Poop

What do you do when your 3-year old won't poop?

Flight Benefits

My mom is a huge fan of travelling. HUGE! In fact, she suggested I apply for a job with Delta Air Lines when they opened up a call center on the campus of Weber State University in January 1996 (where I was attending school). Of course, it was good for me to have a job on campus, so my commute time would be minimal, but what she was really looking forward to was the flight benefits that she would receive. For their first trip, my parents went to Europe -to Romania (with a stop in Vienna) in April to pick up my sister, Shanda, who was serving a mission there. My mom graduated from Weber State that June and in August, moved to Alabama (Bama-bama as 3 year old Carson called it) to attend Auburn University to work on her Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. She (and my dad) used those flight benefits to be able to fly back and forth to see each other. Those flight benefits came in rather handy when we moved to Boise in May 1999 Ryan and my dad (and brother Colle) drove the Penske truck from BYU to our house in Boise, unloaded it, then returned the truck to the Thrifty Rental Car/Penske Truck Rental location at the Boise airport and hopped on a flight back to Salt Lake. And my mom flew up a week later to help us unpack and pick out new furniture and pamper me. Needless to say, she was sad to see me quit in June 1999 when my 6 weeks of maternity leave was up.

Fast forward almost a decade and my sister, Shanda, was encouraged by my mom to use her phone number to apply (for the 2nd time) for a job with JetBlue Airlines. Once again with flight benefits on the brain. And then about a year later, my sister, Keturah, got a job with Skywest Airlines in Denver. My parents are now able to fly free on JetBlue, Skywest and United flights.

So, yesterday morning I got a call from my mom, who was in San Diego for a MFT conference, saying that all the flights into Salt Lake were full, so she was going to fly into Boise and have my dad drive up and pick her up and take her home. A half an hour later, my dad called to let me know that Mom was flying into Boise and he would be driving up - both arriving about 10:30 pm and they most likely wouldn't stay the night. I was excited for the chance to see them both, but saddened that my kids would miss out on the visit. Then, about 1 pm, I got a phone call from Carson, asking if he could hang out at my house and eat dinner with me - he got to be the lucky one to come pick up Mom. My kids were so excited when the doorbell rang at 6:00 pm and Uncle Carson was there to play with them! He even taught Sabrina how to play "Heart and Soul" on the piano.

Kids were vying to sit next to him at dinner, he got to pick our Family Home Evening activity (hand-eye coordination games), no one wanted to go to bed, everyone wanted Carson to tell them a bedtime story, and eventually they did sleep.


Flights were delayed due to weather and airplane issues, so my mom finally arrived at 12:30 am. She got to fly through Denver, so she was able to visit with Keturah for a couple of hours (who was working at the gate for the flight to Boise).

I'll take these unexpected visits any day! Roderic has a request, though. Carson, the next time you come to Boise will you please stay for 3 days and bring a Wii remote control with you so you and Roderic can play?

Things that make me smile

1. My favorite Christmas present from Ryan:

Loading ... please wait
The tag says:
"Not dishwashersafe
For external use only
Caution: contents may be hot"
(He got it from ThinkGeek.)

2. Not hearing from my midwife's office the day after I took the glucose tolerance test! They told me if I didn't get a call from them the results were normal. Yippee! I will get to finish eating the yummy homemade peanut brittle my parents sent for Christmas! For the record, I find the glucose drink disgusting. This time wasn't as bad as my memory told me the others were. I think it was because the drink was refrigerated, not at room temperature.

3. Hearing Hyrum singing at the top of his voice the Weird Al song "Yoda." (Or any song for that matter.) It just so happened that when Yoda came on my mp3 player on the way home from Sabrina's violin lesson, Hyrum started singing along. "Yoda, yo-yo-yo-yo-yo-da"

Merry Christmas!

It's almost Christmas Eve! Are you as excited as my children? Tonight we went to a house near ours that is completely decked out in holiday lights and decor: inflatable Santa and Reindeer on the roof, and on the lawn: Santa in helicopter, Santa in airplane, Santa riding on carousel, angels, Christmas countdown (to the second), speakers playing Christmas music, etc. They also offer free sleigh rides with Santa - in a sleigh pulled by 5 reindeer. It was soooooo cold (28 degrees F), but the kids and I had a great time (Ryan was at Scouts). I think we'll be look for this house again next year.

And thanks to Susie and 3 of her girls for braving the cold with us. It was fun to sing "Rudolph" with you and Santa on our sleigh ride!

The Ten Virgins

I was cast for this part long before I even was aware that it was a stage production. For my birthday this year, my visiting teaching companion and friend, Amy Mella, gave me the book "The Ten Virgins" by Emily Freeman. She told me that I reminded her of Leora in the story, the wise virgin who shares her lantern light with others who are lost along the path.

Then in October, my neighbor asked me if I'd play the part of a narrator in our Relief Society's production of "The Ten Virgins: A Musical Parable." I accepted, happy to not have to memorize any lines - the narrators get to read the script - only for her to change parts a few weeks later to play Leora. Apparently, it was meant to be. I had a hard time memorizing my two paragraph monologue, but even harder was the song. I just didn't get it. The night of our performance was the first time it made sense.

The production occurred at our Christmas dinner on December 1. We played to a full house of Relief Society sisters and Young Women. It was a joy to be a part of it. Enjoy this recording of me singing Leora's song "Lantern Light".




On a side note, I found it was quite hilarious to be 22 weeks pregnant, with a nice baby bump, portraying a virgin. I joked with my fellow cast members that it was immaculate conception.

Happenings

First off, a SHOUT OUT and a huge thank you for the anonymous dinner delivery last night. We hadn't been in the door from Sabrina's violin lesson for more than 2 minutes when a knock was at our door. When I opened the door, there was lots of hot food ready for us to eat!

I got to go to kindergarten yesterday and teach the children about holiday celebrations in the Netherlands. They liked putting on the klompen and hats to make them look Dutch. We sang Sinterklaas Kapoentje - if you don't remember how that song goes, check out this website. Several of the kids said that the chocolate initial I gave them was the best chocolate they've ever tasted. I have to agree: pure Ghirardelli milk chocolate is delicious!

We celebrated Ryan's 36th birthday on Monday with this delicious cake.

Triple Chocolate Chunk Cake with huckleberry filling
& huckleberry cream cheese frosting.

The boys had a lot of fun buying and wrapping presents for Ryan and told him what they were moments before he opened them. I told him he should open presents faster if he wants surprises!

Ryan, Hyrum and I got to attend the Orchestra, Band and Choir concert this morning at school. Sabrina plays cello in the 5th grade orchestra and sings in the choir. You may wonder why she is playing cello when she already has private lessons on the violin. Well the reason is, she is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the students and didn't want to bored out of her brain, but she really wanted to be a part of the orchestra.

Sabrina is in the center of the top row.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas: Sabrina is not in this shot at all. We were sitting on the exact opposite side of the gym and couldn't get anything nearer. I think the orchestra sounds pretty good for first touching stringed instruments in September.

News Flash: Major Holiday Approaching

There are only 17.5 weeks until Easter Sunday 2010!

My trees should look like this:



My flowers should look like this:



And I should look like this:

April 1999

Or maybe this:

June 2004

Or perhaps this:

October 2006

And now for some answers to the most asked questions:
When are you due? Spring Break, Easter, General Conference Weekend

Will you find out if your baby is a boy or a girl? YES! The moment he or she is born. Right now when we talk about the baby, on odd days he's a boy and on even days she's a girl.

Are your children excited? Yes.
How are you feeling? I feel pretty good most of the time now. It was tough at the beginning. I am really tired, so I try to take naps most days.

We are currently taking advice on boy names.