Christmas Day

A few pictures from that morning:

Aubrey's new music box A new David Lanz piano book for Abram, since he has mastered "Christmas Eve"
Zacky loves his Cars set

Joel has been dreaming of having a keyboard. Thank you, Costco!

We make the kids stay in bed until 6:30 Christmas morning. It used to be 7:00, but the past few years we have given them a break. As you may remember, we don't do Santa Claus at our house. The kids get plenty of presents, but they all know that Santa is a fun story, and dad and mom work hard to get money to buy their presents because we love them. It is always funny when some well-meaning adult comes up to one of our younger kids (it happened to Savanna today) and asks, "Did Santa come to your house?" Savanna said, "No." She left it at that, and so I quickly explained that we don't do Santa, but we DO do Christmas.

This year we decided to buy a big family gift and go easy on the individual presents. We ordered a pool table on October 17th, and we were told it would be 4-6 weeks until it arrived. Perfect, right?

I called 2 weeks before Christmas to make sure the table was still on schedule. The store checked, and the table hadn't even left Arizona where it was being made. The lady promised me that we would have a pool table for Christmas, even if it meant they gave us the one in their showroom (at least $2000 more expensive than the one we bought) instead. I was OK with that. We would have the table for Christmas.

And then it snowed. The pool store is right by the dental office, and they, too were socked in with snow. Their delivery truck was buried by snow, and they weren't able to dig out until after Christmas. So we wrapped up the brochure and Mark started the gift opening with this story:

"One year there was a really big storm at Christmas (making windy, stormy sound effects, and wearing his Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer jammies I made for him a few years ago). Everyone was worried because they were not going to have presents for Christmas. The UPS truck wouldn't come with the presents. The FedEx truck wouldn't come with presents. The Post Office wouldn't deliver any presents. And the people said, "Don't worry, Rudolph will save us!" And then they remembered, "Oh, no! Rudolph is fake! He can't help us!" But don't worry. This is going to be the best Christmas ever. Some people got presents yesterday (the oldest 3 got new beds which were delivered Christmas Eve), some people will get presents today, and some people will get presents the day after Christmas, and the day after that!"

With that setup, the kids opened the envelope, and they were excited. We then dug into the rest of the gifts, and only Noah was missing one thing we had ordered for him. But he was OK, because he had walkie talkies.

Each kid got a few cool things, and then my mom and dad saved the pool-table-less day by giving the kids a wii. They were amazed and excited. The wii has been a great thing to have during this Christmas break. Each day the kids get up, do their practicing, clean their rooms, and do their chores so that when they ask if they can play the wii, and I ask "Do you have all of your jobs done?" they can say YES and get going.

Kung Fu Panda is an excellent 4-player wii game, by the way. And Savanna is the best bowler around.

Hallelujah, it's Christmas!

We have a lot of Christmas CDs at our house. But it seems that just a handful of them get played over and over each year. Our family's top 5 favorite Christmas albums:

1. The Roger Whitaker Christmas Album (the one with songs you've never heard before, such as "Hallelujah, it's Christmas, Momma Mary and Darcy the Dragon)

2. John Denver and the Muppets- A Christmas Together (Merry Christmas, little Zachary)

3. Carpenters Christmas Portrait

4. Dan Fogelberg (Yes, he had a Christmas album, and it is fantastic)

5. Neil Diamond, vol 2 (I understand the irony, but Candlelight Carol is my all-time favorite)

Lots of other good ones, such as The Osmonds, John Denver Rocky Mountain Christmas, Bing Crosby, Burl Ives, etc. But the 5 above get the most play. Our kids can rock the house to Hallelujah, it's Christmas, too.

I suppose I should list our 5 favorite instrumental Christmas CDs also. The above five are for singing along to. These are just for listening.

1. David Lanz-Christmas Eve

2. Liz Story-The Gift

3. Jenny Oaks Baker-O Holy Night

4. Vince Guaraldi-Charlie Brown Christmas

5. George Winston-December

Our nightmare with Canon, or Bad Luck Part III

I promised the lady at Canon today that I would blog about this after being told that the one person who can help me is "in a meeting for the rest of the day and won't be available until Monday." Sounds believeable, right? NO! We got the same answer last Wednesday, and Doug Dodger at Canon conveniently cannot answer the phone when I am on the line, or when Canon Customer Relations calls him to get the information they need to make this situation right. Apparently he has been in a meeting from the time he arrived at work Monday morning and will be in that meeting until he leaves today. I know he is lying. Any normal person knows he is lying. I'm not sure what kind if push-over he thinks I am. Here's the scoop:

Mark has been a Canon guy since 1984 when he bought his first 35mm camera. That camera served him well for 13 years, until he moved up big time to his professional auto-focus yet still film camera. That camera brought him happiness for many years. But 2 years ago Mark decided to join the technology bandwagon and go digital. He bought the Canon 5D, which has been an incredible camera. The only problems we have had are with the lenses.

When we were in Belize, yes, once in a lifetime Belize, his lens broke. Something inside of it locked up and then it really, really broke. We have hardly any of our own pics from that heaven-on-earth place, but the rest of my fam took plenty to help us remember our trip to paradise. This lens was 11 years old, so we figured it wasn't the end of the world to buy a new lens.

We returned from Belize and immediately ordered a new lens for Mark's camera. The Canon EF 70-200 L. A great lens with outstanding capability--we thought.

Mark took many shots of kids and scouts, but not until our trip to Canada in August did we discover that there was something really wrong with this lens. Many shots in Canada were taken at f 32. These shots taken with this aperature have black spots throughout them. Pictures with other lenses do not have black spots in them. We discovered this after printing the pictures a few weeks after our return. Mark cleaned his camera sensor, thinking that perhaps the spots were on there. But still he was getting black spots on the pics. He then looked more closely at the lens. He discovered black pieces of debris exactly where the more prominent spots were showing up, and bubbles, or imperfections in the glass at the top of the lens, where other spots were showing up. We called Canon, and they told us where to mail the lens to have it repaired under warranty.

I overnighted the lens and paperwork to the Irvine service center, and they received it before Thanksgiving. We had it back early the next week--with all the same spots INSIDE of the lens. I called Canon, and someone apologized profusely, and promised to email me a label to send it back to them. The label didn't come. I called. They told me it could take 24-48 hours. It didn't come. I called again. They told me to wait. I called again. Somebody said he was re-creating the label, and I would have it within 24-48 hours. It still didn't come. I called. I waited. I called. I was promised another label. This one arrived about 12 hours later. In all, it took Canon 6 days to send me a UPS label to mail them the lens.

Now, we clearly had explained to Canon what the issue was. We explained verbally, on paper, and even included photographs with the spots so that the technician would be able to see what was going on.

We got the lens back a week later with all the same debris in the lens. They told us to send in the camera body. Not a chance. This problem doesn't happen with other lenses. Allen at Canon promised me a new label which would arrive in 24-48 hours. I told him I wasn't falling for that one again, and he was able to get his supervisor to get a label to me within about 5 minutes. He told me that there should not be any debris inside of the lens, whether or not the technicians can make black spots appear when they test it. A lens this expensive should be clean.

We sent the lens back. Canon called on December 23rd to say that they can see the debris in the lens, but that they think it's fine and we should just live with it. Hungh said that all lenses have stuff inside of them, and you just have to live with it. We asked them if they had tested the lens at f 32. They only test up to f 22, and would not test at f 32. He told us to talk to Doug Dodger, who also said that indeed he can see the stuff in the lens, but they are unable to get it out of there, and as far as Canon is concerned the lens is fine and we should just live with the crud and photoshop it out if it bothers us. Mark told him we wanted a new clean lens, not this one they have taken apart 3 times and which Dough said probably now has more dust in it than when we first sent it. Doug said he could not authorize a new lens--we would have to call Jim in Virginia.

The problem with Canon is their customer service is in Virginia, and the repair facility is in Irvine. Nobody at either place claims to be able to do anything about anything, because they other person is always the gatekeeper. It's a perfect trap for the consumer. We got hooked up with Jim, who was no help, and very hostile. He eventually sent us on to Roderick at the Canon Customer Relations Center 866-886-1901. That's their secret phone number that they won't give out. Roderick said he cannot authorize a new lens--that has to come from Doug in Irvine. Yes, the same Doug who said he couldn't do anything about it, and the same Doug who is in meetings all day every day.

When I call Roderick (who is actually very nice), he says he can't do anything until Doug responds to him to verify that he can indeed see debris in the lens that they cannot get out. Doug doesn't answer Roderick's calls or requests for info. Doug doesn't answer my calls. Doug is NOT in meetings all day, and I know it. He's trying to blow us off.

I called Roderick again today, and he is not working today. I had to speak with someone else who said she could do nothing, because it was Roderick's case, and he was very sorry. This has been going on for 6 weeks now, and we are tired of it. I told her that my only hope for getting Canon's attention now was to blog about our horrible Canon warrany experience. I'm going to get the kids to help me make a youtube video tonight about this. She was suddenly eager to jump in and see if she could help. But she never called back..... What a surprise.

Doug Dodger's phone number is 949-753-4200. See if you can catch him NOT in a meeting!

Gingerbread Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup molasses
2 TBSP vinegar
5 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 TBSP ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, molasses and vinegar. Whisk dry ingredients together. Mix with sugar mixture. Chill 3 hours. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick and cut into shapes. Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes until cookies just start to crack. Cool slightly, then remove to wire rack.
I mix up a sugar glaze of powdered sugar and milk and ice the cooled cookies. I'm way too lazy to actually decorate them.

Christmas Eve

I'm finally getting around to pulling pictures of Christmas off of Mark's memory card. Actually, it was Josh's memory card. I will do a post titled "Bad Luck, Part 3" later and explain. The short version is that UPS stinks.

Christmas Eve was a very, very snowy day. But Mark's family journeyed over the river and through the woods to our house for a fun evening. We had pot roast for dinner and gingerbread cookies and ice cream for dessert. Usually I think gingerbread cookies are disgusting--crunchy, stale--however I have a very good recipe for gingerbread cookies. I got it when we lived in Omaha from the Winter Quarters visitor center. I will post that later, too. So good.

After dinner, we had the usual nativity pageant acted out by the little 'uns while 10 cameras flashed them all blind. Those not in the pageant and not taking pictures watched the usual baby Jesus not wanting to stay in the laundry basket, and the shepherds wresting with the wise man. It is a little bit crazy, but it is a huge tradition, and the kids wait eagerly each year for Grandma to assign their roles. Following the nativity, Abram, Aubrey and Jake performed some musical numbers, and last but not least, the kids got to open their presents from Grandma. This year Mark's mom gave each of our kids a blu-ray movie. It was good, because it gave us plenty of entertainment for the long weekend.

I love having everyone at our house for get togethers. Feeding a crowd is something I do every meal, so it's not a big deal for me to feed a few more. This year we had 28. It's easier for me to have everyone here than to pack up our crew and go to somewhere else. More Christmas posts to follow...

White Christmas

We've had a lot of snow---I mean a lot of snow. Usually when it snows here we get an inch or so, and the next day it is 50 degrees and it is gone. But it snowed here for 13 days in a row. We couldn't open the dental office Monday or Tuesday this week because the roads were so bad, and also there was a 6-ft drift covering the front of the building and extending out to the middle of the street.

It has been a lot of fun. The kids basically got out of school a week early, because the districts panicked on the first 3 snow days that weren't even bad. By the time the real snow arrived last Friday, it was indeed worthy of a snow day, but they got 5 days out of the deal, and lots of time to play in the snow.

Saturday night was a blizzard. A full-on midwest-style blizzard. We also had tickets to a sold-out performance of Handel's Messiah. 6 tickets. We were heavily invested in the event. Mark chained us up early Saturday when it was looking like a blizzard was on tap, and we drove the Excursion downtown for the event. There were probably 40% of the seats filled, but the show went on. It was incredible. I got chills when the soprano sings the nativity recitative and then the trumpets sound from the balcony for the "multitude of heavenly hosts." It was worth the drive through the blizzard. On the way home, there was a bit of freezing rain, and we had to stop a couple of times to un-stick the windshield. The second time we stopped, the driver-side wiper totally fell apart, and we were left with the passenger one working, and the driver one sticking out away from the car as we began a late-night quest to find a new wiper. Sadly, the gas stations had closed because of the storm, and the 2 Chevrons that we knew would have wipers were dark. The Flying J was out of all wipers, and so we headed to WalMart, where they were open, but out of the 20-inch size we needed. So I settled for a 19-inch wiper, and we were on our way back home. It was quite a night.

Sunday there was no church, again. One of our patients texted a picture of the dental office, and so Mark and the boys and Josh headed down to at least dig a pathway to the front door and get the snow off of the front of the building. We were anticipating opening Monday morning. But it snowed even more on Monday, and we got another text picture of the office even more socked in than before. So Tuesday morning Mark headed down and dug again. There was no way our patients or employees could drive to the office Tuesday, so we were shut down again. No more work until after Christmas!

We've had lots of family time and lots of snow time over the past 2 weeks. It has been very fun, and a very memorable Christmas. The downside of all of this beautiful stuff is that one of Noah's presents didn't arrive in time, although I ordered it on December 12th. I may head down to FedEx today to pick it up for him.

No time to blog----too much to knit

My mom taught me how to knit when I was about 14. I knit dishcloths like a crazy girl. I really enjoyed knitting. I was a knitter before it was cool. When Mark was in dental school I would knit at the library while he studied. When Abram was a baby I made a couple of little sweaters for him.

For the past 15 years or so, I have picked up my needles once, and that was about 8 years ago to make some animal puppets for the kids. I guess it's because I really don't have a lot of spare time.

When my mom was here at Thanksgiving, she was knitting some hats, which are very beautiful, and very simple. I watched her knit in the round and I was mesmerized. I had never knit in the round, but I saw that it was really not a big deal. And then she switched to the double-pointed needles and I was afraid.

I remember as a young girl watching my piano teacher knit little Santa christmas tree ornaments on double-pointed needles. It scared me because it looked like she was playing with a voodoo doll. There was no way I could ever do such a thing. Way too complicated for the world's most un-coordinated person to even think about.

My mom and I found a yarn shop here in town that sold Lamb's Pride yarn, and I bought some to give it a try. I first needed a tutorial on casting on again. And then I went crazy. I was able to knit, purl, and even do cables even without trouble. I decided to make hats for my visiting teaching ladies, and I did it! Now we have some frosty weather, so I'm going to make the rounds today to deliver the hats and some Christmas treats to my friends.

What to knit next? I've got to make a scarf to match my beautiful hat!

Social Studies

Last week I went to Noah's conferences. His teacher told me that they had been studying ancient India, and that he was very amazed at how well Noah had been able to keep everything straight, including all of the crazy names of people and places. When I got home I had the following conversation with Noah.

Me: Noah, Mr. M told me that you had been studying ancient India. You know I love India! Why didn't you tell me about it?

Noah: Oh, you mean like about Buddha?

Me: Yeah. Did you learn about Siddhartha?

Noah: Of course. That was just Buddha's name as a young child. And we learned about the Ganges and the Indus rivers, too.

I was proud of my boy. He told me the whole story about the wicked young king and the kind monk who told him he should use his money for good things, and about Siddhartha's dream.

Now, just so you know the other side of things, and so I did not get too prideful, we had the following happen during a game of Apples to Apples the next day.

I don't remember what the word was, but Noah had put down "Cinco de Mayo" as his word. When it was not chosen, he said, "Awww. But Cinco de Mayo is a holiday......For the jewish people."

Mark's' dream come true

Mark has always dreamed of taking a photograph worthy of blowing up big and hanging on the wall. When we lived in Omaha we would go to Thomas Manglesen's Images of Nature gallery in downtown and stare at all of his amazing wildlife photographs and dream of buying one of his photographs. Mark would also dream about taking one just as amazing. Mark set his sights high.

Over the years, he has taken many amazing photographs. He truly has a gift that I do not have. He understands all the science of good photographs (aperature, lighting, etc). But he also has a very artistic eye for framing and composing photographs.

In Canada this summer, he captured the above photo at Sunwapta Falls in Jasper National Park. You have to look closely on the right side to see the trees to understand how huge and incredible this waterfall was. I loved it. I want to go back in the winter sometime and hike the frozen falls.

We sent his image to mpix.com and had it printed on professional paper. It arrived last week and I took it to the framing shop. Mark hung it in the dental office where everyone can see his work of art.

2 hours I'll never get back

We went to see Twilight this weekend. We were all excited to see it because we have spent so much time in the place where most of the outdoor scenes (including the baseball scene) were filmed. We also wanted to see if our friend made the cut as an extra.

I did not like the book. The whole time I was reading it I was thinking, "This writing is terrible. I like the story idea. But this writing really stinks. It could be a really great movie, though."

It could have been a really great movie. A different director would have made a big difference. And a different score. The only 2 good songs were written and performed by Rob Pattinson. The rest of the score was almost embarrassing, and did nothing to convey emotions. It was almost distracting in its grooviness.

Although Rob Pattinson was not the picture of Edward I had in my head from reading the book, I think he did an excellent job in the role. And I really appreciated the fact that in the scene where he plays the piano, he is actually playing the piano. It bugs me when someone is playing the piano in a movie, and nobody even bothered to teach him or her that you should at least pretend to be pressing keys when a note is sounded, and don't press them down when there is no note--or that the low notes are to the left and the high notes to the right. Kelsi in High School Musical is probably the worst on-screen fake pianist I have ever seen. It kills me.

The one part of the book that I found good was the final chase/ballet studio scene. Sadly, that part took up about 2 minutes of the movie, and created none of the suspense of the book. I realize why I liked that part of the book. Most of the book was like reading a play--all dialogue. The chase scene forced the writer to actually describe what was happening, and the characters finally shut up.

The scenery was great, and I must say the cinematography was marvelous. Kristin Stewart was a great Bella. But the screenplay had worse writing than the book. I felt like I was watching Star Wars Episode 3 with a terrible script, which George Lucas made worse by forcing the actors to underact--it was so bland and painful. I know that both Edward and Bella have much better acting chops then the director allowed them to use.

If there is to be a movie for the second book, I sure hope they can find a new director, and hire a different composer. But WOW! Isn't the Columbia River Gorge beautiful?

Perfect boots, part 2

I got a pair of Donald J Pliner boots similar to these about 8 years ago. They were expensive, but Mark insisted that I buy them at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, but I honestly didn't think I would ever wear them. It turns out that next to my green Cole Haan slippers, these are the best shoe investment I ever made. They are warm, waterproof, and perfect for a busy mom running around in the rain. Of course they are not as funky as Savanna's, but that just means I actually wear them.

I saw these boots at the Nike employee store last week when I bought Savanna's. I'm trying to talk myself into buying them, but I feel like I'm too old for them. They are Cole Haans with a Nike sole, and also are waterproof, and they are unbearably comfortable! Mark has wanted me to buy Uggs for years, but I keep laughing him off. These are surprisingly ugg-like, yet not ugg-like. We'll see what happens.

Perfect boots

While at the Nike employee store last week, we found the most perfect shoes for Savanna. They are warm, and very good for a wet climate like ours. Best of all, they match everything. They look especially good with argyle socks, uniform jumper and polo for school.

If any shoes ever called out Savanna's name, it was these. Cute, a little bit crazy, and very fun--just like her.

Coffe Talk with Noah

Today we were at Mark's mom's house for piano lessons. I overheard the following conversation between Noah and Abram:

Abram: Noah, get off of the coffee table. You're going to break the coffee table if you sit on it to watch TV.
Noah: Do Grandpa and Grandma drink coffee?
Abram: No
Noah: Is there any coffee in this house?
Abram: No
Noah: Well, then there shouldn't be a problem.

You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille

I am back from a long weekend in St. George. I had so much fun with Mark's cousins and aunts and Grandma. I love them all, and I can't wait to go back next November for some more fun.

While I was there, I got The Christmas Sweater to read on the plane home. It was so heart-warming. I loved the story, and its lesson about what really matters, and that it is never too late to leave the past behind and become something better. It seems like a long book, but it was a quick read, and I had it finished by the time I got home. I highly recommend it to everyone!

Thursday I had so many people who helped me out so I could get away early in the day. My friend took Zacky for me, and then drove him home when Aubrey got home from school. My next door neighbor picked up Savanna from Kindergarten and kept her there until Aubrey came home. Betsy was awesome and drove me to the airport, Barb picked me up from the airport (and took me back) in Las Vegas, another friend picked up Joel and Noah and took them to the dental office after school, our neighbor picked up Jake and drove him to his violin lesson Thursday afternoon, and my kids helped Mark make this weekend work without me. Thanks to all of you! I owe you all big time!

In St. George, I ate good food, laughed a lot, sewed school bags for an Eagle Scout project, shopped, baked cookies, stayed up way too late every night, and had the best time. My favorite part was getting to know Mark's cousins (or cousins' wives) better. They were all amazing, and I loved spending time with them. I miss you all!

Actually the best part was that Mark and the kids spent the WHOLE weekend masking off the basement trim for the painter today. He is spraying the trim, and it took 3 whole days to mask off the walls and floors. I bought my ticket months ago, and it just worked out timing wise that I missed that big project. Not the best timing for getting it done, because I could have sped things along if I had been here to help, and I feel a little bad, but at least I had fun! Mark joked when he picked me up from the airport that they did not sing "You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille" one time while I was gone. I'm glad I'm married to a Kenny Rogers fan.

Random things about me

I love to use pencils, especially Ticonderoga pencils.

I love to bake.

I sleep with 3 layers of polar fleece blankets.

I will not eat anything that ever lived in water or roamed a forest.

I love Indian food. Dal Makhani and Chicken Makhani are my favorite dishes.

I'm a sucker for brown eyes.

I like all 3 High School Musical movies.

I was on my Junior High chess team (only because the art teacher offered me an A if I would join).

Which leads me to the next one: I stink at art.

I am reading John Adams right now.

I don't like cake. I would rather have pie. But not just any pie. It has to be handcrafted by my mom (or me). I'd rather go hungry than eat a Marie Calendar's pie.

I love Krispy Kreme chocolate iced, sprinkle donuts.

I prefer semi-gloss paint. What can I say, our walls need a lot of scrubbing. And I like it shiny.

Halloween

The trick-or-treaters
Savanna was sure her mask was supposed to go this way.
Noah wow-ed all the girls in his Legolas costume again this year.

Joel was "Miscellaneous."

Aubrey, Abram's friend from school, and Abram.

I usually make costumes for Halloween. It's one of my favorite things to do. But this year with our house being such a disaster, and the location of my sewing machine being a mystery, I skipped the costume making. The kids were suprisingly fine. I think I'll still make a gingerbread girl costume for Savanna for Christmas. Every day is dress-up day at our house. Thanks to my efforts over the years, we have a well-stocked costume box(or shall I say boxes?).

Mark took them to trick-or-treat at the dental office. Most of the businesses on our street hand out pretty dang good candy on Halloween. I stayed home to sleep off the verced from my fun procedure earlier that afternoon.

I'm fine!

Well, it's nice to have that overwith. I have to go back in 5 years for another colonoscopy, but I'm done for a while.

There was absolutely no sign of Crohn's, which is what the doctor expected to see based on my symptoms last month. No inflamation or anything. He did find one very small polyp which he removed and is being sent away for pathology, but he expects that to be nothing.

So it was just a weird one-time infection that caused me to go to the ER is such pain last month. I kept telling myself that's what it was, because I got better so quickly with the antibiotic. But sadly, there was only one way to know for sure!

one half teaspoon for fast, effective relief

My colonoscopy is today. You can imagine how my night went.... If not, then watch Dumb and Dumber. Hopefully I will have some answers today as to what sent me to the ER last month. And also hopefully it isn't anything really bad. I'm quite anxious.

Which reminds me. It's time for a grammar lesson. Some of you might be saying, "Are you crazy? Who would be anxious about a colonoscopy?"

The answer is EVERYONE!

Anxious and eager are not the same thing. You are EAGER for Christmas, vacations, a party, or payday or a birthday. You are ANXIOUS (same root as anxiety) for colonoscopies, speaking in public, going to the dentist, or for final exams.

Of course, it is possible to be both eager AND anxious at the same time. For example, I am anxious about having a colonoscopy, but I am also eager to find out what is wrong with me.

My apologies to those of you who did not need or want this little grammar lesson. I just didn't want any of you spreading a rumor that I was excited about a colonoscopy. :)

A nightmare

Last night Zacky woke up crying. He has what I call "night terrors." Every now and then he'll be screaming, kicking, crying and I can't hold him because it hurts! All I can do is let him lie down on the carpet and do his kicking and screaming. Sometimes it lasts an hour. He's not awake, but not asleep, so there's nothing I can do. And then some random thing will snap him out of it, and with a drink and a hug he's back in bed asleep.

He had a night terror last night. He didn't want anything, and was kicking and hitting so much that I had just let him work it out on the floor while I was lying on the couch trying to talk to him. After about 30 minutes, he calmed down enough to say through is sobs, "No watch anymore. No watch anymore" I repeated, "Zacky no watch anymore?" He said, "Yeah. No watch anymore." Then he walked over to the blu-ray player (in the dark), pushed the eject button and removed the disc that was in there. By the way, the TV and blu-ray were off, and hadn't been on since that afternoon. I told Zack thanks for the disc, and said, "Zacky is all done watching. Do you need a drink?" He jumped into my arms, gave me a huge hug, I gave him a drink, and he went back to bed.

At first I was stunned by this bizarre end to the night terror. And then I realized that Zack had had a scary dream, and he thought he was watching it as a movie. My boy is smart enough to know how to end a movie--just push the open button. He sure is a descriptive boy who always uses his words so get what he wants. I never would have figured that one out.

Crazy Noah

Mark and I decided Thursday to paint the 3 upstairs bedrooms over the weekend. So we painted Thursday night, all day Friday, and all day Saturday. The bedrooms look great, but the rest of the upstairs is insane. Everything that was in the bedrooms is in the loft or one of the bathrooms. Saturday night after Mark got the trim painted, I shampooed the carpets in the bedrooms (YUCK!) and they are ready to move back into. Savanna and Zack get to go upstairs tonight, and they are excited about their new room. Abram and Jake will be in a holding pattern until the basement is finished and they can move in down there. It's moving right along, though.

After our busy weekend, I was looking forward to resting Sunday. We went to church, and I was ready for my usual Sunday routine of feeding everyone lunch and then crashing on the couch for a couple of hours. Well, I got lunch ready, and then Noah walks into the kitchen with blood all over his hand, and his hand on the back of his head. He said, "Oh, crud. My head is bleeding." No tears, no panic. But his head was bleeding. Aubrey had been lying on her back and bouncing Noah on her feet up in the air. When she pushed him back, she miscalculated how close she was to the corner of the wall, and Noah's head split right open. So I put Noah in the car and headed to the urgent care.

The doctor there kept laughing at Noah and his never-ending questions, and his lack of hysteria over his injury. "How old are you? How high can this bed go? Do I get a treat? Are you going to give me a shot? What is that for? Are you going to look at my eardrum? Will you shave my head?" and so on. The doctor asked Noah how he had hurt his head. Noah calmly replied, "Playing." The doctor decided on stitches rather than glue or staples, put the topical anesthetic on, and left us for a half hour to let it work. Boy, has that stuff come a long way! They didn't even need to give Noah a shot. The doctor took out a pointed instrument and touched Noah's head to test for numbness. "Can you feel that, Noah?" "Yeah." "Does it feel sharp, Noah?" "No, it just feels sticky."

And then the sutures began, and Noah laid perfectly still on his tummy while the doctor stitched. Good as new. He still wants me to shave his head, though. Nobody can see the stitches right now.

Election Time

Joel's 4th grade class is holding elections for class President, Vice-President and Secretary. The job descriptions of each are quite nebulous, but the kids are taking it very seriously. Since Joel has a friend running for President, and Joel isn't sure what a Vice-President would do, he decided to run for Secretary. He has to give a speech at school on Friday before the class votes.

Here is the text of Joel's speech that I found on my computer this morning. He was working very hard on it, and I had to laugh when I got a chance to read it. If only politicians today could be as clear and honest.

Secretary Speech

My name is Joel. I am 9 years old. I am running for secretary. I come from the Republican Party. I would make an excellent secretary for the following reasons:

-I’ll make sure there’s enough time to finish up your work.
-I’ll answer the phone when I hear it ringing and Mr. Dietrich tells me that I can get it
-I’ll help you with your questions and writing
-I’ll make sure the teacher sees you when you are raising your hand
-I’ll make sure nobody is listing to their iPods and MP3’s or playing on their cell phone
-I am very organized
-I am very loving
-I like outdoors
-I am trustworthy
-I am responsible
-I am really serious
-I am such a nerd
-I am funny only at good times
-I love roller blading and riding my bike
-I am very playful
-I always say words like “thank you” “please” “you are welcome" " excuse me”
“Hello” “goodbye”
- I dislike the idea of killing birds
-I will make the class a better place even though it is already good
- I don’t make fun of people
- I don’t rub myself in people’s faces
- I encourage people
- I’m kid friendly
- I encourage
-I recycle
-I am friends with a lot of people. I get along with everyone.
- I am not a video game nerd
- I love school abcdefghijklmnopwqrstuvwxyz

A good surprise

I came home from running errands to find this giant surprise on my porch. My mom ordered it for me for my birthday last month, but apparently they couldn't ship until this week. It was worth the wait! Mmmmm. I love caramel and chocolate covered apples. Thanks, Mom! It made my day. Who needs a birthday cake when you can have a scrumptious Williams Sonoma apple?

A very polite boy

There are so many thing I love about Zack. One of them is that he ALWAYS says "Thank you." No matter what. If you give him a drink, or a crayon, or a cracker, or help him off of his barstool, he aways says, "Thanks!" I love to hear him be so appreciative. He has had good examples. Our older kids are very good at saying "thanks," too.

Completely unrelated, I had a very scary experience with Zack last night. I usually sleep through anything, except for kid noise. Mark, on the other hand, sleeps through nothing BUT kid noise. Fortunately our kids don't usually wake up in the night, but when they do, I can always hear them.

Last night I woke up to what I knew was Zacky crying. I listened for a minute and didn't hear anything, but I went to make sure he was OK. I got into his room, and he was not in his bed. He was not on the floor. He was not in Savanna's bed. I looked in the great room to see if he was on the couch. No Zacky. He wasn't anywhere! I started to panic, thinking he had walked out the front door or something. We usually have the front doors tied together so Zack can't get out, but the official dish towel was not tied around the door handles. So I woke up Mark. He couldn't find him, either. Next I headed upstairs. He was not in the loft or Aubrey's room, or the bathrooms, or Joel's and Noah's room. At last, I opened Abram's door and saw Zack snuggled up with Abram. I was so glad he was there, but it was so scary! I tend to have a runaway imagination.

I think Zack is getting molars right now, and they were bothering him all night. I would put him back in bed, and then 15 minutes later he would be out whimpering again. Something was really hurting him. I finally slept on the couch and he slept on the floor next to me. This morning he is back to the normal, crazy, happy, silly little monkey that I love.

Digging out

We sure have been living in chaos since July when Mark and the kids emptied the basement while I was at girls camp. But the end is in sight, and it has been a good opportunity to go through all of our stuff and keep what we really need.

Last weeekend I took 4 van-loads of toys to the DI trailer. We really haven't bought large amounts of toys for any one child. It's just that between all of our kids we have had 62 birthdays and 62 Christmases. Things just pile up even when it is just a couple of things at a time. It's going to be so nice to have our game room finished with a place for everything. We emptied our "game closet" a couple of weekends ago and turned it over to Aubrey for an extra closet for her stuff. When you have a harp in your bedroom, there's not a lot of room for other things. The harp has its own dolly and transportation covers, too which need some space, so now Aubrey has room in her bedroom closet for clothes rather than that stuff.

Joel and Noah have room in their bedroom to walk around now. The lower part of their room was the toy storage area, and it was insane. We are all a little happier to start to see some order in our house. It's taking its toll, but the end is in sight.

Stupid mail tricks

Sometimes my brain does not work very well. There are two times I have done not so smart things with packages.

First it was a few Christmases ago. We took the kids to Dollar Tree, and they each picked out gifts for my mom and dad. We wrapped them all up and put them in a big box to mail to Salt Lake. I took the box to the post office, and was relieved because it would arrive just before Christmas. The following day, I came home from somewhere, and we had a big box on our porch. The kids were excited to see whom it was from. Well, it turns out that I had sent my parents' Christmas presents to my own dang address. Such a bummer. They got their terrific Dollar Tree surprises a few days after Christmas.

Yesterday I felt like I should mail cookies to someone. So I mixed and I rolled and I baked and I frosted and I packaged. I even printed out a label from usps.com. I was all ready to go so they cookies could arrive the next day. And then I looked at my "guaranteed express mail" delivery date that said Wednesday, October 15th. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out what was going on. The post office was closed for Columbus Day. Duh! At least I saved myself the humiliation of actually driving to the post office and walking up to the locked door with my package.

That baking didn't go to waste, however. I needed cookies for tonight's youth activity, and so they get the day-old ones. I baked up some fresh cookies and mailed them off this morning.

Things that made me smile

Over the past few days, here are a few things the kids have said that made me laugh:

Joel (seriously as we drove past a sign for Aloha High School): Hey, is that the school where a lot of Hispanic kids go?

So my kid got Hola and Aloha mixed up. Big deal. He's also the one who thought a Siamese cat had two heads.

*****

Savanna (as she was digging through my church bag after church on Sunday): Mom, why do you have all these RANDOM stuff in here? We really need to organize your church bag.

I've had the same calling at church for 4 1/2 years. My bag was a little crazy. But after I had to pick up all the contents off of the floor, it is in a much more organized condition.

****

Noah (as I was tucking him into bed): I'm so glad I chose you for my mom. You're the prettiest mom in the whole world.

As long as Noah tells me things like this, life is very, very good.

All done

Excuse the basement construction mess on our patio.

Have you ever wondered what 500 empty nursery pots looks like? This is the aftermath of our planting project Saturday. Joel's job was to gather and stack the pots as they were emptied. I need to get out and get some close-up shots, so you can actually see the shrubs we planted. They were all planted around the edge of the grass.

I'm very excited to have all the planting done for our backyard. It has been 6 years since it was logged, and since then we have been working on a never-ending project that just ended. It was very strange to finish up Saturday afternoon and be done. Kind of like finals week in college. You work and study and stress, and then when it's over it just feels strange.

The shrub beds look spectacular. They will look even better in a year or so after the plants have a chance to grow. I bought 1 gallon shrubs whenever possible, so they're tiny, bu they will grown quickly. We are so thankful for KC who helped us so much. I was surprised he kept answering his phone for me with my endless questions about plants and cultivars last week as I tried to round up all the plants from his planting plan. Who knew a horticulture degree could be so useful? KC is the all-knowing expert, and we couldn't have done this without him. KC has created a perfect mix that will bring us interesting colors, textures, flowers, leaves and shapes all year long.

Some of my trees that I'm really excited to see in the spring are: Vulcan Magnolia with its 12-inch magenta blossoms, the Empress trees and their purple spikes of flowers, Cherokee Brave dogwoods covered it bright red blossoms, and the Pacific dogwoods. Their huge white blossoms make me so happy in the springtime. The shrubs will be a whole other world of wonder as they start showing us their flowers starting this winter. Now we get to just sit back and watch nature's magic

My new toy

I figured I couln't have a self-respecting laundromat if I didn't have one of these babies. It came a couple of days ago, and I assembled it and put it in the laundry room. I had to wait until I had enough dirty clothes to try it out.

It sure makes transporting a heavy load of wet clothes to the dryer much easier. I wonder when I will get tired of doing laundry now. The laundry room is just such an exciting place to be these days.

It's the little things that make me happy!

The wood for the hardwood floors came today, and the electrician is supposed to be here today to hook up all our light fixtures in the basement. It will be great to not have to wear a headlamp into the laundry room to find the plug for my work light. Things are coming together at last. The finish carpenter and flooring guys will be here next week, and possibly by the end of the month we will be able to move Jake and Abram downstairs to their new rooms.

We miss Jake

Jake has been at outdoor school this week. It is a ritual for all 6th graders here. He was very excited to go, but we really miss his big brown eyes. I hope he has been having fun, and I can't wait to hear his stories and see his pictures when he comes home Friday.

It has been a busy week around here, too. I spent the first half of the week calling nursuries and faxing a list of 40 different plants (about 500 total) we need to plant our yard this weekend. I ended up being able to get everything we need from only 3 nurseries. One delivered 150 plants this morning, and I picked up another load of about 150 today. Tomorrow I'm going to get the last 200, and then the fun begins. Our backyard is going to look amazing by Saturday night. The grass looks good right now, but it will look even better with its shrub and tree border.

The sad part of the nursery pick-up was I had to drive Mark's Excursion. It is a beast, but it was horrible because I had a trailer on the back. I stink at driving with trailers. I take corners too close, and I absolutely cannot back up. Even when I'm in reverse perfectly straight, the trailer always gets jack-knifed. As I was driving to the nursery this morning, I accidentally passed it. Sadly, it was on a 2-lane road so there was nothing I could do. I drove about 1/2 mile and took a left, and got to a 4 way intersection. It only took me about 10 minutes of back and forth and wheel-spinning to get the trailer and car u-turned and headed back to the nursery. It was worth it, though. I will post some pictures of all of the action later.

Meanwhile, I'm feeling about 90% better. I still have an ache in my gut, though. I can't decide if it is really something wrong, or just the anxiety of having to have a colonoscopy at the end of the month. I'm still hoping my problem was a one-time thing, however, the CT scan would suggest otherwise. 7 kids keeps me busy, so I don't have much time to think about it, though.

Bring it on!

My washers and dryers were up and going Thursday morning, so I gave them a spin (really). It was amazing to stuff them full of clothes and watch them go. I was completely mesmerized by the see-through doors on the washers. It was astounding, too that in 22 minutes I had clean clothes ready for the dryer. I did 8 giant loads start to finish in about 2 hours. It was a happy time. It really is my own personal laundrymat. I had to program the washers and dryers for different scenarios, but now that's done and I've got my p-touch labels to remind me which cycle I want, I am all set.

The day was a little disrupted, though by a severe pain I kept having in my abdomen. It had woken me up at about 2am, and it just kept coming and going throughout the day. I just kept thinking it would go away--just some tummy trouble or something. I kept saying that until about 4:00 on Friday afternoon when I was on the floor in pain. I knew that it may be tummy trouble, but it was very severe tummy trouble.

Kristy was in town, and Mark was hunting with Josh, so I called Kristy at about 6:00 after I had decided to go to the emergency room. She came and stayed with the kids until Mark and Josh got home later that night. I drove to the hospital and sat for 3 hours in the waiting room, feeling like I was seriously going to explode.

After I got a room in the ER, I got some morphiene and life was better. The doctor couldn't decide if it was a rogue ovary or my appendix. I was thinking more colon obstruction, but I let her figure things out. After an exam, bloodwork, ultrasound and CT scan, it was discovered I had colitis as the cause of my pain and my white blood cell level was high. By this time it was after 2:00 am, and since there was no impending surgery or other procedure, I called Mark to come take me home. Until this time I didn't see the need for anyone to be there watching me lay on a hospital bed. I'm pretty low-maintenance, and I didn't want an audience. They sent me with an antibiotic prescription, and home I went. I crashed for pretty much all of Saturday and Sunday. Today I feel like myself again. I still have to go see a specialist to figure out what is causing colitis. Hopefully it was just a crazy, one-time infection.

When I was in the hospital and the pain was so bad, I kept going to my happy place. Normally that is the Caves Branch River in Belize. But this time it was my laundry room. I kept picturing those shiny silver washers spinning my clothes around and around and it made me feel better.

Some pictures

Mark's camera has too wide of an angle on its lens to take any pictures of the inside of our house. He is wishing for a new 24-70mm lens, maybe for Christmas. In the meantime, I realized I could use Abram's camera to take a couple of pictures today.

This one is of our new green great room.

This is the other side of the great room. Just so you know how dang high this wall was to paint, those paitings you see are 7 feet tall.

Guess who showed up with my stuff? I was singing, "Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is a coming..... Oh PLEEEEASE let it be for me," each time I heard a big engine coming down our street today. They've got all the machines in the basement now, and we'll see how long installation takes. For how much it cost, I hope it takes a long time. The front machine is one of the washers, and the 6-ft beasts in the back are the dryers. More pictures soon to come.

There are so many colors in the rainbow...

Another random old song, this time brought to you by Harry Chapin. It has been our theme for paint color selection.

"There are so many colors in the rainbow,

So many colors in the morning sun,

So many colors in the flowers,

So let's use every one."

It has been a little crazy at our house the last week. After the great room "Egyptian Nile" painting marathon, Mark and I rested for a few days, and then we began the basement painting marathon on Wednesday. The game room is a very, very deep red called "Chianti". It turned out so beautiful. Dark brown "Bear Rug" walls in the hallway lead to a deep "Provence" blue exercise room, bright "Turquoise Gem" laundry room, and a "Provence" blue bathroom, "Alluring Blue" bedroom for Abram, and, of course, a "Pooh Bear's Shirt" red bedroom for Jake. It is so fun to have lots of colors instead of our blah blah boring light yellowish white everywhere.

After we get Abram and Jake moved downstairs, we will paint the upstairs bedrooms one by one as we shuffle kids into new rooms. Also, the kitchen needs paint, I'm thinking "Crisp Celery," but that's probably going to be last. I really like painting. I've never done it before, but it's quite invigorating. I'm ready to tackle the upstairs bathrooms, too. I've got to hide the fact that we ever had such boring walls. I know that someday I will say, "What was I thinking?" as I try to cover up some of our colors, but for the next several years, I know I will love it.

I had piano movers come today and take our piano upstairs to the loft. That way it is still in the great room, but not in the way of people and furniture. It looks great up there.

The picture above is of the little treasure I found for our basement hallway. We needed wall sconces, and I had not seen anything I remotely liked until I found this one online last night. It is me, and I'm so excited for them to get here. We'll see how brave I am at installing light fixtures. I took the old ones all down, and I'm assuming hooking up the new ones will just be the reverse. I'm going to give it a whirl with the laundry room light later today and see if I have the magic touch.

The delivery guys are supposed to be here today with my washers and dryers. It is a happy day for Jill.

In order to form a more perfect union

I love James Madison. Such a genius, "Father of the Constitution," and noble leader of our country. It was 221 years ago today that he and other delegates met in Philadelphia to sign our Constitution. What a happy day to celebrate. Good work, James.

Happy Birthday, Constitution!

Family pictures

Don't be surprised if you see one of these pictures in your mailbox around Christmas time. These are pictures from Canada, and were taken by Mark's camera with a delayed shutter. The kids all laughed hysterically watching Mark run to get in the picture in time. This was especially challenging, because right now, Mark's lens has 70mm as its widest, so he has to get really far away to get a picture of the whole gang of us.

The top one is at Mt Edith Cavell and Angel Glacier. It was a beautiful little hike to get there, and so cool to see actual iceburgs breaking off of the glacier. The story of Edith Cavell is very fascinating, and I know why Canada went to the trouble of naming one of its highest peaks after her.

The second one is at Lake Louise. It is such a pretty place, but so over-run with tourists, that it's not very peaceful. The Chateau Lake Louise is a very fancy and expensive hotel right on the lake. We will never stay there, but we love to go in for the show. There is a girl with the world's puffiest sleeves who plays a golden harp, and it is so funny. She plays glissando after glissando, making simple songs sound fancy, and all these Japanese people stand next to her and have their pictures taken while she plays. She just looks at the camera and keeps running her hands up and down the strings. We were all laughing, imagining Aubrey in that spot trying to keep a straight face while people snapped vacation photos of her playing her harp. Anyway, Lake Louise is beautiful, but get there early, early in the morning if you want to see the lake and not the masses of tourists.

Think Green

I have always heard that when you are trying to choose a paint color, to go look in your closet and see what colors you have there. That is a good indicator of colors you like. Here's what I found in my closet:

Cole Haan Janell slippers (my favorite Nike employee store purchase ever), A new green jacket,

and this sweater. So we decided to paint our great room a shade of olive green, a little darker than these items, but the same basic color. It was a big step away from the light-yellowish-neural color that all of our walls were painted when we built our house 6 1/2 years ago. Back then I didn't know how to diversify our palette. I didn't really care, either because we had no furniture that matched.

Our great room has 19-foot ceilings. It's a big room, and it was a big job to paint. The hardest part was masking off the crown molding, and also taking down the can lights way, way up there. Fortunately, Mark is a pro on ladders. We had to buy a 16-ft step ladder to add to our ladder collection, but that was much cheaper than paying someone else to do our paint job.

I'm exhausted, though. Mark got home from work Thursday around 5:00. We jumped right in masking things off. We stayed up until around 2:00, and still hadn't opened a paint bucket. We started painting Friday at 8:00 am with the ceiling, and moved on to the 2 walls being painted green, and finished Saturday morning around 4:30. We slept for a few hours, and started up again around 10:00 on Saturday, this time moving to the 2 big walls being painted a taupe-ish-brown color, working until past midnight. But it is done (except for a few touch-ups around the doors), and it looks amazing. I never thought I would be brave enough to go for such a dark, bold color, but I'm so glad we did. It makes me excited to try out some crazy colors when we paint the basement. I'm mostly excited that the ceilings are only 9-ft high down there. That's going to be a snap.