Simonds Family Inc.

A Birthday

2012-02-15T09:59:00.005-07:00

Quarter of a century! Way to have made it this far, me!

Every year I think coming up with what I want for Christmas is hard and then just over a month later, I have to think of something for my birthday. Children, be grateful both of you will have mid-year birthdays away from big holidays.

Despite just getting over Christmas, it was a really nice not only birthday, but birthday weekend since my birthday was on a Monday.

On Saturday Johann decorated the apartment and his parents came out for the day. We spent time with them at the apartment, walked around the temple and then they treated us to a nice birthday dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ. We had never been there before but we'd certainly like to go again. It was yummy. Thanks again, Jim and Trixi!

Then we came back to our place, skyped with Johann's sister and her fam (Saturday was her actual birthday) and had the tasty ice cream cake Johann got.
Sunday morning I got to sleep in-oh, it's so heavenly-and then was asked by a little voice at the side of the bed if I wanted to eat my breakfast in the bed or come downstairs and eat with him. I'm not a big fan of eating in the bed so I went downstairs to a nice breakfast prepared by the boys. Poor Johann though, it was fast Sunday and I felt a little bad eating while he did dishes and talked to me. I'd say he's a pretty good guy. =)
On Monday the 6th, my actual birthday, I got to be bossed around by Henry for the first half of the day. boo. He was kind of grumpy. Thankfully Johann had an early day, came home and I got to open my presents.
I think I must be hard to shop for, again, especially after Christmas but penguin classics' Coralie Bickford-Smith editions are always sure to please. He also actually surprised me gift-wise for I think the first time since we've been married and got me a new snoogle pillow cover. I've been needing one for a long time but Johann hates my giant pillow so I didn't think he'd buy it an accessory. Touche me. He picked a perfect pattern, probably what I'd have picked. Then he got another sure pleaser, a gift card to Old Navy. I'm going to need warm weather maternity clothes, most of mine are for winter.

After opening gifts we headed out to Hobby Lobby to pick out a frame for this lovely lady that I got at Christmas.

We found the frame pretty quickly then headed out to the Town Square mall to get some Kabuki. Luckily, our quick frame purchase meant we made it in time to Kabuki for sushi happy hour, which we didn't even know existed and got some sweet deals.

While I was jealous about not getting any philladelphia rolls, I was pretty content eating the other rolls with cooked meat. mmmm, I crave it all day, every day.

The server even picked up on the fact that it was my birthday and brought out a little treat.

Prior to the treat coming out, Henry had seen a frozen yogurt place across the way and asked if he could have some after. He did a good job eating his noodles, ate a california roll and tried an philly roll so we said we'd get him some.

We walked in, got Henry a little bit, Johann saw some funky flavors and got a bit too. When we went to pay the guy said we didn't need to put it on the scale, we were a bit confused asked how much and he said, "free." When we looked more confused he pointed to a sign that that it was blue spoon free day. Woot! So I went and got some and Johann added to his pittance. It's like the universe was making up for the Mitt Romney yogurt block a couple days before.
We finished our yogurt while walking around then hopped in the car and went to old navy and babies r us. We had a gift car from Johann's mom over Christmas to babies r us so we decided to go ahead and get the diaper bag and couple other things.
Finally we put Henry to bed, got birthday calls from some family and ate the pie Johann brought home while we watched a show together.
I'm pretty sure having a whole 3 days of birthday celebration will not be easily topped. But, I figure once we have another little one, something like this won't be doable for years so I am grateful to have had such a nice birthday this year.

Thank you to everyone who sent cards or messages for helping to make it such a lovely birthday! I love my family and I love Johann for always doing all he can to make sure I have a good birthday-he certainly succeeded this year!

A Holiday

2012-02-15T08:50:00.008-07:00

I don't feel very on top of things lately, Valentines day this year is a good example. Last year we got Henry some fun little treats and gifts as well as something for each other, helped plan a party for all the kidfaces in the ward, attended said party and helped do a Relief Society Valentines activity.

This year it just snuck up on us and we didn't really realize until Sunday, when my very sweet visiting teaching brought us cookies, that it was coming in two days.

We saved a few to eat on Vday-thanks Amber and kids for the cookies!

Knowing Johann would probably be up and out of the door before Henry and I were up we decided to go ahead and have our Valentines day breakfast Monday night. Henry helped me make some pink heart shaped pancakes and I made the mistake of throwing some red dye on the eggs (come on, self, red plus yellow will not yield pink but orange) so we had semi pink pancakes and orange eggs.

After that I got to spend some time helping Henry write, and writing myself, on the Valentines for Henry's class party at preschool the next day. It was so weird for me to realize this was something I had to do this year. He's merging into full on kid life and it just seems so soon sometimes.

Now don't worry, all the stuff we did on Monday night still somehow didn't manage to sink in and when Johann woke up the next morning and said, "Happy Valentines Day" I think my response was something like, "Oh, crap." I had managed to forget again and was afraid I'd forgotten something, which I'm sure I did but I don't remember now.

Henry got lots of loot from preschool since he got to be around when the older kids did their party too and he got to make some fun crafts. Good thing he has preschool now, otherwise the poor kid would be craft starved.

Johann got home later that afternoon and brought some flowers and treats (I think he was feeling like we had slacked a lot this year too). He knows I'm not a big fan of flowers on Valentines but said he just wanted to have something nice on the table ( annnnd I think cover his behind in case my hormones all the sudden decided I would like flowers that year-smart man).

We talked and played with Henry for a bit and then got our very original heart shaped pizza dinner prepared. I even let Henry do most of the topping this year. There was a bit of a cheese overflow but, hey, the more cheese the merrier, right?

After dinner Henry finally got to go through his candy from preschool and pick out a couple of treats. Johann and I had some of the chocolate covered almonds and an airhead a piece, kind of passed out on the couch, put Henry to bed and then passed out for good feeling sufficiently sick for having eaten crud.

So overall, a pretty uneventful day, but at least we kept up a few of our traditions, no matter how uninventive. Henry seemed to have a fun day and heck, we got pizza and some pretty flowers for the table. I guess despite it being so last minute and hodge podge we can call it good for this year.

Happy Valentines Day!

Scripture Study

2012-02-08T13:56:00.003-07:00

Since Johann works early and I can't make myself get up before Henry does around 6:30, 6:45, Johann and I end up doing our couple scripture study at night.

Monday night (my birthday) Johann brought home a pie that we still had not managed to get to by the time we needed to get ready to head for bed.

We grabbed our scriptures and started reading from the upcoming sunday school lesson in 2 Nephi 4. When we got to verse 27 Johann read,

And why should I yeild to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I hungry because of mine enemy?

and kept reading not even realizing he substituted 'hungry' for 'angry' bah haha.

I think it's one of my favorite scripture reading slips yet.

Needless to say, we stayed up a little longer so we could have some pie and Johann didn't have to have his peace destroyed and soul afflicted.

A boy thing

2012-01-30T14:00:00.003-07:00

The action: Me, cleaning in the bathroom.

Enter Henry

Henry: I need to go pee.

Me: Ok, go to your bathroom.

Henry: No, I need to pee in here.

Me:You wanna pee in this toilet because the water is blue, don't you?

Henry: Yes.

*pees*

Henry (in ecstasy):I peed in the blue water toilet!

I think I am really starting to get a hang on what makes boys tick.

Journals

2012-01-28T09:29:00.005-07:00

While we were in Apple Valley this weekend past, I came across two of my dad's journals. Between the two of them they span from January 26th, 1982-December 29th, 1986.

I skimmed the latter one on the drive back to Las Vegas and then Thursday the 26th of this week, Johann and I started reading the first journal, 30 years to the day from when it was started.

The second paragraph of his first entry says

I am beginning to realize that if my journal is not kept, my children and grandchildren may not know me or the great experiences that I've had. Also if I don't write of the great blessings the hand of the Lord has bestowed upon me, myself and my posterity may forget and lose the way.

I'm so thankful for my dad following the inspiration to keep his journal. I know there are many more after the ones I found, probably boxed up in the shed, and I am going to start doing my best to get them all transcribed so that I can better know him and share who he is with my children and have us all learn from his experiences. I only have so many stories about him committed to memory that having these journals now will really help to fill in the gaps and bring new understanding and appreciation for all my dad did during his life.

So as you might imagine, once I finally get around to posting my goals for 2012, keeping a more faithful journal will be listed as well as working on getting all of my dad's on the computer.

Besides, I can't wait to find more fun discoveries like the fact that my dad was sure I was going to be a boy and that I was already named Daniel Peter Lehi at about 2 months in utero.

Thanks, dad for keeping your record.

Henry Hippopotamus

2012-01-09T09:47:00.007-07:00

This post is all about...Henry! I feel like I haven't really kept track of what this kid has been upto in recent months via the blog and this is my attempt to correct that a bit.

The first thing I think of when I think of Henry is that he is a funny kid. And he wants to be funny. He'll routinely say something and then turn and ask us if that was funny or not. I find it interesting that somehow we've engendered in him that it's a good thing to be funny or that he naturally values it. Either way he says some funny stuff on a daily basis which helps a lot especially after he's just been or is acting like a stinker.

The best one I can think of recently was dragging him out of a restaurant and while he was yelling and screaming he stops, in the middle of the parking lot and says, "Mommy! You are not pretty anymore!" and looks at me like he just said the 'f' word. I wish I could say Johann, my mom and I all managed to not laugh like crazy and tell him how that's mean but we all laughed and so did a mom passing by.

Don't worry, my self esteem was restored the next morning when he woke up and told me I was pretty again.

I feel like a lot of his 'hobbies' have changed but he still loves to help cook or bake whenever I'll let him in the kitchen.

He also crosses his legs like the picture above a lot. He typically falls asleep in the car with his legs crossed like that.

He adores his papa/daddy. When Johann is home, Henry is within a six foot radius of him. He always groups the two of them together by saying, "the boys are sitting here....the boys are doing this..." etc.

Henry use to dread and scream during haircuts or at least be nervous. Now we go into Vinnie's and he is excited. He even let Vinnie's wife, Connie, cut his hair this last time. Which reminds me he is in need of another cut. His hair grows so fast it seems.

He can be much more helpful now. Most mornings right before or after we go up to comb his hair and brush his teeth, he takes all the stuffed animals and pillows off his bed, I do the tucking and then he puts them back on. He seems to change their arrangement every day but this seems to be one of his favorite ways to make his bed lately.

I love that when he spills something I can tell him to get the vacuum and clean it up. He usually does a pretty good job.

Speaking of helpful, he gets himself dressed every morning on his own. He comes in to tell me he's awake, which is never later than 6:45am gaaah, and then says he is going to change. He usually does a good job picking his outfits, (except for always wearing those boots, gosh, I hate them now) it's just getting him to stay in one shirt and one pair of pants all day. I finally told him last week that unless he pees himself he cannot change pants. Of course he then looked at me and said, "I peed." And sure enough, he did. Touché, Henry.

Crafts are still a big thing with him. I feel bad that I don't do them as much with him now as before because I figure he gets to do a lot of them in preschool but he still asks at least 3 or 4 times a week to do a craft.

Babies. He loves babies. He is still torn over wanting a baby brother or sister. At one point he told me if it's a girl he will tell her to get out of his house, he said he wanted a brother! Yikes. Then ten minutes later he told my cousin he was having a cute baby sister. Yeesh.

He had fun over break meeting his cousin, Max, but as I suspect will happen with this baby, he thought at times he could pick him up or was in charge of him. I'll have to buy this baby a bubble or something for when it's not attached to me.

Big kids. If Henry can get a big kid to play with him, he is in Heaven. He talks endlessly about the big girls, his 2nd cousins, Sophia and Lisset and how those big girls played with him. He'll talk about a big kid in the park from summer playing with him. He also insists he isn't a little kid but just a kid. Not quite a big one yet though I guess.

Does anybody else think the rapture has taken place when their kid goes to the bathroom?! Below is what I find when Henry has to go numero dos. Why, oh why does he think he has to take all his clothes off? I mean, even to his socks he takes EVERYTHING off. It drives me nuts. And I'm not sure why he does it. But he must enjoy the freedom because after going he usually spends at least 5 minutes dancing free as a bird in front of the mirror. Don't worry, we sanitize.

There was a time when Henry drew like nuts and then we were at Grammy's for the summer then moved and he didn't so much anymore.

He's decided he likes drawing again, which I love, hello non-messy activity.

His favorite things to draw are pirates and the inside of bodies. I know, the latter seems kind of creepy but he actually does pretty well. The above is one of his first bone ones and now when he draws hearts he even includes the valves. We were at Lakeshore the other day and they had a body model and he spent about 20 minutes playing with it and looking at all the insides. He loves going with me to the doctor and seeing the blood work done and looking at all the charts. I think it's pretty cool he is interested in all of it. I mean, when I think about it, the body is pretty dang fascinating and I want to let him explore whatever he is interested in, even if it seems a little gross at first. The problem so far was when he made his spider a boy. Poor Johann almost had a cow until he realized he's only 3 and it's pretty innocent. Oh, he is going to have a heart attack when it's time for "the talk."

He is doing much better in preschool-woohoo and manages to be good most days. It's good I'm upstairs with my cousin's baby though, otherwise I would think Henry wasn't getting anything since I can never get him to trace or write his name for me at home but he'll do it at preschool for Miss Nancy.

He is now a full fledged Sunbeam and really loves his teachers. I do too. They were so sweet and he is excited to talk about what they do in their class and it sounds like they really have a hold on how to keep 3 and 4 year olds interested. I'm so, so glad it hasn't been rough like I thought it would be.

It also feels like all our morning scripture study is starting to 'pay off' when he talks about something from primary they did, like a choose the right game and then compares it to what we learned one morning when he said, "So I have to have a squishy, soft heart so I can make good choices." Yes! And last Sunday he said something that sounded like "King Noah is my boy" and I repeated it and asked if that's what he said and he got mad and said, "No! King Noah is a bad boy! Heavenly Father is my boy!" Apparently, around our house, to Henry, King Noah is the ultimate bad guy, he is too interested in the ship and the shocks Nephi gives to care much about Lamen and Lemuel.

Well, that is probably waaaay too much for one post which reminds me I need to be better at doing short ones more frequently. Tonight he starts his karate class at the rec center. Pray for us =) and I'll be sure to post about this new adventure. If this goes well I may do one other class while we're here. Henry wants dance or gymnastics for his next one. Johann wants to cry. =)

Baby Simonds Deux

2012-01-06T09:03:00.004-07:00

If you haven't been on fb recently, surprise!
We are expecting an addition to our family due July 13th!
We are very, very happy!

We've been struggling to bring a new little life into our family for what would have been 2 years at this point and had lots of ups and downs over that time including a very emotionally difficult miscarriage in March.

In September we decided we would no longer worry about 'trying' to have a baby but continue to be open to any possibilities that would present themselves as we moved forward. We really started to adjust to the idea of having a little 3 person family and the possibilities that would open up for us and Henry as he got older.

October I decided to start acting on our new outlook and went on my first big solo drive with Henry to visit friends in Arizona. We figured if we just had one kid we could be the travelers to see friends and not have to worry as much with a car full of kids, babies etc.

While I felt good about our new approach to life, I have to admit I was still sad and a little disappointed. But it was while standing in my friends kitchen and talking to her about our fertility issues and new outlook that I basically realized and bore my testimony that we would have more children whether it was in this life or the next, it didn't matter, all that mattered was to be worthy of that blessing and then God's promises would be sure. And I felt it solidly and deeply sink into my heart and take away any residual bitterness that was left.

November rolled around and I woke up to change our calendar. One of the paintings that was on display in the MOA during the Carl Bloch exhibit has come to mean a great deal to me. We have a calendar the bishop of our old ward gave to the ward members and when I opened to November the picture for the month was the very picture-

To me, it's been a comfort and testimony: Christ is not late and He does not forget; not only that but the most important thing we can do while waiting on Him is to let our faith reach full bloom like the rose beside the daughter of Jairus, because it is then that we will see the miracle occur and that is what must always be alive in us.

As I looked at the painting I had that a catch my breath kind of moment and felt, "maybe now it is your turn."

Four days later I took a pregnancy test that came out negative. I have to admit I was a little confused but decided I would stick to what we had decided and simply move on and not dwell on it.

Two days after Henry woke up and ran into our room, right to my bedside and said to me, "We forgot my baby, we forgot my baby sister!" (he has now gone back and forth between it being a boy or girl)
I am still not sure why, I think I thought, well, can't hurt to check so I got out of bed and took the last test from the box we had bought a few months before. And sure enough:

A positive on November 7th.

There have been other and subsequent feelings and promptings that have been tender mercies surrounding this pregnancy. I hope it doesn't seem like I think this baby or I am somehow "more special" because of it. What it comes to for me is being able to see a miracle happen in the life of our little family and understand that while not in a rush or bound to my timetable, God is mindful, loving and kind. I still know there is a possibility of complications or problems, but I think I am starting to understand that whatever happens, being faithful will bring promised blessings here or in the hereafter and that is a good enough reason to continue to trust in the Lord despite disappointment or sadness.
I am so very grateful for this blessing in our family, humbled by the love, prayers and thoughts that have been sent by our family and friends and happy to embark on a new phase of family life-having kidS!

Our first ultrasound at week 8-

Second ultrasound at 12 weeks and 6 days (yesterday)-I almost feel like it's easier to tell it's a baby on the 8 weeks one because the baby was much more still. Yesterday the little lady or fella did not stop wiggling for more than 2 seconds so he/she looks more like a blob to me. Another Henry on our hands, methinks =)

Christmas Vacation pt.2

2012-01-04T09:31:00.007-07:00

As I mentioned in the last post, we took off Christmas morning after Max's blessing to the Goodwin side of the family to open gifts in AV and spend the day there.
(Warning-lots of pictures this post)

We got to the house when everyone was getting ready to head to singles ward to hear my oldest brother, Aaron give a talk so Henry got to open his stocking to abate his gift opening giddiness.

Luckily for Henry, singles ward sacrament was cut short because the majority of their choir didn't show so soon everyone was back and Henry got ready to open gifts.

This is pretty much what Henry's face looked like the entire time. He was so excited with each gift and wanted to stop and play with each one.

Typical Jacob-big box full of newspaper and you have to search for your gift.

My mom in her absolute surprise and joy to find she had *finally* gotten an iPhone.

Uncle Aaron had to get Henry yet another sword, I'm sorry, I mean, 'cutlass'....uhg.

Johann did get his Beatles glasses despite his wife telling them they were taken out of stock never to be sold again.

Uncle Aaron got everyone some sweet hats

And Henry even did some secret shopping with Grammy and picked out these cute slipper socks for Daddy and Mommy. We love them!

After everyone looked through all their loot, we prepared for our annual Mexican Christmas dinner. I know it probably seems ghetto but dang it, give me my mom's homemade chicken taquitos, enchillades, rice, beans, and home made salsas and guac over ham and potatoes
ANY. DAY. We also had some yummy yogurt tortes for dessert. mmmm. It was a delicious evening.

I love seeing how Henry reacts to Christmas a little differently each year. I think this was the first year he really got what was going on and it was so much fun to witness. It was a crazy week and I didn't get things done exactly how I wanted this year but we did have a lot of fun.

Moving on to the rest of the week:

Tuesday we went to what will be our "however often we're all in town" book club meeting at Lola's with some of our friends. We read Hard Times by Dickens (cheery for Christmas-right?) and while we all agreed the book was kind of a flop, we enjoyed each others company and the food immensely. We even got to have Bert and Charlie over to the house to hear about their Russian exploits after until they had to head out for some family stuff. We definitely miss being able to hang out with them.
Later that night, at 11, Johann had to get his cousins who flew in from Uruguay and take them and some of their luggage to his parents in Riverside. Naturally he was pooped the next day and slept in late at his parents so Henry and I had a quiet but nice day running errands and hanging out with my mom.

Thursday we had a family day playing down the hill in Rancho Cucamonga.

Oh, Henry, you ham.

We went to Kabuki for lunch and oh man have I missed it. It really hit the spot. Henry's chicken took a lot longer than our food so he finally gave in and decided to try one of the rolls and ate about half and seemed to enjoy it. Woo hoo!

After some more playing around we went to Johann's parents to meet up with the family from Uruguay. Johann's cousin, Leo (who we met last year) his wife Rosana and their two girls Sophia and Lisset.

Henry and the girls were instant friends even with the language barrier. They are really sweet girls and played with him all night. He absolutely adores them.
The funniest part of that night had to be when the girls were talking to Henry in spanish and Henry started trying to talk back in 'spanish'. His version was pretty hilarious.

Friday we were back in AV and celebrating my mom's birthday, which I realize I have no pictures of-boo. She celebrated the big 6-4. I am constantly amazed at how selfless my mom is and how she focuses on everyone but herself. I sure do love my mama and was happy to celebrate another birthday with her!

Saturday was New Years eve and we went to Riverside to celebrate with the Simonds family and cousins.

The kids started getting pooped and laid down to watch some TV.
And hey-look at the girls sweet braids, yup, I'm proud I can still do it.

Henry playing with Johann's uncle Chuck. We love when he comes because he runs and wrestles with Henry, much to Henry's total delight.

And, of course, we all had to get some baby lovin' in while we could! Johann was still contagious the last time we'd seen Max so this was his first time getting to hold his nephew!

And the highlight of the night for me was watching Johann play Just Dance 3 with his brother. These boys are so shy, to dance like that in front of anyone was fantastic.

Pretty much everyone except yours truly and Kailee managed to get harassed enough to show off some dance moves throughout the night. Henry, Sophia and Lisset were the main dancers and had a blast doing it.
We rang in the New Year at 9 with some sparkling cider and headed back to AV to rest up.

Sunday we went to sacrament meeting and then drove Henry around so he could take a nap. I didn't want to do 2 transitions into primary in 2 different wards so we figured best to wait until we were in our home ward. Oh, I am dreading Sunday. =)

We all ended up passing out with Henry after we got home and ate lunch. The rest of the day was spent snuggling and just resting, chatting and getting ready to head back to Las Vegas.
Monday morning we finished packing and had a big breakfast together with my mom, the Rafferty's and Aaron while watching the Rose Parade. Then we said so long and headed back to LV.

The two weeks flew by so quickly and I am always depressed for at least half a day after we leave home. I know living with our families would get old pretty fast, but I am looking forward to the summer when we'll most likely be there for a month or two. I love and miss not being able to be within 45 minutes of all the people who are most important to us. And it doesn't hurt that food magically appears for breakfast, lunch and dinner either ;-)

Here's to a good Christmas vacation and hopefully a great year to come!

Christmas Vacation Events! And post 200!!!

2011-12-31T09:24:00.005-07:00

Hey, look at that! I made it to 200 posts. Woot.

On to the post.

This Christmas vacation was a busy one, especially the first week. We arrived on Friday the 16th and started right away the next morning by driving out to the LA Temple for my brother-in-law's fiance's (Kailee) endowment session.

It was really exciting to see her go and receive her endowment and I had a neat experience getting to be her escort. That probably won't happen again for another 20 plus years so I was honored to get to help her with her first experience going through the temple. She was so calm and wanted to understand without being overly nervous, it was really a sweet day. I am so happy for her!

Everyone who came for the session Kailee went to, sans my brother, Jacob, who was good enough to take the pic.

Then the following Tuesday Henry was struck with the plague and spent 7 hours throwing up. Then he spent the rest of the day sleeping. Henry had never gotten that sick before, he was pretty confused and sad but thankfully it only lasted that day.

Fast forward to Thursday when we were suppose to head to Riverside to help with wedding prep-Johann with a nasty case of the flu that lasted all day and a bit into Friday morning.

Luckily he felt well enough that we were able to make the trek to San Diego to be there for Kaleb and Kailee's sealing. Fun fact, they ended up in the same room and with the same sealer as Johann's sister Natalie.

The sealing was sweet and they both were very happy!

Coming out for the first time as husband and wife. Kailee was definitely the picture perfect bride, looking so radiant and happy. I loved her bird cage veil too.

My sisterS!

At the reception right before the ring ceremony, Henry was finally able to meet his cousin, Max! He was so excited to try and entertain him and play with him throughout. It was pretty cute.

Me and Mr. Max. He finally decided I didn't bug him at this point-woohoo!

And my favorite part of their reception-watching Henry and this little boy, Franklin, tear it up on the dance floor for a good 90 mins straight. They were hilarious.

Congrats to Kaleb and Kailee-we are so very excited for Kailee to be in the family for their decision to be married in the temple!

The next morning everyone was exhausted after the long day and clean up so we had extended PJ hours and turns out Nat and I have the same taste in Christmas pjs for the boys.

Being Christmas eve, we spent that afternoon/evening opening gifts and then having dinner together. It was a nice and quiet day.

The following morning, Christmas morning, we headed over to the other side of Riverside where Natalie and Bryan were blessing their baby Max in Bryan's parent's ward.

The proud parents with their baby.

The whole gang

Our two little fams.

Max's blessing was very sweet. One of the parts I really liked was he was blessed that he would love and accept those who would be otherwise unaccepted. Looking forward to getting to know this sweet little guy more!

After Max's blessing we headed back to AV to spend the rest of the day with the Goodwin side.

I wonder if we'll ever have such a busy Christmas weekend again, and if I could survive it again esp considering the sickness that was going around. That said, it sure did make it easier to think about the Saviour this Christmas while our family was able to witness the blessings that flow from his birth, atonement and resurrection in the temple and through families.

I am thankful for this Christmas and the time we got to spend with family seeing them do the things Heavenly Father wants them to do! A Merry Christmas, indeed!

Plug

2011-12-14T11:32:00.003-07:00

My friend, Melissa has a new blog called "Bless This Mess" and it is fantastic. Probably because Melissa is fantastic. She is posting recipes and all kinds of home making know-how.
And girl has a lot of know-how.
So take a look at it, subscribe and enjoy all the awesome stuff she'll be posting. I am especially looking forward to all the recipes. We tried to get away with eating at Melissa's at every possible chance. Check out her blog and you'll see why.

A perk

2011-12-09T10:03:00.003-07:00

One of the perks about Johann's soon to be profession is if you worked with someone during school, practicum or internship, chances are they'll be sending you information on movements and thoughts in/on education. It can get a little bit much or a bit annoying at times, sure, but every once and a while there is an article Johann thinks I'd find interesting and forwards it on. So I just wait for interesting stuff to be dropped at my feet. It's great.

The most recent article he sent on was about young children and play. It's taken from a speech given in November this year by a fellow name Alfie Kohn. I'm not going to rehash everything he said but here are the five points he covered concerning young children and play:

1. “Play” is being sneakily redefined-“Most of the activities set up in ‘choice time’ or ‘center time’ [in early-childhood classrooms] and described as play by some teachers, are in fact teacher-directed and involve little or no free play, imagination, or creativity.”

2. Younger and older children ought to have the chance to play together-"...older kids are uniquely able to provide support -- often referred to as “scaffolding” -- for younger kids in mixed-age play. The older children may perform this role even better than adults because they’re closer in age to the younger kids and also because they don’t “see themselves as responsible for the younger children’s long-term education [and therefore] typically don’t provide more information or boosts than the younger ones need. They don’t become boring or condescending.”

3. Play isn’t just for children-"Read virtually any account of creativity, in the humanities or the sciences, and you’ll find mentions of the relevance of daydreaming, fooling around with possibilities, looking at one thing and seeing another, embracing the joy of pure discovery, asking 'What if….?'"

4.The point of play is that it has no point- "One plays because it’s fun to do so, not because of any instrumental advantage it may yield. The point isn’t to perform well or to master a skill, even though those things might end up happening. In G. K. Chesterton’s delightfully subversive aphorism, 'If a thing is worth doing at all, it’s worth doing badly.'"

5.Play isn’t the only alternative to “work.”-"Work and play don’t exhaust the available options. There’s also learning, whose primary purpose is neither play-like enjoyment (although it can be deeply satisfying) nor work-like completion of products (although it can involve intense effort and concentration)."

So what's the point: Stop bugging your kid, freaking out if he/she knows the alphabet, can count to 100 or read by 4 and let him/her just play without any 'point' at all.

*If anyone wants the full article just email me or facebook message me and I'll forward it to you.

Chocolate Factory Lights

2011-12-07T12:13:00.003-07:00

Friday night we headed to the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory with the cousins to see the Christmas lights in the cactus garden.

They also have an M&M section of the factory so they had this roaming M&M lady for the kids to meet. Henry was a good mixture of excited and scared to shake her hand.

Oh, Henry, will we ever get a decent family picture out of you?

The boys wandering onto the rocks. This was right before some guy in a white lab coat came and told them to get off the rocks and Raiden touched the cactus. Poor guy. I had bet my money on Henry as the first to do that. Raiden was incredibly mellow for having little cactus pricks in his hand and let his dad pull as many as he could see out with barely a whimper. Such a calm kid.

As we wound our way through the cactus garden, we found out they had a spot to meet Santa which we didn't know was going on there beforehand. Henry was excited to meet him, mostly so he could put in his request. He walked up to Santa and before Old St. Nick could get out so much as a 'hello' Henry said, "I want a costume." He wasn't wasting any time I guess. He was fine shaking Santa's hand and taking a pic, but NOT on his lap. That's alright, Henry. Sitting on a strangers lap, no matter how much good PR he has is a little weird.

After all the kids had their time to chat with Santa, the cousins headed off since they had babies and little cactus hands to tend to. We got there later than everyone else (can you imagine, us, running late?) so we did the chocolate factory tour before heading home. Samples at the end-win.

The walk through the garden was pretty and they had lots of fun Christmas blow-ups for the kidlets. Short and sweet. If you're in the area for Christmas-check it out.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-30T11:52:00.006-07:00

This year we had a pretty busy Thanksgiving week/weekend.

We did our Christmas decorating before we left since we are only at our place for a few weeks in December and Henry was beginning to get going on it.

Note: Henry managed to make "eevel" from our believe sign.Yikes!

Then on Tuesday night we had our friends come in from Arizona to stop overnight before continuing on to their Thanksgiving festivities in Utah.

We had a nice dinner out the night with them and my cousin and her two boys. I love when we can go out to eat and enjoy the time there without thinking about having to do dishes or clean up!

Wednesday morning we had a nice breakfast together (thanks Costco) then they headed to Utah while Henry and I packed up for our trip to CA.

Lizze and Henry enjoying jumping on the airmattress

Once Johann got back home we headed straight for Riverside and spent the night and Thanksgiving there. It was pretty quiet, with just us, Johann's parents, his brother Kaleb and Kaleb's fiance, Kailee. They were so cute and made Henry little turkey cookies for dessert which he loved :)

Henry convince Abuela and Grandpa to take out their tree for him to decorate too. Maybe he's part elf?

Johann carving his first turkey

Cute turkey cookies made by Kaleb and Kailee

Getting his gaming on with Uncle Kaleb

That night we decided to do something I'll never do again because of how tired I was the rest of the weekend-Black Friday. We drove to AV, dropped Henry off at my moms and headed to Target. It really wasn't that horribly crowded, the line was ridiculous to check out, though it moved fast, but I think I've decided it's not worth it! We were able to get double the stuff for the budget we set for Henry's 'Santa gifts' and got it all done in one night, but man. I think I'm still tired. I know, being out of school has spoiled me sleep wise I think.

Friday we did the traditional setting up for Christmas and Henry baked Christmas cookies with Grammy, some to eat and some to go on the tree.

Saturday we went and Saw the Muppets, it was pretty darn cute and then spent time with the fam.

Sunday, we went to church with my mom, where Henry decided to cast himself in a starring role in Sacrament meeting by yelling at Johann as he took him out, "LET GO OF ME YOU STUPID GUY!!!" Poor Johann. He's shy enough as is. Oh and additionally everyone got to see the lovely drawing Henry did on his tummy right before church as he was being dragged out. THAT, however, was started by Grammy. Yeah, you're still in trouble for that one!
Oh, and the best part-the first talk was on following the example of little children. I think everyone in the congregation got a good laugh out of the juxtaposition they saw that morning. So happy we can visit a provide some entertainment. :)

It was, as always, a quick trip, but we're happy it's a much closer one now. Only a few more weeks and we'll get to have our extended Christmas stay, as well as Kaleb and Kailee's weeding-woohoo! Come on, December!

New Boots

2011-11-15T20:01:00.003-07:00

Thursday was a good day for Henry. Not just because his Grammy came for Vetrans' Day weekend but because *finally* a much awaited package arrived:

Aren't those the cutest little fireman boots ever? Henry's old pair of snow boots that he'd had for about a year and a half finally gave up the ghost. They were already stinky, ripped and overall tattered from almost constant use but when he had an accident last Saturday and some of it made it into the boots, I was done. There was no saving those things at that point. So, he finally got some new boots.

Now that is one happy kid. He has had them on since Thursday all but one day. Let's see if these can hold out for at least a year and a half like the last ones.

See, I'm not crazy and or making it up

2011-11-04T12:08:00.005-06:00

Remember THIS POST from over summer where I complained about the temple=castle; girl=disney princess stuff they teach in YW? Most of the people who commented said they'd never heard of it and I started thinking, did I make this up in my head? I thought it was a widely practiced YW kind of thing. Then just now on my news feed I saw the above! See, I'm not crazy or making it up. GAAAAH.

It's not 'his' castle, or yours, pretty sure it's God's and acting silly and entitled isn't going to help you be special. Being righteous will. But I've said enough on this topic already.

So while I'm picking on people anyway, I may as well finally get this one out of my system:

Isn't this awesome?! Hermione is all about modesty! WRONG. Reread that and think about it for a couple minutes and see if that's REALLY what she's saying.

Ok, first off, yes, give her credit. She's in a place where being a skank and dressing disgustingly are routine and acceptable and it's awesome she doesn't want to run around mostly naked. BUT that's awesome for someone of her understanding, however, not something that should be hung up in the YW room in the church. Instead of true modesty, she's trying to say modesty is more sexy than not being modest. And forgive me, but I'm pretty sure the point isn't to find a way to follow the standards of the church so you can meet the goals of the world, ie, use a church standard, modesty to become the goal of the world for women, ie, sexy.
So I understand if that was confusing and you thought really it was an awesome message. But it's not. Not for young women who are striving to be virtuous.

El fin.

Travelin' Woman

2011-10-23T16:17:00.005-06:00

October has been a busy month. The first week we went to California to watch Conference with my family since we don't have basic cable (yes, our tv is old) and Henry would definitely not allow us to all huddle in front of the computer screen.

In between sessions on Saturday, we had to make a stop at Lolas. Visiting home without eating at Lola's is like forgetting to see half of the family. I'm completely serious. I love that place.

My brother was even able to come out from UCLA for conference with the fam. He and Henry like to make the same faces for pictures.

A nice picture-woohoo.

Jacob with the other Lolaites.

Sunday after the last Conference session, poor Johann had to travel back as a lone man to Henderson for work on Monday while Henry and I got to stay and play in California.

And just so no one assumes I spent the whole experience of Conference in a Lola's coma, my favorite talks were Elder Cook's, Elder Scott's and Sister Beck's. Oh shoot, one was before Lolas, one on Sunday and the other a week before. Maybe Saturday was passed in a Lola's coma after all...

Ok, away with you, flippancy. I really do love Conference time. I love going back through my notes and seeing what it is I have been counseled to change, to do better. I'm grateful to have revelation flowing continually from my Heavenly Father through his servants. I too often forget what a wonderful and merciful blessing it is.

On Monday, Jakey decided to stay in the HD to get his tires changed and was a nice big bro and took Hamp, Henry and I out to Red Robin for lunch.

He was really working hard.

It was actually pretty cold in the restaurant and Henry kept snuggling Jacob to stay warm. It was hilarious. I think I will title this picture, "The adoration of Jakey."

Tuesday and Wednesday, Henry and I helped my mom around her class and played at the house. Henry loves having so much space in and out of the house and so do I. And, I cannot deny that he also loved being able to watch Sprout and Nick Jr while sitting in Grammy's big comfy chair.

On Thursday, we were able to go to The Huntington's free day and see the gardens and some of the galleries with my mom.

Ah, The Huntington, how I love thee. Many fond childhood memories from here as well as adult ones-it's where Johann and I got engaged.

Henry being exactly like Henry is. A big leaf? SWORD.
He was fantastic though. We walked all around the gardens and he even allowed us some pleasant time in the gallery and would look at the paintings and different things being shown.

I love that Henry is starting to be more comfortable in museums. I want to set a good pattern for him so he doesn't end up a museum hater.

I think my favorite thing about the Huntington that day was just getting to walk in beautiful nature with my mom and son and feel the peace it brings. They also added a beautiful stain glass window in one of the galleries and I could have stood in front of it for a good hour. Ah, I love that place.

Friday was our last full day in Apple Valley and we got to celebrate Hamp's birthday. Ok, well, by celebrate, I mean eat peach cobbler concurrently. What can I say, the kids a hermit. I think he had a good day, none the less.

We drove back Saturday morning to Henderson and my mom stayed with us until Monday morning when she left to Utah to have a visit out there with her friend Julie.

So for a week we caught up and did our normal things. Then on Friday as my mom drove back from Utah, she stopped her again for the weekend, kind of spur of the moment-woohoo! Pictures of that little visit to come in a later post.

Then the following, ie, this past Tuesday, Henry and I set off for Arizona to see our old friends, the Ivanov's and meet their little girl Elizabeth.

She is pretty darn cute. Definitely likes mommy more than anyone in the world and was certainly wary of me but we had fun getting to see and know her better than just through pictures.

Henry and Lizzie

We spent time together around the house, went to a fall festival at a local farm, had a picnic at the lake, played games and ate and ate and ate. Lena, you cook too well.

I have to admit, I was a bit scared to go all the way out to AZ, by myself, with Henry, in a car that hasn't been completely reliable lately, in the still 90 plus weather.
But about half way through the drive, I felt like the car was working well, Henry was happy and I felt calm.
I'm so glad we got to spend time with our friends and continue to enjoy that friendship all together in the same space. It's so fun to see them as parents and know what good, kind people I get to be friends with. We love you guys! I also now have a lovely store of memories now to remember them by until next time =)
Oh, and can I just say that I will miss having chocolate and martinelli's brought out at night during games? Because I will!

Picnic at the lake-a picture of everyone-yay!

Annnd as a big bonus for facing my fears and going to Arizona, we also go to go and have a quick visit with our friends the Bakers before we set off! We got to witness the beautiful sealing of their son Andrew to them and Henry and Carter were born within a few weeks of each other. I had yet to meet their newest arrival Maylee so that was quite a treat. I almost cried like a big baby when Andrew came home from school-he's gotten so big and acts just like the big boy he is now, talking about what he did at school and whatnot.
It was also fun to chat with Meg again and stand in amazement as she moved, I swear, 2 times faster than anyone I've ever seen. She is super mom! So glad we got to see you and the fam!

Meg and the kids. Henry was pretty sure he wanted to stay there with those boys forever.
I can't say I blame him though =)

So here's to our little travels. It has been fun and thank goodness, because the holiday season is upon us and that means more traveling. Happily though, this traveling will get to involve Johann. It really is more fun when it's all of us together. =)

You've had a birthday (month late edition)!

2011-10-14T09:25:00.004-06:00

This past September Johann turned the big 2-7. I keep telling him if he hits thirty, I'll have to trade him in for a newer model. It just seems weird that soon one of us will be in our thirties. There is no denying it, you're a certified adult at that point, or you're ridiculous for not becoming an adult by then. I think he's pretty well on his way to certification though.
So on to the big day.
Since he is merging into total adulthood, he, sadly, still had to go to work. So Henry and I prepared while he was gone. I made the cake while Henry sat next to me, sneaking crusts from the layers whenever possible. That was basically his lunch.

Johann asked for a polish honey cake. The only fancy dessert I know how to make. He then further asked if it could be green as an ode to his 2009 cake. I didn't know how dark green would look so we went with a very, very light green.
All decorated and ready for Papa to come home so we can celebrate.

Johann decided to open his cards before dinner. Henry was very willing, as always, to help. Thanks to our generous family Johann's been able to get some new church and work clothes, which is great considering most of his stuff was held over from his mission still. Yes, it was time.

Getting ready to head out to dinner.

Dinner at Red Robin with the cousins, we didn't get a chance to snap a pic of Nancy before she had to take off and pick up her girls. Thanks to everyone for coming out with us!

Oh, yes. We moved into the 21st century and have a Wii. Since we don't have cable this was actually a much cheaper option and my mom and I went in on it together for Johann's birthday. Johann's been so kind as to let us all use his birthday gift too. We really enjoy having it.

Johann and his birthday present opening team.

He got some more Wii stuff, a second controller and wheel. Then he also got this little fella above from the Berkley collection. We're hoping to start collecting more of these.

I think it's safe to say Johann had a very nice birthday. Thank you again to the cousins for coming and celebrating with us, and to Natalie and Bryan for skyping in to sing Happy Birthday to Johann, it meant a lot! We are lucky to still get to have family around to celebrate and play with.

Happy Birthday, Johann! We love you!

Family Photos

2011-10-03T12:57:00.005-06:00

I was just working on posting about the end of our Utah Boot List when I realized I don't have our computer but my moms and therefore I don't have any of the pictures. Instead I thought I'd post the pictures she has on hers of some pictures she scanned from my grandma. I really like these photos.

My great grandparents on my dad's side. Rilla and Hampton. My little brother is named after him. According to my Grandma Fern he was the kindest, sweetest man she ever knew and treated her better than anybody.

Mattie Jean Keenan. My grandma's grandma on my Dad's side. She was Cherokee Indian. That makes me 1/16, right? I think that's pretty cool. I wish I had know about that during college scholarship applications.

Grandpa Haskell. My dad's dad. Out on the farm.

My dad with his dad. Oh wow, dad, nice shirt. It was the 70's. I guess he deserve a break.

Grandpa Hat (Haskell).

Grandma Fern and my dad.

My dad, the stereotypical child of the 50's.

My dad. Isn't he adorable?

Dad again. I love this picture.

My dad ay a high school dance.

My half brother Micah

My grandma Fern.

That wraps up the ones I liked the most. I love seeing these old family pictures.

Gettin' the Boot.

2011-10-03T12:46:00.007-06:00

Remember how we made a Boot list? I never updated a second time on those activities we managed to get done before we left Provo. So here is our final Boot list update, since we no longer reside in Utah.

Simonds' family Utah Boot List:

1. Attend a session at the Salt Lake Temple We're lame, we never managed to get out there. This is still something I'd like to do someday though.
2. Go to the Gateway Discovery Children's Museum Check
3. Go to the Springville MOA Noppers
4. Go to the BYU MOA and eat at the MOA Cafe. yumm...Nope
5. Visit Logan and/or Ogden. (We've never been north of SLC so we thought we should give it a whirl) We did it! Woo. It was getting a little pathetic there. We went out to Ogden and visited our friends Kelly and Nate who went with us to the dinosaur museum out there. Pictures below.
6. Visit one of those fancy SLC bakeries Check
7. Go to a BYU performance Check-I think we'll count Seussical for this though it wasn't an actual BYU performance unless we can manage something else. Hey it was at BYU so it kind of counts.
8. Attend the SLC symphony or opera Check
9. Eat at Diegos I can't remember but I think we did...
10. Go bowling at BYU or FatCats Went bowling at FatCats. All the intense rave light action was a little much though and I was afraid Henry was going to have a seizure. It was still fun though. I think Henry actually won...hey he had a stand and bumpers! And Johann and I stink.
11. Hike the Y Probably one of my favorite things we managed to do. We saw Llamas coming down with a camping group and talked to a really nice family at the top.
12. Drive the Alpine loop Check, I believe...
13. Ride one of the city buses Didn't get to it. Some day we'll be citywise though.
14. Visit Manti and see the temple Sad we didn't get around to this one.
15. Go to the Cathedral of the Madeline Sad we missed this one too
16. Attend a UofU symphony or Opera performance I'm starting to wonder why we made a list...we didn't even do half, did we? Wait, 11/19 oh good. We didn't completely fail.
17. Visit Magna (I know...but Johann's grandma was born or grew up there so he wants to see it)Check
18. Go to the Scera pools/splash pad Swimming and packing took over and this did not happen.
19. Eat at the site of the first Crown Burger Check

Here are the pictures of the activities we did after the first update. Enjoy.

At the dino museum in Ogden. Henry loved the robotic baby triceratops. Didn't love the robotic trex however.

Sorry, Johann, too good to pass up.

Fat Cat's for bowling.

The balls Henry picked kept getting heavier and heavier until he managed the above.

Hike up Y mount. We started doing more little hikes as a family before we moved and Henry loved it. On one of the trails at the Bonneville shoreline Henry rant he entire way in, probably about a mile or so. Of course we had to carry him most of the way back, but I found that pretty dang impressive. I think it'd be hilarious if we had a little runner considering Johann and I both do not love just running for running's sake. Either way, kid likes to move for sure.

Can you spot our apartment building?

The llamas! How crazy is that?

Baby llama. It actually came right up to us, so I, of course, freaked out and stood on a bench.

Success!

Here's to the end of our Utah boot list. Maybe we can take an extended trip when Johann goes back to defend his thesis and do some of the things we neglected. Oh, Utah. I did not appreciate thee as much as I should have until the end, and of course, now. Being human. Sheesh. Goodbye, Utah. We'll have fond memories.

I'm an Aunt!

2011-09-29T15:32:00.004-06:00

Yep, with a capital 'A'

I've been waiting for this for a long time. All my other friends have been aunts for a while now (guilt trip, guilt trip, guilt trip, one for each brother) so I'm happy to finally be one, compliments of Johann's sister and her husband.

Here he is! Maximus Aidan Jones born this past Sunday morning.

Poor Max had to have an extended hospital stay because of some fluid he swallowed, they wanted to rule out any chances of infection, but now he is safely at home with his mom and dad.

And here is a pic Max's mommy sent me today on my phone of him wearing one of the outfits we got him. I thoroughly intend to be the most beloved and over-indulgent Aunt that ever was, especially since I can always hand him back if he decides to be naughty! haha. =)
Congrats Natalie and Bryan!

Field Trip

2011-09-29T14:33:00.005-06:00

I think Henry's face in the picture above sums up how excited he was to go on his first preschool field trip, on Tuesday, to the fire station.

Two of the boys have dads who are firefighters in the same station so they talked to the kids about fire safety then gave them a tour and showed them all their fun fire fighting tools.

Do you see what is happening in the above picture? That's Henry and apparently his new best friend, but I think that changes daily, holding hands. They were just standing on the line learning about the truck and the next time I looked over they're holding hands! It was adorable. He rode over in our car with us to and from the station and they chatted and played in the backseat. It was pretty cute how they decided since they rode over together they would stick next to each other.

Looking through the truck was fun but I think Henry wasn't super impressed because last year in Provo they got to go on a fire truck and sit in the driver's seat, push buttons and all that fun stuff while they mostly just walked through this time.

If you know Henry, then you know he likes wearing costumes so trying on the jacket was a lot of fun for him.

But I believe his favorite part had to be shooting the fire hose. I love that they had kids 'back each other up.' I especially love that it is the smallest girl in the class being backed up by Henry who is probably the second or third smallest in the class. ha!

Now Henry shooting the water and being 'backed up' by one of the fire fighter's kids.

This fireman was so nice and he took a shine to Henry and even let him play on his radio and say a couple things over it to some other firemen. It was pretty funny.

The cousins-Raiden, Ariana and Henry on the fire truck.

The preschool and pre-K class with the fire fighting dads and miss Nancy.

Henry getting his hat at the end of the tour.

It was so fun to go to the fire station and see all the excitement of the kids. I can't wait for his next field trip!

Happy First Day of Fall!

2011-09-23T10:25:00.003-06:00

Have I ever mentioned I love Fall? It is by far my favorite season. So it figures I grew up somewhere without a 'real' Fall and we are again living somewhere Fall doesn't fully exist. Fall is one of the things I am really missing about Provo: Fall walks around campus, looking up at the mountains changing into beautiful, vivid oranges, yellows and reds; drives up the canyon; picnics in the canyon; I think I am even missing the idea of going to the overrated and overpriced activities at Corn Belly's!
So here is my pictorial ode to Fall.

Must.fight.urge.to.drive.out.and.visit.Provo.gaaaah.

Movin' on up

2011-09-19T09:29:00.003-06:00

The position of resident handyman in our family has always been vacant. Hopefully Henry will have some skill for it because Johann and I are both a bit hopeless. I think that's why for the past 4 years our tool box has been a badly beaten up shoebox.

Hey, at least I did label it 'tools' so it was more legit.

Knowing that we will more than likely, and hopefully, be moving again in the next 9-12 months, we decided it would be a good investment to have a toolbox that wasn't busting at the seems and spilling out half of it's heavy contents all the time. Giant wrench on the toe-ouch.

Enter a nice little sale at Wal-Mart the other day where a tool box that was originally 16 something was only 9 something. Que bueno.

Look at that beast. Sorry poor, little shoe box. You did good but now it's time to upgrade.

Guys!

2011-09-12T09:26:00.003-06:00

I just realized a couple nights ago that the cut out in the wall of the stairwell is the mirror image of the shape of Nevada!

Yep, been doing some deep thinking alright. =) I think they did it on purpose but Johann says I'm crazy. Why else would it be in such a weird shape, right?

Thank you

2011-09-11T15:25:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to post a quick thank you to everyone who commented on the last post or had some kind words to share. I really, sincerely appreciate your comments, kindness, understanding and empathy.
I'm grateful to know each of you and grateful that you took that time to read something that was hard for me and then to offer some words of understanding. I think sometimes it's scary for me to put things like that on my blog, kind of like letting someone come over when the dishes aren't done, I haven't showered and my hair is a mess; but instead of telling me I needed to shower, do my hair and do the dishes, you were considerate enough to listen to why things were in a bad state and say instead, "I understand." So with that, I am feeling quite a bit better and up to the things that I'm facing and will be facing morning after morning. So again, thank you.

'That parent'

2011-09-08T14:21:00.005-06:00

Today has been a bad day. And it's only 2pm. And as I think about it, not just today but pretty much since moving we have had one long, only shortly interrupted with happiness, bad day.

Especially with Henry.

I think I have spent more time crying on the floor in the hall or in Henry's room than I can remember doing since he was born.

Today was a continuation of the bad day. Here is a quick run down: Henry is up for an hour in the early, early morning (2-3:30am), will not cooperate with getting dressed, throws a tantrum, has several time-outs which result in him hitting me several times during the time-out since he won't stay in time-out and I have to hold him; screaming, and crying ensue on both parties' ends. Finally some calm is restored, a couple books are read, clothes are put on and Henry goes to preschool.
Then I pick him up from preschool only to find out that he has thrown a rock at a boy's head and created two gashes on said boy's forehead while playing at recess.

I have to stop here first to say that I don't think Henry is a bad kid. He does have a good heart and he is a good boy but somehow he is always involved in the trouble. One of my cousins who worked at the preschool said, "Oh the boys are always throwing rocks and we always have to get on them about it." But, of course, Henry is the only one to nail another kid in the head with a rock and cause gashes.

Just like he manages to be the only little boy who wants to always play with the biggest boy in the preschool and end up getting knocked over or pushed off the slide.

It's like he's a magnet or something.

A while back a friend of mine wrote a great blog post called "Unfit" wherein she discussed some of the frustration she was feeling surrounding her emotions about parenting. I think today's post will be a bit reminiscent of her post in that I feel completely unfit to be a parent at this moment.

Like I said, I don't believe for a second that Henry's is bad. I just feel like I am failing him somehow: not giving him enough structure; disciplining him too much and not advocating for him enough; not disciplining him enough; not finding ways to help him sleep; not finding ways to get him to eat more; worrying too much about him;not worrying enough about him.

I mean, I blew up in the car on him. I yelled. I mean yelled. I told him he knew better than to throw rocks, what if that boy has to get stitches, how could he have done that, no shows for him and certainly no treasure from the treasure box this weekend even if he earns enough magnets etc.

Then I fee like I over reacted, I mean, kids will at some point throw rocks right? If it had happened to him I'd be unhappy about it but if they were all throwing rocks at each other and Henry was the unlucky one I would just tell him to not play where kids are throwing rocks next time and give him some ice cream or something.

But somehow, now I feel like Henry is, again, "that kid" like he became in nursery and swimming lessons-even though he wasn't malicious but just, I dunno a kid; getting ouy of his seat or not staying on the step.

I guess what it comes down to is that I have this nagging feeling that never wants to leave that I have ruined Henry or done something to make him 'that kid.' You know, the one primary leaders and teachers will always dread coming into their class. Then I have another nagging voice that says I'm a horrible parent for even thinking of letting myself see him labeled as, 'that kid' and I should stand up for him more in every perceived slight towards him.

I don't know what to do. I want to help Henry but I feel like I don't know how. I need him to eat more and sleep more in the hopes that it will be easier for him to have more good days. Mostly I feel guilty that we move so much and have to change his routine all the time based on moving and then school schedules.

Then enters the big guilt which says this is just another reason why we shouldn't get to have more kids-look at the horrible job I'm doing with just one.

I know I'm viewing things too emotionally and not rationally enough but it is still painful and frustrating. So what do you do when you feel like a failure as a parent so you don't just crawl into a hole and cry?

Tour

2011-09-03T22:19:00.010-06:00

We've been all settled into our new place in Henderson, NV for a little over a week now. We've done so much moving that we get unpacked and settled in within a matter of days. We're really grateful to have had help from my cousin, George, with all the heavy lifting, my brother, Hamp, who drove a car with some more of our stuff out and Johann's parent's who came and helped with moving and watching Henry. Thanks to all of them, the actual act of moving went pretty smoothly. Not to mention thanks to my other cousin, Nancy, who let us take over her garage for the summer with all our stuff so we only had to load up and move everything a few miles to the new place. The point is-thank you everyone who helped make this move!

So without further adieu, here are pictures of our new place taken at some point earlier in the week.

Front door (also there is dark trim throughout that is not attractive. I don't know what they were thinking with it, but it's less stark in person than picture)

To the left of entering the front door

To the front and right of the front door

To the immediate right of the front door

Back yard, off of the living room

More of the back yard. We are thinking of taking out all the rock and just letting it be dirt so Henry can play out there more easily.

Henry's nook by the dinning room and kitchen.

Open the door and there is the downstairs guest bathroom

Guest bathroom again

Guest bathroom. It has been nice having a bathroom downstairs. Henry doesn't want to be upstairs or downstairs by himself so it's nice not to have to run upstairs every time he needs to potty.

Kitchen

Kitchen. It's nice having a pantry and having way more cupboard space than we've had in any other place.

Entry way into the kitchen from the garage

Garage. Ignore the trash. We missed trash day. Boo.

Stairs right across from garage entrance.

To the left of the stairs, the master bedroom

Master bedroom

Master closet. A little messy but I don't want to invest in organizers since who knows when we'll move again.

Master bedroom, leading into the bathroom

Bathroom

Master bathroom

Hall from master to Henry's room

Look! A built-in time-out nook for Henry, right by his room!

Washer and dryer closet in the hallway

Henry's room

Closet 1 in Henry's room

Henry's again

Henry's

We were able to make his bed into a full length twin since his room is quite a bit bigger now

Henry's bathroom

Henry's

Closet 2 in Henry's room.

Whew. That was a lot of pictures. We really like our place. There is a little community pool and spa that have never been too crowded and it is pretty quiet. Henry loves getting to go swimming so much. The funniest part is being asked for cigarettes every time we run into someone but other than that people just kind of keep to themselves. Well, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Welcome Baby Cash!

2011-08-31T10:30:00.004-06:00

Around 2am on Monday morning, my cousin's wife, Catrina, gave birth to their second son, Cash Robert. I got to take Henry Monday morning to see the brand new little guy and it was so sweet. I haven't seen a baby so new in a long time. Congratulations to the Frederick family!

My uncle Jim holding his newest grand baby.

Getting ready to let Henry hold Cash.

Do you see how excited Henry is about holding him? On his own he said, "I want to hold the baby!" He then commenced thinking he was in charge of Cash and even wanted to be the one to take him back to his mommy. I think not, Henry! Gotta be a bit older for that.

Finally getting to hold him. Henry was funny about keeping his head up, a little over vigilant. He kept putting it further and further up until he was too far up and we had to readjust.

Isn't Cash so sweet? He just slept sweetly almost the whole time we were there.

Last picture with the baby.

Henry LOVED the baby. He held his little hand, stroked his head, cuddled him to his cheek and even baby talked to him. It was the sweetest I have seen Henry in a while. When we got home he told me he wants baby Cash in our house, if only his mommy would go for that, Henry! =)
Hopefully some day Henry will be able to have a little baby in the house. He might be a lot of things but I think Henry will be such a good big brother. He may try too hard to be in charge of 'his' baby but I think he'll be great. Someday.

Until then we'll just have to soak up this new little guy and my other cousin's baby coming soon!

1st Day of Preschool

2011-08-26T10:36:00.004-06:00

Tuesday, Henry had his first day of preschool. He goes 2 days a week for 2.5 hours and is in a class with 5 others, except during show and tell and recess which includes the kids from the older class.
I was, and still am, a little weirded out about Henry being in preschool. Luckily, my cousin is his teacher and it's in her home so I can be significantly less freaked out. The first week seems to have gone pretty well except he doesn't mix well with the big boys for whatever reason.
Come recess he is always getting into some sort of scrap at the very end. So we've had lots of talks about not hitting, not playing with kids who hit and talking to the teaching if something is wrong. The conclusion of our conversation yesterday was Henry saying,
"I will play with the stripe shirt boy and the girl with the shirt. They don't fight."
Sounds good, Henry. Hopefully that boy wears another striped shirt and the girl, well I'm sure she'll be wearing a shirt, so I guess Henry will have to remember something besides the fact she has a shirt on.
On to the pictures:

Apple Jacks, breakfast of champions, or at least of 3 year old boys

All ready for his first day

Walking to preschool with Papa

At the table, ready to go

Home after his first day and showing me the projects he did

So here's to Henry's first day of preschool. I can't believe it!

The Heart

2011-08-23T16:49:00.003-06:00

Sometimes, especially during our big transitions which seem to happen at least once a year, I start to freak out. We're usually broke which seems to be the biggest factor of discontent. I try every year to save up enough to see us through but things always come up that take the reserve money I saved, like undisclosed fees for internship paperwork, tests, notarizing, over-nighting contracts and the list goes on.

It's during that, or rather this time that I start to feel a little resentful. Of what? Anything and everything connected with money. How do people buy new shirts? How does anyone go anywhere when it costs money? I could do such and such too if I had any money. Basically, I allow everything to come down to a question of money. It's not good.

I realize both ends of the spectrum in my situation, ie, I should be grateful I'm not in a 3rd world slum and not care about money all the way to money makes many many things possible and pleasant and is desirable.

Then I start to wonder about money and serving in the church. That's probably a discussion for another time, but lets just say, it factors into the craze.

So, this all brings us to today. I've gotten a bit better about freaking out because things are semi-settling though it looks like we have at least another month and a half of financial frustration ahead.

Today Henry decided to take part in the quiet part of his quiet time for a bit and I actually got to read a talk and scriptures. The talk can be found here. While the beginning of it spoke to a lot of the concerns I've had for the past little bit, the end hit me pretty good in the financially frenzied face:

While in Liberty Jail, the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation that describes a condition of some hearts:

“Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?

“Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men.”¹⁵

Many in the world now live in prosperous and peaceful circumstances. In the Book of Mormon, prosperity often led the people away from the Lord. Mormon warned, “We may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art … , then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God.”¹⁶

The Lord noted three natural consequences of having one’s heart set on the things of the world: First, we seek to hide our sins instead of repenting of them. Next, we seek to gratify our pride and vain ambitions rather than seeking the things of God. Finally, we begin to exercise unrighteous dominion over others.¹⁷

Note that pride is a natural consequence of setting our hearts on the things of the world. Pride quickly desensitizes our hearts to spiritual promptings. For example, the Lord said, “I, the Lord, am not pleased with my servant Sidney Rigdon; he exalted himself in his heart, and received not counsel, but grieved the Spirit.”¹⁸ Compare that to this promise: “Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.”¹⁹

In the Liberty Jail revelation, the Lord described the effect of a worldly heart: “Behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and … behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself.”²⁰ Brothers and sisters, in these very “perilous times,” we cannot afford to grieve the Spirit and be left to ourselves.

It's then I realized that while I was and definitely am concerned over having food and shelter for my family, the bulk of my resentful feelings came not from the worry over those things but over extra things like clothes, vacations and other expensive hobbies or toys, 'things of this world' if you will.

So I'm trying to rid my heart of those desires to the point where I am no longer resentful of not having them. I'm trying to remember the help and love we have received from family and friends so we don't want for the necessities and even a few of the extras. I'm trying to remember that a heart purged of unrighteous desires is the goal, not a house full of things or even a life full of fun. So here is the part where I promise to try harder. And I do.

And I swear the next blog post will not be depressing and will contain pictures. =)

Why?

2011-08-10T22:44:00.002-06:00

Henry's favorite character in Peter Pan is Smee.

He always asks for a striped shirt so he can "be like Smee"

because, "Smee is the nice pirate"

I know I wanted to have a child who would be an individual...

...but really?

Update (zwei)

2011-08-01T21:41:00.005-06:00

I'm sure everyone is dying to know what we've been up to. I have lots of posts I should catch up on but I'm not sure I'll get to it tonight so here is a quick rundown of what has happened very recently and whats coming:

I finished another puzzle with my mom. Woot. Johann even got in on this one. It was way more fun than the last landscape one we did. I know, I'm turning into a 60 year old. But, it's hot outside and we're poor, so, puzzling it is. Not to mention it has been a fantastic way to deal with stress.

Johann, my mom, Karen and I have all had to give talks in the past three weeks. Poor ward. They must be sick of hearing from this house.

We had a HUGE storm on Saturday. We got soaked just walking from the car to the house. Henry was really concerned about his little stone bunny in the front yard and braved the storm to bring him to shelter.
Today Johann and I went to Henderson and met with a real estate agent who showed us some different rentals. We found one we really like, a little townhouse and another that is nice but in a hugenormous apartment complex which I'm not a big fan of.

We're trying to work out a 10 month contract with the townhouse but it may not happen. That's part of the student life. It'll be over soon enough and then we'll probably miss it, right?

While we were out in Henderson, Henry stayed in Apple Valley with my mom and was taken care of much to his liking. Getting to have fast food and play in the play place, getting to run around outside all morning, getting to go with Grammy to the store and get a sweet new batcave toy and having Grammy's undivided attention.

Tomorrow we head to Riverside for a few days where we've planning to go to the La Brea tarpits and do a day the beach and have a bonfire there. That's right-s'more time.

And that's all for now, folks.

Shallow crisis time

2011-07-12T22:14:00.003-06:00

I have an intense love-hate relationship with my hair.
One of the biggest hate sticking points comes from a lovely little cowlick I have on my forehead hairline towards the middle. A 'widows peak' they call it. Anywhoo, this makes it hard to have bangs. One of the stylists I went to said he'd remedied that on one girl by shaving it and having the bangs fall over that spot. I don't know if anyone else does that and I don't know if I'm brave enough to shave a place on my head. So my way of changing my hair use to be to get bangs but since that is a bit more intense of a move, I'm pondering something else.
Now that I've given more information than anyone would ever want to know about my hair, I can get to the dilemma I have now. I want to cut it off. I'm sick of never having or wanting to take the time to do my hair to the point where it looks decent. So usually its throw into some sort of braid or just pulled back. So, I think I want to cut it. But I'm shallow still in some small way. The utilitarian in me says, 'yeah cut it off and be free-heck-shave it all off' and the vanity in me responds, 'do you really want people looking at you as one of those kind of people?'
So help a sister out: continue to have frumpy hair, grow it out and learn how to do it better, or chop it. Here are some pictures of some ones I like. The only problem is I'll have to figure out a work around for the bangs across, make them longer and swept to the side or find someone who will shave the cowlick.
Check 'em out:

Option 1:
Option 2:
Option 3:

Option 4:
Option 5: (the safe option)

Vote and tell me what you think! Then I can start to wonder about darkening it. I think I want to, but I don't wan to be tied to the cost to keep it up.

Thoughts from the Shower

2011-07-07T12:03:00.005-06:00

I was reading a post from an LDS blog my brother sent me a while back about how we teach modesty to young women in the church. I'm not sure I agreed with all the issues the author raised or agreed with her solution but it definitely got me thinking about some of my own 'tick inducing' teachings from my YW days. There is one in particular that has grated on me for some time but I could never exactly pin down what it was about it that bothered me.

Enter the shower.

I do a lot of my thinking in the shower. This morning I think I had a breakthrough.

I think I should preface this with a few disclaimers with the hope that I offend as few people as possible. If you still find yourself offended, please realize I am not so much concerned with some person as I am with a long-standing idea/way of teaching and the point of this post is certainly not to offend but rather to grabble with the idea and way of teaching. So, if for some reason you still find yourself offended, tell me and I'll make you cookies.

Disclaimer 1: I do not have any female children, however I have been around them and I am a female myself.

Disclaimer 2: I was never taught the idea I take issue with at home so I do not have experience with how it is taught in the home, so perhaps in the home its made more clear than in 1 hour lessons on Sundays.

So now that everyone is dying to know what I'm talking about and totally ready to be offended, lets do this.

I really, really find a frequent way of teaching about the temple to young women problematic. Here is how I reacted every time I heard temple marriage talked about in terms of castles and princesses before this morning's shower,

"No, the temple is NOT a 'castle' and you, young woman, are NOT a 'princess.'"

Then the more I thought about it this morning, I realized the problem, or reaction I had come to, ie don't call the temple a castle and don't call young women princesses, was also wrong because, while the temple still isn't really a 'castle' young women actually are princesses in a sense.

Alright then, what gives? Why still the annoyance with the teaching?

Because we teach girls they are princesses and then we don't teach them what a princess is. We leave that, very foolishly, to Disney or fairytales. We need to distinguish between what the world teaches about princesses and what the gospel teaches.*

Could we perhaps teach the relationship between the temple and their 'royal' responsibilities and inheritance a little more clearly and doctrinally? Could we teach them that the role of a princess and potential queen and priestess is far more similar to that of Ester-to rescue, to be courageous in the face of persecution and to follow God than it is of Cinderella-get a make over, fall in love, have the perfect castle wedding and live happily ever after? We could even talk about King Benjamin who worked all his days even as, or rather, especially as, king versus King Noah who did no work and glutted himself on the backs of the people. Could we teach them that what truly makes them a princess and potential queen and priestess is not looks, grace, charm or a 'prince charming' but their willingness to make and keep sacred covenants even when they feel and look more like Cinderella pre-makeover? Could we teach them that marriage in the temple is the beginning and not the culmination of their royal coronation? That there is learning to be done, stewardship to be justly, mercifully and righteously performed and covenants to honor?

I realize it is a lot to teach. I realize its much more of an investment than a few trite, sugary phrases left in the ears of our young women who then supplement them with worldly understandings and images from childhood. I realize that perhaps they won't understand it all at once. But wouldn't it be worth it to give them a foundation not just for temple marriage but for living life as one who has a temple marriage?

My main hope is that we consider how we as leaders of young women and parents to young women teach them about their royal nature and its relation to the temple. That we teach their temple marriage not as the culmination and crowning proof of their royalty but as the beginning of their learning, working and practicing how to become queens and priestesses so that one day they can be queens and priestess whose inheritance is eternal life, lives, and all the Father hath.

*Now, don't get me wrong, I have no problem with little girls playing Disney princesses. I do however have a problem with girls 18 and on playing Disney princesses.

Quick Update

2011-07-06T13:57:00.003-06:00

We made it to California in one piece. Hooray.

The move was tiring like all moves are but we're really happy to have our things stored with my cousin in Henderson so our move into a place there won't be as long or as daunting. We even managed to unload our things on the coolest day of the week there.

Since then we've been trying to settle in to some kind of routine here in Apple Valley at my moms. It was a little difficult with the holiday weekend but I think we're getting there. The little surprise the AC pulled by breaking on Saturday was also a bit of a pain but luckily I am now typing from a nice air conditioned house and my mom no longer has an excuse to spray everyone with her spray bottle. I think she'll miss that part of being unbearably hot.

Henry has managed to spend lots of time with his uncles,Grammy, the Raffertys (family that lives here with my mom) and their dog, Dandy. I have even come up with a fantastic plan wherein the uncles take Henry once a week for 3 hours of 'Uncle time.' This Friday and Saturday will be the first run with uncles Aaron then Hamp, so if he manages to stay alive and in one piece, I think it'll be a success. What will I do with 6 hours this weekend? (Oh and don't worry uncle Jacob, being in LA will not exclude you from your turn ;-) )

Other than that, we've just been finding places for our stuff and figuring out what we want to do while we're here. Henry has been spending as much weather permitted time as he can in the yard and Johann's back to working on his thesis.

Overall I'd say it's going well so far. We're trying to make sure we don't go crazy all in one room and not having our own autonomous household. There are definitely pros and cons but we're trying minimize the cons as much as possible and enjoy the benefits to being here like having an in-house babysitter in my mom-yay for an easily planned temple night tonight. Everyone has been really helpful with making this transition as smooth as possible. Lets hope the one in a little over a month can go just as well.

Whats in a Gender?

2011-06-24T23:24:00.002-06:00

I was reading this NPR article the other day and thought I'd share in on here for anyone who has interest regarding the discussions surrounding gender. While the article is calculated to shock and, I'm sure, somewhat frighten main-streamers, I have to say that the Linton Weeks sidebar is more in line with what I see. But I live in Utah.
Two points concerning this article:
1. Everyone should care about the discussion and trends going on surrounding gender. No matter how we try to get away from it, in most situations it functions as our master status, ie the most important part of how we identify ourselves and then relate ourselves to a given situation, station etc. Think about it, if you go to the store and see someone in the line and you can't tell their ethnicity, height, weight, religion or socio-economic status, you probably won't blink twice. Now imagine you see someone whose gender you aren't sure of. Yeah, you blinked a couple times.
2. If I were a devil, I'd probably be pretty happy to move from people misusing the instincts of their biological imperative to people having no idea what their biological (and from a gospel standpoint, eternal) imperative is. Just saying.

Play Fortune Teller

2011-06-21T21:26:00.003-06:00

I've been thinking about graduate school lately. Please ignore the poor sentence structure, grammatical errors and overall ignoramus assumptions you find on this blog while you consider the following:

What kind of graduate program could you see me doing?

Ready-go!

Goals Check no.2

2011-06-16T15:26:00.002-06:00

Half way through the year. Probably a good time to remember I have some goals for the year and review them. I'm think this may get ugly though.

1. Get more sleep: Go to bed early, get up early.

Failing miserably. If I get enough sleep its usually when Johann gets up with Henry and I sleep-in. I don't think 10:30pm is a realistic goal for us now that its summer but I think maybe 11 or 11:30pm. We'll see. I would like to be an 8 hour a night person but I think if I can get a full 7 that will suffice.

2. Keep reading: Yup, purposefully very broad.

I go through little spurts but I definitely have kept reading. Since the last post I finished Emma which was enjoyable. I am coming to learn though that I'm not a huge Austen fan. Maybe the mini-series versions I have seen spoiled the novels for me? I don't know. Please Austen fans don't hurt me. Enjoyable-yes. A favorite-no.
After Emma I read-

Little Women-While there isn't anything particularly outstanding about it, it really knows how to endear itself to the reader and I enjoyed reading it.

Crime and Punishment-I think I was Russian in another life. Russian lit, how I love thee. The ending is one of the most beautiful I have ever read. The writing, the story, the characters, the implications-all incredible. This was my first encounter with Dostoevsky but certainly won't be my last.

Empire Falls-Alright, so here is where we come back to my issues with contemporary lit. I think in addition to being russian in another life, I was a puritan before that. I really have a difficult time with the way almost every contemporary book I have read deals with human sexuality and the description thereof. It's rare that any perspective is gained of the story or characters that couldn't have been otherwise reached sans raunchy description. Maybe I'm just a prude, but so much of that ruined bits of this book for me. I liked a lot of his writing, the prologue was great, unfortunately the rest of the novel didn't live up to it for me.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey-Interesting characters and idea. It was good but I haven't thought about it since which probably isn't a good sign.

The Color of Water-Definitely a unique story to tell as the son of jewish mother from the south and a black man from the north during the 1960s and 70s.

My Antonia-Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful.

Cutting for Stone-Alright, again, contemporary book, I'm a prude. I enjoyed the story, most of the writing-sometimes his medical description hindered rather than helped, some of the characters-how can you not like Hema and Ghosh but I felt like Verghesse wasn't even sure what to do with Marion, the main narrator, who he was and what he thought. The bits that were told in flash back or not from Marion's perspective were by far my favorite portions of the writing and book. There are a lot of interesting themes and unlike Bridge to San Luis Rey, I can say I have thought about it since reading it which, I think, is a good sign.

Currently I'm working on The Age of Innocence and enjoying the writing thus far.

3. Write more: Blog once a week. Go to the museum once a month and write about a particular painting or two.

Blogging. Check. Yeah, lets just scrap the museum idea. A notebook, pen and Henry at the museum...it's not gonna work.

4. Read a chapter from the Book of Mormon and a conference talk daily. Read the gospel doctrine and Relief Society lessons before class.

Check. I still enjoy reading the talks and scriptures together. It's wonderful also to see how we really are warned and forewarned. It helps me have a greater desire to really listen to what is being said in conferences.

5. Have a date with Johann weekly: even if that means just watching a movie together at home.

Kind of check. The last month and a half or so we haven't kept track, or at least I haven't. Probably need to get back on the date wagon.

6. Attend the temple monthly and have family home evening weekly.

Check for FHE and we have been to the temple monthly but we've had to go separately a couple times. I went this month for the first time by myself to an endowment session and it felt so strange. I'm not sure what our chances are of getting there together this month but we'll definitely try.

7.Keep a monthly budget.

Going well until May when there was a birthday, anniversary, mothers day and it was the busiest month for Johann school/practicum-wise. I am glad May is over. Other than May I haven't struggled too much to keep track and we're doing really good recording daily this month because of how May went. I think I will plan to keep this goal FOR-EV-ER.

8.Get rid of the weight I gained during (and after lovingly nurtured) while pregnant with Henry. I've been working on it but I need to make a very concerted effort to just kick the rest of it. Three years is long enough, though that first year I didn't sleep at all and I have a sneaking suspicion that didn't help me out much. Anyway, I have tons of excuses, now its just time to do it.

Was doing pretty good, got pregnant, miscarried, felt like crap, depressed, stopped going to the gym. Yeah. Not going great. Fortunately only a pound or two (depending on the day) has come back, but I can definitely tell I'm not as in shape as I use to be. We've started hiking in the mornings and I was carrying Henry up an incline and while I wasn't super winded, my legs definitely felt it more than they would have 3 months ago. So I'm back to recording what I'm eating, working out in the morning and trying to watch out for the sugar monster.

9. FINALLY take a family picture. It WILL happen this year. The end.

Good news on this score-one of my friends offered to do a free photo shoot for us this month. I think I want to kiss her. Lucky for her she moved out of Provo, or I just might have stopped by her house with a big one! Honestly, I'd given up on this one because of how expensive it can be and that plus planning when to do it and making sure we don't look like the ragamuffins we are all that just made it not worth it to me. But now that it's FREE, I can deal with the other two. Or maybe we will still be ragamuffins but at least we'll have a decent family photo form this year-hooray!

Well, that's how the goals go. 6 months almost down, 6 to go. How time flies.

Boot List: Update 1

2011-06-16T15:24:00.000-06:00

Here is a little update on how we're doing with our boot list. Some items have been taken off, and some added from the original one found here mostly due to time and/or living the broke student life.

Simonds' family Utah Boot List:

1. Attend a session at the Salt Lake Temple
2. Go to the Gateway Discovery Children's Museum Check
3. Go to the Springville MOA
4. Go to the BYU MOA and eat at the MOA Cafe. yumm...
5. Visit Logan and/or Ogden. (We've never been north of SLC so we thought we should give it a whirl) Heading that way tomorrow
6. Visit one of those fancy SLC bakeries Check
7. Go to a BYU performance Check-I think we'll count Seussical for this though it wasn't an actual BYU performance unless we can manage something else. Hey it was at BYU so it kind of counts.
8. Attend the SLC symphony or opera Check
9. Eat at Diegos
10. Go bowling at BYU or FatCats
11. Hike the Y
12. Drive the Alpine loop
13. Ride one of the city buses
14. Visit Manti and see the temple
15. Go to the Cathedral of the Madeline
16. Attend a UofU symphony or Opera performance
17. Visit Magna (I know...but Johann's grandma was born or grew up there so he wants to see it)Check
18. Go to the Scera pools/splash pad
19. Eat at the site of the first Crown Burger Check

Here are some pictures of the things we've managed off the list thus far:

#2 Go to the Gateway Discovery Children's Museum
Overall, I'm glad we went but I don't think we missed out on much by not going more frequently. It was fun for Henry but nothing particularly impressive, especially for the cost.

The ball play area. Sticking the ball up the suction tube.

The construction zone. By far his favorite of the exhibits. He liked the crane and wheelbarrows. We built this sweet house together.

The helicopter. He made all kinds of fantastic sound effects for this.

The earthquake board. We spent a good 2o minutes with this. Because what is more fun for a little boy than to build something up and then watch it shaken into oblivion.

# 19. Eat at the site of the first Crown Burger

Johann got the famous pastrami burger. He said it was pretty good but the pastrami was a little dry. Que serra.

# 6. Visit one of those fancy SLC bakeries

Outside Les Madeleines Bakery in SLC. It's next to a Thai restaurant and Henry was dying to pose as the dancer.

Our yummy pastries/treats. I actually wasn't terribly impressed with anything we got, maybe because we got there right before closing or because we didn't know what to pick. The only item I would pay for again was the carrot cake cookie. Ridiculously good.

# 17. Visit Magna

This place was terrifying. I felt like someone dropped me in the middle of Empire Falls. We drove down the main street and there was a small car show going on attended by what appeared to be the whole of the town. There were bike gangs, I mean the stereotypical Hells Angels looking bike gangs. And their bike gang ladies? madams? I dunno what you call them. I also saw an old staggering drunkard who I am sure inspired the character of Max Roby in Empire Falls. We got leery looks from everyone who bothered to look our way and I was happy to get the heck outta Magna. Small, suspicious and run down. Even Johann who has a love of making places (especially small run down towns) seem only neglected but of vast heart and import was happy to get outta there. So I wouldn't reccommend it setting up a B&B there or anything.

Well, that's what we've managed so far. Hopefully now that Johann's classes are over we'll be able to knock off a few more in much less time.

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-12T16:36:00.006-06:00

"There is something redemptive about nature," I heard a professor say on a radio program I sometimes catch in the car. This past Memorial Day weekend, I lived that. Things were a little down here in the Simonds' house so getting out and taking a little trail walk felt wonderfully peaceful and soul-soothing. In fact, we've even decided to try and be a more out-doorsie family because of it. Here are a few pictures from our little walk by a lake trail:

We showed Henry some pill bugs, or rollie pollies, whatever you prefer, and he made a tunnel and kept shouting to the bug to go through the tunnel...

We made our way back from the trail in the rain and decided we weren't outdoors-family enough to do anything else outside. So we did some s'mores inside with our gas fireplace. Henry loved it.

4 Years

2011-06-12T15:53:00.003-06:00

We did it! 4 years of marriage and no one has lost any limbs or anything!

Our anniversary, May 19th, was on a Thursday this year. Thanks to our friends watching Henry we went out to dinner at Maria Bonitas in Orem. The best part about it is having leftovers for about 2-3 meals. Their flautas are huge, the length of my form arm. They are quite tasty too.

For our anniversary gift we decided to go see the SLC Symphony at Abravanel Hall in SLC the following weekend (thanks to our other friends for watching Henry!). It was the season closer and they did pieces from Strauss, Ives and Stravinsky. I am not familiar with Ives but I really enjoyed it, very bold and somewhat cheeky. The Strauss was beautiful and Stravinsky, well, they did The Rite of Spring, it was INCREDIBLE. Closing with that piece was phenomenal and we left the hall wanting to riot, just like back in the day, only from the spur of awesomeness, not from disapproval. Ok, so we didn't feel like rioting but my goodness, we loved it.

Inside Abravanel Hall before the concert began.

Excited concert goers

View from the lobby.

I think this might have been the best anniversary we have had yet considering we got to go out to dinner AND a concert. It's fun to see our tastes growing, morphing, fusing and enjoying new things together. I love having a partner and companion who I can enjoy life with and share the struggles with. I'm grateful from all I can learn not just by being married but being married to Johann; maybe it's not apparent yet but I feel like he has taught me important traits I have lacked, like taking correction and being more quick to apologize and forgive. I know our shared goal is to help each other become who Heavenly Father wants us to be, so I am grateful to know we support each other along that path by encouraging those traits.
I love my husband and I'm grateful to have spent the past 4 years together. A happy anniversary, indeed.

Do you want capability, safety, and security in...romance, in married life and eternity? Be a true disciple of Jesus. Be a genuine, committed, word-and-deed Latter-day Saint. Believe that your faith has everything to do with your romance, because it does. Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, is the only lamp by which you can successfully see the path of love and happiness. How should I love thee? As He does, for that way “never faileth.”

-Elder Holland, "How do I love thee" New Era, October 2003

Friday Favorites

2011-06-10T09:22:00.003-06:00

Pretty original title, right?

I have a lot of catching up to do, but a quick post will need to suffice.

This week's favorites:

Activity-Hiking the Battle Creek Falls trail in Pleasant Grove with Johann and Henry. Easy and pretty trail.

Quote-The columnist Sidney J. Harris has said that an educated man is one who understands the implications of his beliefs. One can't really understand the implications of his beliefs in connection with the gospel of Jesus Christ unless he understands, conceptually, what it is all about. Obviously, we do not know in depth, nor do we know all things, but for us not to know the implications of out beliefs make us vulnerable intellectually and behaviorally in a way that is not true if we can develop our conceptual powers. There are great opportunities to achieve this kind of development in the home and in the Church organizations. The need for greater individual study of the gospel-more scholarship on the part of individual members who do not demand of the Church that it supply them with intellectual handouts-is also something which can start to be met in the home. We can be much more effective as leaders and followers if we engaged in individual gospel scholarship. Neal A. Maxwell, The Collected Works of Neal A. Maxwell, Volume 1, "...A More Excellent Way" p. 126.

Conference Talk- Sister Beck's 2007 April address to the YW session. She is incredible.

Meal-Beef and wild rice

Thing to lust after-Books to stock up on for Henry from Puffin Classics.
You can go here and enter to win a set for free. If you win it though, you
owe me book for leading you there. I WILL haunt you.

Blog Post-From my friends Kelly and Nate's blog: My Mini Monster Squad. 1. because they are so cute! 2. I have hopes that sucking up publicly will help ingratiate me so I can get one for Henry. =)

Well, that should do it for this week. I will be working on catching up as the time becomes available.

Binary Solo*

2011-06-03T10:35:00.002-06:00

It's a well established fact that Henry loves robots. As a tribute to his deep and abiding passion, here are some of his favorite robot videos. Enjoy:

Sony's Dancing Robots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vwZ5FQEUFg

Poor Honda's Asimo Takes a Tumble: (this guy is household name for us now)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASoCJTYgYB0

In one of his finer moments, Asimo directs the Detroit Orchestra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf5szwz6Qzc

Toyota's Robot Quartet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs_vL9g4IYk

Finally, if you are really stoked about robots, a video that discusses robots in general and the advances over the years as well as the myths and fears over robots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEWoqG4rTIM

Now you can study up and prepare for the robot invasion.

*Flight of the Conchords...anyone?

Make the bed

2011-05-23T16:43:00.003-06:00

This morning Henry came into the bedroom and asked what I was doing.
"Making mommy and daddy's bed."
"You are?"
"Yes, I like to have a nice tidy bed to get into at night. It feels good."
"Yeah, it does. I can make my bed!"
So he scampers off to make his bed. About 2 minutes later he calls for me to come see that he made his bed too:

Yeah, not so great, but darn it, he was very proud of it.
Hopefully he'll have the same enthusiasm about making the bed tomorrow, and when he's 13. =)

Happy Birthday, BIG Henry!

2011-05-16T16:47:00.005-06:00

As of Saturday, May 14th, Henry is officially "this many."

Henry's birthday celebrations began on Friday when we took him to see Seussical the Musical at BYU followed by a trip to Spoon it Up for some frozen yogurt, "with cookies," as he always adds.

Suessical held his attention pretty well and he loved every second that "cat in the hat" was on the stage but overall this production seemed a little low budget or a bit too symbolic for kids. They really should have gone more literal and used actual feathers to represent the birds feathers rather than clothes tied together. I don't think many kids got or appreciated that. Either way he sat still the whole time and still likes to tell people how he saw the cat in the hat and had ice cream.

Henry with Spiderman on our way to see Suessical.

Spiderman and Henry going to bed after Friday's festivities. Yes, my son has a thing about pinatas which you may review here if you so wish.

Moving on. Saturday was a crazy day. I had a relief society activity to help with, left part way through for a bridal shower, all which Henry enjoyed and was spoiled when people learned it was his birthday. By midday he already had tons of sugar in him and a balloon from the shower to boot. After the shower I was able to drop him home with Johann, help clean up at the RS activity, run to a couple stores for last minute supplies, head home and finish decorating for the party. And this was all on 4 hours of sleep. Whew. So, scenes from the party day which was Batman/superhero themed per Henry's request:

We had just a couple of friends over. Johann and I are really bad at making friends with people who have kids Henry's age. We'll need to work on this. Anyway it did make life easier in that I only had 3 capes to make for the kiddos.

Henry seeing his party which he had been asking for all day and getting pretty excited.

Opening gifts at a kids party, always a communal thing.

He got great gifts this year too. Two books that he now asks to read each day so far for both nap and bedtime reading; robots in all forms-superhero, learning, dinosaur and space; Hi-Ho Cherry-0 and some new summer clothes. Which he'll be able to use someday, I hope, when Provo decides to get with the season! Anyhow, needless to say, he has been a content little player since this birthday weekend.

Cupcake and toy admiring time.

Time to bust open the pinata. Get your game face on.

*Thwack*

After all of the kids had multiple times bopping the pinata, Charlie broke it's neck and Bert decapitated it. We were happy to see that Henry didn't take it too hard, though he did ask later that night for Johann to put spiderman's head back on him.

Enjoy the candy and toy guts!!!

Which they did.

It was a crazy day and it's interesting to see how quickly your apartment becomes tiny when you squeeze a kids party into it. I am glad we did it though despite the time/effort and sleep deprivation because Henry still talks about 'my party' all the time and loves to see the pictures.

As far as turning three, "he's not a toddler anymore-he's a preschooler," seems to be the biggest thing to blow Johann's mind. I have to admit, it is strange that he is definitely no longer what can be deemed a 'baby'. A little sad, but all the same, it's exciting that he is learning and growing and since it's going to happen no matter what I do, I can just do my best to enjoy it.

I'm so happy that we have this 'big boy' in our family. He brings so much joy and I have learned more about the capacity to love and desire for another than I believe I could have otherwise. I hope I can be the kind of parent he needs and help him fulfill his potential. He is such a thoughtful, funny kid, I am happy to know he's in our family forever!

Cinco de Mayo & Mothers Day

2011-05-10T11:13:00.004-06:00

Henry loves doing 'crafts.' He is always asking me when we can do another one because though I would like to be a fantastic mom and have one for him to do every day or at least every week, I usually don't that often. Cinco de Mayo rolled around and he was again asking to do a craft so we decided to make construction paper tacos.

Coloring his tortillia

Putting in the lettuce, tomatoes etc

He said he wanted a picture of him eating his taco. If nothing else this is proof he was born in Utah. Okay, okay so I guess they do it everywhere.

On to mothers day.

First, a shout out to my mama who really is a wonderful mother. She was able to be here in Utah with us when I started to miscarry and it's humbling to realize that no matter how old you are, there are just certain times when you want your mommy to be there too. I really can't think of anyone else who could have been as good a mom to me as her. Love you, mama!

What the day looked like here in Provo:

Trying to get a good picture with Henry before church. This is what motherhood really looks like most of the time for me.

What it looks like on those rare but precious occasions where your child decides to cooperate.

We have 9 o'clock church which means a nice breakfast is pretty much out of the question, so Johann decided to make breakfast for dinner

Henry helped with his favorite portion of preparation, mixing.

French toast, eggs and bacon breakfast. mmm.

*Sidenote: I was SO SO happy to have a ridiculous free Mothers Day sacrament. You know what I'm talking about.
Also, I find it funny that to celebrate Mothers Day, we, as mothers are suppose to relegate all our mothering (and housekeeping) task to our husbands for the day. It doesn't quite make sense. Yet, I'll still let Johann make dinner. =)

Gymnastics

2011-05-04T14:53:00.005-06:00

Today was Henry's last day of Tumbling Tots, aka, gymnastics for kiddos 2-3.

They each took a turn showing their favorite trick and then got to stand on a little podium to receive their certificate and 'medal'. It was actually pretty cute.

Henry proudly showing his certificate

After everyone got their medals, the teacher called for party time and whipped out some goldfish and animal crackers and the kids sat together for a snack and then got to have free time.

some of the kids from the class having their 'party'

What I learned from taking Henry to gymnastics follows:
1. He is really good at the beam. He rocked that beam.
2. He is terrible at somersaults.
3. He is really good about being kind when he is interacting with other kids in general, and when they do things like take his turn or push him etc. Most of the time he just shrugs it off.*
4. He can be a pretty darn good listener for a two, almost three year old.
5. I need to be better about taking him to groups with other kids. He loves it and I won't lie, I love getting to be around and talk with other adults!

Hopefully wherever we end up we can keep having Henry involved in some fun community activities like we've been able to do here.

*Funny story: the first day of class one of the girls was being really pushy and you know, acting like a 2 year old kid can act. We have a very strict no hitting kids back policy for Henry, though I was tempted to rescind it with this girl a few times, so he would usually move away from her or say stop. Well, I guess he was sick of it when it started happening on day 2 again but instead of hitting back, this little guy, and he was indeed little compared to her, decided to use, here it comes, presence. He walked right up to her and just stared her down and wouldn't budge. I wanted to die laughing. The funniest part- it worked! She left him alone and pestered other kids instead. Ha! She eventually mellowed out too and was fun to have there. I think she was just a little over-excited the first few classes!

Easter

2011-04-30T12:43:00.004-06:00

The week after we got back from Las Vegas, we headed to my hometown, Apple Valley, Ca for Easter week. It's always fun to go back, eat at our favorite places, remember growing up there and seeing our families.
The week consisted of:

Playing robots and aliens with Abuela & Grandpa

Playing drums

Riding on Papa's longboard (oh and getting a haircut from Vinnie)

'Meeting' his cousin, Max.

Visiting Lake Greggory and Arrowhead

Then came the weekend. We decided to celebrate Easter the way one of my friends mentioned on her blog last year, which is to do all the bunny business on Saturday and leave Sunday to remember the ultimate meaning of Christ's triumph over death.

Saturday's surprise from the bunny. He made out well this year. Probably due to being in CA where there are three grandparents.

Since my mom was a kindergarten teacher for a while, she had all these fun Easter games to pull out and play. Henry loved throwing eggs in the blow-up bunny's basket.

Johann's parents came out to Apple Valley and we all dyed Easter Eggs. Henry's had a robot on it.

The finished products.

We went to my mom's ward's Easter picnic and egg hunt that evening. Henry loved running to look for the eggs.

Off he goes!!!

Happy to have found some eggs.

Sunday morning Henry got to put on his new easter duds thanks to Grammy Goodwin.

We went to my mom's ward and enjoyed a good sacrament meeting as well as good lessons. We talked with Henry about what resurrection means and how we can live again and our bodies will never be sick. He still is grappling with understanding coming back to life, he would usually say, "He died, but then he wasn't really dead." =)
We had a quiet day at home and had a family dinner that evening.

I'm so grateful for the resurrection. To me the blessings of the resurrection mean the joy of health, the lack of worry and sadness over illness and loss; the mercy of God and His Son made manifest and the knowledge that we'll be able to live again with those we love and miss. It is the triumphant Christ who has overcome sin and death and who will again come to bring an end to all sin and sadness in the world.

Visiting

2011-04-30T12:41:00.001-06:00

In addition to having lots of visitors these past few months, we've done a couple visits. The first was a long weekend visit (Thurs-Sat) to Las Vegas/Henderson for an internship interview with Clark County School District.
My cousin Nancy and her family were gracious enough to let us stay with them and to feed us. Thank you again, Nancy! Johann's parents also made the three and a half hour drive to come visit us for the day on Saturday and we got to go to the birthday party for the son (Raiden) of my other cousin George.

Friday consisted of lots of nerves waiting for the interview for Johann and myself, but Henry enjoyed having a backyard and new toys to play with. We also got to do a group date with my cousins which was lots of fun. Rare to have a calm dinner out with other adults!

Henry hangin' with Sully

Sliding with Nancy's daughter, Ariana

"Yeehaw"

Saturday we met up with Johann's parents and ventured to see the Hoover Dam and Boulder City.

On our way to the Hoover Dam with Grandpa and Abuela

Bridge over the Hoover Dam

Boulder City Diner, "Mel's". "Never trust a skinny cook." Amen.

Henry's giant pancakes.

They had DELICIOUS fries. The burger was way good too.

Cute Raiden on his first birthday.

Aunt Janice & Henry passed out on the couch at the party.
This picture pretty much sums up how we were feeling by the end of our fun quick trip.

Visitors

2011-04-30T11:12:00.005-06:00

I've been bad about posting what has been happening this year. I've mostly been indulging my own strain of thoughts here. What a narcissist. So, I'm attempting to catch up with what has been going on and add some pictures. Here we go:

From the beginning of March through the beginning of April we had lots of visits. It was a lot of fun to have family around especially since winter here is long and sometimes a little lonely because we don't get out of the house as much. So here are some pictures from the visits of three uncles and one Grammy.

Uncle Derek came for about a week and painted some masterpieces with Henry. My favorite part is when Derek painted a pig and Henry asked what it was. When Derek replied, "It's a pig," Henry laughed and said, "OH I thought it was a DOG," in a 'wow that's a horrible pig' type of way.

Practicing good hygiene.

Then came uncle Jacob for his spring break to play superheroes. Can you imagine leaving sunny LA for snow plastered Utah for SPRING break. He must be crazy! ;-)

Then came Grammy to do lots of reading...

and lots of toy buying. Henry was definitely good with this aspect of the visit.

Trying to copy Grammy in the car, and happy to have a backseat companion.

Then came uncle Aaron. Henry was really excited to show him he had a hat 'just like his.'

My favorite portion of Aaron's visit. Aaron bought Henry this giant foam sword. I told Henry it's called an 'Uncle stick' and only to be used on Uncles. He made sure to get his fill of using the uncle stick on all three but I think he was most vigorous with the giver of the uncle stick. HA!
1 point mom, 0 points uncles!

And the final picture is of my attempt to be a good LDS mom during conference. The coloring packets worked for a while but the whole, pick the candy with the apostle's face that is the same as the one speaking, was a HORRIBLE idea. After just two of those mini candies Henry went bonkers and could not hold still. Needless to say, we won't be doing that one again.

Thanks to the fam for coming out to visit us. It really is fun!

"Does this make my liver look fat?"

2011-04-28T18:52:00.001-06:00

I've been thinking about my liver lately. No, really. I had a weird dream about it a while ago and when I mentioned it to my brother, he referenced an article about sugar ruining your liver and causing diabetes as well as cancer.

You can read the article here.

The simpleton summation is this: too much sugar (both sucrose — beet and cane sugar, whether white or brown — and high-fructose corn syrup) gives you a fatty liver which has been connected with diabetes and cancer. This is true across the board for skinny to obese people which is what makes it even more compelling to show it is environmental rather than genetic. It also means that even if you exercise your butt off or are naturally skinny, health-wise it does you no good if you keep filling your body with sugar.

The main thing that stuck with me from the article was this:

"How much do we have to consume (of sugar) before this happens?"

When Glinsmann and his F.D.A. co-authors decided no conclusive evidence demonstrated harm at the levels of sugar then being consumed, they estimated those levels at 40 pounds per person per year beyond what we might get naturally in fruits and vegetables (note this does not mention/include things like bread, pastas etc)— 40 pounds per person per year of “added sugars” as nutritionists now call them. This is 200 calories per day of sugar, which is less than the amount in a can and a half of Coca-Cola or two cups of apple juice. If that’s indeed all we consume, most nutritionists today would be delighted...

But 40 pounds per year happened to be 35 pounds less than what Department of Agriculture analysts said we were consuming at the time — 75 pounds per person per year — and the U.S.D.A. estimates are typically considered to be the most reliable. By the early 2000s, according to the U.S.D.A., we had increased our consumption to more than 90 pounds per person per year.

Another point of reference for understanding what 200 calories of sugar is, 1 gram of sugar=4 calories. That means you should only be consuming 50 grams of sugar a day aside from fruits and vegetables. Now go look at your cereal box. Yikes, right?

Now I don't want to freak out and believe my liver is going keel over any day now but I definitely think it's cause to be much more cautious. I'm already happy that I kicked soda in middle school and I drink only water and milk so I don't have to worry about liquid sugar. I think my problem is with things like cereal and baked goods. So, I am definitely working to pare down the amount of sugar our family eats. Even if the studies turn out to show it not causing cancer, I doubt our bodies will really suffer for want of excess sugar.

So, wish me luck. It's going to be a process weening ourselves from so much of the food that contains too much sugar but I think it will be worth it.

Boot List

2011-04-28T18:36:00.002-06:00

I don't like the way, "Bucket List" sounds. I also didn't like the movie. So I looked up synonyms for the phrase and found a list of titles in foreign countries for the above mentioned film. Apparently in Hungarian the title "Bakancslista" translates to "Boot List," which I find sufficiently more pleasing and therefore our list of things to do before we leave Utah will be called our "BOOT LIST."

We are still not positive where we will be but all signs point out of Utah since the districts here are crowded already with interns. Enough of that, this isn't time to whine about not knowing our future, that'll be for another post. Now some of these are silly or may seem stupid but they are things we've thought of that we can't do or do again outside UT so why not do 'em now.
So, without further adieu:

Simonds' family Utah Boot List:

1. Attend a session at the Salt Lake Temple
2. Go to the Gateway Discovery Children's Museum
3. Go to the Springville MOA
4. Go to the BYU MOA and eat at the MOA Cafe. yumm...
5. Visit Logan and/or Ogden. (We've never been north of SLC so we thought we should give it a whirl)
6. Visit one of those fancy SLC bakeries
7. Go to a BYU performance
8. Attend the SLC symphony or opera
9. Go to Seven Peaks
10. Eat at Diegos
11. Go bowling at BYU or FatCats
12. Hike the Y
13. Drive the Alpine loop
14. Ride the Heber Creeper
15. Ride one of the city buses
16. Visit Manti and see the temple
17. Go to the Spiral Jetty (I doubt we'll be able to do this one since we don't have a truck...sigh)
18. Go to the Cathedral of the Madeline
19. Attend a UofU symphony or Opera performance
20. Visit Magna (I know...but Johann's grandma was born or grew up there so he wants to see it)

Well, there we go. If we can even do half of these with the little time we have left I will be pretty happy. If you can think of any more that are ridiculously important for us to include, please leave a comment.
Here's to the boot list!

Interviewing

2011-04-23T00:53:00.003-06:00

Johann has now had 2 interviews for a 2011-2012 school year internship. One was for Clark County which covers Henderson, NV all the way to Mesquite, NV-it's the 5th largest district in the nation. He was subsequently offered a position there. As we were considering accepting the position, a district in Escondido, Ca called to set up an interview with him. That took place Thursday and they will let him know early on in May. That is the basic run down.

The Clark County experience was really laid back and Johann enjoyed interviewing there. The Escondido experience was quite different. It is the only paid Southern California internship we've seen so they were running quite the interview factory, every 20-30 minutes a new student was being interviewed and Johann interviewed on day 2 so you can imagine just how many people are going for that position. Johann feels like he did the best he could in the interview though they seemed somewhat disinterested and he is ridiculously qualified so we will just wait and see.

Escondido is, well, Escondido. It's beautiful. It pays about 10,o00 more. It is an hour closer to family. And it's beautiful.
Henderson/Las Vegas area is where some of my extended family live. The district is huge and Johann has a lot of say about what kind of experiences he wants to have while there. He was offered the position. It's cheaper to live there than Escondido. We really enjoyed visiting there.

Hopefully Escondido will let us know very soon what their decision is. If they say they want him we'll have to pray and think about it all some more, if not, I am pretty sure that we can plan on heading to Henderson, NV come this August. It will just be so nice to know where we will be!

The Birds

2011-04-15T09:39:00.004-06:00

I am afraid of birds. Really. I don't like being near them, touching them or even looking at them for too long. My phobia isn't limited to just birds but anything of the foul class. They just plain worry and scare me.
1. They feel hollow. Hence my fear that at the slightest touch they will pop. Those things were just not created to be touched. Period.
2. They have sharp mouths that are meant to be used for pecking. Need I say more?
3. They have claws that are meant for...clawing.
4. I had three parakeets as a girl. The first one I inadvertently killed by feeding it the wrong thing. The second was really nice and I trained it to do all kinds of cool stuff within a week. Then it died too-this time NOT at my doing or misdoing. The Third was a mean little cuss and lived for years.Birds are spiteful creatures.
5.They are major carriers of major disease.
6. In Home Alone 2, why do you think they made the scary lady a BIRD lady?! Everyone knows that anyone who has an intense affinity for birds is at least a bit scary.

This brings me to the story I planned to tell all along.
Recently we discovered that birds were building a nest in our dryer duct. The opening of the duct is right by our kitchen window and attached to the cupboards over our refrigerator. Every morning for about a month now I've had the nervous displeasure of hearing them building, scratching, chirping and hearing it as though it were happening in my cupboard. Then within the past week, it got worse. They started going through the duct and I could hear them in the washer/dryer closet with their nasty little talons scraping against the metallic dryer duct. It was unnerving eating breakfast at the table then hearing that awful noise right over my shoulder. I know it sounds silly but was I was feeling completely frazzled by it. I mean-I HATE BIRDS!

Additionally my 2 year old son thought it was hilarious to taunt me with, "Mommy, hear the birdies? Do you like birdies?" To which I of course said, "NO." He responds, "Oh I love birdies mommy. Birdies, birdies!"

Well, to put an end to a post about all this ridiculousness, the complex caretakers finally came yesterday to take care of the birds. I told the main fellow how far it sounded like they had built and he told me he doubted it, blah blah. Well, sir, when they got in there I was quite right. They were building a freakin' bird metropolis in my dryer duct! They couldn't believe how much it was.

Now it is all gone and a metal basket has been placed over the opening so no more birds can get it. I, however, doubt this is the end of it between me and the birds: they keep clawing onto the basket and pecking at it then flying to the power line across from my kitchen window to ruffle their feathers, fume and stare with their beady little eyes my way. I just hope they don't organize. I don't want to end up living a Hitchcock film.

It's time to talk

2011-04-13T09:39:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I've updated. I'm a little annoyed at myself but at the same time, I feel it has been excusable. We've had multiple visits as well as gone on a quick weekend trip to Las Vegas for an internship interview-more on that later.

The main reason however, I haven't had much to say is because I really haven't been sure what to say. Once all the action of the past weeks ended this weekend, I was left to process and I haven't really enjoyed it too much. It's been painful and depressing. I'm tired and don't feel right.

I've tried not to make it a secret of late that Johann and I had been trying to bring an addition to our family for 13 months. I got sick of people asking us when we were going to have kids again, if we want to have anymore kids, telling us that Henry needed a sibling and my favorite, that I would understand such and such better once I had more than just one kid. I realize none of it was meant unkindly but it just wasn't pleasant to hear when we were very conscious of those things and trying as best we could to make it happen.

After making some discoveries of what could be holding us up, I had a treatment and sure enough, March brought the news that I was pregnant. I was so grateful. Finally, finally!
I was due November 13th and November seemed perfect. If we moved for an internship, I'd be in the 2nd trimester and feeling up to it, we'd be settled long enough wherever we were that the baby wouldn't come too soon. We found out the same day we had another loss of sorts happen in our family and it felt very right and even necessary to keep our spirits up. A number of family members were also expecting within a month or two of the due date and we were so excited thinking about the little cousins and cousins once removed all being able to play together and be friends. It really felt perfect.

The sweetest thing though, was telling family and a few friends who had known about what was going on and hearing multiple times, "Oh we're so happy! We have been praying for you!" I was so touched to be remembered by them and also to see we were remembered and blessed by the Lord.

Soon after finding out though, I got nervous when I wasn't feeling very sick. I was exhausted but with Henry I was down for the count kind of sick as well as exhausted. The sight and smell of all food made me sick. I could eat almost anything this time without feeling the slightest bit ill. I told myself it was because the last time I was in school full time and working and not sleeping enough that I felt that way. Always in the back of my mind though I worried and worried. I read a lot about miscarriage. Over a bit of time through some things I can't and shouldn't exactly express, I came as close to knowing as possible that I was going to miscarry. I tried to do things to avoid it and I felt like one of those tragic Greek characters trying to avoid their fate and thereby bringing it about.

I told myself if I cleared 6 or 7 weeks I would be fine because it seemed a lot of people miscarried then. I was just about 8 weeks and then it happened. I didn't know for sure at once and I will forever be annoyed at the doctors/nurses who made me go through all kinds of tests and poking and follow-ups just for the inevitable. They kept giving these little assurances it could be this or that and not a miscarriage when I knew that they knew it was. It was pretty obvious.

I know it's their job, but I'm still annoyed. I'm annoyed they made me go to a follow-up appointment and said nothing helpful or informative about the miscarriage after waiting an hour and forty-five minutes, but only said that actually what we were told and believed was causing the infertility really isn't, in their opinion. So great. 13 more months, huh? Thanks. Way to switch the appropriate times for being cautious and optimistic. Really.

The worst part is feeling like it's never ending. Still blood tests for yet another week. I hate the smell of the tape they use over the injection site. It reminds me of the NICU when Henry was there and makes me think about how terrifying it was thinking we didn't know what was wrong with him and he could stop breathing and be no more. I don't really want that kind of reminder presently.

I don't want to be small or petty. I realize I need to be grateful just to know that it is possible for me to get pregnant again when I was at the point of almost believing it would never be. I understand and am grateful it happened much earlier on so that no operations were involved. I know there are many people who have suffered far more in losing a child and I know I should in no way think my loss as difficult to bear as theirs. I certainly do not. I just felt like it was time to talk about it.

I want to be 'right' but at the moment, with the hormone changes and lack of things I have to do, I find myself more dispirited and down than before. I am trying, but please forgive me if I'm not as sunshiny as I ought. I'll get there, but I suppose this is something I have to go through to get back to there in a more real sense, first.

I don't want to leave on a glum and faithless sounding note. I know that what I once heard spoken is true: 'Trials teach us compassion and when we can remember that, we are no longer victims.' I feel like my compassion has increased and that I feel more than intellectualize this sorrow when others express it. I'm trying to remember that a broken heart is a sacred offering and that the 'new creature' I am to become begins with such a heart. So I am grateful for the atonement and grateful and hopeful that He can heal and make me better than I would have been otherwise. He isn't late, He hasn't forgotten.

Did I mention?

2011-03-23T14:25:00.003-06:00

Henry is now potty trained!

He has been for a little less than a month now.

We still have to have pull-ups on for naps (which he is now fighting with a fury-the naps, not the pull-ups, they have trucks so he's cool with that) and bedtime but *most* of the time, we're good. We have had a few periods of accident proneness but overall we are doing good.

His favorite part of being potty trained: peeing in the snow.

Pass!

2011-03-19T22:43:00.003-06:00

Hooray! Johann completed the first step in the arduous task of completing his thesis: he successfully defended the prospectus for his thesis! ie-the professors on his committee are going to let him continue on to research.

Now he just has to be approved by the IRB (they make sure he isn't doing any shady or unethical research), do the research, finish the thesis, submit an article for publication and it's officially done! All down hill from here, right? =)

The practical and most important part of this news however, is that Johann can now officially apply for internships. Hopefully it won't be too terribly long until we know where we will be come June.

Nothing much

2011-03-12T21:29:00.004-07:00

I made a goal to blog weekly and since it's a fairly easy goal, I'd like to be able to keep it.

Nothing particularly impressive or blog-worthy happened this week so instead here are some non-exciting items or antidotes:

1. Today while I was standing outside of Barnes and Noble waiting for Johann to come by and pick me up, an older lady started walking towards where I stood. I smiled and her. She came up awfully close to me (wasn't sure what was going to happen at this point) and patted me firmly on the arm about three times then said, "It's raining out there!" Won't it be great to be old some day so you can get away with that kind of thing?

2. I learned there is a school in Yuma, Arizona whose mascot is "The Criminals." This led me to wonder, "Is the reward for good behavior in the prison the opportunity to go and cheer as the mascot at the basketball/football/volleyball game? But you know, the more I thought I about it, the more I imagined the criminals probably don't appreciate being associated with middle school or high school kids either.

3. It was finally warm enough this week to spend a day at the park. It was heavenly.

4. I usually shy away from letting people know just how much I disdain anything (books, films, lectures) associated with the genre of "inspiration." This week I finally admitted somewhere outside of my own house (facebook-ha) that I disliked something everyone else considers to be *big, meaningful breath* sssoo inspirational! That's right. I hate Freedom Writers. And I don't like The Pursuit of Happyness.
I also hate their cutesy play on words in their titles.
I blame my mother for all of this. At the end of Rudy I remember her saying, "What a stupid kid. What a waste of his and everyone else's time."
In conclusion, if something has to tell me over and over again that it's inspirational, more than likely it's a bit overwrought in sentiment and reductive in thought.

5. So you don't leave this post thinking I'm completely heartless, I think Shirley Temple is cute. Come on, those curls and her little pout face are adorable. I'm almost tempted to buy one of those movies from the box-set they just advertised on tv. See, I have a heart. Or I'm easily swayed by advertising.

6. I stayed up until 3am this morning. That was ill-advised on my part.

I think we're good now.

Goals Check no.1

2011-03-04T18:21:00.004-07:00

It's that time. Goals check time. Here we go:

1. Get more sleep: Go to bed early, get up early.

I did such a fantastic job with this for about a week. It was a glorious week really. Henry was in bed no later than 8:00pm, Johann and I were sleeping by 10:30 at the latest. I felt pretty darn good. I've been doing a horrible job lately. I get all this nervous energy at night, and it's finally quiet so I want to relax and then work while I don't have a little shadow following me. I have to buckle down and get myself to sleep, sleep, sleeeeep!

2. Keep reading: Yup, purposefully very broad.

So far this year I've read Middlemarch and then a book written by Elder Hafen called The Broken Heart.
I finished Middlemarch in January and February went by like a blur. While I haven't completed an entire book, I have continued to read, mostly from George Herbert's The Temple. Everyone, EVERYONE, I don't care if you hate poetry. Herbert is fantastic. Get into it. Now. Go.

Anywho. Middlemarch is fantastic. I love so many of the characters. I really, really love Dorthea.

The Broken Heart was also a good read. The main message is to understand the relationship between the bitter and the sweet, between experience and growth, between this life and the atonement. It's pretty repetitive but I would definitely recommend it.
Right now I'm working on The Collected Stories of Eurdora Welty which has been enjoyable and Emma.

3. Write more: Blog once a week. Go to the museum once a month and write about a particular painting or two.

Blogging. Check. Going to the museum and writing-fail. I may just pick pieces from books or past favorites. Or I may just drop this portion of my goal.

4. Read a chapter from the Book of Mormon and a conference talk daily. Read the gospel doctrine and Relief Society lessons before class.

Check. I have really enjoyed reading conference talks. Not something I have done on a daily basis for an extended period of time ever. I like it.

5. Have a date with Johann weekly: even if that means just watching a movie together at home.

I think so far, this is a check, though we have had lots of at home movie nights. =)

6. Attend the temple monthly and have family home evening weekly.

We've been doing good with having family home evening. January we had to go to the temple separately because Henry was sick and we had planned with our friends towards the end of the month. February we got to go together and it was nice. We even had lunch at the cafeteria after. My favorite part there was going to the cashier and having her heckle us into taking more saltine crackers for our soup, "The missionaries come in here and take 10 a piece! take more than what you have!!!"

7.Keep a monthly budget.

I'm pretty proud of having been diligent in recording ALL our transactions and seeing where we're spending money, where we need to cut and where more needs to go. It's been a very good thing.

8.Get rid of the weight I gained during (and after lovingly nurtured) while pregnant with Henry. I've been working on it but I need to make a very concerted effort to just kick the rest of it. Three years is long enough, though that first year I didn't sleep at all and I have a sneaking suspicion that didn't help me out much. Anyway, I have tons of excuses, now its just time to do it.

I have definitely noticed a correlation between my sleep and weight-loss. Just sayin'. Anywho, since the beginning of the year I've lost about 6lbs which I know isn't awesome for two months but I'm much more into really losing it for good by changing our lifestyle as far as eating, exercising and sleeping. I'm trying to work up my courage to give up sugar. I feel like its a good time. The only holiday coming up is Easter and I'm not really big on Easter candy anyway. So we'll see. Anyway, I have about 15-17 lbs to go. I figure if I can get there by summer that would be great. Sooner would also be great. =)

9. FINALLY take a family picture. It WILL happen this year. The end.

I'm waiting for Utah to stop being a tundra. I won't even think about it until then.

The End.

"My feet are tired, but my soul is rested"

2011-02-22T21:14:00.005-07:00

Johann is taking a multiculturalism class right now and as February is Black History month, we've been watching the Eyes on the Prize series being shown on kbyu as one of this activities. 1. watch it. 2. I took a history of the south class my last year in school where our teacher assigned Howell Raines' My Soul is Rested: The Story of the Civil Rights Movements in the Deep South. I wanted to read it again this month to refresh my memory about all the major leaders but it looks like it's still out on loan.
I strongly recommend picking this up at some point in your life. Raines interviews several civil rights leaders as well as those who opposed civil rights, people from the white citizens' council etc. All growing up you only really hear about Martin Luther King Jr. and the marches in Alabama. Reading the interviews makes you understand how many organizations had to be coordinated (SCLC, SNCC,CORE,NAACP,LCCR), how very calculated and careful these civil rights proponents had to be, how vast the movement was and how many disagreements within and between organizations had to be overcome.
It truly changed the way I view the civil rights movement of the 1960s as well as touched my heart to read the first hand accounts. Definitely make this a book a priority.

Polish Honey Cake

2011-02-17T12:56:00.005-07:00

This is a fairly simple (though time consuming) cake that is perfect for summer picnics.

And anytime you want a delicious cake.

So lets do this:

Ingredients:

For the layers:

*7 tablespoons unsalted butter
*1/2 cup sugar
*3 eggs
*1 cup honey
*1 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cups white flour

For the Cream:

*2 cups (just a little under 2 is actually best) heavy whipping cream
*3 cups light sour cream (you can also try greek yogurt though I've never done it)
*1/2 cup sugar (sometimes I may, or may not put a tad bit more depending on how its tasting)
*1 tablespoon vanilla extract

*Note*
This cake takes anywhere from 16-24 hours to make. So you must make the dough ahead of time to refrigerate for 8-12 hours then plan on taking an hour or so for baking and putting the cake together followed by another 8-12 hours for the cake to set in the refrigerator. I've found its best to make the dough the night before, get up early to make the cake and then let it set so it's ready for the evening.

Directions:

1. Dough for the layers (crusts):

In a large mixing bowl mix all the ingredients except the flour. Put the bowl on a large pot of boiling water. Stir the mixture regularly until sugar is dissolved (about 5 minutes). Remove the bowl from the pot and add flour gradually. The dough should not be thick. Let the dough to cool down, then cover with a plastic wrap and put it into refrigerator for 8-12 hours.

2. Baking the layers (crusts):

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Pre-cut 8 sheets of wax paper. Divide the dough into 8 equal balls (use lots of flour
because the dough will be sticky). Take the baking sheet with wax paper on it and
sprinkle with flour. Take a piece of dough and put it on a baking sheet, stretch it
with your hands, powdered with flour, (or use rolling pin) to a thin, round form, about 10
inches.

Bake for 4-5 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven. Cool layer on a wire rack.

Repeat with the remaining 7 dough parts.

3. Making the cream

Mix sour cream, whipping cream, sugar and vanilla (you may also add a bit of lemon zest or juice) in a large mixing bowl.

4. Put the cake together

Carefully peel the layers, once cooled, off the wax paper. Using something as a guide (I use a dinner plate) cut and even the edges until the layers are round.
Set the pieces of the layer you cut off to the side for later use.

On a large serving dish, alternate 8 layers of cake crusts and cream filling, applying
the cream filling between layers.

Use the excess pieces of crust to decorate the cake by cutting into small pieces and placing around the side and outer rim of the top of the cake.

Top with strawberries, raspberries or blueberries (or whatever you want for that matter).

Let the cake sit 8-12 hours in a refrigerator before serving.

*Option: I like to take the strawberries I didn't use to decorate and mash them in a bowl with a little sugar to drizzle over the cake or individual slices.

Well, that my friends is how you do the polish honey cake. My taste buds are ever grateful to my friend, Lena for bringing this yummy cake into my life. I hope you enjoy!

a perhaps hand

2011-02-15T20:16:00.004-07:00

I once had a professor describe a paper I wrote as a "perhaps hand." This reference comes from an e.e. cummings poem titled Spring is like a perhaps hand:

      III



Spring is like a perhaps hand



(which comes carefully

out of Nowhere)arranging

a window,into which people look(while

people stare

arranging and changing placing

carefully there a strange

thing and a known thing here)and



changing everything carefully





spring is like a perhaps

Hand in a window

(carefully to

and fro moving New and

Old things,while

people stare carefully

moving a perhaps

fraction of flower here placing

an inch of air there)and





without breaking anything.

But lately I feel like that is the most apt description I've ever been given about myself...
Curse you professor.

In honor of Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T22:13:00.003-07:00

One of my favorite declarations of love from literature:

"You are my wife, [yet] I love you like a mistress."

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I have a good laugh every time I think of it.

Now, quick, where is this line from?

Here's a hint: I bet Nicolas Sarkozy would like nothing better than for no one to know where this line is from.

Happy Valentine's Day, one and all.

The biggest gift

2011-02-08T14:22:00.004-07:00

I thought though this was a part of my birthday, it deserved it's very own post.

I kept telling everyone for Christmas that I needed a stock pot.

No one got me one.

My mom made up for it in size when she sent me one for my birthday.

I guess right about now would be a good time to have 50 people over for some dinner, huh?

My very own "Happy Day!"

2011-02-08T13:22:00.006-07:00

With Henry before heading to dinner Sat night. Birthday loot in the back ground.

Oh birthdays.
This time is was more like birth-week.
I still just can't decide how I feel about celebrating my birthday. I love doing Henry and Johann's birthdays but I always feel a bit silly about my own. Complex of some sort? I dunno, maybe I'll have Johann diagnose me when he gets home.
I decided this year I would embrace it and since my sister-in-law whose birthday is 2 days before mine moved to Ca, I couldn't just get away with it being the 4 of us and sharing the day of celebrating as we've done the past 3 years. Maybe we'll be able to do that again some day.

So, on to the birthday celebrating.

Wednesday night I have presidency meeting and my kind, thoughtful RS president Tammy surprised me with some cupcakes from the Sweet Tooth Fairy.
I had never tasted one of these yummy treats so I allowed myself to eat one of the red velvet that night and took home one of the chocolate to share for the next day(the two pictured front and center). They were oh so good.

So, Wednesday and Thursday=cupcake sugar highs.

Friday I received a number of happy birthday wishes in the mail. One of which had a check with the perfect amount to treat myself to getting a new shirt (thanks Simonds!), which I went and did that afternoon while Johann watched Henry.

Saturday was our planned celebration day since my actual birthday was on a fast Sunday. Fast Sunday and festivities don't seem to go hand in hand, ya know?

We got up early (not as early as we had planned though) so we could start making a polish honey cake my friend Lena makes and graciously taught me how to make.
The whole process involves a lot of refrigerating so the cake takes anywhere from 16-24 hours.

I made the dough for the layers Friday night and Saturday morning our kitchen turned into a mad house while Johann and I rolled, baked, trimmed and cut layers.

I think Johann would actually be pretty good in the kitchen, As soon as he graduates I might be passing the baton for a few nights a week!

Johann then whisked Henry away to see a production of Babe (you know, that pig) at BYU while I finished assembling the cake, stuck it in the fridge, cleaned up the mess and made cupcakes for the kiddos.

That night we headed to Goodwood where we met up with some friends for dinner. I think Goodwood is something we only do yearly so I quite enjoyed my food. Then they brought out a giant brownie covered with ice cream, chocolate syrup and whip cream. I think all other restaurants should take note: give the birthday boy or girl a huge treat, not an obnoxious song. Good call Goodwood. Everyone who wanted got a taste and there was still some left.

After dinner we came back to our apartment where we met up with those from dinner as well as another family of friends. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the honey cake when completed but here is a picture from a previous occasion when I made it:

I was afraid no one else would really like it, hence making cupcakes too, but I was happy to see that no one was spitting into their napkins. In fact, by popular demand, I'll be posting the recipe to my blog soon. I promise!

We ate cake, talked, opened gifts with the help of Henry and our friend's daught Macie, watched the kids play, talked, I got to hold a little 3 month old baby, and talked some more.

Sunday, I slept. I was so pooped and add the fasting with that...I told Johann, "just let me sleep." So he did, for four hours! Yeesh! I certainly enjoyed it though. =)

Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate the big 2-4. Thank you for the thoughtful gifts, kind words and being apart of my life! I surely am grateful for it.

2011-02-08T13:17:00.002-07:00

Sometimes, I think Henry is one lucky little kid. =)

Henry and Halloween

2011-02-03T22:23:00.003-07:00

Henry loves, loves, loooves Halloween, which I find funny because he has never gone trick-or-treating and gotten a ton of candy; it's just the dressing up, the ghosts, witches and monsters that he loves.
This year he informed me very early on as to what this year's costume would be:

"I be Rufus Two Left Feet, Mommy."

Rufus is a little monster who loves to dance but as you guessed, he has two left feet so the only dance he can do is the wallop. Another little monster named Maddie appears half way through the book who, yup, you guessed it again, ends up having two right feet. Henry also told me that his friend Abigail is going to be Maddie. I told him she might not want to dress up like a monster. He looked at me like I had just told him ice cream is gross.

Fast forward to this past week. Henry is now saying he wants to be a robot. While I think I could create a robot with much less trouble, I was getting excited to try and make the Rufus costume. I mean, he can be a robot any year, right?

Now I'm debating with myself if I should ignore his most recent wish and press forward with looking for supplies for the Rufus costume or if I should just let the kid be a robot. *sigh*
I'll let you know what I decide and then you can judge how good or bad of a mother I am- so stayed tuned. =)

Say what?

2011-02-02T14:26:00.007-07:00

I take myself waaaay too seriously in some ways and definitely not seriously enough in others. I'm a bit preachy (what can I do, I have hell-fire and brimstone baptists genes). I complain in my little myopic way annnnd I ramble like the dickens. But thankfully, now I know that there is at least one person who really appreciates this, and truth be told, I will take an ego stroking every once and a while, so thank you for awarding me the "Stylish Blogger Award," Jess!

Jessica Perkins has a pretty sweet blog herself. If you want to check it out, you should go here. Whenever I look at her blog it is either filled with pictures of delicious food she's made, awesome crafts or sewing projects (she made Luke, her son, a sweet Woody costume and now I wish I lived near her so she could help make Henry's!) and the humor in her writing about self/life doesn't disappoint.

Now, as with all great gifts in life, come great responsibilities. Attached to this award are some criteria I must meet in this post, otherwise they take away my blog's extensions, tummy sucker and weekly injection of botox to leave it very style-less and frumpy.

Lets begin:
Thing #1: Thank, and link back to, the person who awarded you this award
Done and done. See above.

Thing #2: Share 7 things about yourself

1. I am always shocked by my lack of adventurousness. Last night Johann and I were talking and I said in response to something, "well, yeah, some people are really crazy-like going skydiving all the time or you know, canoeing!" Canoeing? Really? It was the first crazy thing in my mind after skydiving. Just sad.

*now don't tell me that doesn't look dangerous!

2. I'm left-handed. I use to be proud of it, then my first day in public school a girl saw me writing and said, "you know they burned left-handed people at the stake for being witches!" Geez, and home-school kids are suppose to be the weird ones?

3. Speaking of home-schooling, I was home schooled until 5th grade. Now, people always say kids who were home schooled are weird because of home schooling. I don't really think that's true. I think the problem is usually that crazy parents go all crazy and decide to home school their genetically crazy kids, giving any sane person who decides to do it a bad rap.

4. I'm stealing this from Jessica since she mentioned her TV crush. I don't know about our status now, but for a good while when Henry was obsessed with Curious George, I had a thing for the man with the yellow hat. When I suggested to Johann that we could all be characters from Curious George for Halloween last year, he was pretty much appalled because he thought I was just trying to live out my fantasy. Psssh. SO NOT TRUE. Well, who knows what our subconscious does to us!
5. I have an intense fear of hitting my eyes on anything pointy, like my night-stand corner. I have actually had nights where I really can't fall asleep because I am afraid once I do, I'll roll off the bed and hit my eyeball directly onto the corner. gaaah.

6. I like to read but I have never been good about sniffing out contemporary books. I usually just read what are deemed, 'classics'. I feel like there is so much that has been written before that I have to finish that before I move on. Also, I feel like a book that has come through so many readers and years and is still praised is a good sign I won't be wasting my time. *Except for The Great Gatsby. Oh and Heart of Darkness. I hate you.

7. I know it will never happen because we'll never be wealthy, but I really, really want to have my own library. Despite the lack of attainability I still picture new things about it constantly. *sigh*

*Potbelly stove would be a library must.

Thing #3 Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers

Well, I won't do 15 but here are some that come to mind:

Fifty Thousand Pages
Maren and Patrick Peng
A Little Piece of Heaven

I think 3 is sufficient.

Thing #4 Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!
I'm going to be lame and just tell them on here since Henry is about to wake up from his nap and I'll forget if I don't do it now!
Mika-You're blog is great. You are so good at posting regularly and I love all your recommendations. I love your writing and I admire your determination to finish school, raise two kids, still read non-school related books and let everyone share in it through your blog.
Maren-You make it seem completely natural to have back to back posts on fighting gender inequalities, reviewing the latest novel you've read, family events, work and baking cinnamon rolls. I love that your passions are not necessarily separated but just simply a part of the whole that is you.
Megan-Reading your blog makes me want to be a better mom. Really. Not in the, "oh I need more toys or gimmicks for my kids," but in the sincere, "she really knows how to love those children," kind of way.

So here is to the three of you for being stylish bloggers. Thank you!

Talk. Expound. Chit-chat. Speak.

2011-01-27T11:48:00.003-07:00

I'm a flibbertigibbet. Not in the flighty, gossipy way, more in the I chatter way too much. I can't help it.
The more meetings I go to and the more I go visiting teaching, the more nights I spend at home hitting my head on the wall for how much I talked. I come home and I blame Johann (who was of course not present at said meetings) for not telling me to shut it. He of course tells me he wasn't there, how could he tell me to shut it. That's when I get him with technology-you could have text messaged it!
Moving on.
I'm not sure where my need to talk and talk and talk comes from. Part of it is probably spending most of my time with a 2 year old. The other part is probably nurture/nature from childhood. We were never exactly 'well-off' so instead of having a junk-load of expensive toys and family vacations to occupy us (oh yeah and my parents often implemented no tv rules that lasted in monthly bouts) we talked. A lot. Ok, we mostly beat each other up-we were in karate and had sparring gear so that makes it ok-but we also talked. A lot.
As a kid I was always given those really creative nicknames like "chatter-box," really guys? Anyway. I still get embarrassed when an adult who knew me growing up reminds me of my talkative heritage. It's one of the few things to make me go speechless for quite a while. Pathetic but true.
Yet, when we go home for breaks during school we inevitably end up sitting around talking.
I don't know that my enthusiasm for talking is topical. I think you could talk to me about anything and in my mind I would be able to connect it to something (thank you and no thank humanities & history training). In fact, the second someone mentions something, I start to think of all the different things it connects and relates to; I think about other things people have said in a similar tone, with similar facial expressions etc. After seeing the HBO film about Temple Grandin where someone mentions shoes and her mind registers every shoe she has ever seen I got a little weirded out and started to feel mildly autistic for a few days.
I have moved on from feeling mildly autistic but the annoyance with myself for not being able to be one of those graceful, prudent speakers has not. I admire that a lot.
I am trying though. I'm trying to reign it in. In the words of Anne Shirley:

"I know I chatter on far too much... but if you only knew how many things I want to say and don't. Give me some credit."

So I'll keep working on it and in the mean time, try and give me some credit. This post could have been quite a bit longer! =)

Provo Library Used Book Sale

2011-01-22T10:13:00.004-07:00

I am really bad with couponing, finding deals etc. It's not one of my domestic/consumer strong points. But yesterday I feel like I did do something right in that area.

We got 37 books for 19.50 yesterday at the Provo City Library Used book sale. Most of the books are in pretty fair condition, I had to go through and tape a few but overall not too bad.
We even managed to snag Doctrines of Salvation for a buck. Not in pristine condition by any means but for a buck? Yeah, I 'll take it.

Henry found an old Batman and Robin comic book. Of course he snagged it and we had to get it for him to peruse. Oh, Henry.

Date night

2011-01-22T09:47:00.004-07:00

*WARNING. I USE THE WORD BARF (or some variation of it) multiple times in this post.*

As you may have read in the previous post, one of my goals this year is to go on a weekly date with Johann.
We started a babysitting swap with another couple in our ward and this weekend was going to be our first time carrying it out.
Then Henry got sick.
He seemed to be getting better.
Then he did a little mini-barf during his nap.
We called and canceled with our friends figuring getting their two kids sick would not be appreciated.
We decided we still needed to have a date and we needed to watch "Doubt" which we had sitting around from Netflix for almost a week. Done deal. Henry in bed, "Doubt" and ice cream. Not a bad date.
Half way through, *cough, cough* *BLLLLLEEEAAAAH*
Man. Henry has never really puked until last night.
It was gross.
Then as we were trying to get the situation under control-enter the follow up act, then lots of tears and confusion; from Henry, I know, you thought Johann.
So what is the point of this post aside from me talking about my kid's puke?
Sometimes the realization of being fully invested in having a family kicks in and I realize I don't mind it. In fact, I like it. Not the cleaning up muck part so much, but the fact that when we hear Henry upchuck during our 'date' we just get up and take care of it. Clean, comfort and get him what he needs until he is ready to sleep again. And then go back and finish our date.
We'll be doing this dance for the rest of our lives and I don't mind. Not one bit. I enjoy the tune far too much.

*I thought Henry had Conan 'do going on and couldn't resist.*

Goals 2011

2011-01-18T10:19:00.004-07:00

This year seems like it just might be a crazy one. Johann will be finishing his on-campus classes and looking for, and then starting an internship. Somewhere. There is a strong chance this will involve moving of some sort. He has practicum 2 days a week in Salt Lake so that means that while it is still freezing Henry and I are pretty much limited to the apartment on those days.
I have a new calling that fluctuates from always having something in the back of my mind that needs to get done to being completely occupied for hours to days at a time.
Henry is going to be turning 3. He is busy, busy, curious and chatty now. He always wants to know what you're up to and most of the time wants to have a share in whatever you're doing or talking about. He is trying to change his sleeping schedule. I really need to get him potty trained soon. The diapers are getting ridiculous, but I know that with his personality, pushing him will only backfire. So, I have to find a way to coax him nicely and slowly. We'll see how that goes.
There are all sorts of things going on and coming up that will play a huge roll in (cue dramatic music) the rest of our lives.

With all that in mind, I have taken some more time to really sift out what goals are important for me this year. So here they are:

1. Get more sleep: Go to bed early, get up early.

2. Keep reading: Yup, purposefully very broad.

3. Write more: Blog once a week. Go to the museum once a month and write about a particular painting or two.

4. Read a chapter from the Book of Mormon and a conference talk daily. Read the gospel doctrine and Relief Society lessons before class.

5. Have a date with Johann weekly: even if that means just watching a movie together at home.

6. Attend the temple monthly and have family home evening weekly.

7.Keep a monthly budget.

8.Get rid of the weight I gained during (and after lovingly nurtured) while pregnant with Henry. I've been working on it but I need to make a very concerted effort to just kick the rest of it. Three years is long enough, though that first year I didn't sleep at all and I have a sneaking suspicion that didn't help me out much. Anyway, I have tons of excuses, now its just time to do it.

9. FINALLY take a family picture. It WILL happen this year. The end.

And because no blog post is complete with out a picture:

Robots and Aliens

2011-01-16T21:26:00.003-07:00

Being stuck inside for the greater part of the day can be lame. But, with bathtub markers and a sweet set of wooden building blocks, it can be much less lame.
Henry has had a distinct theme in all of his drawings and building lately:

"Look at my ALIENS, Mama!"

"I made a robot!"

"He's a short robot"

I love that Henry is in a much more verbal stage than ever before so I can hear what he is thinking and how he figures and relates things. It is also fun to see him building and drawing and see which details are most important for him. You can't see it in the above bath picture but his aliens have been having eyebrows lately and his robots are never fully satisfactory until they have 'shoes' or 'feet'. I was also pretty impressed when a few weeks ago he drew a picture of himself and Johann and he gave Johann glasses! I still need to scan that picture but its great to see him noticing details and incorporating it into whatever he is doing.
Now I wonder what will be next after robots and aliens have lost their appeal...if that is possible, of course.

Now we're back

2011-01-06T15:41:00.003-07:00

Now that we have finally come back to Provo, I wonder what Henry will miss most: playing games on Uncle Aaron's iPad, getting treats from Grammy, being able to play rough and tumble constantly because of all the uncles, helping Grammy bake, having Grammy read him her big books, being able to play in a back yard, playing papa's drums with Abuela, bossing everyone around, going to places like the zoo with Abuela and Grandpa, chasing Dandy the dog...the list goes on.

Poor kid, I'm only one person, and not a very exciting one at that! Hopefully we'll be able to have fun together this winter while Johann's busy with school and finishing that thesis.
I'm just glad Henry got to have three weeks completely surrounded by family and friends. What a blessing!

California Christmas Break Part VIII: New Years Eve

2011-01-06T15:04:00.003-07:00

It is 2011. Shouldn't we all be using hovercrafts and teleporting by now? Really. =)

We rang in the new year with the east coast because we are too old a grumpy to stay up until midnight and start the new year pooped.
My mom had some family friends over and Johann's parents and brother came from Riverside for some fondue goodness. The last time my mom tried fondue for New Years turned out horribly. None of us knew what we were doing and the cheese sauce was bleh but I can still hear my mom's words ringing in my ears, "I spent 30 dollars on cheese-you guys better eat it!!!"
Don't worry, we didn't end up having to eat it. It was a pretty big disaster though, so for two or maybe now three years, we stayed away from anything to do with fondue.
This year, however, my mom and her friend Karen decided to give it another try. There was a bit of trouble with the first cheese sauce but another one was made and everything turned out delicious. People brought cake, pie, empanadas and some kind of roll with brie-I dunno but it was yummy.
And now, a couple pictures:

My brother, Jacob, ever the big smiler in pictures. He was getting read to go to a YSA dance, maybe that's why he was sad. Don't despair, Henry showed him some robot moves that I am sure scored big points with the ladies.

Henry as we rang in the new year. I really hope this face isn't indicative of the year to come!!!

Happy New Year Everybody! Hope it is a good one for all.

California Christmas Break Part VII: Mi Madre's Birthday

2011-01-06T14:48:00.005-07:00

This year we celebrated my moms birthday by taking a family trip to the Redlands Temple to do some family work. We were able to do endowments as well as sealings for quite a few of our ancestors. It was such a joy.
Thanks again to Johann for staying home with sick Henry so I could go. Originally Johann's parents were going to watch him but then Henry got flu sick and the idea of taking him on an hour drive with, you know, flu symptoms, seemed less than wise. I'm sure our car interior wouldn't have thanked us. =)
After we finished at the temple we headed to Red Lobster for my mom's birthday lunch, which was yummmy.
We headed home and later that night had her birthday cake and Henry got to give her the necklace he picked out. It was so cute when we were in the store and I told Henry we were looking for a present for Grammy. He picked up this necklace and said, "It's for Grammy. It's cute. She likes it!" And he was right all the way!

Happy Birthday to one of the best of moms and grammys out there!

California Christmas Break Part VI: Grammy Fern

2011-01-06T14:35:00.003-07:00

Growing up my parents would take us at least monthly to visit my Grandma Fern and Grandpa Hat (Hakell) who live in Hemet. After my dad passed away and the stress/time of taking care of a family of 5 fell all to my mom alone, our visits, understandably were less frequent.
Grandma would come and visit us when her health permitted but then she was no longer able to.
Now we're all a bit scattered around but whenever we go back for breaks we make sure to go and see Grandma Fern.
I love seeing Henry play with Grammy Fern. She is still so with it every time we've been to visit with Henry and I think they both get a kick out of each other.

Here, Henry is scarring Grammy Fern with his big muscles so she retreats behind Johann for protection.

Our family with Grammy Fern.

It was a fun visit. I hope that Henry will continue to get to see and know her. She is a really great woman.

California Christmas Break Part V: Christmas!

2011-01-06T14:15:00.003-07:00

Henry poking around the tree on Christmas eve at my mom's house. He was pretty good and never opened any gifts but he was awfully curios the first few days when we arrived in California.

Annual Goodwin Christmas Eve Mexican Dinner.
I love that after going through years and years of doing the ham and all that traditional stuff my mom decided to go with something she knew everyone loved: mexican food. So my brother Aaron makes ridiculously good salsas and guacamole, my mom does enchiladas, chicken taquitos (above), beans and rice, and orders tamales. It is a ton of food and the leftovers last for weeks. Delicious.

We opened gifts at my mom's early Christmas morning. Henry was, of course, the first to be up (aside from my mom who was making...)

These delicious cinnamon rolls. I have never met a cinnamon that I liked better than my mama's.

Then we headed to Riverside to open gifts and spend the day with Johann's family. There, Henry opened what I think is his favorite gift this year, a combo pack of super hero costumes: robin, batman and superman. Robin is his favorite. He had everyone (especially aunt Nanni) helping him switch costumes constantly though and continues to do so. A day hasn't gone by yet that he doesn't want to wear them.

We had a very Merry Christmas. It makes me sad to think that this could be the last one where most everyone in our immediate families is together. I hope we get to live near everyone but in the event that we don't, I am grateful we were able to have this wonderful family filled Christmas.
Every year when Christmas rolls away and that special spirit leaves, I'm reminded how grateful I am for my Savior-his birth and mission on earth that make it possible for me and my family to return to him again and how wonderful it will be to have that spirit present everywhere always.

California Christmas Break Part IV: Tangled

2011-01-06T14:06:00.003-07:00

I think I may have ruined my husband's emotional side. I began to realize the extent of it when we went to see Tangled over the break.
During the scene pictured above, which is suppose to be the romantic climax with the beautiful lanterns lit all around them as they sing in a little rowboat on the water, Johann leans over and says to me, "I hope those lanterns are biodegradable. Can you imagine all those lanterns year after year..." bah haha. I almost died.
There is another part of the movie where something happens with her hair (I won't say exactly what since it would spoil the film) and he said, "Oh and it's just magically styled just like that, huh?" haha. "Romantic" movies with my husband always turns a bit funny.
Overall we liked it though. Some of the songs were a little too much for my taste but the characters were fun and so was the animation. A cute little flick.

California Christmas Break Part III: Emma Jean's

2011-01-06T13:39:00.004-07:00

Emma Jean's is a little, and I mean very little, diner just near the D street freeway entrance in Apple Valley/Oro Grand area. My brother told us about it many times but we never were able to squeeze in a visit until our extended Christmas break this year. It has one of the best dinning atmosphere's I've ever experienced; it's noisy but not crazy, pretty much if you're there anyone of the regulars has a right to, and will talk to you, and one of the owners who serves as the waitress is nice but tough and will tell you when you've got something wrong, like when I thought two pancakes for Henry, she basically gave me this knowing look and said, "Nah, we'll give him one and see how that goes." ha. It really was a big pancake.
Moving on to the food.
I am almost certain that when I die, the coroner will list the main cause of death and then right under it he'll list a secondary cause: THE BRIAN BURGER.

This delicious burger stood no chance once I had a single bite.
The bread was soooo good, the meat was soooo good, the chilies, the cheese...
aaahh. It was sickly good.
Simple and tasty.
Not only did I eat my entire burger,
I finished the all perfectly little fried devil's fingers too.
And half of Henry's mickey mouse pancakes.
They tasted like little cinnamon pancake heaven.
Go ahead and start judging.
It was worth it.

So to my brother who introduced us to Emma Jean's, thank you. But now I have to start planning my funeral, especially if we ever live within a 50 mile radius of Emma Jeans.