My Inquiring Mind Wants to Know

I have a few questions that I'm hoping someone can help me with.

1. Is there a way to print out blogs? I'm sorry to say that besides our family newsletter, this blog was my only journal in 2008 and it would be nice to print it out.



2. Does anyone have a tried and true way to quit biting fingernails? I've been biting them for 40 years and it is a deeply ingrained habit. I am so tired of my ugly fingernails and have tried a lot of things, but nothing lasts.



3. Do you think Dane's new companion is kind of hairy?
   

Christmas

Family, food, games, THE phone call, movies, lights, santa, 2 new feet of snow, and lots of gratitude for blessings and the Savior = Christmas.

Nick, Kent, Katie & Naomi, talking to Dane on speaker phone at 6 AM Christmas morning.

Aaron & Katie opening presents (wearing the new pajamas I made)

Caleb with some of his presents

Ethan, Papa Kent & Logan

Ethan took pictures while we were playing games. These are some of the better ones:

I Was Heard, Kind Of

Maybe it was because of my whining, or begging, or tantrumming, or maybe after 24 years Kent has learned to really know me, but whatever it is, I got my window and blinds! My wonderful husband didn't get me just that though, even though I sincerely would have been happy with that. He saw that I needed a new battery for my laptop and a new space heater for our bedroom too, so my wants and needs were both met. I should have asked for a nose mitten (do they sell those?) because my nose is always an ice cube lately!

It was so nice to talk to Dane for more than two hours on Christmas (so what if it was at 6 in the morning) but I was jealous when he said he was going with a group of missionaries to a beach because I'm already so tired of the cold weather! Anyone else agree?

As Long As You Love Me So...

Aside from the traffic accidents, the flight delays, and the shoveling and window scraping, I say, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow." My shopping is done and I have no place to go so I can stay inside my warm house and cross things off my list that I've finished (and things I've suddenly decided don't need to be finished by Christmas) and feel bad for Kent and others who have to go out to work and provide for people like me who stay home and enjoy looking out the window at the huge falling flakes. (Wow, that was probably too long of a sentence.) Here are some pictures after last weeks storms. Ethan sure had fun making a snowman with Nick.

Home for Christmas

I really miss Dane. I am a very trunky Mom. He still has 10 months in Costa Rica and I know in my head that he needs to be there, but my mother heart wants him home for Christmas. At least in five more days we'll be able to talk to him. On Mother's Day when we talked to him he had a Spanish accent that was cute. The end of every one of his sentences went up like it was a question. We're hoping that Ethan will talk to him and sing to him.

I'm conscious of the fact that there are parents, children and spouses around the world missing family members right now. Someone sent me this link that you can go to and quickly send a card that Xerox will print out and send to a soldier in Iraq. It only took me a minute to do and is free.

Sewing, Daily Sewing

I'm getting down to crunch time with my seasonal sewing. No quilts this year, just 12 pair of pajama bottoms and a bunch of other gifts that can't be mentioned because of their secretive nature. My serger has not cooperated though and has visited the repair shop twice in the last week; once for a tune up and once for new blades. After paying for the second repair Kent handed me the serger and said, "Merry Christmas!"

Speaking of presents, why do people not believe you when you tell them what you want and you will be happy with just that for Christmas? Case in point: I told Kent that all I want for Christmas is a new window and blinds for the window over the kitchen sink. The window is cracked and old and the blinds are the old plastic kind. Am I fooling myself to think I would be happy with just that under the tree from Kent? I don't think so, but he does. Yesterday in passing he informed me that if I see a Paypal receipt in my email to ignore it because he bought me something. WHAT? He then informed me that it is the wrong time of the year to buy a window and put it in. WHAT? Needless to say I got a little upset. The window and blinds were truly all I wanted. A little mouse informed me that he is looking for windows again! I guess the other present will be a bonus, unless he returns it because of my tantrum. I guess I would deserve it.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

EXcitED?

Ethan discovered a big box in my room and asked me what was in it. I told him it was Christmas presents and there was one for him in there. His face lit up and he asked, "EXcitED?" His voice starts up high, dips down and goes back up. It's the cutest thing. I need to get it on video. Out of the blue about 10 times that day he would ask me, "EXcitED?" I realized I really wasn't too excited for Christmas because it seemed like too much work. My goal of getting my shopping done in November didn't work. For one thing, PEOPLE (meaning my kids) didn't get me their lists. But, having Ethan and Logan around is getting me excited for Christmas. They love the lights and presents and the decorations that seem old to me but are new and exciting to them. So yes Ethan, I am EXcitED. Thank you.

Turkey & Yellow Shirts

What a yummy Thanksgiving dinner we had: all the usual food plus I made a new recipe of sweet potatoes with pecans for Aaron. It didn't quite turn out like the sweet potato souffle' that he grew up with. I should have asked his mom for her recipe.

Katie made delicious rolls but I don't see one on my plate. What looks like two piles of potatoes is actually potato salad and mashed potatoes and gravy. I did try the sweet potatoes with pecans and it was pretty good.

Our table turned out looking kind of old fashioned:

There were only 7 of us this year since Nanette and Chris and boys were at Chris' mom's. Next year Dane will be here!

I was sustained as cub scout secretary today. When the Bishop extended the call I told him I had just seen my yellow shirt the day before in the bottom of a tote. I guess it was a sign. I haven't tried on the shirt to see if it will even fit anymore. I'm hoping some enthusiasm will come. After all, I accepted the calling and the ward raised their hands to sustain me. Pray for me!Here's a cuter yellow shirt with an even cuter little guy in it:

Ethan didn't want to wear his pajamas so he ended up in a t-shirt of Naomi's which he was perfectly content to wear. What a cutie pie!

Oh Boy, What a Vampire

I had the privilege of going with Katie & Aaron to Katie's checkup and ultrasound today. Katie said on her blog that she wasn't sure about cameras in the doctor's office, but this Nana just happened to have one in her purse and this is what happens to be on it:




The heartbeat was fast but we didn't know if that meant girl or boy. The next stop was the ultrasound. Here are pictures of the proud mommy and daddy right before they discovered if it would be Braiden or Emma:















Almost immediately the baby was proud to let us know that his name is Braiden Ray Willden! It's a boy! That will make 3 grandsons for us. We're very excited!

A couple hours later Nanette and I had appointments with the immunologist who has been treating her. After telling him my long list of health problems, he ordered blood tests as a place to begin discovering if I have the antibody deficiency disorder that Nanette has. Ten tubes of blood later, yes TEN, I felt like I had donated to a blood bank. Hopefully somewhere in all of those tests (the phlebotomist hadn't heard of some of them) there is an answer to why I get sick a lot. It was a long day.

Mousetraps

I woke up yesterday morning with the feeling that someone was standing by my bed. I opened my eyes and sure enough there was Kent, staring at the wall. When I asked him what he was doing he disgustedly replied, "We have a mouse. I saw it when I got up to go to the bathroom." He was watching for it to show itself again which it did. He moved things around until he thought he had it trapped by the treadmill. All this time I'm watching from the bed. Then he brings out his homemade mousetrap made from a vinyl fencepost with duct tape closing up the end and a piece of yarn ready to pull it up. Here's the picture if you can't imagine it:

The mouse is supposed to run along the wall, into the trap, the person pulls the trap up and the mouse can't get out. Well, everything was looking promising until Kent saw the mouse run under the treadmill and under the bed. Eek! He then proceeded to get all of our junk from under the bed and put it on top of the bed around me. (The doctor had sentenced me and my unremarkable hip/femur to bed for the weekend.) When I was cocooned and Kent had a clear view under the bed, he was able to see that there was no mouse. He assumed it was in the corner under my nightstand and pile of books/junk. He decided to run to the store and buy mousetraps and cheese. He asked me if I would be able to pull up his trap if the mouse ran into it while he was gone. "Um, sure." I hadn't seen the mouse yet and was praying I wouldn't. They're right up there with birds for me. I would rather have a snake in my room. (Non-poisonous of course.) All was quiet while he was gone.

To summarize this story, he set a bunch of traps around our room and then had to leave for 4 hours to referee basketball games. I spent the day on my crowded bed in and out of drug induced sleep thinking I was hearing mouse noises. Then everyone went to the Twilight movie while I watched sports (sorry BYU, yay Jazz!) and still the mouse problem was unresolved. Kent was of the opinion it wasn't in our room anymore. I didn't want to contemplate how it got upstairs in our room in the first place, let alone how it got out. So Kent bought more mouse traps to put on the middle floor of the house. Then at 11:00 last night while Kent was setting those traps, SNAP! Over by the treadmill a mouse was caught. What a relief. This morning he found another mouse in a trap by my sewing room so we have traps set on all three floors still. It's amazing that such little rodents can make me feel so violated. Thanks to my man though I never saw the one that visited our bedroom.

Unremarkable

You may have heard me say this before, but I think the medical profession needs to come up with a new word to say that everything looks fine. I had some x-rays yesterday and the doctor read the report to me today: "Unremarkable." I really didn't expect to hear that my hip or femur were remarkable, but I would think they were average! The worst was when I had a CT scan of my brain and was told that it's unremarkable. Now that one hurt.

Wesson. Wesson.

Ethan has the sweetest little voice and I got a cute little video clip of him calling Katie and Aaron's dog Wesson in:

On a side note: thanks for the comments when I begged for them. Sorry to whine!

People, Where Art Thou?

I need some feedback and attention. I wrote a long blog and got one comment from Naomi, and yet I know there must be lots of you out there that read it. Was it that bad? You had nothing to say? At least write and say hi. If you're a lurker, introduce yourself and tell me where you're from. I'd like to make a new friend!

No Data

Well, I have no data to compute in my hello world experiment. I've been sick all week and have only left the house twice; once to meet with the Bishop for a new calling and once to go to the doctor.

This is the second time in six weeks that I have predicted wrong on my new calling. Six weeks ago when I was called in I was sure it was to be the ward bulletin/newsletter editor. That position had just become available and I have to admit I was kind of aspiring to it. It's right up my alley. I was surprised to be called as relief society pianist. I haven't had a piano calling for a long time so that was nice. Since this position was so new I was taken aback when the Bishop called me in for another position. This time I was sure it was to be a relief society teacher because I know there are two teachers needed. Boy was I way off. I haven't been sustained yet so I can't tell you what it is, but do you have any guesses? (No fair spilling the beans children of mine!)

Saying hello to people in the doctor's office when you're not feeling well and the other occupants are either sick or hiding behind magazines is awkward. I was extra friendly to the receptionist and medical assistant though. By the way, I have new incentive to lose weight. I am so tired of stepping on the scale at the doctor's office and the girl has guessed wrong and has to move the next big weight up. I feel like I need to state a disclaimer of "start at 150" everytime I step on the scale the same way I have to tell them "listen for it low" every time they take my blood pressure. I've also learned to come prepared so that when they ask me if I'm on any medications I can whip the list out of my pocket. I have to admit that I had some fun with the same girl who must think I weigh 120 pounds. She asked me when my last period was and I told her, "October 3rd.... 1992." She turned a little red as she looked at my chart and saw that I'd had a hysterctomy. We got a good laugh.

Tomorrow is the last day of my experiment and hopefully I'll feel like going to church so I can try it out. We have a new ward in our building and I don't know many of their members. We pass them as they're coming into the chapel and we're going out. I'll have to see how many people I can say hi to in 5 minutes.

Hello World

I read an article in the Reader's Digest today called Hello, Everybody, by Joe Kita. For a whole month he said hello to every person he met and he wrote about the 11 lessons he learned from the experience. I found it very interesting and it sounded like a great challenge. I think I'll do it on a smaller scale though, say for a week. Katie thinks I should stay out of Walmart because there are too many people. Naomi wanted to know what I would do if I ran into the person again in the same store. I told her, "I guess I'll just say 'Hello again!" Anyone else up to the challenge?

Party Central

We have a full house right now and Kent calls it "party central". Katie has been here for two weeks, Aaron for one week, and Nanette and the boys for one week. Naomi has been home a lot too. Kent comes home from work to find all of us girls in the scrapbook room and he thinks that's all we've done all day, hence my title. I'm just basking in the glow of so much family around all the time. It feels like an extended Christmas break, although there never seems to be a clean glass in the cupboard even though we do a couple loads of dishes a day.

Here are some pictures of happenings at our house. As you can see, all of the Halloween wigs have still not been put away.

Sunday Togetherness

I had to laugh when I walked into the living room this afternoon and saw this: What would we do without laptops and wireless Internet?

Katie and Ethan were having fun playing the piano.

As you can see, we haven't put away the Halloween decorations yet,
or, the Halloween wigs:

Logan is fascinated with Katie and Aaron's dog
Wesson's dishes and would love to eat the dog
food and play in the water all day:

F, G, H

Football - Hooray, the Utah State Aggies actually won their football game today. Katie, Aaron, Kent and I attended the home game versus Hawai'i. We had great seats (thanks to Kent's work), the weather was perfect, and the game was exciting clear to the end. Aaron isn't a true-blooded Aggie from Utah, but he cheered just the same.

Goals - It's a good thing October is over. As much as I enjoyed all of my peanut butter cups, I kind of became obsessed with them and it's time to step back and gain control of my "appetites" again. So for November, I'm going to
1) continue to blog a lot (maybe not every day, but a lot)
2) floss every day (I'm sorry if it disappoints anyone to know that I rarely floss)
3) lose 2 pounds a week (by hook or crook or by not eating candy)
4) stay in my pajamas all day, one day a week and
5) mostly get my Christmas shopping done (including sewing new pajamas for Christmas Eve).

Halloween was a lot of fun. A lot of work went into costumes and Katie and Naomi put a lot of time and effort into a party for our family. We had a surprise dinner where you chose your food from a menu, but things had spooky names and you didn't know what you were ordering or what utensil you were asking for. Kent ate spaghetti really well with an ice cream scoop. Caleb (our pickiest eater) ordered mostly food he didn't like. It was pretty funny. We all went trick or treating together even though Ethan and Logan were the only ones with buckets. We also played the "candy bar game" which made me wonder if Nanette has practice rolling dice because she was constantly rolling doubles or seven or eleven and stealing candy bars. She won the most but shared the wealth at the end. I hope we can do it again next year.

Katie making wigs

Raggedy Ann & Andy

Wanna Be Hanna Montana & a pregnant Christina

Blue Einstein baby

Mr. & Mrs. Jack Sparrow

Miss Bo Peep found 1 sheep

Blue Barney

Homeless mullet haired guy who will work for candy was found on our bench

Kent did well with his scoop and spaghetti, but Aaron struggled with his spatula and vegetarian selections