Disneyland Pictures

We had a fabulous time, really enjoyed all the holiday decorations at Disneyland this year. Two days it rained and we discovered the joy of having no people at the park. With umbrellas and ponchos we stayed and got to ride alot of rides that would normally have long lines.

The Alarm

We bought an alarm system. Last night we found out how well it works. Kaleb and Alexis both had friends over for the night. Thor and I purposely didn't arm it with so many kids in the house and went to sleep. Well, 2am comes around with police banging on the door and the phone ringing off the hook. Kaleb had decided to arm the thing before going to sleep...Alexis had to let the cat out. Somehow, she hit the silent alarm button in her attempt to rearm/disarm. She didn't realize what had been done until she comes and tells us someone is banging on the door and trying to get into the house. Well, I'm relieved but somewhat embarrassed by the whole thing. You can't just tell the officer everything is fine, he has to talk to everyone and find out we are not being held against our will. I'm relieved because our system works very, very well.

Halloween

First, pictures from Halloween. The few days before Oct 31 were warm, but then the day before, a cold front came through and it rained. A perfect night to grab lots of candy and dress up. Alexis went as a Medieval maiden, Kaleb was the Grim Reaper, Anya as Alice in Wonderland and Abigail was Cinderella. I'm not creative, can't sew therefore all costumes are courtesy of the store. No Molly Mormon here.

Anya

Anya went to a birthday a few weeks ago and the mom sent me this picture...she is growing up too fast!!!!

And she turns 12....

Today Alexis turns 12. She is now in YW, out of primary and completely hating school. I think the hard part of parenting is about to begin. I'm clueless, I don't know how to raise a teenage girl. It is times like this that I really, really miss my mother. I would like time to stop for just a few months, just a few to really hold on to my memories and stop my children from growing up so fast!!!

Popcorn

I love Salt and Pepper popcorn. LOVE IT!!!!! It is my new favorite snack.

I actually get a laugh out of these photos together...they seem to go hand and hand. Now, if I were in the streets with a sign telling gays to go to hell, it would be a hate crime and I would be a bigot. I'm so thankful Prop 8 passed, truly I am.

Thank heavens today is the day...

And I leave with this quote from Neal A Maxwell...made in 1979.


“Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.'

“This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.

“Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened....Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat."

I'm lucky because living in Stockton I haven't see as much uglyness as other cities in California. I just hope it passes.

I've been tagged....

Lin tagged me. Now, I was tagged by Sarah on my Myspace account months back, I didn't answer her because truthfully, I haven't 7 random thoughts about me. I will stretch it to make 7 today..why not ;)

1. I hate having my picture taken. I just don't allow it to be done except on very rare occasions.
2. I'm an introvert. And now that I have to teach Relief Society every couple of months and actually call and talk to people, I almost have a heart attack regularly.
3. I love to watch Food Network. When Sarah lived in Folsom she would come down and watch it with me, all day long. It was great!!!!
4. I like peanut butter and pickle sandwiches...I haven't eaten one in awhile though.
5. When I was pregnant with Alexis, I ate lemons like candy.
6. I play World of Warcraft with my husband. And no, I'm not crazy addicted and have no life because of it. My mom played with us too.
7. I love to read. Now that, I can become addicted too.


And that's it. I can only tag a few people, I don't know 7 blog people.

So, here is my tag list
Aimee because she is the coolest person I know.
Katherine because she is the a wonderful sister.
Glen because he was the best ZL in Duluth.
Deborah because she is super sweet and has beautiful children.

Prop 8

'Prop 8 Irony'
This morning I went outside to pick up my morning paper and noticed that someone
had torn my Yes on Prop 8 sign into pieces and dumped a yard full of liter on my
property. In Modesto, a man passing out Yes on Prop 8 signs was assaulted, left with a bloodied face that required stitches and his assailant stealing 75 of his signs.
There are reports of Prop 8 related vandalism at churches in California. According to the Yes on Prop 8 Committee, over 50 Yes on Prop 8 signs are stolen or destroyed in Vacaville each day. Removing or destroy campaigns signs from personal property is a misdemeanor and being in possession of a stolen campaign sign is a felony.
What is it with some of you No on Prop 8 people? Talk about irony. A group that calls for tolerance and civil rights is resorting to theft, vandalism and assault. Nothing like an initiative to bring out the true colors of some folks.
Many years ago in high school I took a debate class. The words of our teacher still
ring true: Whenever the debate changes from a discussion of the issues to personal
assaults on the debater, the debate is lost. Unfortunately, I see little discussion of issues
from many of the No on Prop 8 folks. Often their sole response to the issues presented is to call their opponents homophobic, bigots, and ignorant.
I guess since name calling is not working, then they are hoping that vandalism,
stealing, and assault will get them more votes. How many more crimes must we endure in the name of tolerance? Regardless of the outcome of the election, the criminal actions of these No on Prop 8 folks is a sure indicator that you have already lost.
-Danny Wells
Vacaville, CA'


My Prop 8 sign was taken from my yard a few weeks back....Just wanted to share

Joe the Plumber

We spent a lovely afternoon yesterday with a nice plumber named Joe, short for Joseph. I can thank Abigail for meeting such a famous man...well, his name is famous :) She flushed a baby doll blanket down the upstairs toilet and backed up the whole upstairs plumbing. I now have a large hole in my garage ceiling and drywall to clean up. The garage smells like an old moldy hotel. All this fun only cost me $365 dollars. And so today I am being unproductive. I am wasting my time reading articles on the internet, like this one I haven't done the dishes, cleaned the house or anything related to doing housework. I put leftover pizza in the kids lunch and I'm letting Abigail use watercolors to paint, with out stressing over the mess she will more than likely create. I filled out my vote by mail ballot and will mail it today so my vote will count. Sarah will be so proud of me. (even though I didn't vote for her man Obama)

Election

I was sent this video from a friend of mine. It was very inspiring to me and thought I would share it here. And another one that relates to why Prop 8 is so very important to the people of California.





It is time to vote, what a great privilege we have to vote our conscience without fear of government telling us who and what we need to vote for.

The housing bust..

I'm just a little irked at the moment. I've heard about all I can stand about how the government has caused the financial fiasco we are in at the moment. I think people are forgetting their personal responsibility that help to create the big load of garbage dropping on all of our heads. We moved to Stockton in 2003 because it was the last place we could afford to buy a house and it was 90 miles one way to Thor's job. New home developments were everywhere and people were lining up to buy a home. Most of these people came to buy investment property, driving home prices higher than the local economy could afford. In 2 years, homes very similar to ours were selling for $600,000. People who had bought earlier and had thousands of dollars in equity, pulled out that money and bought big, expensive cars and went to Disneyland :) Our neighbors who had children close in age to mine, fell victim to this. They pulled out all the equity they had, refinanced into ARMS and then had to leave their home when they couldn't sell for what they owned. The house sat empty for over a year. I'm not that good with math but even I know you can't afford a $600,000 home making $65,000 a year. Good ol' greed caused this problem. Greed from the banks wanting to make money by selling their mortgages to Wall Street, greed on Wall Street to make even more money, and even greed from the buyers. They gambled on the fact they could flip the house and make so much, they could afford a new house with the money made on the old house. So now we are stuck with the 700B bailout, all because too many people wanted to make a fast buck.

Songs

Songs are a powerful memory trigger for me. Some uplift me, others make me sad. You can tell my mood by what is playing on Rhapsody. (My ipod shuffles all my songs so that doesn't count) I can remember the songs the bus driver would play when we lived in Marshfield MO. Neil Diamond and sappy 70's slow music. My mother had an eclectic collection of records, yes vinyl records. We had Peter, Paul and Mary, The Electric Horseman, Mormon Tabernacle choir and the ever important Disney stories. I have some of the old records but need a turntable. Anyway, I was listening this morning to my random shuffle of songs and Death Cab for Cutie came on. Death Cab will forever remind me of riding to Utah with Sarah as fast as motherly responsible to see Mom before she passed away. Fergie's Glamorous is the song playing on our way home as we reached the outskirts of Fallon. Depeche Mode is high school and Derek, Yaz is my apartment at Liberty Square jamming out with Aimee, and John Denver will always be Idaho. Church music calms my soul, I thank my mother for playing Saturday's Warrior and My Turn on Earth as a small child. I could go on and on but that would get rather boring. So play some music today and remember.

My Aunt Elizabeth

My Aunt Elizabeth passed away last night. She was my mom's younger sister. She always scared me a little as she was a bit rough around the edges. But she was bipolar and had some other mental issues. I know she must be so happy to be with her parents and my mother again and all her physical problems are now resolved. I feel sad for my Aunt Martha as she is now alone with only her children left on this earth. And being the oldest I doubt she thought she would be the last one left living. I will miss her. Rest well Aunt Elizabeth, rest well.

My weekend..

I ripped a hole in the rear of my favorite pair of capris. I'm a sad panda. Abigail is mostly running around naked as she is getting potty trained. It is much easier to have her get on and off the toilet without clothing getting in the way. I went grocery shopping. I needed two carts but with only me I had to make due with piling my one cart sky high. The kids and I shared our first ripe tomato from the planter box. It was warm and delicious. A second tomato will be eaten today after church. I bet it will taste even better after fasting. I am fasting today for Stephanie Nielson, I may not know her in person but her story has touched my heart. I've been watching more than my fair share of politics. I'm glad I get to vote for a person of my choosing. I talked to Sarah and then I missed her. Come back to California Sarah...come back :) Life is good....

What is really important...

Anya and I held hands today as we walked to school. She talked about my mother, her memory of MeMa making breakfast for her on our last visit to Utah. She asked me if MeMa was happy, I told her she was. Family really is the only important thing we have. I came across a story of a lovely mother who recently was severely injured in a plane crash along with her husband. You can read about her story here.




We never know what tomorrow will bring so today I am grateful for my children, my husband and my home.

Walking to school

I walk Kaleb and Anya to school in the mornings. I get my exercise and make sure the kids are safely at their destination. I'm not sure why but every morning there are many worms that have ended up on the sidewalks. Most are dead or close to death but there are some that are still wiggling around. Kaleb and I have taken it upon ourselves to be the savior of worms. We pick them up and fling them back in the grass. Worms don't really care to be touched and they start flopping all over the place making it difficult at times to get a proper grasp. I don't know if these worms live or die but at least they aren't on the sidewalk looking all pathetic. The snails get the same treatment. I hate to see smushed snails...yuck. I'm sure we are a sight to behold all bend over flinging bugs into bushes and grass. I do the same things with spiders in the house. I catch them in glasses and release them back outside. Mom taught me that trick. The only exception to the "don't kill bugs" rule is poisonous spiders and ants in my house. Even in Salinas when the snails ate all my flowers and I had to bait them, it made me sad to see dead snails in the flower patch. Stupid snails..just leave my flowers. Speaking of growing things, my little planter box has made miniatures of all my vegetables. I had no idea that corn would grow to a foot tall and then start making corn cobs. And I have the worlds smallest red bell pepper about to be ripe enough to eat...in one bite. My early girl tomato plant has just one tomato, lots of blooms and very tall, just no fruit. My beef steak has a good 7 on it. The broccoli and cauliflower just stays small.....sigh. Oh well, this year was the test year and at least something actually grew.

Pictures

Anya and Abigail outside playing with sidewalk paint. They had a great time.





Here are some pictures from the first day of school.

Time for the weekly shopping trip. Time to decide the food for the week, the dinners that will loved by all or hated by Alexis :) She is a very picky eater and lots of times is stuck making herself a sandwich for dinner. I started thinking as I'm making my list of all the foods I ate growing up that are no longer cooked in this household. Some of them I miss but can't make because I would be the only one to eat it. Others I just don't like and never want to partake of again. This is my final list of dinners of the past ;)

1-Eggplant. My mom would fry it up and I never liked it. I haven't tried it since I was a small child and I doubt I ever will.
2-Zucchini casserole. I have vague memories of zucchini, onions, tomatoes with bread and cheese. Mom didn't make it often because I think Deborah and I must have complained about it alot :)
3-Cabbage rolls and stuffed peppers. I don't mind these, but Thor hates cabbage and the kids hate peppers so these won't be served here.
4-Pinto beans and cornbread. I dreaded this dinner as a child. Mom and dad would get big bowls of beans with slices of onions on the side. The cornbread was good and I would eat that. I don't mind beans now, my taste buds are losing their taste I guess. But again, Thor hates beans.
5-Black eyed peas. Fresh black eyed peas are so good. I miss them :(
6-Ham and cabbage. What is easier to make than ham and cabbage. And it's tasty. But again with Thor hating the cabbage, makes this dish an impossibility.
7-Salmon patties. I have made this for myself on a few occasions. One can of salmon with lots of left over patties.
8-Navy bean soup. Tasty, easy but has beans. I love it, no-one else does :(
9-Spinach with hot pepper vinegar and cucumbers in vinegar. Side dishes but I'm the only one that will touch the stuff. And thanks to Sarah for finding me a bottle of hot pepper vinegar in Cliff :) Now I can make me a plate of spinach whenever I feel like it.
10-Whole wheat. Mom made whole wheat pancakes and bread. My kids eat whole wheat bread but haven't yet learned to appreciate whole wheat pancakes.
11-Tuna casserole. Mac and cheese, canned tuna, Cream of Mushroom soup and a few chopped onions. Mix and eat. I loved this as a child, not so much now.
12-Meatloaf. We just don't eat meatloaf. Period.
13-Fried Okra. I love the stuff, but it has to be fresh okra and that is hard to come by in California.

I wonder what I make that my children will refuse to serve to their children?

School has started

Well, we have survived our first week of school. Anya is now in Kindergarten, Kaleb in 2nd grade, and Alexis is in 7th. I walk Anya and Kaleb in the morning, school starts at 8:20 for them both, then walk home and drive Alexis to Jr. High. It's been a long time since I've walked that much, I forgot how much your calf muscles are required for walking. The weather has been perfect, the sky was so blue all of last week. Usually it is hazy and gross so I have enjoyed the clear skies. This week the haze is starting to creep back in. Anya and Kaleb are in a brand new school this year, in fact, the entire 2nd floor isn't even done yet. It is very nice and I enjoy being within walking distance. Anya like her class so far. This morning she was a little sad about leaving me but when I picked her up in the afternoon she was fine. She thinks her teacher is "beautiful", she is very much into pretty people. Whenever she sees someone who looks nice she points to them and says "Look, they are beautiful". Kaleb is so-so. As a typical boy he thinks school is boring and wants to be home playing. Alexis is having an interesting transition into Jr. High. There are no lockers at school so she must carry all of the books for all of her classes throughout the day. Her last class is PE and the run the mile weekly and run laps the rest of the week. She really doesn't like that :) If I remember correctly, in Texas when I was in Jr. High we ran the mile every day. Or pretty darn close. But we had a locker room with showers and lots of aerosol deodorant. I'm sure she will be fine in a few weeks.

Rub a dub..Abby in the tub

Yesterday Abby wanted a bath. She takes her bath in our master tub which is large and deep. I normally fill it up for her and make sure I turn the water on at a slow trickle, because she loves to play in the water out of the spout. As I had just returned from shopping with Alexis and Anya, Thor was kind enough to do the honors for me. Well, soon after he had an important work phone call and I was feeding my face downstairs. We all soon forgot about miss Abby upstairs in the tub with the water on full blast. As I am just sitting down to my computer, Alexis comes to me...Mom, you'd better come see this. Then it hits me...Abigail's water!!!!! Sure enough, my bathtub was about 2 inches from overflowing. Abigail on the other hand thought this was the most fun ever. My tub has now become her personal pool, the perfect size for a small toddler to swim in. Thank heavens Alexis had gone in my room to put some old clothes in Thor's closet. I hate to think of the mess that would have become my bathroom. And for the record....tiny army men are the perfect size to plug the overflow thing on the side of the tub. Alexis was going to take a picture but I forbade it..my bathroom needs to be cleaned first :)

This and that

Driving home from Monterey we drove up through the San Jose as it is faster on the freeway. On the way down we drove over Pacheco Pass into Gilroy and down. We drove pass Casa de Fruta, it looks like a fun place to stop and buy local goodies. Not really a Thor place so we didn't. Once you hit just north of Prunedale, you can really smell the eucalyptus trees. Once you hit Salinas you smell broccoli :) But then you are able to roll down your windows and have the cool ocean breeze cool you down. We left Salinas to buy a home we could afford. Now, because the housing is so bad we could afford a home back in Salinas but can't sell ours because no one is buying. I'm grateful I have a home that is safe and in a good school district but I miss living out by the water.

Anyway, on the way home in Livermore, we drove by a car with a bumper sticker that said " Terror, America's number one export" How sad is that. People around here hate President Bush and the war so much, they fail to see all the good we still do. And boy do they hate it when you disagree with them. I love my country and I'm glad to live in this great nation...even with all it's problems. One of my college room-mates is currently living in Turkey with her family while her husband works over there. She is far braver than I. I love being able to stay right here. Canada was a far away as I would care to live.

The kids start school next week. I will miss them but at the same time they have been fighting alot lately. It makes me want to pull my hair out!!!! So I get to go clothes and supply shopping but I'm going to be smart and take them out one at a time ;)

Some more pictures....

I love Carmel....there are some wonderfully cute homes and great beaches. My favorite beach is in Carmel. The sand is so white and the water so blue. I think if we lived close enough Kaleb would learn to surf. He loved getting in the very cold water and watched the people trying to boogie board. The wind did blow very hard though and it was cool.

Monterey

We had a great time in Monterey over the 4th. I miss living so close to it. Here are just a few of the pictures....

What did you say?

Kids say the silliest things. And sometimes adults say rude, inappropriate things to small children. Today at the pool my white as white can be son was called a N**** by some big black lady. I guess Kaleb jumped in the pool to close to her and her daughter and they had water splashed on them. I was busy trying to keep Abigail from jumping in the deep end so missed the whole thing, but Alexis and Kaleb's friend heard the whole encounter. What do you say to something like that? So I just told him some people are not nice, and that he is not a N****. And to not jump anywhere near her again. Funny because just a few weeks ago some big black man was yelling into his cell phone for his N*** friend to get his A** down to the pool. His friend showed up, covered in tattoos
from his back to his ankles. Ahh, the City of Stockton...such a great place to raise a family. :)
Now to the silly things. On the way to the pool we passed some apartments that have window A/C units. Kaleb turned to his friend Adrian and said "Look, those people have their computers outside!!!" Very cute. I had to explain to him what window A/C units were.

Alexis

Alexis and I went to the movies last week, just mom and daughter. We went and saw Prince Caspian, it was better than the first movie. She will be 12 this year and is starting to hit the "pre-teen" issues. I'm starting to drive her crazy and I make sure to tell her it will only get worse :) But for now, she still wants to go hang out with her mother, go swimming together and gives me hugs before she goes to bed. Abigail loves her and Alexis is so good with her. It is very cute to see them lay down in Alexis's bed and watch TV before going to sleep. Time goes too fast.

Random pictures

Morning birds

I love listening to the morning birds sing. The awful heat of the weekend looks to be ending, and there is a cool breeze this morning. The corn is growing, the peppers and tomatoes are getting blooms. No luck with the carrots, lettuce or spinach. I will try again when it isn't so hot. The little shoots would come up and dry out. I did start some cauliflower and broccoli...they look exactly the same so I have no idea which is which. The kids love watching the vegetables grow. I will have to add another box next year.

Huckleberries...

I want to go huckleberry picking. There is no where to pick huckleberries in California. The closest place I have found is in NE Oregon. Mom took us berry picking in Grangeville, drove us up the mountain in the station wagon. We listened to John Denver....Some days are diamond, some days are stone. I think I remember there were alot of bees and we had to keep moving around to get enough berries. I loved it up there. I don't remember what we actually did with the huckleberries though..other than eat them plain. I would like to take my kids up and away from the city and let them see how much fun singing and picking berries can be. Maybe next year when Abigail is older I will take them out of school for a week and drive up to the wilds of Oregon and pick us a bucket of berries.

For the love of math

I wished I loved math. I wished I understood formulas and equations. Yesterday I got out my CBEST practice book and began to work on the first set of math problems. The CBEST is a test you must pass in California in order to substitute teach. My desire to pass the CBEST is twofold....substitute teach and get my mind working again so that I can finish my degree through BYU's independent study. I'm like 7 classes away from my degree in General Studies but one of those classes is Statistics. I literally want to cry with frustration that I can't remember how to do these simple problems. Hello, Dad is a freakin genius with math. Where is my genetic gene pool to help me with this stuff? At this rate I will be one class away from my degree...Stats and one section away from being able to substitute teach...again because of math. GRRRRRR.....

Pool toes

Yesterday was the first day of going to the pool for the summer. I took all the kids plus Kaleb's friend. Now, Abigail is turning out to be a fearless child and doesn't scare easily. She ran right for the deep end of the pool, bypassing the kiddie area. She would have jumped right in had I not grabbed her. After moving back to the shallow end she refused to let me hold on to her and wanted to jump off the steps. I let her go for a split second so she could see the water would go over her head...didn't really faze her. Still kept screaming at me to let her go so at that point I took her and Anya to slide on the water slides in the kiddie pool. Anya never went on them last year at age 4..too scared. But my little 2 year old goes up and down with great joy and laughing. In the picture you can see the slides. Alexis and Kaleb go play in the big pool and Anya goes with Alexis for a bit. The actually played very well together and had a great time. I have a bit of a sunburn because it is hard for Alexis to actually cover my back with sunscreen....go figure. The middle is fine, just the sides by the straps are fried. And they all have pool toes...you know, when your big toe turns into ground meat from running around the bottom of the rough pool. Ah, the joys of summer :)

Smells

We moved to Utah the summer before my sophmore year of high school. The church at Dugway was in an old army building, not a "real" church so to speak. And down by the church were alot of Russian Olive trees. They have a very sweet smell, very distinct. It is a smell that reminds me of summer and freedom. It is a smell of Utah. When Sarah and I were driving out to see Mom before she passed away, we stopped in Delta very late at night. As I stepped out of the car, the smell of the Olive trees was lingering in the cool night air. I thought about planting one in my yard, but California considers them an invasive plant.



When I was pregnant with all my kids, I would go to Bath and Body works and get a new super body butter to try and keep my skin from stretching out of place. It didn't really work but the smell of freesia reminds me of Alexis, warm vanilla sugar Kaleb, and Guavaberry Abigail. I don't remember the name of Anya's, just the smell.

I could probably go on and on but that will do for now.

Abby's boots

Abigail loves boots. She has three pairs that she wears everywhere. Her favorite pair are the Dora boots. They now have a horrible smell to them because she wears them without socks. She has a lovely pair of new sandals...completely odor free, but will not use them. Today it's going to be 96 and downstairs Abby is walking around in her boots.

So back to the planter box...Thor made me a 3x8x10 foot box that I filled with compost and bagged soil from OSH. I didn't realize one little box would take so much dirt. Then the kids helped me plant the seeds of corn, spinach, leaf lettuce and sunflowers. Kaleb had grown a bean plant at school so we added that too. Plus 6 pepper plants and 2 tomato plants. Now we can see if anything actually grows. Mom's strawberry plants are starting to die back. I've lost about 5 now for reasons unknown to me. But we did get alot of very small strawberries from the ones that lived. The potatoe bugs liked the berries too, if we don't get out soon enough when they are ripe, the bugs will eat them.

I finally did it, I made my little planter box.