what to do

If you find you've nothing to do on the afternoon (and yet you are still in your pajamas)

and your dad is home after hours of hospital stuff (7 day call is no fun for anyone!),

you may discover that "practicing" fishing in the pool can be a fine idea.

(Especially if your dad has promised that he will take you fishing to a real pond.)

So cast your line

and reel your reels!

The pond holds promise of catching real rocks

and real leaves, and real gunk.

And it will be a real good time.

she knows

Last night as we were leaving a football game, Nate was enlightening us on the highlights of the game, discussing the merits of our players vs. their players, and wondering if the arena (note, that's an "arena" and not a "stadium" which is where we just came from to watch the football game) was housing a basketball game. This of course lead to more sports discussion, when finally Grace cut in and said,

"Oh men, and their desires!"

how was your turkey?

thankful people

As the sun dawns on this beautiful Thanksgiving day, I pause for a moment to give thanks to 3 of my favorite peeps:



It is with them that I find myself...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and all of yours!!!

handsome heros

These 3 handsome gentlemen are pretty special to us.

Our Army Man:
Grandpa Beck

And our Navy Men:
Grandpa Chuck


Grandpa Jim

Wishing you a very Happy Veteran's day to you and yours!

12 hours

Ever wonder what we look like after 12 hours of driving in the car through all kinds of weather and terrain (including the three different regions of Arizona which we heard about in detail from our 4th grade geographer) and including a completely different nation (that would be the Navajo Nation))?

I'm sure you have wondered such things. So I'll show you:



Not too shabby I think, all things considered.

For the permanent record (because that's what this is) these pictures were taken as we were dining at the fine establishment of El Azteca. Sadly it was not the original El Azteca (the one Nate and I would eat at multiple Monday nights of the month because of their fine offering of "All You Can Eat Crispy Beef Taco" night), as the original one closed down right around the time we moved to STL (and that, my friends, was a very long time ago). This was the Taco Shop owned by the same people. And it was delicious.

For Fall Break (I LOVE Fall Break), we headed North to show the kids all things Provo, to visit with some family members in SLC, to attempt and pull off a surprise birthday party for my mother in law (yeah, she lives here, but she was up there at the time), and have a quick respite in Park City (we loved PC so much, we actually discussed what it would take to move there - don't worry though, I think it is just a dream).

(More to come (eventually))

the concert

A few weeks ago we had a rare opportunity - a 4th grade Tonette concert!
A Tonette concert?, you ask, is that something like 50 nine year-olds blowing until they are blue in the face into plastic recorders to make "music?"

No. In fact there is a significant difference between a Tonette and a recorder (though I have no idea what it is). The children produced charming songs (sometimes with intentional harmony). It was a fun evening and just the start of many concerts in the future. For the first quarter, band students play the Tonette, from there they are able to choose an instrument to focus on for the rest of the year. Since this particular Tonette night, we have been delighted with the tones of the flute. So far we've heard B flat, A flat, C, D, and G. It's fabulous.

ps the children were asked to wear black and white for the concert. grace chose her black and white striped dress. imagine our surprise to see the other children in white shirts and black pants. are we in agreement grace's choice is the more darling of the ensembles? i thought so.

scary

We had such a fun time carving our pumpkins.

They were full of gooey guts and crunchy seeds.

And when I mention that WE carved our pumpkins, of course I mean that Nate carved them.

The rest of us just played around.


Jimmy's was a spooky one.


Grace's was of course a Harry Potter one.


And then we found our pumpkins (just 3 days later) in an ultra-spooky state:




ooooOOOOOoooooOOOOOOooooo!

Happy Halloween!

persuasion

To help convince Jimmy that he should agree to watch a Barbie movie with her (um, gag) Grace employed the following tactics:

'Listen, Jimmy, there's a kitty, some horses, a prince, and Real Evil.'

He agreed. Happy Friday afternoon!

no pain no gain

Today's PT appointment was incredibly painful. So painful (to borrow a phrase from my favorite bully, Buford) I was sweating through my eyeballs. Have you ever been in pain so much that you couldn't stop your eyes from leaking? There was no emotion involved at all, just pure pain. It didn't last long and then it was quite gone.

My range of motion has increased. My walking is more like real walking. I'm back at the gym (on a very limited routine, but I'm still going). And I still get to ice down every night, and though that may not sound like fun to you - consider today was one of only 2 days in the last 2 months where the temps here were not more than 90 degrees.

I think I'll refrain from lumbering tonight and instead walk over to the kitchen and make myself a nice up of cocoa to celebrate the release from pain and our fall-like temps (only a high of 82 today!)

more

I realize the last few posts have been about Jimmy. This one is too. Grace is still here and is as Gracey as usual. She has now started playing the flute (so far she's learned B flat AND A flat). She's also trying to expand her literary pursuits beyond Harry Potter. But Jimmy, well he's 5 1/2 and is just as something-else as Grace was when I first started the Grace-isms on the side of this here darling blog.

Tonight during the prayer for dinner, Jimmy prayed "and please bless Mom and Dad that they can be nice." Later on in the evening he said it was uncomfortable to sit next to Nate because he was too warm and too hairy (perhaps I might know someone who has felt that way before).

We must have made progress because his bedtime prayer included "thank you for letting Mom and Dad be nice." Let's see what tomorrow brings.

the opposite man

While contemplating some music to sing at an upcoming Christmas party, Jimmy suggested instead of going for "Still, Still, Still" I should choose "Move, Move, Move."

This is the same kid who has decided to always cheer for the team "versing" BYU. This would be the reason why he cried during BYU's first touchdown last weekend. (I suppose it didn't help matters that it was 46 degrees and well after bedtime.)

j's perspective

We returned home late last night from a week(ish) trip to Utah. Two nights in Provo, two nights in SLC, and (probably my fav) 2 nights in Park City.

On our way out of PC yesterday morning, we happened to drive past the town's cemetery. Jimmy looked over at it through his window and said, "when I get to run through that obstacle course, I'm going to go super fast!"

We just cracked up. I suppose to the uninformed a cemetery certainly does resemble an obstacle course.

lame

It all started benignly enough. A mother-daughter hike with moms and girls from church, a sunrise hike at Pinnacle Peak. And may I say, the sunrise was beautiful. The girls ran ahead, the moms followed. We (the moms in the back) reached our last 1/3 mile or so. We were pleased to have made good time, thus allowing adequate opportunity for the rest of Saturday's activities and obligations to take place. If I was lucky, Grace and I would get home just as Nate needed to go in and round which would prevent Jimmy needing a sitter.

It would seem that I was not lucky.

I managed to slip on some loose gravel, fall forward, gain some major road burn, in-bed a rock in my hand, and tear a few ligaments in my ankle. With the help of a sweet, calm friend, I made it down off the mountain.

Nate and Jimmy met us at the ER (Jimmy even took a moment before hand to make me a picture of a dinosaur to feel me better, I will say it helped). My friend took Grace and Jimmy for the morning. And Nate dutifully stayed with me. We found it ironic that he was spending his Saturday morning at a hospital, but not the one he needed to be at to do his rounds.

We made it home by 11:00 (my, how long the morning is when you actually see the sun rise), with two new shiny crutches and a large, black Darth Vader-like boot.

It has now been 10 days and I can cruise around much of the time with NO crutches (but wearing of course my awesome footwear). I will admit that having a crutch to rely on does give me peace of mind. The first several days were not fun for anyone. Nate and the kids picked up the slack as I hobbled about and we have somehow managed.

And so we continue on.

I get to wear the Darth Vader beauty for several more weeks. I've considered being Vader for Halloween, but truth be told, I've wanted to be Princess Lea for a long time and none of her costumes would be done justice by wearing her father's boot (not even the gold one).

a little-pick-me-up

Here's a quick link to brighten your spirits: click here!

the letter of the day is "f"

A certain someone asked me about a song she heard that had the "f"word in it. After much discussion I finally asked, "what exactly is the "f" word?"

With much hesitation the reply finally came, "fricken."

"Is it 'fricken'?" I asked, "or is it another word that sounds like it?

"Oh its 'fricken' all right, or is it 'fracken'? I never am too sure."

vocabulary

The other night, we were reading together. During Jimmy's turn, the word "quake" was included.

He paused and informed us all that "quake" was another word for something that can happen on airplanes.

Something that would shake and make you wiggle around while flying.

And that something of course is -

Turquoise!!!

It took a bit of convincing on our part for him to accept that infact the word was "turbulence," but you probably knew that already!
ps these are 6 month old pics taken on a chilly day on the California Coast. You could say it was a "salty" day!

punctuation

(The following photo has nothing to do with this post as it is a final photo from soccer season. Since then we've been through lacrosse season and lived to tell the tale. We are looking forward to another lacrosse season, perhaps when it is not over 100 degrees every single Saturday morning).

Jimmy's really into the whole Kindergarten thing. He loves reading and will demonstrate this awesome life-skill to anyone and anything (including a stuffed platypus).

He's currently digging punctuation - periods, question marks, and (my most favorite) "questlamation points!!!!!"

what do you do in the summertime?

What do you do in the summertime? When all of your world is 110 degrees? You pack up some cousins, some grandparents, and an aunt an uncle and head to where its cooler - say only 101 degrees!!!

We've found Sedona to be the perfect location to find 98-100 degree weather in August. It blows my mind I'm excited when it is in double digits. I've thought of having a double digit temperature party when we actually reach that on a continual basis. I think I will and I think it will be called Thanksgiving.

Back to the post here -
On our way back down away from the coolness of Sedona to the hot, hot Valley of the Sun, we did some off-roading and wound our way over to Montezuma's Well.

Its actually a sink hole with a natural spring.

Its one of the first Native American sites I've been to where I can actually believe one would want to live there. The water was cool and refreshing and their houses were awesome.

Here is where the spring sprouts from. The water is pure and clear.

So pure and clear in fact it is most difficult not to jump in it yourself.

Thankfully wise grandparents are there to casually restrain you from your tempation.

Parents are also there and are slightly willing to pose for a picture.



Thanks for being such a great host, Montezuma. We will return.

But next time, we might take the paved road we found on our way out instead!