Just Life

Yet another example of time speeding by whether we are having fun or not. Hopefully we are having fun along the way because if we aren’t, it isn’t likely to change; it’s all up to us to have fun or not.

This morning I woke up because Amena was getting a towel for a shower. I got up to use the downstairs bathroom and noticed that it was 6:09. Holy crap, Batman! You’ve got to be kidding me! I went to bed early and everything. Not good enough. So, we’ll see how it goes as for missing or not missing the bus. I’m hoping…

In other news, rather than go to a Verizon store yesterday, I thought I’d give giving them a call a try. At the very least, I would be wasting an additional twenty minutes or so and that’s easy enough to do just getting lost in Facebook or AtlasQuest or even just email. So, I spent a couple of minutes locating the phone number and then I had to use Paul’s phone (very strange experience) to call.

Everything was all good including the fact that the phone was replaced just last month because the issue last month was not a damaged screen. Did I ever mention anything about that here? My phone started wigging out less than a month after I got it. It would restart when I wanted to turn it off. It would turn off in the middle of the night or turn on, depending on if I’d turned it off or on before bed. I actually took it in to the store in Leominster (the one I thought was in Lancaster) but the woman I talked to couldn’t find anything wrong with it. I don’t remember if it was later that day or the next when I thought it might be a good idea to do a reset and see if that helped but it wouldn’t do one. I would turn it off, and it would restart right away. So I went to Verizon.com and had a chat with one of their online people. He was giving me different ideas and then suggested removing the sim card. Well, to do that, the phone has to be turned off. It wouldn’t turn off. He said, “Well, your phone is still within the warranty period, what I can do is send you a new one.” Really? Cool. The only problem is that I was leaving for Utah hours before it would arrive so I had it sent to Laura and Blaine’s. It arrived before I left, I think. The same day, at any rate.

Because my phone was behaving enough to use for the most part, I didn’t open the new one for a couple of days. When I did, I realized that the old one needed to be returned within five days. Ooops! At least I was within that time period. I’m glad that the old one started wigging out again, and more seriously than it had been, or I might have missed that five-day deadline.

Everything with the replacement was great until Sunday when it was dropped. Now, I can’t see anything on the screen so I’m glad that the new replacement will be here today by 8:00 pm. I obviously need an alarm clock.

The good news is that Amena and Cedric made it on the bus.

In other news, it sure is funny how our having Egg Drop Soup led to Jay making Egg Drop Soup for his and Becky’s dinner yesterday. Isn’t social media great? I was going to have eggs with some peppers we got from Nick’s mom that are supposed to be really hot. I’ve got to try them out and see what I think. Amena tells me that his dad loves hot stuff but that these particular peppers (red bananas) are too hot for him. We shall see. Once I get around to eating one.

School is off to an okay start. I thought I’d try a less structured day and week and see how it goes. For example, let the boys know exactly what needs to be done by the end of the week but let them do it as they choose. So if they want to just do history one day, that’s all they do. If they want to just do math one day, that’s fine. The only constant I will insist on is reading every day. And I suspect that math will happen every day because they tend to want to hurry through a lesson so they’ll be done. I’m not sure being able to hurry through five lessons to be done for an entire week will appeal but I could be wrong.

Allergies have been terrible since I got back from Utah; yesterday might have been the worst from a plugged up perspective. Most of the day, I could blow or snort some of the snot out of my sinuses but there was still so much that I could not breathe through my nose. Today I have a little airflow on the right side. The left is still completely blocked. I cannot begin to tell you how much fun this is not. I don’t know what causes all the snot to finally let loose but if I did know, I would be activating it.

Today should be a fairly low key day. Other than my replacement phone arriving, Joseph has scouts this evening. I hope that the white car is done so I can take the silver car and get the white one. Paul got two Star Wars steering wheel covers, one with Darth Vader and one with Stormtroopers. I chose the one with Stormtroopers because it is more obviously Star Wars than is the Darth Vader one. There is more contrast with the white as opposed to the whole thing being just black and grey. Anyway, it will be fun, I guess, to put it on. I might have to clean the car, though.

Other than Cub Scouts and school and a new phone and maybe the great car switch, that’s about it other than the usual stuff. With a new phone, there should be pictures again. That will be nice. Reading is fun, but pictures are nice, too.

Have a fantastical day!

Anyone Who Knows Me Very Well

Good morning!

Anyone who knows me very well knows how much I do not like public school. It’s all about making all types of children, triangles, squares, circles, ovals, etc., fit a uniform learning style, circles. There are a very few schools out there with personalized learning for individual students but unless class size is small, which almost never happens, it doesn’t really work out very well. Also, there is a very limited amount of recess. Even when I was in school a million years ago, we did not get as much recess as we should have. I seem to recall morning and afternoon recess along with a sizeable chunk after lunch. Assuming that amounted to an hour and we were in school from 8:30 to 3, it wasn’t enough. Now, students are lucky to get one fifteen-minute recess in the morning and another fifteen minutes after lunch. There is just too much crap they have to have shoved at them. And all too often, recess is denied them as a form of punishment. Then there is homework. We won’t even start on that at the moment.

Anyone who knows me very well knows how much I dislike school lunch. I remember when I was in elementary school that I preferred taking my own lunch and I know that I did at least part of the time. I remember one time in particular when I had this sandwich. My parents had a lot of NeoLife stuff and one thing was this cheese powder. You could mix it with water and spread it on bread and have a sandwich. I loved the stuff and this sandwich was made with whole wheat bread and these cheese spread. I remember this particular lunch because I had a conversation with a classmate about the sandwich. I no longer remember if she thought it sounded good or not, I just know that we had a conversation and the subject was the sandwich.

There were times when I had school lunches, too. I don’t remember liking many of the menu offerings. There are actually only three things I remember being on the menu: canned green beans, canned corn, and pumpkin cake. I probably shouldn’t tell you the story of the pumpkin cake because it isn’t very nice. Maybe another time. Or not.

What are we trading for public school and school lunches?

In a perfect world, all teachers would love what they do and would be paid well for what they do. In a perfect world, students would get fifteen minutes of recess for every forty-five of classroom instruction. In a perfect world, school lunches would mainly consist of food grown at the school by the students. In a perfect world, there would be no homework other than possibly classwork that was not finished. In a perfect world… But we all know we don’t live in a perfect world.

Yesterday was a day unlike any other. It also wasn’t all that spectacular or anything.

I did discover that the elderberries I thought were gone weren’t. I picked all the ripe ones and put them in the juicer. I didn’t get as much juice as I thought I would but still, every little bit is more than nothing.

Before I went to Utah, I had about three blooming calendula flowers on a rather small plant. When I got back, the plant was huge in comparison and there were literally dozens of flowers. Yesterday I went out and picked most of them that hadn’t gone to seed; they are now in a bag drying.

Most of our beans were ready to be harvested and eaten or preserved while I was gone so rather than pick a whole lot of overripe ones, I left them. We should have a few to save for the garden next year as well as some to cook.

I also looked at the corn (because who could not when the beans are planted with it) and picked four ripe ears. Paul bought a dozen late last week and then another six Saturday even though I told him not to. I’d much prefer to eat those from the garden and will be much annoyed if they end up too ripe because we waited until the inferior corn from the store was eaten. I guess it’s up to me to make sure that doesn’t happen. The problem is that Paul seems to be the only one who doesn’t seem to care if it’s from the store or from the garden. Such is life. Corn will be for dinner tonight.

There is a lot of basil that needs to be harvested and dried. It might be fun to see if I can make some last all winter.

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I love my goats and it is now time to get myself outside and take care of them. They followed me all over the place yesterday and ended up in the fruit trees on the hill. Paul was getting some wood from someone in Hubbardston and they would come over to help unload and I guess one of them attempted to make friends with Zoey or Goldilocks. The goats weren’t in favor of this and took off. Smart goats; they know better than to trust strangers.

Have a fantabulous day!

Fun? Fun!

Time flies when you’re having fun. Is that what I’ve been having since I got home? Constant allergies which translates to runny nose, itchy and sometimes runny eyes, and itchy roof of my mouth. That’s fun? I was so desperate yesterday that I took drugs. I really should know by now that all that will accomplish is a plugged nose and the constant desire to sleep. That’s exactly what happened. The itchiness abated somewhat, but not completely, the nose plugged up so that only occasionally did a small rivulet escape and need attention (which is an interesting experience if nothing else), and the eyes were slightly less prone to excess moisture. Fun.

In other news, there has been too much going on for fun to register. School started last week. That’s fun. Cross country started last week. That’s fun. That is especially fun since Cedric can’t run without a physical. He should have had a physical while I was gone but I was gone. The one from last year expired on the first or second day of school. He’s got an appointment for the 9^th (that’s Friday). In the meantime, it appears he can practice IF he has a note from the doctor stating 1) that he has an appointment for a physical on the 9^th, and 2) he is capable of running. Thursday we got a note saying he had an appointment. I left a message Friday but am not sure if it resulted in a second note.

Seth and Joseph had a slow introductory period in to school for the year. This week will see the beginnings of more. This year is going to be a bit different from last year. I’m hoping it will be easier for them and for me with our new format which I will not divulge at this time (because I’m having so much fun, you know).

This is what milk production looks like since I've been home. The morning I got back, I milked and got 89.6 ounces. I didn't count that because Zoey hadn't been milked out completely for days. On the 25th, I got a whopping 3.9 ounces. Except for the little (big) glitch where I was seven hours late and the following day when I was an hour late but it was six hours earlier than the previous day, we've seen a steady increase daily to the point where we are almost back up to the solid half gallon. Barring any further glitches, we should be good.

Last week was something of a comedy of errors. For one thing, I got a call Wednesday morning (like 12:30ish am) that someone was in labor and I could head over. I did. Not much happened and around 1 Katie said I could go home and see to the boys. I went home and milked seven hours late, took Seth and Joseph to the library, picked Cedric up from the practice he couldn’t run at, took Amena to work, went with Joseph to scouts, got another call that things were picking up and I could head over. I asked Jonathan Brinker to take Joseph home and went home to get ready to go and then went to pick Amena up. I got a text asking if I could pick up a Dr. Pepper and bag of chips so I ran (literally) across the street to a gas station and got those. After waiting for what seemed like ever, I was about to call Paul and ask him to pick Amena up but she came out. I took her home, was just behind the Brinker’s after dropping Joseph off, and took off.

Around 2:00am Katie made the decision to transport. Ranee and I cleaned up (she did most of the work because she knows where all the stuff goes and I did a lot of watching and carrying out to the car). Then I took Ranee home which was fun in and of itself culminating with being pulled over because the lights for the back license plate were out. At least the trooper said he’d never pull us over again. Can they do that? On the way home I accidentally ended up going toward Petersham. I don’t usually mind that drive but it was early in the morning after no sleep and it really wasn’t a good time to go letterboxing (not to mention I didn’t have my stuff for that) so I turned around and went the shorter way.

Friday I went to a couple of prenatal visits with Katie. During a discussion about fetal position I had an aha moment; I like those sometimes. For some reason, I’d been thinking that there are about a million to remember, probably from page 385 in Anne Frye’s book Holistic Midwifery, Volume 1. The aha moment was when I realized that there are eight basic positions. The differences come from what part is presenting. Most of the time, it is the occiput. That just made my job a lot easier.

Saturday I made and canned eleven quarts and three 24-ounce jars of spaghetti sauce, froze about 20 quarts of strawberries, and made a gallon of yogurt.

Yesterday was the day I decided to take drugs for my allergies. I could barely stay awake during church; I didn’t even feel like knitting and only got about eight rows done. After, we hurried home and ate and then I took Amena to Hardwick. I actually had to pull over on the way home to close my eyes for a few minutes. Crazy. If I had letterboxing stuff with me, I could have gone to Amena’s and stamped the stamp in the section of my book where I stamp those I’ve carved.

In the evening, as usual, Dan called. That was fine. The problem came when Cedric, who was eating strawberry shortcake, decided he needed to have a private conversation and picked my phone up with dirty fingers. He dropped my phone. He dropped it! As a result, there is a crack in the screen and I can’t use it because the crack prevents me from unlocking it. Did I overreact? Yes, yes I did. I had to replace it once already because it was wigging out and it isn’t paid for. Now it appears Motorola will replace the screen once but I need to go in later today to find out for sure if that will work. I hope it will. And I can tell you that Cedric will not be touching my phone again for a very, very long time because he has a bad track record with my phones (he put the first and only crack in my Mini-Droid while it was in my possession).

I’m not sure how much I thought I’d be writing today but I think I’ve exceeded it. Have a fantastic day and forgive the lack of pictures: no phone, no pictures.

Happy 10th Birthday, Joseph!!!

“…to have a child is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” Elizabeth Stone

Home is where the heart is.

These first three are from my walk Friday. This is a memorial stone that tells a little about Fort Utah. This was toward the beginning of the walk.

Saw quite a few ducks and even an otter? The river is very pretty and seems to be a good place to go fishing. I saw a couple of people engaged in that activity and it smells like fish almost the entire 1.5 miles I walked.

This is the Provo River taken from the bridge at the end of my walk.

I was going to write much earlier than this today but when Blaine came out to the living room and asked how much I’d like to hold a baby, of course the answer was a lot. That was something like 7:15 or 7:20; somewhere in that neighborhood. I held him for maybe half an hour and we had a pretty good little conversation. Then he decided to be a little fussy so I held him with his head just under my chin and he had a nice longish nap of about two hours. Blaine left for school, Laura is sleeping. I had to use the bathroom so Elias got to be on the couch while I did that. I also had some cereal for breakfast. Then he decided to maybe think about waking up but I picked him up and held him more and that was good enough to stay asleep. Currently, I am sitting on the couch using the arm as a desk and Elias is snuggled up by me. It really just doesn’t get any better than this from my perspective.

A hole in the rock! A person could probably climb down this hole but I wasn't about to volunteer.

One of the five bridges we crossed. The first two had no water running under them but the next three did.

The past few days have been pretty busy. Friday morning Laura and I walked to a park about a mile away because there was a letterbox there. We were contemplating walking to another one that was 1.5 miles from that one but decided against it due to the heat and a little Elias who would have wanted to eat long before we got home.

A humming bird kept us company for a couple of minutes.

Mountains to the south.

That afternoon we went to pick up more letterboxes at some parks around Provo. From the park we’d considered walking to, I walked along the river to the park we’d walked to earlier. We weren’t able to find the box at the first park in the morning and I wanted to have another look. Unfortunately, I did not meet with success the second time around, either. Still, I got a nice walk out of the deal as Blaine and Laura picked me up.

The parking lot where we parked from the top.

The top from the parking lot where we parked.

Saturday we hiked up to Squaw Peak. It was a beautiful hike, if a bit longer than anticipated both in miles and time, a bit steeper than anticipated, and a bit warmer than anticipated. Had we left when we originally wanted, it would have been cooler. The whole hike ended up being 7.4 miles with a vertical increase of 2,763 or 2,844 depending on which you want to believe (both from MyFitnessPal). Actual walking time was five and a half hours although we took lots of breaks for baby diaper changing and feeding and soaking up the shade before plowing through more sun. We left about 9:30 and got home around 7:30. MyFitnessPal says I took 28,615 steps and burned 1.7K calories.

There were lots of cool trees.

And we saw one cool snake on our way down. He was just enjoying the sun and let us take his picture.

When we got home, I showered and began construction of a little outfit for Elias to wear Sunday for his blessing. I decided to work on it until 11:00 and then get to bed and get up at 5:00 to finish. That’s what I did and it was mostly done by 7:00. Laura did the buttonholes because I didn’t feel like learning how to do them on her machine. It turned out super cute and consists of a pair of shorts, a vest, a shirt, and a tie. The shorts and vest are made from leftover fabric from Laura’s wedding dress. Elias looks pretty darn cute in it but we didn’t get any pictures of him in it other than one I took when he was in his car seat on the way to church so you can’t really see it very well.

The flag at the top. Sometimes you can see it from below. Sometimes not.

Yesterday we had a fairly lazy Sunday afternoon. We did go over to the Marriott Center to search there and a building nearby for a couple more letterboxes. After the constant either up- or down-hill of Saturday, it was nice to just walk for a bit.

Taking a break waiting for Laura, Blaine, and Elias. I was looking for a good letterbox planting site and got ahead of them a bit. My shoes (and legs) were so dirty.

And so were my feet. This is what they looked like once I took my shoes and socks off.

Today is a new day with not much planned. I want to plant a box and then go to Staples to get some index cards and then come home and make a log book and show Laura how. Then I’d love to plant the last one here and maybe find a couple more. There is still tomorrow, too, but I don’t want to have too much planned. Everything kind of depends on what can be done between feedings for Elias.

Panoramic view from the top. I suppose I should have done this of the mountains as well.

Now Laura is having some pancakes for breakfast and Elias is thinking about waking up. Sometimes it takes him a while to do so but others it is a much quicker process. Either way, I’m going to wrap this up for now.

Have a fantastic day!

And, hey, Joseph, I hope you have the best birthday EVER! I love you, dude!

Relative, Of Course

Good morning! And Happy Birthday, Mom! No comments about being 29 since you have a grandchild who is 30.

I just love this little guy! He's so stinking cute!

We’ve had a couple of low-key days around here. Low-key being a relative thing, of course. Elias tends to like to be awake during the night and his parents really wish he’d figure out that night is for sleeping and day is for being awake. Eventually it will come. Hopefully. In the meantime, nights can be a lot of fun. Fun being a relative thing, of course.

Photo shoot with Ellie Armstrong on Tuesday.

I’ve figured out five letterboxes within Provo to find today. Two are on the BYU campus and three are at various parks. If this weren’t a city, I’d be out getting a couple of them right now because from here to one to another to here again is just over five and a half miles. I don’t think I’ll be able to talk Laura into that but maybe parking at one and walking to the other because that will be just a little over two miles along the Provo River which means trees which means shade. Then the others we can drive to.

The bridge where the above picture was taken. This is IN Provo and yes, I know there is on the left evidence of modern civilization. Still, very pretty place.

Real mountains. I love it.

Other than that, we need to work on a blessing outfit for Elias. If it wants to be done by Sunday morning, it needs to be worked on today. Shouldn’t take long—he’s just a little thing still. Little thing being a relative thing, of course.

And cool trees.

Last night I finished a midwifery assignment that seemed like it took forever. It didn’t really but it did take two days of intermittent work. Mostly it’s good to work on that stuff in the morning when everyone else is asleep and then periodically throughout the day when there isn’t much for me to do. I’m glad I brought it with me even if the books made my bag heavier than it would otherwise have been. Heavy is, of course, a relative thing. Today I’ll start the reading for the next assignment which is all about genetic screening.

And rows of trees.

Tomorrow morning we’ll have sourdough pancakes for breakfast. Today I had nut- and rum-less Chocolate Zucchini Rum Cake with a glass of milk for breakfast. Tasty.

And a cute boy in the car yesterday. This little guy is three weeks old today!

By the way, people who shop at Walmart are not nearly as friendly as people who shop at other stores. We went to Walmart yesterday (Blaine likes to avoid Walmart—smart young man) and people looked at Elias but when we’ve gone to other stores, people ask about him. Actually, I think one person did ask how old he was yesterday but at other stores, it has been several people rather than one. So, I’m thinking Walmart can’t be bothered to pay people enough to be friendly (because it was people working at the other stores, not just customers) but other places can. Friendly being a relative thing, of course.

Other than that, I can’t think of anything terribly exciting to report on. All of that being perfectly relative, of course.

Have a fantabulous day!

More Pictures Than I Thought

Good morning once again.

I took all these price pictures at WinCo on the 12th. A lady thought it was a bit odd, perhaps, but I explained that I'm visiting from Massachusetts and the prices were just amazing. What prices do you have where you are? Becky and Mom, I'm especially interested to hear what yours are.

Yesterday evening Blaine suggested that they go to bed earlier since Elias likes to sleep for up to about three hours prior to that in order that they might actually get enough sleep during the night even if it is broken up into three parts. I don’t know how it worked for them yet but I got about three and a half hours of sleep before I had to get up and use the bathroom and another four and a half or so after. Not bad. I might have gotten more sleep had I gone to sleep when I went to bed. My mom was online, though, so we had a bit of conversation and I wanted to listen to a particular Billy Idol song that I do not have on my computer yet because I didn’t have the CD before I left. I watched/listened to it on youtube and then, because they just keep playing stuff, I watched/listened to Billy Idol videos for probably an hour or so while conversing with my mom.

Sleeping angel. He is so cute. He definitely has longer awake periods now and I just think they are the best. His Grandma Sorenson and I are the absolute luckiest grandma's in the world with this guy.

Sunday evening we went to Blaine’s cousin’s for dinner. There were two of his cousins, the husband of one and the fiancée of the other, as well as us and his brother Daniel who rode up to Draper with us. The food was excellent, and I found it quite entertaining listening to the conversation because I don’t often have the to me somewhat unique experience of being the oldest person present. Some of us played a game called Puerto Rico that I think the boys might like if they could play it right.

And then there's this cutie pie. I had to borrow these pictures of her from Joanna.

In the morning yesterday we made sour dough bread and had some with ham and broccoli fettuccini for lunch. For dinner we had pizza with sour dough crust. The crust didn’t turn out quite as well as I’d hoped but it was okay.

She's just the best little thing ever. (I can say that about Maddie and Elias because they were born this year and Maddie is a girl and Elias is a boy.) Her Grandma Gagnon and I are the luckiest grandmas in the world with this one.

Yesterday evening we walked around delivering dishes to people who gave Laura and Blaine food during the week or so after Elias was born. That was kind of fun. It was fairly cool and I got to carry Elias most of the time who thought it was a perfect time for a nap.

I seem to be good at taking hour long breaks while doing this right now. Most likely because of this really cute baby who really is the main reason I am here. That’s not a complaint, mind you, I love holding his cuteness while his mama finishes her breakfast and I am going to miss it when I am back in Masschusetts.

I do believe I will be off, though, and will see what pictures I might be able to add when I get to posting. Have a splendiferous day!

Maddie is One Month Old Today!

Good morning!

Rock Canyon

Since all of these are from Rock Canyon, I don't think I'll comment on each one.

If you aren’t continually learning, you are regressing. I have learned that sour dough responds to heat rather than humidity. I started a sour dough starter for Laura and even though I fed it last night about 11:30, it was over done this morning at 8:00. Kind of crazy. I’ve got some bread in progress and I’m going to feed the starter again shortly so we can have sour dough pizza crust for dinner. In fact, I think I’ll go do that now.

So that is done. The bread is looking good. It should have between 20 and 50 minutes to go before further action is needed.

These two, however, I will. Today the water is channeled through a large pipe. These are two of the visible remnants of what was used in the past.

This morning I decided it was time to get what music I had stored in the nebulous cloud on my computer and phone because when I’m on my way back to MA next week, I’d like to be able to listen to more than the sound of the wind on the other side of the window. For some reason, I have more Billy Idol than anything else but it will be nice to have a little variety even if it isn’t as great as it could be.

Mornings have a habit of starting late here. I can certainly understand that with a little baby. It is going to make getting back into a routine at home possibly quite interesting. Staying up to midnight here is like staying up to 2:00 am in MA. I so infrequently do that that it’s safe to say I never do.

Speaking of babies, today is Maddie’s one-month birthday! I’m sure she’s been changing since I saw her last week and will more by the time I see her again next week. Time sure does fly. I can hardly wait to see her again.

Currently, Laura and Elias are asleep. This is good. Mama should sleep when baby sleeps as much as possible. I do hear Elias making noise, though, perhaps because there are three people in the bathroom talking about fixing the tile around the tub in Spanish. Blaine is at the gym. I am waiting for my computer to be charged while I sit here typing this. Just an interesting note: the people were supposed to be here at 9:30 to look at the tub. It is almost 11:00.

Such a cute little face!

Saturday we hiked about a mile up Rock Canyon. There are a couple of letterboxes there; we found one and it had a hitchhiker with it. Now I have two to take to Massachusetts and release. The other one appears to possibly be missing as per the last comment made. Because part of finding it includes hiking up a pretty steep gully with lots and lots of rocks, Laura and I only went about halfway and decided not to go further. If I had real hiking boots and a hiking pole, I think I’d like to do it so I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time. I would like to go back up Rock Canyon because it’s supposed to be even prettier the farther up you go.

We got to watch the sun set. By the time we got to the car, there were people with headlamps heading up the trail.

Well, since it’s almost an hour later and much has happened, I’m going to sign off for now. Have a fantastic day!