Jon and Mary Wilson Family

Granddaddy

2012-01-18T21:44:00.001-08:00

My granddad passed away this morning. It's hard to lose a grandparent, even when you feel like you didn't know them that well.

Of course, I did stop and visit my grandparents as I was traveling from Georgia to California. That was only two weeks ago. So there is a small comfort in that. And I got to spend a few weeks with him and my grandmother almost 10 years ago when all three of us serendipitously ended up in Germany at the same time.

Before my visit two weeks ago, though, it's been years since I last saw my granddad. He and grandma went to Utah for several visits, and I actually made it to one or two of those visits. But I still never knew what to really talk about. Even for those two weeks in Germany. Don't get me wrong; granddad is an extraordinary man. He rose from shop sweeper to airline pilot to retirement all with the same company.

So -- that picture at the top of this post is pretty much the only picture I have ever personally taken of my granddad. His holding Adara, who was a little less than one month old in this picture.

Spiritual Benchmarks

2011-12-28T22:30:00.000-08:00

I found a great picture for this post, but it is copyrighted. You can see it here. (You might have to right click on the link to open it.)

Paraphrasing and expounding on a point made in the Relief Society lesson the week before Christmas: There are spiritual benchmarks that we reach. [Another word for benchmark is milestone.] Often, as we are approaching the pinnacle of our efforts, we begin to doubt our abilities. We get discouraged when we look at others and feel that they are "higher up" on their peaks than we are. We wonder why we haven't met the benchmark that others seem to have already mastered. "Perhaps there is something wrong with me," we might think to ourselves.

But there is nothing wrong. Everyone has to experience the pain of growth as we approach our individual spiritual benchmarks. None of us is allowed to fly over the obstacles on the mountain. The pain we are feeling is evidence that we are on the right path.

Deer Near Miss

2011-12-17T19:59:00.000-08:00

Tonight as I was driving the baby sitter home, I almost hit a deer. A short time earlier, I had a distinct thought that I should slow down. Even though I was having an energetic conversation with Heather, I remember that thought very clearly, and I automatically slowed down as soon as the thought occurred to me.

I would like to believe that this was the Spirit whispering to my spirit, though nothing in my emotional experience of the situation would indicate a supernatural force at work. Except perhaps that lucid thought about slowing down, amidst the turmoil which is my mind when I am driving and trying to hold a conversation at the same time.

But then I saw an ornament similar to this one:

And I wondered what the deer I almost hit would think of this golden, glowing creature. Does a deer have a sense of the supernatural? Or does it regard these statues as freakish abnormalities that should be avoided at all costs? Or, does it not even recognize the abstract visual representation of a foreign species?

Conversation with the 2 year old

2011-12-09T20:48:00.001-08:00

Naomi: I want a pantsess.

Me: A what?

N: A pants-ess.

M: I don't understand what you're saying.

Naomi (louder): A PAN-CESS.

Me: Did you say a pantsess?

Naomi: I don't understand what you're saying.

Update: The conversation above occurred at bedtime. This morning, I asked Naomi what she was talking about. She took me to the medicine cabinet and repeated: "pancess." She wanted a bandaid on the owie on her chin. (We call bandaids "bandages" in our house.)

Random spiritual thoughts

2011-11-17T17:49:00.001-08:00

1. A thought regarding the covenant to give my time and talents to the work of the Lord:

Learning to nurture children with a Christian philosophy most definitely falls into the category of giving of my time and talents to furthering the work of the Lord on the earth. It seems mundane and obvious now that I write it out, but since I never realized this fact, or felt the emotional impact of it, it is not mundane to me now.

At times I wish I could be doing grander things. Just a short time before I became a mother, I was a missionary. I never doubted that the work I was doing was what the Lord wanted me to do. But as a mother, it is much easier to doubt. Teaching a child to pray is obviously in keeping with the Christian tradition. But can my children feel, through my prayers, the great love and admiration that I have for the Savior? And for that matter, can I feel that love myself on a regular basis?

2. Moses 7:62 ". . . and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to ^dgather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth. . .that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming. . ."

Reading that verse today, it occurred to me that girding up my loins is what I am doing every time I rededicate myself to living the gospel. Every time I fall off the gospel horse and lay in the mud for a time, the decision to get back on is equivalent to girding up my loins. Every time I wonder if my friends and family who have left the church are in a better position than I am, the decision I make to hold on a little longer is the same as girding up my loins.

Living far away from friends and family in a neighborhood with no other believers of my faith (aside from my husband) is proving to be quite a test of my choice to be a disciple of Christ. Of course the ward family makes that choice a little bit easier, but it is a large ward with a huge youth program and very few babies. I feel I am left to myself, even when I am at church, since everyone is focused so much on youth whose testimonies are more obviously in danger of faltering.

And, in fact, the core of my testimony does seem to be holding and proving to be solid. I know from much study and prayer that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that Joseph Smith was telling the truth about the vision he had. I know, moreover, that to continue in obedience to the commandments requires not just a testimony of the truth, but that I must perform the actions of faith to actively strengthen that testimony. Things such as scripture study, prayer, attending church meetings, etc., etc.

So I wonder, would it be any easier to perform those actions if I lived in a more supportive environment? Or would that supportive environment merely accelerate my descent into apostasy?

Mushrooms!

2011-11-16T16:57:00.001-08:00

I love mushrooms. Jon inoculated some logs last year and we have been awaiting a harvest. Here is a meal we made today from the very first mushrooms. It was fantastic!

Served over a bed of barely rice, and fried green tomatoes on the side.

Speaking Southern

2011-11-14T10:36:00.001-08:00

Well, I don't know if it is because we live in the South, or if it is because she is just two years old. Whatever the cause, however, we find this vocal inflection a bit disturbing.

Green Tomatoes

2011-11-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

Who knew how many things you can make with green tomatoes?! Besides the famous southern fried treat, I've learned to make the tomatoes into a puree and incorporate it into spice bread. I've made a simple vegetable soup with optional ham or bacon. And, I haven't tried this yet, but I've heard it makes a tasty mock apple pie.

So, in this jobless season here in the Wilson family, we are reaping an abundant, edible harvest of fruits that didn't even ripen. The Lord surely does take care of his own.

I'm Going There Someday

2011-10-22T18:51:00.001-07:00

One day Naomi was looking at a picture of Jon's and my wedding. She started singing to herself: "I'm going there someday . . . "

Lil' Stinkers

2011-10-21T23:09:00.000-07:00

Keenan, sitting on my lap, looks up at me and says, "Papa."

"Mama," I correct him, and he grins and sticks out his tongue.

Bonus pic from several months ago:

God's wife

2011-10-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today Adara told me what God's wife's name was. Unfortunately, God's angels put a veil over my mind and now I don't remember what it was. :(

Contrariness

2011-10-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

Naomi is in full contrary 2-year-old mode. She is violently independent, and uses the word "no" ubiquitously, as though her brain doesn't have the ability to recognize positive affirmations.

Most of the time this is infuriating. Sometime's it's mildly irritating. And every once in awhile, it is funny.

She came into the room one day singing "I like to move it, move it," but she had modified the lyrics slightly. "I don't like to move it, move it. I don't like to move it, move it!" she sang, over and over again.

Can I Drive?

2011-09-26T19:18:00.000-07:00

This little girl surprises me on a regular basis. This picture, which was taken in July, is documenting Naomi's ability to unlock the door by herself. She asked, several times, "Mama, can I drive?"

The most recent surprise was this weekend. Jon and I left the kids with a babysitter and, when we came home, Naomi's first words to me were: "Did you have a good time, Mama?" So grown-up sounding. I just am not used to it.

What Mormons do in sacred places

2011-09-02T20:40:00.001-07:00

Sacred historic site, goofy Australian trend. The perfect marriage!

Adara and Jon planking in Adam-ondi-Ahman

"Beware of Online Filter Bubbles"

2011-08-31T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is worth the 10 minutes. It has changed the way I look at my world -- hopefully for the better.

http://www.wimp.com/filterbubbles/

Bye Bye Curls

2011-08-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

The back of Keenan's head was filled with sloppy curls -- just like his dad's. Sometimes they are really cute, and other times the cuteness is replaced by the image of hair that just needs to be cut. So we gave him his first trim today. I forgot to document the "before" of the back of his head (I did not cut anything except the back). But trust me that the only difference between before and after is that now he has shorter hair with no curls. (That's my disclaimer, because his hair line is wonky (like his dad's) and I didn't even try to straighten it out, as I think that would have made it even more wonky.)

Ok, here goes:

There wasn't a lot of hair on the floor, but I promise the before haircut Keenan really looked like he had too much hair on the back of his head.

Naomi sat in on the special occasion, and was quite distraught because I would not let her play with the camera. My solution to the problem? Start taking pictures of her:

(That is peanut butter on her mouth.)

She laid down inside the cupboard, so I didn't rotate the pictures.

This picture seems to prove that she just wanted me to divide my attention a little bit between the little brother and the diva.

And, finally, we started counting her toes and I just had to include it here.

fun waste of time

2011-08-20T18:45:00.000-07:00

My favorite finds on my time wasting websites (if you click any links, you will be leaving Google blogger):

1. From Engrish.com (posted on a sign) -- Grass is green because of morals, flowers are colorful because

2. (From a Thailand hotel, a posting of rules) Don't bluster annoy and trouble other utterly violate have to punish dismiss from Building and seize bail bond.

3. (from a menu)

Halogen intestines salad

The Dutch cowboys dig up spell roast the turkey (Black pepper juice)

Cream trick grass milk-fish platoon

Annoys the taste turkey to approve Sm

. . .

The milk-fish platoon spells roasts the turkey (Wild fungus juice)

4. Cakewrecks, Elvis cake wrecks

5. Cake imitating other food

I hope you didn't look at those links before lunchtime. . .

Infatuation

2011-08-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine always says how much she adores her kids. I admire that she says it so often. While they are awake, I don't often think of what a joy these little ones can be. But put those kiddos in bed and all I can do is think about how fun they are and how cute they look, and how proud I am for their accomplishments. So I now join the club by saying, I adore my children.

Naomi makes a mama proud -- potty training herself because I didn't dare to do it with all the craziness in our lives at the moment.

Here is Keenan eating a chicken bone. I know, it's a choking hazard, but we just couldn't resist his pleas for meat!

And finally, this is Adara, planking (sort of) on a pipe somewhere in Wyoming.

Kickin' It

2011-06-30T00:24:00.000-07:00

We went to Yosemite one day and the rest of the days we just relaxed at home. It was a great vacation. We especially liked playing with Uncle Kenny, who managed to be behind the camera for a great deal of the picture-taking time.

I forget what video this is -- but I'm sure it's fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhroHXWbcUk

10 Bears in the Bed

2011-06-30T00:20:00.000-07:00

We all slept in the same bed at Poppy and Nana's house.
This was not posed. She was actually sleeping with her mouth squished into the mattress so much that it was open.

What an angel.
Awwww . . .

CA trip

2011-06-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

Sleeping over at a friend's house on the way to Poppy and Nana's.

We stopped in Tehapachi.

A very nice lady befriended my kids.

Bunch of fun videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96WJFOIJkso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo1pTEAZSZc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4_aBmu_iss

Temple Square

2011-06-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

Some gems from our visit to Temple Square:

Here's a fun video of Naomi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu05672t6yo

Botanical Garden

2011-06-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

A few pics of Naomi at Red Butte Garden. More to come . . .

Dirty words

2011-06-15T06:25:00.001-07:00

My little 4 y.o. was sitting in the car yesterday playing with her 7 month old little brother. She would say "bathroom word!" and he would laugh like he knew why that was funny.

Family

2011-05-29T21:39:00.001-07:00

This pretty much sums up Adara's time on our family visit. She is constantly surrounded by cousins. I hardly ever see her.

Everyone is still in p.j.'s because everyone was sick:

We were invited to Sunday dinner at a sister's house. Right when we came in, her 15-year-old son was the first to take Keenan out of my arms and snuggle him.

The cousins at the dinner table.

Naomi eating a creamsicle.

Wanted to document the Uncle and his sister.

Keenan in a paint ball helmet.

Paint ball cousin playing a hunting video game with Keenan.

I like the picture of Jesus on the wall, witnessing the exclamations of "Shoot him! Yeah!"

I love this dress in this setting. It looks like she should be in a log cabin in front of a cook fire instead of a microwave.

With the camera strapped over my neck and arm, Naomi started taking pictures. This one actually worked pretty well, I thought.

Since I didn't get pictures of Adara at the dinner family gathering, I got one of her when we came home. She is holding her youngest cousin. (Though hopefully it this cousin will not be the youngest for much longer.)

Toddler Service

2011-05-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

Today I witnessed, for the first time, in the purity of a child, the phenomenon of people preferring to give service rather than receive it.

We are visiting my sister and her family this week. This morning, Naomi was hungry, but when I told her to go ask her uncle in the kitchen for some food, she would not go. But as soon as I saw a dirty dish that needed to be washed, she immediately jumped off of the couch and gave it to Uncle Cody. Who knew that such an attitude is inherent rather than learned?

Amicalola

2011-05-22T04:53:00.000-07:00

We visited Amicalola Falls not long ago. Naomi opted to hike Mama and Papa. Adara and Keenan drove down the mountain with Nana and Poppy.

Hilton Head

2011-05-02T21:03:00.000-07:00

We went to the beach at Hilton Head Island last week. I took about 2 pictures, but they didn't turn out. I was having too much fun playing in the waves to think about taking pictures. None of the babies wanted anything to do with the water, though. So it was just me in there. Bummer.

Repeat -- per request

2011-04-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

As requested, pictures of complementary teeth. (Jon and I have some friends who seem perfectly suited to us. And their children seem perfectly complementary to ours, as well. I swear we are not imagining it! These pictures are proof.)

Bliss

2011-03-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

This is how I feel inside today:

Ahhhhhh . . .

Three Cloth Diapers A Day

2011-03-16T22:04:00.000-07:00

Text taken from the "Change 3 Things" Facebook page:

"Change 3 Things: 3 cloth diapers. One planet. Big impact.

"Why three diapers? We are busy parents too and really appreciate achievable, manageable goals. Changing three cloth diapers a day is something that almost any parent can do (stay at home or working). Do my 3 cloth diapers per day really matter? Yes, it matters!

. . .

"How does it really change me? Every cloth diaper saves about $.25 (depending on what brand of disposables you buy). If you save $.75 a day, it may not seem like much, but those three diapers can save you approximately $260 over the upcoming year. In addition to the savings per diaper, you can save yourself time, money and gas for those emergency trips to the store when you run out of diapers.

"As parents, we know how frustrating it is to do those repetitive tasks like dishes, laundry, picking up toys, and changing diapers only to turn around and do it again a short time later. By joining the Change 3 Things revolution, you can take one of those repetitive tasks and turn it into an opportunity to create lasting impact that your two year old can’t undo in five minutes.

. . .

"One baby in disposables could contribute as much as one ton of waste to a local landfill! Your participation in this revolution of change could prevent the disposal of as much as 55 million pounds of waste."

Will you take the challenge with me?

Sculpture or Drawing?

2011-03-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

Adara's latest masterpiece. Would you call it mixed media?

We try to accessorize Naomi's outfits:

She likes being cute, and posing for the camera. But when the glow of attention wears off, she feels compelled to analyze the specimen to discover its secrets. (And potentially exploit them to further her own ends.)

Crummy Day

2011-03-08T18:03:00.001-08:00

I was having a crummy day. Everyone was feeling it. How did Naomi react to my crumminess?

I picked up the camera and when I next saw Naomi, she was doing this:

This is how she looked when I requested a repeat performance:

I wish I could say that my day got better. From a larger perspective, however, this day was great. How many other days, which are otherwise unremarkable, get immortalized on the blog?

Blog Catch Up #3 - Pennsylvania

2011-02-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

In mid-July 2010 we moved to Pittsburgh. The following pictures were taken at the New River Gorge Bridge visitor's center near Fayetteville, West Virginia. The pictures do not do justice to the place. If you're ever near there, it is worth your while to stop and stretch your legs while enjoying the incredible view.

The Altar Church in Pittsburgh. We loved the exterior of the doors and stairs. Wicked!

Just Naomi -- documenting her cuteness (July 2010).

A sisterly friendship begins (August 2010). To me it felt like forever for them to get to this point. Having seven sisters of my own, I really want my girls to know what it is like to have a fun, best sister friend.

Blog Catch Up #2

2011-02-22T16:48:00.000-08:00

This is from last summer. The socks were an attempt to wean Naomi from sucking on her fingers. She was pretty frustrated at not being able to suck her fingers. She learned how to take the socks off of her hands by using her teeth. I think it goes without saying that she still sucks her fingers.

For his 30th birthday, Jon went skydiving. First time jumpers were required to go tandem. If I hadn't been pregnant at the time, I still would likely not have done this with him.

Adara on the 4th of July (2010). Her friend is Nathan, and they are sitting on Nathan's grandma's lap. Adara's dad and Nathan's dad get along really well, and they hope their kids continue that tradition. Of course they are half-joking, but it's kinda weird to see how complementary Adara and Nathan are. For example, at the hot dog lunch that day, Adara only wanted a hot dog and Nathan only wanted a bun (this is normal eating behavior for both of them). And they play together remarkably well.

We visited Nathan, his mom, and his little brother Blake recently. His smile was pretty kooky, and when I commented on it, his mom said that Blake only had his canine teeth -- none of the others have come in yet. I thought that was fairly significant because Naomi has all over her teeth except her canines. Just coincidence? We will wait and see.

Speaking of Naomi and teeth -- I think the intent of this next picture was to capture Naomi's kooky teeth when she was one year old.

Characterization

2011-02-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was in Asheville, North Carolina. Nearly everyone you meet there is a character, and I once again wish that I knew more about writing. I was there to meet the staff of the regional arts and culture magazine, with which I volunteer. Everyone on the magazine's staff is a volunteer. And I am the proofreader.

Please, if anyone reads this, please forgive my clumsiness and blatant observations. If anyone can tell me somewhere where I can learn how to "write" a character, I'd really be grateful.

Ok, enough apologizing. Here's the story.

The party was at the hippie-dominated Mellow Mushroom, a pizza place whose most popular menu items included the words "organic" and "vegetarian". The "back room" looked to me like a fire hazard, though it was probably only me. The room was probably perfectly navigable before I entered, one baby strapped to a pack on my chest, and another in a stroller in front of me.

Can you imagine a more uncomfortable situation? The picture of conservative, traditional American family life in a hippie establishment. A mother encumbered with babies in a crowded room full of breakable glasses and drippy food. A proofreader in a room full of non-professional writers.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed my time there. The first person I met was the writer of the beer article. He was very sociable, seemed to know everyone else, and was willing to help out the newbie (me). It's probably stereotyping to say that I should have expected the beer guy to be like that. And I'm okay with stereotyping people, to some extent, and especially when the stereotype is a pleasant one. But when the stereotype is unpleasant . . .

The wine guy was not aware that the magazine had a proofreader. Until he met me. From reading his articles, it seems to me that he believes that not many people are very well educated on the subject of wine. He may be quite right about that. He put a fine point on the idea that his article did not need to be corrected by anyone other than himself. I found myself going to unnecessary lengths to assure him that I rarely found mistakes in his articles. He quickly began to ignore me. *Sigh*

The two writers that were the friendliest to me were reviewers. One was the music reviewer (who, I discovered, was an elementary school teacher by profession) and the other was one of the movie reviewers. Perhaps their friendliness to me was because they can sympathize with the sometimes unpleasant task of providing critiques on others' work. Or, perhaps it is because neither of them seems overly concerned with making mistakes. (You can read that as, their articles frequently have a lot of mistakes in them.)

Finally, the graphic designer. I do not proofread her work. She sends me the unpublished work to proofread, and I return the corrections to her. She has an androgynous name, so I was quite interested in meeting her, just to know her gender. She was a very calm person. I don't have many other words to describe her personality. Her physical appearance could help give an idea of the feeling you get when you're around her. She is black, though she gave no signs of being part of the black culture. Her most striking feature was her hair: full and long (extensions?), giving a sense that she was royalty, or a medicine woman with connections. She was relaxed and polite in a deliberate, dignified, and calm way.

I also briefly met the publisher. He was the only other person there who had brought children with him. He had two boys, one seemed to be older-elementary school, and the other might have been kindergarten age or so. And the publisher himself? I was surprised at how unassuming he was. The other people in the room were definitely characters, but he was not obviously such. I did not spend much time talking to him, but, since publishing is my career of choice, I have a lot of questions for him. I realize he volunteers as the publisher, so perhaps it's different than being a professional publisher. But still, I would like to know what he knows about publishing.

Has anyone read all the way here? How would you characterize me in the story? My own view: I'm the one trying to make everyone feel valuable, like their work is acceptable and good. I don't want them to think I am overly critical.

Prayers

2011-02-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking that I need to write in my journal about answers to prayers, but I never seem to have time. Since I've been studying scriptures online lately, this is the most convenient place to record my thoughts.

On Sunday after church, my little Naomi was playing with her brother's pacifier. She is fascinated with it, even though she has never used one (well, not for its intended purpose, anyway). I became distracted and she left the pacifier who knows where. I made some effort to find it, looking repeatedly in the places that I normally put it. Somewhere in my mind I had a thought to look in the box of toy dishes that Naomi often plays with, but I never recognized that thought as being an important one. And since Keenan only occasionally takes a pacifier, the need to find it was not too urgent.

Then, yesterday, Adara was playing in the toy dishes and she raised up Keenan's pacifier triumphantly, with a shout that she had found it.

A contrast to that story is last week when Jon couldn't find his car keys before work. He looked in all the normal places and then he asked me if I knew where they were. The very first thought that came to me was to look in his truck. As is normal for me, I first looked in his normal places (even though he had already done that -- silly creature of habit that I am). But, the need being urgent, I paid more attention when the thought to look in his truck came again. Going straight out to the truck with my own keys, I did indeed find his keys there.

How are these two stories related to prayer? No prayers were offered specifically to help me find the lost items. But I do frequently include a request in my prayers that I will be able to recognize the promptings of the Holy Spirit when they come. And, knowing the Lord requires us to obey His commandments if we want to receive the blessings we desire, I have rededicated myself to regular, sincere scripture study. I am not perfect at it, but I am pleased to find that my efforts to know the Lord better have been rewarded.

My Sister and Inside Jokes

2011-01-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

This is my youngest sister. Some of my junior high friends might remember the joke.

Old Pics, Volume I

2011-01-16T20:14:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted many pictures here since we started moving around in June of last year. I have taken a lot, as you are about to witness. Though you must realize this is the modern equivalent of boring family slide shows. You have been warned.

The following were all taken in June, our last full month in Pinehurst.

Pirate Princess Naomi

Filling Papa's shoes

An actual, untampered with view of Adara's bedroom floor. The diversity of toys gives me hope that the princess theme will not dominate her playtime. (As some items may not be readily identifiable, there is a Princess Aurora Ballerina doll, a miniature ambulance, and I believe the yellow thing is an upside down plastic killer bee.)

One last offering for tonight -- I chose it because it documents Naomi's hair really well. The video is probably not terribly interesting to anyone except for me. In my mind, Naomi is an adorable, charming, beautiful child. Obviously my view of her has been, *ahem* enhanced, *ahem*.

P.S. I recently called my mother to discover where Naomi's red hair comes from. My paternal grandfather apparently had auburn hair that could pass for dark brown in certain situations. My mother's father's father, I am told, was a carrot top. Why the red hair genes have skipped several generations, and trumped the supposedly "dominant" brown hair gene, remains a mystery.

Christmas

2011-01-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

Nope -- still no holiday blog post for me. Have a ton of pictures, but taking a picture of the 3 babies is much, much easier than sitting down at a computer with 3 babies trying to play on the computer with you.

Fingers

2010-12-10T19:46:00.000-08:00

Just an ordinary day of memories:

This is the week that Keenan finally succeeded in getting the thumb to stay in his mouth. A momentous, though somewhat moist, and germy, occasion.

This gem documents Naomi's reaction to the apparently tart apple she was eating. The best part about this is that she makes this face every time she takes a bite. But she doesn't stop eating!

Cute potential. I'm afraid my luck with the camera ran out after the shot of Naomi with the apple. The actual kiss that followed this picture was really cute. The most remarkable part of this picture, however, is that all three babies are awake and relatively happy.

The New Adara

2010-12-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

Conversation with Adara:

Me: "We're going home because it's Naomi's nap time."

Adara: "But it's not my naptime."

M: "That's right, because you're getting old."

A: "Is it time to get a new one?"

5 Weeks Old

2010-12-05T19:34:00.000-08:00

Jon must have taken this picture today. I thought it was hilarious.

Cornbread Stuffing

2010-11-25T21:03:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving Day when I was living with my mom and dad, we ate a dinner with plenty of Southern touches. The most memorable for me are the cornbread stuffing, gravy with giblets, and watermelon pickles.

Now we live in the South. Our last two Thanksgiving dinners have been in North Carolina (which I know is in the South, but for me it's not south enough). Of course today we were in Georgia for dinner. And I find it ironic that my Thanksgiving dinners when I was growing up in Utah were more southern than any of the meals I've eaten in the past three years.

(Someone tell mom I miss her cornbread stuffing!)

Anybody out there have a unique regional flavor to their holiday dishes?

More Baby

2010-11-10T19:32:00.000-08:00

Another picture post:

It's day 10 of Keenan's life. I'm making an effort to put him in his cradle to sleep. (Grandpa Wilson made the cradle. I'm working on making bed clothes for the mattress and bumpers.)

Jon peeked into the cradle and immediately made a place on our bed for the baby. Our first two babies were in bed with us for convenience (nighttime feedings), but it was understood that they needed to learn, quickly, to sleep in their own beds. As much as I love snuggling a newborn baby, in the back of my mind is the thought that the sleep deprivation won't last forever and I will eventually start waking up when I hear the grunts and snorts of the new baby next to me. (This started happening this morning.)

So, when I accused Jon of changing his tune about babies sleeping in bed with us, he simply said, "I like babies more now."

And, just for random fun pictures -- here is Naomi sporting her new bunny slippers that were a gift from her Poppy. She loves them, as she does most every shoe she comes across. Keeping them on her feet, however, is another story.

The video is random, too. This little girl is obsessed with hats. Anything that she can put on her head is a hat. But, as with the shoes, don't ask her to wear one for longer than 5 seconds.

New Baby Highlights

2010-11-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

Keenan Sean Wilson, born 31 October 2010 at 3:03 p.m. Weight: 8 lbs 6 oz. Length: 20 inches. Head circumference: 13.5 inches. Location: In his parents' home outside of Atlanta, GA.

Here are a few highlights of his first 24 (or so) hours of his life.

Just a few minutes old. Jon's comment on the miracle of a new baby is that they come out smelling good.

I know that everyone loves a new baby, but I am nevertheless surprised by Naomi's enthusiasm for her brother.

(A friend from church got our girls new dresses for this occasion. They felt so special. Thank you Cindy!)

Papa, thanking the heavens for the gift of a son.

Adara is assessing the situation

before she makes a decision

about how to behave.

I am sure we are going to find ourselves in this type of situation quite a bit for the next little while.

The End

Toddler Realism

2010-10-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

The nursery leader in our new ward related this to me:

For snack time in nursery the children were eating

goldfish crackers. The teachers were saying that the

goldfish would swim around in the children's

tummies, round and round and round.

Adara didn't buy it because she knew better. She told them that after goldfish go to your tummy, they don't stay there and swim, they go down to your intestines. So much for encouraging creative play in young children -- Adara's already all fact and no fiction.

And now, here's a grandma-pleasing memory of Naomi at church: She picked up my cell phone, and as soon as she put it up to her ear, she started saying, "Nana, Nana!" :) Guess who Naomi calls most often on the telephone?

(Intestine illustration credit: http://www.after50health.com/diseases-of-the-colon.html)

Labor Day

2010-10-09T16:37:00.000-07:00

More Fun Thoughts

2010-10-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

While we were still in Pittsburgh, Adara was having quiet time (in the hopes that she'd fall asleep). After awhile, I checked on her and found that she had been playing with "the light thing" (electrical outlet). She reported that someone had kicked her when she was playing with it. I'm glad she didn't make anyone in there mad enough to do more than kick!

And here's a thought I had awhile ago, concerning a discussion I had well over a year ago with some women (young and experienced) in the Church. As the teacher of the young women's class, I felt responsible to teach that the woman's primary role is to champion the cause of home and family. Sadly, I was less tactful with my wording when I was teaching, and conflict ensued.

Although I agonized over the situation for months at the time, it has been only recently (and seemingly out of the blue) that I have formulated a more practical and realistic (i.e., less idealistic) idea of the situation. The new formulation would say, in effect, that the decision to commit oneself to strengthening homes and families need not exclude the decision to pursue academic or professional interests. I believe it is not healthy to repress these desires entirely, but that some degree of modifications to our plans may be necessary if we are to pursue both family and career.

For example, my chosen profession is in publishing (though education has always been a contender for the top choice as well). Because of my individual circumstances and my personal temperament, I have chosen only minimal involvement in this profession for the time being. I enjoy my monthly publishing adventures, however modest they are, and it helps to remind me what my professional goals are.

Sometimes I do long for more time to pursue this path. But I'm sure that time will come soon enough. And for now there are plenty of joys to relish and plenty of challenges to learn from in the situation I am currently in. There will be time for more (eternally speaking, if not temporally.)

Isaiah

2010-10-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

We've been reading 2nd Nephi in family scripture study. Straight from the Book of Mormon, without much censoring, but with lots of commentary and explanation. I'm pretty sure Adara understands the gist of what we're reading (which may not be that much less than what Jon and I understand of it). One day when she was playing with Jon, he grabbed both her hands and held her tight and she yelled,

"Unbind me!"

Then, a few nights ago, she offered the family prayer after the scripture study ended. One of the things she prayed was, "Thank you for the nice people and for the mean people and for killing them."

Bahamian Cruise

2010-06-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

The pictures will probably speak for themselves, so I'll make this short. Our cruise started at 4 p.m. Sunday and ended at 8 a.m. the following Sunday. We stopped at Nassau, then a private island owned by the cruise company, and lastly in Grand Turk. The cruise itself was relaxing for me -- pregnant mother of two toddlers: I slept a lot. Next time we take a cruise, however, I'd like to stay awake more and participate in some of the activities. The few I was able to attend were quite fun. I think my favorite was the towel animal demonstration. Well -- here are the pics.

Nassau beach. I braved the water, Jon went snorkeling, but the girls refused to get within 30 feet of the gnarly waves (some were at least 6 feet high).

Hotel Atlantis

Naomi actually wearing sunglasses and choosing not to remove them. To Naomi's delight, however, the hat was lost when we left the beach.

Half Moon Cay.

Even the tiny waves here made Naomi nervous. She wasn't happy until I took her into deeper water.

This was Adara's favorite stop -- plenty of water toys, shallow water that she walked into up to her neck!, and nearly non-existent waves.

Bored on board.

Towel Animal.

Adara, on her bunkbed. Every night after dinner she asked if the staff had put her bed down. Simple joys.

Grand Turk.

I didn't take any pictures of the ocean, since Jon and I went alone and were both snorkeling the whole time. But this is an example of what most of the buildings looked like on this hurricane-ravaged island. Apparently, the government / constitution of the area is also currently not in force, which I'm sure makes matters even worse.

Those were the highlights. That's two items to check off the bucket list: snorkeling in the Bahamas and taking a cruise.

Return to Normal Life

2010-06-02T19:26:00.001-07:00

I am pleased to report wonderful amounts of relaxation at the end of the Bahamian cruise. As it is late, I will dispense with uploading pictures for now. Except for one, perhaps, which we took on our drive down to Charleston (where the ship was embarking). The picture below is just one example of the types of things we have taken enjoyment in while we have lived here in the south.

And speaking of living in the south; we have finally received confirmation that we will be leaving the hospitality and slow pace of North Carolina. By the middle of next month we will be on our way to the cold and hurried north: Pittsburg, to be specific. How long we will stay there is anybody's guess. As soon as Jon finds a more permanent position, we will go there. And, since he has completed four interviews within the company with no success, he has begun to look at other options.

It's a bit exciting to think of the possibilities -- but stressful for Jon to face so much uncertainty and rejection. So if anyone has any clout with the Man Upstairs, we'd appreciate any good words you might send in for us.

Best Friend Gratitude

2010-05-20T20:07:00.000-07:00

What's been on my mind a lot lately is how happy I am to have Jon in my life. He has been working super extra hard to do his regular job, plus interviewing for a new position in the company (in 4 different cities around the eastern U.S.). And when he comes home, he often helps make dinner, puts the babies to bed, and washes the dishes. Sometimes I wonder what I've been doing all day when he comes home and does all that for me. :)

So for Mother's Day he bought the family a vacation on a cruise liner headed for the Bahamas. He's never going to be able to top that Mother's Day gift, but at this point I'm not too concerned. The mere prospect of sharing eight full days with Jon in a place where everyone expects you just to sit around and relax sounds fabulous. Granted, the children will be with us, but since Jon's idea of relaxing is much the same as the children's ideas, I won't be too bothered.

The last time I had a truly relaxing vacation (by my standards of relaxation) was when I spent the night in a cabin with five of my sisters. We talked, made our meals, and cleaned up, talked some more, maybe slept a little, talked, ate, etc., etc. Nearly two full days of nothing much more than talking. No need to find adventure in the world "out there" -- plenty of fascinating life experiences to be explored within the realms of our sisters' psyches.

Two of my sisters have featured more prominently in my life lately, probably because all three of us have been pregnant at the same time. (I say "have been" because Dolly's baby was born a week ago.) My sisters have been friends to me to a much greater extent than my mother was, which, tangentially, is probably why I have never felt much interest in Mother's Day. I'm a mother twice over, but often I feel that the beautiful children in my care are more like sisters to me than like daughters. Younger sisters, of course, with whom I have been charged responsibility and authority to discipline, but sisters nonetheless.

I rarely get weepy when reflecting on my relationships, but as I contemplated my sisterhood with my children, it brought tears to my eyes. I wonder if someone has invented "Sister Appreciation Day"?

The Birthday

2010-05-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

Well, the big day was a success. We all made princess crowns (or king crowns for the boys). Adara's eye-full crown was a collaborative effort: she told Jon where to put everything and he obeyed her commands. She loved being queen for a day.

One of the games we played involved a favor-

ite pastime of children everywhere: chasing one another around in a circle. To give some structure to this game, we set up a mock bridge, an adult stood with their back to the children and occasionally yelled, "Splash," and whoever was on the bridge was then "out". It was everyone's favorite, from the 2-year-olds to the 10-year-olds.

Evidence of a pre-party mishap by the intrepid Naomi features prominently in this next photo. She wanted to play with a balloon, and I thought tying it to the picnic table leg would help. Apparently not.

At any rate, Naomi slept through most of the actual birthday party (some naps just won't wait), so when we got home I enjoyed these few moments with just the two of us together.

Jon put together a video collage of the party that you can view here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScXs6sLC0SU

There are also a couple of shorter clips of the mini-celebration we had for Naomi on her actual birthday here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axpLot6fUY8

and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddw0jIs0k0w

Testimony of Elder Holland

2010-05-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

Check out this dramatized version of Elder Holland's Conference talk about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkKblIMfmjI

Crooked Nature

2010-04-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

Notice the angle at which Naomi is holding her cup. The sipper spout is at the same angle in her mouth that the handles are to her head. This is always how she drinks. Just an odd twist of personality I wanted to record.

Other unique characteristics of Naomi: she is pretty good at imitating us. I don't have any experience with a young baby doing that. So, for instance, if Jon growls at her as he shows her a toy dog, she will take the dog and repeat what he has done. And today I was playing with masking tape. I put a small piece on her nose and laughed. So she turned around and did her best to put it back on my nose (I helped a little) and then she laughed. So cute!

correction

2010-04-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

The information for YouTube I wrote before was wrong, sorry. Here are the direct links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xebk8N54axw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWqmuGma55I

Naomi highlights

2010-04-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

A few memories of Naomi for the past month or two:

I love how she counterbalances her belly with her elbows.

Our hill-baby, complete with shirtless overalls and broken-picket-fence mouth.

Am I getting cuter, yet?

For those of you who are video junkies, I've uploaded some more funnies of Naomi on YouTube. Search for "Overcoming Obstacles" jonnypalmseed, and you should find them. That is, as long as my upload is successful.

Enjoy!

Birthday Party

2010-04-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

You'uns is all invited (though I know you probably won't make it) to our girls' birthday party this weekend.

Physiology

2010-04-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

Ever since the Easter Egg Hunt when Adara ran full-force into a glass wall and bloodied her nose, she has been fascinated with the idea of blood. Looking at a broken baby doll, she asked me, "What's inside the baby?" I told her it was just air. Naturally, she then asked what was inside of her. Bones, blood, muscles, tendons, and other stuff, was my response.

Now, if you ask her what's inside of her, as Jon did this morning, she will reply:

"Bones and blood."

Taking it a step further, Jon asked her, "What's inside your head?"

"Air," she said, without even pausing to think.

Being the compassionate parent that he is, after Jon had caught his breath, he supplied Adara with the correct answer: "Blood and brains."

Black Holes

2010-04-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, totally unrelated from the post I just barely published, but I remembered that this morning our little Adara was completely fixated on black holes. She might have gone to bed the night before talking about it, too. She kept talking about how she was afraid of falling into a black hole, and something about a black hole in the middle of the earth. "Are we going to earth?" she asked this morning. "I don't want to fall in the black hole. You're not going to fall in the black hole, are you mom?"

And, random association here -- just remembering wonderful things my child has said recently. A few weeks ago we were driving to church when Adara asked, "Mom, why do we go to church?" (This was the beginning of her "why" phase. I'm looking forward to the end of it.)

I tried to think of a good answer. "Because it's Sunday" was the winning idea.

As it turns out, Adara had a better answer, which she told me as we were walking towards the chapel, "I like church." Maybe when I no longer have to police my children during sacrament meeting, and when I can attend a meeting where I can focus on feeling the Spirit (let's just say I'm the primary chorister and I have a pre-nursery age child), then I, like Adara, will also be able to say, "I like going to church."

Not that I don't like primary. I do love to spend the majority of my Sunday worship time doing wiggle songs and music games. What could be more fun? (No, I'm not being facetious.) I just feel remarkably un-spiritual. And I know it's not because of the calling. It's just that I'm not used to bearing 100% of the burden of seeking and retaining the influence of the Spirit in my life. It'd be really nice to have an uninterrupted hour or two when someone else could lead me into that state of being. . . . Oh well, I guess it's time to grow up and learn some personal responsibility.

Parental Guidance Recommended

2010-04-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

I'm apologizing in advance for the graphic content of today's post. This was just too fun not to share.

Adara came down the stairs today and announced, "I have to use the bathroom." I put her on the big potty but I did not expect anything to happen. (Potty training has been a slow process for us.)

A short while later I heard, from behind the closed door, "This poop is hard to get out!"

Then, after we sang a short song to help her relax, "Wow, it looks like a hot dog!"

Needless to say, I was very pleased. In retrospect, it seems almost depressing that this was the high point in my day. However, yesterday's high point was watching Adara play with a caterpillar. I rather wished she'd have left it alone; I was afraid for its life. But it survived, and she had a great time discovering.

Reality

2010-04-04T06:35:00.001-07:00

(Inspired by a friend's post.) Adara knows, intellectually, that monsters aren't real. But she's still afraid of them. And she knows that toys aren't real because they can't talk, but cartoons can, so that makes them real, right?

Subtraction

2010-03-24T20:54:00.000-07:00

Today at the breakfast table we were discussing the size of our family. Adara said, "When Naomi dies, I'll just be one baby again."

First Time Walking

2010-03-09T19:45:00.000-08:00

This girl is super fun. She loves learning new things and she gets so excited. You can't help but laugh and rejoice with her.

Snow, continued

2010-03-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

These are 6 week old pictures by now. They're still fun, though.

Shrinking -- those are two eyes on the snowman's face.

I like the mystery implied by the empty leash.

Adara almost looks Amish . . . or Mennonite. :)

Naomi wanted to join in the fun. I don't think this is quite what she had in mind.

Snow in the South, Baby!

2010-01-31T17:53:00.000-08:00

It actually snowed here. We haven't left the house all weekend. I'm pretty sure the city doesn't own any snowplows, and now the roads are all covered in ice.

Other Tidbits:

The following is an actual conversation that Jon and I had the other night.

Me - "What are you watching?"

Jon - "It's called, 'Left Behind'. It's about the rapture."

Me - "Is it a documentary?"

Think about it for a minute.

Shifting gears completely -- the pictures below are the result of a gardening project. Jon bought a mushroom growing kit online, and, when he left town for a couple of days, I kind of forgot about the project for awhile.

Real Genius

2010-01-19T17:06:00.000-08:00

I'd never seen this ancient Val Kilmer classic, but was sure I'd heard about it. It brings back memories of jr. high GT. What I especially liked was the moral: don't take yourself (smart kids, especially) too seriously. But don't get so lost in having fun that you fail to consider the impact of your actions on the world around you.

Personally, I'm still trying to lear that lesson. Anyone else need a refresher?

Florida Christmas

2009-12-25T18:59:00.000-08:00

No, we did not spend Christmas in Florida, because that would be crazy. Crazy meaning that the number of people vacationing in Orlando would be four times as many as were there when we went. We had won 2 free nights in a hotel there and had to use them before Dec. 31, 2009, so it seemed logical, albeit out of character for our "off the beaten path" family to go to Disney World on the week before Christmas.

Now, having "done" Disney World, I have to admit that Orlando

is a great vacation spot. Pricey, though we got really lucky. We ended up getting free passes to Disney World through a friend of a friend (thank you Mr. Eric!). And then we did one of those deals where you agree to listen to a protracted sales pitch in exchange for a gift, and in our case the gift was heavily discounted tickets to both "Gatorland" and "Sea World".

Both of our girls loved the big tortoise at Gatorland -- we got to touch it and walk next to it, and Adara even got to feed it a carrot!

And at Sea World we sat center stage on the 2nd row. We got wet, but the tears only lasted a minute, and wet clothes were exchanged for dry ones pretty quickly. What a memorable experience, seeing those whales only 20 feet from us, and looking into their eyes! Adara went nuts when she saw the trainers swimming with the whales and performing their stunts reminiscent of water skiing. She was ready to jump in with them. (Keep in mind she doesn't swim, and freaks out if her head goes under water at the swimming pool.)

So now it's Christmas. I've been thinking that this is supposed to be a religious holiday, but the most we were able to get into that aspect of Christmas with our girls is that today is Jesus' birthday, and that Jesus was the gift that God gave to the world.

Besides singing Christmas carols and hymns, and watching the "Nativity" clip from the Church, the only thing we've done "in the spirit of Christ" is to take plates of cookies to our neighbors.

It was actually an accident that it turned into a spiritual experience. After we delivered the third plate, Adara didn't want to stop. She must have felt something that made her excited and feel like giving away her treasured treats instead of keeping them all for herself. I obviously couldn't recreate that feeling with the hymns and stories/videos about Christmas.

So here's my question: how do you get that feeling into your Christmas celebration on purpose? What do you do at Christmastime that makes you excited and filled with desire to share your treasured treats with strangers?

darndest things

2009-12-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

Jon, speaking to Adara: "You see, Mama and I are one."

Adara: "I'm two."

And in a completely unrelated vein, here's a link to a song that Jon and I heard on the radio as we were driving across Tennessee when we were moving to North Carolina. I'd love to have it play automatically whenever someone accesses my blog, but I don't know how to do that.

To play a sample of the song, click on "play sample" at the following page:

http://www.pandora.com/music/song/dailey+vincent/poor+boy+workin+blues

New Jersey

2009-11-21T20:11:00.000-08:00

We recently went with Jon on a business trip to New Jersey. We were near Menlo Park, the place where Thomas Edison set up one of his factories. Inside the Edison museum, we saw this really cool way to make a phonograph using normal materials from your home. I can't wait to put one together myself.

The tower was closed for renovation. The museum was free to visit, with a suggested donation of $2 per person.

On our way back home, we stopped in Philadelphia to visit some old friends.

They showed us around town: the Liberty Bell, the home where Thomas

Jefferson lived while he worked on the Declaration of Independence,

and the park by the Museum of Art, where we actually saw a man running up the stairs like Rocky. We loved the parts of the city we saw. It was beautiful. Thanks to the Tolleys for showing us a great time.

Learning by Example

2009-11-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

Today before dinner, Adara was playing downstairs. I asked her to go upstairs and turn off the light in her bedroom. Without missing a beat, she turned to her Papa and said, "Papa, go turn off the light in the bedroom."

Guess what this blog is about

2009-11-10T18:42:00.000-08:00

Yup, that's right everyone. Once again, small town law enforcement has saved the day! This time it was Jon that got pulled over while he was out jogging one afternoon. His offense? Running on the wrong side of the street. Don't get me wrong - I'm grateful for the police looking out for us. And I'm happy that my husband is now aware that running INTO oncoming traffic is the correct location for a pedestrian. But most especially, I'm grateful to be back home in good ol' North Carolina. (Look for updates on our recent trip to New Jersey. Coming soon!)

More on Law Enforcement

2009-10-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

I think I may be on the verge of liking this place.

This story is a little out of sequence, chronologically. But I didn't think to blog about it until this morning.

We visited Salt Lake City for a few weeks about a month ago. But we forgot to tell our neighbor. We also forgot to cancel the daily newspaper delivery. The car, also, was left home. Can you tell where this is going?

When we came back from our vacation, there was a business card in the door. It was from an officer in the local Police Department. They apparently didn't enter the home, but, in my imagination, I can see the door to our home opening. An eerie silence seeps through the iron railing in the dining room. Behind the railing, on the couch, the family sits, cryogenically frozen, in what will prove to be a mixed-genre story: science fiction / fairy tale / Mormon folklore. (Think Dr. Who meets Sleeping Beauty, with the role of Prince Charming / The Doctor played by the Elder's Quorum president.) Who can rescue our family from their freakish sleep? Wouldn't you know it? Of all the luck, the family can only be awakened when the home teachers perform a charitable act of service for them. But it must be a true act of charity, and not just done out of a sense of guilt or a desire to post 100% on their monthly home teaching report.

Anyway, back to reality. So we have some conscientious neighbors who were concerned about an unusual situation. That's always a good thing. Who wouldn't want neighbors like that? Still . . . I can't help but think that, since we've moved, the Police have contacted me and my family more than . . . well, more than our home teachers have!

Fish Themes

2009-10-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

Finally, some local excitement. (Oh, and if you've missed the most recent pictures: www.picasaweb.google.com/tempppo)

We, unfortunately, missed the Sardine festival last weekend. That would have been exciting. From what I understand, town residents get together on Friday evening to eat sardines and crackers. Then, if you can stomach it, there are Moonpies for dessert. I'm actually kinda sad that I missed it.

Now that the temperatures have cooled off and the mosquitoes have left us, we see children in the park almost every day. That could be exciting -- for Adara. I need to recover from my disillusionment before I can look at the parks with excitement again.

And Jon -- he went fishing this morning. Broke his fishing pole. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about whether that was exciting.

But today was truly exciting. Dinner. Dinner today was exciting.

Our dining choices in the vicinity, assuming that we will be eating dinner after 3:30 p.m. (because that's when most of the local shops close on Saturdays), are national chains, a smattering of local places in the neighboring town, and 2 restaurants in our own historic downtown. We've already been to the Mexican restaurant here -- excellent salsa and yummy food. But the cafe was never a real option. Until tonight.

Their special tonight was an all-you-can-eat fish fry. It could have been a disaster. Fried food at a local restaurant in a tiny, mostly-dead Southern town. Risky. I steeled my belly and determinedly made my way to a potentially wonderful culinary adventure, and an assuredly rememberable dining experience.

It was delicious. I could have eaten for hours. My 2-year-old liked it. She liked it so much she ate 4 pieces. My husband liked it. The wait staff was friendly but not overbearing. There were Halloween decorations to occupy our toddler's attention while we waited for the food. My joy at finding something that I truly liked, without having to invent it or make it in my own home, was unsurpassed in this season of my life.

Yes indeed. The small pleasures are truly the greatest ones.

Walking After Midnight

2009-09-02T17:28:00.000-07:00

Life in our small southern town continues to be creatively interesting. Last night I went for a walk. It was late, the weather was beautiful, and I had some things on my mind. So my walk lasted a bit longer than it may have under different circumstances. I was almost back home when I saw a police vehicle behind me. The car slowed, pulled over, and still I kept walking until the officer asked to speak with me.

Yes, indeed, ladies and gentlemen, I, a pedestrian, was being "pulled over" for taking a walk. God bless America! And God bless small towns where police officers have nothing better to do than investigate suspicious housewives taking a breather at 11:00 p.m. I'm not sure if I should feel safer with this knowledge? Or perhaps I can work up some conspiracy theory about small town law enforcement . . .

Curious

2009-08-13T20:50:00.000-07:00

From 2009 Summer

This is a hydrant in a forest. Maybe the squirrels had it installed to counter the forestry department's new "controlled burn" practices.

I think I need to look harder for something real to blog about. If we don't start meeting people and doing things soon, I might be driven to actually decorate my blog.

Baby Videos

2009-08-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

For those of you who like this sorta thing . . . (I have to admit, I did not used to like this sort of thing. But now that it's my kid . . .)

I guess we'll go in chronological order. This first video is actually mostly of Jon. It was July 4th and we were near the Cradle of Forestry in America, hiking in a place called The Pink Beds. Given the nature of our video, it's a rather serendipitous name.

Now for the cute stuff -- Naomi started cooing and laughing in the last few weeks. She shows a bit of personality in the first video. The second one is just plain cute.

Heaven

2009-08-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

Our new home is so perfect that it is bizarrely un-perfect. What I mean is that it is perfect for us, so of course it has some . . . let's call them unique characteristics. Don't get me wrong. I really do love it. There were plenty of other choices -- but this one suited me and my family's current situation.

Notice the iron railing separating the dining room from the kitchen. And, oh yeah, the lovely shade of mustard brown for the carpet. (I don't think the camera does it justice. There's much more yellow in it than you can see here.)

The neighborhood is really great, too, but it's the same story as the house. It's kid-friendly, but I haven't actually seen a kid (besides mine) here. There are sidewalks and playgrounds. A walk around the neighborhood is beautiful, interesting, and relatively free of dangerous traffic. It's like the setting for a Ray Bradbury novel; there are swing sets and clubhouses, baby swings and water slides, but no actual children. Anywhere. Freaky.

For the moment, at least, I'm living under the impression that summer time is the quiet time for this place. Maybe the kids are all at summer camp. All of them -- in the whole city, at the same time. Or maybe they're hibernating indoors because of the heat, humidity, mosquitoes, severe thunderstorms, etc. (Writer, if you're looking for a quieter neighborhood, this is the right place.) And anyway, I know people are out walking, because there's litter on the side of the road. Of course that could come from people in cars, but I'm being optimistic.

Here are some pictures of the park that is nearest our home. Maybe, instead of thinking that there really aren't children here, perhaps we don't see other kids at the park because it's too close to the railroad. (See the wheels on the box cars in the background?) I guess it makes sense if the town is 90% retired -- they had the park built out of nostalgia, not because they expected any children to play in it. The other neighborhood kids must be playing somewhere else, farther away from the train tracks. I just wish they'd invite us to come along!

So, to summarize, I really think this is what heaven will be like for me. Beautiful. Lots of trees and green things. Peaceful, warm, seemingly inviting. But with an unexpected twist.

Bull-headed

2009-07-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

This is Naomi. She was born May 6, 2009 - a Taurus. Strong neck and all. In this picture she's about 6 weeks old. Today we went to the pediatrician. She passed the physical tests for a 4 month old. What have I gotten myself into?

Just some cute pictures. I know some of you have been waiting for this. If you want more, just browse through our picasaweb album: www.picasaweb.google.com/tempppo/2009Naomi#

Waiting

2009-04-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone for their sympathy on the last post -- which I now realize was almost 2 months ago! I wonder what happened to keep me from blogging?

Well, this post is just a warm-up. Our #2 child is expected on or around 8 May 2009. I'm driving myself crazy with waiting. So tonight I've decided just to get everything all ready, put it in the trunk of the car, and just go about my life as if the baby was going to stay there for another 9 months.

If I have some spare time in the near future, I'll take a picture of my beach-ball belly and post it.
Love to all.

Snow Lessons

2009-03-03T23:21:00.000-08:00

So our pipes froze last night. I accidentally left the garage door open on the only night that it has really snowed at our house. I called around to see what I should do -- never had a house or been responsible for pipes before -- and decided that I'd try the only suggestion I got: pour anti-freeze down each drain and see what happens.

I don't know if that was really the best idea -- especially in hindsight, thinking that anti-freeze probably would be a bad thing to have mixing around with the city's water supply -- but after an hour or so, the water started running in the toilet I'd flushed earlier, so I was just happy. I'm not really sure whether my subsequent water use is what caused the pipe to burst, or if it was just a gremlin that was determined to cause problems and wasn't going to be outdone by a bottle of anti-freeze.

In any event, the pipe is fixed now. I'm hoping that, despite the relatively small nature of this particular life challenge, the ordeal was big enough to fill the quota of trials that each person is supposed to be allotted on a regular basis. I sometimes wonder why nothing really bad has happened to my family. Maybe really bad stuff just doesn't happen as often as I think it does, and it's just the cumulative effect of all the sorta bad little stuff that can make life a pain.

Sunday

2009-03-01T19:18:00.000-08:00

"But then again, perhaps I have the strength after all."

I wasn't going to blog tonight. But my stomach changed my mind. Instead of sleeping and dreaming, I'm eating and blogging. Just as long as I'm ing-ing, I think that's the important thing. If you can't -ing anymore, that's when you know you're in trouble.

And speaking of ing-ing, I thought I should record, for posterity, today's events and the utter lack of stress that most of them caused. A sign of progress . . . or just numbness.

8:30 a.m. Ward council meeting. I gave the spiritual thought.
10:30 a.m. Fast and testimony meeting. Bore my testimony.
12:10 p.m. Conducted opening exercises in Relief Society.
12:20 p.m. Defended Church doctrine against the notions of a 17-year-old girl in the class.
12:22 p.m. Taught a lesson to the combined YW classes, including the 17-year-old girl who sulked for the duration of the lesson.
2:30 p.m. Planned a training meeting with the 2nd counselor in the YW presidency.
4:30 p.m. Typed and formatted an agenda for the training meeting.
9:00 p.m. Wrote dialogue for part of Starfire III.

Normally, I think the combination of all of these events on the same day would have caused a significant amount of stress, or at least fatigue. Most of them were things that I have either never done, or rarely done. And the rest (except the typing and writing) were things that I get nervous / stressed about no matter how many times I do them.

I don't really know why my stress level stayed so low today -- but it must be significant in some way. I'm sure if I look back on this in 10, 20, 30 years or so, I'll either realize the significance or the complete in-significance of it all.

And on that note -- goodnight all.

Psychedelic Blues

2009-02-24T17:40:00.000-08:00

Today I heard a song written with the idea of what the jazz greats would have written if they had been alive in the '60's. The song was called "Psychedelic Blues". I'd love to post some music on the blog -- there is some great bluegrass I have in mind, but I don't know how to do it. Someone call me and tell me how to do it please!

And just for kicks, here are some pics:

In the drier with the cat, who was trying to hide from her.The scrubs, a Christmas present from Poppy and Nana, say, "Dr. Adara".

Adara's first bubble bath.

Her favorite toys, Oo-oo Ee-ee and Dinah the Tiger

Your time to go

2009-02-15T18:13:00.000-08:00

You've probably heard some version of the joke about an anxious man on an airplane, afraid that he might die. His friend reassured him with the popular idea that, "if it's not your time to go, then you'll be okay." The anxious man replied, "Sure, but what if it's the pilot's time to go?"

Today's Sunday school lesson touched briefly on this idea. My brain started working overtime, but I didn't want to risk derailing the carefully-planned lesson, so I thought I'd send my question out into the ether.

The scripture reference is Doctrine and Covenants 42:48: "And again, it shall come to pass that he that hath ^afaith in me to be ^bhealed, and is not ^cappointed unto death, shall be ^dhealed."

Here's a scenario leading into my question. This story was related in the October 2008 General Conference - a young girl was hit by a bus. The wheels of the bus drove over her head, so she was in pretty bad shape. After a priesthood blessing and a significant amount of time in the hospital, she miraculously recovered and lived a long life. (I don't know if she still is living, but that's not the point).

My question is: what if no one had exercised faith for her to be healed? Would she have died anyway, even though she obviously was not "appointed unto death"?

A Tale of Two Babies

2009-02-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

(Lest this tale overwhelms my infrequent readers, let me call your attention to the post just a few days earlier than this one. There are long-awaited pictures for all of you photo-junkies.)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of, it was the age of enlightenment, it was the age of bewilderment, it was an epoch of freedom, it was an epoch of captivity -- in short, the noisiest authorities of the land insisted on being received, for good or evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Today began a 3-week period of babysitting 8-month-old Carolyn while her regular babysitter, grandma, is on a long-awaited vacation to Hawaii. "This will be good practice," I thought, "for when the new baby finally arrives." Famous last words.

I thought it would be fun just to give an outline of how the day went:
7:15 Left Adara at home with Jon so I could pick up Carolyn.

7:35 Arrived back home and then turned around again to take Jon to work. Since Jon was sick yesterday, and all of us spent the day laying low, I didn't want him to ride his bike.

I didn't have all the ingredients for his lunch, so I thought I would stop by the grocery store and take his lunch to him right before my midwife appointment.

7:45 Smelled the necessity for returning home as quickly as possible in order to change Adara's poopy diaper.

8:00 Changed Adara's diaper while Carolyn cried herself into a fit on the floor. She calmed down, but not until we were almost done with the diaper change.

8:10 Prepared oatmeal for Carolyn

8:15 While Carolyn cried again, put Adara in her booster seat with a bib on and gave her cottage cheese

8:20 Fed Carolyn

8:35 Made Carolyn and Adara comfortable, with plenty of toys, and started cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, which had resulted from everyone laying low yesterday and doing minimal work.

8:45 Rescued Carolyn from another crying fit. Hoped that changing her diaper would solve her problems, changed her position and her toys, then went back to cleaning.

9:00 Realized Carolyn was probably sleepy and put her down for a nap

9:05 Received a phone call from the substitute babysitter, who was planning to take Carolyn while I went to my midwife apponitment. Before we had confirmed any plans, she had to hang up the phone, saying she would call back.

9:10 Started microwaving a South Beach Diet frozen dinner for my breakfast, and sat down for a moment to rest.

9:11 Adara asked for some water. There was some on the table, so I had her climb up to get it so I could rest a little longer. While she was there, I noticed her bowl was about to fall off the table. I asked her to move it so it wouldn't fall. She picked it up -- and let it fall through her fingers to the floor, scattering the remains of her cottage cheese.

9:15 I got up off the couch and asked her to help me pick up the cottage cheese. She ended up cleaning two bits of it.

9:20 Stirred my microwave dinner and started cleaning again when I heard a sound of water running behind me. Adara was pouring water from the pitcher (that I had left on the table) onto the hardwood floor and rug. She helped clean up more of the mess this time.

As I finished cleaning the mess, I noticed her playing in the recycling bin, which I had just moved because it was in a pool of water. Not wanting soggy cardboard added to the mess, I moved the recycling bin into the garage.

9:30 Ate my microwave dinner - interrupting myself for a moment to push a chair in front of the gas fireplace to prevent Adara from playing with the rocks inside it.

9:40 Started to clean again, loading dishes into the dishwasher. I was thinking about how almost humorous the morning had been, when I noticed Adara was playing with a broken mug, which I had put in the dishwasher a few minutes earlier. (Side note: we are house-sitting right now, and the mug that was now lying broken on the floor belonged to the owner of the house, and not to us.)

9:41 After removing the mug, I decided to take the garbage outside to prevent Adara from getting into it and playing with the mug some more.

9:43 Started loading the dishwasher again while Adara looked for new trouble to get into. Before it developed into something serious, I asked her to help me with the dishes. She played with the scrub wand and a pot of water for a second, before she started pouring water from the pot onto the floor.

I'm going to skip now to the end of the story. Shortly after 10, the substitute babysitter called again. She was leaving her house to go to a meeting at 10, and wanted to arrange for how to pick up Carolyn at my midwife's office. By this point I didn't have any brain cells left to organize anything that complex, so I told her not to worry about it. Taking Carolyn and Adara both to the midwife's office would be less of a hassle.

Of course I still didn't have Jon's lunch ready, so I hurriedly chopped up some turkey, ham, tomato, cucumber, celery, and the small bit of lettuce that we had left, and threw it into a container. I decided there was no way that I was going to have time to go to the grocery store with two babies to buy lettuce -- it was 10:30 by this point and Carolyn was still napping. Jon was just going to have a nearly lettuce-free salad.

Thankfully, Carolyn was awake when I went to check on her, so I didn't have to worry about waking her up and having a cranky baby with me at the midwife's office. The rest of the morning was relatively uneventful.

Belated

2009-02-07T20:34:00.001-08:00

These are the highlights from Christmas. Well, the highlights that we have pictures of. Somehow when something interesting happens is usually the time that we forget our camera. Which is most of the time.

The first is the long-awaited umbrella Christmas tree in all its splendor. Pretty much like you imagined it would be, isn't it?

Next up is the Jewish Cultural museum in Brooklyn. Adara and I were crawling through a loaf of bread. It wasn't called bread, though. It was special. And it has a special Hebrew name. But I'm sure it tastes a lot like bread.

The Christmas tree on Rockefeller Plaza. We did not actually get close enough to take a nice picture of it. My brother, Ed, took this one.

Ah, now the fun. I was taking cute pictures of Adara. We bought her new earrings and I wanted to document the cuteness of it. She had other plans.

Thankfully, cuteness did not forever escape this mama's camera.

Really good hair day, plus fun new earrings. Sometimes being a girl really pays off.

Move In

2009-01-02T18:39:00.001-08:00

Successful move , just five days after our return from NY! I almost know where everything I need is. Happy New Year everybody!

Techno Delay

2008-12-27T18:51:00.000-08:00

I promised some of you I'd put pictures of Christmas on a.s.a.p. Turns out that it will be later than anticipated. I'm technologically-impaired, so although I have inserted the memory card from my camera into my computer, I have no idea how to access the pictures. :( And tomorrow I'll be back at home, and busy with packing for our 3-mile move. I don't think I've written about that, yet.

One of Jon's co-workers, Becky, is going to England for 6 months and we are cat-sitting for her. We thought moving into Becky's condo would expedite the cat-sitting, and would prevent potential problems that could arise from Becky leaving her condo dormant for 6 months.

So we're moving - again - and in 6 months we will do it again. As if simply being pregnant wasn't stressful enough. . . . Maybe I'm just destined to get really, really good at this. Maybe one day when the Lost Tribes of Israel get found, I'll be the one to help them pack.

New York Christmas

2008-12-24T20:01:00.001-08:00

This is the third night of being in Brooklyn. It's Christmas Eve, and not easy to remember the significance of the day in this place.

The important part of Christmastime, however, is continually evident. I am with my family - Jon and Adara and I have been together almost constantly: exploring downtown Manhattan, the Jewish Children's museum, etc. And my brother Ed has opened his home to us. He came down sick this morning, so he's been home more than was originally planned. It's good to have him around more, because that's the reason I came here. The sight-seeing is fun, but there's nothing at all like being with family for the holidays.

So, now that Christmas Eve is finally here, we have taken out the Christmas presents and arranged them in a nice pile. Jon found an umbrella and a tube of wrapping paper, stuck it in a base, and that's our "tree". I'm still toying with the idea of a popcorn chain to make it a little bit more decorative, but I can't decide if it would be an improvement on the fact that our Christmas tree is an umbrella, or would it just emphasize the tackiness of the situation. Anyway, it's going to be a moot point before long. Christmas Eve is practically over, and once Christmas is here, decorating the tree seems rather pointless.

So this is Christmas. I'm happy for a non-traditional Christmas experience, although I wonder whether I should be making more of an effort to remember Christ. It's a challenge here. New York City - too many people in too small of a place. Inside my brother's apartment, it's the same story, only with furniture instead of people. One time since I came here, I have been able to feel quiet for a moment: at dusk in Central Park. But it was freezing outside and we'd been out all day and just wanted to go home.

Yet despite the seemingly negative impact of these things, I've had an enlightening experience. With so many people to observe, there is much that is good to be seen.

At one point today as I found myself alone in a drug store -- well, alone meaning Jon and Adara were not with me, it was 5:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, after all -- I had a moment to ponder. All the people going about their various duties, acknowledging each other in the same way that they acknowledge the shelves in the store. It might seem impersonal, but there is a sense of respect there. We don't just knock into the shelves willy nilly, nor do we push against the other people around us -- when we can help it. In fact, people often make way for others, trying to be as helpful and polite as possible. It brings a sense of hope and a consciousness about the goodness of humanity in general -- perhaps this is the most precious thing I could have experienced for Christmas.

Above it all, it has been a wonderful experience. Three days left to discover and explore. I can't wait.

Merry Christmas.

Tender moments

2008-12-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

Has it really been 6 weeks since I posted last? Yikes. Well, today I just had a brief experience to recount here, excerpted from a talk I am writing for sacrament meeting:

"At the end of one particularly emotional day, I could no longer maintain my composure. Partly because Adara was watching me, I tried to set aside my tears and continue cooking dinner. Tears still broke out from time to time, however, and at one point, as I was sitting at Adara's eye level, crying, she put her hand to my head and, with her almost inarticulate speech, said, "It's okay."

Of course, at that point, everything was okay, and my emotional rollercoaster soon came to a smooth stop.

Pictures! (mostly of Adara)

2008-10-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

Here are a few highlights from the last two or three months. Sorry, what with being pregnant, going to Utah, and my YW duties, I've been a little overwhelmed. And this blogging stuff can take quite a bit of time! But - on to the feature photos:

On the right we have Adara with Sweetie and Moon, this season's lambs at the Biltmore farm. The lambs were about the only animals she would touch. Getting her to touch anything else, including the baby chickens, involved drama, screaming, and frustration, so we quit trying.

Here is Adara looking fascinated at the geese in Liberty Park, Salt Lake City. Afterwards we went to the model of the canyons in the area. There were signs written in Spanish with advisory notices on them, but I didn't see where they'd posted the notice in English. Since the kids were the ones using the play equipment, I thought they should have put up pictures.

Adara borrowed pajamas from her cousins, Xander and Xavier. The new charge for checking bags on the airplane limited how many clothes I brought, which gave us this cute opportunity.

(Top) Being chased by cousin Carmen. It's amazing to me that the oddly-balanced body of a toddler is able to run at all without toppling over.
(Center) A visit to the Great Salt Lake with Xander, Xavier, Aunt Dolly and Grandpa Hoefer. Trying to walk in the water by herself, she went almost completely under, and the wet clothes were making her colder than being naked. So we went almost-skinny-dipping. The only part of being at the lake that the babies did not like was when they stepped in the thick mud on the bottom of the lake, or on "mud bars" with their tops poking out of the water, and the mud sucked their feet under, sometimes as far as up to their knees.
(Bottom) Back at home with Papa: Saturday morning, Sesame Street, snuggled in blankets, waiting for a large special breakfast.

Looks like that's all the pictures this post will hold. More later.

Love from the Wilsons.

Siblings

2008-10-16T18:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm pregnant, and it's announceable because I am finally (almost) done with the 1st trimester and therefore in the "this kid's really set on going the distance, isn't he?" 2nd trimester, which means I feel much better about announcing it to the world. I just wouldn't want something to happen when the kid still weighed less than 4 paperclips and have everybody saying, "Oh, I'm so sorry." I mean, yeah, okay, a potential baby would no longer have potential to be an actual baby and that's seriously a tragedy. But having the entire world say "sorry" about an unrealized potential (which has the beneficial side effect of me not being sick anymore and not having to go through labor (which, incidentally, was not that bad the first time around. Second time's bound to be different, though. Hope it's not different in a bad way.)) would be a bit much for me.

I can understand Jenna's question about me being pregnant. I pretty much said so on her blog. But Writer . . . you must not be very familiar with Adara's mini-movie series: Starfire, the Unknown Hero and Starfire II: The Unknown Shadow. Otherwise, reading the "unknown hero" comment as "I'm having another baby" would be a very creative interpretation.

And speaking of Starfire -- episode two is now available on YouTube in three parts. It's only part II of the Starfire series, but it was too big to post all as one video. So it's "Starfire II: The Unknown Shadow, part I" and so forth.

And still speaking of Starfire, or Adara rather, that's the original reason I logged on today. Creative vocabulary use is one of the joys of toddlerhood and I wanted to share. Today when we were outside, Adara pointed at her eyes and said, "Eye." Then she squinted and waved her hand ambiguously in front of her face, made the sign for hot, and said, "Hot." In essence, she was saying, "My eyes are hot." Which can also be interpreted as, "the sun is bright and it's burning my eyes." Ve-ry creative, Adara. Very creative, indeed.

Ain't language development the awesomest thing in the universe? I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the study of language and I have yet to become un-fascinated with the subject. Did you know that almost universally, regardless of ethnicity, geographical region, or anything else, most babies' first sound is "ma". Which, of course would explain why, almost universally, the word for "mother" in just about every language that I (in my modest exploration of the world) have come across, is "mama.

Perhaps you did know that, but did you also know that the ability to learn language seems to be actually pre-wired into our brains? Not an actual language, of course, or else we'd all just come out speaking. And if we did, I wonder what language we would speak and if we'd have to learn a new language in order to communicate with adults? Hmmm . . . Anyway, we all seem to have certain parts of our brains that are just waiting to input data into them so they can start processing and figuring out the rules of the language. Doesn't matter what language data you input, the brain's wired up to figure out what the rules are. Cool, huh? Well, it could also be, like, a "duh!" cuz otherwise how would we all have learned to speak. But when you think about it, really, how did we all learn to speak?

Okay, really, I should stop. Hope your reading's been as much fun as my writing.
--Mary

Blog break

2008-10-12T19:42:00.000-07:00

We visited some neighbors of ours today. They had their t.v. turned on to a football game. As we watched, Adara started calling the football players "papa". We tried to teach her that the generic name for a papa is "man". Her interpretation was to look at the football players and say "mmMMMmmm!" It's the same noise she made when we brought out the ice cream, and probably was a good assessment of why a lot of women watch football.

We have a ton of pictures to post, but I won't be able to get to it until after I'm done with Young Women in Excellence (which I'm responsible for) and the proofreading for the arts magazine I'm volunteering at. So stay tuned. Delightful pictures of our trip to Utah, and other random moments from the life of the unknown hero, are on their way.

Ants

2008-09-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I noticed an ant crawling around my bathroom. Knowing there was nothing there for the ant to survive on, I left it alone, thinking it would eventually give up and leave.

The next day I noticed two more ants had joined the first. These three crawled for days around the bathroom. I assume they explored every inch, top to bottom. After what must have been more than a week, I found all three of their dead carcasses in a corner, as if they had given up all at once and laid down to die together.

I thought that would be the end of it. What colony of ants would send more of its workers into a situation that had already proven to be not only fruitless but also suicide? Well, apparently the ant colony living in the foundations of our home would. A few days later I found a contingent of at least 20 ants.

At that point I thought I should take drastic measures. I killed the ants. But they were back the next day. I ignored them. Soon, a spider moved in. There are considerably fewer ants crawling around the bathroom now, and it appears there is a collection of tiny, dry, ant carcasses in the spider's corner.

I guess I could have the apartment sprayed by the professional pest control people and the drama would be over. But this makes going to the bathroom far more interesting than it usually is. I'll be sad when winter finally arrives and the ants go into hibernation, and the spider goes his way.

P.S. Adara's bathroom is separate from mine. I'd never let a spider stay in her bathroom. She might kill it.

Apples, Sunshine, and Rainbows

2008-08-31T20:23:00.000-07:00

This is the last of about 4 posts that I've completed today. Sorry it's so much all at once. I might recommend reading one post a day, so you can spread out the enjoyment for maximum mental health benefits.

We went to the Apple Festival yesterday. North Carolina, it seems, is the nation's 7th largest producer of apples. And this region is the largest apple-producing region in North Carolina. So we went to the apple festival, ate sliced apples dipped in caramel, tried to wash off the caramel on Adara's shirt by wiping chocolate ice cream on it, all while watching some incredible clogging. The performers simultaneously fiddled their fiddles while flashing their feet faster than you could blink.

The endless booths of crafts, concessions, and sidewalk sales, however, were just a smidgen different than other festivals I've been to. We saw a booth for the Republican party, and several people were sporting paper "I'm an Obama Fan" cooling devices. Then, apparently as a counter-response for the political booths, there were religious doomsday preachers with banners and signs.

My favorite part on that end was the post card we picked up from one of the preachers. The heading was WWJD: Who Will Jesus Destroy? That was followed by a list, complete with scripture references, of the various sins for which a person will be destroyed by Jesus when He comes again. Of course, on the back of the card, it explained that you can repent and then Jesus won't destroy you. But the author of the card, covering his bases, reiterated that unrepentant sinners would be destroyed. Just in case you missed the message earlier.

I'm not sure why I didn't feel motivated to go home and repent after reading that card. But I did go to church the next day, and we talked about performing service for your fellowman. ". . . the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience . . ." indeed. Or, in modern terms, "to each his own". Whatever else the Apple Festival was, it wasn't boring.

Here's a picture of a goat. I don't know why there was a goat. Actually, we saw 3 or 4 of these painted goats. Just another unique local tradition.

A Day in the Mountains

2008-08-31T20:03:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures of our adventures into the Smoky Mountains. This first one was taken at an overlook next to the highest peak in the area. Mount Pisgah, I think it was. It was not at all what we'd been expecting.

The next stop was the Cradle of Forestry. It was interesting. I guess the whole reason forestry was started was to protect the forests from destructive humans. We have Mr. Vanderbilt to thank for getting the ball rolling on preserving the forests of America.

We made a few other stops - at the rock slide (we didn't go down -- it was about 40 feet of gently-sloping rock that ended in a shallow (8-10 foot deep) pool) and at a waterfall. Sorry I don't have pictures of either of those. Adara was great at the waterfall, though. If she could have, she would've walked right up to the falls and put out her hand. Luckily, the water was a little too deep for her at that point.

When we came home, we saw this little guy hanging from the tree in front of our house. The video clip starts with about 3 seconds of worthwhile material and after that it's too jumpy to see much. So pay attention from the beginning.

Sibling Rivalry

2008-08-31T19:53:00.000-07:00

We babysat a 2-month-old the other day. Adara seemed to be enjoying herself pretty well at the time, but after the baby went home, I found this:

A Rural Southern Experience

2008-08-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

We went out to dinner the other night with a friend who was visiting from Detroit. The restaurant we went to was recommended as a local favorite. That means barbecue. Which, here in North Carolina, means shredded pork. The best part of the meal was the deep-fried cornbread sticks shaped like ears of corn. Yum.

The best part of the experience was the ambiance. Adara's favorite decoration was the pig by the bathrooms. I think, with a little imagination, the store manager could have found a more hygienic place for an obvious children's attraction.

Just a short way form the restaurant was a well-decorated house that we just had to take a picture of. This is just a small percentage of the masterpiece.

Here's Jon with Adara and our friend Kathy at the ice cream parlor. And, finally, we went to Wal-mart, where Adara showed us her true self. As soon as she could get her hands on these t-shirts, she wouldn't let go. And thus ended a beautiful day in rural America.

Cutesy Stuff

2008-08-21T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today's blog is about Adara. And her mama. It's a topic that I am slightly embarrassed to find myself interested in. I never thought I would be affected by it in the same way that other "cute-sy" moms are. No offense to cute-sy moms. I just don't think of myself as cutesy, partly because I'm not into most of the things that other moms think are cute. But today's story has formed a bridge between me and my cutesy mom counterparts.

The story is simple. Adara was playing with another toddler: a girl more than twice Adara's size. I didn't see everything that was happening while they were playing, but the important part was what I did see. Adara was running away from her playmate calling, "Mama, mama, mama!"

It was the first time she's ever done that, and at the time I was distracted from reflecting on the sentiments that arose from the event. Now, in retrospect, I feel all special and motherly inside. It's a new thing for me. And it's not too bad. I guess this is the feeling I'm supposed to treasure up in the memory chest of my heart, and whenever I need to polish my faith in my daughter, I can take out this memory and dust it off.

Oh, and not to ruin the moment or anything (dangit! I just ruined it!), I wanted to comment on the picture at the beginning of this post. I took the picture last month -- well, I should say that Jon took the picture last month. It's a good portrayal of the kind of growth Adara's experiencing: a lot of the growth is in her physical abilities, but she's also learning a ton of language and that is the coolest thing ever! Okay, most of the time she sounds like Flipper singing opera. But it's the thought that counts. Literally. (You could almost see the thought-wheels going when, as we watched Starfire II, Adara signed 'Papa', then 'Mama' alternately as she recognized our voices acting out the parts in the movie. Y'think she knew she was watching science fiction, or does she actually think that that's what reality is like?)

Oh, and one final side note. Think about the picture for a minute. If mama is at the top of the slide, and papa is taking the picture, who's at the bottom to catch Adara?