Humor Me For A Minute

I just finished reading Brandon Sanderson's latest novel Way Of Kings.  It was a whopping 1001 pages.  Would I recommend it?  I'm not sure yet.  It's astonishingly brilliant, philosophical, mythological, religious, fiction.  Parts of it were tedious, violent, and just plain beyond my ability to understand.  Although I enjoyed the challenge.  It reminded me a lot of Crime and Punishment but with a lot more story wrapped around it.  If you're up for the challenge, I commend you. (Just to note: I've loved every single one of his other books but the others were simple compared to this).

There was a part I read last night that really struck a chord with me.  I want to share it.

Once upon a time there was a King who decided to travel across his country on foot, alone, and penniless to his Holy City on the other side.  It was a long journey, I'm imagining the equivalent of walking across the US or something.  When he finally arrived he was thin and haggard looking.  After being taken care of by his many attendants he sat down to dinner  and was asked the purpose of his excursion.  Couldn't he have just taken the simple, easy, and common route to the holy city? He said,

"For my answer I removed my sandals and proffered my callused feet.  They were comfortable upon the table beside my half-consumed tray of grapes.  At this point, the expressions of my companions proclaimed that they thought me daft, and so I explained by relating the stories of my trip.  One after another, like stacked sacks of tallew, stored for the winter season.  I would make flatbread of them soon, then stuff it between these pages.'

'Yes, I could have traveled quickly.  But all men have the same ultimate destination.  Whether we find our end in a hallowed sepulcher or a pauper's ditch, all save the Heralds themselves must dine with the Nightwatcher.'

'And so, does the destination matter?  Or is it the path we take?  I declare that no accomplishment has substance nearly as great as the road used to achieve it.  We are not creatures of destinations.  It is the journey that shapes us.  Our callused feet, our backs strong from carrying the weight of our travels, our eyes open with the fresh delight of experiences lived.'

So, it's possible that this hit me because my back is definitely feeling the weight of my travels right now but I really appreciated the insight that our struggles, the weights we carry, shape who we are.  Before this pregnancy I felt like I had reached a destination.  I was healthy, strong, and enjoying freedoms I had longed for for years.  Getting pregnant felt like a set back.  But this short story opened my eyes that maybe instead, this is a new journey.  One that is hard, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  And yet I can feel myself changing, finding new meaning in my life and finding more to my limits, along with increasing my own potential.  And it hit me that it's possible I will look back on this journey one day and delight in the experience, knowing that I reached for more, and also knowing that the journey was hard.  But I think this King was saying that sometimes it's better for the journey to be hard.  There's more to learn that way and more to become before our final destination.

Primary Program

This was our first year with all of our kids participating in the Primary Program.  I guess it will be our last year for a while too.  It was a great program as always but some of the highlights for me were:

- Cameron playing the opening song, "I Know That My Savior Loves Me" with all the Primary kids singing along.  She did such a great job and a lot of people said later that they thought she was an adult playing.

- Eden saying her part that she had memorized.

- Austin not wanting to sit on the stand until the very last minute.  We thought for sure he wouldn't go.

- And last but not least, Dallin losing a tooth right before the program started.  I saw him run out and then come back in.  When I motioned to him asking him what happened he opened his mouth and pointed to the new hole. I laughed out loud. He sang all the songs and gave his memorized part all while holding the tooth in his hand.

I got to sit on the stand with a group of kids this year too.  It was great having a different perspective and I was really moved when the children and the congregation sang "I Know That My Savior Loves Me" together at the end.

Go BYU

Last Saturday I went to my first BYU football game.  I know, I graduated 12 years ago, but better late  than never.  Too bad BYU isn't having their best season.  But we still had a lot of fun.  It was a first for Dallin and Cameron too.  We went with Ryan's cousin Brandon and his two kids Kate and Mat.

Ryan's cousin and kids spent the night and then came to church with us on Sunday.  I think all the kids had a great time playing together.

Blog - O - Rama

So I just put up a bunch of posts covering the last month of our busy family's life.  I don't usually do such a large chunk at once but this is always such a hectic time of year and I figured if I didn't get it done now it was just going to keep piling up.  We've been busy but we've also had some wonderful times together as a family.  I feel really grateful for my wonderful children.  Being pregnant it's hard to do all the things for them that I would like to do.  But it's been nice to have some special time together lately that they'll hopefully remember better than the tired, crabby lady I tend to be most of the time now.

I just want to make mention that amongst all the fun we've been having I've also gotten a lot of work done.  Mostly, canning.  Our peach tree ripened and I did 40 jars of peaches the day before we left for St. George.  Then this week I did 19 jars of peach/raspberry jam (for those of you who were waiting for that for Christmas last year and didn't get it) and then 24 jars of pears which seemed like the most work of all since they were tiny. I also managed to freeze two ziploc bags of peeled and pitted peaches for use in smoothies.  Then I had to clean it all up to get the house ready for company this weekend.  Canning is a lot of messy work but I feel a huge sense of accomplishment for making the most of this harvest season.  We've already enjoyed some peach crisp (that Ryan made) and pears with dinner.  We still have quite a few red delicious apples on another tree outside and this year they're huge!  The kids love them.  And I love free fruit!

The Lion King

On Wednesday we went to see The Lion King at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake.  I was a little worried that two shows in one week would be too much for the kids but I couldn't have been more wrong.  They loved it. They were totally enchanted by the characters and costumes.  I asked them which show they liked better and they all said they couldn't pick one over the other.  They loved them both.  That made me really happy.

You may notice that Austin isn't in the picture.  We felt he would be a little too young to sit still for the whole thing.  He went to Grandma's and had a lot of fun.  It was a little hard for him to sit through all of Tarzan and with how tight the seating was at the Capitol Theater it would have been hard to hold him if he had gotten fussy.  Hopefully next time we see a show he'll be old enough.

Tarzan

My flies on the wall.  Just kidding.  I couldn't resist.  Last weekend we went to St. George to see Tarzan at the Tuacahn theater.  It was amazing.  The kids were absolutely enchanted.  Poor Austin was so tired at the end but he just didn't want to miss anything.  It was such a fun show!  The only downside was that it was at least 90 degrees.  I had no idea it was going to be that hot.  Pregnant ladies don't like hot.

On our way down to St. George we stopped at Cove Fort.  I've driven up and down the I15 countless times but have never stopped there.  We all really enjoyed the tour of the Fort and had a nice picnic lunch there before heading the rest of the way south.

On our way home on Saturday we stopped in Cedar City for lunch.  We chose a Japanese place called Ninja.  It was one of the best experiences I've had at a restaurant.  Mostly because the little Japanese lady serving us fell in love with Austin.  He had fallen asleep just before we got there and was crabby when we went to sit down.  She wanted to make him happy so bad that she kept giving him free stuff; free miso soup (with ice in it), free California rolls, a refill on apple juice (you know that's never free), and then on the way out a whole handful of mint candies.  In addition to that she told me how to prepare the package of Miso soup Ryan brought me from Japan and then gave me a small container of seaweed to put in my soup.  It was crazy how nice this lady was.  But the food was also great.  So, was Austin happy when we left?  You bet!  It only took a few minutes for her lavish attention to get him smiling and we all had a great lunch together.  Then Ryan went to Wal Mart and bought Tarzan for the kids to watch on the way home.  Eden's watched it almost every day since.

It was a perfect weekend.

Lilian's Day

For Lilian's birthday this year we went to PF Chang's as a family and then played indoor miniature golf on the glow in the dark course at Trafalga.  We discovered a few things that night:

- the kids love chinese
- eating dinner "family style" is definitely the way to go
- Austin loves miniature golfing and is ridiculously good for a four-year old
- Dallin and Cameron may be best friends but that doesn't mean they should always be on a team together
- We love spending time together as a family

I am so grateful for this special day we get to celebrate every year that reminds me why I am so thankful for eternal families.

Austin's First Day of Preschool

Austin started preschool on Sep. 8th with his buddies Mason, Carson, and Allen.  His teacher is Miss Erika and he thinks she's great because she has a treehouse in her basement and she has snakes, lizards, a turtle and a dog.

The Camo Pants

Austin was on his way out the door with his new camo pants on when he jumped up and threw his fist in the air and shouted, "I love my new camo pants."  I made him come back in so I could take a picture.  It was just too cute.

First Day of School

Eden's first day of school was August 31st.  Dallin and Cameron started on the 23rd so she had to wait a whole week until her big day.  She was so excited that morning.  She has Mrs. Broderick who we've heard great things about and she has about every friend she knows in her class.  Friends from our old ward, new ward, and preschool.  What a lucky girl!

Dallin's New Pet

Sometime back in August Dallin's pet Brownie died.  We're pretty sure it was painless since it just looked like he was sleeping but Dallin was anxious to get a pet that was a little more friendly.  He really wanted gerbils but I told him I wasn't going to allow any more stinky pets until the baby was out of diapers.  (It's gonna be a while).  So he asked if he could have a beta fish instead.  I thought that was a much better idea.  He keeps it in his room and feeds it and cleans it without me having to see or smell it.  It's a good arrangement.

Alaska

Ryan went to Alaska from August 18 - 23 with a bunch of his buddies from college.  I decided to post a few of the pictures he took.  Hopefully I can convince him to add his comments to the pictures.

He came home pretty scruffy but very happy.

School Stuff

Of course another summer went by before I had a chance to go through the kids school boxes and take a picture of the things they did last year.  But at least I got to it before another school year started.  These pictures are from August 21st.

Eden had preschool last year with Miss Allison.  She loved it.  They did so many fun projects and got all ready for kindergarten.  I was bummed when I heard Miss Allison wouldn't be teaching preschool any more but we'll all still benefit from her excellent teaching because she will now be teaching kindergarten at the elementary school.

Austin had preschool with me and a few other mom's from the old neighborhood.  We followed lessons from Mother Goose Time.  He loved it and I loved getting to spend some special time with him and his friends.

Where's all of Cameron's stuff?  I guess she takes after her mom a little and threw away all the things she felt weren't very interesting, ie; spelling tests, math tests, other tests.  I'm not really sure but there was a lot of stuff she threw away before she felt she was ready for her picture.  She did really well in school last year and loved having Mrs. Mitchell for her teacher.

Dallin had Mrs. Hughes last year.  He wasn't too thrilled about the monthly book reports but I sure was.  His writing improved dramatically because of them.  It seems our cat finds pleasure in sitting on paper.  The kids finally gave up trying to keep him off for the picture.

To The Beat Of His Own Drum

I know I need to post pictures of the first day of school for three of my kids this week and I'll get to that, I promise, but I just have to document something Austin said the other day because that would be something I would forget and it's just to cute.  (I did post this on Facebook so if you've already read it feel free to "move along".)

We were on our way to pick up the kids from piano (Eden's first lesson by the way) when Austin says, "Mom, did Jesus make the world so we couldn't bug him?"  My first thought was to explain the meaning of life and our purpose here on Earth until I realized exactly what it was he said.  All I could do was laugh.  I laughed so hard that his friend in the backseat started laughing and then Austin started laughing.  They, of course, had no idea why.  But I was picturing God sending us all down here so we could just get out of his hair for a while.

Austin is such a funny kid and it just comes out of nowhere.  The other night while we were eating dinner he says, "What if I put my ketchup in a cup, and then I put in salt, and then that other white salt (sugar), and then how 'bout some chocolate milk, and then maybe regular milk, wouldn't that be gross."  We were all just staring at him because we don't EVER do "grosser than gross".  I couldn't fathom how the idea popped into his head. We all started laughing and the other kids pitched in their ideas for how to make his concoction even more disgusting.  I wasn't sure if I should be appalled and stop the whole thing or just let it go because Austin just runs to the beat of his own drum.

And finally, speaking of his own drum, after we went shopping for our newest baby girl last week I took Eden and Austin to another store to get them a couple of things.  I was looking at long sleeve shirts for him when he says, "Oh Mom, I have to have this."  I looked down and he was taking a pair of camo pants off the rack.  I looked around for someone to share the moment with and found some random lady and said, "My other son wouldn't be caught dead in camo pants.  How does a four-year old know he likes camo?"  She shrugged and laughed.  (Yes, I often talk to complete strangers because sometimes a four and five-year old just aren't good enough).  Austin was so proud of his new pants he brought them out to show Ryan as soon as he got home from work.

I love this kid.  He is so full of energy and cracks me up.  Sometimes it's a relief to know that children come with their own unique personalities and talents that will make the world brighter.  And I am in no way to blame for some of the crazy things that come out of their mouths or into their heads.