Far and Wide His Love Proclaim

Normally, I am online for several hours a day. In contrast, when I am on vacation I have little to no problem not having access to a computer. If I try to go even one day without a computer at home I fail miserably, but it's not hard at all while I'm on vacation. Odd.

Regardless; I am now home again, with full use of both a computer and the internet. And thus, I shall blog: 

Drek's brother got home from serving a two year mission in the Philippines. We hadn't seen him in two years so it was a real treat to be able to spend time with him. He is such a good kid. I very much enjoyed the slideshow he gave us with all of his mission pictures and several stories. He brought back a belt for Drek and  strand of real pearls for me. I am so delighted.

My sister is now in the MTC, preparing to serve her mission. It was so much fun to spend a little bit of time with her. One morning we got up early and went to the temple together, which was wonderful. I'm glad we did that. I wasn't able to actually see her off, but since it't dropping her off in a parking lot, I'm not too bummed out about that. I wish I could have been there for her setting apart, by all accounts it was amazing and very moving and I am am fairly upset I missed it, but we were almost back to Sunland at that time. 

Both the incoming and outgoing missionaries gave their Sacrament meeting talks on the same day. Ash and I got to attend both meetings. Both talks were wonderful, although he best part of both was seeing all the family coming to support the missionary. 

Translation? A Hundred Thousand Welcomes

C'ead Mile Failte! St Patrick's Day was a little different this year. Of course we had Lucky Charms for breakfast, but it was eaten with no milk out of those individual cereal boxes while on the start of a very long car trip.  Ash and I drove back to hometown with Anna and her three children. Anna had decorated the mini van windows with little St. Patrick's Day stickers and a leprechaun hid a pot of gold somewhere inside!

It was a very long drive for four very small children, and we were not going to have any sort of movies, so I wanted to make sure the children were kept motivated. We had three checkpoints along the trip. Every time we got to a checkpoint, if the child had been good, they got a gift bag filled with treats and little things to keep them occupied until the next checkpoint. They were filled with things like boxes of raisins, juice boxes, notepads, books, music CD's, whiteboards, dollar store toys, tic-tacs, coloring books and in each bag, a map to the next checkpoint.

The bags were fun, but as it turned out, unnecessary. The children did very well the whole trip. We made it safe and sound and despite the fact I did not have a St Patick's Day Party this year, It was still a fun day. Ob the drive we saw the most amazing rainbow. It was across the whole sky and vibrant! At first it was a half rainbow, but as we watched it it became a whole arc! It was so vivid we could see where it touched the ground. We were sorely tempted to chase the end of the rainbow and find the pot of gold, but we did have a schedule to keep. And we are so excited to be back in Hometown!

The Airport Stairway Vehicle is the Last Vestige of the Bluth's Former Wealth. Also, That House Of Pies Went Out of Business

Happy Pi Day! 

First, A story: 

When I was in elementary school, I was given coupons for one free slice of pie at a restaurant called Frontier Pies. I can't remember what I was being rewarded for, but I got a coupon at least once a year for several years. 

We would only go to Frontier Pies when I had a coupon, and every time I would order a slice of Cherry Chocolate Pie. I thought it was the most amazing pie in the world. Alas, one time I went in and was informed that Cherry Chocolate Pie was no longer on the menu. 

A few years later the place closed (probably because they stopped serving Cherry Chocolate Pie, if you ask me) So I was unable to go in and ask them for their recipe. Subsequent internet searches have also failed.  

I have tried to imitate that pie. I've tried it using different brands of instant chocolate pudding, and Cook and Serve Jello pudding. I've tried cherry pie filling from a can, and frozen cherries. One year a baker (my wonderful boss) even made me a Cherry Chocolate Pie for Christmas. All these attempt have come close, but just haven't tasted like what I remember. 

For this Pi Day, I had it in my head to try a Cherry Chocolate Pie purely from scratch: homemade pie dough, a fresh bag of cherries pitted and cooked to turn into the filling, melted chocolate to make homemade pudding... And then I ran out of time. Also, cherries aren't in season. 

So I bought a Kroger pre-made frozen crust, can of cherry pie filling and box of instant chocolate pudding. 

Bingo. That was it. It tasted exactly right. 

but, I'm getting ahead of myself. For breakfast, we had egg pie, otherwise known as quiche: 

 Mushrooms, spinach, bacon bits, cheese, yum!

For dinner we had a vegetable pot pie. I found the recipe this year, and this is my forth time making it. It is delicious! It's super healthy (whole wheat crust!) and super easy:

 

In preparation for this year's pie eating contest, I made tart-size chocolate cream pies and tart sized banana cream pies:

 Finally, it was party time! Each guest brought a pie, so there were plenty to choose from:

 

We had strawberry, peach, apple, lemon meringue, pumpkin, mini ice cream pies and, of course: 

 

The Cherry Chocolate Pie. 

To start, we had our pie-eating contest:

and a winner!

Some people think pie-eating is a leisure activity: 

 After that we ate pie, talked, and then ended the night with a game of 90's trivial pursuit (because the game pieces are little pies!) It was a good thing we were playing on large teams (boys vs girls) so wasn't put on the spot. Most of time I didn't even know to what the card was referring. Girls still won, though!

If only there had been a question about the recipe for Frontier Pie's Cherry Chocolate Pie. I would have looked like a genius.

You Always Knew You Were Destined for More. You Were Just Waiting for Your Singular Moment of Clarity

Happy International Women's Day! I didn't know this holiday existed until a few days ago when I was informed by TopHat, but I love the history and I love the idea! 

I am, as some of you may know, female. Being female, I give a lot of thought to what it means to be female and my identity and such. I give it a lot of thought because I think the answer has been tainted and warped to the point where most females have no idea what womanhood means, or even what motherhood means.

I am not an expert on the subject, bit this is my take on it: 

Think of a superhero: Spiderman, Elastagirl, whoever (I’m partial to X-men, myself). Continue this analogy with that superhero: 

First, let's understand that there is difference between the person (Wolverine) the gift (Healing) and what the person uses the gift to (Be awesome). No one would ever say that Wolverine is just a healing superpower, because even though he does have that gift, he's also a person, with character, with personality, with strengths, weaknesses and an attitude problem.  Does Spiderman somehow degrade the identity of Peter Parker every time he uses his spider scenes? No! Using his gift will change Peter Parker, but only to make him more awesome! Not by erasing who he is.

Every superhero struggles with his identity. But in the end, no superhero decides that they are better off without their gift. No superhero decides to turn away from their gift. It’s their destiny! It’s still them, just with added superpowers!

In my view, it’s the same with women. Did you know woman have a superpower for empathy, diplomacy and multi-tasking and reading human emotions? Did you know both men and women get more satisfaction from a conversation with a women over a conversation with a man? It's true! Now, just because a hero has a superpower, doesn't mean they are the best at that gift. For instance, Professor X and Jean Grey both have telekinetic as a superpower, but the power isn't equal. Gifts are given, but still have to be developed. 

Motherhood is am AWESOME Superpower. You can create life! You can produce amazing cancer-killing, life-giving, miracle milk! You can sense when your children are in danger! You can read minds! But, like any superpower, that’s not WHO you are, it’s just a gift that you have. Yes it will change you, but to make you more awesome!!

The only difference it what the world is telling the superhero. The world tells Peter Parker that spider senses and wall climbing are incredible, unique, and cool. The world tells women that their superpowers are lame, ordinary, and even low-class. THAT IS A LIE!

Really, I have studied pregnancy, labor, breast milk, and nurturing. They are incredible, unique, and cool. They cannot be duplicated by anything else. They can’t even be explained by scientists.

Now, does that mean that the greatest thing a women can accomplished is giving birth and lactating? Heck no! That’s like saying the most Spiderman accomplished was climbing a wall. It’s a gift! It’s a tool! It’s given to a person, an individual with an identity, and that person needs to take it and use it accomplish great things. And, as with every superhero, a choice needs to be made: Will you use your powers for good...?

You Rebel Scum

So, this post was supposed to be about our new cats; Currently our backyard is occupied by a heavy force of ground squirrels, who have created an alliance with the gophers. The rabbits are also still back there (although have made it clear that they are unaffiliated with the gopher/ground squirrel rebel fighters) and all those troops make it difficult for our garden and our lawn. Thus, Drek has asked the Feral Cat Coalition to send over a couple of mercenaries to drive out the rebellion.

They were supposed to arrive last night, but the volunteer from the  Feral Cat Coalition had car trouble and canceled at the last moment. So I don't have pictures of adorable  hunting cats to post.

It does, however. give me more time to research getting an owl. Did you know that if you build an owl house an owl family might move in? I really want to build one. Our neighbor a few blocks away built one and had an owl nest complete with eggs within a week. She also said she hasn't seen a gopher, ground squirrel, rabbit or mouse since the owls moved in. And you don't have to feed an owl or change its litter box.

Also, I'm afraid the cat mercenaries have been compromised. What if that car trouble was no accident...

There's a Storm Coming, Mr. Wayne. You and Your Friends Better Batten Down the Hatches, Because When it Hits, You're All Gonna Wonder How You Ever Thought you Could Live so Large and Leave So Little for the Rest of Us

Our house is in a quaint little location. You can see the freeway from our house, but because of all the trees you can't actually hear it. We're right next to apartments and shopping centers and on ramps and such, but our house in tucked away in a this little pocket, so you'd think we lived in the country. In order to get to our house, you have to turn down a dirt road, cross a bridge, and then turn again down a road that doesn't look driveable and dead-ends at our neighbor's house. 

I love it, but there are problems. First, no one can find our house. Everyone gets lost coming here. Second, we live in a flood area. That is, if there were ever to be terrible rainstorms and our city was to flood, our neighborhood would be the first to go. But floods aren't common here, and in the twenty five years since this house has been built there haven't been any floods. For whatever that's worth. 

A few nights ago we had a storm. The rain came down in droves and the wind was blowing down trees. The sound it kept me awake and I spent all night rehearsing what to do if our house flooded. 

Our house did not flood, not even close. But we did have a surprise in our yard when we looked out the window: 

That would be our neighbor's tree. It missed my precious orange tree by two feet. I looked out and frowned: What do we do in a situation like that? The tree would have to be cut up and hauled away and the fence would need to be repaired. How long would that take? I didn't want to devote an entire Saturday to such a lofty project!

Our neighbors were awesome. They knocked on the door that afternoon and asked if it was okay for them to come in our yard. I said yes and the next thing I knew, three guys were out there with chainsaws. Ten minutes later the tree was gone and the broken slats in the fence were replaced. TEN MINUTES. Apparently I live next door to ninjas.

I Won't Talk! I Won't Say a Word!

I love the Oscars. It's a fantastic excuse to get dressed up and eat great food and get together with people who also like to get dressed up and eat good food and pretend that movie awards are important.

I run into the same problem every year: It's not just that I haven't seen most of the nominated movies, it's that I can't see them because they are rated R (and it's against my personal standards to watch rated R movies). This year I ran into that problem compounded with another problem: ever since Ash was born, I just don't go to the movies. It might also have something to do with the fact that I no longer live next to a dollar theater.  In any case, out of the nine film nominated for best picture, I had seen one. Out of every single movie that was up for any kind of Oscar, I had seen four: two of which were Rango and Kung Fu Panda 2. But I have read the books The Help and Hugo

But, as with every year, I wasn't going to let that stop me! I watched the trailers for all the movies! I even looked up the trailers for the documentaries so I wouldn't be guessing blindly in that category this year.

Jenny and I planned a party, sent out an evite, and filled out our Oscar ballots. We even made food to represent each movie nominated for best picture:

Broccoli:

The Tree of Life

Fresh Strawberry and whipped cream Fruit Fool:

War Horse

Jelly-filled shortbread cookies:

The Artist

Apple cranberry crepes with cream cheese filling and fresh whipped cream on top:

 Midnight in Paris

Fresh sliced pineapple and mango:

 The Descendants

Mini hot dogs 

Moneyball

We also had chocolate cream pie for The Help, New York Style mini-pizzas for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, French Bread with jam and Brie for Hugo and, as an extra omage to the movie that would win "Best Animated Film," water for Rango

I Don't Know. Maybe Just for Once, I'd Like to Go to a Movie Where I Don't Get Seasick

Before the cruise, I hadn't spent much time on a boat. Sure, I'd been on a canoe, and we own a kayak so I have done that. I've been on a motor boat once or twice when I was little, but not for very long and I don't remember much.

I was a little anxious about seasickness so I took some ginger gum with me on the cruise despite assurances that "cruise boats are so big you can hardly tell you're on the water."

The above assurances are one hundred percent false. From the time we left dock, nothing was more apparent than the fact that I wasn't on stable ground. I could feel the waves.The movement was big enough to make you grab on to something, to stumble as you walked and to get tinges of nausea every now and then. I was so glad I brought my ginger gum. I did adjust quickly, however, once I realized that everything was normal, the waves weren't bigger that usual and we weren't going to capsize. I actually really liked the feeling. It was like being on a mild roller coaster all the time or trying to walk on a moving school bus, all things I love.

As surprising as that was, the real surprise came the moment we got off the boat at the end of the cruise.

"Are we on a dock?" I asked aloud, wondering why the ground was still rolling underneath me. We were not. But for the next forty eight hours it sure felt like it. Not only that, but I was very dizzy, I had a terrible headache and I was very nauseousness. Apparently my sea legs had adapted quickly to the boat, but my land legs could not adjust to the shore.

Up to a week later, I still dreamed I was on the boat being rocked so sleep by the waves. It took a few minutes after I woke up for that movement to vanish.

My conclusion is thus: It's the sea calling to me. My home is meant to be a boat. Now I only have to convince Drek...

I just got a call from our ward's Sunday School president. He asked me to switch the class I teach. Guess which class I'm teaching now...

I Don't Know About You, but I intend to Write a Strongly Worded Letter to the White Star Line About All of This

Last January Drek and I switched to the cash and envelope system of budgeting. My incentive for sticking to our budget was that every time I went under, the extra money was put into our cruise fund envelope/savings account.

Well, it worked. I did a fabulous (If I say so myself) job of sticking to the budget and I saved us up enough money to go on a cruise! Actually, to my delight, cruises aren't actually that expensive. It's the airfare to get you there and the alcohol on the cruise that really adds up. Luckily, I was saved from both those pesky expenses so  Drek and I booked a five day cruise over Valentine's Day.

We had a fantastic time. I have hundreds of pictures and dozens of stories but they can all be summed up by saying it was great. We spent Valentine's Day on Lover's Beach, I got to go snorkeling, we played a lot of games and ate a lot of food. Drek drove a motor boat, I got stung by a jellyfish and we're both happy to be home again.

Now I can save up for our next adventure.

I did want to add a few tips for those who are planning to go on a cruise, and for the next cruise I go on:

Tip one: Bring a water bottle. No, really. They cost $3.75 on the ship and you have to tip the person selling it to you. You can try to just drink water at mealtimes, like I did the firt few days, but thy can't give you water with no ice, the cups are tiny and with all that food you should be drinking A LOT of water.

Tip two: Bring a comfy jacket. Yes, it's nice and warm on the equator, but there are plenty of cold winds on the ocean.

Tip three: Bring a small backpack. Pack your suitcase/duffelbag, then pack a small backpack with a book, your waterbottle, and a deck of cards. Check your bags but keep your backpack. Even if you hate checking bags on airplanes, cruise ships are different. Check your bags, it will be okay. Also, take your backpack with your waterbottle on any shore excursions.

Technology. That's always Been Your Achilles Heel in this Part of the World

I was talking on the phone with an older gentlemen. He needed to send me a document so I spelled out my email address:

Me: "E-M-A-I-L at gmail dot com."

Him: "E-M-A-I-L-X?" 

Me: "No, E-M-A-I-L at gmail..." 

Him interrupting me: "L at?" 

Me: "Yes. At."

Him (No response)

Me: As in, the at symbol." 

Him: (Pausing) "...the what symbol?" 

Later, he said he would attach a document to an email. When I got the email it said: Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to attach the document. Can I fax it to you? But he had, actually, attached the file. 

A few days ago my neighbor asked me what a browser was. I was taken completely aback. 

"You mean you don't know? I thought everyone knew. It's imprinted knowledge human babies are born with, like holding their breath underwater."

I've been so amused by the whole ordeal. I find it so odd to realize that such terms haven't really been around that long. 

It's About to Get Very Cold in Here

Happy Day After Ground Hog Day! So, the groundhog saw it's shadow and we will be having six more weeks of the winter. Does it make that much of a difference if you live here in Sunland, where you only know it's winter when you are indoors and when you are outside you think it's a perfect day in June?

Here in Sunland I've noticed the houses here are built to stay cool, have terrible insulation and most people hate paying any sort of heating bill in the winter. All this adds up to a simple fact: in the wintertime, Sunlandians put on their jackets while they are indoors and take them off when they go outside. 

Today it is fifty eight degrees inside our house and seventy degrees outside. Today during Ash's nap I took off my hoodie, blanket and wool socks and went outside to read in the sun, where I was perfectly comfortable in shorts, a short sleeve shirt and bare feet. 

I'm not thrilled about six more weeks of cold indoors, but if I get ever get too cold, I can always go outside. 

There Was a Complication When We Cured the Industrial Disease. The Vaccine had an Unintended Side Effect: Sterility. Only One More Generation of our Species Could Survive

I wish I had videotaped Ash last night. Especially the dance. Oh, the dance. Alas, I did not, so I'll attempt to describe it.

Drek and I took Ash into the doctor yesterday to get her first ever vaccinations. I waited until my child turned two before giving her vaccinations because, obviously, I've been worried that she will have an adverse reaction to them.

She got her shots around three in the afternoon. By six, I was wondering if I was seeing a reaction:

(Ash is sitting on my stomach. She bounces hard, then hits me in the face)
Me: Ow! Don't hit mommy!
Ash: (laughing) Sorry, mommy.  (She bounces again and hits me in the face)
Me: Ow! Ash!
Ash: (laughing) Sorry, mommy. (She hits me again)  Sorry, mommy.
I grab her hand as she goes to hit me again and lift her off my stomach. She runs over to her bed, laughing and doing a crazy-dance, then gets up on her bed and starts jumping.
Ash: One two fwee fow five six seven eight nine ten yeven twelve firteen firteen firteen firteen...
Drek: Did you get stuck on thirteen?
Ash: (Still jumping) FIVE! five five five five five five. (Now she starts doing hand motions and bobbing her head side to side as she jumps) Open and shut them open and shut them open and shut them open and shut them.
Me: Wow, okay, I think it's time for bed.
Ash: NO BED! DANCE! No mommy bed! Yes mommy bed, mommy sweep. Yes, no, yes mommy sweep.  Ash DANCE! (she jumps off the bed onto the floor and does the CRAZIEST dance I have ever seen. And she just keeps going.)  A B C D E F G H I J K M N O P M N P M N O P M N O P. (I stand up and walk toward her)
Ash: (all in one breath) NO! No sweep. No! Yes no yes no. Yes mommy bed. Yes mommy bed, mommy sweep. Yes no yes mommy sweep. Finger hurt! Daddy, finger hurt! Bandaid! Mommy sweep, daddy bandaid finger.

She finally fell asleep and hour passed her normal bedtime, leaving me with the question: "What the heck was that?!"

I Couldn't be Fonder of My Big Home. The Bees are Buzzin' in the Tree to Make Some Honey Just for Me

Okay, guys, here we go. I'm holding my breathe and diving in to a new and adventure-filled apiary hobby.

Yeah, I'm getting honey bees.

The hives and equipment arrived a few days ago: we unpacked them today. We'll order the actual bees this week, although they won't arrive until April or May.

I'm reading books, blogs and websites. I've joined the local beekeeping society and I've sunk quite a bit of money into this new pursuit. I'm very excited.

I'm doing this jointly with Anna. Basically she's the brains behind the operation and I just provide the land. I want the bees to amp up my tree's fruit production. Honey is a nice bonus. Actually, truth be told, I'm not really a fan of honey. I like it for cooking, but I find peanut butter and honey sandwiches to be less than appealing. Drek, on the other hand, is a huge fan of honey, so I guess it will even out.

But the real point of getting bees is the bees. I'm so excited to welcome those girls into their new home!

Did He Say Limo? Wait a Second, I'm His Translator. Hold Up!

Remember how I used to have a big party every month? I miss that. I need to plan more parties for the upcoming months...

Last January I started planning a surprise birthday party for my wonderful Sister-in-law, Anna. I didn't know exactly what we would do, but I did want it to involve formal dresses, a limo, and a surprise.  I told my friend, Jen,  and we both were pretty excited about the idea.  Last month Jen and I nailed down a few more details and then I emailed a few other friends for input. It didn't take long for a great plan to form: We would dress up in formal and semi-formal dresses, rent a limo and drive over to Anna's house where her husband would somehow have gotten her all dressed up in a formal. We would surprise her and kidnap her and eat birthday cake in the limo while we drove to a very fancy restaurant to eat dinner. That was the plan, anyway. 

After I talked to Anna's husband, the plan fell apart pretty quickly; he was leaving on a business trip on her birthday, so he would be unable to get her dressed up and he wouldn't be there to watch the kids while she was kidnapped. 

After a flurry of emails of working out everyone's schedules (no easy feat) we finally decided to just do it without the help of the husband. We allotted thirty extra minutes to a surprise make-over  and thought that was a better idea anyway. 

And so, a week before her birthday, the plans were cemented. The limo was reserved, the reservations for the restaurant was made, and the dresses were picked out. 

Things went quite perfectly. To be honest, I was expecting a few problems. In that regard I was very pleasantly surprised.  The limo showed up exactly on time and to my surprise it wasn't just a limo, but a beautiful white stretch limo. It was way more fancy than I had expected!  We rode it over to Anna's house where we met the guest who had made the birthday cake. Again, I was surprised by the lack of problems: She was on time, the cake was absolutely amazing, (and later I discovered it was delicious) and for ease of eating in a limo, she had made five little individual cakes and put them each on their own little plate with their own fork and carried them all on a tray. It was brilliant! 

It was time for the birthday girl! We rang the doorbell and even got the whole "Surprise; Happy Birthday!" yelling and the surprise reaction on film. We bustled in and did the make-over while Drek finished preparing dinner for the kids and volunteered to stay and watch them while we went out. 

When the birthday girl was ready we went outside and surprised her with the limo. The last guest arrived and we all we got in to the limo and ate the amazing cake. We went to the restaurant and got one of the best waiters I have ever had. After a wonderful dinner he brought Anna a Creme Brulee with a lit candle in it, on the house, with enough spoons for everyone. 

We took pictures in front of the limo and then went back to Anna's house. We arrived exactly on schedule. It was amazing. 

So that party went well. I'm excited to start planning the next one! Happy Birthday, Anna!

Okay, Rule Number One Out Here: Always... No, Never Go Out in a Blizzard

I'm visiting Homeland for a few days. Mei-mei is getting ready to go on her mission and I wanted to be with her when she went to the Temple for the first time.

Saturday night was the big event. I left Ash with her grandparents and drove down the mountain to the Temple. Usually it's about a five minute drive, but I happened to be driving through a snow storm, and sliding down most of the hills, so it took about fifteen minutes.

But I still made it on time. It was wonderful to be there with both my sisters and my parents. Our whole original family, together in the temple! It was very nice.

And then it ended and I had to drive back up  the mountain. The snowstorm had only gotten worse and of course now it was dark and the roads were slush and ice. That drive is probably the most terrifying drive of my life. My tires were spinning about sixty miles and hour, but  I was only going about fifteen miles and hour, if that. But I was going forward, which was good. I was terrified of sliding backwards down those steep hills. And I did mostly stay in my lane, although there were a few times when I was driving in the middle of the road.

Finally I was only one turn away. I turned from a semi-busy road onto an all-white road. I could see my in-laws house four houses away. I turned, and just kept turning. The road was sheer ice. I gently glided into the curb, then put the car into reverse to try again. Alas, I was stuck. Just then the snow plow drove by, clearing the road. If only he had driven by one minute earlier.

So I called my wonderful mother-in-law, who sent out the boys, and girls, and the girl's dates. They got me unstuck and in front of the house, and then my mother-in-law pulled some pretty impressive NASCAR stunts to get the car into the driveway.

A few minutes later we were drinking hot chocolate and eating popcorn. It ended well, but I am so ready to get back to driving  Astro on the warm roads of Sunland.

That's a Post Holer. You Dig holes. For Posts

In fixing up our yard, we've planted twelve trees in nine months; Last week we planted a Macadamia tree to add to the collection of new trees on our property.

I use the term "we" lightly. I've picked out most of the trees, but I've only dug the hole and planted two.  Drek's the one that's dug most of the holes and done the hard labor. Drek planted this last tree. He did it while I was away from the house. When I got back I looked at the new tree in our yard. I also noticed that he had tended to all twelve of our trees and there was a bag of fertilizer next to one.

"What did you put around all threes?" I asked him.
"Huh?"
"That stuff around all the trees. It looks like straw. What is it?"
"It's straw."
"Ah. That makes sense."

I hope this coming year we'll be able to eat a few freshly-picked fruit and macadamia nuts!

Live Every Week Like It's Shark Week

During the break between Christmas and New Years, Drek's family came to visit and we all went to the beach. It was a perfect beach day; the sky was blue, the sun was shining the temperatures hovered around 76, and the beach wasn't crowded at all.

I sat on the beach by the towels while Drek did a little bit of boogie boarding. I was trying to get a good picture of him, and it was then that I noticed something beside him.

I couldn't tell right away what it was. I thought it might be a really big fish. I saw it's long beautiful body swimming right next to Drek with a fin coming above the water for just an instant.

I was so excited, I jumped up with the camera to get a closer shot. In my excitement I tried to describe what I was seeing, In my mind, I thought "Sea animal." the but the word that came our of my mouth was "Shark!"

Here's a little tip for you beach goers: It's not really the best idea to yell "Shark!" on a beach while there are several swimmers, boogieboarders and surfers in the water, and a crowd of people on the sand next to you. Jumping up all of a sudden and frantically snapping pictures with your camera after yelling "Shark!" instead of explaining what you are seeing, isn't really a good idea either. Especially if you are excitedly yelling things like "Right next to Drek! It's like a foot away! It's so close, it's close enough to bite him!"

It was not a shark, but a sea lion. I saw that almost right away, but it took several minutes for everyone else on the beach to realize that. Oops.

That Station Wagon of Yours Doesn't Exactly Look Like a Sailing Ship. It's a Rocket Ship. My Mistake

We got a new car. It's a salvaged car, just like Jasmine was. Actually, it was rebuilt by the same guy that built Jasmine. 

It's a Saturn, it has a sunroof, the console is super fancy and the engine is whisper quiet. The doors open in opposite directions and there are only two seats in the back. For those reasons, this car is my spaceship. I named him Astro: 

If Anyone Gets Nosy, Just, You Know... Shoot 'em. Shoot 'em? Politely

Today was the first Sunday School class of 2012. I'm not teaching the same class. This time I'm teaching thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen year olds. I have nine kids in my class; five of them were in my class. As far as I can tell, there is no logical explanation for how the Sunday school classes are divided up. Officially, I am teaching the fourteen/fifteen year old Sunday school class, but that's two children, so they added the older class, and three kids from the younger class.

You may think that they took those three random kids out of my old class because my old class was so huge (fourteen teenagers) and no one wants to teach a class that big, but you would be wrong. For reasons I cannot fathom, they took five kids out of my old class and moved them up, and then they combined that class with the younger class, making that class include twenty kids ages eleven to fourteen.

TWENTY. And I thought fourteen was out of control. I am so glad I am not teaching that class.