Well, I have decided to reenter the world of blogging. My silence sure is not due to any lack of excitement around here; as a matter of fact, quite the contrary is true. We have had a whirlwind of a fall, and I am sorry I blew off my blog during those months. Oh well, what's done is done. I will post a slideshow at least for those months, even if I don't fill in the details.
Right now we are getting ready for Christmas, like the rest of America. The tree is up, the stockings are hung (using command poster strips for those 5 lb stocking hangers, those things are weapons!) and the baking has commenced. We were pounded with an amazing snowstorm a week or so ago, and the kids have had a blast building a new snow fort. One day they were out there for over 4 hours. I'll post a pic of their hard work, as soon as I trudge out to the back 40 with my camera.
Thanksgiving was amazing. Our dear friends, Chris and Ginger and their girls Alex, Audrey and Lily, came for a week from Arizona. They are such a breath of fresh air, and we had a blast with them! The entire time was exactly as we hoped-the kids were so happy to be together, the schedule was clear of almost all activity, and our time was joyful and relaxing. And the food was AMAZING. Chris put together a fabulous feast, with contributions from everyone else. We hosted, with CR, Amy, their kids, my mom, and our friend Sharon and her two kids, Jason and Rachel. Despite the number of kids (13!) and adults (8), we were able to set places for everyone and enjoy a sit-down, gorgeous meal complete with table decor and real dishes. :) Leftovers were great, too, with us going back and forth between our house and the Oldhams' to munch down all the yummy food over the next few days. The only sad part of the whole thing was saying good-bye to our friends, who left on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We sure weren't ready for them to leave!
This Christmas we will have the pleasure of hosting, and we will have all of Joe's family in town! We are so excited for everyone to come. We will have Joe's parents, grandmother, brother Kenny and wife Celia and Kenny's daughter Juliette, sister Annette, sister Theresa and husband Eric, and their 3 kids, Katelyn, Bethany and Ben. It will be the first time we meet little Ben (he was born in April 09) so we are all looking forward to that! Also, my mom will come, and possibly my family (Aunt Bobbie, Uncle Ray, Steph and Charlie), and maybe even Sharon, Jason, and Rachel. It will be a full house, literally, though the only overnight houseguests we will have are Juliette, Eric, Theresa, Katelyn, Bethany, and Ben. We are thankful for our big house, so the kids can run around in the basement and we adults can be unaware of the mess. ;)
We are hoping for no more home casualties, as in the last month we have replaced a dishwasher, toaster, 2 doorknobs, a furnace motor module, and our downstairs tv died, too. We aren't going to replace that, though. We'll just have to live without it for awhile.

Here are some pics from October, November and a bit of November.

Fall 09

Put Me in the Zoo

Oh wait, I'm already here.

In the last week we have acquired two new pets. One is cute and fuzzy and soft, doesn't bark, and loves to cuddle. His name is Corbin. He is a dwarf something-or-other rabbit, and is so darn cute!

Meet Corbin.

Isn't he adorable??? I'm a bunny person, so I'm kind of partial to his cuteness.

Our other new pet is named Phoenix, after our former home. He is, well, not cute. He is scaly, squiggly, slithery, and most definitely not cuddly. He is red and orange (like a Phoenix sunset) and he eats mice. Little, hairless pink shrively mice.

Meet Phoenix.

Phoenix is a corn snake. Our children were first introduced to corn snakes at a friend's house, and we all were quite taken with them. They can grow to be 4 to 6 feet in length, but we're hoping this little guy stays smaller than that. Phoenix is 2 months old (same as Corbin!) and Brad paid for him with his own money, aquarium and all. He has been saving for nearly a year.

Add these two to our one mini schnauzer, Ivy...

And three fish (David, Lenny and Benny)....

And one visiting chihuahua, the "daughter" of my mother-in-law....

I do believe our pet quiver is full, thank you. We now own one more pet than we have children.

Yes, we've lost our minds. Thanks for asking.

I'm over it

Well, thanks to 2 fabulous ideas from friends (Thanks, Naomi and Christine...and YES, Naomi I want that chocolate cake recipe!) I now know where the final few zucchini on my counter will be ending up. So 'nuff about that.

I stayed up too late last night and finished The Reader. It was pretty good, but I kept thinking there was going to be more to it. More mystery, more depth of characters, more...anything. Perhaps it was the German to English translation that kept it sort of surfacey, but overall it was an enjoyable 2-day read. It's a post WW2 novel, about a German boy who falls in love with an older lady who has a secret. I haven't seen the movie but I suspect the screenplay was much more in depth than the book. Otherwise the movie would have to be only about 45 minutes long.

I didn't read the one pictured here, so I was unaware that it is an Oprah recommendation. No offense to anyone who relies on her expertise in literature, but I tend to snark at several of the books she recommends. I guess we just don't always see eye to eye. I can live with that. But I would love to be on her "Oprah's Favorites" show...dang, have you seen some of the great stuff she gives away? Plasma tv's, Dyson vacuums, every kitchen appliance you can think of (please, does she really cook, or does she just enjoy watching her 7 chefs use said appliances?) that at the end of the show I feel the need to repent for coveting EVERYTHING. :)

Now I'm going to start reading Empire Falls by Richard Russo.

I'll let you know how it goes. It's 483 pages, so I won't be finishing it in two days. :)

Twisted, slimy, bitter-skinned vegetable of doom....

I don't like zucchini. I don't like it fried, fresh, chopped, sauted, or any other way in which the zucchini itself can actually be tasted. And yet, this time of year, thanks to gardeners all around and their generosity (!) toward me and mine, I never have fewer than 3 zucchini rotting on my counter at any given time. I make zucchini bread, which uses up at most 2 zucchini. How much zucchini bread should one person make in a lifetime, you ask? I don't know, but I'm thinking soon I will meet my quota.

Please, if you are feeling so inclined, skip me whilst you are doling out zucchini. For I am filled up with zucchini, and cannot make any more bread. Ever. Or at least until next year. But we have some new neighbors, perhaps you can unburden your zucchini load upon them.

Afterbirth: It\'s What\'s For Dinner

As a doula I have embraced ideas I never thought I would. However, I have only one thing to say about this one. Ew.

I mean it, ew.


Afterbirth: It\'s What\'s For Dinner

I am not shooting the idea down, though. It's just, well....ew.

Be sure and watch the video...hilarious!

AZ, CA, and the Mouse

We just spent a fabulous month traveling. It was wonderful! Of course, as with any long vacation, we were thrilled to get home, too. The kids and I spent about 3 weeks in AZ with Joe's parents and all of our friends. I have never done so much visiting in such a short period of time in my life! As an introvert, my "chatting" maximum was reached, but I loved every minute of it! My in-laws spoiled us sufficiently with numerous movies, dinners, trips to DQ and Starbucks, and so much more. We stayed with them the entire time, so the fact that they weren't booting us out by the end shows what a tolerant pair they are! :)

While we were in AZ, the kids participated in Choir Camp at Faith Church. The program was "First Action Heroes" about the heroes of the Bible. Lindsay and Nathan were leads, with Lindsay playing a present-day character and Nathan playing Joshua. Kaylee was in the chorus, and Brad (who was too old for the camp itself) was a stage hand and really enjoyed that. Lots of pictures to follow.

Celebrating Dad on Father's Day

Celebrating Grampa on Father's Day

Lindsay (in the blue flowers) as "Taylor"

Lindsay and Nathan (Joshua)

Grammy with our newly adopted bunny, Corbin (who will be coming to UT with his Grammy and Grampa in August)

Because he had to work, Joe joined us in AZ for Father's Day and the performance. After two weeks apart, we couldn't wait to see him! We stayed a few more days in AZ and then headed off to CA to stay with Joe's brother Kenny and his wife Celia. They graciously hosted us for four days while we did the touristy southern CA stuff, like visit the Mouse (twice) and the beach. Our friends, the Torlas, joined us for Disney and the beach, which was extra fun. Despite the magnanimous crowds, the time we spent in line was surprisingly short thanks to The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland. If you are ever planning to visit the Mouse during the busy seasons, BUY THIS BOOK! It will shave hours off of your standing around time. You just have to be willing to follow their plans, and be willing to WALK because you zip back and forth over the park to avoid the cattle herds of people milling around staring at their maps.

Kenny and Brad

Jessica, Lindsay and Kaylee

The Infamous "Ear" Gang

We seemed to be amidst a budding romance between Christopher and Hannah. The two were inseparable! They were like this when they were younger, but we thought with the move it might change...apparently not! Won't it be funny if they end up married? :)

There were countless more pictures like this one- arm in arm!

Lindsay and Hannah



Kaylee in the Blue Bayou restaurant, overlooking Pirates of the Caribbean ride



Cap'n Brad


Aaargh!


The littlest cuties

We also spent a glorious day at Newport Beach. The weather was perfect, and no one got burned. Yeah!

Kaylee and Hannah building...um...blobs?


Lindsay, Brad, James and Nathan

Look closely, you'll find a crab that Brad and James caught. With some coaxing from the adults, he was set free.

There are many, many more pictures from our wonderful trip, but those will need to be posted tomorrow. I'm off to bed!

Farewell, Our Little Friend

Mowgli
September 7, 1994-April 13, 2009

We said good-bye to Mowgli, our 14.5-year-old miniature dachshund yesterday. We've had that little guy almost as long as we've been married, and longer than we've had children. Joe bought him for me for my college graduation in December 1994. He was a snuggly, sweet little 5-pound puppy that melted my heart immediately! Of course, I was working in a vet's office as a surgery assistant, so he had top notch medical care. We treated him like a baby. He slept in our bed, ate by us at dinner (on the floor, we weren't completely insane) and was treated like royalty. Until January 1996, that is. At that point he began to slip down the totem pole of our lives until after our third child was born, he was officially "the dog." I'm sure he wondered about his demotion, but you'd never know. He protected each of the babies, positioning himself between the sleeping baby on the couch and the front door. When cars would pass, he'd let out a low growl, just as a warning but not loud enough to wake the baby. He taught each of them to crawl by lying just out of reach, wagging his tail, so that each one would strive to get to him. As a baby, Brad made a regular effort to suck on Mowgli's tail, which if we hadn't bathed Mowgli so often, would be really, really gross. Actually, it's still gross. But Mowgli was a little four-legged family member, and we all loved him...I guess even germophobic I was able to look past that.
He used to sit up and beg, almost for the entire duration of our meals. Occasionally he'd tip over, but he sit right back up again as quickly as possible. Only my mother-in-law actually rewarded him at the table for this, and he was very, very grateful to her. :) He developed a fondness for wrapped presents and every Christmas would wait in anticipation for his gift. He'd wrestle the paper gently in his teeth and tear it from his gift...and then seem a bit disappointed when the paper was off. I got in the habit of buying a package of rawhides and wrapping them individually so he could unwrap each one. This past Christmas he did not open his presents, and we were all sad...we knew those days had passed. We will miss him very much, but especially at Christmas.

One other very funny thing Mowli did was make his "peanut butter face." When he'd eat peanut butter, his face would stick in this crazy position.






We love you, little guy. Rest in peace. And yes, we think dogs go to heaven. :)

It's been awhile...

Wow! A whole month and more have passed since my last post. It has been a crazy month, full of visitors and fun!
First, our good friends Tim and Naomi and their 4 kids Mika, Emily, Gabe and Tessa came for a whole week and we had a wonderful time. They live in Africa, so our visits with them are few and far between. The kids had so much fun playing in the snow (something their kids rarely see!) building forts and having snowball fights. The time was both relaxing and fun, my favorite combination.

Joe and Mom celebrated their birthday (same day). Naomi did most of the work for their birthday meal, and it was YUMMY!

Tim and Naomi's youngest, Tessa, 4, with our Hannah.

One magnificent snow fort! (a total of 3 were built throughout the week- the snow kept melting!)


Joe's parents came in the beginning of March, and we had a great time. Grampa sufficiently spoiled the kids with regular trips to DQ, plus an extra-fun adventure to Toys R Us with the money he so generously supplied (with the lesson that some is set away for college and some is tithed, that only a Grampa can deliver)





Grammy sufficiently spoiled me, too, with several Starbucks trips. :) We all played games and watched AI and just spent lots of quality time together. Joe and Dad built shelves in our storage room- yeah!! As always, it was wonderful and way too short. We are so looking forward to visiting AZ in June to pick up where we left off.




We were surprised and thrilled when Chris and Ginger called in late February to let us know they were considering a trip up here for their spring break. It had been 8 long months without them, and we were all feeling desperate to see them! The look on the girls' faces when we told them they were coming was priceless. The reunion when they got here on the 13th was even more priceless- we were all screaming and hugging and we felt like Christmas had come again! The week was wonderful, with fun activities like sledding intermingled with lots of easy-going board games and movie times. We did a bit of sightseeing, but I think we really just wanted to see each other! Of course, the time went way too quickly and now we're left to pine for our time together in AZ in June. Here are some pics of our sledding trip. We went to a friend's house up in Wolf Creek (about 25 minutes northeast).

Hannah was the only one who had a less than exciting time. Her sledding adventure ended as quickly as it began. Hannah's version went like this: "I was on the sled and it went fast and I fell off. Then I got up and Brad ran over me. And now I'm all done."


Above: Lindsay BEFORE she hit a tree and sliced her cheek. That's Audrey there on the left.

Ginger and Lily


Kaylee and Elizabeth with one of our host friends' children...her name escapes me.

Lily, Alex and Daniel

Kaylee and Lily, BFF's since birth

Afternoon fun- Lily, Kaylee, Elizabeth and Hannah

Chris and Ginger- our wonderful friends

Also BFF's Alex, Lindsay and Audrey

Hannah and Chris

It was sooooooooooo hard to say good-bye!

After the Trudgens left, we slogged back into our old routine of school and work. Homework resumed, I had stacks of papers to grade, and none of us could wait for spring break to come. Well, now it's here (this is my 3rd attempt at this post, so today is actually April 7) and we are all looking forward to a week of relaxing and enjoying each other's company. Let's hope we're not sick of each other by Wednesday.

In this last month, we have also made a huge, very prayed-over decision concerning school for next year. We've had a lot of confirmation from friends and family that this is the best thing for us, but it was still a tough decision to make. We are going to go back to homeschooling the younger girls and leave the older ones in their private school. Financially, it's the best choice, but more importantly, time-wise it is best for all of us. I am one of those people that does one thing really well and everything else halfway. Well, I've been pouring myself into teaching and parenting has gone by the wayside. We've seen concrete evidence that the kids aren't getting the attention they need from me as mom, and that kills me. So, it's back to the stay-at-home mom job for me, and I have no regrets. I learned so much this year, and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. But I have missed so much in the kids' lives and I look forward to being able to be room mom and field trip chaperone and all of that again. It's how I'm wired. :)
So now we are excited to turn our den (it's the room Joe used as his office when he worked from home, but now it just has a big desk and some bookcases...no computer or anything) into a homeschooling room. I didn't have one before, and I think this will be great. No more using the kitchen table for everything, I'll actually have a desk for me, and a table for the girls, plus places for all of our supplies in that room. It has a huge window, bright and cheerful, and we're going to paint it this summer. (the room, not the window) Right now it's a yucky (my opinion) khaki green.
Hmmm, what else is going on? Well, it's finally looking like spring around here. We've had a boatload of snow this winter. Twice my car got stuck in our driveway, and twice I fishtailed into a snowbank, causing damage in the form of paint removal to my front bumper. The van doors froze shut three times, and we went through 3 containers of "Red Hot Ice Melt" on our front and back porches. Yes, this AZ family is READY for spring!