Damage, Round One

Notice the pine tree.  I'm not sure what happened there, but it looks like something took a bite out of the side.

A couple of the posts for the grape vines have fallen over.

The corkscrew willow in the front yard has been dying/falling over for a couple of years now, so it was decided to cut it down to prevent it from falling on any houses/cars.

Snapped branches on pine trees in the field.

Strawberry bed is missing a side.

Screen door at grandma's house.

The rest of the screen door- looks like it was more glass than screen...

Porch support.  

Oops, one more piece of door.

Siding on a shed.

The new backyard, minus some trees/bushes.  Maybe grass will grow back there again?

Firewood!

Good thing we didn't have a dog living in here anymore.

Fruit tree in the garden.  I think this was a peach.  Not too sad, because it would have had to come out anyway, it's where our house will be.

Broken fence, where the tree broke off and crushed it.  The clean up crew had the fallen part chopped up and hauled away amazingly fast this morning.

New, flat roof, on the chicken coop.  Hopefully it will work until spring.  We can now call it the chicken cube.

Siding damage from the coop roof hitting the shed.

We'll need to get a new boat cover.  The boat looks okay, maybe a little scratched up.  We haven't looked under the cover to be sure.

There's the roof!  It put some nice gouges in the back corner of our camper too.

Siding damage, so that's where the wasps were coming from.

Up high there's siding damage where the cable wire was pulled out of the wall.  The cable is now laying on the ground.  

Wind speeds reached 102 mph.  That's class 2 hurricane.  School was cancelled Thursday and Friday.  Church was cancelled today to allow everyone to go around and clean up the debris before the next round starts tonight.  It's not supposed to be as bad, but who knows.  I moved the cans into the garage, and picked up as much as I could so there are fewer things to blow over to the neighbor's house (or beyond).  We still need to put the small sailboat somewhere safe so it doesn't blow away again (last time I grabbed it before it went too far- that was fun), some big pieces of plastic, and maybe do something with the wood from the former chicken coop roof and the dog run.  Probably ought to clean up as much as we can with the door next door too.  The boys are hoping school is cancelled tomorrow, we'll see.

It's been a really great feeling to see all the neighbors out working together to get things cleaned up.  They're piling stuff up at a church building down the street, and from there it's being hauled to the dump.  I'm not sure how the dump is going to keep it there, but at least it would have to blow a long way before it hit anything from that point.  Kyle brought home a load of pine for our wood pile when he came home for breakfast/lunch.  I'm not sure when they'll be done.

The majority of trucks going by are full of pine branches.  It's surreal.

UPDATE: Round 2 of the wind storm petered out, so YEA.  No more damage.

Fall Clean Up (part three)

I didn't take pictures again.  But, we forced the boys out the door this morning and they did great picking grapes until the first bucket was full, after that it was painful to keep them working.  We ended up with four buckets to put in the steam juicer.

While we were picking grapes, my Mister mowed the field, pulled the hoses from the big garden and stretched them out on the cement to get warm so he could coil them up and put them away, then he mowed the garden.  We didn't plow because we're not sure if we'll be able to garden there next year when the house is being built.  He did plow the neighbor's garden while I sat and visited.  Our neighbor gave us some horseradish, a huge banana squash, a turkey egg, and some walnuts.  It was a fruitful visit.  :)

Next, I wanted to get the yard mowed, so I pulled out the rotary mower and made the boys come out to rake the grass up so the mower would catch it.  It was really long and matted down, so that took awhile.

My Mister cleaned out the boat and laid the cover out to dry.  We need to cover it with a more waterproof tarp this winter so we don't get water build up inside it.  He also weed whacked around the driveway under the grapes.

Next up: making grape juice.  I also need to clean out the black raspberry patch, but I'm not sure I'm going to get to that.

Summer so far...

The boys have been busy with various day camps.  They took a sewing class one week, and made pillow cases and these backpacks, they loved it and want to do it again next year.

We all (except Baby E) ran the Centerville Fun Run.  Mister and I ran the 5k (he took 3rd in his age group, and I was 13th in mine- with a personal best- 8:36 minute miles), J ran the 1 mile, A ran the 1/2 mile (he fell at the beginning, but got right back up and finished with bloody knees), and CP ran the 1/4 mile (which was the cutest thing ever).

A couple of parade floats were passing out otter pops, which Baby E was really happy about.  

A and his friend S show that BYU and Utah could be friends if they really wanted to (although A says he doesn't like BYU anymore, phew...)  They're wet because they went down a big inflatable water slide at the carnival at the park.

Here's CP going down- he went down 3 times in a row.

J going down.

A couple of weeks ago J and my Mister did the Tsunami Tri over at the rec center.  J did the novice 150M swim, 3 mile bike, 1 mile run.  He took 2nd place in his age group!  My Mister took 3rd in his age group (he likes 3rd apparently).

After the Tri, we came home, I went for a run, we did some garden work, then we headed up to Park City for a Mtn Bike race.  J won his race.  

Years gone by...

My friend Connie saved a sea bird while on vacation, and it reminded me of something I was going to post last year but didn't ever get around to.

When I was in 6th grade, there was a tradition for the 6th graders to release helium balloons on the last day of school.

My sister had told me about helium balloons getting into the ocean and killing turtles and other animals who tried to eat them, so I made flyers and passed them out around the school.  A lot of kids were unhappy about losing the tradition the year it was their turn, but someone paid attention to my flyers.

We ended up planting trees and all the 6th graders put notes in with the roots instead.

Last year when my boys were in their first year at this same school that I attended, I was sitting outside on the playground with my 3-year-old and my friend's little boy while she volunteered in her older son's classroom.  I looked over toward the playing fields and saw the tree that I helped plant, and was reminded to be grateful for my peculiarity.  Years later, the tree provides shade for my own kids, and no sea turtles were killed.  :)

Shameless Friend Promotion

My totally amazing former college roommate is the author of the blog The Great Fitness Experiment.  She's hilarious and wonderful, and now you can enjoy even more hilarity in her book (preorder it now-I did-, once it's out, the price will go back up):

Other Circumstances May Necessitate Individual Adaptation

This line from the Proclamation on the Family is an often overlooked part of the meaning behind the document.

My friend Derek recently posted on Feminist Mormon Housewives about expectations in our culture as far as gender roles and providing for the family.

As I was reading the comments on the post and thinking about other perspectives I've read about regarding gender roles in the church, I was thinking about how the church focuses on the father as the breadwinner, and mother as primary caregiver for children NOT necessarily because that is the best for everyone, but because generally, it works for people. I've read about people who feel hurt because in their experiences it has been implied that this traditional division of duties is the "Ideal" (and of course if you HAVE to do something else, that's okay, because of the short disclaimer in the Proclamation on the Family, but it's not the "ideal").

So a thought popped into my head, that what if it isn't about ideal vs. non-ideal? What if we teach roles the way we do because it's what GENERALLY works, but that the IDEAL for anyone is what they, as a couple have prayerfully decided works best for their family. We're all entitled to personal revelation for our own families, and I think if we can get away from the idea that there is one ideal, and the rest are less-worthy fall back positions, it will make life much less stressful for many people who find that the traditional roles are not ideal in meeting the needs of their family.

Eating from the Pantry Challenge

Crystal, from Money Saving Mom is holding a "Eat from the Pantry Challenge" where she's encouraging others to participate in a month-long stint with little to no grocery shopping. She encourages everyone to look at their pantries and figure out what works for them. My Eat From the Pantry Challenge will look like this:

1-Only 3 trips to the store in January, for dairy products and fresh produce, with a total grocery budget of $60 for the month. Because of my milk issues, the majority of that budget will go to buying the more expensive milk that my crazy brain insists on. We'll also eat out once during the month, but dining out money comes from a different budget than our grocery budget.

2- Not included in the three trips is our regular trip to costco for stocking up on basics (we didn't go in december, and are running low on important things like TP), and also trips to Rite Aid (I'm not counting Rite Aid, because I don't spend "new" money there anyway, it's all recycled rebates from earlier trips).

3- The money I save on groceries will be split in half, with the first half going to the Road Home Shelter in Salt Lake, and the other half being added to our camper savings fund.

Do you have a stocked pantry? If so, join in the fun! Jessica from Utah Deal Diva is also taking part in the challenge, check out her blog to see amazing pictures of her pantry and freezer (I think she could go for several months!).

Black and White

Recently I heard someone talk about their family in California and how they were affected by proposition 8, and how it showed them that some people are ready to jump up and follow the prophet, while others let things like that damage their testimonies. I have to state clearly, that I really like the person who was speaking, and I recognize that we all have different life experiences which shape us, but it made me wonder why we (subconsciously even) view the world in such black and white terms.

I've written about my feelings toward prop 8 and same sex marriage before, so I won't go into that again, but I wonder why the only "good" response to things like prop 8 is to immediately obey. I'm certainly not advocating that we immediately disobey any time the prophet speaks, I believe we should follow the prophet, but I think that we should allow that those who aren't given the spiritual gift of immediate confirmation also have a valid experience. I remember a few months ago in sunday school, a class member said that she always wondered why she struggled so much to gain a testimony of something, but she felt like once she did, she didn't lose it.

Too often we view those who struggle to gain a testimony of something (or even those who honestly and prayerfully have come to a different answer than our own) as lacking in some way. Instead of wondering why people allow difficult issues to damage their testimonies, perhaps we should ask ourselves how we can help others through trying times in their lives, and then acknowledge that everyone is given a different experience here on earth and one is not better or worse than another, they're just different, which gives us different views and teaches us different things. Life isn't black and white, it's shades of grey.

Strawberry Jam

I found strawberries for a great price, and bought 12lbs.  I spent the day making three batches of low-sugar jam.  I think I ended up with 6 pints and 13 half pints.  Hopefully that will be enough to get us through the year.  Between PB&J's and yogurt, we go through a lot of jam.  We also have a bowl full of sliced strawberries to eat.  

I find that I feel less overwhelmed by things when I've been getting stuff done.  A shelf full of strawberry jam certainly doesn't hurt (but drat, we're out of regular bread, guess what I'll be doing tomorrow).  I finished the last slice with a thick layer of the jam foam (I love Jam Foam...for a random flashback of jam foam drama, and a description of what jam foam is if you don't know, see here),

In other good news, I now have a ceiling fan in my bedroom (and really nice sheets, I can't wait to go to bed tonight!) so the warm weather isn't going to make it hard to go to sleep and I won't have thoughts about turning my AC before my mom does.  

My tomato seedlings are getting bigger and bigger and are doing well outside.  They've been out all day so far with no signs of sunburn (although it has been overcast) so hopefully they're about done with the hardening off process and I can plant them after this next storm passes.  Saturday maybe?

The surviving chicks seem to be doing well, they enjoyed a nice treat of strawberry stems today and were very happy.

Soccer practice & Game tonight, and then I can crash.  

Lunch with friends tomorrow, then a play date (and bread making somewhere in there).

Soccer game on saturday, and maybe I'll take the kids and go for a bike ride.  I might make it through the weekend!

Funny Things My Kids Say...And an Exercise challenge

A: Mom! MOm! (me running into the bathroom thinking there was an emergency) Mom- Look, I made an ocean in the potty. The pee is the water, the bubbles are the island, the little poop is the fish, and the big poop is the shark.

J: Mom? (Also in the bathroom- we spend a lot of time in the bathroom around here) Do you see my muscles? (he points to his ribs)
Me: Those are your ribs- they're bones, not muscles.
J: Oh, but I'm still strong, see? (flexes his arms).
Me: You are strong!

And, this isn't funny, but today walking A home from preschool, his hands were cold so he was holding my hand, and his little hand felt really nice in mine, and it made me think how fast they grow up. J still holds my hand sometimes, but not as often, and his hands are not too much smaller than mine these days. Being a mom is a pretty good gig, even if I do get pooped, slobbered, and boogered, and-every-other-bodily-functioned on, on a regular basis (I don't really get pooped on very often, but really, once is enough for a lifetime).

Also in other news, I'm joining the Great Fitness Experiment's January experiment. Charlotte is taking Shape Magazine at their word to see if their "Drop 10lbs this month!" workout really works. The format is as follows:

Monday - Shape Magazine strength circuit
Tuesday - Boot Camp interval workout (you can sub biking, running, swimming or any other activity that gets heart rate upupup and then takes it down for a rest and then back up again. The key is the intensity - you want something short and hard. Don't go over 45 minutes. You want a suggestion? Do the 8/12 bicycle sprints!)
Wednesday - Shape Magazine strength circuit
Thursday - Yoga/walking
Friday - Turbokick interval workout (again, sub in what you like)

I think for the interval workouts, I'm going to do several short rounds of wii fit hula hooping to make up 30-45 minutes worth. Charlotte posted pictures of the Shape Magazine strength circuit on her blog, but It's hard to read the words, and some of those, I can't tell how the model got from one position to the next, so I'll probably pick up a copy at the store, or at least read it in the check out line...

Anyone care to join me? I figure this will give me a little bit of accountability to actually follow through. I'm starting today with a wii fit hula hoop interval workout. I don't think this is going to help me gain muscle, but the hazy, cold weather has me feeling a bit blah, so I think this will help, and I don't think I'll lose any weight with it, when I workout regularly I crave eggs. :)

Words Fail

As a child we had some special family friends. He had taught my dad in college and they had been friends-family ever since. Kelly and Martha never forgot us and were always bringing us things that we as children thought were really cool. Giant gummy spiders and rats, plastic animal noses, interesting trinkets from their travels. They were also the kind of people who had a house full of treasures from all over the world, but I was never told to "put that down" or "don't touch that" at their house. When they came to dinner, Martha brought the most amazing desserts. Then there were the slideshows. Images from their travels, and the stories that went with them.

Martha died earlier this afternoon. Sometimes growing up really stinks. (I guess people died when I was younger, but I don't remember it being so difficult- maybe it's because as a child your relationships with people aren't the same as they are when you are an adult.)

The picture is from last spring when they stopped by my parents house on their way home from a trip to southern utah.

3

I got tagged by Becca, so here it goes...

Post these rules on your blog: List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 regrets, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 facts about yourself. Tag 3 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog!

3 Joys
-playing in the dirt
-the smell of good things baking in the oven
-being with my family

3 Fears
-phone calls (I hate talking on the phone!)
-having a child or my Mister die
-that kids at school will be mean to my kids

3 Goals
-learn about taking better pictures
-finish crocheting the blanket I'm working on
-finish/start CP's baby book

3 Regrets
-kissing one of the boys I kissed in college, and dodging two others
-not treating some people the way that I should have
-trading in our passat for the van when we did (at the time we didn't see another option, but I miss that car)

3 Obsessions/Collections
-food storage
-getting rid of stuff we don't need
-buying (or looking for stuff to buy) on ksl classifieds and ebay (which doesn't match up well with trying to declutter)

3 Facts about Myself
-my first kiss was as a toddler at hogle zoo- a giraffe leaned over and licked me
-i make terrible pie crust, but am trying to improve
-i love watching movies and eating popcorn from the comfort of my own bed

I tag Criscell, Kari and Emily S.

Hey, I know her!

My college roommate Charlotte was on 20/20 this past friday, talking about an eating disorder that has been labeled Orthorexia. Charlotte talks about her experience with the film crew Here. And you can watch the 20/20 clips Here.

Recruiting a new generation of democrats

As a child, I have very fond memories of attending the Davis County Democrats picnics, shooting water balloons at pictures of Bush Sr, thinking Michael Dukakis was the coolest man ever, and winning a cake at a Democrat fundraiser cake-walk. I've said before that my dad used to give us a dollar if we said we were democrats. As I got older I had to question all authority, before deciding for myself what I believed, or what group I was going to join.

Recently, a good friend (who's name I won't mention, because she still thinks she's a Republican, and I wouldn't want to mess up her party standing too much :) ) was talking about politics with her son. He asked what it meant to be a democrat, and she told him the democrats believe in taking care of each other, helping the poor, etc...

He may be converted.

Remember That Time....

From my friend Becca's blog...Just write a memory you have with me or our family. If you leave one, we'll assume you're playing and we'll come leave one on your blog too... Happy remembering!

My own About You non-email forward

You know how it goes... Copy and paste, then replace my answers with yours. You can thank me for not sending an email forward later (just kidding, I like getting those from friends!).

1. What does your spouse call you? Al

2. What do you bake/cook that you do better than anyone you know? I like most of the food I make, but especially my stir fry, and my cheesecake and orange rolls, and swedish pancakes, and butter mints (although I get the orange roll/cheesecake/butter mint talent/recipes from my mom (who got them from other family members).

3. What is the most important thing you do for yourself? I use to go running, but I've gotten a bit lazy about that. Now it's probably having time to myself to blog or read or play online scrabble.

4. What is your favorite thing to do with your kids? I love bedtime. I love how they smell after a bath, with clean damp hair while they sit with me and read a book. I also like to run around with them on the grass until we get so tired that we all fall down. I also love listening to them play together or by themselves and hearing the things they come up with.

5. What was the last date you went on with your spouse? I think we maybe went to Ikea? We usually get movies and have popcorn and smoothies at home. We are going to see two plays in June in Cedar City, which I am super excited about.

6. What made you smile recently? On tuesday night, I was at YW's, and my Mister was out in the yard. The kids were supposed to be in bed. My Mister had just mixed cement for the basketball stand when he heard A screaming. By the time he had the cement in place, and made it inside, A was in his bed asleep. He asked J why A was screaming, and J said that A went to the bathroom and needed help wiping. Since no parents were there to do the job, J helped him. I'm so proud of my boy! He does things like that fairly often, and it makes me think that he's growing up just fine, even if sometimes he doesn't listen as well as I think he should.

7. Where would you most like to be right now? Home with my family, during a power outage (as long as it was only a couple of hours before the power came back on).

8. What is your favorite job to do around the house? Vacuuming, maybe? I'm not so fond of doing jobs around the house, but I love how the house looks when it is clean, and there is something satisfying about having the lines from the vacuum all match up (OCD anyone?).

9. What is your least favorite job around the house? Folding laundry. I don't do it. (Thank you Mister)

10. What should you be doing right now, instead of answering my silly about you questions? Cleaning my house. :)

Updates...

Updates to our house.  We're finally getting things put on the walls, and it's feeling more and more like home.  

Updates to my Mr's already busy schedule.  My Mr. is running for the House of Representatives.  I'm so proud of him.  Anyone interested in volunteering in the campaign should email him (his contact info should be on his site- follow the link).  As a quick primer in all things political (just kidding) we watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington a couple of nights ago.  Look out Utah State Legislature!  

Updates on the new chickens:Clock-wise from the top: Mario, Fred, Little Jerry and Mr. Gordon. (and yes, they are all hens (as far as we know)).  The bigger they get, the more I think about having to put the old chickens in the freezer.  It's not the freezer part that has me worried.  It's the what happens before they can go in the freezer.  I'm letting my Mr. take care of that part, because while I think I can handle eating them, I know I would have a hard time killing something that we named.  (and sorry to anyone we have named chickens after- killing them isn't some sort of statement about our relationship)

Updates on C.

We bought 12 of these totes to store eggs in for our city youth council's easter egg hunt. We figured we had close to 7000 eggs this year, and probably got 5-6000 back at the end. Our goal is 10,000 eggs next year.

Hey, what a fun box to be in!

I'm not so sure about the whole being-buried-in-eggs-thing... If he turns out to be deathly afraid of the easter bunny and refuses to participate in easter egg hunts, we'll know where it came from.

Well, mom and dad are smiling, maybe it's not so bad... (he was really happy when we pulled him out though)

What is it really about?

I was talking to a friend about SB 267, which would do away with Ralph Becker's domestic registry. She said it's about defending marriage and standing up for families, because our families are failing, and are causing society to fail.

I agree that we have some real problems in our society, and I believe many of those problems come from homes where children are not getting all the things they need to become healthy, productive members of society*. There's just been something that didn't sit right with me and I couldn't figure out what until today.

"Standing up for marriage" and "Defending Marriage" are terms I associate with the LDS church. My church. I believe it was Elder Oaks who said that sexual intimacy outside of marriage is a sin. It doesn't matter if it is homosexual activity or heterosexual activity, it's the same seriousness sin-wise. The thing that gets me is that with SB 267, and anything else like it that I have ever heard talked about, the justification for it is that we can't allow homosexuals to have too many rights. Granted, this bill would affect unmarried heterosexual couples as well, but no one talks about that, leading me to think that the main reason the bill is brought up at all is because people are scared or grossed out or whatever by homosexuality.

If we're so concerned about legislating morality, lets at least be consistent.

Or we could follow Jesus' example of love and compassion. In our rush to deny rights to anyone different than ourselves, we're missing out on an opportunity to make sure that more families and more children are protected. From the Tribune article: Melanie Schertz, who insures her ailing mother under the city's adult-designee provision, said the Legislature should not have the right to determine what constitutes a "family."
"If they're going after this because a few gay people get benefits," she said, "they're not seeing the whole picture."

*I've heard that decent health coverage helps children become healthy productive members of society, regardless of the sexual preference of their parents...

Hateful Comments and Being Neighbors

As far as local news sources, I prefer the Salt Lake Tribune. I read online, and occasionally check out the Deseret Morning News website, but for the most part, I like the Trib better. By now, I should have learned to stay away from the online comments. It's a guarantee that anytime there is an article that is even remotely related to the LDS church (maybe someone in the article had a cousin's friend's uncle who was a member) the comments that follow are numerous and hateful.

What's the point? If the LDS church bothers someone so much, why would they spend so much time thinking about it?

I know there's a frustrating level of mixing of church and state because so many of our state officials get "carried away" and forget that their positions are to represent the residents of utah, not the members of the church.

Glendon Brown over at One Utah has a really good post about the liquor laws and how mormons and non-mormons talk around and around but never really talk to each other.

It would be really nice if we could start talking to each other instead of at each other. It would also be nice if LDS people could remember that not everyone wants to be preached to, no matter how good the intentions, and if non-LDS people could be content to simply not be a member and not constantly attack the church or it's members for their apparent short-commings. (I realize that not all people fall into the two groups I just listed, but the people that don't aren't the ones causing problems.)

I recently received a new list of Relief Society sisters to visit. There was one sister whom I had never met before, so I stopped by one day and left a plate of cookies since no one was home. I tried again a couple weeks later and her husband answered the door. He was holding a beautiful baby girl, and from what I saw, he looked like a pretty cool guy, about the same age as my husband. There aren't a ton of neighbors our age, so I was happy to see one. Unfortunately he and his wife didn't want to be visited and he yelled at us until we apologized for bothering him and left.

I really didn't mean to bother him. I didn't want to bother him. Perhaps there needs to be a better way of letting people know if someone with records in the church doesn't want to be visited.

I would like to be friends with the family. It seems really sad that because we belong to different churches, that we can't be friends. I really don't like perpetuating the views that LDS people only want to be friends with non-LDS people if they can somehow get a convert out of the deal. I don't care what religion these people are, they're neighbors and it would be nice to be friends.

I just have to get over my fear of getting yelled at again and introduce myself as a neighbor who is not there to convert them, but just to be neighborly, and hope that they listen long enough to hear what I have to say before yelling.

If someone doesn't want to be my friend because they don't like me, that's okay, but I'd like to not be dismissed just because I'm mormon. I'm sure lots of non-mormons feel the same way.

Be on your guard people....

Liberals in Washington are coming after you and your parental choice.

I was talking to a friend the other day and she asked if I was in favor of vouchers or not. Honestly, I don't think vouchers are going to severely damage our public schools. I do think that the Utah voucher program is seriously flawed. If you claim to want to give parents a choice in education, make sure that the vouchers go to people who because of finances, don't currently have a "choice" not to people who can already afford to send their kids to private schools.

The radio ads that warn us of liberals in Washington make me simultaneously feel like laughing and screaming. They'd be hilarious if I didn't think that way too many people believe them.

Anyway, I told my friend what I thought about vouchers and she said that she felt like the anti-voucher group was telling people what to think instead of presenting reasons and letting people think for themselves. My comment was, "and how are the pro-voucher ads any better?"

So, this election, lets all remember to get past the rhetoric and scare tactics and use our brains when we decide how to vote. Or, if you don't have a brain, borrow mine.