I've fallen in love

It was very unexpected. I have fallen in love with the Northwest. The most I was hoping for was that I wouldn't cry myself to sleep at night because I missed my family so much (need I say I did that exact thing a few times on my mission). But we are all in different places now and raising our own families. And my sisters and I have already sworn to each other that when we are old and widows we will live together again and make our kids crazy, and make our grandkids come visit us. But back to Seattle. I really love it. I'm sure my sister Deborah and I will continue to complain about the rain when it returns, but there is so much to do and see, and I haven't even seen or done half of it. And there is so much natural beauty up here. And the people are so nice. Not just the church members, so many people in the little town I live in are extremely nice. So while I do miss my family and friends in Utah incredibly, and am sad that I am missing so much of your lives, I am happy for this time here. And to our loved ones in Texas who we haven't visited in years and years, if you read my blog, please know that we plan trips to Texas at least twice a year, but the plans always get abandoned in the end due to cost. Please forgive us.

And as a note: I've added a "I read Nie Nie" widget on my sidebar. This is an incredible blog. This woman and her husband were in a private plan crash recently and her sister is caring for their 4 children while they make their slow recovery. They are reposting Nie Nie's blog entries. And they are incredible. Her blog is warm and funny and definitely worth the read. I wish health and a quick recovery for her and her husband.

Brooklyn's first day of Preschool

Yea, Brooklyn had her first day of preschool today. I almost feel like I got naptime back because I put Devin down for a nap when I get home from taking her. But my freetime, at least today, was filled with cleaning my house because I asked a neighbor to come sit with Devin when I went to pick Brooklyn up so I wouldn't have to wake him. And the house has to be clean for the neighbor, hee hee! So much for free time.

Anywho, updates are: Brooklyn pushed a stool over square onto Devin's big toe a couple weeks ago. The toe immedialtely turned purple, and then bled for a few days. Alas, he lost the nail a few days ago. Gross. Poor kid.
And we went boating with some friends in the ward last Saturday. I didn't get out of the boat. The kids were whimpering and huddled on my lap, but maybe I'm just using that as an excuse. :)

Mystery Boy

So Damon committed me to going camping one last time for the summer. But the deal was the whole thing was going to be a surprise for me. I didn't know when, where, anything. Which was fine, because Damon said he would plan and pack everything, including meals. Yea! I'm in. He even called my work and asked off the days for me, which I thought was a little weird, but whatever. So last Thursday we headed out. And 12 hours later we arrived at our destination, IDAHO. Seriously, my statement was: We could have driven one more hour and been at my family's house in Provo. After that whenever I referred to our 12 hour drive, Damon would say, "It was an 8 hour drive with 4, 1 hour stops. Which was probably true. :) Devin threw up in his car seat on the way down. Poor kid, he inherited his Dad and Grandma's extremely sensitive gag reflex. He wasn't sick the rest of the trip, but he had just had a big lunch of chicken nuggets, fries, and chocolate milk. Yummy. So we cleaned that up and were once again on our way. We got where we were going, MCCall, ID at 10:00 that night. Set up our tent in the dark. But we were in the RV camping, and were told we had to move to the tent camping the next morning at 8:00 to secure a good spot, so the next morning we took down the tent, drove to the other end of the lake, and set up the tent again. Exhausted yet? I was. The good news was we drove out of a rainy day in Western Washington to a sunny day in Idaho. So we went to play on a sandy spot along the lake, which I loved. And the kids loved it. We are still not good at making sand castles. But I'm sure one day we will be great. Damon was acting weird though. He went to the bathroom and was gone for a long time, which isn't that unusual. Then he came back for about 5 minutes and then started to leave again without a word. I asked him where he was going and he said "to get water." I told him I had water, so he changed his answer to going to the bathroom. Whatever! I decided to sun myself. But as I lay on the beach, I saw our good friends, Heather and Micah Howard sneak up and hide behind a tree with their little baby, Megan. They didn't know I saw them, so I ran to the other side of the tree and scared them instead. There's the big surprise, the Howards were joining us for the weekend. Yea! We had a really good time. Saturday we rented canoes for 4 hours, rowed up a river, had lunch and rowed back. Brooklyn sat on my lap the first half of the ride, as she was still scared of the water from the last trip we took down a river. But for the second half, she jumped in with Heather and Micah and had a good time. Devin was then sitting by himself in the bottom of our canoe on the ride back and fell asleep holdong onto the center bar, how cute is that! We tried to lay him down so he would be more comfortable, but he wasn't having it. That night it started to rain on us as we were playing games around the camp fire. We went to bed, and it rained all through the night, and didn't let up the next day. It was so cold. We played games in our tent for a while, but eventually agreed to get a hotel room for the night. Heather and I played at a playground with the kids while Damon Micah packed up camp. Once again we were really cold. But the hotel felt totally luxurious. Sleeping in a bed, taking a hot shower, who could ask for more. Oh, and we went to a steak house for dinner. :). The next morning I took the kids to the indoor pool while Damon packed us up. What a good system we have! They loved the jacuzzi. I let them wade and kick their feet in it. Devin would have been happy there all day. Brooklyn, however fell face first into the water. I cut up my leg a little getting to her. Man, that girl and water, I need to get her in some swim lessons, soon! I don't know if she slipped or jumped. She was watching an older girl jump into the pool, so she was mimicking the girl holding her nose to jump in. But it looked more like Brooklyn leaned over the edge and then fell. But she was fine. Then we had lunch with the Howards and parted ways. We loved hanging out with you. Like Heather said, it doesn't feel like we only see each other now and then, 'cause we just pick up where we left off. You guys are adventurous, and fun. Thanks for meeting us!




So when Damon and I were dating, my roomates nicknamed him "mystery boy" because he would often disappear without a word. He doesn't do that any more. He has found a more productive use for his secrecy. He will often plan surprise dates for me, and he does a great job. Thanks hon, I had a blast!

Brooklyn counts, in spanish

She says her middle name first, and she leaves out siete, but still.

The Latest

I watched my 11 year old nephew, Connor, for a week and a few days while his family was traveling and such. I didn't quite know how to entertain an 11 year old. We only have toys for a preschooler and toddler. But I recently bought a "50 science things to make and do" oversized flashcard box. So I let him look through those and decide on a few he wanted to make. One of the experiments he chose was a foaming monster. He knows a family in our ward, so we had a couple of their kids over. It was great because they decorated their monsters first with colored paper, which took at least 45 minutes :). Then we put vinegar, dish soap, food coloring, and baking soda in and wacthed it foam. I helped Brooklyn make one so she had fun also.

We've been having warm, warm weather. On the news they said not to go outside, as it could reach 90 degrees :). Damon just scoffed when I told him, as he is from Dallas. We enjoyed the sun by going on a spur of the moment camping trip. Damon called me at work in the morning and told me the Jensens had invited us to go camping for two nights. I said, "sure, I don't care what we do this weekend, as long as I'm in the sun." Deb and Marc have a camper trailer that they keep stocked with nonperishable food. So she said meals were taken care of, just to bring milk and bread. We added doritos, soda, and some fruit, which in the end the Jensens really appreciated. We spent Saturday playing on the bank of a cool river. For some reason I could not muster any energy, so I volunteered to stay in camp while Devin took a nap, and get in a few zzz's myself. Unfortunately, Devin only slept half an hour, so we got up, and met up with the rest of the gang. The jensens bought a few more inner tube flaoties. One person would drive and the rest of us floated lazily down the river. We took Brooklyn with us once, and we had a little mishap. She had a life jacket on, and was riding on Damon's back as he lay on a full bed floater. But we ran into a tree that started to tip Damon, so he threw Brooklyn off his back so he could hold her up. But the current was still pulling him and his float was overturning. He told me to take Brooklyn, which I was able to do and hold her on my lap. Scared Brooklyn pretty bad. She did not have as much fun after that. She cried and kept telling us to "watch out," after that. Earlier in the day she had been playing by the bank in one of the inner tubes and had tipped over and went face first into the water. Hopefully she's not scarred for life. I'll have to get her into some swim lessons some day. Poor Girl. Sorry I don't have any pictures. The only one I have is of Brooklyn falling asleep eating dinner tonight. We got home, cleaned up and went to church. Damon fixed chicken nuggets for her for dinner around 5:00, and she couldn't eat them she was so tired. Damon came to get me to show me her sleeping on the kitchen counter. She protested when we told her to go take a nap, but fell asleep again trying to dip her nugget. I think we wore the kids out.

And an Update: I had a request to see a better picture of Brooklyn's haricut. I don't know if this is a better picture. But I get compliments on her haircut all the time, and from stangers, so I must have done a good job, but maybe it is just Brooklyn's beautiful, thick hair that makes the cut.

I hate to get political, but . . .

So last week, Exxon Mobil reported it's quarterly profits at 11.7 billion. That is 11.7 billion in PROFITS in three months. They broke the record for quarterly profits of any U.S. company ever. They broke the world record. The top 6 big oil companies reported a joint earning of just over 50 billion in quarterly profits. Gas prices have stabilized and even dropped a little. But I think there is and has been some serious price gouging going on, and I think it is time the government stepped in. Actually, I'm curious as to why they haven't already. The only reason I can think is that the top officials are getting money off all this also. I read in an article that both McCain and Obama recieved big money from oil companies for their campaigns. 8 years ago when Bush took office, gas was less than $2.00 a gallon. Can you imagine paying that now? I think Americans have stood by and watched gas prices rise because we think we're somehow being patriotic. If we don't have loved ones in the military, the truth is we are untouched by the war in Iraq. It doesn't affect our personal lives the way it does Iraqis. So we feel duty bound to pay the high cost of continually rising gas prices and not complain too loudly about it. But the truth is, with Exxon Mobil reporting that much profits, we are not paying for a war at the pump, we are making a few oil men rich. I mean, it all seems a little crooked to me. And the economy is floundering because of it. The cost of living is increasing exponentially. Local police and fire forces have had to make severe staff cuts becasue they can't meet their budgets. I can't totally blame the housing crisis on big oil, or the fact that unemployment is up and every day I hear of companies going out of business and millions of americans losing their jobs, but I'm sure it contributes. And I want something done about it. No more excuses.

Disclaimer: I'm not as well researched on this subject as I'm sure I should be if I'm going to rant like this. But I had to get it off my chest. I hope I haven't offended anyone.

FYI: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/?q=exxon+profits&submit=Search&id=11881780&FORM=AE&os=0&gs=1&p=1&adunitid=939&propertyid=3501

It's official

We have now lived in the Seattle area for a year. Not in our house for a year yet, but the kids and I drove out of Utah last year on July 5th. And time is going so fast, I can't believe it. For the 4th this year we went camping for the three day weekend with the Jensens. I don't have any pics, as I (yet again) forgot my camera and had to rely on Marc and Deb to take pictures for us, so I'll have to wait for those. We went to the church site they use for the girls camps up here. It's a pretty cool place. They have this huge waterslide that you ride innertubes down. We camped there last year also, but I forgot my swimsuit then so I didn't get to go. I didn't make that mistake this year, and it was totally worth it. We canooed and tried to get the kids to sit on a horse that either Damon or I would have led around a little pasture. We had no luck with that. Devin would at least pet the horse, Brooklyn wouldn't even do that much. Maybe next time. And I cut Brooklyn's hair short for the summer. Poor girl, she would just be sweating around her hair line, and our house doesn't have air conditioning. She looks more like her birth mom with short hair than I've ever seen. I should have found a professional to cut it, but I got antsy and cut it myself. It looks ok, but I can see it's really uneven.