100th post!!

A 100th post should be wise.  A last post for 2009 might even be.... reflective.  I feel moved to write a closing poem, reaching deep in my soul..... head bowed.... a single spotlight from directly above..... a little scat music, if you please:

Ode to 2009

This year has seen a newborn child

And thus it's been a little wild.

Six kids make home life never dull

Methinks my quiver rather full.

And so the stories-- SOME I've told.

(The story of the BOOTS was bold.)

But others never made the cut.

You just might think that I'm a nut.

But nuts don't fall far from the tree.

And I shall pass the legacy:

For tales reflect a life that's lived.

I hope my children have "forgived".

But, yo! Just now! Another yarn!

(Please note I use nice words like "darn".)

Of COURSE, a story would unfold--

This blog is worth it's weight in gold!

It's Aubrey's monkey made of socks.

'Twas found face down.  I know. This shocks.

The toilet spares no object thrown-

By Alex who is not-yet-grown.

But now the sight makes Jackson gag...

I see him running in zig zag!

The monkey's IN his "choice to chuck"

And now we ALL are out of luck.

Another tale to blog about!!

So see?  You rarely go without-

Adventure waits NOT for next year

The thought brings to my eye ...a tear.

--2009 poem of the year  CENTURY
       (no offense to my REAL poetry writing friends- Deb, Brittany, Amy, etc.)



One more thing, I got a fun toy for Christmas that I'm trying out.... a Flip Video camera with some video I took tonight.  Sorry it's choppy, I need to trouble shoot but I'm impatient!

Christmas Cardinal Sin

So I've always sent out Christmas cards and letters to friends to stay in contact, but technology is changing that reason rapidly as most of my dearest friends are either on facebook or are a blogging buddy.  This is so right up my alley to be able to see, in real time, what many people are up to in a condensed way.  (However in some cases, I know far more about friends' daily lives than I really want!  Heavens, some people post what they had for breakfast.)


So what do you send that hasn't already been said?  Or pictures that have already been posted? 

This is a new spin for me to think about.  And what of the friends who have gone dark and aren't a part of the technology world?  And I do LOVE getting Christmas cards in the mail.  Some I look forward to in a way that makes my Christmas season complete when I receive it.

Is this like the end of the Pony Express?  Real Christmas mail.  Gone by the wayside and replaced.  To think I'm considering joining the ranks of seasonal mail death....

"Grandkids!" I'll say.  "We used to send photos and letters at Christmas to stay in touch and I'd lick every envelope, every stamp (until we got sticker stamps) and hand write the addresses and think of lovely things to say about your parents."

"Like a year long status update?" little Chrysanthemum will say.  "But grandma, couldn't you just crossmail (or whatever the future term will be)?  You walked out to a box by the road to receive messages?  How did you delete them when you were through reading?"

Sigh.

60% guilt and 40% relief if not participating in Christmas Snail Mail.
89.2% hard work and 10.8% glee (mostly when it's finished) while squeezing in this project amongst so many other demands.

0% desire to be a Christmas Humbug and 100% want to reach out to my friends and family in a personal way during this Christmas season. 
110% energy goes to my family and the other MINUS 10% goes to worrying about any of this any longer!  :)

Pass the Peanut M&M's!

I'm a Cougar fan, but....

So this is what it's like to spot the Lochness Monster.

OK, it is our local monster/myth... but I crossed paths with a mountain lion two nights ago.  There have been other sightings and a pet's demise here or there blamed on the creature over the years.  But a mountain lion coming into our neighborhood?  I had dismissed the idea long ago.

It was a dark and eery night, much like most nights after tithing settlement, when I was driving home...  and I beheld a dog, or what methinks is a dog, sauntering along on the sidewalk in front of the Evans and Malan's homes.

This dog-like creature however was not satisfied with my underestimation of his true form, so he bolted in front of my car as to be fully lit up in headlights, causing me to brake and stare open mouthed while Jessica exclaimed, "Did you see that?"

The size of a large dog, it ran stealthily-- like a cat.  Lightly colored with distinct spots and a stubbed tail half way down.  It turned and looked at us just before dropping down into the ravine as if to say, "Oh, yes.  You have glimpsed.  The legend is real, and I will not let you sleep at night.  Perhaps Santa and his reindeer are the one's who'd 'better watch out'..."

The nerve of a mountain lion speaking to me that way, coming into our neighborhood like he's the top of the food chain.

I am taking neighborhood action and posting this sign everywhere:

Good thing I have extra kids.

So much to say.....

I keep continually posting on my blog in my head and then get disappointed when I realize I never actually got to it and I'm getting behind.... so this post will be highlights from my "head posts":

Stefanie

My sister Stefanie graduated a couple of weeks ago from her rehab program.  Her son Kaleb (14) came and visited her and all of us for the weekend to celebrate.  She has now moved into some transitional housing. We are proud, hopeful, and inspired by the amazing progress she has made.  My parents and I are nervous and anxious about what comes next.  Will it stick?  Has she truly recovered?  Is her will strong enough?  It seems the whole world is hers for the taking now, but it is up to her to realize that.  *  Her recovery is not over and will continue to absorb her full attention.  The directors of her program said that only a couple of people before her have overcome her particular set of addictions and they hadn't expected her to make such amazing progress.  Stefanie is a beat the odds type of girl, like my mom, though.... never underestimate her!  She went back to smoking *, but feels like it helps curb worse addictions.  She choses church sometimes to fill some of her class requirements, but it's not really in her heart right now.  That's OK.  Baby steps, right?

Stef hanging out with Kaleb.  He has a lot of his mom's fun personality in him.  Kaleb is practically a celebrity at my house my kids love him so much.  He lives a few hours away with his dad and step-mom.

Turkey, Sickness and Dreams

Thanksgiving was a blast up in Albion, Idaho again.  I love that place.  I didn't overeat and the company was the best!  I started getting sick Friday night with a terrible head cold and spent the next 27 out of 30 hours sleeping until I had to get up to go play the Sunday morning broadcast.  Sometime during all that drug induced sleep, I had the most surprising and delightful visit with my Grandpa Wilson who passed away 10 years ago.  I miss him and Grandma so much.  He came out from behind a door and thought it was quite humorous to see my reaction.  "Why should you be so surprised (to see me)?" he teased.  He was just the same, even livelier than ever.  And younger.  Grandma wasn't there with him, and I really wanted to see her, too.  But it was like he was showing me that we are all so close by, much closer than we realize and that she was around somewhere, too.  Just one of those dreams that you don't want to wake up from it's so real.

Boot Flashback

So, following the broadcast last Sunday I went to put my violin away and found THIS in my case.  Very funny, anonymous prankster.  I have a feeling that this is one of those stories that won't go away quietly....

(If you are just tuning in, go back a few entries to the entry with a boot and you'll understand why I have a gummy rat and gummy maggots in my violin case)

Music

This Sunday is the First Presidency Christmas Fireside at 6:00 p.m.  Don't forget to play "Where's Emily?" as the choir and orchestra will provide the music.  Don't play "Where's Monson" -- no challenge in that.

Be sure to watch your PBS listings for the choir's amazing Christmas concert with Brian Stokes Mitchell from last year.... it just came out.  I went to an autograph signing where he was at yesterday and he was just as personable and charming in person as he was on stage.  Love him!  What a great concert!  I'm really looking forward to next week when we perform with Natalie Cole and David McCullough.  I'm sure it will be over the top, and you'll get to see it next Christmas on PBS when it comes out.

I Got Peeps

One of my best friends in the orchestra is Kathy.  We've been roomates on tour, stand partners countless times, and spent a lot of time helping each other figure out life..... anyway, now this sounds like I'm name dropping, but you have to check her out in this month's Ensign, pg. 17!!  She's famous!!  I like to think she's laughing at an inside joke with me.  So to be utterly obnoxious, I created a fan page on facebook for her Ensign picture...   I love that girl. And seriously, who has a picture of  themself in the Ensign THAT BIG?  How cool is that?  And now you can play "Where's Kathy?"  Sunday night, too!

Messages

This is my cello.  Look close.

Yeeeessssss, that is dust. 

 

I think someone is trying to tell me something.  Maybe I'm getting too busy.

I think I'm the last person on earth to blog about Halloween.

Halloween is so last month.

Better get my blog on.


Alex definitely loved his first Halloween.  He has the Tigger crawl down to a fine science (hands and feet, bum up) and was entertainment everywhere we went... during Jessica's basketball game at half time he booked it halfway across the gym before I could grab him.  That boy has got WHEELS for feet.

Jessica clowned around and pulled this costume together like a pro from several different places.  That skirt is something I wore at Dance Festival back in my Oregon days.  Way to reuse renew and recycle!

"Jack"son Sparrow made pirating look fun by carrying his candy bag around with his hook.

My four boys... Benson the Three Musketeer, Josh was Zorro although Jackson called him "Indian of Jones",  Jackson Sparrow and of course the cutest Tigger ever. 





One more pic of Tigger because I'm addicted to him.

So Bing.  Bing is the inflatable skeleton (the irony!) from my BYU roomie days, right Jules?  He makes his entrance into Halloween every year, no exception.  Doesn't he look great among my tombstones in the yard??

I do declare, we had a spooky yard.  Maybe that's why we had fewer trick or treaters.

One year I scared a little boy so bad on my front porch that he wet his pants right there.  No joke.  I was scaring the older kids and didn't see him mixed in.  Everyone left him just standing there in a puddle.  This was a low moment for me, and my kids never let me forget it.

My favorite thing at Halloween is to pile up the candy and put my nose face down in it and take a huge whiff.  I made Aubrey actually do it.  There is no candle that can duplicate that distinct aroma of Halloween chocolate/sweet goodness.  I dare Scentsy to even try.

We went down to Michael's work party.  Don't even ask what he is.  Fine, he's a tree or a bush.  He wanted to blend in to the office plants, but at 6' 2" it's hard to blend in, and he used all my fake plants from around the house to do it.  If I were him I would have at least titled his costume "Undercover Office Agent from the IRS" or something.... notice I am in complete disguise since I didn't want anyone to know I hadn't had time to wash my hair.

Interesting to note:  Just a mere hour after this was taken,  I was at a friends' house (Emily S.) still in clown getup and found myself running out the door to turn off the car alarm set off by the kids... RUNNING at full speed and tripped unashamedly over a tether in the grass for her blow up yard decoration.  Full superman dive, body slide on the wet grass and the whole top of my clown head flipped forward over the glasses.  I haven't tripped like that since I was a kid.  Meanwhile the car is still honking.  I burst out laughing and then so did the kids after time stopped for a moment.  I am so cool.

My sister's husband doesn't believe in Halloween because it's evil.  I believe in Halloween.  Maybe BECAUSE it's a little evil (I only do funny evil) and a way to be outrageous in a publicly acceptable forum.

Plus when you get full size candy bars it's a total score.

Hair-Say

I am really getting to that point where I need to do something with my hair.  You know that feeling?

Thanks to some computer animation I bring to you the unrealistic choices I created a couple of years ago for just such a moment as this:

Exhibit A:  The First Lady Look--  sophisticated, no nonsense, but willing to have fun on a dare.  Just look at those sassy long bangs.

Exhibit B:  Mrs. America Wannabe-- loves to primp those curls, all about mega fun, mysteriously hiding the one eye.  Unfortunately naive about what it takes to run a household of 8.

Exhibit C:  Library Lady-- blunt in both cut and attitude, this girl has things to accomplish and is very organized, but may be a little boring.  But her hair would fling around importantly while she played the violin.

Exhibit D:  Thoroughly Modern Mullet-- business bangs in the front, party in the back.  If this doesn't say middle-aged Mormon woman, I don't know what does.  I've done this style before, and it's not half bad.

Exhibit E:  The Intelligent Liberal Look-- she plays Trivial Pursuit well, saves whales, and looks classy without much effort.  The dark hair fools everyone- I could go in the witness protection program.  My girls would never let me do this, but I daydream of going extreme sometimes.

Exhibit F:  Corvette Girl-- breezy, unassuming, and a little absent minded.  This is the closest to what I've already got, except I can't ever get my bangs like that.  And I'm only absent-minded mis-often and when corvetting.








The picture I had to use of me for these mock-ups makes me look bald, so I guess anything is an improvement on that.  I did one of me wearing a purple mohawk, but I think Michael deleted it or this post might have been halfway interesting.

Freaky, huh?  Lessons learned:
1.  Hairstyles reflect personality for sure, so I better get one.  A personality that is.
2.  Computer hair is easy to do and style versus real life hair.  Click and point.  It should be so easy.
3.  Cutting my hair with baby micro emergency sewing kit scissors didn't really get the desired effect the other day when I was having a hair tantrum.

Write a Wish or Ride a Wish

While in DC, we came across a sculpture courtyard that was part of the Smithsonian/Mall.  We almost missed it, it was so secluded...it was there we discovered the "Wishing Tree" with curious scraps of paper attached.

Upon further examination, the scraps of paper were just that.... old receipts, memo pad papers, gum wrappers, etc. that people had written wishes upon and stuck on the branches.

Most were unsigned, some were wishes of children transcribed by a parent ("I wish for world peace." -6 yr. old boy), and some were funny ("I wish you were a fountain"). I couldn't stop reading.

I was curious what people would write, given the chance to send a wish upon the breeze of a tree.

What were the stories behind the wishes?


"I wish for forgiveness."

Heartbreak.  Love.  Longing.

"I wish for a cure for Autism."

Struggle.  What ifs.  Longing.

"I wish my grandmother was alive."

Memories.  Missing.  Longing.

We long for things, so we wish.  We wish for things we don't have, so we touch.  Touch paper.  Touch the tree. Write our desires and ride our desires on the possibility that they are somehow heard clearer by the magic tree, or the universe, or by God himself.

I didn't add at the time, but I keep thinking about my own wishing tree and what I long for.

I wish for greater wisdom.

I wish for more capacity to love.

I wish for forgiveness.

I, too, wish my grandmother were alive.

Oh, yeah.  I wish Alex didn't poop a battery last Sunday.  (Relax, it wasn't a D cell... just a small disk kind.)

Comment a wish or two on my virtual wishing tree.  (It looks more like a white box with a funny word underneath, but if you squint it looks a little like a tree in a snowstorm.)

Trippin' in da East

Michael and I went to NYC and DC last weekend for 5 days. Sigh. I miss it. He had to go for business, so I came along.... and we turned it into more of a get-away adventure!

Bragging moment: The "business" part of the trip was because Michael was receiving an award in DC. One of his projects at work shows transparency in Utah's spending (as required by legislature he helped to pass) and is a website that shows the public where every tax dollar is spent. It is a cool website and a lot of other states have their eye on it, so Utah (and Michael) was being awarded as a top 10 innovative website as chosen by the Government Computer News organization. Check it out: www.transparent.utah.gov

It was a F-A-N-C-Y affair, with spotlights circling the room, a rehearsal for accepting the award, music for recipients to walk on stage to, and lots of big wigs amongst the 800 attendees. I was honored to be there with him and so proud of his hard work! But I felt like any minute someone was going to call us out on pretending to be fancy people... it's kinda fun but not really us.


The rest of the trip we spent hoofin' it and cruising around on the subway trying to see as much as possible. Michael's cousin, Becky, let us stay in her mid-town Manhatten high-rise. Sweet!
Our favorite things we did in NYC were to see Central Park and WICKED on Broadway!!



We went down early to put our names in for the Wicked lotto. They only draw 13 names and BOTH our names were drawn for a total of 4 tickets, front row seats, at only $26.50 a ticket!! (These seats are normally $250). We couldn't believe our luck!! I didn't need my set-- since none of you were with us and we were prohibited from reselling them-- so someone else got to be drawn. OK, this was such a great show. We had not seen it yet, and although wary of the hype, Wicked is now my favorite musical. Spectacular first Broadway experience!


We loved NYC.

A definite "add back in" to the Bucket List.




Washington DC wasn't too bad, either! We saw lots of museums and monuments while catching dinner with friends and lunch/museum with Michael's sister and family.



It was the perfect fall weather-- and the leaves!

DC also had the coolest spy museum that Michael finally had to pry me out of. No photos allowed-- however, I did get to climb through an air vent IN the museum and spy on patrons below.

Were we supposed to miss the kids?





















Lessons learned:

1. I could make a life out of traveling.
2. We need to expose the kids to more.
3. Being the minority on the subway feels strange.
4. Having a husband that doubles as a personal security guard rocks.
5. The kids have more fun with grandmas than me. (duh)
6. I like hotel maid service making my bed.
7. I should never have brought books along to read. I was consumed with reading the "Swensen Says" blog every night- these great friends of ours were in Ethiopia at the time adopting 2 sisters and had quite the dramatic story unfolding. (see my blog list if interested but start back a few weeks)
8. Boring museums make my feet hurt more.
9. Technology made me feel closer to my kids than we really were. This is a big world with a LOT of people in it and it's a small world after all. (Someone should write a song about that.)
10. Home really is HOME.

Signs of the Times Series- Nice Normal Family

Vinyl lettering on the kids (and guest) bathroom wall. Brainwashing while someone is sitting around with nothing else better to look at in the bathroom.... hmm.... cutting edge therapy. Me likey.

This is so blatantly ridiculous. I love it.

Another great reminder that appearing normal -technically this is out of reach for us- is just that. An appearance.

I just realized this is the underlying style of my blog: proof that we are anything but normal... why do I do that? I don't know, but it's very liberating. To be abnormal. And have everyone know it.



p.s. Totally random, I know, but I got to play a really yummy note today on the broadcast. Every time I played it I thought, "yummy. mmmm." It was an E flat in the tonic chord of D flat major and was the last long note of the piece. Being a second violin really has perks.

Signs of the Times Series- Having it All

Signs of the times. This past decade's decorating accents in my home, and maybe yours, have included a lot of signs. Maybe we are searching for wisdom and trying to surround ourselves and loved ones with things to remember about life.

This one is a small quilt hanging up in my kitchen. The first time I saw it in a little boutique it made me cry and I knew I had to have it.

"We may not have it all together but together we have it all..."

It reminds me that even though we are obviously not a perfect family (see last post about Jackson's boot as a highlight of that fact), we still have something pretty amazing. We have...."IT ALL".

Still trying to figure out what that means, but it sounds pretty great.

So I want "IT ALL", despite the ragtag team we are most of the time. And I wonder what else "IT ALL" will bring....

It's like that feeling that you get as you grow up a little and realize that there isn't really anything you have to have for Christmas. Everything you ever wanted or needed you already have right in front of you.

Please tell me this didn't happen.

The neighbor just called. Kathleen Bailey, for those who know.

They picked up Jackson about 45 minutes ago to go play at their house. I grabbed his boots from the garage and had him put them on quick, no time for socks even.

She called to say that when he took his boots off just now, after 45 minutes, they found that one of our kitties had left a little present in one of the boots.

Nope, it's not poop. That's what I thought at first. That would have been disgusting, but it was something even worse.

I can hardly say it. Something squishy and rotting. A dead mouse.

Poor Jackson, barefoot, had worn it for awhile and didn't bother to investigate. May it be a lesson to us all.

(shudder)

p.s. Just picked him up and saw the 50+ maggots squirming with the almost unrecognizable mouse in the trash. He says it was the wiggling in his boot that tipped him off to check. I pleaded with Kathleen to understand we are really not gross people... I repeat, the boots were in the garage!