Acquiring Canadian Life Skills

We head for home tomorrow.

We pack the snow-covered car today.  I will need to find my gloves.

And the camera, and the doll clothes, and the cell phone charger.  Our lives are spread all over the house.

But first,

a nod to my Canadian friends.

We have spent the last few days playing games (dozens of them), going to movies, eating and laughing with friends and family, reacquainting ourselves with winter sports and ice scrapers, and ringing in the new year.

In addition to this, we have acquired a few Canadian life skills:

travelling by automobile in freezing temperatures,

eating indoors with mittens on,

ice skating with grace and aplomb (or something close to it),

and sledding down ice sheets.

Too many pictures to post properly.

My father-in-law gave me a new video editing program for Christmas.  I am an amateur...can't even figure out how to "fade to black" yet, but here's my first go:  four minutes of the family learning one of our favorite "Canadian life skills."  They were red-cheeked and grinning from start to finish.  Our niece, Rachel, joined us on our adventure.  She was equally red-cheeked and grinning.

(Ethan says we are dancers.)

Oh, and happy new year.

My darlings and I celebrated.

It was a lovely beginning.

A Post Featuring Snow

I've decided that "a dark and stormy night" has nothing on "an icy and foggy morning."  I had to fill a prescription early this morning and about lost my way in all the murky blackness.  I drove achingly slow and smiled to myself imaging the drivers behind me cursing their luck when they saw my license plate, "Sheesh, you'd think they'd never seen fog in Arizona."  Well, actually I haven't.

For those of you wondering if we're still in Joplin, we made it Michigan right on schedule and have been Christmasing ever since.

My kids remembered the joys of snow, but not the cold.  I think the last time we went sledding in Flagstaff we all shucked our coats half-way through the day and ended up sunburned.  It's been a bit of an adjustment.  The first day here there were a few tears about how "freezing" it was, but eventually they figured out the science of layers and the necessity (and brilliance) of gloves.  Boots are also helpful.  We had to go buy a couple pairs when we got here and had to go to four stores before we finally found some.  I asked David, "What do you have to do to find boots in this town?"  Apparently the locals have long since bought what they needed for winter and the stores are about to start stocking flip-flops in anticipation of summer. 

 You can tell they're from Arizona because shovelling is play...

 

and I had forgotten about the beauty and charm of icicles.

We had a lovely Christmas, but for me the best part happened on Christmas Eve...

"For unto us a son is born, unto us a son is given." 

December, Four Days In

So here's the thing.  The longer I go without blogging, the less I have to say.

It's true.

And now I just wrote a whole post, ready to publish and everything, and it disappeared into cyberspace.  Which is vexing.  Austen never had this problem.  All that cleverness gone, me the only witness.  Like I said, vexing. 

Anyway, we've had a bit of a rocky start into December, but the end of November was quite nice, so I will start there.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving, thank you very much.  I think my favorite part was the little place cards the girls created for everyone at the table.  The big dilemma was whether the person in question was more of a "pilgrim" or more of a "Native American."  My place card was a Native American, "even though I like church" (their words).

  

We played hours and hours of games over the holiday, much to Caleb's delight.  We even finally read the directions to "Dutch Blitz" and were soundly beaten by David.  Caleb ruefully pointed out that he got the game for his birthday (in June!) and this was the first time we had played it.  The height of tragedy.

We had a little party on Saturday night with my brothers and their families.  We had dinner and played a new game called "Say Anything" which turned out to be a lot of fun.  A couple of them even commented, with surprise in their voices, how fun it was and how we ought to do it more often.  Amen to that.

And now for a few snapshots of December, four days in:

1.  Caleb had his big aerospace challenge all day on Tuesday.  He competed against 100 teams and did not win.  Not even an honorable mention.  We were sad, and me doubly so to see his palpable disappointment.  He really did do great though.  His team was visited by 10 teams of judges, all looking at different elements of the project.  My favorite moment happened when one of the judges asked Caleb about how big the space station was.  Caleb immediately replied, "The area of the torus is 42,223 meters squared."  The judge could not help grinning and neither could I.  We had a little bit of downtime between judging groups and once one of Caleb's friends asked where he was.  I said, "Pacing," and pointed to Caleb walking the hall talking to himself, going over figures in his mind.  I spent the whole day nearly bursting, alternating between pride and anxiety to see all his earnestness.

2.  The first of our Christmas string concerts is tonight and Olivia is delirious with anticipation and giddiness at the thought of "performing on stage" (which she says with dramatic emphasis).  She asked me what I thought performing would be like.  I said seriously, "Amazing."  And she said dreamily, "I thought so."

3.  Ethan came home from school yesterday with a note from the principal that he had been fist-fighting on the playground and she wrote specifically that, "he had to be pulled off the other student."  I know.  We found out later that it was a student who was three grades above him.  Heaven help me.  I told David that we're going to have to ban "A Christmas Story" from our holiday movie library. 

4.  I cleaned out my sewing room yesterday.  Found a home for my new disco ball motor and 16 wooden dowels with various-sized holes drilled through them.  (Apparently their story will never be told.  This is probably for the best.)  David is still smarting a bit from the jamba juice incident (as I like to refer to it), and shaking his head at how stubborn a person has to be to let perfectly good jamba juice melt into mush.  And I have no good answers for that.  I can only say that for me somehow "stress" is always connected inevitably with "distress."  Which is unfortunate.   

5.  Olivia left for school today clutching Caleb's copy of Fablehaven.  When I questioned her about the book choice she told me that her friends had told her that it was good and she was "desperate" (her word).  Fablehaven is about the exact opposite of Laura Ingalls Wilder, but she has been increasingly forlorn without something to read and I'm waiting for Christmas to introduce her to Anne with an "E".  She looked down at the book skeptically and then up at me and said, "Mom, I don't think I'm going to make it to Christmas.  And I mean it."

As an aside:   The kids were playing a game in which Olivia had to pick her favorite place to go on vacation...she chose Wisconsin (Laura's childhood home) over Hawaii and Disneyland and even Michigan.  David was flabbergasted.  I, however, completely understand this romantic non-logic.   

6.  We had our first gifts of the season on Tuesday night.  (It was supposed to be Monday, but we're not going to talk about Monday night.  Ever.)  This led to a sweet, spontaneous moment around our tree, which included singing a couple of Christmas hymns, all of us off-key but Olivia.  I'll admit I shed a few tears and finally felt a bit of Christmas spirit.  I always get a late start on holiday cheer, but I make up for it in the end.

 

Word of the Week: Reticent

reticent  /adj./  habitually silent or uncommunicative, disinclined to speak readily.  reserved.  taciturn. having a restrained, quiet, or understated quality.  bashful.  hesitant or shy.  tight-lipped.  clammed up.

reticent  /adj./  1.  Not being a reticent person myself, it might surprise you to know how much I really like this word.  That first syllable is so quiet you hardly know what's coming before it's already upon you, and then the last syllable bashfully quiets the word back down, as if it's sorry it spoke at all.

reticent  /adj./  2.  For whatever reason, I've been reticent to talk about last week, as I don't know how to capture it accurately.  In many ways it was just a dumb week, with a number of wasted days thrown in the mix.  But last night at dinner, David said something like, "We need to post those pictures of..." by which he meant I need to post those pictures.  And this only made me even more reticent to share any of it because its my blog after all, etc.  But here I am, reticently repenting. 

Maybe one reason I'm so disinclined to be reticent is that I look just plain weird with my mouth closed.  I need more lip to cover my teeth properly.

reticent  /adj./  3.  We had our family picture taken on Monday and Tuesday this week.  Yeah, that's right, it was a two-day affair.  I will only say that this was not by design.  (I will not say why...I am determined to stay reticent on this point.)  But this felt like a couple of wasted days because of all the prep it takes to get us looking presentable.  It's a job, believe me.  Our last good family picture was taken when Ethan was one and I was bound and determined this year to get a real live, official family picture taken.  Now we are anxiously awaiting the proofs.  I am two parts gleeful anticipation and one-and-a-half parts fearful trepidation.  I wanted it to be colorful...and it was.  David is quietly concerned about this and would have preferred us to all match.  Luckily for me, in our whole married life he has never once said, "I told you so."  (Even though he could have about a million times.)

reticent  /adj./  4.  The kids had Tuesday off school and so we went to the drive-in movie after our almost-family-picture on Monday night.  We blew up an air mattress for the back of the car and let the kids lay on that, while David and I sat on camp chairs outside and were, surprisingly, plenty cold by the end of the show.  (Though I'm reticent to complain about the cold because we've waited so long for it to arrive.  In fact, we're back to hot again today and I was boiling in bed last night.  It's not beginning to feel anything like Christmas.  The flannel sheets are going on the beds in a week...we're all going to have to sleep naked.)

 

reticent  /adj./  5.   Tuesday was spent family picturing (again) and playing games (it was a minor holiday).  Wednesday I had to go to the school to help with scenery for the upcoming 2nd grade play and the rest of the day was eaten up with mothering interruptions.  By Thursday I was starting to panic about my upcoming talk and the state of my house.  (My usual cleaning day is Monday, so by Thursday even RIM couldn't think straight.)  I am reticent to admit that I am pretty much a non-functioning human being when my house is a mess, or even (dare I admit it) when I "feel" like it is dirty.  So I scrubbed my way to sanity and then spent the next couple of days working on my talk for stake standards night on Sunday evening.  And my kids asked several times, "Aren't you done with that yet?" (I told you it was a dumb week.)

reticent  /adj./  6.  On Friday night we went to the Fall Festival at Caleb's school.  It's mostly a fundraiser, but they have dinner and a few carnival-like games.  We didn't stay for long, but the kids had a good time and got their fill of cotton candy and snow cones, which has to last them until the Lehi Rodeo in the spring.  Savannah asked David to hold her cotton candy while she frosted a cupcake at one of the booths, and he was reticent to admit that it was significantly smaller when he handed it back to her.  There was a gorgeous full moon that night and on the way home I pointed it out, to which Olivia said, "That's a perfect moon for running away."  What the?  Just when I was planning to ask her if she was happy at home she followed it with, "If I was an Indian that would be a perfect running-away moon."  I have no idea what happens inside her mind.

reticent  /adj./  7.  For a post on reticent, this certainly isn't very, is it?  I won't be a bit offended, if you stopped reading at number 3. 

Word of the Week: Ascribe

ascribe /vt./  to credit or assign, as to a cause or source.  to attribute or think of as belonging, as a quality or characteristic.  accredit.  credit.  impute.  hang on.  pin on.

ascribe  /vt./  1.  The appearance of this post can only be ascribed to Rachel, who when I told her I was going to put the word-of-the-week on hold for the rest of the year, gasped out loud in horror.  Bless you, Rara.  This one is for you.

ascribe  /vt./  2.  The word "ascribed" has been pounding through my head, ever since we sang this line at church last week (and a little):  "To Him ascribed be, Honor and majesty, Thru all eternity, Worthy the Lamb!"  (I especially like the exclamation point, don't you?)  I like the way ascribe sounds, especially in the past tense, when you say it in three syllables...a.scrib.ed.  If my life were a musical, that's how I would say it all the time.

ascribe  /vt./  3.  My absence from all things blog can be ascribed mostly to the pace of my life and the length of my list these days.  To be honest, there is no actual list, just a wheel in my head that turns around and around saying, "What about this..."  "Don't forget this..." "You better start on..."  (This wheel sounds suspiciously like RIM, while CIM just thinks its a good idea to take Tuesday afternoon off and play Monopoly with my boys.  Ethan creamed us by the way.  He kept saying "Nope, that's too expensive," and only bought Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues, while I bought everything I landed on.  I ended up going bankrupt and selling most everything to him in the end.  It was a little too frighteningly close to my actual life.)

ascribe /vt./  4. It seems like most of the week was taken up by the election.  The first part spent in nervous anticipation and after Tuesday, taken up with a bit of consolation pie and what can only be described as quiet, resigned acceptance.  But by Thursday, we had all recovered for the most part and life went on.  I can only ascribe this to the magic of pie.

ascribe  /vt./  5.  On Wednesday afternoon I took Savannah to get a haircut (which was badly needed and long overdue, and finally accomplishing it can only be ascribed to her constant prodding.)  It turned out darling and she said, "When you put this on your blog, you need to put an exclamation point by the 'after.'"  Indeed.  When David saw it he said, "I'm not sure if it makes her look older or younger."  As for me, I feel like I got my little girl back.

ascribe /vt./  6.  We had a big aerospace work party on Friday afternoon and evening.  The other boys in Caleb's group rode the bus home with Caleb and we worked until eight o' clock, when one of the boys said, "I'm really tired."  And they were.  Exhausted.  The most exciting part of the night happened when I hooked up about 9 volts too much power to our little motor and blew up two batteries.  After we got over the little scare this mini-explosion caused, the boys all said that was about the coolest thing ever.  All the progress we made this week can only be ascribed to the brilliance of my mother (who I called for consultation on physical layout...she's a genius with graph paper) and my cousin, Daniel (who I called in for help on the motor dilemma), and the guy at home depot who flirted with me shamelessly when I consulted him about belts and tubing and free plywood.  And in the meantime, my quilt room has been turned into ground zero for the project.  For the record, I am much better with fabric than I am with copper wire.

ascribe  /vt./  7.  On Saturday, my cousin, Daniel, and his family came from Tucson for a short visit.  They brought their bikes and we took our first bike ride of the season.  It was glorious.

The weather was beautiful and we rode about 4 miles with a stop in the middle at the frozen yogurt shop.  The kids played and we had dinner and dessert before they headed for home, but not before my girls tried to talk them all into spending the night.  It was delightful to see them all again.  David was one of Daniel's roommates at BYU, and I still ascribe all the happiness of my life to that (not so) "random" housing assignment. 

ascribe  /vt./  8.  I taught the lesson in gospel doctrine on Sunday and finally felt good about it.  Of course there were a few small moments where CIM started talking, but I was able to course correct pretty quickly and recover.  I can only ascribe this success to the advice I got from my dad and my brother, Matt, a few weeks ago.  (More on this in my 52 blessing post.)

ascribe  /vt./  9.  David is over the oncology program at his hospital, and they hosted their first annual Mustang Car Show/Prostate Cancer Screening Event on Saturday morning at the hospital.  When David told me about this, I just grinned.  I know you're all sorry you missed it.  And while Caleb and I did not need our prostates screened we went with David to check out the car show and show our support.  There is no end (no pun intended) to the variety of projects David's job entails.  But the success of this event has to be completely ascribed to Patricia DeBruhl, who is just about the best hire David has ever made.  She is a wonder.  I'm going to have to add this to our list of minor holidays.

Halloweening. And How.

(The results of our Thursday carving party.  Spooktacular.)

I talked to one of my friends this morning who told me she already had her Halloween decorations down.  I smiled because mine are too.  Of course it took me about 20 seconds, since it's only one little quilt and a throw pillow.  I always dress the house for fall, but just can't get too excited about bats and spiders and all that.

Despite my reticence, we halloweened with the best of them.  We went through the costume box a few weeks ago to see what we already had on hand.  This year I only had to buy a whip and a tube of green face paint.  Not bad.

Caleb went as Indiana Jones.  Very cool.  My favorite part was make-uping the scruff and the chest hair.  And catching him pulling his hat down and to give himself suave looks in the mirror.  Seriously good fun.

A few weeks ago Olivia told me she wanted to go as something "unexpected," like a storm trooper.  I told her that would definitely be unexpected.  [She confided that she wanted "to keep her friends on their toes." (her words)]  A day or so after that I had a dream that she went as a boxer with this darling black eye, and I tried to talk her into that, but she was only aghast at this suggestion.  I reminded her of her wish to be unexpected.  She said, "Not that unexpected."  She ended up going as Laura Ingalls Wilder, which is not at all unexpected, but is so Olivia. 

Savannah was the only one of them to dress "spooky."  She was a bit hesitant about the green face paint, but once I got going, she completely embraced her wicked-witchiness.  The girls dressed their dolls for the holiday as well, and even went so far as to fill their little buckets with a few pieces of candy when they weren't looking.  Charmed, I'm sure.

 

Ethan vacsillated between all the super heroes, but finally settled on Batman.  He has the other ones scheduled out in his Halloween plans until 2013.  This year David and I had few panicky moments where we lost our fearless bat during trick-or-treating.  He was moving so fast between houses we could hardly keep up.  

 

Love you, darlings.

My favorite part of Halloween night is always our neighborhood party.  From here it was off through the neighborhood to trick-or-treat.  And eventually wind our way back home. 

Boo til next year.

Word of the Week: Peregrinate

peregrinate  /vt./  to make or go on a journey.  to move about and travel at random, especially over a wide area.  journey.  gallivant or rove.  ramble.  roam.  traipse.  wander.  meander.  gad.

peregrinate  /vt./  1.  This word makes me wonder which came first, the falcon or the verb, but either way we did our share of peregrinating this week.  Which is easily done when you are married to the man I am.  I often have dreams where he suggests we drive to far-off places like Maine for the weekend, and when I report these to David he just smiles and then quietly pulls out his road atlas to check the possibilities.  Incidentally, I haven't failed to notice the little "grin" right smack in the middle of this word. 

peregrinate  /vt./  2.  The kids had fall break this week, which means, unbelievably, that we've made it through the first quarter of school.  Thank heavens.  To celebrate this monumental accomplishment, we decided to peregrinate to Utah to go to the BYU homecoming game.  Yes, despite the downwardly peregrinating stock market and the troubled economy, we filled our car with gas and hit the road.  This was all David's brilliant idea of course, and one of the best trips we've taken.  We had sun and snow and family and football and real fall.  Peregrinating at its best.

peregrinate  /vt./  3.  On Thursday morning, before we left for Utah, we put in our winter lawn.  (This is a phenomenon of Arizona, so that you can have the joy of yard work year-round.)  David and the boys peregrinated all over town looking for the best deal on rye seed, and eventually arrived home with 50 pounds of seed and 10 large bags of manure.  We are now watering three times a day, shooing the birds who are enjoying their yearly feast, and watching carefully for the first bright green sprouts.   

peregrinate  /vt./  4.  On Friday morning, David wanted to take us all to hike "the Y" which is painted on the side of one of the mountains near BYU campus.  As we peregrinated our way up the mountain, the kids could no longer see the actual "Y" and got discouraged by the steepness of the climb.  We made lots of stops along the way.  All this faded away when we arrived though, and everyone was busting at their accomplishment.

peregrinate  /vt./  5.  Before the football game on Saturday afternoon, we peregrinated all over Utah county showing the kids all the places and things we remembered:  the Creamery, our first apartments, the library, the Wilk, the bookstore, Bridal Veil falls, and of course, fry sauce (which they serve everywhere).

peregrinate  /vt./  6.  On Saturday at 3:30, we peregrinated to the south bleachers and climbed our way to the top of the football stadium.  It was cold (but not wet) and we were bundled in beanies and blankets.  It was such a thrill to be in Cougar stadium again and I kept stealing looks at David and feeling so lucky to be there.  And I secretly hope that this trip will become an annual tradition.   

When Ethan saw this picture he said, "I was yelling DE-FENSE!"  I know, love.  I remember.

peregrinate  /vt./  7.  We parked on the opposite side of campus to go to the game so that we could see campus by foot on our way watch the Cougars play.  While David especially loved this walk down memory lane, the kids did not appreciate peregrinating all those miles on the way back to the car after the game was over.  We kept having to stop in various buildings to let them warm up, (most of which I hardly recognized as they have all been made-over since I was here last). 

peregrinate  /vt./  8.  On the way to and from Utah, I peregrinated away from "my usual kind of book" and read a crime thriller set in post-war Stalinist Russia in the fifties.  I enjoyed it thoroughly and even cried at the end.  If you're looking for a page turner, this one will get you emotionally too. 

"Ahhh, Y-ness"

This is what Olivia sighed and said when we reached the "Y" on Friday afternoon. 

A few of the highlights of our quick trip to Utah:

1.  I hiked "the Y" for the first time.  David cannot believe this and believes he has saved me from tragedy by insisting that I complete this BYU tradition.

2.  The hike to "the Y" takes 10 switchbacks up the mountain.  The kids begged to go back to the car by the second one...but we did eventually make it, much to their delight and surprise.  Savannah noted our speed and asked, "Mom, have you noticed that everyone keeps passing us?"  Luckily speed doesn't count.

3.  Once we reached "the Y" I was terrified that someone was going to fall to their death.  My terror made David grin.  I was relieved and happy when we finally started back down without incident.

4.  On our way down from "the Y" Ethan told me that he wanted to hike all the letters in the alphabet.  He told me he knew where there was a "G" and a "K" and we could skip "Y" since we had done it first.

5.  It snowed!  On October 12th!  The kids were delighted of course.

6.  I kept our tradition of "buying-a-new-sweatshirt-for-everyone-every-time-we-go-somewhere" alive and well.  Even though I packed the warmest stuff we had.  It was not enough and we ended up buying everyone a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt.  Maybe we'll turn the air conditioner on in January and everyone can dress up again.

7.  We visited David's sister, Lori, and her family on Friday night and then met up with them again after the game on Saturday.  It was so good to see them all again and the kids revelled in the "cousin time."

8.  We also had a brief visit with David's brother, Greg, and his wife, Becca.  They were on their way to celebrate their 1st anniversary, which just made me wonder as I looked at my growing kids sprawled around their living room.  It really wasn't that long ago.  Greg made a brilliant recommendation for hot chocolate with a squirt of soft vanilla ice cream at the Maverick down the street and we went in and got six. 

9.  We were grateful to stay with my gracious and generous (and talented) Aunt Jill.  (Thank you!)  She always makes you feel like you are no trouble at all, even when your kids track brand new snow all over her wood floor. 

10.  One of the delights of the trip was going to the new Hinckley alumni building.  While the girls and I were in the bathroom, David found a donor book and we were both excited to see our names listed.  And I was twice happy to find out that I don't spend all of my money on children's books or sweatshirts.

11.  The Cougars won, much to Ethan's relief.  The game was cold, but in the crisp-fall-pink-cheek way.  My kids are still slathering chapstick on their chapped lips.  It makes me happy every time I look at them.  We bundled up in blankets and drank hot chocolate and sang the BYU fight song.  It was pretty near heaven.

12.  We made obligatory stops at the Creamery, the Gameroom, and the Bookstore.  All the kids found a book to buy and I had to grin at all the lustful bibliophiles I've raised.  We only window shopped though, and everyone started filling out their mental Christmas lists.

13.  And finally, this is for David:

Fall Break

We’re on our way to watch “the Cougars eat the Lobos for lunch.” (This is what Ethan has been saying for days...he even prayed for victory at breakfast this morning.)

The dolls are dressed and ready to go.

But before we leave…

we have to put in the winter lawn.

De Fuehrer has rallied the troops…Caleb’s on seed duty, Olivia’s on fertilizer, Savannah and Ethan are wielding the brooms, and De Fuehrer himself is doing the manure. 

I’m in charge of packing the coats. We heard there may be snow.