Happy Mother's Day

Man, I'm glad I got the mom I did:)

a few things....

Most of you are already informed on the comings and goings of our family, but I'm going to still give a recap of a few latest happenings for y'all:

First, a few weeks ago, Jared got laid off. It was a bit of a surprise, but not at the same time. We're excited to be job searching again and have Daddy around all the time. We are REALLY hoping to stay here in Georgia, but the unemployment rate is pretty high so we're keeping our options open.

We're tightening our belts, too. Something interesting I noticed today - the last few months we've been trying a different approach to food storage. We have our 72-hour kits and emergency preparedness stuff, but we were told that a good idea to getting that 3-month supply is to just buy twice as much of your staples and usual foods when you go grocery shopping and you'll eventually have a nice little supply of food you actually eat. We now have a decent amount of the canned veggies and pasta and such on hand, so not having to grocery shop very much has been nice and comforting when you eye every penny going out more carefully. I wondered if we were nuts the last few months when we'd buy a big pile of one item and wonder when we'd eat it all, but now I'm grateful for our small stockpile :)

Oh, and speaking of food, there's a website I like that I wanted to share - http://mealplanningmommies.blogspot.com/ . It's a simple blog some nice ladies out there have where they plan meals and put them all out there - always simple, they give you the cost per serving and even put pictures of every step up! I haven't made too many of their meals, but I love the way they blog and make it all so easy and understandable - and it gives me ideas of my own.

Now, this last weekend was one heckuva whirlwind for us - my brother Quinn got married in San Diego and Jared and I flew out Friday, got there just before the ceremony, then flew back the next (EARLY!) morning and I rushed out to play a gig that night. We knew it was going to be exhausting but we also knew it would be worth it. It was wonderful to go to the temple and be around so much family and celebrate a new member of our family.

She is really, really short compared to Quinn and the rest of the family:

Quinn was really happy:

And I couldn't get enough of how beautiful it was, and mainly how GOOD it smelled on the temple grounds!:

I didn't get any family shots because - well, trying to get my family together to do anything really is like hearding cats. It drives Jared completely bonkers. But it was so, so good to see everyone and feel that happy feeling you can only get when the whole family is together. Our newest sister-in-law - Mara - is actually from Brasil so now Jared has someone to make snarky comments about the rest of us with in Portuguese. He still has to watch himself though - I still know about 4 words in Portuguese and I'm not afraid to use 'em.

Solei is still the smartest, weirdest and funniest kid we know. Her reading vocab has grown and she'll not beg us to help her "build a word." She can spell her name and loves learning new words to recognize - like sun, fun, mommy and daddy, cat, dog, etc., but she keeps begging us to teach her "bum." Weirdo.

Oh, and in case you didn't get the memo, I'm 5 months along now and the baby in my tummy is a dude. Still processing that - but please do NOT try to cheer me up about it - I was an only girl with 3 brothers so the idea of having to deal with a little boy is NOT something I relish. And if you tell me I'll love the boy when I meet him, remember I couldn't really stand Solei until she could talk - not a big fan of the baby stage, remember? Cool thing about Solei is she advances so fast, she is always quickly becoming something I can handle and dig. We do know Heavenly Father gives us no more than we can take, so we're expecting another genius kid (I'm REALLY hoping for a clone of my younger brother Dallin).

OH - and this is good for a laugh. A few weeks ago during Family Home Evening, Solei did something completely unexpected during lesson time and PAID ATTENTION. I was just shocked and realized I had to make this story about Easter and the ressurection good - but was unprepared since Im not used to her paying attention to my stories. How do you explain coming back to life to a 2 year old without her assuming really odd things about death?? I muddled through it and even Jared thought I'd made it as easy to understand as possible, as well as engaging (hey, she was paying attention!) When I got done, I asked her if she understood me, and she nodded her head gravely and whispered to me in a serious voice -

"Daddy's going to kill us."

WHAT?!?! I couldn't stop laughing and Jared was completely befuddled. Now, she adores daddy and knows he's wrapped securely around her little finger, so where she came up with that, we'll never know. But she took comfort in the fact that later we could be ressurected. I think I need to work on my lessons...

And, okay, one more bit of toddler hilarity - today I was standing in front of the silverware drawer that we was trying to open. She told me to move - which I didn't do, and reminded her (for the 74th time today) that NOT how we talk when we ask for something, so she sighed and said "May I PLEASE have a get out of the way??" This time it was Jared's turn to laugh.

And now you're all up to speed! We know we're not the only ones in the unemployment boat, and we're praying for those of you who are with us in that. Here's to hoping for good times ahead!

Deliciously religious!

Need a laugh? Check out these Book of Mormon stories, by a bunch of marshmallow peeps.

Easter dressy

Happy Easter!

Today was just spectacular and a very happy day. Jared spoke in church - wonderfully, I might add, we had pretty Easter dresses to wear (Solei and I, not Jared) and had an Easter egg hunt! It's late or I'd write more, but for now here are some pictures Jared took of our Easter finery:

play dough fun

The weather yesterday was INCREDIBLE! Unfortunately, it was also St. Patty's Day and as a celtic musician I was running all over town and didn't get to spent it with Solei, who spent it with friends and then Nana (she got Chuck E. Cheese for lunch!!). So I felt like there was a little pressure to make TODAY awesome too... but the weather started out cloudy (I don't go outside on cloudy days) and didn't clear up until just now.

So, I improvised. I found a bunch of good homeade play dough recipes here, and settled on the super easy oatmeal recipe - so easy a 2 year old could do it. Allow her to illustrate:

Start with a half cup water, and half cup flour:

One cup Oatmeal:

Mix well

Moosh it up nice and good with your hands:

You're ready to play!!

Some things we did were make a gingerbread man and then poke holes in him:

Make a cat and poke holes in that:

SQUISH IT!!!!

Make a family - with a baby in Mommy AND Daddy's tummies:

Plus lots of alphabet fun, including Solei's favorite word, her own name:

Since she's known her alphabet for over a year now and she has started reading, she gets a bored quick with alphabet stuff so making her own letters (I did make those though:) was a new twist.

Oh, and for some dumb reason, she got really excited about giving mommy a tail:

Long Overdue

I know, I know. It's been forever since you guys did any posts and we want to know what is new with you guys and it's making us really sad that you don't ever write and we are super depressed and can't go on with life. Okay, I get it.

Things have been going fairly uneventfully for the last little while. So, I decided to give you a quick run-down of our weekend, which will give you a good feel for what life is like in general.

Friday night was big. Some friends of ours from the ward invited us to go to dinner and play games at Dave and Busters. We usually don't get invited along to things like that (I blame it on my stunning good looks). So, we PAID for a sitter (more on that later) and went out for a night on the town. We had a wonderful time and since half of the couples (there were 4 total) were still in the pre-marriage stages of thier relationships we felt like we were dating again - at least for a night.

We played lots of games and won tons of tickets (unfortunately a good portion of them were from the quiz game - I apparently am a geek). All the tickets we won got us a small basketball - which would have been just stupid, had we not had a kid at home who now LOVES her new basketball. We stayed out late and when we got home the sitter was still asleep. (By the way, the Wife STRONGLY recommends the snowmobile game).

Saturday morning I was up at 7am for a church basketball game. I haven't played any sports regularly in years and when I have played them I usually either ended up on the ground choking for air or throwing up or both. I'm woefully out of shape. Since I'm starting to get some tasty love handles, I made a goal to play on our church basketball team. Thankfully the team is bad enough that the fact that I have a pulse and know the basics of the sport qualify me for participation. We actually won a game two weeks ago, our first win of the season. Well, that didn't happen this week. In fact we lost by 40 or so points. We actually were in the lead for the first 5 minutes or so, but then we got tired and since only 5 people showed up (you need 5 people to play basketball for all you non-sporters out there) there was no rest. By the time we hit the half I thought perhaps I would die and was seriously questioning my goal to play. Thankfully a 6th man showed up at the half and I was able to sit down for a while. There was no heaving on the ground or throwing up in the bushes, so I considered the game on Saturday to be a success.

I think a mommy roach and a daddy roach loved each other very much in our bathroom a few months ago, because there is always one in there when we turned on the lights. (Either that or their is some sort of super roach that is able to reconstruct itself from the smooshed remains that are flushed down the toilet after I kill it - but occam's razor leads me to believe that there is more than just one).

Because I find finding roaches in my own personal bathroom unacceptable, I decided to do something about it. Now, when it comes to bugs or animals living in my house I am a "no holds barred" kind of guy. So, in order to rid us of this plague, I spend my Saturday cleaning out our bathroom and bug-bombing it. Somehow I managed to get a full trash bag worth of trash out of a room that is 6x8 and is mostly bathtub. I scrubbed EVERYTHING. I even scrubbed the floor with a sponge on my hands and knees. I set off the bug bomb and waited. All that work and only 1 roach came out laying on it's back. So - maybe occam's razor is wrong.

While the big bomb went off, we went grocery shopping. WooHoo! Nothing like taking a 2 year old to the grocery store. When we got home she actually took a NAP!!

Which gave me precious time with my wife, which we chose to use playing with our new toys instead of actually interacting with eachother. You see, we got iPhones.

Yes, the day came where I found such a good deal that I thougth purchasing an iPhone was worth it. Now, for you who know me - I am a gadget FREAK. I love gadgets and I love even more tweaking and breaking into them to make them even more awesome than they are supposed to be. Such is my iPhone. It is AWESOME. Go get one. The only problem is that I can't store files anywhere on the stupid thing and I can't create excel or word files either. Jerks.

Saturday evening we spent at a party for "young married couples" from our ward (or congregation for you non-mormons). We are not sure why we qualify as young married people. The wife even suggested that it might be about time for us to divorce and re-marry to be sure we qualify next time around. We had a good time and got to know some of the people we don't get to spend as much time with as we'd like to.

Papa watched our daughter why were were at that activity and they had a marvelous time. Papa and Nana introduced her to "Curly Temple" as our daughter calls her. She loves watching her. Our daughter is a lot like her as you will see in the below video:

Today was a little crazy. We had a wonderful service today at church. During Sunday the drizzle we had been "enjoying" turned to snow. All the teenagers' brains turned to mush and they went out to "frolic" as on called it. I love the south because it's not cold and it doesn't snow. Today the south failed me.

I invited an old boss and his wife and kiddos over to dinner tonight. We had a great time. I cooked a killer meal and spent WAY too much time cleaning up the house to get ready. The Daughter REFUSED to take a nap at all, even though she was going to take it in her new "rainbow" bed. She now has her own toddler bed, which we thought we would need to transition her into, but no, she slept in the new bed the first night with no problems at all.

Finally, we are also trying to potty train our little angel. We've done a good job of getting her to use the potty, but she doesn't always tell us when she needs to go. The obvious solution is to put her on the pot every few hours, which we do. Unfortunatly that only works for pee-pee. The solid stuff is a little bit less predictable. This week she got her first very own pack of "elmo" brand big girl underpants. This has actually been a big success, generally. She loves that she is wearing them and understands that she shouldn't go pee-pee in them. In fact she wore them all day today up until I caught her grunting. She apparently had to poo, but didn't feel the need to do so on the potty, so Elmo is now kind of a reddish-brown. This is the same girl who stripped herself down on Thursday morning and climed on the pot to do the number two - all by herself. We aren't there yet...

After cleaning up the kitchen, I'm exhausted. I need a nap and a day off. Unfortunately, tomorrow in Monday and I have to be up bright and early for work...

Did I mention that we all have colds and I lost my voice. That makes life AWESOME.

Have a good week.

Suburbs...

The phone rang just a few minutes ago.  It was our neighbor.

She says, "I wanted you to know that I am out in the backyard and there is someone walking through our backyards.  Can you turn on the light in the backyard?  I'm out here with my firearm.  Can you come outside?"

Normally the neighbor asking you to come out into hte backyard because there was someone out there and they were armed would not be something one would like to do.  But, our neighbor is a police officer.

I got the shotgun out of the basement and loaded two rounds.  Tomorrow I'm going to buy the strongest floodlight I can find.  

I love living in the suburbs...

Happy day!

Background: Potty training has been coming along. Usually, it's us sitting her down on the toilet and certain times in the day and she can go like a champ. She has on occasion told us when she needed to go potty, but we usually are doing the directing.

Just a few minutes ago, I was tapping along on the computer when I saw Solei walking around my bedroom stripped down to her diaper. "What are you doing? Where are your jammies?" I asked her.

Solei announced, "I am going peepee in the potty."

Huh? Okay, I ran around to the bathroom to put her little helper seat on our toilet and when I came back, she was sitting sans diaper on her little potty that she'd dragged out into the room and put right in front of Curious George on the TV. Without. Me. And then, on further inspection, I realized she'd already gone potty. All by her blasted self. She didn't even want me to make a big deal about it becayse then she couldn't hear George.

Who would have ever thought urine could make me cry happy tears???

Freebie

I may be behind the boat here, but I found a faaabulous FREE program online called Picnik - a easy fabulous alternative to the expensive and confusing Photoshop. With just a bit of tweaking, check out what I did to this picture of Solei I adore:

There's so much you can do, I want to go tweaking and playing with my wedding photos now! Enjoy!

I'll take credit for this one

Nana to Solei, whole musing over pictures on a bulletin board at church: "Who is that?"

Our genius 2 year old: "Thomas Monson!"

Heck. YEAH!!!!!!!!!

Possibly the funniest 4 minutes of TV EH-VAH!!

Why yes, I am insane. Thanks for asking.

For the last few years I have had two life goals. One was to make cheese. I don’t exactly know what makes cheese so infatuating to me, but I think if I could go back and pick a career again, it might just be making fine cheeses (although I’m not sure I have the patience for it). My first birthday after I was married my wife was sweet enough to buy me a “home cheese kit” which allowed me to accomplish this goal. Since it was mozzarella, the patience thing wasn’t even an issue.

Life goal number two is just as random. After watching about a million episodes of MASH while I was in grad school I thought that watching those helicopters flying around looked pretty cool. Now, I do have this fear of falling. It’s not abnormal, but the same fear of standing on a ledge that I think most people have. Nevertheless, I think that flying in a helicopter would be really cool. Since it seems like an uncommon, yet accessible thing to do, I want to do it.

During 2008 I think I added one (or maybe two) to my list. My new life goal for 2008 is a little time sensitive due to inevitable mortality. My new life goal is to meet Mr T. Honestly, I would have loved to meet Fred (Mr) Rogers before he died, but never had the chance. All the interviews and presentations that I ever saw him give were so loving. Now, Mr T is not Mr Rogers and they are not the same, but if you look around enough, you can find some very touching personal interviews that Mr T has given about his life. He loves God and is grateful for everything he has. A small part of me thinks that he would make a great president (of the USA). He’s loving and tough at the same time.

Now, my final goal is most likely not going to happen for a few reasons. Reason one is that I fear bodyguards and what they could do to me. Reason two is that I am generally a pacifist and don’t typically attack people randomly. Reason three is that I most likely won’t ever get the chance to meet Dave Matthews. Yes, my “non” life goal is to punch Dave Matthews in the nose. I swear he is the anti-Christ and I want him to know that I will not stand for his tacit destruction of Christianity. EVIL I say!

My wife says that I need to keep these “Crazy” things to myself because her friends and family won’t be jealous that she got a great guy if they think I’m insane. Hm….

Budding Photographister

SO - The company I work for makes digital cameras. We started making them for preschoolers. a few weeks ago we sold off some functioning returns that we had and I bought one for my daughter. She LOVES the idea of taking pictures, but most of them come out like this:


They come out like this because, basically, my child thinks that the camera should always face you (she has a career in TV). Well, after some time and some long (and repetitive) conversations, she figured out that the camera goes the other way (most of the time).

So, now we get pictures like this:



Then we moved to a good picture of daddy (from the prospective of Solei of course):
I had to jump into this one:
Here's a close-up of our friend Pascal:
One of the cool things about this camera is that you can superimpose disney charactors on your picure (or just ignore your friends completely as seen below):

Here's mommy! (It took a lot of self control to not post the picture of mommy on the potty that our little girl took).
And FINALLY - she seems to have figured it out!

Awesome.

How to be the world's greatest houseguest

Words cannot describe how fabulous it is having Pascal here! He's the greatest houseguest for a myriad of reasons - let me count some ways!

* He entertains little children with greatest of ease!

* He doesn't get annoyed when certain tired and cranky pregnant people want to lay on the floor and do nothing - he'll just join you!

* He cooks. OH MY HECK does he cook!

*Jared and Mike actually like him. And they don't like ANYONE (except themselves).

* He'll teach your kid to use a climbing wall.

* He'll do this thing where he links all the computers and printers in your house and give you some music files that amounts to about 40-something days of continuous play before a song would repeat itself. YEAH. HE DID.

Only problem is, he keeps agreeing with Jared on all the dumb stuff he says. Like we need THAT. Aside from his obvious poor judgement, we are sure going to miss him. Thanks Pascal!!

the official 4th Year of Insanity video

4th Year from Reva Paget on Vimeo.

It's the annual year-in-recap video! It's shorter than usual because a broken hard-drive took about half of the pictures with it, but I gathered enough to highlight the good times of year 4. Enjoy!

4. Years. !!!!!!!

4 years ago today I went against my louder judgement and said "yes" to being sealed eternally to Jared. A few weeks ago when I realized we were closing in on year 4, I almost hyperventilated, realized how long ago the day was 4 years ago and how much had happened since then. I'm coming to terms with it - just finished out anniversary video (can't post it until Jared sees it first) - and I'm filled with a feeling of peace and joy.

A while back, my younger brother (you should really read his blog, it's HILARIOUS) asked me if this was how I'd pictured my life turning out. Honestly - no. I never expected to be this happy, loved, and have this much fun, all thanks to Jared. Nope, I'm not a rock star per se, but I'm supported in all I do and it makes my exploits that much more satisfying.

4 years - we've lived in one apartment, 2 continents and 4 houses, had 8 cars and 2 scooters, we're on 1. 2 kiddos now, 6 jobs between the 2 of us, and a few haircuts in between. Much love, sweetheart, thanks for 4 wonderful years!!!!


PS - Also - I had an ultrasound yesterday and the baby was DANCING! Wiggling and grooving, it was awesome!!

Totally Random...

Yesterday I filled the tank on my car for less than $15! That's amazing. That'll get me 300 miles or so. Not bad at all. I'm glad that we bought an old Saturn.

Today I came home from Church to find my daughter in the arms of my wife, their eyes linked as my beautiful wife told my daughter a story before nap time. Seeing two people you love love eachother that much is amazing. I feel very blessed.

Friday my wife and I had the chance to see a sealing (or wedding) in a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These are very sacred and special ceremonies. We were married almost 4 years ago in the same ceremony in a Temple in Denver. What an amazing blessing it is to be married for time and all eternity, instead of till death do you part. I am amazed how much I am able to love my wife and now our daughter and it brings me the greatest sence of comfort and joy to know that the three of us (soon to be four) will be able to live together as a family for eternity. I'm so happy for my friend who was married and know that she and her new husband will have that same joy and opportunity.

Finally - my headaches came back on Saturday with a vengence. Stress is my enemy. I'm working on massaging my own feet in the "headache" spots and I think it helped last night. I didn't get a headache and was able to sleep through the night. I'm grateful for my wife who loves me and helps me, even when she's the pregnant one...

Do they even make a fish autopsy??

Life has been really random these last few weeks. The wife, who currently carries our next offspring, is feeling the effects of said carriage. She's not the most happy of campers. Just as the holiday ended my headaches started coming back. For those of you who don't know - I get headaches once a year or so that (according to wikipedia) are the worst pain known to medical science. They are called cluster headaches. They were waking me up at 1am and keeping me up half the night. It's like training for a baby again.

So, I've tried everything for the headaches. The medication the doctor prescribes is $10 a pill - after insurance. I need at least one a day. So - the wife insisted that I try something different. So, I saw that melatonin is supposed to help. I started taking melatonin. Reflexology was suggested as a possible cure - so I subjected myself to an hour long foot massage. Oh the horrors. It was a very interesting experience. Look up reflexology on the interweb sometime if you are interested in knowing more.

As the woman rubbed my foot she would hit pressure points that actually hurt. These were tied to areas of my body or metaphysical aspects of my consciousness. Her findings were the following:
I am stressed.
I feel like I don't control my life at all.
I don't participate in anything that I enjoy (no stress outlet)
My creativity is being stifled

So - theoretically she rubbed the headache out of my body. Well - that night I didn't wake up with a headache. Then last night - I didn't have a headache. I think I might be better. I'm not sure I think that the reflexology was 100% the cause, I feel better and that's the most important thing.

Now for something totally random, our Daughter got two fish from Santa this year. She LOVES fish and we couldn't think of anything that she would want besides a fish tank. It was a good gift in theory.

Yesterday I got home from work and our daughter ran up to me and said "Daddy, it's almost time to feed the fish!" Well, I said okay. We went to the fish tank and the tank was empty. I turned to my wife and said "where are the fish??" Well, upon further inspection, I found one partialy sucked into the filter system (I assume he died before the filter got him). The other guy was totally gone - totally. Well, then came the interesting task - to start looking for the missing fish without our two year old understanding that the fish was gone. We spotted the fish on the floor. So, no more fish.

What I don't understand is how on earth did both fish die? One apparently committed suicide by jumping from the tank, the other was just dead. Maybe it was murder-suicide? I never trusted that gold colored fish. He was always a spaz and picking on the black fish. The Black fish was always sickly. There aren't fish autopsys, are there??

Reason #967 Jared is the awesomest guy ever

Today after our meal at the restaurant at Ikea, both of us decided we really needed a hot dog from the food place downstairs. Since lines all over were indecently long, he headed down to get them while I gathered up Solei's stuff and my parents and followed. Just before we got to him, Jared called and said "hey, the line was shorter than I thought, so I'm waiting for you. I already got your weiner."

.... "what??"

At this point, we could see each other, and he smiled big waved his arm at me and called across the lobby "I GOT YOUR WEINER!!!!"

(apparently, he also repeatedly asked the ladies at the food stand for weiners. "Ma'am, are those my weiners?") Sooooo mature.

Also, he actually REQUESTED I get him these jammies for Christmas:



Why yes, they do glow in the dark.

New Child

The wife has spread it all over the internet except here -

We are having another child. The expected delivery date is sometime in Mid- August. We are very excited. This week the eyes, nostrils and ears will develop (week 6).

We are both very excited!!

Strange how things work out

So, I spent the afternoon today visiting a warehouse location in Atlanta that I am considering as an option for my company. When I was convinced to stay with Digital Blue I was told that I could focus my efforts on changing the way our company operated their supply chain. I've spent the last few weeks really concentrating on these opportunities.

This afternoon I came to the realization that I have a once in a lifetime opportunity. I have essentially been given free full control to totally re-create our whole supply chain. It's a big opportunity that I would most likely never have.

Sometimes I think we have to stop and really look at where we are in life and see how amazing some things are.

Reason #863 Solei is a flipping genius

She insists on calling oyster crackers "hexagon crackers". Yes, we taught her what a hexagon was, and no, we didn't call the the crackers hexagons - she just figured it out herself.

We know where the brains come from, but luckily I know she got at least SOMEthing from my genes because she's also emotionally needy and super hott!

Solei-isms for the day

During prayer on lunch: "Thank you for Mommy's toothbrush and bless her toothpaste."

Then after lunch: "Daddy, that was apple-tizing!"

Meeting a girl older than her at the airport:
Girl: "How old are you?"
Solei: " One!"
Us: "No you're not!"
Girl: "Wait, are you 2 or 3?"
Solei: "I'm So1ei P@get!"

sappy video

For anyone who knows my mom and has 8 free minutes, here's the video I made of her first 60 times around the sun:

It's not the best editing job I've ever done, but it was done super fast and it made her bawl her eyes out, so I take it as a success.

So warning - Aaron Paget: it is long and boring to those unaquainted with the lady, so do NOT click on the play button. The boredom you will experience not having known the woman will possibly make one of your eyes fall out. You should probably send me cookies for saving you 8 minutes.

HAPPY 60th MOM!!!!

Imagine you are the awesomest woman ever, approaching your 60th birthday. You don't make a big deal about your birthdays (in fact, you keep your age a secret from lots of people, including and most importantly, your daughter in law). But, your husband has planned a big trip to Hawaii to celebrate and you grudgingly go along with it. Your only regret is that it's over Thanksgiving and you wish you could have your family all together for the holiday, but you know that's not happening since your kids live far, far away.

The vacation is a success - your husband treats you like royalty, wines and dines you and you even go snorkeling and take a surfing lesson! You reluctantly fly home, knowing that Colorado snow and your crazy stressful job teaching elementary school awaits the next day. Your second oldest son picks you from the airport and has a surprise waiting for you when you pull up to the house - he woke up early that morning and shoveled your driveway for you! Tired but grateful, you walk into your house. Wait a second... who cleaned the kitchen....

Suddenly, little figures appear, walking towards you - holding yellow daisies. What are your grandchildren doing in your kitchen?? They are in Atlanta, right?? And Kentucky?? You start screaming. And what is that - is that your son - and your other son - and your OTHER son - and your daughter and daughter-in-law - and your neighbors snapping pictures at you???

.... I don't think I can give the whole scene justice, but believe you me, it was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. It's been in the works for a year to surprise mom for her big birthday since Jane discovered mom's real age and decided to throw the ultimate surprise party. Oh, the lies!! Oh, the deception!! With so many people in on it, you'd think that SOMEONE would have messed up and ruined the secret, but by a miracle, it was a total shock!! We didn't even jump out and yell surprise because we were afraid we would give her a heart attack. Heck, we almost did! We came from New York, from Atlanta, from LA, from Kentucky, from 10 miles away. We actually came in to celebrate Thanksgiving together, unbeknownst to mom. Dad knew and kept it all in amazingly.

So yeah, I blew it at the end of NaBloPoMo, but poor Jane and I were doing it together and the biggest thing we were doing we couldn't blog about since mom checks our blogs every now and then (it's been TORTURE!!!)- the last 3 days I've been so surrounded by preparing and spending every waking second with my wonderful family - and putting together a fabulous sappy photo mpongage of my mom's life, I didn't have a second to give to the blogs. I think it's a pretty awesome reason:)

Thankful

My family has had the same tradition for Thanksgiving every year since I was a little girl – there’s a long story about the pioneers attached to it, but the result is that we place 3 kernels of corn next to each person’s plate and we go around the table, expressing 3 things that we are thankful for that year.
It was all very serious until a few years ago when Uncle Rand picked the law that states we can take a “Right turn on red”. So in creeped some wacky ones. You HAVE to use one of yours to express thankfulness for a spouse or you’ll be in trouble later, but then you have 2 left to use at will. Jared has used “the interweb” as a thankful kernel for more than one year now.
So aside from the deep and meaningful things I have to be thankful for, here is my B-list of thanks:

• Goldfish crackers
  
• Pacifiers
  
• Space heaters
  
• Cell phones
  
• Digital cameras
  
• Sour cream and onion dip
  
• Laptops
  
• The dollar spot at Target
  
• The outrageous sales as a result of the economic downturn
  
• Body pillows
  
• Technology (“yeees, I love technology… but noooot as much as you you seeee….”
  
• Automatic doors on my van
  
• Chicken
  
• PBS
  
• Portable DVD players
  
• Those modest tee shirt companies for the tall girls like moi
  
• Mascara
  
• Chocolate
  
• After holidays 75% off sales
  
• Frozen dinners
  
• Super Target/Walmart
  
• That thing that clips my kid’s pacifier to her shirt
  
• Prescription meds
  
• Knee socks
  
• Metabolism
  
• Toilet paper
  
• Feet
  
• Contacts and sunglasses
  
• Sweaters
  
• Toast
  
• Nursery
  
• Drive-throughs
  
• Eyebrows
  
• Baby magazines with articles like “Why it’s okay to be a crappy parent!”
  
• Ponytail holders
  
• TV shows we can watch on the web because we were putting the little monster down while they were on the first time
  
• Being ridiculously good looking
  
• “For English, press 1”
  
• The interweb

That’s not in any way a complete list, but it outlines my priorities well I think. Hope ya’ll have plenty of stupid things to be thankful for too!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

this says Floyd wrote it, but he didn't - just lazy Rocketgirl on his computer

60 is the new 20

Celebrating my mom's 60th today - my parents took surfing lessons in Maui. DANG they're cool.

she's funny

Solei-isms for the day:

I'm singing a song ...

Solei: Mommy - STOP SINGING!!!

Me: You do not tell someone to stop making music! People can sing and sing all day long! *continuing singing*

she thinks deeply for a way out of this rule... then, the lightbulb goes off:

Solei: Mommy - FREEZE!

grrrrrr.....

then tonight, we were lazy and headed to Wendy's for dinner. We didn't tell HER that's where we were going, but the second we walked in the front door, she realized where we were and ran to the counter, stood on her tip-toes and shouted to the cashier:

"I need french fries please!!!"

We, including the entire Wendy's staff, just laughed our brains out. She continued:

"And chicken and chocolate!"

she paused... looked up at the lady and said with huge puppy-dog eyes:

"I need money."

5 and 5

So, I clicked in the pictures folder, clicked on the 5th folder and loaded up the 5th piture in it without looking, and this is what popped up.

That's me sitting back the band "float" in 2005 for the fall festival parade out here. While waiting, we decided to jam out, and we attracted a crowd... you can't take me any place!

(and yes, those pants still fit. AWESOME!)

Just a quick note to say - WOW we are blessed. I don't do math, but if I had to add up the stuff my student's parents have given me for Solei, the dollar amount would be astronomical!

I haven't had to buy her clothes in a YEAR, and toys and books and toys just roll in. My parents are the BEST! I teach their kids violin, and they are just thrilled to be unloading the stuff their kids have outgrown to somone who will use and appreciate it, and boy howdy do we!

Tonight we got out a huge set of Duplo Legos that we were given last week, and I think Solei had almost as much fun as Jared and I did :)

One mom gave us a huge box of VHS tapes she couldn't sell at garage sale - including 8 Veggie Tales tapes. I'd never seen them, but a few weeks ago when I had to stay home with a sick kiddo and I was trying to find something Sunday appropriate for 2 sick and cranky girls, I found the tapes she'd given me included the story of Esther and Daniel and the Lion's Den. She loved them, and they were WAY more interesting than those BOM tapes. Now she asks for the "cucumber stories" all the time.

I'm so glad my mom raised me with violin so I could be a mom and a teacher at the same time, and the extra blessings just keep pouring in. I am finding SO MANY things to be thankful for this year!

Beauty Shop

Guess what I did with to Solei today?? Painted her fingernails!!! A lovely lovely shade of pink. I played "beauty shop" with her so she'd let me put her hair up out of her eyes and cut her nails, and I decided to just go for it.

Partly, it was fun and gave me that happy feeling in my heart when I realize how thankful I am heavely Father gave me a daughter to share these things in. But then, after it all - I had this crazy sinking feeling - her hands looked so... not like my baby's hands, but a little girl's hands. Ak. AK.

whoops

It's bedtime and I didn't get to posting yet... okay, random thought for the day -
how weird is it that Solei and I have full conversations now?? It feels so natural, like she's been DYING to communicate since birth but every now and then it hits me - she SPEAKS! Pretty dang well, too. Her prayers are loooong and include everyone and everything she knows. Odd, odd to hear her asking to bless Cookie monster and triangles...
okay night!

Random Solei-isms

She climbs out of the tub, then flops in face first...

Daddy: What are you doing??
Solei: I'm a fish!
Daddy: Huh.. What kind of fish?
Solei: A kissy fish!!
*complete with kissing face*

*****later, and less adorable******

Peeping into my face, smiling brightly-

"Mommy, you're a poophead!"

Lazy and in a rush, I'm cross posting this. It's a video from a Tres De Solei performance a bit ago. Watch it and dream YOU were there, while I run off to yet another rehearsal. Cherrio!

During breakfast, Solei saw my rice crispies I was chowing down on a laughed:

Mommy, you're eating BUGS!!

It's crazy looking at pictures from the first year of her life now - THIS is the personality that was dying to get out.

No more boss...

Sorry these aren’t as fun as they could be…

So – my boss was fired today. As if my job weren’t insane enough. Starting today I report directly to the CEO. Our company is not doing well, even taking into account the current situation. Our CEO decided change in our execution was not coming fast enough.

I’ve only had a few bosses that I really really liked. This is one of them. I’m a little speechless. I’m waiting for a week or so to see what happens.

And I got another e.mail from Apple today telling me to keep them in mind if anything changes...

Sunday, Lovely Sunday...

This weekend our stake presidency was re-organized. Our stake president was released and his second counselor was called as the stake president. (for all you non-mormons out there, think of a new Bishop being brought in to take over a diocese). This happens about every 10 years.



To make the change, the Church sent out someone from Utah. This time around we were assigned an Apostle - Elder L. Tom Perry. Now, there are only 12 of these in the world, so a visit like this is quite an event. We were blessed to hear him speak on both Saturday night and Sunday.



During the meeting I felt very inspired to better my life and live like a better person. I guess that's the point. The theme was "Letting your light shine."

quick

Went to stake conference tonight and got to see and hear L. Tom Perry speak - it was amazing!!! Now off to sleep so I can be up and awake for tomorrow's session...

high heels

Coming up in January, I am thrilled to be in one of my dearest friend's weddings. SO THRILLED!!! The girl is a ball, and her fiance is hilllarious - even proposed dressed like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, song and everything. The theme is all swingin' 4o's and other brides are all these lovely petite gals, so the bridesmaids getups are geared towards the shorter end of the spectrum. So the shoes - though ADORABLE - make me 8 feet tall. I've had to practice walking in them!

I tried getting a picture of them today, but Solei wanted to wear them and followed me all over the house screaming. So, I got a picture of both!



I eventually gave in and let her try them on, She actually walked really well in them!

Did anyone doubt I'd have a little diva??

what I did today

The plow pose in yoga! It looks crazy painful, but it isn't too bad. It just made me feel like I was awesome ;) Also, I went to the kiddie gym with Solei,the one we went to with Nana and the boys on Monday. Nothing new there, just thought I'd post a nifty shot I got of Nana on Monday:

blogging about another blog

I'm lazy tonight. Today's post will be about another blog I adore - ikea hacker. I have been obsessing over their ideas ever since I came back to the states and dream of doing something like the creative brains that contribute there - this entryway table is pure genius.

Unfortunately I have no skills, no creativity and a toddler that makes meandering about the As-Is section now near impossible. Le sigh - at least there's a blog where I can dream!

like mommy

A few months ago I walked into the kitchen and discovered this:

She'd found my shoes, carried them across the house to the kitchen so she could have a chair to lean on and and tried to figure out how to put them on like mommy. I stood there for a minute undetected and marveled at her carful concentration.

I'm just so blasted thankful I was there to see it - and had the camera nearby. She's one special little girl.

monday monday

The two awesomest parts of my day:

1. Got Nana and cousins to do our incredibly fun (and cheap) music class/gym morning with us. (Katherine did remarkably well following the boys around). I've been telling everyone how fabulous it is but no one has believed HOW awesome it is until now. I love being right!


2. Family Home Evening at PapaNana house - a lesson on thankfulness and saying please. The best part? The activity which involved everyone sitting around the table and Jared holding a cup of butterscotch chips - handing them out to people ONLY if they said "please" and "thank you." The kids caught on pretty quick, but when I tried to get Solei to say them at one point, I told her to say the "Magic Words" - she looked earnestly at her daddy, held out her hand for candy and said "Magic words!"

Happy Monday!

I sure do like my husband!

One of my most favorite pastimes is torturing my husband. This fact itself tortures him. So I accosted him with the camera today and found a place online to make animated gifs to capturethe progression of his annoyance today after dinner.

Heh. You can make one yourself here!

Now this one was HIS idea. He recruited Aaron and Dad to give a tutorial on the progression of the men's hairlines in our family.

Classy.

Our Modern Times...

Forgive the posting here, but I had to get this off my chest.

Many of you may not know this about me but, I’ve had a very close relationship to homosexuals and their struggles. I’ve sat with a gay friend in my arms as he sobbed as he struggled with dealing with his same sex attraction. I’ve attended support groups with friends who needed some companionship to get up the courage to go. I’ve never stopped loving my gay friends, in spite of my disagreeing with their choices.

California Proposition 8 has brought up a lot of questions. I supported this proposition and this is why:

There are no provisions in any law (because no law was ever passed) protecting churches from legal action for not performing or recognizing same-sex marriage. This means that there are no stopping a homosexual couple from suing a church for not performing a marriage. You may think it is silly but, this has happened ALREADY in the United States.

Unfortunately, specifically in California, this law does nothing to change the rights of any person. The only change is the terminology used. Each right given to an individual in the state of California by marriage is available without a marriage. According to Family Code 297.5 - Any two individuals in the state of California may enter into a domestic partnership, which, by statute, grants them all legal rights and responsibilities of married individuals. So, why do they need the title “Marriage”? Personally, I also oppose these domestic partnerships and any other law that condones sin.

Legally speaking, when you open the door to re-definition of marriage you open it all the way. This means that Warren Jeffs and his followers are equally able to challenge the definition to marriage using the same arguments and precedent that our same-sex marriage proponents have used – requesting that their multi-wife marriages be recognized. Frighteningly, they actually have an additional weapon in their arsenal – the first amendment, which guarantees their right to freedom of religion. Their religion has taught polygamy much longer than it has been illegal. I come from a religion that taught polygamy. I consider myself grateful that I am not asked to practice it. The thought of polygamy becoming legal again opens the door for the my church to re-institute the doctrine – something I am not excited about being asked to do (this may be the reason so many of the LDS fought so hard for Prop 8).

In addition, if we abandon the values on which our country and society was founded, you create a totally arbitrary and fluid set of morals upon which our legal system is based. Popular culture becomes the basis for our legal and moral code. Looking at how much popular culture has changed in the last 100 years and looking at the direction it is going, I’m really not interested in handing over the legal “keys” to our culture.

Finally, and this will only have significance to members of the LDS church, in October I raised my right hand to publically confirm that I supported the church leaders. How can I very well not put stock into what they counsel me after doing that? If we look through the history of the LDS church we see that when people strayed from the prophet they suffered (think Haun’s Mill). Jesus himself taught us to love the sinner and not the sin. Nowhere in any scripture that I have read have I seen the sin of homosexuality, or any other sin, condoned in any form. I love and support everyone I know in all of their righteous desires that I can. This will not change.

It saddens me that there are any Christians at all who would be comfortable with opening the door to gay marriage – and that those who are for this change in definition of marriage are allowed to use the word bigot to describe those who continue to hold up the values upon which our society was founded.

As a note - there have been lots of great thinkers who have affected my thoughts on this matter. My brother-in-law posted a great post here: http://dandafamily.blogspot.com/2008/10/defense-of-traditional-marriage.html
And I was also very inspired by Princeton's Dr. Robert George's address here:
http://www.byub.org/devotionals/?selectedMonth=10&selectedYear=2008
My wife as done wonders to help me to articulate my opinions by challenging me on them.

violining

Today I attended an introductory class to the Suzuki methood for parents and teachers. That's the methood of violin that I learned from age three and have taught for over 10 years. The reason I went was that it's now required for teachers who want to do further certification, but I am also curious about seeing things from a different perspective.

Suzuki depends on a high level of parent interaction - from attending classes with their kids, listening to the music constantly to being their teacher at home and practicing with them every day. I've been telling parents how to do this for years, but now that Solei is entering the age that kids are encouraged to begin - I'm suddenly feeling lost and terrified that I'll introduce it wrong and it will be a total disaster!

It was a HUGE help to attend the class. It talked about the main points of Suzuki and was a helpful reminder to me of what I already know.

In the method, violin is used as a tool to teach patience, confidence, discipline, cooperation, self-control, fine motor skills... well, you name it, it teaches it. The goal is NOT to grow professional musicians - but good people. The side product is they end up playing violin at a very high level.

I don't know how soon I will get Solei a teacher, but I'm already starting the framework - playing the CD for her, singing the songs, teaching her rhythms, and letting her try her "own violin" while supervised (it was the one I started on at 3).

But after all these years of smiling at the child and parent for 30 minutes a week and telling them what to do - it's now my turn to see if I can practice what I preach. Wish us luck!!