Stupid book

I just read over 700 pages in about 27 hours (that includes time sleeping, watching kids, and working). Dang it. When I start a book, it's like I can't stop reading until I finish it. First I want to find out what happens and second, I need to finish it so I can go on with my life. It's a good thing that I'm a fast reader. It was a pretty good book, the last of the Eclipse series. I just should have never started reading it at 10 pm. Stupid book.

GNO

It's hard sometime as a mother to give yourself permission to just go have fun. Without kids. So, when a friend planned a Girls Night Out on a super busy week, I called my mom who said "Heck YES!" Thanks again Mom.

So 4 moms hit the concert scene, wearing clean shirts and makeup, so no stains from dirty hands or visible rings under our eyes. I'm not sure what it means, but when we asked a group of teens to take a picture of us, one of the boys not only jumped in our picture, but got a picture with his own camera. Hmm... I'm going to just pretend I'm flattered and not think about how we were twice his age.

But oh, it was SOOO FUN! Jack Johnson is such a great tranquilo performer, it was awesome. And while our husbands would have just stood there listening, the 4 of us danced the whole time, talked, and laughed. During one song, Jack Johnson had to stop halfway into his song due to laughter. He said that someone had just yelled, "I want my wife to have your baby!" Jack looked down into the audience and said, "Lady, I think you're lovely, but I think your husband is very drunk." Anyway, lots of fun. So here's to you, Concert Girls.

the Wedding

I know it was a while ago, but I do have to write about my brother's wedding. Congratulations Jared and Tonya! The wedding was beautiful, really beautiful! The reception was lovely. After the happy couple left and the guests had left, my family relaxed together in the Taj (our backyard little gazebo), lights out except for flickering chinese lanterns. Just quietly chatting and joking. The next morning, we all went to Cherry Hill together swimming. Last year, Bekah was always afraid of the big blue slide. You may remember earlier me mentioning her prayers for all kids to be brave on the blue slide. Well, she and her Daddy had a prayer before we left, and she LOVED that blue slide. We went over and over again, and she went on it all by herself. It was crazy watching this little 3 year old go down on a great big waterslide all by herself! I had this moment, with all my family gathered around me, that this was it... life doesn't get any better than this.

It was hard saying goodbye to Jared & Tonya, and then Josh, Valerie & kids. Gosh I love my family!

as it were a dream

It's a Sunday morning, we are eating banana pancakes and the kids are laughing and waving their silverware around (they are both intent on using a knife... like their mother:). A song comes on the iPod, and suddenly I go back. I am 22, single, living in the Colony at college. It is sunny, I am walking into my apartment, and I can see the mountains rise behind my building. They are so beautiful glowing from the sun, I can feel the exhilaration of just being alive. I know my roommates are waiting inside, dear friends whom I love. I can even smell the the crisp fall air outside my apartment! I get a lump as I realize that although it seems like yesterday, that is gone and I can never go back. Not that I want to exactly... my 2 year old leans over grinning and says, "Fank You Mommy Fow Pancakes!"

What is time? I can give no other explanation than Jacob's, "our lives passed as it were a dream." What moments do you go back to?

Choices, consequences, & prayers

I just had a great teaching moment! Bekah gets to take 3 books to bed, but only gets to keep them if she is quiet. Well, she soon started banging on the wall, and very sadly, lost a book. She threw a fit. No result... she still didn't have the book. So she announced that she was going to pray that I would give the book back, and got down on her knees. I could see the wheels in her head saying, "We pray to Heavenly Father when we can't find something, and we find it, so if I pray to get the book back, I'll get it." Unfortunately for her, that's not the way it works.

I knelt beside her, wrapped my arms around her, and we talked about what "consequences" mean. As a good parent, Heavenly Father won't change the consequences of what we choose; it was our choice. Bekah loves to choose. She loves the music to "My Turn on Earth", so I sang part of one song and explained what it meant about choices. Then we talked about what things we could pray about: being brave, feeling better when we do something bad, to be safe... That got her very excited to pray, and we were again on our knees for a long time. She prayed that she would be brave on the blue slide at Cherry Hill, that other 3 year olds would be safe on the climbing wall at the rec center, that she would feel brave watching the scary part of Sleeping Beauty... Anyway, it was heart-warming. She is actually upstairs praying again as I write.

Christina Franklin, DG

I come from a long pedigree of domestically-advanced women, one that would put even Martha to shame. My great grandmother cooked for ranch hands, no small feet when you think that she cooked 3 big meals a day on a wood-burning stove while she had small children! My grandmother ironed bed sheets (before irons were even electric. My own mother was a wonder: I remember her canning all sorts of stuff, baking, sewing our clothes, making jams, fruit leather... shoot, she even sewed my doll clothes. Phew, I'm tired just thinking about it.

Think of the pressure of being related to all of those Domestic Goddesses! So I naturally rebelled. In fact, I despised anything domestic. Instead of sewing doll clothes, I glue gunned. I didn't bake. I didn't scrapbook. I didn't iron. When I made something in young women's, I gave it to someone else. On our 2nd date, I turned to Rob and said, "Just so you know, I hate to cook. I can cook, but I don't like to. I just want you to know that from the beginning." An old friend just reminded me of a time when we both were making a list of goals. I actually made fun of her for putting "canning peaches" on her list. Very ironic.

Well, you've heard once Satan gets his toe in the door, he weazles his whole body in. The same for domesticity. Slowly, little by little, I have given in and have become more domestic, even embracing it. I make jam, I can, I try new recipes all the time, I make fruit leather, grape juice, and I've even done a little sewing. I have joined the ranks of my mother, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and can put that sacred "DG" behind my name... Domestic Goddess. And I am proud!


But just for the record, I still never iron and I don't bake... I've never actually made cookies from scratch. Kind of proud of that, too.

Friends, Fruit, Family

I love summer time! Friends are home. Fruit is in season. Family visits. It's great.

I have a dear friend, well actually several dear friends, but one in particular. Charity Smith. She lives 2 doors down and both she and her daughter (Berlynn, who is Bekah's age) are home during the summer. So every day, my kids wake up and ask to go to Berlynn's house, and Berlynn wakes up and begs to come to ours. The kids just run back and forth from one house to another. Dress ups, swimming, trains, babies. It's the perfect neighbor! If I have to run somewhere, Charity urges me to leave the kids with her, and vice versa. Plus, the two of us get along really well. We are both a lot like each other's husbands, so we are obviously very compatible :) This morning she called to see if my kids could come and play because hers was a little ornery and needed friendly diversions. This was great, because I had already sent my kids back to bed for time out and it was only 8 am. (They had been up way to late singing & talking in their room last night). While they played very nicely together, I watched the kids while Charity did some stuff & then I got to run errands. We had lunch together and Charity and I did Yoga while Kyle napped and the girls played. We are even visiting teaching companions. We have gone to dinner together when both of our husbands are gone, gone to movies (with kids dressed up), gone hiking, swimming, biking. My favorite time was when we went to the Mayan a couple years ago. Her daughter used to undress whenever she got in water, and in the few seconds that it took for me to look away from the kids and wave to Charity as she pulled up with the car, I turned to find her daughter completely naked, trying to climb into the water fountain in front of the restaurant. Ahh! You can't beat memories like those! She is the best neighbor. We've had wonderful spiritual discussions, frustrations, and lots of laughs. It's sad that she will start teaching school in a couple weeks and tragic that they are trying to sell their house and move up north. Don't be surprised if I sound really depressed this winter.

With fruit in season, I have started domestically mooching. One friend let me come and pick raspberries, and so I made freezer jam. Another lady in our ward let me come and pick apricots. I made fruit leather with them. Never done that, and I find that I always have a big learning curve domestically. I put it on tinfoil. Big mistake. It took about 10 min. to make, about 2 hours to pull all the tinfoil of the fruit leather. I also picked cherries from a neighbor, but because they had worms, I always had to cut the cherries and pull out the worms before we ate. I still can't believe that I did that (Charity did it too, bless her, and even made us cherry pie. I think both our husbands were slightly grossed out), but the cherries were really good.

It has been WONDERFUL having so much family come visit. We have had a chance to see Rob's extended family again this week, Aunt Liz & kids, Sid & Steph, almost all of Bruce and Jeannies family are here for the summer, Brett, Wendy & family (my kids LOVE the cousins Rosey, Max, Chelsea, and Ashley), Grandma Bassett, Jannene & Kevin at their magic show last week... And of course I'm so excited for next week when all of my family arrives for the wedding. We love hanging out with family. Rob enjoyed golfing this Saturday with his uncles while I attended a bridal shower. I have to admit, it makes me really nervous to think about the possibility of moving in the future.

So for now, I will just enjoy this marvelous wonderful summer!