Friday the 13th

I'm not a superstitious person, but when the shoe fits....

Garry was just in a fender-bender. Apparently last night's snow flurry and today's sub-freezing temperatures have made for slick roads. Slow driving and early braking just weren't enough to get out of the neighborhood safely this time, darn it. Thankfully, Garry is safe and the damage to both cars is minimal.

The other car.

Our car.

This incident reminded me of February 14, 2000, when our Accord (the car Garry drives now) was just a few months old. Garry and I were BYU students living at Wymount Terrace. I drove home from work and parked the car but forgot to set the parking brake (or something...we're not sure). A few minutes later I got a phone call from a neighbor whose apartment was rattled when our vehicle backed into her bedroom wall. Our car had rolled backwards across the parking lot, taken down a disabled parking space sign, and bumped into the brick-walled apartment building. Lemme tell ya, I felt like a winner. Garry's got nothing on my idiocy! I just might have to dig up a picture to prove it.

Perhaps this Friday the 13th omen is telling us to save our pennies for something besides curtains and large televisions. Rainy (er, icy) days always come calling when we're close to doing something fun!

Busy, busy boy

Keeping up with active toddlers is not for the faint of heart. I know I'm not alone in my crazy-boy-chasing, but I thought I'd post these pictures, which capture the essence of an afternoon with Gavin. To say he is busy is a serious understatement.

Since discovering the joy of chair climbing, Gavin has learned to empty his bookshelf. While this keeps him occupied for quite a while, the integrity of his books has suffered. He is also incapable of righting this wrong by himself, of course, so I usually only clean up the mess once a day.

Another new discovery: opening the pantry. Yep, he can reach the doorknob, and I have yet to figure out a child-proofing method for bi-fold doors. Gavin is especially fond of raiding the goldfish crackers. He was dipping into the sugar and then the crackers before I caught him this time.

Perhaps the grossest thing I have found Gavin doing this week: plunging the toilet. It was just water, but eeewwww....

Here's Gavin perched atop an office chair, wearing the slippers he stole right off my feet. If I want to get something done on the computer, I'll often give up the chair (and/or my footwear) so he'll play happily in the room. Am I a pushover or what?

Apparently the dining table makes a great playground. I often finding him walking the length of the table. This time, since he was sitting, I snapped a picture. I am significantly more disturbed when I find him on the kitchen island; he can scale stools, too.

Getting ready in the morning is always a challenge, especially if I leave the job until after Garry and Zachary leave. I usually hold Gavin captive in the Johnny Jump-Up in the doorway, but sometimes he roams. And gets into everything. He loves absconding with tubes and creams from the drawers.

The shower is another favorite hang-out. He thinks it's hilarious to stomp around in the puddles. And usually I let him. I just make sure my razor is on a high shelf first.

Using the dishwasher cannot be done while Gavin is awake...unless he's strapped into his booster seat. This is why.

Whenever I go downstairs, the first thing I do is close the doors to the bathroom, the game closet, and the boys' bedroom. If Gavin spots the boys' door open, even a crack, he squeals and RUNS straight for it. He knows that on the other side is a delightful ladder he can climb, which leads to a high, bouncy bed that lets him touch the ceiling. What fun!

The sixth challenge

Here's a tag from Kari. I'm happy to participate if it means putting off the laundry.

1. Go to the photo folder in your computer
2. Go to the 6th folder of photos.
3. Go to the sixth picture.
4. Put the picture on your blog and description of it.
5. Invite six friends to join the challenge.

Here are three delightful people at girls' camp in June 2006. Kori (whose face you see) and I were church youth leaders for the 14- and 15-year-old girls, and on this day we visited them at their annual summer camp. Kori and I had a small group, and the two girls Kori is seated with were our most fun and active girls at the time. We had a lovely day touring the camp, playing games, and eating lunch with them. Now the girls are seniors in high school, scheduled to graduate in June! I will always consider them "my girls."

I tag clodhopper, angieinpink, joeyship, rachbechep, reddladybug, and hollyoak.

Gone with the Wind

This is not a post about Scarlett O'Hara.



It is a post about trash and recycling cans getting blown over by gale-force winds at nine o'clock in the morning. It is a post about being grateful that at least the garbage had been collected so only the semi-clean recycling had to be plucked from bushes and trees and the neighbor's back yard. It is a post about being grumpy that as soon as Gavin wakes up I have to take the kids out in the wind and on to Wal-mart because Tyler has the preschool snack tomorrow and we only have one diaper in the house.

And that is all.

Guests make the party

I love the Russian proverb that says, "The guest has not to thank the host, but the host the guest." Being in charge of ward activities that go well really makes me feel that way.

Last night's High School Reunion was delightful! Ward members provided high school memorabilia for the decor, and adventurous ones also dressed as they did in high school. The letter jackets, poodle skirts, and big bangs came out to play....what fun!

As the guests arrived, they made name tags (to which many added their graduation year) and started completing a "classmate quiz." Each person had to find 20 people who had done specific things, like been in the honor society, skipped classes, drove a truck to school, was a varsity athlete, etc. That definitely got the conversations flowing! It was a very fun mixer activity.

Eating happened next. People either brought a goody to dip in the chocolate fountain or a simple appetizer. Once everyone had a plate, we started playing a game of Family Feud, which was based on surveys about high school that we distributed one Sunday last month. The volunteer contestants were hilarious and our host did a great job. I was a little sloppy with my "survey says" results board, but people helped out in the end. The winning team got 200 points during the speed round, so they went home with a slice of cheesecake and a gift certificate to a local ice cream shop.

For a few minutes after that, guests took turns reading aloud the wacky things people did in high school (these were also gleaned from the surveys). It was fun to learn who dated spouses in high school, who was voted best dressed, who was a scholar-athlete, etc.





And then there was dancing! The DJ we hired was worth every penny just to see the Bishop do the Chicken Dance and a couple of guys bust a move to rockin' 90's tunes. Once the lights when down and the music started pumping, though, I rocketed back in time 15 years and the wallflower in me came out. I hated dancing then and I hate it now, but it was super fun to watch the less inhibited folks enjoy themselves!




Garry took 124 awesome pictures, and there are way too many gems to post here, but I made a new album on my Facebook page if you want to check them out.

{Almost} famous?

Last year I started following a blog written by a guy who calls himself the Normal Mormon Husband. The first post I read on the NMH blog, entitled "Pregnancy Brain," had me laughing out loud, so I became a fan. I enjoy the author's dry humor and the way he highlights issues common to a lot of parents raising families in the LDS faith. Little did I know that a bit of my personal life would one day be a subject put before his readers.

Last week NMH issued a call for people who needed mediation on something silly and inconsequential. As a joke, I submitted a comment, explaining that Garry and I have had a long-standing debate regarding the name of our first-born girl. Since we've been married almost eleven years without producing a female offspring, this has been a lengthy debate indeed, but we now find ourselves faced with the need to resolve our little dispute. Seriously, I asked for mediation to give myself (and Garry) a laugh. The truth is that I really don't care what other people think; Garry and I are grown-ups and can decide on our own what to name our child, thankyouverymuch.

And then NMH responded. He wanted to do a mediation post on our great name debate. Garry and I thought this was hilarious (and so did my mom and sister, who follow the blog and saw my comment). And so NMH and I exchanged a few emails and Garry and I had a few laughs. We were honestly interested in what the public thought of our "great dilemma," and a baby name poll on the NMH blog seemed like a fun way to get a bunch of opinions.

This morning the post appeared (and yes, this was the "delightful blog post" to which I alluded earlier this week). It was funny. It generated lots of comments. In addition to many of the NMH's opinions and witticisms, it included a side-bar voting widget with five name options we picked for the purpose of his post.

Here's the problem: in my zeal to avoid tainting the public by exposing The Name in Question, I gave the NMH a liberty he shouldn't have had -- the power to skew our poll. He unilaterally axed the name Garry and I have been arguring about and didn't allow it to be voted upon! Lest you think we feel a great injustice and hold malice toward the NMH, let me be clear: we still think the whole thing is pretty silly and inconsequential (see the end of paragraph two), not to mention quite amusing. The blog comments alone have made for some very entertaining reading!

I fully intended to let the issue die with that post, since the poll is meaningless without The Name in Question. We had our chuckles, and we know that sometime before May we'll figure out what to name our little girl. However, I have already gotten several emails from friends (and one even posted about our "star sighting" on her blog), so I figured I'd better offer a direct link -- and the background story -- to my dear readers and see what you have to say!

Are you ready? Check it out: Normal Mormon Mediation: Name That Baby! Be sure to leave a comment here to let me know you did.

So NMH, if you're reading this, thanks for our 15 minutes of Normal Mormon fame! It will be fun to see what the poll results are in a week. But if you want to know what the REAL results turn out to be, you'll just have to follow my blog. Because we can name our baby girl ourselves, thankyouverymuch.

From the archives

One of my "chill" activities today has been going through a box of high school memorabilia. What a riot! The yearbooks and scrapbooks and photos and plaques and trinkets I've saved sure brought back the memories. Just seeing people's messages in my yearbook -- their handwriting, even -- made it almost seem like I was walking the halls of good old Mesa High. That being said, you couldn't pay me enough to repeat those years.

Our scanner is down for the count, so I tried to get photos of a few highlights in my box o' goodies. Hopefully some of my MHS counterparts are reading this and will laugh right along with me. Enlarge the pictures for maximum entertainment.

In no particular order...

My siblings and me in the Fall of 1994. I was a junior at the time. Now we are 29, 28, 24, 22, 20, and 15, respectively.

Me with my letter jacket -- back then, my pride and joy. My parents surprised me with it after my first cross-country season, which turned out much more successful than any of us anticipated.

And now we see some real gems...this is scrapbooking at its finest!

This is the sweet boy who took me to Junior Prom. He asked me by taping a sheet of butcher paper over the frame of the front door to our house and filling the space between the paper and the door with popcorn and tootsie rolls. I had to find his name in one of the tootsie roll wrappers. He was a delightful date -- one of the best I had in high school.

These photos are from the date that precipitated Homecoming 1994. We were all on the cross-country team together, and even though we'd just run in (and won) a Regional meet the night before, our date included a rigorous hike. Good thing we were in fabulous shape, right?

The aforementioned Regional Meet -- we were the surprise back-to-back champions. I'm in the middle of the bottom photo in red shorts.

As you can see, my world revolved around cross-country. These photos are from my senior season, which was still fun in spite of a lovely concussion I sustained during the traditions assembly during the first week of school.

My Redd cousins and older siblings will appreciate this fab-u-lous scrapbook page...and the hilarious California trip it documents. Hi, Dream Boy!

Another silly dance. I went WAY out of my comfort zone to dress like this (I'm in the dress on the right, and dead center in the group photo).

One of the biggest surprises of my senior year: being crowned Prom Queen. This photo brings back memories and emotions of all varieties. Wow.

Back in the day when I thought I was a good singer, I was in a little group of girls that performed together occasionally. We had a lot of fun. We nailed "Amazing Grace" at Baccalaureate...or so we thought. I wonder if we were really good or just teenager-choir-junkies good?

Some snapshots of graduation. I'm in the middle. Thanks for clarifying the bottle cap around my neck, Chad. It was a silly inside joke for a small group of friends, and I think I'd prefer to keep it that way!

And who could forget the infamous backpacking trip I took after graduation? A rabid skunk attacked me in my sleep in the middle of the night. I had to leave camp early, hike out with my "rescue party," drive four hours back to civilization, and get treated for rabies!

I read the comics in the newspaper every day as a teenager and felt a huge hole in my life when Calvin & Hobbes stopped providing daily amusement! (Life was pretty dang simple for this to be a dramatic occurrence in my life!) This photo is of a New Year's Eve party I went to for the ringing in of 1996 -- graduation year.

A fun page of yearbook messages. "Don't ever change! Have an awesome summer! Don't get married while I'm on my mission! LYLAS!" And lots of really wonderful things, too.

Can you spot me on this page of seniors?

Ah, that was fun. Our high school reunion-themed ward party tomorrow night ought to be a blast.

t.g.i.f.

It's three o'clock in the a.m. and I can't sleep.

I was dreaming bizarre things before I woke up. Something about camping in a wooded glen, talking to Garry and my mother about jury duty, and then needing to find the outhouse. So I started running (yes, running, in my awkward state) up a giant, forested hill until I reached the summit. Then I turned onto a dirt road that became an urban road and I ran into a guy from college that I haven't slapped eyes on since the Fall of 2001.

We chatted amiably as we both ran along, as though we were both out for a leisurely jog. I was amazed that I could keep up with him, and I wasn't panting at all. He asked about my kids, I asked about his wife, and then I said, "Here's my stop -- catch ya later!" and watched him run away. Then I pulled out a key, opened the door to a Motel 6-ish place, and went to sleep in the bed. In the dream I woke up at dawn when the migrant workers in the room next to me started blaring their radios as they got ready for the day.

When I woke up in my actual bed, I thought I smelled rotten eggs...aka a gas leak...so I got up and sniffed around the house and checked on my babies and decided I was completely insane.

I was also completely awake. Still am.

But I'm not so worried about it. Because today, for the first time this week, I don't have something on my calendar at 9:00 a.m. No medical appointments, babysitting endeavors, play groups, registrations, volunteering, or errands. No giant projects hanging over my head. I fully intend to stay in my pajamas all morning, just because I can. Sure, there's some stuff I have to do for the ward party tomorrow night, and I ought to sweep the floor. And make dinner (gag). But thankfully, the house is pretty clean and it's not laundry day and my giant sewing and birthday and Valentines and organizational messes of the week are finally put away.

So here's to a lazy Friday. Mmmm...sounds good.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

It is 12:37 p.m. and the current outside temperature is 57 degrees. The perpetual blue sky and sunshine in Colorado Springs are always good for my soul, but this -- this warm, delicious taste of glorious Spring -- just makes me happy.

I've been *forcing* the children to play outside every afternoon while this weather lasts, and incredibly, to Zach and Tyler, it's a chore to play in our giant backyard with no friends. Go figure. But today is playgroup day, and Tyler, Gavin, and I spent part of the morning in the park with some of our best buddies.

Gavin was a delight to watch as he explored the play structure. Now that he's a climber, he's reasonably safe and content on the smaller structures. He was amused for quite a while, and even chased some dogs across the grassy field.

Tyler is constantly complaining about the lack of play dates in his life, so this week has been fabulous for him. Our newly-formed babysitting co-op means friends at our place every Tuesday morning, and I plan to farm him out as often as is feasible so he gets more play time with other kids. Today he enjoyed romping around the park with some of his buddies.

All was well and good until some of the kids busted out their snacks...and then Gavin became the resident food stealer. We finally had to leave because he wasn't satisfied with the food and drink Mommy brought and his mooching was driving everyone (especially me) crazy. I took the picture on the left when we got back in the car, which offers evidence of the pb&j sandwich he stole from Adri, mixed with sand from the playground. The next picture was taken at home -- five minutes later!

Another happy note: Baby Girl continues to have a strong heartbeat and all seemed well with her at my appointment this morning. I have my list of pregnancy complaints, but hearing that reassuring whoosh-whoosh-whoosh and feeling her little kicks make the hard stuff not quite so bad. And if she comes out half as cute as her big brothers, we'll be set.