Ketchup. Catsup.

Ode to the Stomp Rocket

2012-01-15T16:08:00.002-06:00

Eli asked for a rocket for Christmas. He was not let down.

I had a faint memory of someone playing with this "stomp rocket" toy while we were at a residency retreat on Mount Lemon four years ago. (Sometimes I think I'm an elephant I remember random things so well.) I looked it up and discovered that it is a real toy and not too expensive either (bonus).

This amazing, stupendous, spectacular rocket toy requires zero (yup, zero) batteries. It is safe (the rockets are foam) to use around little ones and by little ones. And it is (am I being redundant?) AMAZING.

Here we have Eli demonstrating how to use this great rocket toy:

First (after mom sets up the yellow stand) you put a foam rocket onto the blue tube. In this picture the rocket is pointed up, but it can be pointed in any direction.

Next you run up to the red block that is a plastic box full of air.

Then you jump on the red box. This pushes air through the blue tube and thus pushes the rocket off of the blue tube.

Now you watch in amazement as the rocket flies up into the air.

A funny side note: My 15 month old is scared of this amazing rocket toy. It is quite humorous.

Just a chat...

2011-12-23T13:16:00.002-06:00

With Santa!

Eli sat on Santa's lap twice this December. The second time I was able to take a picture. He requested a rocket, a robot, and a dinosaur.

Ella knows this was the REAL Santa. (Before she sat on his lap a baby was placed there and unsuccessfully tried to pull off Santa's beard.) She asked for a sled, hula hoop, and skis. She knows it doesn't snow here. Maybe she wants to visit Santa at the North Pole to use those presents?

Even Rhys sat on Santa's lap...

He asked for his Mommy.

What did you ask for?

nearly eaten alive

2011-12-23T13:08:00.003-06:00

We had fun at the science and history museum this morning. Here are some highlights:

Eli saw himself getting eaten by a T-Rex!

Ella saw herself as a sharp tooth's dinner...

An alligator nearly bit off Ella's hand (good thing she is left handed =).

Have an adventurous day!

2011-12-17T07:35:00.002-06:00

I love to run.

My husband thinks I'm crazy, but thankfully he supports me. In fact, he recently made my dreams come true by purchasing me a pair of these:
I am a solitary runner. My schedule has never allowed me to run in any neighborhood groups (There was one in particular back in Tucson that ran at five in the morning-crazy women.) but I know that I would prefer to run alone anyway. I love the peace I find running outside and letting my mind wander.

As a solitary runner I find it interesting that I receive a euphoric joy in running in huge groups of strangers. I love to run in races. From the moment I sign up for a race I am excited. The day of the race I am giddy.

Here in Southern Texas I have run in two events. The first was on Thanksgiving in the Turkey Chase. It was four miles of heaven.

Last Friday I ran in what was probably the funnest "fun run" ever. It was: The Lizard Who Stole Christmas fun run (Hosted by Lizardo's pub and sub). This run was at night and I talked Chris into bringing our children down town to see me run. What I didn't know was that there was no set course so they never found me. I did get my picture taken though:

You may have noticed my bright red legs. Those are my long johns-it is winter you know. I was happy to wear red on my legs and green on my arms but I found I was still underdressed for the festive run; people wore Santa hats, bells and Christmas lights. The leader of the group was in Santa shorts.

This run consisted of us following the man in Santa shorts as he meandered his way around downtown Corpus Christi. He led us in and out of bars, restaurants and even a hotel lobby. I was right next to this leader the whole run and I'm sure he made up the rout as he went, picking the bars that had the most patrons inside.

Did I mention we ran next to the ocean? So cool.

Our Castle

2011-12-12T13:06:00.004-06:00

We recently celebrated the sixth birthday of Princess Ella. She requested a princess party, but not one like the princess party she had when she turned four. Here is how I pulled it off:

I began by visiting our local Lowe's and collecting refrigerator and washing machine boxes. These boxes are HUGE! I then took box cutters to them and made doors and windows in order to create a castle. Ella and Eli had a blast coloring the outside of it and playing inside it. (The castle was allowed to stay up until we got our Christmas tree.)

I made a castle for her cake.

Ella's birthday party was really fun. We started with some princess pampering. I did princess makeovers with lip gloss, eye shadow, glitter, and fingernail polish while the girls colored pictures to hang up inside Ella's castle.

Next we played games. Our first game was Snow White's Poisoned Apple. It is much like Hot Potato but when you get out you lay down and pretend to sleep. The winner gives everyone Hershey Kisses to wake them up. (Note the two princesses laying down in the picture.)

We then played Cinderella's Missing Slipper. Ella and Eli hid the mates to shoes in our back yard before the party and each princess had to go outside to find their missing shoe.

After the shoes were found we played Snow White's Wishing Well. Each girl had five pennies and a small jar. The goal was to drop the pennies from their noses into the jar.

Sleeping Beauty Says (think Simon Says) was our last game. Each girl had a turn to be Sleeping Beauty. It was extra funny because they kept forgetting and said Simon says instead of Sleeping Beauty says.

I'm rather pleased with the cake so here it is again...

Ella's real birthday was two days before Thanksgiving. As per tradition she had pumpkin pie instead of cake.

Ella is now six years old. She loves school, biking, reading, coloring, barbie, princesses, singing, playing with friends and playing games with her mom and dad.

I love you Ella.

The best treat

2011-11-02T12:20:00.004-05:00

Halloween is one of the funnest holidays. I love all of the festivals and how the whole neighborhood/town/city celebrates together.

Our first party was the city's Boo Bash. There were games to play (such as grabbing eyeballs from a pool of water with a blind fold on) and inflatable obstacle courses to run through. I was happy to discover this was all free.

Next we had the elementary school's Fall Festival. The boys wore their costumes for this one. There were more inflated obstacle courses and games (plinko was a favorite). There was face painting and tatooing and friends from school to play with.

We then went to our ward's chile cook off and trunk-or-treating party. I didn't take any pictures of that but it sure was fun.

On Halloween we carved our pumpkin--we originally had two, but one went rotten way before we were ready to carve them.

Chris was ill on Halloween so I had the pleasure of escorting my children around the neighborhood trick-or-treating.

The best treat of all was given me while we were out trick-or-treating. I was stopped by a couple who was out with their children. The husband asked if I was the mom who roller-blades to school every day. I answered in the affirmative. Then his wife told me I am her inspiration. She mentioned that one day her son came home from school and told her that he had seen her inspiration at the library. It's fun to know that I'm so well known. It's an honor to know that I inspire anyone. What a treat!

Random updates

2011-11-02T11:48:00.004-05:00

Ella has been having fun playing soccer this fall. The league here in Southwest Texas separates the girls and boys, only has three players on the field per team and has no goalies. Ella loves it and has become so much more aggressive. Last week she scored two goals.

I live in Texas. And if I learned one thing from the movie "Whip it" it is that when you are in Texas you either do beauty pageants or Roller Derby. As the neighborhood "Rollerblading Mama" it was fitting that I organized a g.n.o. to attend the Hurricane Alley Roller Derby. It was quite possibly the funnest night out ever. I think that in another life I was a Derby girl. (My Derby name is Hermione Danger.)

There are a lot of parks here and the weather is perfect 98% of the time. So my boys and I go to the parks often. Rhys thinks he is invincible. He likes to go head first down every slide.

We recently went to the Dr for our flu shots. Eli was not too keen on this idea and decided to hide from the nurse so that she couldn't give him his shot. When the nurse came in though he found the superhero in him and came out from hiding. He was actually quite tough and did not cry.

I had a birthday in September. My big present was our new butler Jeves. He is amazing. He opens and closes doors for me. He helps me back up. He says goodbye when we leave him. He gives me the freedom that I'd longed for since we moved to Texas. And Eli let me know that when we are driving around we are inside Jeves' stomach.

Looking For Dracula

2011-10-21T13:07:00.002-05:00

I heard Ella singing this song the other day and thought it was super cute. I asked her if I could record her performing it and she was happy to oblige. Actually, she was giddy with excitement to be recorded.

Please click on the phrase below to watch Ella sing.

"Looking For Dracula"

r e s p e c t

2011-09-24T13:03:00.002-05:00

I recently had a birthday. It was a big one. I turned thirty.

When I lived in St. Louis I had a good friend turn thirty. She was so excited to finally be a respectable age. It made me laugh at the time, but now that I am the one turning thirty it has made me laugh even more.

I have thought a bit about being thirty. Society would say I am now old enough to think about getting married--I married at the age of twenty. I remember the movie "13 going on 30" and the quote in it: "I'm thirty and flirty and fabulous." --This quote works fine for me, but I only ever flirt with Chris.

Most of all though being thirty makes me think of my parents. If I am thirty that means that they have been married for more than thirty years. I find this quite impressive. In fact I would say that being married for more than thirty years is respectable and plan on doing the same myself.

Anyway...

For my thirtieth birthday I had a pirate party. My guests all dressed up in their pirate gear:

We ate at a restaurant called "Blackbeard's" and ordered fried frog legs:

It was interesting. They were breaded and fried with the bones still in them. The sauce was great and tasted very Cajan. Chris explained it best when he said the frog legs tasted like a mix between chicken and fish. I had a difficult time getting past the fact I was eating frog and while I'm happy I did it I probably won't do it again. (Even Ella tried some!)

I had a great birthday.

the beginning

2011-08-23T12:19:00.004-05:00

Monday was the first day of school. My big little girl started kindergarten. Sigh.

Because school here starts at 0800 and we walk/bike to school Ella has to wake up at 0630. (And I have to wake up earlier still.) She was very excited and very prepared. She had set out an outfit the night before and had me braid her hair so it would be curly.

Tada:

Here are my children eating breakfast at 0645.

Here they are getting some play time in at 0705.

At 0715 we are out the door, back pack on, and ready to go!

Ella rode her bike. Eli rode his bike.

Rhys rode in the stroller. I pushed him while roller blading.

On our way to school.

This is the "secret passage" (a wall blocks the view of the continuing sidewalk.)

Ella's bike, safe and secure.

Ella was still excited and refused to come home with me. Fine, go to school then.

The school allows parents to eat lunch with their children any day. Ella invited me to eat with her on day one. I was thirty seconds late because I had to sign in as a guest in the office. She was already sitting down with her class.

I almost left to let her eat lunch and make friends, but she jumped up and moved to sit by me at the guest table...all the way at the other end of the cafeteria.

She was giddy with excitement and told me everything they had done thus far. Then she noticed the note I had put in with her lunch. She just about bust a gut when she saw the smiley face I drew...

Ella left with her class after lunch. I just had to document that she is tall.

Eli really missed his best friend while she was at school. Luckily Chris had the day off and took him to the beach. They swam with jellyfish. Eli loved it.

The problem with school is that it is a recurring event. I'm fine sending my girl off to school for 7 1/2 hours every once in a while, but they want her five days a week! That is a lot of waking up at 0600. I'm more of an 0700 kind of morning person.

science/art fun

2011-08-19T14:15:00.004-05:00

Today we did a fun science/art project. The idea came from Crayola.com.

You squirt liquid glue (elmer's) in a design onto your paper. Then you sprinkle salt on the glue. Then you use droppers to drop colored water (food dye + water) onto the salty glue.

You get to watch the colors spread across the picture as the water spreads across the salt. When the colors mix you make new colors. Science is cool.

See how much fun it is?

This was a big hit with Ella too.

Treasure

2011-08-16T21:20:00.002-05:00

I made fried rice for the first time last night. It was a fun dinner to make and to eat and here is why...

Fried rice is a meal of left-overs. I planned ahead and made extra rice with dinner last night so I could use it tonight. I had planned ahead and had leftover chicken to add too. I knew you need vegetables so I added carrots from the fridge and peas from the freezer. Then I started to have fun.

You see, as I was stirring the rice/vegetable mixture I was reminded of my father who likes to use leftovers to make fried potatoes. I stood there stirring and thinking of the weird additions he would make to the potatoes in the pan- ham and peas, ground beef and corn, etc. At this point I decided to add the left over broccoli in my fridge. When the fridge was open I saw a left over corn on the cob. Perfect! I grabbed it and a knife and added the corn kernels to the pan.

As I stirred the rice once more I felt somehow closer to my dad.

I had the urge to add cheese to my fried rice, but did not because that would be gross. Had I been making my dad's fried potatoes though cheese would have been absolutely necessary. Several types of cheese if possible.

I decided that my dad's fried potatoes are simply his version of fried rice.

These epiphanies were nice, but the fun came when I sat down with my children to eat the fried rice. Ella was so excited. She said it was like digging for treasure. Then she made it into a game. The vegetables were the treasure and whoever found the most treasure won. Her favorite was the eggs and Eli and I preferred the corn.

Can you find any treasure?

excited

2011-08-16T21:16:00.001-05:00

Ella is really excited for school to start on Monday. Today she colored, and cut out these back to school pictures to decorate our front window with. You can't read it, but there is a sign that says "Back to school" underneath the block letters Ella wrote her own message: "Yay, I like school."

this elephant has two teeth!

2011-08-10T14:17:00.003-05:00

Some updates:

Rhys is elephant walking.
He really wants to be walking and loves it when I hold his hands and help him walk around. Here he is on the lawn at my parent's house in Utah:

I don't have a picture of this, but Rhys has two teeth! (front bottom) He is growing up so fast!

We love going to the beach. We live a mile from the Gulf of Mexico and go to the beach about once a week. Sand castles are fun, but so is getting buried...

Our new home has grass! We love having a lawn and the kids love running through the sprinklers.

We bought a new fridge for the house we are renting. Ella loves that she can get her own water from the fridge's water dispenser. I love that Ella can get her own water and wants to get Eli's and mine, and her dads...

Chris has started his new job (finally). He sees an impressive amount of patients each shift and feels like he's pulling his weight so that is good. I like that he doesn't work as much as he did in residency. It's almost like I have a husband!

Our next adventure is that school starts next week. I'll keep you posted...

A picture story

2011-07-13T15:25:00.009-05:00

We recently took a vacation from life and spent a week at Disneyland.

Ella and Eli could hardly contain their excitement. The day we arrived we went to Downtown Disney to prepare for our stay. Ella needed a new nightgown (that's the item I forgot to pack, not bad considering all I remembered to pack.) and we needed autograph books.

All five of us slept in one hotel room. The room had two queen size beds (one for Chris and one for me) and a pull out twin for Ella.

Rhys slept in his pack-n-play and Eli slept on the chair cushion we placed between the beds. The first night Eli slept under my bed, woke up confused and moved his head back onto his "bed". After that I added pillows to the sides of his bed so he would stay in place.

We were so happy to spend our time in Disneyland with the extended Williams family. (The trip was funded by Grandma and Grandpa Oregon)

Cousin James is adorable and Rhys seemed to like him too. =)

When we first arrived it was time for me to feed Rhys. So Chris took Ella and Eli on one of the old fashioned car rides down main street. They never came back...

After feeding Rhys I was happy to wait in lines to meet characters, I mean so that Rhys could meet the characters 8).

After meeting Pluto, Goofy, and Mickey, Rhys and I made our way to Fantasy land where the family was waiting for us while they rode on rides.

As a mother, the joy of Disneyland is lived by watching my kids have fun. It has to do with nostalgia and memories from when I came as a kid and wanting the same thing for my kids. I mostly didn't mind being the parent who takes pictures and watches the baby, but I was kind of bummed that the parent switch pass doesn't work on kids rides such as the tea cups.

Britni and I are devoted mothers who will do anything for our daughters. Even stand in line for an hour so they can meet Rapunzel. Actually it worked out fine because our youngests were taking naps while we waited so we wouldn't have been able to go on rides then anyway. But really we are awesome mothers.

Ella wants you to know that Rapunzel asked her, "Will you hold my hair?"

Chris is a devoted father who will wait in line for who knows how long so his daughter can meet Tinkerbell. (I was sick in bed the day they did this).

While Chris took Ella on the Indiana Jones ride I took our boys on Jungle Cruise. I love this ride because there is never a line and it is always funny. Eli loved it too and we went on it several times during our stay in Disneyland--every time everyone else went on Indiana Jones.

Thanks to the parent switch pass I got to go on Indiana Jones too! Ella was so excited for this ride. She loved any and all of the thrill rides. Her effervescence was catchy.

While Ella and I rode Space Mountain, Eli met Buzz Lightyear. Lucky.

There was a lot of construction in California Adventure. I much prefer Disneyland to California Adventure, but the rest of the family loved both parks. In fact Ella's favorite rides were in California Adventure: California Screaming and Tower of Terror.

Here is Ella posing at one of the "forgive the construction mess" signs.

Spending all day every day playing and having fun was asking a little too much of my three year old. We quickly learned to let him take a nap in the stroller while I carried Rhys in the Mai Tai carrier. On day one, however we hadn't let Eli take a nap so when we went to California Adventure and I carried my tired boy on my shoulders he quickly fell asleep. Who can sleep like that? This boy has a sleeping gift.

Day two I woke up early with the baby and decided to go to Disneyland right when they opened. Eli woke up as I was leaving so I took him too. I loved the excitement of the crowds as we were let into main street and then into the park. The boys and I headed strait for Tomorrow land. We rode on the space orbiter (like dumbo but with rockets), the Buzz Lightyear ride, and the Nemo Submarine ride. It was fun for me to spend the morning with my boys.

If you look closely at this picture you will see oatmeal on Rhys' face. That's how we did things in Disneyland. I often fed Rhys while pushing him in the stroller. No time to stop and feed him, there were rides to ride on!

I have to admit that we lost Eli. We were walking to Pirates of the Caribbean, and when we stopped to park the stroller he kept walking. Thankfully I was with a large group of family that ran all over the park looking for him. And thankfully Disneyland is used to this and security found him in no time. Chris Debeikes brought him back to me (more than once actually since Eli had a tendency to get lost). The story is that when we told Eli we were going on the Pirates ride he thought we meant the big boat that sails around pirate island and had walked down to its dock. Here we are on the "pirate boat" USS Columbia the day after this mix up happened:

On day two we ate as a huge family group at Ariel's Grotto. I think it is a great idea to have the princesses come to you while you eat rather than waiting in more long lines to meet them. We were greeted by Belle, Arora, Cinderella, and Snow White (And Ariel of course.)

(It was shortly after eating lunch here that I started to feel ill. I tried to blame my gastroenteritis on food poisoning, but the next day when I was all better, Cassandra was sick so I knew it was a virus that made me ill, not the food.)

The super nice thing about coming with such a large group is that I got to ride on rides while someone else was willing to watch my kids. Chris D. took Ella to meet Jesse while I rode on Screaming. Thanks Chris.

On day four, Eli, Rhys and I went to Toon Town ahead of Chris an Ella. Eli was excited to meet Goofy and he loved playing in Goofy's garden--a small playground with a small slide. When Chris and Ella caught up to us Eli even went on the Toon Town roller coaster (this is a big deal because Eli didn't like fast rides.)

Look! Our first family photo since having Rhys.

Rhys liked Toon Town too. There were more places he was aloud to move around on his own. Like here, in Chip and Dale's house.

Of course we went on It's A Small World. It was fun to watch the kids pick out the Disney princesses within the displays. Somehow they even knew the song. Chris went on this ride once-it was his first time ever!

Going to Disneyland pointed out to me how big my little girl is. She was tall enough to go on any and all rides. She was (or looked) old enough to go on rides all by herself. Technically you have to be seven to go on rides by yourself, but no body questioned her when she waited in line and rode King Tritan's carousel alone.

Eli was asking for a sward starting on day one. On the last day I bought two swards. Miraculously they didn't break and made it home for a fun momento.

While the adults rode Toy Story Midway Mania and Ella rode on the carousel, us kids met Woody.

Eli decided to be grumpy and didn't want to meet Woody. So Rhys and I met Woody. But when Eli tried to walk past Woody without stopping Woody grabbed Eli and gave him a hug.

See how happy Eli is now? Thanks Woody.

Ella took the "Which Disney character are you" test. First she was Snow White's step mother. Then she was Maleficent. Ella wanted to keep trying to be a princess (or at least not a villain) but we had to move on.

My loving mother in law sensed my frustrations that came from always being with the baby and quickly swept me out of California Adventure and into Disneyland (Like I said before, I much prefer Disneyland) and bought me some beignets.

I just thought I'd mention that we drove to and from Disneyland. On the way home we needed to change our tire out for the spare. Yay Chris.

We had a fun time at Disneyland. Five days was not too much. It was not enough. We want more!

I've learned my lesson

2011-07-13T13:38:00.002-05:00

We have officially moved into our new home in Portland, Texas. We love it here and soon I will tell you why, but first I must tell you how we got here...

Moving is not a fun thing to do. All that packing. All that stressing. All that driving. Bleh. But having movers is supposed to fix that. I hired movers back in February. Their job was to load the truck, drive the truck, and unload the truck. They were also hired to take apart beds and put them back together. Ahhh. You see, so much less stress and the move was still months away.

Fast forward to the day before the movers were scheduled to come. We had just returned from vacation the day before (I know, who goes on vacation the week before a move? Score one for the stress monster.) and we hadn't heard from the movers in a couple of days. I had been told the van driver would call me 24-48 hrs before they come to load us so we would know when to expect them. When the call never came, I decided to call them.

Sigh.

The rep in charge of my account wasn't answering the phone or returning my call. Then I tried their customer service and found out why my rep was avoiding me.

Are you ready for this?

They had yet to assign a shipper to my move. (The shipper is the van driver.) You see, I chose a nation-wide mover that hires out big trucks to move people, and the truck they had hired for my move had filled up and dropped us earlier that day and we now had no shipper planning to come to move us. Score five million to the stress monster.

Why didn't my rep feel like I should know this?! He did finally return my increasingly irate phone calls to inform me that he was sure they would find someone else to move us and contractually he had until midnight two days from then. The contract said the movers would come to load the truck on the 28/29th. I was sure that coming at midnight on the 29th didn't work, but he insisted he had until then to find me a shipper.

Gaaaaaaaaa.

Let me back up a little here.

We had planned to drive to our new home in order to move our cars there. My parents were planning to help us with the long drive and our young children. Then Chris' truck broke down and we sold it. This left us with one car that does not have room for my family plus my parents. (Score two for the stress monster.) My dad decided he would rent a car and still help us with our move. I soon learned that renting a car in one state and dropping it off in another state is a big deal.

Anyway,

On the 28th of July my parents flew into Tucson. We had one car, but they were planning to rent a car the following day when we started our long drive. We also had NO shippers at our house loading a moving truck. As we frantically finished packing our belongings (remember that vacation I went on? I had lots of laundry to do, and unpacking, and re-packing, and... score three for the stress monster.)

My husband, thank goodness, took over the whole yelling at the movers job. And after waiting 48 hours for the contract to be officially broken we rented Penske trucks and began to move ourselves. Did you catch that? I said truckS. When you wait until the day after you planned on moving to rent a moving truck all the big trucks won't be available and you will be stuck renting two 16 ft. trucks. We also had to load these trucks all by ourselves (who can you really ask to help you move the day after they all thought you had moved?)

Happily my parents were in town and Chris' truck was no longer ours. With four drivers, one car full of kids, and two Penske trucks full of our belongings we drove to our new home in Texas. Score one for everything working out.

And now we are here. My house is coming together nicely. I have Chris home for a month before he starts his new job. We were finally reimbursed by the movers. We even received our moving bonus and can now buy groceries. Everything is rainbows and unicorns.

I may never be willing to move again.

moving 101

2011-06-16T10:15:00.002-05:00

We are moving.

Chris has a new job in Corpus Christi, Texas. We will move at the end of the month and packing is well under way.

I've learned many things while packing for this move:

1) It doesn't matter what you pack first because you will need it and have to open every box you pack to use what is in it at least twice before you actually move.

2) Pack toys first. Yep, toys.

3) Replace the toys with empty boxes and stand back in wonder while your children have more fun with the boxes than they did with the toys.

4) Don't believe the stores when they say they will save boxes for you. This is how I obtain boxes for packing--I ask a store (target or walmart) to save boxes after re-shelving and they tell me when to come pick them up (some obscene hour like seven am). I then don't sleep all night for fear that I won't make it to the store in time to get the boxes. Then, at the store I learn there was a "communication error" and the boxes have all been crushed. So why do I do this? Because once or twice they actually do save boxes for me and I get free moving boxes by the shopping cart full.

5) Selling unwanted furniture is easy if you want to give it away for free, but impossible if you want to sell it for money.

6) Be as organized as you want, but you will still have to reopen boxes to add items that somehow didn't make it into the designated box (ie: the tennis racket Chris has hidden in the bedroom that is not packed with our other tennis rackets.)

7) You can not eat everything in your freezer if you wait until the week before you move to start planning meals around what you already have.

I'm sure I will learn more before we actually move, like whether or not hiring movers to load and drive our everything we own is a good idea. I'll let you know...

my star

2011-05-27T09:27:00.007-05:00

Yesterday my little girl graduated from preschool. We were lucky to have her attend Little Busy Bodies Preschool. There were only five children in the class and the teacher, Miss Amber, was fantastic.

Ella loved preschool. She loved playing with her friends, doing arts and crafts, and learning.

There was a graduation presentation on the last day of school. The children sang their three favorite songs to us and performed Caps For Sale. Ella was lucky enough to be the peddler and I thoroughly enjoyed watching my girl be the star of the show. Here, you can watch it too...

click here: Caps For Sale

I love my big little girl.

reversible no tie Mei Tai

2011-05-20T14:59:00.003-05:00

I recently made the best baby carrier ever! I combined a couple different patterns to make my own and love it so much that I have made this tutorial to share the joy. See how happy it makes my son?

Mei Tai carriers are for babies six months and older. They can carry your baby on your back or your front with the baby facing you.

Traditional Mei Tai carriers use really long straps that wrap around and tie in place. I prefer the simple buckle method. I cross the shoulder straps to distribute the weight better and cinched the waist buckles over to one side for easier solo access.

I made it reversible for added fun. Now it will match any outfit I wear =)

Reversible, No Tie Mei Tai

Materials:

1 yrd Heavy weight fabric 60" wide. (canvas, denim, duck cloth)
13”x14” outer fabric (quilter’s cotton is fine)

13”x14” inner fabric (quilter’s cotton is fine)

2 yrds 1” webbing

2 1” back pack buckles
1 wide back pack buckle

Fleece (for padding)Cutting

Webbing:

two 26” long strips
two 3.5” long strips

Cut:

canvas:

51” x 11” (one of these-for the waist strap)
32” x 12” (two of these-for the shoulder straps)6” x 5” (two of these-for strap attachments)
13” x 14” (for the body)

Fleece:

two 12” x 19“one 12” x 24”

Sew:

Fold the fleece pieces lengthwise so the two raw ends meet in the middle. Then fold in half so there is a 3” wide, four layer thick pad. Stitch together briefly just so it keeps its shape.

Fold 1/2” on long sides of all straps (waist, 2 shoulder, 2 strap attachment)

Iron.Fold shoulder straps in half lengthwise so the folded edges lay on each other on the inside. Insert a the 12” x 19” fleece pad in each folded shoulder strap. (Place the pad five inches up from one of the ends of the strap.)

Sew along both edges of the shoulder straps 1/4” from edge and again 3/4” from edge. The fleece pad should fit inside without being sewn on by these stitches.
Fold the strap attachment in half lengthwise and sew down both long sides 1/4” and 3/4”.

Fold the waist strap in half. Sew along the folded edge 1/4” and 3/4”. DO NOT sew the open edge together yet.

To sew the 26” long webbing to one end of the strap attachment--overlap by 1” and fold down edge. Secure with rectangle with an x inside. Attach the male half of the 1” buckle to the webbing. Fold down the end of the webbing (3/4” or so) and sew in place--this keeps the buckle on the webbing.)Repeat for second strap attachment.

To sew the 3 1/2” webbing to a shoulder strap--slide the female half of the 1” buckle to the webbing and fold the webbing in half. Sew ends together to trap the buckle in place. Fold down the edge of the strap and overlap webbing onto the end of shoulder strap by one inch. Center the webbing and fold the sides of the strap in to cover the webbing and over lap on each other (see picture).
Fold down the top corners of the canvas body. Overlap the end of the shoulder straps onto the corners by two inches. Attach by sewing a rectangle with an x inside.
Attach the strap attachments right under the shoulder straps. Secure by sewing a rectangle with an x inside.

Lay the canvas body down on ground. Fold the four straps onto the body so none of them stick out the sides.
Lay the outer fabric face up onto the canvas body.

Lay the inner fabric face down onto the outer fabric.
Pin together.

Sew with 1/4”-1/2” inseam along top and down sides. DO NOT sew edges where straps are attached.

Turn right sides out. Pull straps through holes.
Top stitch with 1/4” seam around sides and top of body. (Fold fabric in where straps are to make look nice and protect edges from fraying.)

Insert bottom of mei tai body into remaining fleece pad where it opens lengthwise. Fold waist strap over pad and overlap onto the body of mei tai. Sew along the edge of the waist strap 1/4” and 3/4”.

Attach wide buckle parts to ends of wast strap. Fold down ends and sew to protect edges.

TADA:

best bath toy ever

2011-05-20T14:47:00.004-05:00

I came across this idea on another blog (I wish I could give credit to this blog, but I don't recall what blog it was.) You buy the colored foam sheets at the dollar store and cut them into shapes.

These foam shapes make the best bath toy ever. They stick to the wall when wet and fall down when dry and they don't stain the wall. They provide never ending fun as long as you have an imagination. Eli likes to stick as many on the wall as possible and Ella likes to create pictures from the different pieces. It is a great way to learn shapes and colors too. I just can't praise this enough.

windsock/jelly fish

2011-05-06T17:56:00.002-05:00

We did a craft today. I forget how much children love to make things. My goal is to do more art with my children. I've already done some blog hopping and have a list of craft ideas. Today was the first from my new list. We made mini wind socks. I believe this project came from Family Fun Magazine.

Eli said it looked like a fishing pole. He caught a jelly fish.

Ella liked dancing with hers.

my yogi.

2011-04-30T21:07:00.002-05:00

Perhaps I did too much yoga while pregnant, because I think Rhys is doing yoga. Would this be up-dog or plank position?

Or maybe he's trying to show me how tall he is. He can't stand but he can stretch way up on his tippy toes.

Or he could be playing London Bridge is falling down...

I guess he could be learning to crawl. Should I tell him he's doing it wrong?

Easter

2011-04-30T21:01:00.002-05:00

We had a great Easter this year. Ella taught us the Easter story in Family Home Evening--I was truly impressed by how much she knew. Ella and Eli spent the week before Easter practicing hiding and finding plastic eggs. Eli gave his binkis to the Easter Bunny (!!!). And Chris even made it home from his night shift in time to join in the Easter egg hunt.

elephants!

2011-04-24T16:33:00.004-05:00

We recently went to the Pima County Fair. We watched the Sea Lion show, checked out the live stock and "helped" Farmer John (the children get to harvest fake vegetables, fruit, and eggs, and even milk a fake cow).

These are all very fun, but it wouldn't be the fair without...

Rides:

The petting zoo:

Riding an elephant:

Actually this was the first time we've done the elephant ride, but it was pretty cool.

And now I have the urge to watch "State Fair."

A Rhys update

2011-04-21T22:53:00.003-05:00

Rhys is now six months old. I can't believe how big my baby is already.

This was taken on our walk to pick Ella up from preschool. I was sure he'd stay awake...

Rhys can stay in a sitting position, but cannot get into a sitting position on his own.

I love this picture for many reasons. First is his hair. Rhys always has hair sticking up. Second is that he looks like he's been caught doing something he shouldn't be doing...like eating food instead of nursing. I had a hard time coping with him starting to eat "real" food, but now I've come to terms with it.

Enjoying his first swing ride.

Rhys is showing me more each day how he is different from his older brother and sister. Case in point: he rolls over as a form of mobility. Ella and Eli would only roll over if they were on their stomachs and wanted to be on their backs. Rhys rolls all over the house. I love it!

I love my baby Rhys.

fire trucks and blue cupcakes

2011-03-22T15:10:00.004-05:00

My big boy is three!!!!

And he really is a big boy. Eli is potty trained (Yay) and has a big boy bed too. He is 39 inches tall and is trying to eat more so that he can grow one more inch before we go to Disneyland in June (a surprisingly good motivation to get my boy to eat something-anything for dinner.)

We celebrated Eli's birthday on March 6th. See how happy he is?

Eli loved all of his presents. The coloring book is from Ella. The firetruck is from me. (As the one who buys all the presents I get to choose the best gift to be from me.)

Chris gave Eli this fishing pole. This was the first time he had seen the present since I am the lucky one who gets to plan these birthday things while Chris gets to work all the time. I was glad he enjoyed the present as much as Eli did. Sadly the $2 fishing pole lasted only two days before Eli managed to destroy it.

Eli cannot blow out candles. If you look closely you can see that his blowing technique is sub par. He ended up needing help to blow them out.

Eli wanted blue cupcakes for his birthday. He decided this at Ella's birthday party back in November because she had pink cupcakes. I was shocked that he remembered his request, but he was adamant that he get them. So I decided to use blue food coloring. And apparently I need to go back to preschool because I added blue food dye to yellow cake mix and made green cupcakes. Eli didn't care though because the frosting (white frosting plus blue dye) was blue.

A few side bar comments: Yes, Eli is wearing a tank top in March -we do live in Tucson. But really he had to wear this shirt because it has Spider-man on it. Also I am glad that he loves his firetruck. Really, I am relieved that I was able to give it to him. He started asking for one in January and I, luckily, had already bought him one in December. When does a mother's plan coincide with her son's desire? I should mention that it is not a good idea to let your son bring his toy firetruck on car rides since he will push the buttons that make loud fire truck noises and give you a panic attack when you think that you are being pulled over by an invisible police car.

my gymnists

2011-03-22T13:39:00.003-05:00

Ella and Eli love to go to gymnastics. Eli has an outlet for all his energy, has learned to do summersaults, and is working on his balance on the balance beam. Ella has gained a lot of arm strength as she practices her hand stands and cartwheels. She is (in my opinion) impressively good at the balance beam.

They recently had an observation day and I took a lot of video. But I feel lazy and won't be loading the video for you to see (unless you request it). Here are the three pictures I did take:

See how happy he is to do gymnastics?

This is Ella on the balance beam. I thought the lighting was cool in this shot.

You can see some of the gym equipment in the background. It is a great facility.

I sure hope that we can find a gym in Corpus Christi.

When dad's away...

2011-02-16T09:36:00.003-06:00

Chris spent the month of January in New Zealand. Since I am not one to sit around and wait for him to come back, I decided to go on vacation too. So the kids and I spent three weeks up in Utah--not quite as exotic as New Zealand, but to kids who live in the desert the idea of snow was very exciting.

Snow. Well, there wasn't actually that much snow there when we arrived. It was a nice 50 degrees and the only snow was on the edges of lawns where you know it was piled up when the shoveling was done. This did not deter my children's enthusiasm though--they went straight outside to have a snowball fight:

We had to adjust to having a dog around. Milo is a beautiful Silver Lab who was very excited to have kids around to play with. Ella and Eli had to learn that running from the dog just made him chase you more. And Rhys was very patient as Milo kept kept licking his hair. I thought this picture was funny because Milo tried so hard to get into the photo. He is, after all, part of the family:

One requirement of a winter trip to Utah is to go skiing. And we did. We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon and found SNOW! Ella was happy to cross country ski and Eli was happy to stomp around in his boots. Rhys was content to be carried in his sling. It was freezing up there with the wind blowing and the snow falling so we didn't last very long. We Arizonans aren't made for that kind of cold.

Our favorite venue to visit was the Church History Museum. I loved that it is free. The kids loved that it was so fun. There are interactive displays that rival what you would find in a children's museum. Ella love, love, loved the dancing section. It was meant to teach a story about a girl who had the courage to dress modestly. She spent hours dancing:

It was a nice vacation for me because I could have others hold the baby and give me a break. I was able to go to two U of U basketball games and a gymnastics meet. I was even able to play games with my family and not have to hold Rhys the whole time (remember, it was tricky to just set him down since Milo wanted to bathe him with kisses.) Here is Grandpa holding Rhys:

I had to include this picture...Eli is singing to Rhys.

I was able to see Sarah's new apartment. It is darling. Seriously. I liked this picture of us playing Mexican Train because everyone is so focused and awkwardly bent over to see their pieces.

I know you are wondering how I did it. How did one mother take three young children on two not direct flights to and from Utah? Well, I had help. Ella may only be five, but she is a huge help. See, she even held Rhys so I could put my seat belt on:

an early Christmas present

2010-12-19T20:34:00.001-06:00

I would like to thank Grandma and Grandpa Oregon for the fantastic Christmas presents they sent us. I know it is no yet Christmas, but we did open the boxes and the kids love them.

A Tucson way of celebrating

2010-12-19T20:19:00.004-06:00

As this is my last year living in Tucson I have made it a point to celebrate the Tucson way.

My first step was to visit Winterhaven. This is a neighborhood that goes all out with their outdoor Christmas lights. One even had a dancing light and water canon display! It was fun to walk around with the family...so glad that it is warm here.

The next trip we made was to La Encentada for their "enchanted snowfall." You can't get more Tucson than this: We stood on fake grass while fake snow fell on us. Wow. I found this particularly humorous.

Here is Ella enjoying the "snow"

Here's a picture of the so called snow.

Yes, I had fun. Yes I would still chose the seventy degree weather and fake snow over twenty degree weather and real snow. I just won't be seeking out this fake snow anymore.

Merry December

2010-12-07T15:24:00.002-06:00

I would like to begin this post with a picture of my youngest:

Rhys at six weeks.

And now for our Christmas happenings:

On November 23rd we bought and trimmed our Christmas tree.

Look! A picture with me in it.

December 4th was the ward Christmas party and my older kids got to ride a train to see Santa!

Ella asked Santa for a "stuffed bear that is purple" and a barbie.

Eli asked for a robot.

I like to plan ahead. And with a new baby in the family I've been planning Christmas presents way in advance. The purple bear and robot requests were way off the radar. Santa, if you read this blog, please help me!

Experiments

2010-11-06T20:58:00.003-05:00

Halloween is over. I waited a full week. Now is the time to throw out the candy so I can bake cookies and pies. But how does one convince the kids that this is necessary? Oh, I know! A Special Saturday Family Home Evening.

How would a Family Home Evening get rid of candy without putting the kids in a sugar coma? Easy. You discus the creation followed by the fact that there are rules (like gravity) that everything is subject to. Then you bring up that some things react differently like how vegetables rot when they are picked but fruit continues to ripen. Next (and this is key) you mention how some things sink and some things float. Then you ask, "Which candies do you think will sink and which will float?"

I know, you are thinking that I am a genius. Well, I am. But I must admit that the idea of experimenting with the candy was given to me by someone else.

Want to know the results? We had a fun evening destroying the Halloween candy. We tasted a few. Eli caught on to the fact that the candy was being ruined and decided that he should eat more and destroy less. Ella just wanted to throw more candy into the water.

Oh, and the scientific results: Only chocolate candy floats. And then only a few of them do...

Whoppers
Kit-Kats
3 Musketeers

While Ella unwrapped more candy to throw into the bowl I really got into the experimenting mood and decided to microwave M&Ms. Everyone knows the candy shell protects them so they "melt in your mouth, not in your hand," but how long do those shells protect the chocolate when they are microwaved? It turns out that the last one minute before they crack open and the melted chocolate escapes.

But what about Skittles?

They only last thirty seconds:

Conclusion: M&Ms are better suited for the hot desert than Skittles

Yes, I am a nerd. But also I got rid of three bags of Halloween candy without upsetting my children. When the bowl of water was full of candy and the experiments were complete I sorted through the remaining candy, selecting a few to keep for rewards, and threw everything into the garbage.

Two weeks ago...

2010-11-03T12:15:00.003-05:00

Two weeks ago I had a very busy day planned. Ella, Eli and I left the house early to make it to the follow up dr appointment with Eli's surgeon. That appointment was at 8:30. Immediately after Eli's doctor told us that Eli was just fine we had to "run" to the pediatrician's office for flu shots. The flu shots were scheduled for 9:30. Next door to the pediatrician is my ob/gyn where I had a 10:00 check up.

Happily we made it to each of our appointments on time. And while Ella was proud that she didn't cry when she got her flu shot, the more exciting news came during my appointment. When my doctor asked me if there was anything he could do for me I replied that I would like to be induced as soon as possible since my husband was leaving town on Monday.

He was surprisingly accommodating. He stepped out of the exam room to make a phone call to the delivery center. Ten minutes later I left the Doctor's office knowing that I would be induced in less than two hours. !!!

I am very lucky to have such good friends here that are willing to watch my children on such short notice. I am also lucky that Chris happened to have that day and the following day off from work. Talk about amazing timing.

Well, I was induced. And we had a baby boy. Rhys Riley Willliams was born on 10-20-2010 at 18:18. He weighed 9lbs 3oz and was 21 inches long.

Here he is on his two week birthday:

Ella and Eli love baby Rhys.

Mother and baby are doing great. And now I have three kids!

Happy Halloween

2010-11-03T12:02:00.002-05:00

Halloween in Arizona involves shorts and flip flops. This is very different than what I grew up with in Utah. I remember completely covering my costume with a big winter coat-every year. In Tucson you can actually see the costumes the children are wearing. Here are my kids in their costumes:

ready to go trick-or-treating

Watching the Labyrinth.

Ella loved handing candy out to the trick-or-treaters. Eli loved that people gave him candy when he went trick-or-treating. Happy Halloween.

Announcing...

2010-10-23T14:38:00.003-05:00

We recently welcomed a new member to our family.

Rhys Riley Williams was born on Wednesday (10-20-2010).

Chris sent out an email announcement to our families and I thought I would share it with you too. I will make my own post later...now I think I will sleep.

-Mal

Rhys is a Welsh name. It means "enthusiastic". It also sounds similar to the Latin word for laugh (risi or risum) which we thought especially fitting as Malinda literally laughed him out. Honest to goodness, no pushing, she simply couldn't stop laughing because the epidural made her legs feel all tingly and weird (everyone who knows Mal is nodding their heads right now). The OB actually told her to stop laughing because he wasn't quite ready yet. Three seconds later a baby boy popped out.

It just seemed that given the happy, rapid nature of this child's entry into this world he required a suitable name.

Malinda performed wonderfully and so far everyone is very happy and healthy and resting.

Our love to y'all,

Chris

Here are some videos:

Laughing Mal

Baby Rhys

Surgery

2010-10-16T15:02:00.004-05:00

My son was born with a mark on his forehead. His pediatrician told us it was a Nevus Sebaceous. Then, another pediatrician called it something else. Then a dermatologist said it was a juvenile xanthogranuloma and that it would go away by the time he turned three.

Eli is 2 1/2 now and the mark was growing skin tags rather than going away so we decided to get a fourth opinion. The new dermatologist diagnosed him with a Nevus Sebaceous. Since this was the same as the first diagnosis given, we decided that it was the correct one.

A Nevus Sebaceous has a risk of becoming cancerous later in life. With this in mind we decided that the sooner we have it removed from Eli's forehead the better.

Yesterday was the surgery. Eli and I left the house at 545am and drove to the surgical center. Sweet Eli was so well behaved wile we waited. He knew we were having his mark removed and he was very brave. We sang lots of songs to fill our wait time and he made all the nurses fall in love with him.

Here are some pictures of my brave and happy son:

Giving mommy a cheesy grin while the nurse checks his pulse.

In his hospital gown.

On his way to the operating room.

Seconds after waking up post-op.

The circle on his forehead, that most people never noticed is now a line on his forehead that most people will never notice. And now I have the piece of mind that I did all I could to prevent health problems for him later in life.

And I must add that this was way more traumatic for me than for Eli. I was so worried that something would go wrong. I was particularly anxious about his sedation. Thank goodness I have a wonderful husband who was able to give Eli a father's blessing the night before the surgery. It was really more for me than Eli, and it worked...my anxiety went away and I did not go into a stress induced labor while waiting for Eli to wake up after the surgery.

Welcoming Fall

2010-10-07T15:03:00.006-05:00

We recently spent a fun evening at the local elementary school's Fall carnival. We walked halfway there then boarded a school bus that shuttled us the rest of the way. I had no idea how excited my kids would be about riding on a school bus. We could have gone home happy after just that one ride.

At the carnival there were booths for games the children could play to win treats. Ella and Eli played a digging for treasure game, a fishing game, a put your hand in a bowl of spaghetti and search for body parts game, and many more.

The first thing to do at a carnival is get your face painted.
Here is Ella showing the flower on her cheek:

Eli chose to get a tattoo rather than have his face painted.
Here he is making a pirate face while showing off his pirate tattoo:

A train ride was high on the agenda since that is the motivation we used to get Eli to eat his dinner. He even got to ride on the blue train!

My daughter rode the mechanical bull!

I tried to get a picture of them coming down this slide,
but my phone doesn't take good motion photos.

They loved this obstacle course. Ella raced against her friend and Eli raced against his. They went on it over and over.

One of the booths that we had fun doing was pin the pumpkin on the patch:

Here we are with our friends lining up for the potato sack race:

Go Eli, go!

By the time we left Eli was beyond exhausted and Ella was asking when she gets to go to another carnival.

What a fun way to welcome Fall!

Soccer!

2010-09-28T23:12:00.003-05:00

Today was Ella's First ever soccer practice. I don't know who was more excited, her, Eli or me, but boy were we happy for soccer to start.

Soccer practice started at 530pm so of course we were there at 430pm. Now, wait a minute. You know I like to be more than on time to things, and we were so excited...so we had a picnic dinner at the park and played around until practice started.

See how excited she is?

I am not the coach. I would be, but I am due to deliver our third child in three weeks. So I am the assistant coach.

I started the kids (four girls and four boys) dribbling to the fence across the field and back. then, after discussing such rules as "no hands ever, just use your feet" and, well that was the only rule today, we circled up for a passing game involving learning everyone's name.

After a water break I reluctantly let the head coach take over.

Here they are practicing their passing:

I loath red ants. And sadly every park in Tucson is infested with them. Here is Eli scratching his newest bites:

Learning how to score is important. Here is Ella shooting against the coach:

The practice ended with a team meeting. The coach went over the rules: have fun and be a good sport. Then we voted on a team name. The kids suggested names like "airplane", "helicopter", "soccer team", and "dinosaur". Eli (not actually on the team) suggested "pirates". We "voted" and then the moms chose pirates because they thought it would be easy to make a team banner for the pirates.
Ella was beyond exhausted when the hour long practice ended. She said she had fun and is excited to keep playing.

Eli had fun (omitting the ant bites) and I'm pretty sure he thinks he's on the team too.

Go Pirates!!!

Don't "bug" me

2010-09-16T15:17:00.003-05:00

While in Oregon the family participated in a bug eating contest. Gross. Being pregnant has a very nice excuse element to it and I did not need to participate. Ella also refused. And I have to admit that I didn't even notice if Chris ate any because I was so busy watching Eli eat bug after bug after bug!

Here you see Eli eating a Larvet.

Eli won the contest.
(The sign says "I'm a real man, I eat bugs")

The bugs were roasted and seasoned, but still, they are bugs.

Eli wouldn't touch the crickets, but thought the Larvets were like chips.

Now why can't I ever get him to eat dinner?

Vacation overview

2010-09-07T12:15:00.006-05:00

My family spent the last week up in Oregon. It is always fun to visit family and we are never ready to leave. Now we get to enjoy these great picture memories...

First we went to a cabin up in Sunriver:

We loved the cooler weather and the nature all around us. we went for bike rides and nature walks.

This is our booty from the nature walk

The cabin had a hot tub...

We floated down the Deschutes river.

We played with our aunts and uncles

and we played with our cousins.

Back in Medford...

We visited the science museum:

Ella's favorite room was the bubble room

We played at Grandma and Grandpa's house:

Ella loves her cousin

Fun in the sandbox

We played lots of games.

I even got a girls day out!

Julia and Gray paid us a surprise visit.

Of course there was swimming.

Chris taught Ella to dive.

Then we flew home.

You know a vacation is successful if you are completely worn out:

yo ho yo ho

2010-09-07T12:01:00.004-05:00

Eli loves pirates. So it was no surprise that when we went canoeing while on vacation in Oregon he decided that his life jacket was a pirate vest...the canoe was a pirate boat...

Eli is excited to wear a pirate vest. Ella is excited to ride in the canoe.

My Family:

Eli didn't like the instability of the canoe. He wanted off...until we started rowing, then it was all: "Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for boat."

Eli only lasted an hour. Then he decided it was time for his nap.

What a cute, sleepy pirate.

The rest of our vacationing family was on a raft. Ella was excited to spend time on both a raft and a canoe.

the wheels go round

2010-08-18T11:30:00.003-05:00

We went for a bike ride this morning. I thought it was great that it was only in the 80's at 8:30 am.

I pulled Ella's bike out of the garage and had to pump up the tires, but nothing else needed fixing. Isn't it funny that in Arizona the off season for biking is Summer? Usually you fix your bikes up in the Spring after not riding them all winter, but it is the opposite here.

Ella did mention a couple of times that she was hot and sweaty, but she still had fun and has agreed to bike to school tomorrow as long as we bring lots of water and a towel to dry her off when we get there.

Eli was excited to ride his red bike. This consisted of him sitting and holding the handles and trying to keep his feet on the pedals that kept moving as I pushed him. This is asking a lot of coordination from a two year old. I only wish that the handle that I push him with also steered the bike.

Of course the best part of all was the strawberry orange julius we enjoyed after the bike ride. =0)

Monsoons

2010-08-13T16:00:00.002-05:00

Monsoons in Tucson are amazing. Sudden torrential downpours. Ahhhh.

What kid wouldn't think they were in heaven while running through puddles in a monsoon with their daddy?

School days!

2010-08-10T14:41:00.003-05:00

Ella's first day at her new preschool was today. We went to a meet the teacher "party" last Thursday and Ella has been overly excited for school to start ever since. Preschool is on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for three hours. There are three girls and two boys in her class (a good 1:5 teacher student ratio.)

I love that this school (located in the teacher's house) is a close 0.8 miles walk from our house. Today I pushed the kids in the stroller to drop Ella off, but drove to pick her up. When the weather is cooler though I hope to not ever drive there.

Ella was happy to wear a new outfit to school today. This one came from her closet...her Grandma Oregon gave it to her last year but it was way too big and now it fits. Thanks Grandma!

Ella asked me about the shirt. She was concerned that it didn't cover her shoulders and thus wasn't modest. I was torn. It is extremely modest if compared to other tank tops. Plus I wore tank tops up until I got married so who am I to veto them? In the end we decided that since she is so young she could wear a mostly modest tank top, but once she goes to big kid school she will need to dress more modestly. I suppose when she is a teen we will have to negotiate again.

This is Ella and her teacher, Ms. Amber

Eli had a hard time leaving Ella in preschool today. A big part of the problem was that the classroom had the worlds best choo-choo train table and he did NOT want to leave it. Then when we got home he looked around and asked, "Where's Ella?"

So what did Eli and mom do for three hours all by ourselves? We spent the first twenty minutes walking home from dropping Ella off. When we got home from our walk we sat in the backyard and ate a Popsicle. Then we came inside and I gave him lots of loves and grubbies --Grubbies are much better if your big sister isn't trying to get some at the same time. (For those non-Williams' out there grubbies are back tickles.) Next Eli and I went to the grocery store. I had been putting this off, looking forward to just one child with me in the store, but Eli was more trouble without his big sister there and had to be confined to the top of the cart rather than in the car (the carts at our grocery store have cars in the front for toddlers to pretend to drive). After the store we had enough time to put groceries away, have a snack and set up the train track before picking Ella up.

Nothing could have made Eli happier than to have Ella come home and play trains with him...and she did!

Arts and Crafts

2010-08-07T17:42:00.003-05:00

Ella wanted to do a craft project today so I suggested some options and she chose to make a flower necklace. I traced the flowers onto construction paper. Then we both colored them and cut them out. Next I cut up straws to space out the flowers and Ella strung them onto some yarn.

Eli wanted to help with the project, but after his many fits over not being able to use the scissors I decided that this was a good project to do while Eli took his nap. He was happy to wake up and find that we had made him a necklace too.

On a totally unrelated note we went to the zoo on Monday. Yup, for those of you who don't live in Tucson you might be surprised to learn that August is NOT our hottest month. Here are my children doing their ritual pose at the gates of the zoo:

Now is the time for you to leave a comment telling me what a fantastic mother I am. And thank you. =)

Pretend vs Reality

2010-08-06T11:53:00.002-05:00

So I was putting Ella to bed last night. She crawled up onto her bed to discover that her pillow had been folded in half. She exclaimed: "Who did this? I didn't do this. "

I responded that I hadn't done it.

She mentioned that her next question was whether or not I had been the one who moved her pillow.

"Maybe it was sleepy bear" I suggested.

"Mom, Sleepy Bear isn't real. He can't do things."

"Oh, we only pretend that he is doing things?"'

"Yes."

It is interesting to watch a child go from having real and pretend mix together to having them separate. Why must she grow up so fast?

That boat has sailed

2010-07-30T21:46:00.003-05:00

Ella was in trouble today because she wouldn't clean up her toys. She had an hour to do so before Eli's nap time. If she finished cleaning I would take her to her friend's house. She chose to play with Eli instead. So when it came time to put Eli in his crib for nap time I had Ella call her friend to cancel the play date. Very sad.

Well, two hours later Eli still wasn't sleeping (no nap today, sigh). And the toys were still on the floor. At this point Ella asked me a question: If she picked up the toys now could she go to her friends house? My answer: Nope. That boat has sailed.

Ella looked around the toy room. Then she asked me: What boat? Where is it?

=)

She did end up cleaning up. Eli even helped. The reward was Orange Julius. And believe it or not it only took her five minutes to clean up. I sure hope she learned her lesson so we don't have to cancel anymore play dates. Those darn boats just don't wait very long.

trains and magic...a winning combination

2010-07-23T14:42:00.003-05:00

Eli loves his trains and Ella has a fantastic imagination. Let's see how these work together...

Kids at Play

2010-07-20T19:20:00.003-05:00

Ella had her very first ever dentist appointment today. She was fantastic. I think it helped that the dentist is her friend's dad and that she got to watch cartoons.

Results

2010-05-10T14:36:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned in my previous post I have recently suffered from lactose intolerance. I think my kids suffered more than I did though. You see, the result of having a mom that doesn't drink milk is that she has no idea that the milk has gone sour. Ewww. Sorry about that kids. Chris is the one who told me last night. He was concerned that I would feed such grossness to our daughter. But how was I to know?

Also, I am no longer lactose intolerant. Yay! My true confession comes here: I tried some milk Sunday morning (Hey, it was mothers day and I wanted milk with my muffins.) The milk didn't taste right though and I convinced myself that it was because I hadn't had any for so long and threw mine away. It turns out that this was the sour milk that my husband found that night. So I actually did know that the milk didn't taste right, but didn't do anything about it. I think I get a gold star mother award for that one.

Here is my question: If I made muffins using sour milk as an ingredient are they okay to eat? I cooked them and they taste fine. No one is sick.

Well, at least now I get to eat dairy again. I can safely monitor all milk products for sourness from now on.

Please let this be temporary

2010-05-06T12:21:00.005-05:00

I am in mourning. I have lost something that I treasure. The sad part is that I know where it is...it is everywhere...I just am not allowed to have it.

Here is my story:

I was recently ill. Hot and cold flashes; upset stomach; loss of appetite; no energy; bleh.

Normally when sick I will sleep it off and Tada! I will recover. This time however, I was sick and pregnant at the same time so the whole "Starve a fever, feed a cold" wisdom did not apply...I had to eat to feed my unborn child. (As it is I still lost four pounds during this illness and that is not good for a pregnant woman to do.)

My sickness progressed from upper GI to lower GI. Then as I recovered, my health issues became a series of bloating and flatulence (It's okay if you laugh.)

Two days later I had an epiphany: I bloat after eating. When I eat I drink milk. I nearly exploded after eating ice cream. Oh no!!!! I am lactose intolerant.

Having talked to my doctor (my husband) my lactose intolerance has been confirmed. It is due to my eating dairy while suffering from GI problems. My irritated intestines rebelled against the lactose and now they continue to rebel even though my illness is gone.

I looked it up and this is fairly common. At Mayoclinic.com it says:

Result of illness or injury (secondary lactose intolerance)
This form of lactose intolerance occurs when your small intestine decreases lactase production after an illness, surgery or injury to your small intestine. It can occur as a result of intestinal diseases, such as celiac disease, gastroenteritis and an inflammatory bowel disease like Crohn's disease. Treatment of the underlying disorder may restore lactase levels and improve signs and symptoms, though it can take time

My hope is that this is a temporary disorder in my intestine. Chris says to give it a week. I don't know if I can last a whole week. Lactose is everywhere! I caught my self nibbling on cheese as I served cheese and crackers to my children with their lunches. I can't have sour cream. No ice cream. No milk.

Have you ever heard the saying "You don't know what you have until it's gone"?

I miss milk.

visitors

2010-04-23T14:12:00.005-05:00

Over the past month and a half we have had the pleasure of welcoming family to our warm and sunny home (it was snowing at their respective homes when they came.)

Here are some pictures from the fun we had:

Our first visitors were Grandma and Grandpa Utah.

We loved hiking up Sabino Canyon. Take that snowy SLC!

Pushing two kids on the swing is so much easier when grandparents are here to do it for me.

Here we are at the Desert museum. Another bonus of having grandparents around is that they can take family pictures for you. Also I want to point out that the kids and I are drawn towards Chris. Is he magnetic?

Nothing will win my kids hearts faster than reading to them.

Our next visitor was Parry!

Ella thought dressing in Parry's clothes was the funniest thing ever.

Parry hiked around Sombrero peak with us.

Hiking in Tucson in March. Heaven.

Our final visitors were Grandma and Grandpa Oregon.
The kids LoVeD riding on the train at the zoo.

Our visitors took us on vacation. No complaints here.

At the beach in Mexico.

A rocky beach means tide pools!

See how much fun it is to visit us? Do you want to come too?

The Renaissance festival

2010-03-12T12:38:00.002-06:00

Every year in February and March there is a Renaissance festival two hours north of our home. We had fun at the festival and were glad that Chris had the day off and could join us. As always the petting zoo was our favorite, but the shows were entertaining too...not to mention the people in the crowd. [I discovered that what "Renaissance" means to me (and in any history book) is not what it means to others. To most females it means an excuse to show as much cleavage as possible. To others it means to dress Gothic, dress like a pirate, or dress like a wizard in Harry Potter. Pretty much everyone who dressed up would have been hung if they had actually lived in Renaissance times.]

Here are some pictures from our adventure:

Ella LOVED that she met a real live fairy!

An older couple walked by and thought our kids were the cutest ever. They gave us a crown for them to share. All hail king Eli.

Ella was happy to dance with the fairies.

Yes, I paid money to ride this pirate ship with my children. Weeeeeee.

This ride was free. Hooray!

The key to a happy marriage

2010-03-03T14:01:00.002-06:00

I cannot handle anything fattier than skim milk. I was raised on fat free and I love it. When forced to drink 1%, or -heaven forbid- 2% I choose to go without. I can't even handle it in my cereal.

Phew. Now that that is off my chest I would like to mention that my husband doesn't particularly like skim milk. But he does like me. So for the past seven years we have had a happy marriage with fat free milk in our fridge. His only respite from what he refers to as white water was a couple of months in Saint Louis when we discovered 1/2% milk--then that disappeared from the shelves and we were back to skim.

Now to my current sacrifice for love...

Chris recently discovered a milk called Skim Supreme. I had sent him on a milk run and he claimed that they were all out of skim milk (totally believable, right?) so he bought Skim Supreme instead. This milk is fat free with additives that make it thicker for those who miss the thickness of fatty milks without making it any fattier. Tada! Just what my husband needs: a fat free milk that doesn't taste like white water.

Do I like this new Skim Supreme? Well, I don't not like it. I can tell a difference in the texture that weirds me out since I know that the additive is a seaweed. It's just not normal. I liked the thinness of my old skim milk.

And now we arrive at the part of my post where I answer the question, What is the key to a happy marriage? It is me choosing to buy this weird Skim Supreme milk because I don't hate it and my husband loves it. After seven years it is my turn to compromise for the one I love.

I love you Chris.

(Skim Supreme is also called Super Skim or
Skim Plus depending on the brand you buy.)

my dream...or nightmare

2010-02-09T17:44:00.004-06:00

I spent the afternoon watching another woman show me how dirty my house is. It was quite humbling. Apparently I should never even bother vacuuming again until I buy a Kirby Vacuum. This is an AMAZING machine. And I really really want one. Unfortunately my finances won't let me buy a vacuum that costs more than my car did.

Now I get to live with the nightmares that will come from knowing how dirty my floors still are after I vacuum. Really, I don't think I'll bother vacuuming at all. Maybe if I go on strike Chris will let me sell an organ and buy a Kirby.

Christmas 2009

2010-02-04T14:06:00.006-06:00

I know it's late and Christmas was forever ago, but here are some pictures from our celebration of our Savior's birth:

Ella was the angel in the sunbeam nativity production.

Chris read the Christmas story from the illustrated New Testament.

Ella and Eli pose by our Christmas tree.

Discovering the gifts Santa left.

Eli's big present was a basketball hoop.

Ella's big present was her bike.

And here are some fun videos:

Eli sings Jingle bells.

Chris and Eli play basketball.

my big idea

2010-02-04T13:15:00.004-06:00

I just had the most brilliant idea ever...

I've never been a big fan of Jam or Jelly. In fact I can only handle raspberry preserves and still I try to put on the least amount possible (you know, just enough to add a little moisture to my sandwich.) Jams and other preserves are laden with sugar. And they ruin the bread if you don't eat it right a way. (Who wants a soggy sandwich?)

Recently I had this epiphany: jams and jellies and preserves are not normal. Nope. They are called preserves for a reason. Their purpose is to keep fruit preserved in the jar for the winter months when fruit is not available. But now-a-days fruit is always available. So why are we still eating jams and jellies? WHY?

Really my question is: Why not use actual fruit instead of the jams I obviously loath?

Now, I know that some people do use bananas in lieu of jam. (I've always thought that was weird. Bananas add no moisture to a peanut butter sandwich. ) I've never known anyone to use strawberries instead of strawberry jam, or grapes instead of grape jelly. But you can not claim the same naivety now because I am the person you know who uses actual fruit on her sandwich instead of jam. And guess what?! It's really good that way.

Today I used grapes in my sandwich. I cut them in half and put them cut sides down on top of the peanut butter then covered them with the second piece of bread. It was fantastic.

Why did it take me so long to come up with this?

And now I won't feel guilty when I claim the fruit on my sandwich as one of my fruit servings for the day. Bonus!

A white Christmas!

2010-01-05T14:11:00.005-06:00

Yes, you read the title of this post correctly. We had a white Christmas in Tucson!

Well, we had a white Christmas in our living room anyway. I spent all of my spare time in the weeks before Christmas (which doesn't add up to very much time actually) cutting out paper snowflakes and making snowflake window clings. I kept my plans a secret then started setting up the indoor blizzard after Chris left for work on Christmas Eve.

I had a lot of fun and stayed up way too late. And now I need to convince myself that it is time to take down the snow storm. It is 70 degrees outside.

Ward Christmas party

2009-12-25T22:18:00.003-06:00

Our ward Christmas party held lots of fun for my family.

First the primary kids rode on the "Polar Express" to the "North Pole"

At the North Pole Santa and Mrs. Clause gave them a sleigh bell on a necklace.

Then I was in charge of the Sunbeam nativity.
Eli was a sheep.

Ella was the angel.

Here is a video I took while we prepared for the big performance:

sunbeam nativity

A princess party

2009-12-25T21:40:00.010-06:00

My little girl recently turned four years old. To celebrate this event we threw her a princess party. It was tons of fun. Here are some of the pictures:

Ella was excited to wear a new Cinderella dress.

The party began with dancing to princess music.

Ella and her four princess friends. She is the youngest and the tallest.

The girls decorated paper crowns for pin the crown on the princess.

Ella wasn't fond of the eye mask, and said she wouldn't peek if I
let her cover her eyes with her hand.

This cake is supposed to look like a crown. It is pink and has confetti frosting.

Our son

2009-11-21T22:28:00.003-06:00

It is fun to watch my children grow and change. They do and say the cutest things. Ella used to have her own words like "niece" for "more" and "malt" for "milk". Eli has his own cute sayings too. He says "me me me" which means "read to me."

It is sad that children must grow up. But the growing is made more bearable by our ability to record and keep the memories of our little ones. I remember my father sitting us down around a tape recorder and having us record our voices. We sang primary songs and said our first prayers, reported on our day at preschool and announced excitedly that we wanted to listen to the recording now. As I grew up I loved listening to the tapes of me as a toddler. I loved listening to my father's excited voice as he taught us how to record our voices. He knew then what I understand now: children grow up too fast. I am forever grateful for the blessing of technology that allowed my parents to save our voices. I am even more grateful for the technology we have today that allows me to record my children; not just their voices, but all of them.

And so, here is a video I made of my son. I will watch it over and over again just as I watch and re-watch my videos of Ella. Man, I can't believe what a sentimental mom I have become.

Eli at 20 months

A quilter turned seamstress!

2009-10-20T20:13:00.005-05:00

I've been feeling extra sew-y lately.

This is what I was able to make during Eli's nap today. Yup it took three hours to make from start to finish. I absolutely love it.

The pattern and tutorial are found at: http://www.kukyideas.com/journal/2006/07/tiered-skirt-tutorial.html

A museum?

2009-10-20T20:05:00.002-05:00

During Fall break the kids and I decided to join some friends at the local children's museum. Ella loves museums. She was expecting an art museum but I don't think she was disappointed.

Eli's Dessert

2009-10-20T19:19:00.003-05:00

We begin our story with Chris getting Eli ready for bed. I was practicing the piano. Chris was working on the computer. Eli was...

Eli was getting into Chris' chocolate covered pretzels. His loving older sister has taught him how to reach things on the counter. But Eli doesn't know how to get down from the stool. So this is how we found him when he called for us.

I am glad that Chris hadn't put Eli's pajamas on him yet. I am also glad Eli couldn't get down. Could you imagine the mess he would have made?!?

So Eli got his dessert and a bath too! His dream come true.

A hiking we will go...

2009-10-04T18:16:00.004-05:00

I love October in Tucson. The weather actually feels cool enough to go for hikes again. We jumped at the opportunity to enjoy the 90 degree weather that happily occurred on Chris' day off and went for a hike in Catalina State Park.

The view was amazing and I'm not just talking about my family...

The hike was 2.2 miles round trip and Ella hiked the whole way. She carried a water bottle and dry clothes in her back pack. Sadly, the "pool" we were hiking to was dry so the extra clothes were not needed. One might be led to believe we live in a desert.

After the hike we enjoyed a picnic in the shade. Ella loves picnics. She was also thrilled to find a tree that she could climb.

Is it cold where you live? Want to come visit us? We could go for a hike...

Princess bowling

2009-09-29T17:11:00.003-05:00

While on vacation this past August we had a girls outing of Princess Bowling. This entails getting dressed up like a princess and going bowling. Ella was in heaven.

Here are the princesses: Doddy, Aurora, and Thumbalina.

Ella named us, and we will never know where she came up with the name Doddy for the princess in white. She was persistent though and her aunt worried that Ella thought that was her real name.

We thought this picture would be a great advertisement.

My happy birthday

2009-09-26T10:33:00.005-05:00

I've been updating our family photo albums and I noticed that we have picture documentation of everyone's birthdays except for mine. So I told Chris he absolutely had to take pictures of my birthday celebration. I envisioned multiple pictures of me opening presents and eating birthday cake. What I got was a whopping two pictures. Two pictures to make up for eight years of no pictures on my birthday. Sigh. Thanks to Chris for these great pictures:

Ella and Eli both thought I needed help blowing out the candles.

Curious about the cake? This is the best cake ever. It's a yellow cake with a broiled nut topping. It is brown sugar, butter, milk, and pecans mixed together and broiled on the cake. Soooo yummy.

Free Summer bowling!

2009-06-25T16:39:00.004-05:00

I recently discovered that there is a "kids bowl free" Summer program here in Tucson. So when Chris had a day off yesterday we decided to hide from the 105 degree weather by going to the bowling alley.

Eli was excited to see all of the balls.

Ella used the 6lb orange balls, though she would rather have bowled with a pink one.

It was fun helping Eli on his turn.

Eli wanted to chase his ball down the lane and as it got closer to his nap time, it became more and more upsetting that he couldn't go get the ball slowly rolling away from him.

Chris and I took turns helping Eli and Ella on their turns.

Ella quickly graduated to bowling without our help.

I love this picture.

Here Ella and I are doing a celebratory dance after she knocked down some pins. We danced after every ball she sent down the lane.

We bowled two games. I won the first game and Chris won the second. When we left the bowling alley Ella continued to praise the whole experience. "I love bowling."

Ella dancing

2009-05-13T20:37:00.002-05:00

I love to watch Ella dance around the house. Enjoy.

videos of Ella and Eli

2009-04-02T23:11:00.002-05:00

I love to watch my kids and assume you do to so here are some videos:

Ella and Grandpa Utah pretending

Ella playing the piano

Malinda and Eli playing

vacation

2009-03-28T17:38:00.006-05:00

I went on vacation.

I took a vacation from vacation.

Then I went back to vacation before I came home.

I was gone a long time.

I am home now.

On Feb 21st Ella, Eli and I flew to Utah. We spent several days there getting them adjusted to life at Grandma and Grandpa Utah's house. Then, on Feb 26th I left my children in the care of my parents (this involves a lot of trust) and went on my own vacation. I met up with Chris in Dallas and we continued to fly to the Caribbean.

That's right. I went on vacation without my children and got to spend it on a boat island hopping in the Caribbean.

After a very short (and yet long as I missed my kids) two weeks I returned to Utah and spent another week there readjusting to motherhood.

I believe that every mom needs to take vacations from their vacations.

Here are some fun pictures:

This was taken in February. Ella is wearing my very first tu-tu that is now hers.

I loved to kayak with Chris. We are a good team-I do all the work and he steers...much like at home. =0)

These were my boat mates: Stacy, Chris, Peter, Kathy and Keith.

This waterfall is on Guadeloupe in Basse-Terre. I hiked through a rain forest!

This is at Basse-Terre on Guadeloupe.

Ella was very excited to see the temple in Salt Lake.

Once we were home again Ella wasted no time before dressing up as a princess. Here she is an island fairy princess. She actually told me "I'm prettier than you are, mom." while I put this dress on her.

Here Ella is feeding the ducks at Reid Park. We like to go to the zoo, have a picnic, and then feed the ducks.

Eli loves to wear these Easter bunny ears. He will bring them to me to put them on him. very cute.

-Malinda

Ella takes Ballet

2009-01-10T10:22:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was Ella's first dance class at the YMCA. She was very excited to dance ballet. We showed up early because I had the time wrong. Ella nearly burst with excitement as we watched the class before hers. I think that we will switch to that earlier class because it works with Eli's naps better.

Ella was the only one not in Ballet clothes. She was happily oblivious.

I loved watching Ella dance and thought you would enjoy it to:

Ella in ballet #1

Ella in ballet #2

Ella in ballet #3

Ella in ballet #4

Ella in ballet #5

my son, the genius

2008-12-13T17:26:00.005-06:00

Eli gave us a laugh yesterday and I have to share the story:

Chris, Ella and I were sitting at the computer watching a video on youtube (I have posted this video on my facebook page for your viewing enjoyment.) Eli crawled up to Chris with a diaper in his mouth. Chris thanked him and smelled him to confirm that, yes, Eli did need a diaper change. I loved that Eli took the diaper to Chris because that meant that Chris had to change the diaper. hooray! Chris of course complained that Eli forgot to bring the wipes. Much laughter ensued.

I know, I know. You are thinking, "What an amazingly smart baby to bring a diaper in request of a diaper change." Well, technically Eli had simply been playing in the diaper bag and thought it would be fun to crawl around with a diaper in his mouth. It was mere coincidence that he needed to be changed. Although I do think he is a very smart little boy and I am not at all biased.

Eli's first meal

2008-10-23T17:50:00.005-05:00

I know it was a month ago, but late is better than never...

When Eli turned six months old we celebrated by feeding him rice cereal.

Chris did the honors.

Eli didn's seem to like it all that much.

No meal at my house is complete without finding mom's hair in it.

Eli likes his food a lot more now. And we have yet to find another of my hairs in his food, thank you very much.

Family Vacation

2008-10-23T17:23:00.010-05:00

Chris recently had one of his two vacations of the year. It was great to spend consecutive time together as a family.

We went hiking up Sabino canyon:

We visited family up in Prescott:
We drove down to San Carlos, Mexico:

It felt strange to have a family vacation where we didn't go home to one of our parents. We had a family vacation with just our little family. I remember going on family vacations when I was little, but this was different...this time I was the mother. Aaaaaah.

It's fun to play at the Y M C A

2008-09-17T20:48:00.003-05:00

We joined the YMCA today!

Happily we are still poor enough to receive financial aide--and thus can afford a membership there. Ella loves the gym. It is actually because of her that we joined. I used a two week trial membership a few weeks ago and learned that pregnancy and a year of no exercise left me slightly out of shape =). Well, Ella loved going to the gym and playing in the child watch area. This is a really good play area with a park outside, play kitchens, princess dress ups and occasionally a movie. At any rate, I asked Ella what she wanted to do today and she said she wanted to go to the gym. Since she has said this for a week straight I gave in and we went and joined the local YMCA. It is a great motivation to work out when your kid tries to get you to go the gym every day.

And today I ran two miles. Wahoo! When I started my two week trial I could barely run one mile. I like to push myself and hope to be back up to five miles soon. We'll see...

Eli is almost crawling. He moves around like an inch worm. He is also sitting up all by himself, though he needs help getting into the sitting position.

Ella still loves Eli which is good. She is my best helper. She will play with Eli so I can shower or cook etc. and she loves to help me bake and clean. Ella is completely potty trained
(except for when she is asleep) and thankfully she still takes a nap (though a late one that starts at three in the afternoon.)

Yesterday when I had a doctor apt. Ella was especially good. Chris was post call, but had previously agreed to watch Ella so that I only had to take Eli with me. When it was time for me to go to my appointment Chris was home, but he was sleeping. So I put a movie on for Ella and told her that when the movie was over she needed to go in and wake up her daddy so he could put her down for her nap. She said okay and was very excited to watch a movie in the middle of the day. I estimated the time the movie would be over and called Chris to make sure Ella was alright. Chris told me that she had just woken him up so he could put her to bed. What a very good little girl we have!

Well, I think I'm out of stories except that Chris has vacation next week which is exciting.

Oh, and Sunday is my birthday so you must call me and wish me happiness.

--Mal

It has Begun

2008-08-03T13:22:00.002-05:00

So week one as an official resident has come and gone. I've grown soft over the last few carefree months; I'm not used to working everyday, nor am I used to working 9-12 hrs straight (I know, like I said: soft). I have a trick though that makes it easier. The husband of one of my classmates is currently doing a prelim year in Surgery. He's going into Anesthesia, so working like a surgery intern is exceptionally painful. Whenever I start feeling stressed, I just remember how easy I really have it compared to most residents.

Actually, working in the ED is quite fun and gratifying. I don't know if the day will come when the traumas, acute abdomens, homeless drunks, and "emergency sore throats" grow stale, but for now I can't think of a better job in all of medicine. At parties, who do you think has the best stories?

I'm trying to learn the balance between speed, efficiency and malpractice. Most of the time it seems that the majority of my brain is dedicated to paperwork, protocol and dictations, while diagnosis takes a back seat. Of course this is temporary; once I get the system all figured out I can start playing doctor more fully.

Enough rambling. I have some new videos up on YouTube. One is Ella playing in the tub, which made Eli laugh real hard. The other is one Malinda took of Ella giving me grubbies while I played Xbox.

Ella making Eli laugh

Ella grubbies Dad

a success

2008-06-28T14:55:00.007-05:00

We now have only one child who wears diapers. Sigh. They grow up so fast...wait, I mean, Hooray!
Ella began her potty training on Monday. Chris nearly moved out that afternoon when Ella drank too much juice (my fault) and had diarrhea--luckily she had the accidents in the bathroom and Chris is still living with us.
Ella is a quick learner and improves everyday with her ability to know when she needs to go and make it to the potty in time. Today I moved her toilet from the family room to the bathroom with confidence that she will make it to the bathroom in time. If we survive church tomorrow I might start letting her out of the house again (all trips to the park and library etc were temporarily canceled this week.)
I didn't take any photos of this process (how embarrassing would that be!) but here are some pictures from our recent family vacations to Harriman Ranch and Disneyland:

Two-Party Bondage

2008-06-24T13:15:00.004-05:00

To illustrate my point better, I put together this Simpsons clip. Enjoy it, then read the rest and pass it on.

In my last political rant, I ended referring to the current crop of presidential hopefuls (Hillary terminated her campaign that same day) as “very different shades of the same color.” I wish to expound on that. I am constantly bewildered by the argument that there are no good candidates to choose from, and I do not wish to lump myself into that category. By that I mean that I do not wish to be one of the complainers. If we lack any candidates of integrity, then it is a result of our own pride, apathy and cynicism in previous elections. I believe, and King Mosiah of the Book of Mormon tells us, that our leaders are a reflection of the peoples’ moral standing. (At least initially. Remember that after an unrighteous people allow evil men to come to power, they are stuck under their heel in bondage even after the people repent. At that point, only by God’s mercy and intervention is a nation delivered.) It is from this perspective that I urge for a moral revolution. Such a change cannot grow from a two party system once both parties are corrupted.

Again, in that last political rant I referred to Classic Liberalism. I referred to the choice that we must make between Globalism and Independence. I feel that the current leadership within the Libertarian Party most closely matches my philosophy of independence and the liberalism of the Founding Fathers. No, I’m not referring to Ron Paul (who has withdrawn from the race). I’m referring to Bob Barr and Wayne Allen Root. I’ve been watching them for a while now and I feel a ring or truth in their words and common sense in their policies. I am no expert on all their policies and cannot speak to their character other than what the media has afforded me. But in an election where so many people are voting for “hope” and “change” and “getting away from the politics of the past” and “finding common ground” I cannot understand why the masses have not paid more attention to Bob Barr.

I am bothered by those who are afraid to “throw their vote away” on a 3rd party candidate. I can think of nothing more patriotic and in line with the Founding Fathers than to do away with the two-party mentality. The rules of the parties are not made by the voice of the people. They are not beholden to the Constitution and thus are an opening to bondage. Democrats should understand this better than anyone given the recent disputes of Michigan and Florida and the ominous superdelegates.

To shine a different light on it, many conservatives feel a need to begrudgingly pull the lever for John McCain without agreeing with the majority of his policies. Unless you are a one-issue-voter, and that issue is either the War on Terrorism or Supreme Court Judges (ignoring the fact that the incoming Democratic Congress will stonewall any conservative nominations), I cannot understand how in good conscience you vote for McCain. “But a vote for a 3rd party is a vote for Obama…” No. There are a great many Democrats who feel disenchanted with Obama after his war with Hillary. They need to be taught that a 3rd party like the Libertarians is not another wing of Republican ideals. I am not advocating the watering-down of ideals and principles in order to widen the political tent. I simply urge Democrats to consider what issues are of highest priority and then use their God-given gift of discernment to judge whether Obama, McCain, or a third party candidate such as Bob Barr will advance those issues. Simply put, a vote for McCain is a vote for McCain; one for Obama, Obama’s. Vote your conscience and speak your mind; for this is the only course of action with any lasting promise.

I understand that in democratic society one must often compromise some points in order to achieve a greater good. But it is my belief that we have overstepped the line from compromise and goodwill into the territory of appeasement and apathy. To continue the two-party system is treason to our values.

welcome home

2008-06-06T22:43:00.005-05:00

What a great new home we have!

This morning we walked to one of the neighborhood pools for a swim. Ella loves to swim with her dad in the big pool and I love that there is a little pool she can play in while I watch Eli (this is my plan for when Chris begins residency next month). We all love that we can walk to the pool. I know it is hot here, but who can complain when you can swim away the heat?

Did I mention our house? I love it. I couldn't begin to explain all the reasons why, but for those of you who know me well it will suffice to say that the walls are a creamy shade of mild yellow.

And our backyard is great too. I know that there is no grass, but the pebbles we have are fine with me. Ella loves to draw with chalk on the cement and I love that it is small, and enclosed so I can let her play out there while I cook.

As you can see, Ella also loves the orange trees in our backyard.

As an orphan named Annie once said, "I think I'm gonna like it here."

2008-06-04T15:15:00.005-05:00

After that last weighty post, I thought I'd give y'all a little Ella & Eli. As you can see, we're all loving Tucson. (I'm really not satisfied with the quality of these, the video I'm uploading is much better--maybe I should switch from YouTube.)

Jumpin' in the Pool

Eli talk

What I did for Freedom Today

2008-06-03T14:15:00.010-05:00

So I started to leave a comment in response to this post by my good friend CroMike. I had so much to say that I thought it best served by posting it on my own blog:

Now, I cannot creep into the minds of Bush, Rumsfeld or Cheney and divinate their intentions when they first put Iraq in the crosshairs. I do not attempt to justify them. But I hate seeing good minds bowled over by the onslaught of misinformation. Allow me to give a bit of perspective. Bush and Powell repeatedly explained--but it was never hyped--that they were going into Iraq to "Change the Face of the Middle East" and ultimately to influence the culture of ignorance, poverty and fear that is constantly breeding terrorism and destabilizing the region (read: "keeping oil prices fluctuant"). Then came those darn WMDs.

That wasn't why we went into Iraq. It was one small piece of the intelligence pie that justified war; Bush and/or his advisors erroneously thought that “Weapons of Mass Destruction” would resonate better with Joe Shmoe than "Democratizing the Region", so Weapons of Mass Destruction got tons of media hype. If you like, I could send you dozens of quotes from foreign governments (Russia, UK, Germany, France, Italy...), President Clinton, Hillary, and the intelligence community stating their belief that Saddam had WMDs. So if he never did, he fooled not just Bush, but the entire planet (including his own high-level staff). Congress supported the war, it had a buildup of over 8 months, it was popular. If any legislator voted his or her approval disingenuously, then he should answer before God and the people whom they serve for so callously discharging the lives and limbs of our servicemen.

I am a classic Liberal. I believe in the Constitution and the principles espoused by the Founders. They were, for the most part, isolationists. So I agree with you that America should not have a preemptive, aggressive or manipulative foreign policy. But in this day of rapid transit, porous borders, economic entanglement and geographically incongruous natural resources, an isolationist policy would require too many actions that people currently oppose (e.g. drilling for oil in the States, building refineries, drastically stronger border defense, Israel-style air security, slightly higher prices on some foreign goods--all of these things I support, by the way). The point is, America had to make a choice after 9/11 (and Bush is culpable for not presenting it to the American people). The choice was, Do we continue to pursue a globalist, entangled future for America with dependence on other nations and regions, or Do we seek independence and relative isolation? The former will require a larger military presence to police the world with its inherent cost, the latter will require a long term resolve and probably carry with it a brief economic recession until the markets stabilize from the drastic changes. Which will it be?

Unfortunately Americans want the best of both options without any of the costs. And to maintain this fantasy many have chosen to ignore what they understood quite well a few years ago: there are people who believe America is the Great Satan and want to shoot you in the head. There are also people who, for the sake of security, want to build a "Brave New World" which requires reeducation and a distortion or erasure of history. There are people both home and abroad who despise fundamental American ideals. Without a healthy vigilance to these trends and influences, you will be blown off course unawares.

Hopefully that gives a bit of perspective. Too many people think with their hearts and feel with their brains. I think it stems from pride, a desire to nonconform.

Let me assure you though, that of the 3 current presidential candidates, not one will pull us out of Iraq. All three are globalists, all three are Senators, career politicians and smarmy. They are very different shades of the same color. It doesn’t matter though; Americans have proven just how short their memories really are.

Look What We Made!

2008-03-06T22:03:00.003-06:00

Where to begin? There is much that needs to be added to this blog. However, the advent of our son, Elijah, trumps all other news so forgive me if subsequent posts are chronologically backwards. (I have some fun videos and comments on visiting various cities throughout the “Interview Season”, visiting the zoo, Ella at the gym, and the Winter that just keeps on giving. It might even get a bit political—so stay tuned.)

Elijah Keith Williams (we’ll be calling him Eli) was born 12:19 on March 6, 2008. He weighed in a 8lbs 1oz and measures 22inches. He has a good pair of lungs (like his sister); he and Ella have some facial similarities so far, but he is definitely a different personality. Eli makes very little noise while sleeping and eating. So far, in his first 8 hrs of postpartum life he hasn’t really cried much at all (please, all of you knock on something wooden right now). He picked up the whole suckling thing much quicker than Ella did—or maybe Malinda’s a better teacher now. It will be fun to see how he shapes over the next few months/years.

Ella scored huge points today by not hitting, scratching, poking, squishing or stomping her little brother. As an added bonus she doesn’t seem to resent him or her mother for the current change in feeding and seating arrangements. We’ll see. Anyway, I’ve set up links for the first of many Eli videos and one Ella video that I had previously edited.

Ella & her songs

Eli's 0th Birthday

Eli's Comin' (Jed Cowley...Click Here!!)

Ella & Eli

an update

2007-12-07T12:13:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Ella is officially two years old. True to the Cutler in her she is off the normal curb of the growth charts =) Ella is an amazing three feet tall already. And although she doesn't look it, she weighs in at 35 lbs! (maybe she hid a paper weight in her diaper?)

I am doing great. The pregnancy is moving along swimmingly. For those who don't know yet, we are expecting a baby boy in March. My next appointment is on Tuesday during which I get to do my glucose screening (hooray).

Chris is enjoying a really easy radiology rotation. It's nice to have him home more often than usual. He has done three interviews for residency so far and has scheduled five or six more (I lose track). I think it will be hard to choose a favorite program.

Happily we get to visit family for the holidays, perhaps we will get to see you!

Tucsonan Raider

2007-09-30T19:20:00.001-05:00

I think people from Tucson should be called Tucsonites. It just flows better. Or maybe Tucsonian. But nope, it's Tucsonan. It sounds as awkward as it looks in writing. But people here are just unique that way, I'm finding. This label was one of the first, vital pieces of information I was sent about the area before arriving to test drive the Emergency Medicine program. Then I got to thinking, I wonder if George Lucas got the idea of a "Tuskan Raider" from these south Arizona dwelling people. But aside from living in a desert, that's about all they have in common. Maybe not. (And yes, I know that the planet of Tattoine was filmed in Tunisia--thanks for the correction, Ra'anan.)

I have today off and thought I'd catch up on some blogging and video editing. In between these nerdly activities, I'm hiking around the West Saguaro National Park. It's beautiful. Yes, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself out here--aside from the crushing loneliness--and I like the change of scenery and culture from St Louis. People are friendlier; you can order food at a drive-thru and the attendant doesn't make you feel like you just woke them up and ruined their day. And of course, I love the Mexican influence.

The work is great! I already knew I liked Emergency Medicine. I knew I would enjoy never knowing what the day would hold for me and to be constantly learning. But I'm still amazed at how many cool stories and interesting cases I'm seeing regularly. It's very motivating.

In just 87 hours from when this is being written, I will finally be able to see my girls. I miss being around Mal & Ella. I think I understand what many of you have mentioned about needing your "Ella-fix." Well, the following videos will have to do. I think they're pretty satisfying though.

Chao

let's makeup

2007-09-10T18:30:00.000-05:00

To make up for the short length of this blog entry, I've added a new Ella video. She's at that stage where she copies just about everything we do. She has also learned the word "no" and loves to use it:

Me: Ella, do you like to say, 'no'?

Ella: No.

Me: You do?

Ella: No.

Me: Can you say anything other than 'no'?

Ella: No.

(etc....)

Obsession?

2007-09-04T13:48:00.002-05:00

Ella loves Princess Ariel. Several times a day she requests that I sing the Ariel song (Part of Your World) or read the Ariel book to her. Occasionally I can coax her to listen to the story of a different princess--usually Cinderella. Ella now refuses to sleep or ride in the car without her princess book. It is an interesting comfort object, but if she is happy so am I.

Why the sudden interest in Ariel? It began when her loving father thought she would enjoy watching the movie since it has fish in it and Ella likes fish. He was right, she very much enjoyed the movie, but it was not the fish that she loved. Now when she talks one of us into letting her watch the princess movie (she tries every day) she wants us to skip the beginning of the movie and jump right to Ariel singing.

It is a cute little obsession she has. Cute until I go crazy from singing that song over and over...

It's heatin' up

2007-06-18T12:31:00.000-05:00

It is officially summer here and it sure is HOT.

We have recently learned the secret to surviving a St. Louis summer: water; lots and lots of water. We know of three parks that have fountains for Ella to run through and get thoroughly drenched. We also have our own wading pool in the back yard now. Ella loves to play in the water. Everyday she asks for the "pooh" (note that Ella doesn't pronounce the L's at the end of words) and "wawa". If I need to take her somewhere like the grocery store, Ella will break down in tears because we walk right past the pool to get into the car without getting wet.

the birds

2007-05-03T15:39:00.000-05:00

I was recently reminded of Hitchcock's The Birds.

My neighbor called me to let me know she had been watching several birds fly in and out of our BBQ--they were building a nest. I went outside to have a look and couldn't believe how full the grill actually was. Thankfully Chris had the following day off and I had him clean it out.

But the birds didn't go away. A few hours later they had begun rebuilding. It was when I moved the BBQ so its back (where they birds were entering through a hole) was against the wall of the house that I was reminded of The Birds. They weren't happy that we had destroyed two of their nests, and I decided they were planning revenge.

Chris had his own paranoia: he decided they were laughing at him (The birds had become rather loud as they flew around our yard). And when I went outside the next day to catch a bird flying out of the BBQ, even with its back against the wall, I knew that I need not fear the birds. They were indeed laughing at Chris.

Avoiding Tularemia during Easter

2007-04-09T13:56:00.000-05:00

Happy spring everyone!

Ella and I love that the weather is warmer. If you check out our Flickr link you will see us enjoying our break from the indoor entrapment we suffered through the cold winter. =)

Actually, it is difficult to coax Ella to spend any time at all indoors. She insists on being outside during all of her waking hours. As a result we have discovered many new parks, and have used up a lot of sidewalk chalk. We are grateful for our neighbor's slide and our backyard swing. We are also glad that we live in a neighbor hood with very little automotive traffic, allowing us to attempt to walk around the block (we have no sidewalks).

Easter was fun here at the Williams' home. Ella wore a very frilly Easter dress to church, and all three of us wore a matching shade of purple. The Easter Bunny even stopped by durring Ella's nap. Ella was pleasantly surprised to find fruit snacks in the plastic "ovals" she found in the living room. Even Chris was surprized to find a bag of purple starburst jelly beans the Easter Bunny hid especially for him.

As Promised: Here's the video of the aforementioned

Baby it's cold outside

2006-12-05T14:54:00.000-06:00

We survived the worst ice storm in St. Louis history!

The storm hit on Thursday, Nov 30th knocking our power out late that night. It didn’t take long for our apartment to loose all its warmth so first thing in the morning we started searching for a place to stay until our power returned. We spent the following four days at our friend’s house.

The sad consequence of this storm was the loss of our pet fish Steve who froze after we abandoned him. However, Raamses, our snake, survived—thanks to Chris’ quick thinking and use of hand warmers.

I’ve never been in an ice storm before and they can really do a number on the power lines. But WOW, the beauty the storm leaves behind is breathtaking.

Autumn in St. Louis

2006-11-24T18:27:00.000-06:00

Ella and I have had a lovely fall here in St. Louis. Ella especially enjoys the leaves on the ground (a leaf in each hand makes Ella a happy ). I have especially enjoyed the outings with our playgroup. Today I would like to share with you a particularly fun outing to Eckert’s farm in Illinois.

Eckert’s Family Fun Farm (how could anyone resist going with a name like that?) is located a quick 30 minute drive through country roads surrounded by colorful fall leaves. Our primary purpose of going to the farm was to pick pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, but there was so much more to do!

First we watched pumpkins being shot out of a canon, though Ella was more interested in the hay we were sitting on. We watched several pig races next and then fed the goats. Ella even let the goats eat from her hand. We went on tractor rides through the apple orchards and on hay rides to the pumpkin patch. We danced to barn music and slid down the mine shaft slide. What a day!

(More pictures are on our flicr account.)

Our New Crib

2006-10-14T20:36:00.000-05:00

We have moved! We now live in a duplex in the same neighborhood and we love it. The best part is having our own washer and dryer in our unfinished basement. The other best part is having a basement for storage. Another best part is living close to so many friends, which makes my nights when Chris is on call feel safer. But the real best part is having front and back yards; Ella and I love to play outside on our grass.

Speaking of Ella, she is growing up so fast! She has eight teeth and insists on eating table foods. She has been walking for about a month now and is a real pro at it. Ella has mastered a few words too: "Cheese" (which along with being her favorite food is the word she uses for all food), "Hi" (she also waves), and "Da Da" (not Ma Ma). My little genius also knows where her tongue is and will show you when you ask. She loves to play peek-a-boo and covers her eyes with the backs of her hands, which is very cute. And in case you haven’t caught on that I am bragging, I’ll add that Ella is the cutest little girl that ever there was =).

I hope you enjoy this movie; it was made completely by me and I am well pleased with the outcome. My goal was to instill in you a strong desire to come see Ella and the duplex in person. Did it work?

-Malinda

Hardcore videos!!!

2006-08-26T12:57:00.000-05:00

Since it's been so long since my last update, I've decided to make amends and post 4 NEW ELLA VIDEOS! She's growing as quickly as ever. Watch her progression; the following were shot over just a month's time.

Shadow Play

First Crawl

Walk & Talk

The Monkey & the Weasel

How I Spent my Summer Vacation

2006-06-19T11:35:00.000-05:00

The news of the month is that I’ve taken the USMLE Step 1 Boards. I took it on 6-6-06—the same day “The Omen” came out in theaters and every Top-40 morning DJ was freaking out over ‘the end of the world.’ Of course that’s absurd… Hillary Clinton isn’t even in office yet. No, I don’t think the world stopped that day. On the contrary I think the earth’s rotation sped up because it was the shortest 8 hours I’ve ever experienced. I would have liked to have another 20 minutes or so.

The crazy thing about the experience is that I really have no idea how I did. I couldn’t hazard a guess and expect to be within 10 points of my actual score. I don’t receive my score for another 4 weeks or so. So until then, let’s just put the ordeal behind us and focus on summer vacation.

This special edition of the blog is being homegrown from Medford, OR. To add icing to that cake, it’s being written on my bonny-new lappy: a MacBook. It’s a 13” widescreen 2 GHz Intel Core Duo in white. I justified the purchase on the argument that I’d been wanting one for a really long time and waited patiently for the new model. Apparently, in the cage-match of marital finances though, that’s not a good enough reason. So, in diplomatic fashion I explained how it was necessary to study for the Boards (and it was).

I’m fully aware that most of you checking this blog only care about Ella and Ella-related videos. Well, once I figure out how to use iMovie I’ll put together some adorable clips of Ella swimming, Ella playing with the dog, or Ella cooing, eating, drooling, laying quietly—it doesn’t seem to matter—people are captivated by her.

A brief pinpoint of light at the end...and a new video

2006-05-09T20:44:00.000-05:00

Until proven otherwise, I’m now a 3^rd year. That’s right; I’m now halfway through Med School. Despite the milestone, no one’s celebrating just yet—I still have to pass the USMLE “Boards” this June. Since this test determines in a large part the type of residencies available to me after I graduate, I’m buckling down for the long haul. Consequently, my summer vacation is shrinking, and I’ll be studying harder now than I was during school. I’m predicting at least a 7 on the Dorkometer:

Still, this is the life I’ve chosen and to be honest, I do kind of enjoy it. After I’ve made something of myself, and set an example of hard work for my kids (do you think they’ll buy it?), I plan on selling out and pursuing my lifelong dream of Scuba-diving for lost treasure. We’ll see.

Speaking of kids…well, just one kid…Ella has a new video! In case you’re reading this for the first time (or don’t know how a blog works) check out previous posts for previous videos of my daughter. This one’s my favorite! She laughs long and hard.

Mana Mana (5 months old)

Updates on Ella

2006-04-04T23:34:00.001-05:00

I’m throwing on the blog some highly anticipated news about our daughter. Ella is now officially 4months 2weeks. At the doctor's she weighed in at 15 lbs, which is in the 70th percentile. Her length is even more impressive: 25.5 inches (90th percentile). After a brief post-inoculation psychosis, Ella is back to her normal boisterous self. Just to prove it to y’all, I’ve added the links for Ella’s videos on Google:

Ella Laughs (4 months old)

Ella makes faces (3 weeks old) part 1 part 2

just done feeding (1 day old)

-Enjoy

Keep your Monday Nights Open

2006-03-29T20:59:00.000-06:00

Family Home Evening has a new night in the Williams household. With all due respect to the Church, Monday night is saved for the non-stop season of 24. Instead, we've been doing our FHE on Tuesdays. We find it’s a lot less rushed on Tuesday—and our conversations seem less focused on ‘who’s the real mole in CTU.’

And by the way, it is my belief that Jack Bauer’s popularity is proof that America is fed-up with political correctness, impotent legal systems and bureaucracy in general. It’s a fantasy in which all our feelings of frustration and powerlessness (think DMV) are released on screen in the form of broken fingers, high voltage and medical interrogations.

Just a little taste of how it ‘would have been’ had Jack been born in a different time.

What’s in a name?

2006-03-21T19:46:00.000-06:00

As Ned Flanders would say, “we’ve had a diddly of a pickle” figuring out what to call this blog. The only thing we agreed on was that it had to be creative and not too obvious. Therefore, “Chris, Malinda & Ella” was nixed from the start. (So was “Williams Family”, “Life with Ella” and “The Williams Variety Hour”.) I’ve always wanted a band named “Mourning Wüd” and thought I’d ask Malinda’s permission to use it as our blog’s title. She said sure; it then dawned on me she didn’t have the foggiest idea what it meant. After another twenty-five minute lecture on more endocrinology, she promptly vetoed the title.

I’ve developed a fond appreciation for J.R.R. Tolkien. I’ve read a lot about him; I’ve read “The Hobbit” and a number of his short works and poems. I’ve even listened to “The Silmarillion” on audio CD (I’d rather try withholding vital information from Jack Bauer than do that again). But I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never read the “Lord of the Rings.” In my readings, I came across one of Tolkien’s all-time favorite poems. It’s an Olde English verse he translated from a very old manuscript entitled, Pearl. In it, he describes a dream in which a sincere seeker crosses a river entering paradise and beholds “streaming stars when stroth-men sleep.” The Old English Strođ means ‘marshy land, overgrown with brushwood. Stroþemen were ‘men of this world’, largely unaware of a higher plane. The Pearl-poet saw the inhabitants of Middle-earth as men sleeping in the wood, ignoring the stars. I like this metaphor. As a man of this world, it is often difficult to recognize celestial majesty through the brushwood. It becomes most detrimental however, when we stop looking for it. It’s a reminder that yes, we are consumed with day-to-day problems, chores and goals, but if we don’t look up we’re apt to get lost. King Benjamin said it best: “If ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith…even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.” (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 4:30)

Interestingly, and perhaps paradoxically, in Tolkien’s writings nothing is more exalted than trees and forests. Perhaps those who focus too much on the stars or the beyond, may miss a great deal of beauty in the present. This blog is mostly a record of the mundane thoughts and events of our present. (But don’t read too much into it—nothing’s more obnoxious than a literary snob.)

Explanations & Introductions:

2006-03-21T15:31:00.000-06:00

I’ve moved on to Blogs. Whether this is a step up or a step otherwise has yet to be determined. What’s important is that I still have a forum to apprise everyone of our family’s happenings and my ideas. I’ll still be putting tons of pictures of Ella on Flickr which you can link to here. Whenever we post videos of Ella online, those will be linked also. This blog thing is liberating and more informal. Feel free to post comments or ask questions if you want. If you don’t, that’s fine too.

I’m still in Med School, my second year. It’s winding down now; I’m in the last module: endocrine & reproduction. I’m finally gonna learn the great secret behind womanhood…Hormones. Now listen up, men. Constancy is fleeting in the female body. Women are allowed a relatively steady stream of hormones in two-week spurts. This allows them to achieve a slight whiff of regularity—so they know what they’re missing when it’s all ripped from them. You see, the hormones change sides halfway through the game. The hormone that was holding back the flood-gates a day earlier, treasonously ushers the flood in on the day following. And that’s the normal physiology! There’s a medical condition called pregnancy that eliminates this cycle and replaces it with a 40week tsunami. This culminates in a coup d’état in which the largest hormone-producing organ in the human (the placenta) is expelled. But if you really want to understand the woman, consider this. No blend of hormones wreaks more chaos than when the hormones go away in the menopausal years. Despite the confusion and disorder of the hormone storm endured for 50+ years, what they end up complaining of most is the lack thereof.