random gas stations.

There will be a follow-up post to this. But first I just want your answers. What are your thoughts about pickled eggs? (I ask that as though pickled eggs are a usual subject for "thoughts"...as though you've already firmly established where you stand on pickled eggs.)

Heaton Visit

2011-04-11T07:52:00.001-07:00

Whew! We just had ten amazing, fun-filled days while Tyson's family and my sisters visited us. I'm now ten days behind on laundry and cleaning (not to mention unpacking), so I'll make this report brief.

Here's what went down...

Friday, April 1: Heatons arrived in the evening and we all went to Noboru in Montgomeryville, which is an upscale sushi and Asian buffet (well, as upscale as a buffet can be). Curtis likes sushi, and it's a fun place to sample a lot for one price. They have a shabu-shabu station, a huge variety of interesting Asian salads, a crepe station, and the tart frozen yogurt. Those are my faves. There is also an extensive hot buffet of Asian items, and steak and fish cooked to order on the weekends. Some of Tyson's siblings tried sushi for the first time -- props to them for being adventurous! We went home and got sleeping arrangements sorted out, then went to bed.

Saturday, April 2: I dropped the kids off with Allyson (thank you!) and Taylor and Rachel stayed at our house while Curtis, Charlene, Tyson, Missy, Katelyn, and I went to New York. Tyson ably drove us onto Manhattan and parked in a garage in Chinatown. We wandered around for a while before meeting our tour guide near the Manhattan Bridge. We took a tour about organized crime in the Lower East Side during the late 1800s and early to mid-1900s, primarily focusing on Jewish gangsters (http://levysuniqueny.com/tours/jews-gangsters-politics-of-the-lower-east-side/). Hey, something unique, right? I bet our tour guide, Gideon Levy, had never given this tour to a group of six MORMONS before! I think that threw him off a little, but we all had a good time, and it was fun to learn some in-depth information about an area, era, and people of New York with which I was not familiar. Gideon also introduced us to Doughnut Plant and Economy Candy, which were so worthwhile I returned with my sisters the next week.

We ate brunch/lunch at gastro-pub The Clerkenwell. I didn't take any photos, and if I had, it wouldn't have turned out as nice as this one. We ate at the long table at the back/right of this photo. Charlene was the ordering winner, with her superb fish & chips. Melissa's Caesar salad was also delish. I disappointed myself by ordering somewhat poorly. I chose a fine, but bland, omelet. Boo! Wish I had gotten the fish and chips too! The service was quite slow, and we began to get antsy because we had to make it to the Theatre District by 2 p.m. for our matinee of Jersey Boys.

photo by Melissa Hom, via Grub Street New York

I did not do a good job of pulling out my camera on this day. I think Charlene took quite a few photos, and hopefully I can get some copies. I didn't take one at Jersey Boys, but if I had, it might have looked like this:

Credit unknown, via here

We deliberated about whether to take two taxis or the subway as originally planned, and eventually decided on the subway. Then, when we went to the intersection where we thought we would find the subway entrance, we couldn't see it. Someone on the corner told us that entrance was closed for construction (we later found out he was wrong and we just should have looked further down the street), so we hurried to the next nearest stop and suffered through what seemed to be an interminable subway ride. When we got off in midtown, we literally ran to the theater. We missed the first few minutes of the show, unfortunately. I thought the show was great, but the experience would have been better if we had been more relaxed when we got there. The show, which is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, was really fun. It's so nice to see a show on Broadway, because every performer is top-notch, costumes are great, and there is never a mistake or an off note. Many thanks to Charlene and Curtis for treating me (and Tyson) to such a great event.

After that, the non-city folk were done for the day, so we walked through Times Square and then to Grand Central Terminal to take the subway back to our car. We were parked just a little over a mile from the entrance to the Holland Tunnel. The drive had taken us only ten minutes or so in the morning, but at 6 p.m. the same distance took about an hour. While we waited for our car to be brought up from the garage, I walked down the street and got a couple sesame balls and a savory filled bun. I desperately wanted some hand-pulled noodles, but I couldn't see a place right in the vicinity.

The Heatons aren't really known for loving to have their pictures taken, and I'm not really known for picking the best photo ops, so these aren't exactly the greatest documentation of their trip. For instance, here are two of the very few photos I captured the day Charlene and Curtis treated us to a great NYC day. These two photos are from the end of the day, when we returned to our parking garage in Chinatown! And yes, we drove in Manhattan, and it's just like driving in any other large city. Tyson drove the day we went with his family, and I drove my sisters and myself the next week. Shout-out to my friend Allyson and her family, who watched Sawyer and Beck while we had our New York day.

Sunday, April 3: This was kind of just a relaxation day. Before conference started at noon (eastern time) we watched some of talks we had missed the day before. (So nice to have this all on the internet now!) We went to play at a couple of parks in Doylestown. Big kids and little kids alike enjoyed the teeter-totters (or see-saws...is this a regional difference?). We had a yummy Sunday dinner of salmon fillet, Cobb salad, golden raisin & pecan couscous, and asparagus, then celebrated Katelyn's 17th birthday with a fabulous fruit-topped cheescake and a four-layer chocolate mousse cake from Wegman's.

A few games of Rook and dice were played that day. I surely enjoyed hosting Sunday dinner for my family in my new home. Curtis and Charlene have hosted us hundreds of Sundays, and it was nice to be able to reverse the roles for once (though of course all the Heatons were very helpful with prep and cleanup). We seated all eight of us around my round table in my new, separate dining room, with Sawyer and Beck of to the side in their chairs. I've long wanted room to feed a relative "crowd", not in, or in direct view of, my kitchen. The day finally came! I hope everyone enjoyed the relaxing Sunday as much as I did.

Monday, April 4: The Heatons left in the morning to take a trip to see church history sites in New York and Ohio. They returned on Thursday, April 7. By then, my sisters had arrived, and Tyson and I basically had to split up our hosting duties, so I didn't see all that much of the Heatons (who stayed in a motel during this leg of the trip) or my husband throughout the rest of their visit. I'll pick up on their adventures in a future post.

Back to the laundry.

Public Spectacles of Affection

2011-03-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

Probably only my sisters will get the inside joke of the title, once they see the pictures. These are just a few recent pictures of our family. The Sawyer selection exhibits some of his large range of smiles and expressions. He already has quite, um, prominent front teeth, with a large gap between them. Then, sometimes, he insists on smiling like this:

Haha. I think it's cute, but for his sake I hope he grows out of it before he goes to school. Another reaction when I asked him to smile:

Then this one...I think he said he was Batman:

This was the best of my four attempts to take a picture of Tyson and me. This wasn't while driving, by the way:

And what's little Beck doing in his carseat back there? Oh, eating an Uncrustable:

Here he is with a clean face. He is wearing his skeleton Halloween costume, which I regularly use as pajamas for him:

Okay, that one's a public spectacle of affection for real. It would look pretty romantic if Tyson had closed his eyes and wasn't obviously suppressing a laugh. Oh well. :-)

I never knew I was such a fish geek

2011-03-31T05:59:00.000-07:00

Before I post my "Befores" from my new house, I feel that I absolutely MUST post the photos from our amazing trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. My cousin Song, who lives with her husband and kids in the Virginia suburbs of DC, invited my kids and I to go with her family and her parents (my Aunt Klaire and Uncle Robert, who were visiting from Colorado). We had such a great time! We went on December 30 and saw the Dolphin Show, the 4-D condensed movie version of The Polar Express, and millions of fish and other types of water life.

I don't know who loved it more, me or my kids. I was excited to go, but I didn't know how amazing the aquarium would really be. For the next several weeks after my visit, any poor soul who asked about the aquarium was subjected to several minutes of me gushing on and on about every detail of the experience. Sorry to those who went through this! But seriously, you should see this aquarium!

As for my boys, they exhibited extremely long attention spans while at the aquarium. They each could have watched any single exhibit for an hour, and there are exhibits for basically every type of water habitat in the world, so that's a lot of exhibits (and a lot of hours). The Brewer/Dustin contingent wore out a while before my kids would have, so we'll have to go back another time. We didn't get to see the rainforest, the Australian exhibit, and maybe half of the habitat exhibits. Thank you, Song, for the invitation and for graciously hosting us at your home when you already had guests. Thank you, Aunt Klaire and Uncle Robert, for helping me with my boys. Thank you, Carmen, for being such a good friend/cousin to Sawyer (and to Beck, too). Thank you, Ethan and Ashlynn, for being fun and adorable.

I didn't do any cropping or editing to these photos yet. That's part of the hold-up on my blogging efforts, so I'm just going to try not to be so obsessive about it and just get things on here.

Dolphin show:

Polar Express 4-D (They call it 4-D because they do all sorts of experiential things in the theater, like snow falls on the audience, wind blows in your face, water sprays, seats rumble, something inexplicably jabs you sharply in the back once in a while, etc. -- very strange, but Sawyer liked the whole thing and mentions it often):

The big jellyfish exhibit. So many different varieties of jellyfish, large and small, and most with some amount of fluorescence. Very cool!

The next day we had a fun time visiting a playground near Song's house. Cute, cute!

Keys

2011-03-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

I am working on a post with "Afters" from my old house and "Befores" from my new one, but I don't have time to finish it right now, because I have six guests arriving in two days for ten days, two more guests arriving five days later for six days, and at least as many boxes to still unpack as all those numbers combined! Aaaaah! But I'm super-excited that Tyson's family and my sisters are coming to visit!! Over the next two weeks I will be visiting DC, NYC (twice, seeing Jersey Boys one day and shopping like mad on the other), Philadelphia (at least three times), Hershey, Lancaster County (Amish country), and fun things in my new town of Doylestown. Whew!

Since I don't have time to post more pictures, I just wanted to put up this one of the adorable, interchangeable keys to my (seldom used) front door and my downstairs bathroom. Now, you may be able to convince me that these aren't safe or practical, but you'll never be able to convince me that they're not ever so adorable and cool! The front door has the little rotating lock cover, too! Okay, enough of me and my geekiness. Spell check is telling me that's not a word, but in my world it definitely is.

Meet our new house!

2011-03-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

Moving on from self-obsessed posts about old hairstyles for a while...

...and onto self-obsessed posts about living accommodations...

We are moving into a new (old) house! We moved all of our furniture and most of our boxes over the weekend. Just a few more boxes to go today, and we will spend our first night in our new house tonight!

Let me introduce you to the place. Here's an aerial view, courtesy of Google Maps. Pretty awesome, huh!

I know what you're thinking...Tyson's bonus this year must have been pretty good. Well, it was...but not that good! Pay no attention to the gigantic early-1900s mansion with the pool and the tennis court and the sprawling grounds featuring a menagerie of life-size animal statues (you can't see them in the picture, but they're there).

And direct your gaze, instead, to the humble but sweet cottage across the street. That's ours!

Our new place was the caretaker's cottage for the grand mansion and its 70-acre estate. The estate has an interesting history I will cover in a future post.

In the picture above, (1) is the cottage, (2) is the water tower, and (3) is the workshop that is used by our landlord, Tuck.

Cute little cottage! It is three bedroom, two bath, with an eat-in kitchen, separate dining room (yay!), living room, bonus room/office upstairs, and downstairs rec room. Pictures to follow. There is a studio apartment attached, which is occupied by a couple in their 20's.

Front yard view. The landlord said we can till a garden spot up front by the fence. Okay, here's one of my favorite features:

Is this awesome, or what!?!? It's the old water tower that originally served the estate (marked by #2 on the aerial view). It is an actual copy of a bell tower pagoda in Suzhou, China. I'm a sucker for having something no one (or very few others) have or even WANT to have --- and now I have a 5-story pagoda in my backyard! We get to use the little garage to store our bikes. View of the pagoda in relation to the house. You can also see the wooded backyard, and the workshop behind the tower.

I am in love, love, love with the house and the location. It is in a private, wooded neighborhood with very little traffic, yet is within walking distance to a train station, library, independent movie theater, swimming pool, two parks, three museums, and tons of restaurants and shops. Tyson is the one taking one for the team here, because his commute will be at least 15 minutes longer each way. It will be more like his commute when we lived in Logan. However, we are decreasing our church commute by just as much.

Well, I better get back to packing...

Worst School Picture Ever

2011-03-16T21:23:00.001-07:00

One of my worst traits --- among many --- is thinking I must "catch up" on old things before moving on to whatever should or could be done NOW that is more relevant to what is going on in the present.

I could give myriad examples, but this blog is certainly one. I want to post about everything I've missed documenting over the past year. I want to finish my travelogue of my traumatic plane trip. I want to write extremely long tutorials about hairstyles I wore eight months ago. Of course, I also want to report that we are in Williamsburg, VA on vacation right now, that Tyson turned 29 yesterday, that Beck says a bunch of funny words, that Sawyer asks every day about when he can go to preschool, and that we are moving into a new house next week. But how can I post about those (current) things when I haven't yet posted the latest pictures of the nearly-complete house in Standrod, Idaho? ("Latest" as in pictures I took when we were there in December.)

My scrapbook. There's another example. I last worked on it two years ago. Clearly I'm behind, then. If I haven't worked on it for two years, then Beck isn't even in it, right? Right. And neither is Sawyer. Neither is Tyson. Neither is anything from 2002 forward. I've been diligently, methodically, chronologically working on my scrapbook since about 2003...but I have always been documenting events that happened seven to eight years in the past! The next few pictures that need a layout are from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Wow. When I think about it logically, I know I should skip forward to the present time, but for some reason I just can't! I did come up with a compromise: alternate doing one layout from the past with one from the present. When I get started again, that's what I'm going to TRY to do.

At least this little gem is already in a scrapbook:

That's my ninth grade picture, the one I wanted to use as an accompaniment to my story about cutting my head under the bleachers. And here I go again, posting some irrelevant picture and story. Does it really need a story, though? The picture is charming enough as is. I will just post some details, rather than a full narrative.

Time the first bell rang at Centerville Junior High: 8:25 a.m.

Time my mom, Mrs. Baker, was supposed to be there ("contract time" it was called): 8:10 a.m.

Therefore, time I arrived with her each day: 8:05 a.m.

What I was supposed to do during the 20 minutes before the bell: practice my trumpet

Time Mom usually woke me up to accomplish the above: 7:00 a.m.

Usual wake-up method: "Liiiiiiiii-saaaaaa, Riiiiiiiiise and Shiiiiiiiiiiiine!" (sung/said in operatic tone of voice outside my bedroom door)

Time she woke me up on picture day: 8:00 a.m.

Special wake-up method: "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! My alarm didn't go off and we need to leave RIGHT NOW!!!!" (yelled frantically through the heater vent that functioned as an intercom between her room and mine)

Hairstyle I had been wearing for the past year: crunchy permed bob

Hairstyle method: Wet hair in shower or with spray bottle, use pick to comb through hair and begin scrunching/fluffing process, liberally apply Dep gel and/or "sprunch spraygel" and/or mousse, scrunch hair with hands, scrunch some more, scrunch some more, curl bangs under with curling iron, hairspray liberally, probably scrunch some more

Time needed: Five to ten minutes after wetting hair

Time available to style hair on picture day: 30 seconds

Hairstyle method suggested by my mother: "No, we don't have time for you to shower or get your hair wet and heat up your curling iron and my brush curling iron is already hot so just brush your perm out with this round brush and curl your hair with my curling iron hurry hurry hurry I don't care HURRY!!!!"

Result: Well, you see it above. I brushed out my permed bob, which was full of styling products from the day before. Needless to say, this led to an impressive amount of volume. Then, when my product-laden strands made contact with the hot curling iron, the curl became crustified and winglike, sticking out from my head. I would characterize the look as Utah female newscaster circa 1989. You can see that due to the amount of product in my hair, pieces could loft away and become stuck in mid-air (see left side of picture).

Now, the outfit...

The multi-colored sweater belonged to me. It was one of my prized clothing possessions, from GAP Kids. Everything I owned at the time was purchased in children's stores and departments. Underneath the sweater I am wearing a light-wash denim shirt belonging to my mother. I have no idea why! I never wore it before or after that picture. I had a different shirt that went with this sweater. It must have been in the laundry, and my mom hastily procured this shirt for me from her closet, claiming I needed to wear a collared shirt so I would look more "polished" in my portrait.

My age at the time: 13 years

My height: 4'9" or 4'10"

My wight: 85 lbs. or so

My mom's age at the time: 37 years

Her height: 5'4"

Her weight: 135 lbs. or so

Tell me, why on earth did my mom think I should/could wear her clothes?!?! Why did I agree?!?! We were both probably high on the fumes created when my hairspray-saturated hair made contact with the curling iron.

Now, my glasses...

Up until eighth grade, I removed my glasses for my school pictures. Then I got the frames pictured above, and wore them in my eighth and ninth grade pictures. I'm so embarrassed to admit this, but I find it hilarious: I have a tape recording of myself where I say that I am going to wear my new glasses in my eighth grade picture because "they have dark frames that complement my hair and face, and they are much cuter than my old glasses". Delusional. Completely delusional.

The zit...

Par for the course, at that time.

The makeup...

I was allowed to wear a little at that age. Did not have time to apply any.

School pictures were taken during English class. My friend Emily was in my class, which was Mrs. Shinn's 9th grade honors English class. Later she told me that when I walked in that day she saw me and thought, "Oh no! She forgot it's picture day! Oh no!" She told me she desperately wanted to be the "cool friend" from the '80s movie who has a bag full of makeup and hair stuff, and could fix me up to look normal or even cute in my picture. Maybe like the Helen Hunt character in "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"? No such luck, though. Emily was just as clueless as I was. Lucky for her, she was naturally beautiful and also woke up on time on picture day. Also, her mother wasn't philosophically opposed to re-takes. Mine was, apparently, because the photo above went into the yearbook and was displayed in our family room for a full year.

When I went to sit in the chair for my portrait, the photographer kept adjusting his lens, trying to get a wide enough angle to fit my hair in the frame. Finally he just had to scoot the camera back to accommodate my hair-wings. In the yearbook, everyone else is pictured from the neck up. My picture shows my whole upper body, and the sides of my hair are actually cropped out of the picture because there wasn't room for the full glory of my hairstyle.

Good times.

Oh well, at least I wasn't the only one wearing dark framed glasses that "complemented my hair and face." Check out Jennifer Garner's school picture from about the same time!

Get! This! Look! #1: Excessively Short Bangs

2011-03-10T23:50:00.000-08:00

Tutorials are big on the web, and especially on Mormon mommy blogs. I figure I should start posting tutorials about random things I do, and pretty soon my traffic will grow and grow because everyone wants to know how to do these things, right? And then I will be able to monetize, monetize, monetize, and then I will be famous and go to blog conferences and eventually get a book deal and probably a TV show. It's easy.

So here's my first tutorial, which will teach you how to get your bangs to look like the way mine look in my blog header photo.

Get! This! Look! #1: Excessively Short Bangs (ESBs)

This Look! is deceptively simple. At first these Excessively Short Bangs (ESBs) might look like the result of a spur-of-the-moment self-inflicted bang trim, but they're actually the end product of a multi-step process that cost several thousand dollars, involved a few professional hairstylists, and took more than two years to complete. If you want to do ESBs right (as in, the way I did) you'll follow the steps below. Hey, I never said getting these ESBs would be easy. I only said it would be worth it. (Wait, I never said that, either.)

You might think you can skip all the hard stuff and Get! This! Look! simply by dozing off in the vicinity of a toddler who knows where to find a pair of scissors. Perhaps, but that method is by no means foolproof. You're just as likely to end up with a shorn dog or a toddler who looks like this (scroll to photos 2, 3, and 4) as you are to get ESBs of your own. Forget the shortcuts, follow my tutorial, and ensure yourself an eye-catching fringe of Excessively Short Bangs.

Before You Start: To really get this look, you should probably begin with fairly thin hair in advance of Step 1. You can try it if you have thick hair, but I can't guarantee your results will match mine. Poor you!

Step 1: Have a baby. (That's the part that costs several thousand dollars.) Your hair should now look shiny and rather full, thanks to prenatal vitamins and the hormone-induced halting of the normal shedding cycle of your hair. (The bottom few inches of your hair may be a little thin if you already went through the whole process below after your first baby.)

*Note: I do have adorable baby pictures of Beck where he looks less Gollum-ish, but this is the only one that shows my long hair.

Step 2: Wait about six months while half your hair falls out due to the phenomenon known as post-natal hair loss. Your hair should now look thin and lifeless. The ends should be especially wispy. The longest remaining strands may have now survived two rounds of post-natal hair loss. They mourn with you the loss of their many sisters who slipped down the drain or were snatched by the brush.

Step 3: Cut ten to twelve inches off your hair, in hopes that getting rid of the wispy ends will make the overall thinness less noticeable. Your hair might now bear an unfortunate resemblance to the short-hair-growing-out look you sported during the fall of 1996 -- only less full, of course. Note that your face has tried to compensate for your hair's loss of fullness by gaining fullness of its own. Your face probably thought that as long as the head still occupied the same total amount of space, no one would know the difference. Nice try, face, but you totally FAIL at optical illusions.

Step 4: Wait a few more months until the hairs that fell out grow in again to a length of 1 to 1.5 inches. You should have strange tufts of hair sticking up all over your head. These tufts should be particularly noticeable around your hairline. You might also notice that an exorbitant number of these new hairs are (gasp!) GRAY! (Stay tuned for a Get! That! Look! tutorial on how to dye your hair at home with the "assistance" of an 18-month-old and a three-year-old.)

Good from far (see above), but far from good (see below).

Step 5: Task a wary hairstylist with the impossible-to-accomplish job of camouflaging the short regrowth around your hairline. Tell her to blend the regrowth into side-swept bangs. When she tells you your bangs will have to be really short, tell her you understand. No, REALLY short, she will say. That's fine, you will say. Observe finished bangs. They are REALLY short. Do not place any blame on hairstylist. It's not her fault.

It's best if you perform this step immediately before you are scheduled to have family pictures taken, so your ESBs can be properly documented in their purest state (see blog header photo). When your sisters and mom see your hair, they should try to convince you that you look like a chic French girl. Votre mari sera moins enthusiaste.*

*Translation: Your husband is less enthusiastic.

Step 6: Write a tutorial and use it as an excuse to post a funny picture of said husband, whose backward-slouching posture and loopy grin turn him into a no-neck Muppet (but an adorable one, of course). You should probably be thankful he doesn't ever visit the blog.

And there you have it! You may repeat this process every couple of years until your family is complete and your hair is completely wrecked.

Keep in mind that wrecked hair is a small price to pay for what you get in return:

And bangs grow out after a few months anyway:

Junior High Memories, Ahhh

2011-02-21T21:22:00.000-08:00

After reading my friend Aspen's recent post about hereditary klutziness (with a side topic about how her mother's behavior as a grandma is so different than when Aspen and her siblings were growing up), I hit the "comment" button to chime in. A few paragraphs later, I realized that since I already hold the record for the longest blog comment ever -- on my friend Emily's blog -- I really don't need to keep competing with myself. I decided I better come over here to my own blog and expand that comment into a post instead.

Aspen's statements about Mom vs. Grandma behavior definitely ring true. Our moms have gone soft in their grandmotherhood! They never would have checked us out from school if we were ill, or if we were significantly but not seriously injured on the playground. Other than a broken bone popping out of your skin, nothing was a worthy reason for going home from school -- even something as traumatizing as being knocked unconscious or as painful and embarrassing as a completely bloodied face.

But what if one of our children called Grandma from school today with the same "minor" injury? Here's what I envision:

Grandma would drop everything and rush right to the school, check the child out, slap a magnetic ambulance light on the top of her car, drive like a madwoman back to her house (with a crazy swing through the Wendy's drive-thru on the way), carry the invalid to the master suite, and arrange the poor dear in the king-sized bed using all twelve throw pillows for maximum comfort.

Then the precious grandchild would get to choose whatever entertainment would best ease the pain, to be enjoyed while Grandma alternated between rubbing the poor dear's feet and spoon-feeding him or her small bites of Frosty (the expensive kind with the mix-ins).

As for the entertainment...

Would your child like to watch television? No problem! Grandma has hundreds of channels on cable now, even though you grew up with five fuzzy channels courtesy of the rabbit ears perched precariously on top of the television, or with no television channels at all.

Maybe your child has a favorite movie that would help him or her feel better? That's easy! Grandma has her own copy of each grandkid's favorite in her extensive DVD and Blu-ray collection. But, oh dear! The requested movie has been lent it out to your sister's kids! Whatever will Grandma do? She'll call Grandpa into duty, of course! He can buy the movie on his way home from work. He's already on his way, even though it's only one-thirty. He told the office he needed to attend to an emergency at home. He'll just pick up a copy of the movie -- whichever version is most expensive and has the most bonus features -- at Walmart when he stops to buy a few of your child's favorite treats. Nevermind that Grandma could just check if the movie is viewable On Demand from Comcast (they have that), or see if it's available to Watch Instantly on Netflix (they have that, too), or that Grandpa could rent it. Buying another copy is definitely the best option. That way they'll never again be unprepared for this type of a situation. Probably should buy another copy of all the other grandkids' favorites, while they're at it. Some DVDs hadn't been upgraded to Blu-ray yet, anyway. In other words, long gone are the days of your youth, when the only movies in the house were a few VHS tapes recorded from the Disney Sunday Night Movie.

Maybe your child prefers Video games? No problem! Somehow your parents now own a Wii, a PlayStation, and an Xbox Kinect, even though the basic Nintendo you coveted in 1989 wasn't allowed within 50 feet of your house.

Your child wants a live performance of Broadway favorite "Wicked"? Even this request isn't beyond Grandma. She would make it happen by acting, singing, and dancing every role herself. Foot-rubbing and spoon-feeding (see above) would occur during breaks between acts.

There the child would convalesce -- ensconced in luxury, every whim obeyed, every wish granted -- until you arrived to collect him or her. Your mother would proceed to instruct you on how to properly apply a Band-Aid, or tell you that ice packs will help reduce swelling. Then she would send you on your way. As you pulled out of their driveway, Grandma and Grandpa would breathe a sigh of relief that THAT was over, comment that your child seems a little spoiled, then go back to enjoying their blissfully peaceful, child-free home. Meanwhile, you would drive the Little Prince or Princess home, your ears bombarded with requests for "Another milkshake!" every time you passed a fast food restaurant.

Okay, I might be exaggerating a little. I do have to give a shout out to my mom here. Though she was not a pushover (as most of you probably know) she did pick me up from school a few times when I had stomachaches during second grade. Of course, her hands were somewhat tied since I locked myself in a bathroom stall and wouldn't come out unless she was present. It wasn't so much a stomachache as it was debilitating anxiety about our upcoming move. But anyway...

Speaking of klutziness and memories, was anyone in my gym class in junior high when I bled ALL over the gym floor? On the last day of the semester, Laura Forsberg accidentally dropped her combination lock under the bleachers while we were all waiting for the bell to ring and let us out for lunch. I, being the smallest junior high student ever, knew I could easily get it back for her, so I ran under the bleachers to retrieve it. Yes, ran. Under bleachers. I hit the side of my head on a metal bracket, which tore open a V-shaped wound in my scalp. If anyone has had or seen a head injury, you know how they bleed. I don't even remember what happened next or how I got out from under the bleachers, but I do remember some classmates escorting me back across the gym to Coach Edwards' office, and that I left a diagonal river of blood in my wake. Mrs. Edwards sat me on a chair and wrapped a threadbare lost-and-found gym towel around my head. Students arriving for the next gym class crowded around the doorway to stare and ask what happened. This is exactly how a thirteen-year-old girl wants to be seen by her peers: wearing a blood-stained turban.

Someone ran to fetch my mom, who conveniently worked just around the corner and down the hall from the gym (she was also accessible through a secret doorway on the stage of the gym, which led to a practice room off the choir room, but I don't think the messenger went that way). Mom came and took me to my pediatrician's office (yes, an injury worthy of being checked out of school), where I received 11 stitches -- or possibly 14, I can't recall. A significant section of my hair had to be trimmed in order for the wound to be stitched. As the trimmed section grew back, it wouldn't lay flat with the rest of my hair. Instead the short patch stuck out stubbornly like a paintbrush growing out of my head.

This hairdo wasn't entirely unique to me among the girls of my class, strangely. Another girl had several short patches sticking dramatically out of her long black hair. I wasn't there, but this is what I heard happened. During shop class she decided to polish her shop glasses on a rapidly spinning buffing wheel -- WHILE SHE WAS WEARING THEM! Her hair got pulled into the wheel and, well, I think she's lucky she didn't lose more than a few locks of hair.

Can anyone who went to school with me verify that is what really happened to M.N.'s hair? Was anyone there when I bled all over the gym floor?

I feel like my ninth grade picture would go along perfectly with this post. But that's a whole 'nother story, and would necessitate the use of my scanner. I'll save that for another time.

Recycled bath water, etc.

2011-02-16T13:00:00.000-08:00

How's that for a catchy post title?

When I look at my blog list (at least every other day), I always feel let down that more people haven't updated. But I'm one of the worst offenders! I really feel like posting right now, but I have several days' worth of dishes piled on my counter, and I am in the middle of several loads of laundry. (Plus, I have a crying baby who just woke up from his nap.) Why am I so behind on housework? The gauge in our heating oil tank malfunctioned, so I didn't know we were low, and we ran out of heating oil over the weekend. The heating oil powers our water boiler, which is how the house is heated, and also where the rest of the hot water in the house comes from. It would have cost a couple hundred bucks to get emergency weekend service, so we had no heat for our house and no hot water for dishes, laundry, and baths for a few days.

To add to the stress, I was scheduled to sing a solo in our special Relief Society meeting Sunday, which was held in the chapel (I mention that because I think it's a lot scarier to sing a solo up at the podium into a microphone than it is in the RS room). A little more stress was added because I've been getting over a cold (for, like, weeks), and was getting occasional uncontrollable coughing fits. Didn't want that to happen in the middle of the song! Since we had no hot water, we spent two straight hours Sunday morning boiling pots of water on the stove and dumping them into our bathtub so we could cycle all four of us through the bath in order to be presentable for church. Fun fun fun! I had to shave my legs in the bathroom sink so that I wouldn't sully the bathwater that we were somewhat recycling from person to person. (Cue mental picture of movie scene of cowboys taking turns using the hotel (or whorehouse) bath tub. Yuck!)

Oh well, we all ended up clean, and I think the solo went okay. I didn't have a cough problem until after I sat down, at least. Two accomplished musicians from our neighboring ward accompanied me on the piano and the flute, so I enjoyed that. I'm no soloist, though. I had intended that this musical number be a trio, but signals got a little crossed and the RS presidency asked for it to be a solo. The song was "Write Thy Name Upon My Heart" by Sally Deford. She provides many free compositions and arrangements on her site at www.defordmusic.com. I didn't know about it before I went looking for a song that fit with the theme of the meeting, which was "A Heart Like His". Here are the lyrics of the song:

Write thy name upon my heart
Jesus, Savior of mankind
Teach me charity unfailing
Teach me compassion, Lord, like thine
Endow my soul with loving kindness
Make me even as thou art
Engrave thine image in my countenance
Write thy name upon my heart

When battles rage; when storms arise
Make me a messenger of peace
Teach me tolerance and meekness
And faith to bid the tempest cease
Endow my soul with loving kindness
Make me even as thou art
Engrave thine image in my countenance
Write thy name upon my heart

Grant me strength to serve thee well
Light my spirit with thy grace
'Til all my works reflect thy goodness
'Til all my labors sing thy praise
Endow my soul with loving kindness
Make me even as thou art
Engrave thine image in my countenance
Write thy name upon my heart

We've had the oil back since yesterday morning, but I haven't tackled the pile of dishes yet. Have done three loads of laundry so far, but folded nothing. We've had eye appointments and doctor appointments yesterday and today, as well as realtor/landlord apartments as we look for a new rental. Yes, our lease is almost up and we have decided to leave floral wallpaper behind. Yay! I just realized I have only put up one piece of artwork/wall decor in this house, and no family photos or anything. It just never felt like my home. That, and I have been incredibly intimidated by the plaster walls.

At the same time, I have also been spending a significant amount of time trying to find a new tenant for our townhome in North Logan. Our great tenants bought a home of their own. If anyone knows anyone who's looking, send them my way.

Sorry, this was a pretty boring post, but at least it's something.

Contender

2011-01-04T13:06:00.001-08:00

I found one more holiday card photo option. Nothing says "cheery holiday scene" like two little boys gazing with wonder at the first snowflakes of the season...

...while standing on an electric piano in their underwear.

This photo option is for those who prefer a card with partial nudity. And judging by the comments on my last post, some of you DO have such a preference. You want a Christmas card? HERE'S your Christmas card.

Christmas Card Fail

2010-12-29T19:52:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Happy New Year from the Tyson & Lisa Heaton Family! As most of you know, I struggled with sending my 2009 Christmas cards. This year I didn't even make the slightest attempt, beyond half-heartedly asking my sister to send me a copy of a family photo she took of our little troop back in July. I had the vague idea I might use the photo for a Christmas card, despite the fact that it was taken in the middle of the summer and we're all in white, khaki, and pastels. Pretty lame, huh? Everyone knows Christmas card pictures are supposed to look like this:

That's my sister Kara's family, by the way. and I'm 98% sure she took this photo herself, using a timer and/or remote-controlled shutter. That's way beyond me and my camera. Taking a non-blurry photo is way beyond me and my camera. I briefly considered Photoshopping my own family members' faces onto Kara's family photo, but three things held me back.

You might be thinking my lack of Photoshop skills would be one of the dealbreakers, but you'd be wrong. I do know how to work with layers, and I'm aware of (if not able to execute) a couple different methods for whitening teeth and removing pimples. So switching individuals' faces should be easy enough. I'm pretty sure my end product would have been AWESOME. Not at all something that would end up on Photoshop Disasters.

No, the first two dealbreakers are the two extra children this photo includes, as compared to my family. Do I cover the extras up with snow or bushes or extra ivy creeping up from the bottom, or by "making the logo bigger"? (Any of these options could look really good.) Run actions to further distress and antique-ify the photo, to the point that two of the children cannot be discerned because of all the "texture"? (It's already kinda heading that way, isn't it?) Include two photos of each of my children? (Could give the mistaken impression that I have cloned them, or that I have been concealing their twins all this time.) Just leave two of Kara's kids in the picture? (But which two? I know which ones I think are the best, but I'd rather not reveal that information at this juncture.) Of these options, I think out-of-control ivy has the most promise, but it's not even worth discussing, because of...

The third dealbreaker. This is the one that really matters. I don't actually have Photoshop. I do have Photoshop Elements, but it turns out it's not currently loaded on this computer (or our other computer, for that matter). So what am I left with? Ummm...MS Paint. Whoa, way too much work and trouble just to give my sister a laugh/expression of chagrin! I'll leave the MS Paint to experts like Allie from Hyperbole and a Half. (That link goes to one of my favorites, about the Alot; you can find another of my favorites, a very applicable favorite, about trying to be an adult, is here.)

Since I still didn't get my summer family photo from my sister (ahem!), you'll get a substitute Christmas photo instead. Unfortunately, I only have two pictures from all of 2010 that include all four of us. They've both already appeared on this blog, and Beck happens to be trapped in the stroller in both of them. The better of the two is this one at the beach. In the one at Independence Hall, only the top of Beck's head is visible. Since I don't have any workable whole-family photos, I'll give you what I've got. How's this for a Christmas card picture? Hey, it's a "holiday" photo, and it includes 75% of our family:

Or maybe this one? Also holiday-ish, also includes 75% of our family, and as a bonus this one includes unintentionally coordinated clothing in our signature accent color, hunter's orange. Coordinated clothing is an important part of family Christmas photos, so this one is almost a winner, minus the fact that it is minus our Dad/husband, with additional points subtracted for Beck again being in a stroller:

And here, finally, is a picture in which Tyson and I appear together. In the words of Elaine, "You want a Christmas card?!?!" Here's your Christmas Card!!!"

My next post might include a round up of the year, since I've been a pretty bad blogger this year. Then I want to finish posting about our Utah trip. Oh, and finish posting about our other Utah trip. Stick with me!

Too Much Fun

2010-12-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

(Sorry, I was just going to make the briefest of updates, and now this turned into a huge, long travelogue -- but not an interesting one about a trip to, say, Greece or Costa Rica. Just your run-of-the-mill trip to Utah. You may only want to read on if you are my mother or grandmother, and even then it will be pretty repetitive since you were there for much of it!)

We are in Utah for a vacation, and I've been so busy having fun that I've barely had my camera out. I had considered coming for a visit in November, but decided to hold onto the travel money in case a real need came up later. But then, JetBlue had an awesome one-day sale and I was able to get round trip tickets for me and the boys for under $400 total. Score, especially since the first checked bag is free on JetBlue. When I booked the trip, our departure date was just over a week away. It was so fun to suddenly have a trip to look forward to. I booked a nearly three-week trip for us (if you're going to go to all the hassle and expense of flying across the country with two toddlers, might as well make a nice long trip), but Tyson decided not to come for any of the time. Then, a few days later, he decided that he would like to visit home after all, so we used some of our Delta SkyMiles to book his ticket.

After a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at our dear friends the Lowes' house in Fountainville, PA, Tyson drove us to JFK airport (JetBlue doesn't fly out of Philadelphia International). Since our flight was departing at 8:30 pm right on Thanksgiving, the plane was pretty empty. We had a whole row to ourselves, and had a pretty great flight experience (especially compared to the one I am relating below). We arrived in Salt Lake City very late Thanksgiving night, where my dad picked us up. There was a special surprise waiting for us at their house -- a cousin sleepover! My sister's three older kids were staying over, so they would be there in the morning to play with Sawyer and Beck. We had a great day hanging out and playing with the kids, and Kara joined us later in the afternoon and stayed for dinner.

The next morning was the Rowley Family Christmas party (my mom's side of the family), held at my parents' church. Our crowd has gotten big enough to be pretty overwhelming in any of our houses (at least those that were close enough for this gathering). The little kids had fun riding bikes and trikes in the gym while the adults visited. All of my aunts and uncles and most of my cousins were there, except for Aubrey and his family (they live in Hawaii), Song and here family (they live outside Washington D.C., but I did get to visit them a couple of months ago and will go again around Christmas), and Bryce and his family (they joined us later in the day). My sister Krista and her husband Chris were also absent (they were visiting family in Texas for Thanksgiving).

We ate a delicious brunch (highlights were Aunt Klaire's breakfast casserole, honeybaked ham provided by Grandmom, and Kara's homemade raspberry jam on Lion House rolls brought by my mom), then had a short talent show. Lots of cute piano and vocal performances, including Sawyer's stirring rendition of "Where is Thumbkin?". He was quite the ham on stage, really singing out (not always tunefully, but very adorably) and after being applauded for the first verse of the song (all I was going to let him perform), he insisted on doing another verse, garnering more applause. Beck refused to perform his talent: walking. Yes, he is a little toddler now, but is still resorting to crawling quite often.

After the talent talent show there was a carol sing-along, including an impromptu mens' chorus, solo by Granddad, and duet between Kara and I on "Away in a Manger". I felt the words touching me like never before on the third verse as I thought of my dear cousins Curtis and Logan, who have passed away.

"Bless all the dear children

in Thy tender care
And take us to heaven,
to Live with Thee there."

After the talent show we exchanged gifts and cleaned up. We had to hurry along to the next of the day's events. No, not the BYU-Utah game (though my brother-in-law Logan did defect to that event), but show at the Maverik Center (formerly the E Center), the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, starring the Rockettes. This show, a touring version of the famous show at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, was a special treat and Christmas gift from my grandparents. They were still able to secure a ticket for me at the last minute, and I'm so glad I got to attend with so many of my family members. I found the performance very engaging, and some of the numbers were truly spectacular. The next day I happened to see a film of the NYC version on PBS. Yes, it looked even more dazzling in a beautiful performance hall with twice as many dancers (and an ice rink on stage!), but the high kicks and costumes were great to see live. Thanks, Grandmom and Granddad! Matt and Wendy Meldrum, who live very near the Maverik Center, kindly babysat Sawyer and Beck for me while I attended the performance. Thanks to you, too!

We returned to my parents' house, where many retired to the family room to watch a DVRed version of the football game that was already in progress. Those of us who didn't care so much about the football game stayed upstairs with the food (me, my Mom, Kara, even my Dad -- who is a huge AGGIE fan and don't you forget it!). My mother-in-law Charlene called to see when I would be arriving at their house. I wanted to make it up to Cache Valley while Tyson's brother Ben, his wife DeAnn (sorry, I am never sure if I have this spelled right - I need to find out once and for all!), and their three children were still in town from Las Vegas. I thought they would be staying until after Sunday dinner, so I had planned to drive up after church on Sunday, but it turned out they were leaving Sunday morning, so I packed up and got on my way with my boys. I made it through Sardine Canyon before the big storm hit, and spent the next two nights with the Heatons in Paradise.

Saturday night was a fun evening of catching up with Charlene and DeAnn, and letting the kids play with their cousins until way past bedtime. Morgan's son Hudson was also with him for the holiday, so that was fun -- all the Heaton grandkids together. The house was rather full, so my kids and I stayed on the office floor, but we were very comfortable there. I like being in a house full of family. One nice thing about going up to Cache Valley on Saturday night was that I was able to attend the baby blessing of Hallie Buchanan, the daughter of my cousin Bryce and his wife Lacey, the next morning. After saying goodbye to Beck and I made our way to Smithfield through the storm while Sawyer remained in Paradise to attend church with his Uncle Andzew (Andrew) and the rest of the Heatons. The blessing of beautiful baby Hallie was tender and precious, and the rest of the meeting, delivered by the bishopric, was very nice. What I heard of it, that is -- Beck is at the age where he is a real handful at church. Luckily I had the helping hands of Grandmom and Granddad and the kindness of a Sister behind me who shared her kids' fish crackers and fruit leather with me. I had emptied my diaper bag and packed it in my luggage on the plane, then used an easier-to-carry, roomier backpack as a diaper bag/carry-on on the flight. When I hurriedly re-packed the diaper bag before going to Cache Vally I missed transferring all my necessary church-survival aids (treats, toys, books). So nice of a fellow mom to share!

After the blessing we gathered at Bryce and Lacey's lovely new home in Smithfield for a luncheon. Again I enjoyed visiting with my family, especially my Uncle Eldon who actually likes to hear about many aspects of Pennsylvania, Tyson's job, the house we worked on at the ranch, etc. Beck and I headed back to Paradise to rejoin the Heatons for a nice Sunday dinner of ham (and smoked chicken, and smoked turkey leftovers (I think?) -- they are always making several protein courses, along eith all manner of side dishes. Boy do the Sunday dinners I make for my little family (when I actually manage to make them) pale in comparison). Late the next morning I headed back down to Salt Lake City.

I can't particularly remember the evening's activities. I did fall asleep rather early that night and was barely able to rouse myself to give Krista a hug when she arrived back from Texas. She and Chris immediately drove back to Logan. We were like to ships passing in the night!

My friend Kari brought her son Jackson (just about to have his fourth birthday) over to play that afternoon (or this might have been Tuesday) while she took her other son Ethan to his pediatrician nearby. Sawyer and Jackson and I had great fun playing with toys, including my childhood Legos. The Legos remained out for the rest of the week. I admit I may have been having more fun with them even than Sawyer, but he really liked them too.

My mom kept encouraging me to go to Zumba or water aerobics at her rec center, but I hadn't brought any workout shoes. I can tell my mom really wants me to get back into exercising, I think for the physical and mental health benefits. Finally she convinced me that I would be fine at Zumba in my snowboots. Haha, that sounds worse than it really is -- they are not bulky and have an athletic sole, so with my pants on over them it wasn't too obvious. On Wednesday morning we took the kids to the drop-in care center at the rec center (a brand new facility a few blocks directly west of my parents' house), and I experienced Zumba for the first time. It was fun! It totally wore me out and there were times I felt like an uncoordinated fool (and even more times I just felt like a white girl with no funk in my trunk), but it was a great workout and I'd like to do it some more. The kids had fun in the play room, and then we headed home for lunch and naps.

The next day after an early nap for Beck and lunch for all of us, we went to the kiddie pool at the rec center. It was so much fun! I wish I had brought my camera, because my kids were having such a great time and I'd love to have some pictures to help me remember their joy. Maybe we will go again before we fly home. The kiddie pool has several water features and toys, such as a hippopotamus slide (Sawyer must have gone down in 40 times in the last half hour we were at the pool, waving and flirting at a lifeguard each time), fish that you can move around to spray water everywhere, a big blue slide, and a water umbrella. A lazy river branches out from one side. My mom spent much of the time taking Beck around and around the lazy river, while I tried to keep up with Sawyer in the toy area. When it was time to go, I thought I would have to drag Sawyer out kicking and screaming. I did have to bribe him with chocolate.

Most evenings were just spent eating, putting the kids to bed, visiting, and watching TV. My mom keeps shows she thinks I will like on the DVR for me. I watched the season opener of one of my favorite shows, Top Chef (this season is an All Stars season), and several episodes of What Not To Wear, a show I desperately wish Tyson would realize he needs to nominate me for -- maybe more about that later.

Friday I returned to the rec center pool for my first water aerobics class ever, while the kids went to the care center and my mom did some more Zumba and a weights class. The water aerobics (deep water aerobics) was the kind that isn't for wussies, and I didn't even wear the float belt to make it easier. Sometimes I felt even more uncoordinated than in Zumba, but the encouragement of the nice instructor and the other gentleman in the class made it surprisingly enjoyable. Also a much better workout than I realized it would be.

Friday night we attended my parents' ward Christmas party and Sawyer got a coloring book from Santa. That night after the kids were in bed I was able to go to Centerville to see most of my dear girlfriends. Yay! We met at Alice's house. Kari was there when I got there, and Lacey arrived shortly after. I ate the hugest bowl of popcorn you have ever seen. Kari, unfortunately, didn't feel well and left after a couple of hours, before Lara arrived. We ended up staying way too late (always my fault), but I thought we had some really good discussions and a lot of great laughter. I got to see Alice's sweet little four-month-old baby (her fourth son). We missed Emily, who has newborn twins to tend to at home. I hope I get to see Em and the newest arrivals while I am here!

On Saturday morning, Tyson arrived on Delta. The kids and I went to get him at the airport, and we were all so glad to see him! You know what? I think he was glad to see us too. I think he actually missed us a little bit! (That has probably worn off now that we have been back together for five days.) My parents took us to lunch at My Thai, which usually hits it out of the ballpark for us, but with bad luck charm Tyson in tow, we ended up with a bit of an uneven experience. Still, it was a delicious and filling meal, and very nice for my parents to treat us. They continued on to some shopping, as did we. We went to Target to get Christmas gifts for the Jones Family Christmas party (Tyson's Mom's family), which was later that day in American Fork. Santa (a very good Santa) makes an appearance at the Jones party, and gives gifts to each child. While we were at Target, we saw something we wanted to sneak into Santa's bag. In the interest of adding a little levity to the lovely but sometimes a little too earnest party, we decided to give presents to all the little kids: recorders, harmonicas, and slide whistles. How thoughtful of us, right? Ahahahaha, a good time was had by all!

The Jones party generally features a live nativity pageant acted out by the young children, but this year it was an all-adult cast, which added a new reverence. The children sat intently on the front row and watched Joseph and Mary tenderly admire the baby Jesus (played beautifully by Jared and Sarah and their tiny newborn boy, Jude), surrounded by angels, shepherds, and wise men (one of which was played by Tyson in a guest bathrobe from my parents' house). After the nativity we had a lovely roast beef and potato dinner followed by a too-die-for Oreo pie and cheescake pie and various other desserts. I am not usually a dessert person, but I ate a big plateful. Thanks to all who provided the food!

After dinner it was time for the talent show, during which the jolly old elf himself appeared. We sang some carols and then each child got a turn on Santa's lap. What's this, a bonus present? Parents had confused looks on their faces and then the presents were unwrapped, and toot-toot-toot, the cacophony began. Our practical joke played out perfectly as we watched the joy on the children's faces, the consternation on many of the parents', and the twinkle in the eyes of those who were in on it. I hope no one was too upset. We thought it was funny and it was not intended to be at all mean-spirited. But do you think we allowed Santa to gift such a very special present to our own pre-schooler? Oh, no way!

After the party we returned to my parents' house and put our kids to bed, then drove to Matt and Wendy's house for a nice night of cards and chatting. We bored them with our stories of Pennsylvania and our descriptions of the books we were reading on our kindles, but they were nice about it. We played two games of pinochle, and if I remember correctly the men won one game and the women won the other. Or did the men win both? I can't remember. I'm not nearly as competitive as Tyson is -- just there for the fun. That's why Wendy has to be my teammate instead of Tyson. I frustrate him too much as a partner.

We retired to bed late and had a leisurely Sunday morning. We intended to drive up to Paradise before church, but we didn't end up making it after Tyson got into a spirited conversation with my dad about leadership and efficiency within the church. We drove to Paradise and had a yummy dinner of spareribs (and pork chops, and chicken, and various sides). Tyson, Morgan, Taylor, and Curtis played Rook and many of us stayed up late into the night talking. The next morning I felt like I was getting sick, but I seem to be holding it off okay.

Monday December 6th was another Baker family extravaganza. We drove to Kara's house in Clearfield for Lebanese Mock Christmas Eve. What? That doesn't sound quite traditional? I hosted last year's Christmas Eve (on actual Christmas Eve), so it was Kara's turn to host this year. Last year I chose an Asian appetizer theme, and we also had a Bethlehem supper. Just your basic Asian-Judeo-Christian-Pagan holiday! This year, more of an Arab-Mediterranean-Judeo-Christian-Pagan holiday, featuring spinach fatayer (spinach filling in pastry), spanikopita (spinach and feta in phyllo), pita bread, hummus (chick pea and sesame dip), toum (aioli or garlic sauce/dip), kibbe (lamb wrapped in beef an bulgur), lamb sfihah (like a mini pizza), ful mudammas, tabullah (various spellings, salad of bulgur and herbs), yogurt sauce, fruit platter with apricots, pomegranates, grapes, and clementines, vegetable platter with red bell peppers, cucmbers, radishes, and mini pickles, oh, and there were pickled turnips, too. And perfumed water (okay, too perfumed for me -- I had to refill with regular). The food was fabulous. Hats off to my sister Kara, who made the most labor-intensive exotic dishes. (I brought the vegetables, fruits, and dips). We lingered over dinner and had a nice nativity performed by the children. There was present-opening and then for dessert we had baklava and mini cupcakes (in honor of the birthdays of Logan and Amanda). After that, we headed home.

We missed Chris, but had Jason as a fill-in. Sawyer played Joseph in the nativity (Josess, in his parlance). He was very impressed with his costume when he saw himself in the mirror, repeating, "I'm Josess!" Then he said, slowly, as though the most wonderful thought was just occurring to him, "Noooooo....I'm Jesus Christ!!!" Ahahahaha.

Since then, we've just been relaxing and enjoying our time at the Heatons. Yesterday was Rachel's birthday, complete with ice cream cake. Tyson left for the ranch with Curtis earlier today, and the boys and I are about to leave. I have just been waiting for Beck to wake up from his nap.

Well, I still have almost a week left of my vacation (Tyson will go home a few days before the rest of us), so stay tuned for the next incredibly detailed account of our time in Utah. Fascinating!

You Snooze, You Lose -- Traumatic Travel 2010: Part 2

2010-11-20T12:08:00.000-08:00

Returning to my saga of traveling to Utah in June...

Our flight was to leave Philadelphia International Airport at 7:00am. We would be checking quite a few bags, so I wanted to arrive two hours ahead of our flight. We live almost an hour from the airport. We needed be loaded into the car and ready to leave at 4:00am, basically. I'm sure anyone who knows me can see this is a plan fraught with danger. Staying up until 3am, I am good at. Getting up at 3am, not so much.

An aside, about my alarm clock:

An alarm clock is meant to be an aid, an ally, an organizational and time management tool. This is how I view my alarm clock when I set it at night. But when my alarm clock rings in the morning, I consider it to be my mortal enemy. When I hear my alarm ring, I do not think, "Oh, I need to wake up. How nice of my alarm to let me know it's time to wake up!" Instead, I think, "WHAT on EARTH is that AWFUL SOUND!!???!! Doesn't anyone know I am TRYING TO SLEEP??!!!??? Make it stop! Make it stop! MUST MAKE IT STOP SO I CAN GO BACK TO SLEEP!!!!!!" So I hit snooze. I know for a fact I have sometimes hit snooze for upwards of two hours, waking up and going through the thought process above every seven, five, three, or even two minutes. (Side note, something odd I've noticed is that after hitting snooze I must put my head down on the pillow so I'm facing the opposite direction I was facing when I just woke up. So, I wake up and alternate my head position every few minutes for several hours. Weird.)

Back to the story:

Things might not have turned out so badly if I hadn't been trying to finish the laundry the night before the flight. I needed to finish that laundry because I couldn't finish packing until it was done. A lot of the clothes my boys and I needed for the trip were in that load. It was already nearing midnight when I put the second-to-last load in the washer. I sat down on the couch and pulled out my computer to double-check my itinerary and print our boarding passes. That was my big mistake. I never should have sat down, because almost immediately upon doing so, I fell asleep.

Next thing I knew, I woke up at 5am, the time at which I had intended to arrive at the airport. Though I have lots of experience oversleeping due to turning off my alarm or pushing snooze too many times, I didn't actually oversleep or over-snooze my alarm this time. I fell asleep without even setting it! I didn't even give myself a chance!

At that point, I knew that missing my flight was inevitable. I hadn't finished the laundry or the packing, the boys weren't up, fed, and dressed, I looked (and felt) like a total wreck. By the time we left the house traffic would already be getting bad on the turnpike. Absolutely no way we would make it in time.

I called Delta, and I was relieved to hear that my options weren't as bad or as costly as I thought they were going to be. Of course, the information I was so relieved by turned out to be completely incorrect, but that's for our next installment.

Stay tuned for the Part 3: "That Will Be $1000 Dollars, Please"...

Do you have two kids in there? -- Traumatic Travel 2010: Part 1

2010-10-04T10:46:00.001-07:00

Long before we knew we would be moving to Philadelphia, my parents had planned a Park City vacation/family reunion to take place in early June 2010. I had planned to be there all week with my boys when that only meant traveling from Logan, but when it became clear we would be moving to Philadelphia in mid-April, I didn't know if it made sense to travel back to Utah so soon after our move.

Whether it made sense or not, I decided to go. I just couldn't miss out on all the food, laughter, fun, and Baker bonding time.

I was apprehensive about flying alone with Sawyer (2.5 years old) and Beck (9.5 months), but I tried to figure out the best way to do things. I splurged the extra hundred bucks for non-stop flights so I wouldn't have to get us all on and off the airplanes with all our carry-on items and gear (carseat, stroller, etc.) any more times than strictly necessary. But I couldn't splurge and get three tickets; Beck would be sitting on my lap for the nearly five hour flight.

I rigged up our double stroller to accommodate Sawyer's carseat. I figured this was a necessity. I needed somewhere to safely put Beck if (when) I needed to take Sawyer to the bathroom on the airplane (he had only been potty-trained for a little over a month). I knew Beck was much more likely to sleep in the carseat (he is not a willing cuddler), while Sawyer would potentially sleep in my arms. I knew it would come in handy to be able to buckle Sawyer into a seatbelt he couldn't undo, unlike those airplane seatbelts. Sure, it would be a little difficult to check the stroller at the gate and get on and off the plane with Beck, Sawyer, a carseat, a backpack serving as a diaper bag, a computer bag, a rolling carry-on, a miniature backpack, a monkey harness backpack, a purse, and two blankies....but it could be done. And after all, it would only need to be done once to get on and once to get off. No sweat.

Here's a photo that shows my double stroller carrying Sawyer's car seat. Please imagine me pushing this, with Beck hidden in the back seat and Sawyer perched in front. I'm wearing a huge backpack and I have a rollie bag, a computer bag with a laptop and a purse in it, and two Sawyer-sized backpacks hanging from the stroller handles. Two blankets and two hoodies are in the storage net under the stroller. You could barely see Beck when he was tucked away in the backseat. I kinda regretted that, because people at the airport could only tell I had one child with me, and therefore did not accord me the proper amount of sympathetic looks. I used a complex, self-engineered system of bungee cords to secure the seat. You can bet it was oh-so-fun to go through security -- but more on that later!

To be continued...

These boys have something to sing...

2010-09-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

A birthday message for Grammy. Happy Birthday, we miss you!

Give me your best advice

2010-09-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

My friend Alice just emailed our friends asking for boot advice. I decided to email everyone and ask for some advice, too, but now I decided to open my query up to a wider forum. I need cooking help!

I have come to realize that the way I used to cook when I was working full-time and didn't have any kids does not work for my current family situation. No, it does not work at all! I need some new ideas and also just some advice on being a domestic goddess or at least just not tearing my hair out or feeding Sawyer and Tyson popcorn for dinner (yes, I did that on Saturday). Okay, I fed Beck popcorn too. It was very labor-intensive because I had to break off all the dangerous pieces and tear the remaining soft parts into small pieces. Yeah, you would think I would consider it easier to just cook a normal dinner, but what can I say, popcorn is my favorite food!

So I used to do all the cooking when I got home from work. It could be simple or elaborate, but it almost NEVER involved the oven or the crockpot. Everything I cooked was done on the stove or the grill. This was just out of necessity - when you don't start prepping and cooking until 6pm, you don't have time for longer cooking methods like baking, roasting, braising, or slow-cooking. Everything was a rush, rush, rush of prep work and sauteeing, but it was fun and not at all difficult because Tyson and I would do it together and no little children needed attention.

This way of cooking became more difficult when Sawyer came along, but I kept it up. I don't think I even realized I could or should be doing things a different way, because this is the way I have been cooking for 20+ years. Now, with two kids, and at the ages they are, I realize I have got to change up my methods. I need to figure out a new way to cook. Things that can be prepped when the kids are less active (night before, during naptime in the afternoon), then baked, long-simmered, or crock-potted to emerge at dinner time, savory and delicious. This new way of cooking will give me time to set the table, toss a salad, etc.

So, any ideas, great recipes, or links to websites that cover this in a nutshell? Soups, crockpot stuff, enchiladas, baked main courses, dare I say even casseroles? The only homemade thing I really successfully make in my oven is my grandmom's lasagna. Yum! I can also make red beans and rice, and carnitas. That's it. I need everything else.

Philadelphia Sights

2010-09-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

Our friend Corbrett came to visit last weekend. He attended USU with Tyson and now he lives in Washington, D.C. Corbrett was in Allentown (about 30 miles north-ish of us) for business, and he tacked on some extra time and stayed at our house Saturday night. We enjoyed a nice evening of conversation and peanuts, a usual morning of church, and then we went into Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon for a quick sightseeing trip. We visited the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. After Corbrett left to drive back to D.C., I made Tyson drive me over to the old part of Philadelphia ("Old City" neighborhod), which I hadn't seen yet. I wanted to see Elfreth's Alley, which is supposed to be America's oldest residential street. It's this tiny little cobblestone alley, but you can drive down it one way. You could probably reach out and touch the houses as you drive by. Here, I'll just insert a picture taken by someone else.

Photo taken by Kjetil Ree, details here.

I didn't take any pictures that day, but here are some from when we went and saw most of the same sights just after we moved here (early May). This is my first of a few posts where I try to catch up on the events of the last few months. We find Sunday is a nice day to see the sights. Downtown is not as crowded, and there are lots of free parking spots available.

Here we are in front of Independence Hall. You can barely see Beck's head behind Sawyer's in our nice, compact double stroller.

I think old B. Franklin is showing a little too much leg in this statue.

This is in Washington Square park, the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier. "Freedom is a light for which many men have died in darkness."

Beck is always trapped in the back seat of the stroller, but he is pretty good-natured about it.

People put coins on the grave? I hope they're not making wishes.

My next post will cover some events from June. I'll get caught up yet!

What any good mom would do, right?

2010-09-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

When Beck awoke from his nap yesterday, he was screaming and crying and wouldn't be consoled so matter what I tried. He didn't seem sick -- just seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the crib, so to speak. I had exhausted every option I could think of to cheer him up, when I got one last bright idea. I stripped his clothes off and gave him half the Twix I had been saving in case of my *own* meltdown.

Result? Happy baby!

Merry Christmas (a little late)

2010-09-10T12:07:00.000-07:00

I've spent the past year feeling a little (or a lot) behind on life. I just can't seem to catch up. I rarely finish a project. Some days my kids are in their diapers/underwear all day. Laundry sits, folded, in its basket and never gets put away. It all started the day we moved into our Logan condo, which was also the day Beck was born. I had trouble completing all the little projects that come with a move, seeing as how I was nursing an infant, caring for a one-year-old, and trying to meet the needs of a husband who was working nearly 80 hours a week. I had just started to get on top of things when we found out we would be moving across the country to Pennsylvania. I haven't really gotten anywhere near to being on top of things since then.

One project that has been hanging over my head since I moved into this house is my basement. Tyson "organized" it (as in, it looked good but he's not the one who ever needs to access anything, so I needed to reorganize it to my needs), I "disorganized" it, I kept putting "projects" down there, it got messy, etc., etc. Last week I finally got around to putting most of it in order. What did I find in one box, but another embarrassing uncompleted project: my stamped, sealed, addressed, unmailed Christmas letters from 2009. Almost 50 of them.

Last year was the first time I attempted to send a Christmas letter. We had moved so many times in the past year and a half that I wanted to make sure people knew about our new permanent location (haha, that permanent location lasted a long time, didn't it?). I made a list of people I wanted to send one to. I wrote the letter. I chose a family photo and had 50 holiday cards printed. I wrote a personalized message on the back of each one. I gathered all the addresses I had, and sent emails to get addresses I was missing. I informed and assured everyone that I was sending a Christmas letter. Maybe you sent me your address. Are you wondering why that letter never came?

Well, first I didn't get around to printing the letters out until after Christmas, but I figured that was still okay. Still "Happy Holidays" if I mailed them on December 30. Then I was lacking correct postage, and New Year's Day came and went without me having mailed the letters. Then, the next thing you know, we heard that Tyson was being invited to interview for a promotion in Pennsylvania. I just threw up my hands and put the letters on my laundry room shelves (aka Where Projects Go To Die). I was too embarrassed to mail them a month late, and the permanence of our permanent location had become uncertain.

Now that I've found them, I'm just going to post the letter and photo here and call it good. If you read this, maybe you can pass this info along to your parents or anyone else you think I would have sent a letter to. You'll all be missing out on your personalized messages, but I think you'll survive. If you want your hard copy, post a comment and I will drop yours in the mail. It's already stamped, and the March of Dimes just kindly furnished me with some pre-printed address labels with my Pennsylvania address. In fact, maybe I'll just send the whole lot. I hate to waste all the stamps and pictures!

Well, if a Christmas card with a completely outdated message and a Halloween address label shows up in your mailbox, you know why.

Merry Christmas!

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December 30, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year from the Tyson Heaton Family! We haven’t previously sent holiday cards, but we experienced so many moves and changes in 2009 that I (Lisa) thought I’d take the opportunity to reconnect with our loved ones and update you on where we are now.

Our biggest adventure in 2009 was trying to close on our new home before our new baby arrived. We made it! Our loan closing was at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 13, and William Beckett Heaton (Beck) was born Friday, August 14 at 8:00 a.m. Wow, I sure went to great lengths to avoid moving the entire household for what would have been the fourth time in my pregnancy!

Tyson graduated from Utah State University with a degree in Political Science in December 2008, then changed his mind about law school and hit the job market in the middle of the economic downturn. After a few months of diligent searching while working temporary jobs, Tyson was hired by JBS for their Career Leadership Opportunity (CLO) program. JBS is a Brazilian company that owns beef and pork processing plants throughout the world, including the former E.A. Miller/Swift beef plant in Hyrum, UT. After completing his CLO program and being chosen as one of the top three in his class, Tyson now supervises a crew of 55 in the packaging department in Hyrum. I’m very proud of his hard work and thankful for all he does for our family. In his free time (what little he has), Tyson continues to enjoy following and discussing politics and policy. He has his eye on completing an MBA in the next few years, and he still hopes to own his own business someday.

I have a great job taking care of Sawyer and Beck and our home, where I have fun cooking, playing with the kids, and finding ways to frugally furnish and decorate our new place. My main “me time” activity is singing with the American Festival Chorus, a large choir conducted by Dr. Craig Jessop, the former conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Sawyer, our cute little two-year-old, charms everyone with his gap-toothed grin. He loves his new bike (tricycle), balls of any sort, and his “dinky” (a Raggedy-Andy blanket that belonged to Tyson). Sawyer worships and emulates his Daddy, and he alternately loves, tolerates, and bullies his baby brother. We love Sawyer and all the fun his lively personality adds to our family!

Beck started out fairly big (8 lbs., 3 oz.) and is growing fast (17 lbs. now). He got an exer-saucer for Christmas, and he loves to stand up in it and grab at all the toys. He shares a huge, gummy smile with anyone who gives him the slightest bit of attention. We are lucky to have him!

We thank Heavenly Father for all our blessings this year. We thank Him, especially, for you!

Love,
The Heatons

P.S.: We didn’t receive many cards this season. I’ll give everyone the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s our fault, not yours. After all, we’ve had six different addresses in the past sixteen months. Maybe we’ve been a little difficult to keep track of? I’m hoping you’ll follow my lead and reconnect with us as well. Here is our current contact information:

(Outdated contact information removed.)

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Ode to My Card Catalog

2010-08-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

I go to my blog once or twice a day to scan my list of blog links to see if anyone has posted anything new. Very few people seem to be updating much lately, least of all me! I have definitely been "off" blogging. I guess I will do my part and post something, though. I don't have it in me to try to tell you what we've been up to in the past four months, so instead I'm going to post an ode to my card catalog.

Now, some of you youngsters may not even know what a card catalog is, or what its purpose was/is. I'm not in the mood to give much of a history lesson right now, but I will say that this is how we used to find books in the library before computers became commonplace in libraries. Little cards filled all the little drawers. The cards listed all the materials in the library, searchable by title, subject, and author. With the advent of computerized catalogs, the old card catalog files became mostly obsolete. Some strange people now like to purchase them and repurpose them for use in the home. I've been wanting one for years, and about a year and a half ago my dream came true and I bought a card catalog formerly used at the College of Eastern Utah in Price, Utah.

Card catalogs come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and materials. Mine has 72 drawers, so it's a rather large one. We were living in our tiny basement apartment in Payson when I purchased it, so I couldn't even bring it in the house. If I had asked Tyson to move it down the stairs to the apartment...well, let's not go there.

I finally was able to set it up when we moved back to Cache Valley. The first question Tyson had asked when he first saw it was, "What are you going to use it for?" I said I was going to put stuff in it, of course! I think he thought there weren't 72 categories of stuff that could go in these little drawers, but there are! It's my 72-drawer junk drawer! From address books to a voice recorder, everything has an organized little home in my card catalog. In fact, here's the whole list:

Address Book, Batteries, Bills, Business Cards, Buttons, Cables - AV, Cables - Computer, Calculators, Camera, Candles - Long, Candles - Tea lights, Candy, Cards - Index, Cards - Note & Thank you, Cell phone, Change, Chapstick, Checks, Colored Pencils, Coupons, Crayons, Elastics & Twist Ties, Envelopes - Large, Envelopes - Small, Ephemera, Erasers, First Aid, Flashlights, Glasses, Glue, Gum, Hand Sanitizer, Hard Drive, Hardware, Hole Punches, Ink cartridges, iPod, Keys, Labels, Lighters, Lint Roller, Markers, Matches, Measuring Tapes, Medicine, Nail Clippers & Polish, Needles & Thread, Paper clips, Paints, Pencils, Pens, Pins, Playing Cards, Post-it Notes, Receipts, Rulers, Scissors, Shoe Polish, Sidewalk Chalk, Stamps - Ink, Stamps - Postage , Stapler, String, Sunglasses, Tape, Tools, Toys, Voice Recorder

That's not exactly 72. Some are split in two drawers, and I actually have two drawers leftover.

Enough with the talk. Here are the pictures.

Card catalog in our townhouse in North Logan. Note my creative kid-proofing. I didn't want to do anything to mar or alter the card catalog so I devised a dowel system that causes young children extreme difficulty when they try to open the drawers. One must pull on a dowel with significant and even force in order to open all the drawers in that row at once. This keeps kids away from the stuff they shouldn't get. Beck has now become interested in removing all the labels, however, a stage Sawyer went through when the card catalog was first set up.

Closeups of the "Batteries" drawer.

In context in Logan. If that sofa looks strange, it's because I removed the main part of the gray slipcover, leaving the piece with an odd two-tone look. It was just too heavy and gray with the full slipcover, which was skirted and hid the feet. I regretted this sofa within days of buying it, but it's too big and expensive to flush down the toilet.

Card catalog in context in our Pennsylvania living room. The rest of the furniture has been rearranged a few times since this picture, but the card catalog just stays there. We really need a rug, but the one I want is expensive (not to mention not available anymore).

So, there you have it. You're jealous, aren't you? :)

Somebody turned ONE!

2010-08-18T14:49:00.000-07:00

Somebody turned one year old last weekend! (And somebody else is a spazz of a homemaker who dislikes frosting and can't make a proper cake.) Here is the obligatory "isn't my face adorably messy?" shot. It doesn't really work the same without frosting, I see, but I think he's super-cute anyway!

And here's the birthday boy in his new forward-facing carseat, earlier that day. I love you, Beck!

What else are "computees" for, anyway?

2010-08-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

When I open the computer to do some work or make a post, Sawyer approaches and says, "I wanna see puppies! See puppies!" You see, I showed him some puppy pictures on Google image search one time, and since then this is all the computer is good for to him. That and talking to Papa (and Grammy) on Skype.

Today I decided to do a twist on our usual puppy search, and search for videos instead. This is one we watched. Awwww! I love interspecies friendships!

We did some stuff.

2010-08-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

I was going to make an update, but Sawyer has other ideas. The above characters were the result of him thowing a sippy cup of milk onto the keyboard. He is now hitting the back of the computer screen and repeating "Cose de computee! Cose de computee!" For those of you who don't speak Sawyer-ese, that's "close the computer". So, I better go. Here's a picture to tide you over until I come back in three months.

Well, we're still alive...

2010-05-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

We just got the internet hooked up yesterday, so I am pleased to be able to announce that we are all safe and sound in Pennsylvania! We moved into our rental house on Saturday, but I'm still unpacking and organizing. The house (which Tyson viewed/applied for/accepted while I was still in Utah) will be a great place for us to live for the next year (the length of our lease) or more. It has some pros and cons.

Pro: It's in Souderton, the same town as Tyson's workplace, so he has a very short commute.

Con: Souderton = not that cool of a town.

Pro: Has three bedrooms.

Con: The kids' rooms are on the second floor, at the top of a treacherously steep and narrow winding staircase.

Pro: Has two bathrooms.

Con: I miss the big bathtub and separate shower of my old master bath. Also, the upstairs bathroom here makes one feel like Alice (in Wonderland) after she grows large by doing the whole "Drink Me" thing. Everything -- tub, toilet, vanity, and mirror -- is miniature-sized! The bathroom seems to have been built to about 3/4 scale.

Pro: It has wood floors throughout, except for tile in the kitchen and carpet in the master bedroom.

Con: Now I need to buy some large rugs. Also, aforementioned treacherous staircase is even more treacherous because it is wood, with a wood floor at the bottom.

Pro: It's not just your typical "all white paint" rental. The living room is a springy green, the hallway yellow, the main bath lavender, and upstairs rooms yellow and blue, respectively. As someone who was paralyzed by trying to decide what colors to paint my own house, it's nice to have the decision taken away (even if I probably wouldn't have chosen some of these colors).

Con: The kitchen has wallpaper in a tiny floral print, with a big border of sunflowers and a couple other country flowers. The master bedroom has sort of parchment-look wallpaper with a country/southwest mash-up for a border, in navy, burgundy, and green. As someone who does not like country florals or southwest mashups, it is not nice looking at this wallpaper.

Pro: We have permission to paint.

Con: Painting = no fun. And I don't know if we have permission to take the wallpaper down. I don't want to ask because that is a ton of work for a house that isn't ours, and I don't want to offend the homeowner by disclosing my dislike of the wallpaper. I don't know if she put it up or if it was there previously.

Pro: Big, fenced backyard with nice brick patio.

Con: Big yard to mow. Drainage problems in the backyard make some parts very mucky.

Pro: Older home with character.

Con: Older home with ants, spiders, and these terrifying gigantic creepy-crawly things with a million legs.

Pro: Lots of basement and attic storage.

Con: Not a lot of kitchen storage.

Pro: One car garage, attached to house by a breezeway so you don't have to brave the elements to get from the garage to the house.

Con: No automatic garage door opener, so you have to get out of your car anyway just to get into the garage.

Pro: Our rent is on the low end of the price range for a property of this size and type.

Con: The rent still feels astronomical, as it is nearly twice what our mortgage and HOA fee was in Logan.

----

I barely found my camera, and I haven't taken any pictures for almost two months. Here are the house pictures that were on the rental ad. I'll get around to taking some when everything gets put away. I promise I'll take some of the boys, too!

Anyway, I really miss home, friends and family, but so far I like it here a lot!

(Following pictures show the owners' furniture.)

Brick patio -- too bad we don't have any patio furniture!

The miniature bathroom.

The main bathroom.

Blue upstairs room they used as an office.

Yellow upstairs room they used as a guest room.

Master bedroom.

Master bedroom (notice wallpaper).

Kitchen - erm, wallpaper.

Two views of the living room.

Two views of exterior front.

We're MOVING!!??!!

2010-03-11T09:26:00.000-08:00

I'll bet some of you thought we were going to stay put here in our newly-purchased home in Cache Valley for a while. I know I did. Well, joke's on you (and me)! We are moving to...

Pennsylvania! As you can see from the map, it's a long way from home. Tyson received a promotion/transfer from his work. We didn't have to take the job, but we decided it is a good step to take for his long-term career. My feelings are a little mixed. I'm excited about the new opportunity, and the adventure, but I'm very sad to move away from all our dear family and friends.

The plant where Tyson will be working is in Souderton, which is in the Philadelphia suburbs about 30 miles northwest of downtown Philadelphia (lower right corner of the map below). Don't worry, that 30 miles takes almost an hour and a half to drive, the way the traffic and roads are out there.

So, this will be a huge move of over 2000 miles, with two kids, two cars, and a houseful of stuff. You'd think we'd give ourselves at least a couple of months to make it happen, right? No way! We're Heatons! That's not how we do things! Tyson accepted the job offer on March 8th, and his first day is April 1st. His last day of work here is March 23. We're still working out the details. There's a possibility the kids and I may stay behind for a few weeks or a few months, or we might try to make it happen all at once.

Job #1 is finding a renter for our house. We just barely bought it, so we don't want to sell it at this time. If anyone knows anyone looking for a nice three bedroom 2.5 bath townhome in Cache Valley, please send them our way!

Big Sadness and Random Musings

2010-02-10T13:17:00.000-08:00

I've been very sad. My heart is hurting. A very tragic thing happened to some dear people I know -- my brother-in-law's brother's family. If you are in the Northern Utah area, you have probably seen this story in the news. I want to spill my guts and share my feelings, but I want to respect the privacy of the family, so I will say no more. I know prayers are needed an appreciated, though, so please remember them when you kneel to pray.

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Amidst the sadness, I didn't feel up to making dinner last night. We wanted Chinese takeout, but there is nowhere to get good Chinese food in Logan. There are more Chinese restaurants from Smithfield to Hyrum than there are McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendys combined, but no GOOD ones. Boo! You will get my point when I say that I honestly consider Panda Express the best Chinese food in town. We decided to get food from the one closest to our house (Wok on Wheels), where Tyson had never eaten, and where I hadn't eaten since before we were married.

Well, it was fine. It tasted exactly like every fast-food Chinese everywhere, always, forever. Why does it all taste the same? Not just similar, but The. Exact. Same. Same fried rice with same pieces of ham and carrots and same weirdly smoky aftertaste. Same goopy General Tso's chicken. Same sweet and sour pork with same red sauce. Same looking menu. Same condiments. They ARE all the same, aren't they? So far, my Googling hasn't unearthed a Chinese-restaurant conspiracy, but I'm pretty sure it's out there. Someone is selling a template for how to have a Chinese-American takeout restaurant, and every Chinese restaurant in America is following the template and buying the same pre-made frozen food from the same vendor.

There are only a few exceptions I've been to. #1 - The Mandarin in Bountiful, Utah. They make all their own food there. While it is still Americanized compared to what people eat in China, it is different than all the other Chinese food here, and it is delicious. It is owned by a Greek family who probably was not aware of the Chinese restaurant template. #2 - There was a good, unique Chinese restaurant in Payson, Utah, of all places. Surprised? I was! I don't remember the name. It is in a strip mall over by the Walmart. It is a slightly nicer, more upscale place. Not just your typical takeout joint. #3 - A restaurant I went to in Chinatown in San Francisco. I'm sure there are good Chinese restaurants in Chinatowns all over the country. #4 - P.F. Changs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a chain, so it has its *own* supplier of its *own* pre-made food, and the food at every P.F. Changs tastes the same as the food at every other P.F. Changs. But it ALL tastes a heck of a lot better than any Chinese food in Cache Valley. #5 - Pei Wei, which is just P.F. Changs little brother in the fast food business. See above. #6 - Panda Express, like #4 and #5, has its own template and own pre-made food. It tastes better than the pre-made food at the other Chinese restaurants in town here.

There are also a few exceptions in Utah I haven't been to, but are worth noting. #1 - Little World on State Street in Salt Lake City. Has an "authentic" Chinese menu that I guess grosses out some American palates. #2 - Hong Kong Tea House (also in Salt Lake, west of the Gateway), which is a dim sum parlor and Chinese restaurant.

Are you with me here, people? Do you think (almost) all Chinese restaurants taste the same?

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The second part of this post is so trivial compared to the first part, but it felt good to vent about something trivial and not think about something terrible.

Good thing they're cute!

2010-01-25T07:01:00.000-08:00

Saturday I decided to "get ready" again, so I could drop my resume off at that store. I did the "get ready" part (albeit in my one nice pair of dark/dressy jeans - the slacks from the day before were making their way through the laundry), then decided I should call before I went over there, to make sure the position had not yet been filled. Well, it had been filled, after being advertised for only three days. So much for that idea.

At least I already have a great job at home with these two adorable (but sometimes NAUGHTY) boys.

Beck was five months old on January 14. The time is flying by! I decided to give him rice cereal for the first time. Results were rather typical:

Another big milestone for Beck occurred a few days later when he sat up on his own for the first time. Of course, he looks like a squishy little Beanie Baby, folded almost in half at the tummy, but he sure is cute!

I took the above picture of Beck, and you can see Sawyer's little legs in the background. Seeing my camera, he came and sat down right next to Beck, as if he was thinking, "Oh, are we taking pictures of cute boys sitting? I'm really good at sitting! Look how good I am at sitting! I can do it sooo000 much better than Beck can, see?" (Note the overturned coffee table in the background. Typical daily occurrence.)

Look, Sawyer used to be sqwunchy too (Sawyer, 5 months, March 2008):

Isn't this one just too precious?:

Now, on to the naughty side of things. Sawyer got a cup of pre-cut grapefruit out of the fridge. Some days he likes grapefruit, some days he doesn't. I was hesitant to give it to him, because I like to keep it all to myself, but I decided to let him try it.

Sawyer's booster chair is strapped to one of our barstools. Only occasionally do I let him eat at the bar. Usually I attach his tray to his booster, because messes seem to stay more contained that way. Also, usually I remain with him the entire time he eats, for two reasons. One, to watch and make sure he doesn't choke on anything, and two, because messes seem to stay more contained that way.

For whatever reason, I decided to change up my methods with this snack. I let Sawyer sit at the counter, and I ran upstairs to put my hair in a ponytail while he ate. Before I went upstairs, I had a little bit of a vision of the damage that could occur while I was gone. I had a vision of the precious grapefruit chunks spread all over the counter. But then I thought, no, he wouldn't do that!

I'm sure we all know where this is heading. This is what greeted me when I came back downstairs:

That doesn't really show the full extent of the damage. Grapefruit chunks had landed on all four of the stools around this bar, and were also all over the floor. As I tried to clean up the mess, the grapefruit chunks separated into smaller and smaller and smaller pieces. Not counting the ones on the counter, which I'm not too ashamed to admit I ATE with that yellow plastic fork (hey, they're too delicious and expensive to waste!). I didn't eat the ones on the floor, okay?

Moving back to brighter moments, I opened another box of baby clothes from the top of my closet, just to check that there weren't any more clothes in Beck's current size in there. I found this adorable hat in there and put it on the baby.

As soon as Sawyer saw it on Beck, he started saying "Nion! Nion!" (Which is "lion" in Sawyer-speak.) I thought that was really funny that Sawyer perceived that this hat in any way resembled a lion. Luckily, there was another "lion" hat in the box, albeit one that was much too small for Sawyer. I put it on him anyway, and he loved it and kept saying "nion" over and over. If I put the lion hat on Beck, then Sawyer immediately goes looking for *his* lion hat. If I put Sawyer's lion hat on Beck, or vice versa, Sawyer immediately rectifies my mistake. No one can wear the striped lion hat except Beck...and Daddy. We did try it on Daddy, and it looked great and was acceptable to Sawyer.

Two cute boys! We are still sick, and the three of us are cuddled in my bed, still in our pajamas (10:45 a.m.), watching "WALL-E". Sawyer won't eat anything. He is running a fever, and I had to force-feed him some grape Tylenol. He seems to be perking up a little bit as it is kicking in.

And some days you get poop on you and you just want to cry...

2010-01-22T14:56:00.000-08:00

I just want to vent for a minute here. It's not really what this blog is for, but just this once, I want to vent.

First, the sickness...

Tyson has had a sore throat/lost voice for about a week. The rest of us seemed to be avoiding the sickness, but then Wednesday night Sawyer woke up at 1 a.m. bawling/coughing/barking/bawling/barking, and I couldn't calm him down and get him back to sleep for two hours. The next day, Beck and I were sick too. Beck has the sniffles and a cough, and so does Sawyer, and I have a sore throat and head cold. No one has a fever. So we are just "under the weather" it seems. We don't feel awful, but we don't feel good. Maybe we don't feel like getting off of our beds. Okay, I am speaking for myself here. But, of course, when you're the mom, you have to get off your bed and take care of the other sickies, change the diapers, do the baths, cook the dinners, do the dishes, etc....all the regular work.

Then, the missed naps and wakeful nights...

The kids have not been taking their usual naps the past few days. They also have been waking up multiple times per night. I guess I didn't realize how much my sanity depended on afternoon nap time until it was taken away.

Then, an idea...

I saw a job advertisement for a cooking class assistant at our nice kitchen store here in Logan. It's a prep/demo/assist position for cooking classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and Saturdays. I don't really need to get a job, but sometimes the thought of a small part-time job tempts me -- the extra money, the adult interaction, the mental stimulation. (And then I hear Sis. Julie Beck in my head..."Mothers who know...blah...blah...blah...," and feel guilty.) Anyway, I talked to Tyson about it and he said I could look into it further if I wanted to. If I am to have a job, this job sounds ideal. very few hours, and I think I would be very good at it, seeing as cooking/food is my main hobby anyway. The ad said to apply in person at the store, so I decided I would do so today.

One problem...

Leave my two kids in the car while I go into the store for who knows how long? Probably not a good idea.

Maybe a solution...

Perhaps I could call and see if the neighbor girl could tend the kids while I run out for a bit. So I decided that was the plan. Now I just needed to get ready. Not "mom" ready. Like, "professional" ready. "Hire me" ready. A type of ready I do not often get, these days. I haven't gotten that type of ready, in non-maternity clothes, for three years. I look in my closet and find I don't even HAVE those type of clothes anymore. Oh wait, I see it...a cute pair of slacks and dressy top my younger-cuter-thinner-more-fashionable sister has lent to me while she is pregnant. So I have ONE nice outfit, and it doesn't even belong to me. Hmmm, maybe a job isn't such a great idea. But I press forward.

I let both kids watch Muppet Treasure Island on my bed while I showered, dressed, applied full makeup, dried and flat-ironed my hair. Oh wow, I look good! I only had to sacrifice my children's mental well-being to the movie gods to get this way. Now it's time for a nutritious lunch, naps, call the babysitter, and I'll be out the door.

Not so fast...

Fussy little Beck didn't want to settle down for a nap. I finally got him down, and took Sawyer downstairs for lunch. I got some food in front of him and sat down at my computer to polish and print a resume. I was munching away on defrosted pancakes when a felt quite thirsty. "Nilk?" Sawyer suggested. Yes, kid, milk sounds good. I poured us a couple of glasses and sat down again. I lifted my glass to my lips to take a swig, and I don't know how, but I completely missed and dribbled milk down my cardigan, shirt, pants, and barstool. "Uh-oh! Nilk!" Sawyer proclaimed. Yes, kid, very observant. I had to laugh at myself, so I wouldn't cry. Of course, it WAS kind of funny, that I would spill milk all over myself at the one time I was trying to look good, when I didn't have any other nice clothes to change into. I cleaned up as best I could by thoroughly soaking each spot with water and dabbing out the milk. This was going to delay my departure a little bit, because I was now going to have to wait for my clothes to dry before I would once again be presentable.

In the meantime, Beck awoke from his incredibly short nap, all fussy and snot-nosed. This normally cheery kid does not take well to being sick. He very much dislikes suffering the indignity of having his nasal passages cleared with the bulb syringe, or having his nose wiped with a tissue. I put him on his blanket on the floor and went back to my resume. I soon smelled an unpleasant scent wafting in the air. Moments later, the toddler next to me made an unnecessary announcement. "Poopy!" Sawyer said, proudly. Yeah, kid, I can tell. I didn't jump up to take care of the problem right away, because this was Number Two Round Two for the day, so I thought how bad could it be?

Famous last words. I finished my computer work, cleaned Sawyer's face and hands, and got him down from his chair. I was running much later than I wanted to be by now. It was nearing 3:30 p.m. and Sawyer wasn't even down for the nap that usually starts at about 1:30. I hurriedly took his pants off and threw them on the floor, then unsnapped his onesie while grabbing a clean diaper. That's when I felt it. And that's when I smelt it. And that's when I saw it. The poop. THE POOP. The POOP was EVERYWHERE. It was leaking out of the diaper and had somehow gotten flung about the room. There was some on his leg. There was some on my hand. There was some on my carpet. And there was some on MY PANTS!!! (Or, more accurately, on my sister's pants.) I thought that was the worst place it could land, until I saw that there was some on Sawyer's hand, too, and that he was reaching his hand toward his mouth, and reaching his tongue toward his hand. "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! DON'T TASTE POOP!!!!!! WE NEVER EAT POOP!!!!!! POOP IS YUCKY!!!!! NO! NO! NO! NO!" Do you think he got the message? Well, I don't think he needed me to tell him, because I think he had already tasted it and figured out its yuckiness for himself.

So, by the time I used about 80 wet-wipes cleaning up the mess, not to mention carpet-cleaner, oxy-clean, and febreze, well, it was 4:00 and I wasn't going anywhere.

Now, not dropping the resume off? I don't care so much about that. I can try again tomorrow or on Monday. That's not what really makes me want to cry. I'm not crying over spilt milk, or flung poo, or a sore throat, or being all dressed up with no place to go.

I'm sad because it's been snowing for the past four hours and tonight is Girls Night at Lacey's house in Farmington. I haven't seen my dear, dear friends since before Beck was born. That's almost six months! They got together in December, but I couldn't make it on account of poor weather, and now it's happening all over again! You see, they all live down there in Davis County where we grew up, and I live up here in Cache Valley. And what stands between them and me?

This:

That is Sardine Canyon, in the most recent UDOT CommuterLink pictures. Once upon a time I might hop in my car and brave the storm, but that was before I had kids, and before totaled my car in a snowy-weather accident in just about the exact location pictured in the first photo above.

There is an alternate way out of Cache Valley. You can drive west toward Riverside/Tremonton, but it's probably almost as bad as Sardine in a storm like this.

Why? Why does everything just go WRONG sometimes?

Well, friends, have fun without me. I am missing you...you have no idea how much.

Shepherd Mystery Solved

2010-01-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, I was just going through my Christmas pictures and learned that Sawyer's Little People Nativity, unlike the ones I googled, only came with one shepherd. No one is missing. We can all rest easy tonight. Now if I can just get my Christmas tree into its box, I'll have Christmas all put away.

I Resolve...

2010-01-05T01:53:00.001-08:00

First of all, don't ask me why I'm still up at 2:53 in the morning. Okay, if you must know, here's how it happened...

At approximately 11:00 p.m. I decided to take down all the Christmas decorations. This is the type of job I don't need Sawyer's "help" with. I was almost finished boxing everything up just before 1:00 a.m. The last thing I needed to put away was the Fisher Price Little People Nativity set Sawyer and Beck received from their Grandma (Tyson's mom) for Christmas. As I put the little figures in a baggie, it seemed to me that someone was missing. Either a shepherd or Joseph. I thought the set came with two shepherds, and I have one little figure who is holding a lamb, so that's a shepherd for sure. This other guy...well, he's carrying a staff that looks like a shepherd's crook, but his head-wear kind of matches Mary's. Is this guy Joseph, or a shepherd? I searched everywhere for whomever was missing, but to no avail. I really wanted to put the set away, but not without Joseph. He's an integral part of the whole thing! Shepherd #2? Well, I wouldn't mind letting him hang out in our house with the rest of the regular toys until he is found. I decided to get on the internet to find out exactly who was missing. Sounds simple enough, and I should be in bed before 1:00.

Except I said "the internet". The internet is a place where the moment I go there, I completely forget what I came for. I get distracted, end up spending hours learning about Nostradamus or grow lights for plants or how a perm works, or (more likely) looking at pictures on Facebook. Two hours later, I remembered what I came here for, and Googled some pictures of the Little People Nativity. Turns out this shepherd's crook guy is actually Joseph, and I'm missing a little shepherd. I hope he turns up soon, but I think I better put the box away before Sawyer "helps" me unpack it.

Okay, so that's why I'm up at (now) 3:07 a.m.

But what I really was going to post about was my new year's resolutions. They're not really formalized, and some of them I started working on in December, and they're personal, for the most part, so I'm not going to talk about them here. But one of them affects this blog, so I'm going to mention it. I am trying to get back to writing in my journal. My pen-and-paper one. You see, I have kept a journal since my sophomore year in high school. That's 16 years ago, if anyone's counting. (Ew.) I'm in my fifth volume of 200+ page journals. Sometimes I wrote really regularly. Sometimes I wrote A LOT. I must admit this was usually when I was in some sort of dramatic love/crush situation like, say, having a crush on someone for four years and barely even interacting with that person, or being stalked by someone ten years older than me, or dating the same person for four years who never wanted to marry me, or trying to juggle dating maybe twenty people at the same time. Those things made me write a lot, and now it's so stupid when I look back on it and read it. Luckily, intermixed between all the sometimes funny, sometimes sad love-life drivel, there are some good parts. However, ever since I got married (read: nothing really dramatic happened anymore) and started blogging, I haven't written much at all. That's unfortunate, because there is plenty of stuff I just can't/won't blog about, like spiritual things, or deeper emotions, or a fight with my husband, or something wonderful Tyson said or did. I'd like to keep track of these things. (Not so much the arguments, but maybe how they are resolved?)

So I decided to change my journal-writing habits.

Up until the past couple weeks, if/when I get both kids down for an afternoon nap at the same time I would usually jump into housework or onto the internet. Now, instead, the FIRST thing I am doing is 15 minutes of scripture study, followed immediately by journal writing. I'm amazed at what a positive impact this has on my day. It's the perfect relaxation activity: physically restful, but mentally engaging.

I only mention this because I don't know if my blog will suffer, because I'll be all "written out" and won't want to write on here. But I'll bet as long as I keep thinking my kids are adorable, I'll keep posting photos of them.

As for the rest of my resolutions, they're pretty typical: keep house better, be more organized, be a better mom and wife, be healthier/a little thinner, make some new friends, be a good friend, read more, etc.

Here's to the New Year!

Lots of Big Days

2009-12-12T20:10:00.000-08:00

I debated about dividing all these events and photos into separate posts, and then I decided to just do one huge one instead. The first of these photos are from about November 5...just sweet baby Beck relaxing on my bed. He was already growing out of this little outfit, and now it is much too small for him. He's getting so big!

That was a busy week for me, because I had several rehearsals and concerts with the American Festival Chorus. One, our John Rutter concert, was on the same Saturday as my sister-in-law Missy's bridal shower. I was able to attend the shower for about a half hour before I had to leave for a dress rehearsal. I snapped a picture of Missy with Beck, and with her soon-to-be sisters- and mother-in-law.

Tyson and I took a quick Sunday drive up to Standrod to check on the house. The new staircase/banister had been completed! We were at the house for about five minutes before we left to head back to Cache Valley. Well, I guess we stopped at the Hansens' house for a few minutes to say hi to them and to Grandma. We happened to crash Brian and Ammon's birthday celebration.

Sawyer is becoming very...well, very TWO. He is very sweet most of the time, then sometimes gets feisty and talks back, hits, and bites. He is talking more and more (and I am understanding more and more of what he is saying). Sometimes he is loving and attentive toward Beck (who absolutely beams when Sawyer looks his way), and sometimes he tries to drop heavy objects on Beck's head. You know, he's just...TWO.

Sawyer loves to eat "appas" (apples). Sometimes I slice them up thinly for him, but sometimes I just peel an apple and let him nibble away at it. I gave him an apple one day and went about my kitchen chores. By and by, he told me it was "ah-gon" (all gone) and I turned to find that all that was left were a few seeds and the tough part that surrounds the seeds (like the core of the core). He had even tried to chew up one seed, before finding out it didn't taste too good (this is the chewed up seed he is showing me in this picture). This kid loves his apples!

Beck is so good-natured and smiley all the time. He laughs quite often, and has a range of different sounding laughs. However, they all sound painful or distressed in some way! Just a unique laugh, I guess. (Hey, nothing wrong with that. I have quite a recognizable laugh myself, I've been told.)

Brotherly love. (But Sawyer is probably about to take Beck's blanket away.)

My sister Kara got called into duty to host our family Thanksgiving this year. My mom's kitchen was being remodeled and the work wasn't completed in time for the occasion. Kara has a lovely home full -- and I mean full :) -- of things she has found at D.I., on KSL, or on clearance and refinished, repurposed, or upcycled into beautiful furnishings and decorations for her home. I don't know how she does everything she does. For instance, here is the table she set for Thanksgiving:

(Now, there were plates on those chargers, but I took this photo while everyone was in the other room dishing up their food, Tyson must have been first in line. That's his had setting his plate down. See those little picture frames at each place? Those were our place cards.)

To fit all of us into her dining room, and to fit all the Thanksgiving food into the sitting nook in her kitchen, Kara had to undertake a mass rearrangement of all her furniture. But she did that, baked like six pies, dressed her three kids (under age four) in cute, dressy little outfits, had her whole house clean, looked perfect herself, made picture-frame place cards, etc., etc., etc. And she is pregnant!!! I don't know how she does it. As far as I know, she's not on meth. She's just always been super-capable. And sneaky. She seated herself and myself (the mothers of the five young children who were relegated to the kitchen) at the interior end of the dining table, where we were essentially blocked from leaving the dining room. She seated our parents (the grandparents of the five young children) right at the dining room entrance. So guess who had to get up when kids asked for "more water" or got in a fight, or yelled, or threw things? And guess who got to eat a meal in peace (for once in the entire year)? Thank you, Kara. You are an evil genius!

The food was delicious beyond delicious. My mom made the turkey and the baked mashed potatoes. She got roll dough from The Lion House, and those rolls were so good! There was honey butter and raspberry butter to go with them. Oh my! Mom also did the stuffing and the gravy, of course. So basically, as she said, she "played Grandmom" (her mom). I guess these are the "mom" food assignments. I dread the day when I have to attempt to make the turkey! Kara, as I said, hosted and made pies, and probably some other things too, that I don't remember. Krista brought the traditional raspberry layered gelatin salad. Okay, Jell-O salad. It's the one time per year my family eats Jell-O. And it was mighty tasty! Krista also prepared two dishes of mashed sweet potatoes. One included orange flavor, the other didn't (I'm a non-orange fan, myself). They both had pecans. Heavenly! I had thirds. These were not from a can. They were just simply prepared mashed sweet potatoes, that let the true beauty of the sweet potato shine!

I brought chilled shrimp and cocktail sauce and kalamata olives for appetizers, and then green and yellow string beans as a side for the meal. Okay, I know it sounds like I didn't try hard, or make anything fancy, but I'll have you know I prepared the shrimp from raw, and did them in a special made up shrimp boil, and a also made the cocktail sauce from scratch by combining the Martha Stewart's cocktail sauce recipe with my Grandma Baker's remoulade sauce recipe. The shrimp turned out especially tasty, if I do say so myself.

We were joined by Krista's mother-in-law Penny, and after dinner many of our Dustin cousins and their kids came for pie. After we got back to Cache Valley we went to Tyson's parents house and had pie there. What a day! I didn't take many pictures, but here are the few I did get.

The next day was a big day too -- Missy's wedding! I can't believe Melissa is married. She was only 16 when Tyson and I met. Has that much time gone by? I guess so. Missy married Andrew Felix in the Logan Temple. We were privileged to be a part of their special day! Tyson's younger siblings Katelyn, Taylor, and Rachel took care of our boys in the temple waiting room while we were in the sealing ceremony. Afterwards, we all waited outside for Missy and Andrew to emerge. A little cold! I was running around after Sawyer and trying to keep Beck warm, so I only got this one picture. After Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Felix came out of the temple, it was picture time. Once that wrapped up, we headed to Perry, Utah for the wedding dinner at the Maddox Lodge.

I had made a DVD slideshow for Missy and Andrew, so I went to the Lodge a little early to set up the DVD and make sure it worked. It appeared to work, though later there were some unfortunate technical difficulties. While I was there by myself, I snapped a few photos of the cake and of the empty room.

When I returned to the car, all my boys were taking a little rest. Sawyer was all tuckered out from all the running around he did as we waited for Missy outside the temple. I couldn't resist taking a picture of him. Such an angel! (When he's sleeping, that is!) Those eyelashes are killing me! Like daddy, like son.

It was finally time to go inside and eat. Many friends and family attended. In this picture you see Val and Lannis, Bryanna (sorry, probably spelled wrong), Katelyn, and Ray.

Sorry, this one's gross, but this is what Sawyer did when I asked him to smile.

Sawyer absolutely loved Missy's bouquet. He grabbed for it every chance he got. He kept saying, "Minnie's fwowas" "Minnie's fwowas pitty" "pitty fwowas" Too cute!

Okay, the next day was ANOTHER big day. The Jones Family Christmas Party! Woohoo! Let's see. Guess who came. Santa, yes. And. AND...Missy and Andrew. The day after they got married! What a good sport, Andrew. I bet you wouldn't have let Missy talk you into this if you had realized what you were in for (see picture later in this post).

Sawyer ate olives off his fingers.

Tyson built a little sculpture out of little plastic table decorations.

Sawyer hadn't finished eating when it was time to move into the Relief Society room for the talent show, so he had to stay out in the hallway in his chair. Aw. Jared was there to keep him company.

Sawyer finished dinner in time to sit on Santa's lap. He didn't freak out.

And neither did Sawyer.

Even though this gift looked a leetle familiar. Okay, I told you I haven't bought any Christmas presents yet!

After Sawyer sat on Santa's lap, he wanted to sit right up front to watch the rest of the kids get their turns. He really liked Santa!

So did Beck, who didn't freak out either.

If this guy was freaking out, he didn't let it show. Like I said, Andrew Felix is a good sport. Welcome to the family, Andrew Felix. (For those who are wondering, Tyson and Missy have a brother named Andrew as well, so Andrew Felix is usually referred to just like that... "Andrew Felix", even sometimes when we are talking directly to him. Weird.)

After the Christmas party, which was in American Fork, my parents watched our kids at their house while Tyson and I went out for sushi at Takashi in Salt Lake City. This is the best sushi in Utah, in my not-so-humble opinion. If you like sushi, go there. Do not delay!

This is just a random picture of all my favorite boys:

And. last but not least, Grandmom and Granddad came by for a quick visit on Tuesday. Granddad made us a beautiful wood nativity puzzle which Sawyer has had fun playing with. They also brought us TWO WHOLE BAGS of their dried fruit, and Tyson has already polished off the first bag. I have the kindest and most generous grandparents in the whole world, in case you were wondering! I love them!

The end. Of this post.

Wanted to post, but...

2009-12-10T00:26:00.001-08:00

By the time I got the pictures from my camera (over a month's worth), sorted and cropped them, and got distracted reading blogs and surfing the internet (who me? distracted?), well, it's almost 1:30 a.m. and I just don't think I have it in me to make a post that covers the past month-plus. I haven't even resized the pictures yet!

But stay tuned. I'm sure in the next few days I'll manage to update the old bloggy. Right after I finish unfurling the limbs of my fake Christmas tree, and maybe hang some decorations on it (I never made it to that step last year). Yes, I barely got the tree out today, and cranked up the Christmas music for the first time. I haven't bought a single Christmas present. Grinchy McScroogester (aka Tyson) has been talking a lot about rampant consumerism, and our nation's trade deficit, and how cold it is, and how much he hates the holidays. For me, the snow is beautiful (for now...you can bet I won't feel the same when it's still on the ground in May), the holidays are lovely, and I can think of a few practical items I wouldn't mind finding under the tree (dustbuster, down pillow, snow boots, inside doormats/rugs, food processor) or maybe some impractical items too (earrings, perfume, massage or pedicure gift certificate). Hahaha, I don't think Tyson reads the blog, so my hints are probably for nothing. Posting pictures would probably work better, but I'm too lazy and I don't really NEED any of this stuff anyway.

Anyway, here is one picture of my cute, happy little guys.

And my handsome, wonderful (even if he is a Scrooge) big guy.