Johnson Jinx 09

2010 HAS A NEW BLOG ADDRESS!

2010-02-18T22:05:00.000-08:00

With the new year, it's time to start a new blog. I can't keep one continual one going because I post too many pictures and then I'm not allowed to post anymore. My solution: start a new one each year. Sorry if that is inconvenient or confusing for anyone.

So, 2010 is up and running. Here is the address: http://johnsonjournal10.blogspot.com/

2009: The year of the Plague

2009-12-31T22:19:00.000-08:00

2009 was an eventful year for our jinxed Johnson family. It was packed with more than our fair share of affliction (health and occupational). Yet, sprinkled amongst those cloudy days were new life, family visits, and new beginnings. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, we're determined to make the hardships of 2009 a springboard for a new life with lots of positive changes.

Here is 2009 in a nutshell:

January
Highs:
Talea and Hyatt take horseback riding lessons.

John and Maren Goodman (Hyrum's sister) and their 2 kids move in to our tiny apartment with us (well, they slept in our travel trailer) for 2 months.

Saw whales' spouts out in the ocean.
Coast trip with the Goodmans.

Lows:
Sickness

February
Highs:
Paisli Taya Johnson is born on the 12th.

Kiersa turns 1 on the 14th.

Some Cluff (Grandpa, Grammie, Dallas, Weston) and Johnson relatives (Nana, Hapa, Goodmans, Elisabeth) joined us at a beach rental in Bandon for a week.

Lows:
It requires surgery to repair the damage Tiana incurred from giving birth (hemorrhoidectomy).

March
Highs:
It snowed, though just a skiff.

We managed to get out to a park, which is shocking since this month was the worst for sickness.

Lows:
Recovery from surgery was almost more than Tiana could bear.
Goodman's move back to Utah.
Paisli is hospitalized with RSV and pneumonia.

April
Highs:
Hyatt turns 3 on the 3rd.

High hopes for the homeshow since our kitchen display is so amazing.

Easter with the entire Cluff clan at the Cluff homestead, and Paisli is blessed.

Tiana's dad moves in with us for 3 months.

Daisha visits us on the coast for her birthday.

Lows:
Sickness...again.

May

Highs:
Camping by the beach and Prehistoric gardens.

Talea turns 5 on the 4th.

Hyrum turns 32 on the 25th.

Saw baby seals at the Simpson lookout.

Lows:
Sickness, of course.

June
Highs:
Camping.

Paisli gets her head shaved to lose the mullet!

We took the kids fishing for the first time.

Lows:
Sickness.
Kiersa is allergic to her ear infection medicine.

July
Highs:
4th of July camping at Diamond Lake and Crater Lake.

Tiana turns 33 on the 20th.

Blueberry and cherry picking.

Talea gets her first real haircut at a salon.

Camping along the river.

Lows:
Tilly's first major sunburn.

Naturally, there was sickness in the house.
Our business officially goes belly-up.

August
Highs:
The entire Johnson clan gets together in Utah.

Lows:
We all (but Tiana) spent the Johnson reunion throwing up and fevering in Grams basement.

September
Highs:
Tilly was a part of Kaylynn's bridal party.

Talea and Hyatt learned how to ride bikes.
Talea learns how to machine sew.

Garden food!!!

Lows:
Take a guess. Someone was sick!

October
Highs:
Trip to Idaho to find a place to live.

Became trailer trash again when we bought a single-wide.

The kids were the 3 Little Pigs and the Medium Bad Wolf for Halloween.

Lows:
Became trailer trash again.
Lots of sickness just before (and a little during) our trip to Idaho.
My second Canon rebel camera went missing. The first was stolen in England. The second just up and disappeared. Never did manage to find it. I won't be able to replace it for years either. I'm distraught!

November
Highs:
Moved to Rexburg, Idaho.

Our first Smith Thanksgiving, and Kiersa got to meet the cousins that are her age.

Lows:
Lots of sickness. As usual.

December
Highs:
Tilly was a flower girl in Nial's wedding.

Nial's wedding and Christmas with the Cluffs in Ashland.

Talea learns to sew by hand.

I met my princess self: Princess Tiana.

Lows:
Sick again!
Cowboy turned into Frankenweenie when a big dog tried to rip his head off.

Paisli's fall off the bed turned her into Rudolph for Christmas.

The flower girl dresses I made were more appropriate for a Nevada brothel than a wedding by the end of Nial's reception.

9 years and counting...

2009-12-30T14:43:00.000-08:00

For our anniversary, we kept up tradition:

We didn't stay at a nice hotel/B&B.
We didn't travel to an exotic or exciting destination.
We didn't eat at a nice restaurant.
We didn't buy each other fancy, expensive presents.

Nope. Our anniversary is sandwiched between Christmas and New Years, so we're always broke, the weather is less than ideal, and we usually have a baby that can't be left with anyone. We chose to marry in December because I was teaching at the time, and we had to pick a school break, which was either December or June. Hyrum didn't want to wait until June since he'd already waited a year and a half for me, so December it was.

So...for our anniversary this year...

I did my usual: I didn't buy anything for Hyrum! I pretty much did nothing to celebrate. I mean, seriously, how do you buy a present for a guy that you are never separated from? And how do you buy anything for a guy when you have a nonexistent budget and he only has expensive electronic and/or gunpowder-guzzling taste, both of which require particular specifications to be met, and I'm not a nerdy, gun slinging girl, so I'm always afraid of striking out on his gifts.

Okay, so I did ONE thing, and for me, it was pretty huge. I shaved my legs and put makeup on! Oh, I know what you're thinking. That I'm such a slacker mom that I don't shave or do my makeup. Well, you're right. I'm pretty busy, so those two things are the things I skip when I'm short on time, which is pretty much everyday. (Well, I shave once a week for church since my legs will be showing.)

Hyrum did his usual: pretended he too wouldn't be buying a gift, then found some reason to leave and came back with a gift for me. The stinker! Yes, it makes me feel guilty EVERY time, but he IS sweet to do that, even if I never get to.

This year he brought me several things:

1. Roses. Now, as a rule, I'm not a girl who likes cut flowers that cost money. If you're gonna give me a plant, give me one with dirt and roots so I can plant it and get my money's worth from it. But, since Hyrum knows that, he only purchases cut flowers for me on rare occasions, so I can actually appreciate them at those times. Besides, it's hard to plant something under 12+ inches of snow out here.

2. A figurine of a couple holding each other (ironically named "promise"...you'll read about a promise later). I've been collecting these figurines since our trucking days. They're the ONLY thing I collect, and I probably have too many, but this one is my favorite so far.

3. Since he couldn't take me out to dinner (who can afford a babysitter for 4 kids?), he brought Chinese food home for us. Mmmmm. One of my favorites.

4. He knows I'm a sucker for old movies, so he rented "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" for us to watch that night. He got a couple other movies too so we could just have a movie night.

It was a great anniversary to commemorate 9 great years.

Okay, here's where I tell more about "our story", so I'm sure it will be long-winded and possibly sappy, so here's where you can bail on this post if you have better things to do than learn about how Hyrum and I began.

I should have seen it on day one...that my life with Hyrum would be one odd twist after the next. Being a part of Hyrum's life has certainly been an adventure. I am NEVER bored.

Odd twist #1: Picking up a trucker.
It started by my bishop asking me to pick up a trucker at the Petro truck stop in Phoenix, Oregon to take him to church with me. If a bishop asking a 22 year-old, single girl to pick up a strange trucker isn't odd, I don't know what is.

Odd twist #2: The "other" man.
I had a very serious boyfriend who was on a mission at the time, and in fact, I had "promised" (with a promise ring and all) to wait for him to return so we could wed. He'd only been gone 9 months when I met Hyrum. EVERYONE, including myself, knew that if anyone would be able to wait for their missionary, it would be me. Well, that was before Hyrum came along. Little did I know the power that a scripture-slinging trucker could have over me. I told Hyrum all about my "promised" love that first day, but all it did was convince Hyrum that I was meant for him, not this "other" guy. After just 10 loooooooong months of waiting for my missionary, I became skeptical as to whether I was waiting to marry the wrong man.

Odd twist #3: Waiting, and waiting, and waiting
A month after meeting Hyrum, I knew I was supposed to marry him, but there were several obstacles in the way, two of which were:
1. I wanted to wait for my missionary to return so I wouldn't have any questions like, "What if I had waited? Would my life be better?" in my head for the rest of my life, and
2. My whole life I had promised myself that I would know a guy for at least a year before I married him.
So Hyrum waited for me, as I waited for my missionary.

Odd twist #4: On again, off again
I hadn't been in very many "exclusive" relationships before Hyrum, but of the ones I had had, once they were over, they were always over for good. They never reignited. Ever! But for the next 17 months after meeting Hyrum, that's all ours was. We had an...interesting relationship, full of break ups and reconciliations.

Because of my waffling in my commitment to Hyrum versus my missionary, Hyrum obviously experienced a lot of frustration, anger and pain, and I experienced a lot of frustration, confusion and pain knowing I was torturing two of the most important men in my life. Hyrum and I ended up turning our relationship off and on again numerous times, but Hyrum and I just couldn't seem to live life without seeing or talking to one another for more than a day or two, no matter how many times we tried, so no matter how angry Hyrum was over our situation, or how confused and frustrated I got, we just couldn't handle the silence between one another.

Even when we were "broken up", we still found it impossible to stay away from one another. Once, during a love hiatus, I begged him to go to Arches National Park with me since I didn't want to go alone, and of course, while wandering through the Park, we naturally slipped right back into a relationship again without even meaning to, simply by him holding my hand to help me up. We just didn't let go of each others hand after that and we knew we were "on again".

Odd twist #5: The reoccurring ring.
Hyrum's feeling was that since we both knew we were supposed to marry one another, why not just do it? He bought my engagement ring a month after meeting me, but after I found out about it, I didn't allow him to give it to me for 16 months, though he tried to give it me several times. (Okay, I confess that I did sneak into his sock drawer several times to try it on.)

Odd twist #6: Retaliation
Hyrum managed to find ways to help me truly understand his pain and frustration. For a while, he dated my roommate (partly behind my back and partly right in my face), which was so painful to me that I couldn't sleep, work or focus for days, so I blew up at him and told him I was done with him forever. I even managed to break my seat belt in his car because I was pulling on it so tight while venting my anger at him during a drive together. That emotional eruption lasted for about a whole hour before he managed to calm me down and resolve the conflict, and we were again reunited in yet another "on again" spell.

I could go on and on, but it basically ended with me waiting for my missionary to return, finding his changes and bitterness...um, disappointing, and realizing that I loved who he used to be, and not who he was now. He, in fact, was not my marital match after all. This realization enabled me to find closure in the ashes of our relationship. It was exactly what I needed to open my eyes to the perfection that Hyrum's personality was for me. I could finally accept the confirmation I'd been given 15 months prior that I should marry Hyrum. There was a snag though.

Odd twist #7: The letter.
Hyrum and I had officially broken things off "forever" because a month earlier, I had moved back to Oregon and he had moved back to Wyoming since I refused to jump on the marriage wagon with him. His sister, who watched him deal with the pain I'd left him in my wake, had told me to either commit to him or let him go so he could stop being in such pain and move on. Since I couldn't commit yet, I had to let him go. It was harder than I imagined, but in that time my missionary returned and I was exploring whether I was truly in love with him still or just his memory. By the time I realized Hyrum was what I needed and wanted, I was afraid it was too late. I was too afraid to call him because his family was trying to get him to move on and I didn't want to talk to them, so I wrote him a letter explaining my feelings. I was too afraid to mail it though. I didn't want to pour my heart out to him only to have him throw it away callously, so I collected all the nerves I could and called him one late August evening in 2000. He was extremely cold on the phone, so I just told him I'd written him a letter, but that I wasn't going to mail it after all. He convinced me to read it to him over the phone. Of course in it I told him I loved him, and by the time I was done reading, he wasn't angry anymore. He just said that I better not be coming back to him unless I was going to marry him this time. This time, I was ready. Though it was unofficial, we knew that evening that we'd be getting married soon.

"It was more than coincidence" is engraved on his ring because the series of events that led to us meeting and marrying was far more than coincidental.

9 years later, we're happier than ever and grateful every day that we found each other. In our 9 years as a married couple, we've moved more than most people do in their lifetimes. Here's where we've lived in our marriage, in chronological order:
an apartment in Heber, UT (6 months)
a semi truck all over the U.S. (6 months)
a 5th wheel trailer in Ashland, OR (2 months)
back to a semi all over the U.S. (1 year and 4 months)
back to a 5th wheel trailer in Ashland (9 months)
a double-wide manufactured home in Sam's Valley (Gold Hill), OR (5 months)
my brother's downstairs in Coquille, OR (3 months)
an apartment in the Coquille Community building (4 months)
a small house in Coquille, OR (2 years and 7 months)
a huge house in Myrtle Point, OR (4 months)
a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Myrtle Point, OR (1 year and 9 months)
and a single-wide manufactured trailer in Rexburg, ID, where we currently reside.

Such memories!!! Hyrum's given me excitement, adventure, change, CHILDREN, and love. What more could a gal ask for?

I know!

A star or two to fit in with the Idaho/Utah decorating trend!

Oh, wait, he gave me that too. Only in the form of a coat rack instead of a cheesy outdoor wall hanging. (He couldn't resist after we'd laughed at the trend.) Thanks, Hy!

Decay

2009-12-28T22:13:00.000-08:00

Post-Christmas tooth rot hit the kids quite suddenly. Darn that sugary candy!!!

Talea

Hyatt

Kiersa

Paisli

Cluffmas '09

2009-12-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

After Nial's wedding, we headed south down I-5 to good ol' Ashland, Oregon, to have Christmas at the Cluff homestead.

In attendance were my parents,

Dallas and Weston,

Tasha and family,

Daisha and family (sadly these are the only pictures that included them),

Shira and family,

and my family.

Dane's family popped in a few times also.

The festivities started a few days before Christmas. Mostly just catching up with one another, shopping and lounging around.

The highlight for the girls was making a gingerbread house, courtesy of Daisha's creative genius.

Three of the four girl cousins: Tabitha, Talea and Dru.

It's so funny how they stick out their tongues so differently!

On Christmas Eve we hit a matinee of The Princess and the Frog. If you've seen it, you've probably noticed that the princess' name is Tiana. Great. I'm not even black, southern or a jazz lover. Oh well. I love having an uncommon name, but there will probably be a rash of Tiana's being born now, just like Ariels and Jasmines. I guess my niece, Jasmine, can't say she's the only princess in the family now.

By the way, just try making your lips pucker when you're laughing! NOT an easy task.

The standard Christmas Eve tradition is the telling of the Nativity story, right? Well, most of the audience was quite young, so we thought a better way to tell it would be to act it out. My mom never lacks imagination and she lever lets an opportunity to direct go to waste,

so on Christmas Eve, she dressed the grandkids in huge Christmas sweaters and blankets for an impromptu nativity play.

Her house is crammed full of decorations and thematic clothes just for these "fun occasions." Though Paisli played baby Jesus in the play, she looked more like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, since her nose was scabbed over from the hotel bed accident.

Speaking of Paisli, I'm beginning to think she'll have the same tongue chewing habit that Kiersa has. I keep catching her doing it.

And here's Kiersa at it, but that's nothing new. She does this constantly.

And now speaking of Kiersa, she kept finding the strangest places to fall asleep...like under the piano.

Shira and Talea found a place to crash on the couch together.

On Christmas morning we had a huge crowd opening their stockings. There were a lot of white elephants exchanged. Probably the one most appreciated was the fart machine Daisha's family gave Hyrum.

Sooooo funny! I had Tasha going for several hours thinking I had uncontrollable gas. She was just glad she had a stuffy nose. I was laughing hysterically, and was quite sad to have to confess that I'd been using the machine the whole time. It had a remote and everything! Best gift ever! I've had a lot of good laughs from it.

Probably the biggest flop was the anti monkey butt powder I bought for Daisha's family.

Hyrum and I thought it was hilarious in the store, especially since I'm sure they don't have this stuff in England. I don't think English butts are crude enough for a monkey problem to dare to afflict it, but it never did manage to find it's way to England with the Lanyons. It was swiftly confiscated and put to real use in my parents' bathroom! I don't EVEN WANT to know who has monkey butt in that household!

I gave a girly bottle to Tasha also since there are only girls in her house, but she tried to sneak home without it.

I had to run it out to her as she was driving away! I mean, come on, I thought it was the perfect white elephant!! Who wouldn't want to pass anti monkey butt around at gift exchanges? Oh well, maybe a homemade gift will go over better next time.

Some real gifts were given too. Santa found his way to the Cluff house for our kids. Hyatt got some motorcycles that race, and Tilly got her dream present. Of all the things a 5-year-old girl could want for Christmas, Talea only asked for "Screature", a crazy lizard/dinosaur thing. What in the world?! Daisha, I blame this strangeness on you, since you would have asked for this as a kid. So Santa's elves made her a defective one (it refused to squirt water from it's mouth), but we were just fine with the absence of water, so we didn't request a return, though Tilly was disappointed that it wouldn't squirt people.

Daisha gave the girls a little piece of England to wear,

and Dairy Milk chocolate from England for everyone.

Santa brought Kiersa a pet she couldn't kill or be scared of: a zhu zhu hamster. We like hamsters, but they are a bit stinky and annoyingly nocturnal, and our last hamster we owned had a sad ending. It got loose and was then recaptured, but was so viscous afterward that we decided to let it go in a field to fend for itself.

A fake one seemed a much better option this time around.

Paisli is small enough that she doesn't care about presents, so Santa just gave her some kisses instead. She'll never know.

So after all the presents, it was time to hang out again. Hyrum and I thought it would be great to get some pictures of the two of us together, but they were turning out so lame that we found it more amusing to take crazy/silly/weird/gross/funny pictures instead.

Don't ask me why there is so much tongue. I can't stand tongues. I guess that's what we found amusing about these. Also, these are pretty much just for Shira's eye since she thought they were hilarious. I had a good giggle over them too, but most people will probably gag when viewing them. Just scroll past.

Kissey kissey

I am a bit of a biter.

Wink, wink!

Chuuuubbie!!!

Smile!

What is that smell???!!!

Lovin' on my love.

You're getting sleepy.

Just kidding! Wide awake!

Then Shira and I had to get one together also.

Okay, so this one did turn out sort of decent. As good as we could get anyway.

Finally, one of the last things I did while at the Homestead was make a Little Red Riding Hood cape for Tabitha to wear to school before she left, but I'm afraid that it may be cursed with my jinx and end up falling apart before the school year is out. I apologize in advance, Tabs.

One roadtrip and a wedding

2009-12-20T09:17:00.000-08:00

Well, it finally happened. My little brother found a wife! And what a wife! Elle is amazing, and just perfect for Nial. He's so lucky he found her.

Their wedding was on Dec. 20th, so we packed up the van and took off to Seattle for the big event.

We met up with most all of my Cluff family at a Hotel in Monroe. Daisha's family in one room, my parents, the twins and Shira/Sophia in another, and Tasha's fam with our fam in yet another. What a get together!!

The grandkids were very excited to see Grandpa again.

The 4 and 5 year-old girl cousins especially had so much fun. Talea, Dru, Tabitha and Sophia were to be 4 of the 5 flower girls at the wedding.

For the past few months, my sisters and I had been on the hunt for ivory dresses for our little flower girls, but we couldn't find any, so I took it upon myself to make dresses for the girls. I found these online and thought they were so adorable.

The only problem was, they aren't that modest, and it's winter. They'd freeze! So instead of putting flowers on the front, we decided on little jackets to keep them warm, and not so fleshy in pictures. Here is Talea trying on the first finished dress (minus the jacket, since Daisha was bringing those from England).

The finished ensemble? It was...well...poofy.

Scenes from the photography session:

Before the wedding began, it was picture time. Hyatt, being hopelessly attached to his big sister, Talea, felt quite left out when she was invited to be in a lot of the pictures (since she was a flower girl). All he wanted was to be in a few pictures also. The poor boy was reduced to tears before we managed to get him in a picture. But by that time, his mood was so sour, we couldn't even coax a smile out of him.

The chapel was old and charming. A perfect setting for pictures. I captured a couple of adorable vignettes of my oldest girls while there.

My parents and the boys (minus Dane, who wasn't able to attend).

My mom with 4 of the 5 flower girls (Dru, Sophia, Talea and Tabitha).

My dad with the flower girls.

The wedding was lovely and even brought tears to my eyes. They are an adorable couple and you can tell they're very much in love.

Scenes from the reception:

Weston, and his favorite niece, Kiersa:

Tasha, Daisha and Edward, apparently engrossed in some juicy tale:

Dakota (Daisha's oldest) and Cage (Tasha's oldest):

Hyatt (tying into the wedding invitation theme of loving trees):

Shira and Sophia:

Me with Nial and Elle. Elle was the most beautiful, elegant bride I've seen in...well, that I've ever seen, I think! Her hair, her antique jewelry from her grandmother, her dress, the bridesmaids dresses...it was all perfect.

Nial appeared to have a great time hunting for the garter. For a few seconds, it was unclear whether he would be able to find his way back out from under the folds of Elle's dress, since all that remained of any traces of him were his shoes peeking out from under the hem!

Aw, the first dance as a married couple.

Hyrum danced with the little girls, since they love that so much.

Poor Paisli had fallen off the hotel bed and scraped her nose, so she ended up looking like Rudolph just in time for Christmas.

I knew I should have triple stitched all the seams of the flower girl dresses!!! I was in such a rush, that I left the seams only basted, erroneously thinking the girls would be elegantly walking down the aisle and behaving, when in truth, they're only 4 and 5, and all they wanted to do was play, play, play!!!!

By the end of the night, my efforts to speed up the sewing process were embarrassingly obvious to all when all of the girls dresses (aside from Tabitha, who has yet to tear or stain a single outfit in her life) started falling apart. Poor Talea was half naked before the night was out. She came up to me like this, not knowing what to do.

Um, I don't know that I'll be commissioned to make anything again. And if I have already sewn you something, look out! It will most likely fall apart soon!

The big, bad wolf

2009-12-09T23:15:00.000-08:00

Since we can only have one dog at our current residence, we sent both of our dogs to live with our friends, Cody and Coti Weeks, so they could decide which one they would keep for us. After the dogs had been there for a couple of days, Cowboy decided to challenge their lab mix, and Cowboy lost their midnight fight.

Codi brought Cowboy back to us in the morning and we took him to the vet to get antibiotics and see if stitches were needed. Afterall, it didn't really even bleed. Upon closer inspection, the vet realized it was more serious than expected, so Cowboy was sedated and he received about 10 stitches in his neck muscle and around 20 stitches on the skin to close it up.

This is when the vet opened it to see the damage. His collar had been holding it shut.

A drain tube was inserted to let the fluids drain out while it healed.

He looked like Frankenstein.

But, just like his broken leg as a puppy, this didn't phase him at all and he was back to normal the next day. And the bonus: the vet scraped the plaque off his teeth while he was sedated, so his breath is finally tolerable!

Like after his other injuries, Cowboy recovered completely. He's back to his annoying self: peeing in the bathroom since he doesn't like going outside when it's 15 below zero outside. But...he's still a cute dog, grey beard and all. He turns 8 in February!!!

Crawling through the mess

2009-12-03T07:03:00.000-08:00

When we arrived in Idaho, we were under the impression that the previous owners of our home would be moved out so we could move in.

When we arrived, they hadn't even started moving anything yet. So our stuff sat in the UHaul for a few days. In sub zero temperatures. All my food storage froze solid, including all the wet-pack items I'd canned (peaches, pears, jam, pickles, etc). Needless to say, the pickles have an odd texture now. I'm a little worried about how all the other items will be. I've never frozen my canned goods before and then thawed them.

Luckily, since we had Dallas and Weston with us to help, we were able to use their muscles. On Saturday night (we were flying the boys home on Monday morning), we were able to get in the house finally to start unpacking. The problem was, the house was a mess. They hadn't cleaned anything and the flooring was horrid. It had nasty stains all over, and being a person who can't tolerate carpet with small kids and pets, it had to go. And thank goodness!!! I don't even own a vacuum or a shampooer. There were so many urine stains and piles of dirt (and a fair share of skin and other unmentionables I'm sure) hiding underneath!

We ripped up the carpet and worn kitchen floor

and proceeded to lay new laminate. Much easier maintenance during potty training and sickness.

Hyrum also raised my dishwasher for me and, after ripping out a few oddly placed cabinets, gave me more storage throughout the house. You wouldn't believe how amazingly wonderful it is to have a raised dishwasher! I never want to go back to the standard again!

It turned out nice in the end. It helped to bring the trailer out of the 90's. I painted some walls, but the rest won't be finished for a while I'm sure. And the baseboard trim...well, I suspect that won't be purchased or installed for a long while to come. When nice weather comes again, I'll paint my cabinets white.

In the midst of all the changing and moving throughout the house, Paisli finally decided to learn how to crawl on her hands and knees! She's nearly 10 months old! My late bloomer, but that's okay.

Spudnecks

2009-11-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

We've been living in a land of snowy white ever since we arrived in Idaho. The weather is well below freezing, rarely climbing out of the negative temperatures. I've experienced the "frozen nose hairs" feeling, and realized it's just that my nose is trying to run, but it gets frozen and crackly before it can actually run out of my nose. Such a strange feeling!

We've been so spoiled with the temperate climate of the Oregon coast. We have yet to find a climate we enjoy more.

Here, the air is crispy dry, so I live in a world of chapped lips and static (if you're not aware, I HATE static about as much as most people hate being vomited on by dogs). I HAVE to apply lotion AND chapstick on the kids before they go to bed or else their eczema flares up and their lips are bloody in the morning. It really is a shock to our systems to be in this climate. The strangest thing is getting used to our chips and cookies going stale rather than soggy when the bags are left open.

You may be wondering what makes all the lotion, humidifier, chapstick and snowclothes nightmare worth while. Easy. Watching the kids catch snowflakes on their tongues!

Thanksgiving '09

2009-11-27T11:57:00.000-08:00

Brace yourself. We did something we've never done in the history of our (almost) 9 years as the Hyrum Johnson family.

Are you ready for it?

You sure?

We joined our Smith family for a major national holiday for the first time, EVER!

I know. Shocking. But true. I think the Smiths are probably still wondering if it actually happened.

We went straight from Myrtle Point, with our caravan of moving vehicles, to Rexburg, where we dropped the Uhaul and trailers so we could drive out to Driggs for the holiday.

We gathered in a "cabin", if you can call a mansion made of logs a cabin, for the festivities and caught up on lost time. It was right next to the Tetons and was filled with animal skins and heads, and even a few lifelike animals, namely a badger, that I thought even my brother-in-law, Edward, would appreciate.

Kiersa has 2 cousins in the Smith family (Ellie and Lincoln) within weeks of her age whom she's never met.

This was her chance to meet them and play with them, but she ended up acting shy for most of the time.

At least she wasn't afraid of cuddling her Grandma Sheri!

She did end up doing some playing with her cousins before we left.

Talea thought she'd died and gone to heaven when she saw all the snow. We didn't have any snow clothes or boots for her, but she couldn't resist going outside to play, so she went through several pairs of pants, shoes and socks while we were there. I barely saw the girl the entire time we were there!

Paisli got to reunite with Omar. I was hoping he'd teach Paisli how to crawl on her hands and knees, but she refused to do it. She's completely satisfied with army crawling for now.

We chatted, watched movies, played games,

played in the snow, ate and ate and ate, admired the view of the Tetons, and slept. Dallas even had some nightly visitors in his bed. Each morning he woke up to fresh mouse turds all around next to him. They even climbed the bunk ladder to visit Weston. I figure the Driggs mice got word from their Ashland cousins that the twins were coming and would appreciate a mousey visit to make them feel more at home.

Even so, it was beautiful, comfortable, the weather was great, the company was perfect, and the time to relax and unwind from the stress of moving was priceless.

As Hyrum would say...

2009-11-24T10:34:00.000-08:00

"Let's act like a fetus and head out!"

It's time to move!

One last look at our 400 sq ft apartment we've been living in since the day I came home from the hospital after giving birth to Kiersa (so 21 months). We had 4 kids in it with us for 9 months (plus an additional 1 to 4 more people for several months at a time depending on the time of year).

One last family picture in front of the house we almost finished remodeling. Our personal "Money Pit" (rent the movie if you want to see a glimpse into what we went through).

Here are the vehicles it required to move our family (keep in mind, we had already taken a small cargo trailer and a car out to Idaho in October.)

The largest U Haul truck pulling the largest U Haul trailer (driven by Hyrum),

our 15 passenger van pulling a large cargo trailer (driven by me),

and our minivan pulling our utility trailer (driven by Dallas and Weston, who played hookie from school for the move).

All the vehicles were crammed full! How did we accumulate so much stuff? Good thing we're done having kids or we'd never be able to move again!

On our way out to Idaho, we fueled up at this station.

I'd say it was very appropriate, considering our family mascot.

Snapshots of life

2009-11-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

Just a few photos I think are worth journaling:

Paisli and Kiersa

Paisli

Tilly

Hyrum (Tilly took this one.)

Paisli loves to fall asleep by putting her hand in her Daddy's mouth so he can suck on her fingers. She only does this for Daddy.

Paisli (Ready to get up!)

Cute little teeth...

attached to a filthy body. I can't wait until Paisli's walking instead of dragging herself around!

Kiersa and Tilly collecting autumn leaves for a school project. I think Kiersa will end up being Tilly's tree-climbing partner.

Ah, documenting the damage from our stupid wall heaters. Let's see, what has accidentally been shoved against a heater and been melted? The long list of damaged items includes (among other things):
Nial's backpack
Tilly's fairy wings
The sub woofer for our stereo system
My laundry basket that I can't find a duplicate of
Paisli's carseat that I love (of course right before I was going to sell it)

Can you put a patch on a carseat cover? Hmmm.

Paisli learned how to walk around in her walker!

Crabs

2009-11-17T15:26:00.000-08:00

On the 14th, we finally did something we've been wanting to do since we moved to the coast. We went crabbing! I had a short list of things I wanted to do before moving away from the ocean and crabbing was at the top of that list. We never did get to go clamming or visit Tillamook and the northern Oregon coast cities, but we did go crabbing and eat a peanut butter milkshake from Sue's Kitchen.

The milkshake was heavenly!

We missed the ideal crabbing time by an hour or so, but it was still SUPER fun and was so simple! We should have done it ages ago.

We went to the docks in Bandon and rented two pots. Hyrum skewered chicken on the hooks

and tossed the pots out.

The sea lions were swimming close by,

but they never stole our bait. I hear they prefer the fish over the chicken.

While we waited for the baskets to fill,

the kids played on the animal carvings by the dock that Nana took them to play on once before.

Kiersa's new obsession is trying to skip like the big kids. It's so funny to watch!

We pulled in a lot of crabs,

but they were mostly female and all too small.

This is where the females keep their eggs. None in this one though.

Tossing them back in the ocean was trickier than I imagined. They clung to the pots...

and they would stare you down as you approached them to pick them up, waving a warning pincher claw at you all the while.

We mostly just had the kids chase them to the water.

So now the test...could we get the kids to touch a crab?

Paisli wasn't afraid!

But Hyatt was less than enthusiastic to put his fingers in any peril. He thought it was fun to look at them,

but his countenance changed completely when he was faced with the challenge of actually touching one. The most he'd do was touch a back leg.

Hyatt's hilarious because whenever he senses any danger (scary stories or voices, crabs, etc), he pulls his hood over his head to hide. If he doesn't have a hood, he just pulls his shirt up over his head.

Talea, being the creature lover she is, knew she could do better. Not only did she touch a leg,

she let it crawl up her arm!

And, she learned how to pick them up from the back so she wouldn't get pinched.

But what fun is toying with the danger of crabs if you're not going to see if the pinch actually hurts? Talea tested it of course...and enjoyed it!

According to Talea, a praying mantis pinch is more painful than a crab pinch.

When I tried to get Kiersa to touch a crab, she looked at me as though to say, "Do you think I'm THAT stupid?"

She mostly just liked watching the seagulls...

I, on the other hand, was less than thrilled to have the feathered rodents pestering us since they kept hanging around trying to steal our bait and our catch. Plus, one even pooped on me in an aerial fly-by!

Kids make each adventure so much more fun, don't they?

Paisli is such a smiler! And it models her new tooth she just cut. She has 4 teeth now.

Last goodbyes

2009-11-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

On the 9th, we had one last night out with the Tovey's. We watched football and ate great food. Our kids are good friends with the Tovey kids. Obviously the adults are friends too!

Zack and Hyatt:

Kiersa and Moira (Mo), the hand-holding duo:

Maelin and Tilly:

We watched a Steelers/Broncos game, and since Hyrum's cousin (Brett Keisel) plays for the Steelers, Hyrum wore his Keisel jersey

and left #99 imprints on the couch (backwards) to celebrate their victory.

Moira is a month older than Kiersa and has tons of hair that she can wear in cute pigtails. Kiersa finally let me put pigtails in her hair, though it didn't last long.

I can't wait to see what her curls look like when they grow longer...

Trade-offs

2009-11-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

At times (well, a lot of the time) I find myself having a hard time with the changes that have occured in my body, post-babies.

For instance, after I get out of the shower and I bend over to wrap my hair in the towel, I hardly think it's fair that I'm forced to view my stomach flab slowly stretching its way toward the floor like warm saltwater taffy.

Is it right that while dressing, I have to practically scoop my bosoms off my belly to tuck them into the cups of my "functionality-overrules-sexuality, therefore-I-wear-beige" bra, and then pull, poke and prod until they have a proper shape? Definitely not.

If I was filthy rich, I imagine I would probably end up finding my way into the office of Dr. Rey (from Dr. 90210) to have him reconstruct the destructed...but then again, if I look at my body with a different mindset, I can actually kind of see the beauty in the changes of my body. The stretchmarks, the sagging, the veins, the scars...they're all a part of a story.

My story.

One that started with me believing I would never be one of the fortunate millions who are able to conceive. That story took a surprising turn 6 years ago when I was surprised to learn I was pregnant for the first time, and has concluded with 4 healthy, happy kids.

I FELT each of those babies in my womb.
I FELT the flutters, the kicks, the hiccups, the heartburn and the weight gain for each and every one of those little babies that (rather violently) made their entrance into the world.

In the end, I traded a youthful bosom for a little girl whose eye color matches mine.

I traded a taut stomach for a little boy whose personality mirrors mine almost identically.

I traded skin with no scars or stretchmarks for 4 amazing kids who inherited my stumpy little short legs and long torso.

I traded a cooperative bladder and the ability to jump on a trampoline or sneeze without crossing my legs for a little girl who looks like I did as a baby.

I traded legs unscathed by varicose veins for 8 adorable little feet that look exactly like their Daddy's feet.

Though I miss my pre-baby body, I'd trade it all over again in a heartbeat. These are MY battlescars. And I earned every last one of them, whether I like them or not.

And now that I'll never again feel the thrill of a life being formed inside me, I find myself surprised to realize...I'M NOT BABY HUNGRY!!!! When I'm around other people's newborns and I'm reminded of the constant care and helplessness, I smile and realize how glad I am to be done with that stage. I love babies, but I am glad to have my kids growing more independent by the day. I'm happy to not get any new, painful battlescars, no matter how sweet the baby is when it's born.

I have 4 great kids, and I'm happy with that. They'll all be close friends (since they're under 5 years apart) and I'll have energy to be a fun grandma.

So goodbye skinny youthfulness. You were great while you lasted.

Childhood revisited

2009-11-14T23:44:00.000-08:00

Anyone remember the smurfs?
Smurfette?
Gargamel and Azrael?
Smurf berries?
Smurfing here and there?

Well, now boxes are getting pretty smurfy too, since apparently some can smurfit!

Drug side effects

2009-11-14T21:10:00.000-08:00

So what's up with prescription drugs gone bad and legal action afterward? Is no drug safe to trust anymore?

Have you seen the commercials with lawyers saying to call them if you've taken Yaz or Phen Fen or whatever drug that resulted in stroke, death, shrinking manhood, athlete's foot of the tongue, alien babies, hairy toenails, eyelid warts, etc.? (Okay, so maybe some of those aren't real side effects.)

Now I've seen on TV that the newest drug with lawyers after it is Reglan. Apparently it's known to cause neurological problems! I took Reglan for a week (maybe) about a month or so after Paisli was born because a friend recommended it for increased milk production, but it completely wiped me out! I could NOT stay awake for more than a few hours at a time. I even had to take naps at work, so I stopped taking it. It didn't seem to increase my milk production anyway.

So how do I know if a drug is safe? After hearing good things about it, I was thinking of having Hyrum try a prescription for hair loss (he's just getting a little thin in front), but I'm afraid that after he takes it, they'll find out people are being hospitalized for saggy earlobes, moldy armpits, lactating elbows, Billy Bob teeth syndrome, total body hairlessness, or some other equally disturbing/distressing end result LIKE DEATH and that you should contact the law office of Stank, Funk, Nilly and Willy to see if you qualify for compensation.

Okay, so I'm sure hair loss prescriptions are fine, but I still have to freak out in the back of my mind when I find out women are having strokes or dropping dead from birth control pills and patches. I think I'll watch him go bald and be glad his earlobes aren't hanging down to his shoulders.

Here's to the safety of those using prescription drugs!!

Kindergarten

2009-11-14T19:22:00.000-08:00

There is a right of passage that each kid goes through every year at the start of the school year.

First day of school pictures.

Sadly, I missed out on that with Talea. Since I didn't enroll her in traditional kindgergarten, I completely forgot about it.

In case you're new to my blog, Talea does school from home. She's not technically considered "homeschooled" because she's enrolled in an online public school, but she does do her work from home, or wherever we are. Her school is called Connections Academy. She has a principal, a teacher, field trips, school holidays/vacations, tests, clubs, electives (like learning to play an instrument or foreign language (sign language or Spanish)), and conferences. I am considered her learning coach, not actually her teacher. Her teacher calls us once a month, and does an interactive "live lesson" via computer once a month also. She's there for any questions via phone or email also.

There was a waiting list in Oregon, so Talea started 2 weeks late, and when she finally was able to start, none of her materials had arrived yet, so on her "first" day of school, it didn't feel like school had started. Thus, the picture was forgotten.

We chose Connections Academy because I knew several kids, including my niece, who were enrolled in it and they loved it, as did their parents. Also, it's free, so that was a huge factor. They send you most of all the supplies you need (for free), which for kindergarten is everything from pencils, crayons, construction paper and index cards to workbooks and reading books.

My top 10 reasons (in no particular order) for enrolling Talea in an online school versus a traditional school are:
1. I used to be a teacher and when I was behind the scenes, the way schools were run seemed like a joke. Everything was about money, money and more money and the political nonsense was a joke. Budget cuts and overfilling classes seemed to be the new trend.

2. Electives were being cut and classes like Home Ec were becoming a dumping ground for the kids who couldn't cut it in the core classes. The quality of public education just seemed to be going downhill, and fast. Teacher resources were being limited and many even eliminated (most schools even give the teachers a cap on the amount of copies they can make).

3. Teachers are overworked and underpaid, thus giving less incentive to be a better teacher. I had a French teacher in high school who wore a button daily that said "school sucks" and she would show us French movies with porn in them because she could care less about teaching anymore and movies were easier than teaching.

4. A High School teacher was recently telling me that her class sizes are becoming so large that she was going to have to resort to having students just read and recite textbooks because such a large chunk of her class time is spent quieting the students from their socializing that she doesn't have enough time to teach them the way she would like to.

5. The schools in this area are not known for their academic merit. The dissatisfaction level of parents is high. The only redeeming factor the school in town has is an all-day kindergarten.

6. I can't stand how the shallow cliques, ruthless bullying/teasing, and the petty fads would shape and mold so many of my students' character and self-worth, rather than such things as: faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works and integrity. (You know, I think there really was something to that Young Women's motto after all.)

7. We are a very spontaneous family and rarely have set schedules around our house, so sticking to a traditional school's schedule would prove to be extremely difficult for us. I didn't look forward to spending our school breaks/vacations battling the crowds because that's when we are allowed to take them, along with a million other families.

8. I don't believe in the theory that homeschooling my child with make her socially abnormal. Sorry. Since we attend church weekly and have play dates for the kids and let our kids participate in community activities and classes, I know my kids get plenty of socialization and will turn out "normal". All I have to say to the "theory" is that I went to public school with A LOT of socially abnormal kids, and I know A LOT of socially normal kids that are homeschooled.

9. I want the values I spend a lifetime instilling in my kids to be the main influence on the kind of person they become, rather than peer pressure. I've always admired how (on average) homeschooled kids are more obedient, respectful and hard working than traditionally schooled kids.

10. I love how so many homeschooled kids are able to complete school early and are able to have a year or two of college completed before other kids their age even start one.

Now that you have an idea why I chose to teach Talea from home, I want to point out that I do NOT think homeschool/online school is for everyone. If you're someone who needs/wants a breather from your kids for a few hours every day, this wouldn't work for you. If you're not self-motivated, it could get tiresome. If you think your child needs to be around 500 kids a day in order to turn into a normal adult, you have the wrong mindset to keep your child home. I have nothing against parents sending their kids to traditional school. Hyrum and I went to regular school, and I think we did just fine. We just happen to be happy with the alternative.

So what do I love about Talea's school?
-It's free.
-You are loaned a free computer and are given a substantial internet subsidy if you qualify.
-They sent me almost all the supplies I'd need, and what they didn't send me, I already had lying around the house.
-We can take our vacations whenever we want to. We just have to make sure she doesn't exceed the maximum days allowed.
-Talea can progress at her own pace. She can always work ahead if she wants to.
-As she gets older, I will help Talea less and less. She will progressively work more independently and rely on her teacher for help rather than always on me.
-She's taking an Educational Technology class IN KINDERGARTEN that is teaching her to type properly, and without looking at the keyboard! It's fantastic! Do all kindergartens do this? I didn't learn how to do this until my junior year in high school!

-Everything is mapped out for me, so it's a no-brainer. It's like "Teaching for Dummies" or something. A cinch!
-I can start her school day whenever I choose, be it at 5 am or 8 pm, it doesn't matter as long as she gets her hours in daily. I can also break it up throughout the day.
-Extra things she does, like riding her bike or watching the discovery channel or educational websites all count toward her schooling hours, just as long as it's educational.
-I will always know how well or how poorly my kids are doing is school because I'm held accountable for their work. It frustrates me when parents shrug their shoulders about their kids' slipping grades.

In kindergarten, Talea's subjects are Math, Language Arts, Art, Science, Social Studies, Ed Tech, and Activities (usually physically active things like hopscotch, 4 square, skipping, nature walks, etc), but she only does 5 subjects a day, with her Activities class being an optional one.

There are definitely things I don't love about Talea's school (the fact that I have to follow rules mandated by the state rather than myself for tests, # of vacation days, when the first and last day of school is), but overall, I'm really happy with it, and so is Talea. Talea is VERY social and I kind of expected her to beg me to let her go to a traditional school with other kids her age, but she tells me she loves doing school this way, so if she's happy, I'm happy. Plus, when we go on the road for travel nursing, she'll have to be homeschooled. Might as well get the family used to it from the beginning!

Blam it!!

2009-11-14T18:13:00.000-08:00

I've become the victim of my first blog spam (aka blam, according to wikipedia), and of all the ridiculous and obnoxious things I could be blammed with, it was, of course, the little blue pill: Viagra!!!! So after a year and a half of blissfully blogging away, feeling as though I was immune to the bane of the cyber world, I've been yanked out of my cocoon of assumed safety and slapped in the face with anti-impotency links. This breach has forced my hand and I've decided to no longer allow comments from "anonymous" readers. I know a few family members use anonymous, so I'm sorry to have to block this option, but I'm a little perturbed by the whole incident and am NOT looking forward to a repeat.

Clarification

2009-11-06T10:05:00.000-08:00

Here are two funny things that the kids ask me ALL THE TIME. I'm sure they'll stop saying them soon, so I have to write them down before that time comes. I just think it's hilarious that both Tilly and Hyatt say these word for word each time they want either thing.

1. When the kids want to watch a cartoon that's on satellite, instead of on DVD, they ask,
"Can you turn on a cartoon that we never seen and that we don't have and that's not a grown up movie?"

2. When the kids want me to tell them a story that I make up instead of read, they ask,
"Can you tell me a story that we don't have and that we never read with no pages and no pictures and no words?"

Boy, it would sure help me know what they wanted if they would just get a little more specific! This vagueness is so confusing!

Fuzzy Wuzzy

2009-11-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

All my kids have fuzzy head issues once their hair is long enough to get messy. Kiersa is my first child to have curly hair, and boy is it fuzzy in the mornings before I wet it down!

Book Worm

2009-11-04T13:37:00.001-08:00

Kiersa LOVES books so much that I think I've read more books to her in the last 6 months than I've read to Talea in all her life. Okay, maybe not, but it feels like we're reading to her ALL THE TIME!

She has 2 favorite books: "The Gruffalo" and "It's Spring", and though she has several others she enjoys, these two are the most frequent books that fall in our laps with a command of "Read It!" accompanying them.

"It's Spring" is really simple so she's had every word memorized for a while. She'll finish any word I leave out, so I got it on video where I left off the last word of each sentence, just to make it quicker.

She has "America the Beautiful" memorized since Talea sings it all the time. She can also sing "You Are My Sunshine" and several other songs.

This morning "America the Beautiful" was apparently stuck in her head because while she was helping me get breakfast together, she suddenly sang out, "And crown thy good with brotherhood...".

I was really surprised at how easy it is to understand her now, and how she can say such big words!

One major part of Kiersa's personality is her temper. She's obstinate and determined and defiant. Boy, are we in trouble when she's a teenager! Kiersa is very independent and if she doesn't get her way, she strikes back. She finds the closest thing and tries to destroy it or throw it while throwing a major fit. She is definitely a tough one and I can only imagine what she'll be like in her teen years.

There are only 2 things that will pull Miss Milly out of one of her fits and make her stop crying: Paisli and hugs/snuggles. If you tell her that Paisli needs her and wants her, she'll stop instantly and be happy again in Paisli's arms. You can also tell her that you need a hug and want to hold her and she'll stop crying immediately and come to be held.

She's still wary of men, but is usually pretty comfortable with women. There are 2 women in particular that she is very drawn to: Tina Hallmark and Debbie Tovey. Debbie is Moe's mom (Moe is Kiersa's best friend) and Tina is in our ward at church, and has helped me tremendously in my times of need. It's funny how she picks those women out and runs to them. Very adorable.

Paisy Daisy

2009-11-04T07:54:00.001-08:00

At 8 1/2 months, Paisli...

-can go from laying down to sitting by herself.
-can army crawl, with her arms performing a slalom motion like a skier.
-is close to hands-and-knees crawling, but prefers to do an inchworm imitation instead.
-is definitely taking the longest of all our kids to crawl. She's almost a month behind what Kiersa was doing at this age, and Kiersa took way longer than our first two! Boy, kids all in one family sure can be different!
-will give you kisses if you ask her for them, but she has to be in the right mood.
-makes sputtering sounds with her tongue that seems to stave off boredom for her.
-LOVES to bite anything and everything...HARD. Thank GOODNESS she's weened!!!
-has 2 teeth on the bottom and one of her front teeth on top just popped through with the other ready to do the same any time.
-is VERY attached to Mommy and REALLY doesn't like to be held by anyone but Mommy and Daddy. Often not even Daddy will do.
-loves to put her fingers in Daddy's mouth when she wants to fall asleep.
-lays around like Cleopatra all the time. She'll probably end up crawling like her cousin Hali...on the side of her rear.

-still doesn't like to eat...unless she gets to put the food in her mouth by herself with her fists.
-stops crying when she hears the sound of a bottle being shaken.
-can move all around in a walker.
-keeps a very serious look on her face (especially with those eyebrows), but is super quick to smile.

-is the only one of our kids to get my short eyelashes instead of Hyrum's long ones.
-is the biggest snuggler ever! She just lays her head against your chest or shoulder and hugs you. She especially snuggles you when she's scared, which is all the time since any noise freaks her out...especially scary or loud voices or power tools.

Hyatt at 8 months, in all his cuteness:

Kiersa at 8 months, in all her chubby glory:

Talea at 8 months, with her lack of chub (compared to Kiersa):

Halloween 2009

2009-10-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

Last year, about this time, we had recently visited England, so for Halloween, Talea was a damsel in distress, Hyatt was a knight, and Kiersa was a dragon.

We had so much fun with doing a theme last year that this year I continued the tradition. The kids were the 3 little pigs and the medium bad wolf. The girls were the pigs and Hyatt was the wolf. Hyatt insisted that he wasn't "big" since he wasn't a grown up, and he wasn't small since he's not a baby, so he was the medium bad wolf.

Pailsi actually HATED the pig nose and had a hard time tolerating the hat. She about went crazy for the 30 seconds she had the pig nose on.

Hyatt only wore the fangs for this picture because since they were too big for his mouth, they made him drool down his chin, and he couldn't stand that.

Here are my two piggies up close who would actually wear the noses.

These costumes were actually pretty simple to make and consisted mostly of clothes the kids already had. The fake fur was awful though with it's realistic shedding. I love the pig tails, though they were constantly crushed and misshapen from the kids sitting down.

We went to a trunk-or-treat at the church...

and the kids got LOADED with candy! Kiersa isn't pictured above because she was always off in the arms of various young women so I never got a chance to snap her picture before I forgot about it. We went home after that and did a second trunk-or-treat at a nearby church and then hit some homes around the neighborhood. Hyrum wasn't with us because he had gone to the temple with the youth and his ride brought him home later than the others. I definitely appreciate the help I get from Hyrum because one day and a night of trick-or-treating without him made me realize how much of my burden he lightens.

Speaking of Kiersa in the arms of others, every time I take her to a park, she's a magnet for other kids. She can't play without someone wanting to hold her hand, hug her, lead her around, or what not. People are just drawn to her. Buuuut, when we were in Rexburg, we went to a park where she finally encountered her nemesis. A little boy there, from the time we arrived, went around telling her "No!" every time she wanted to play on something and he actually got pretty bullyish. I was surprised since this never happens with Kiersa. Eventually, the bully did something nasty to her when I wasn't looking, leaving Kiersa screaming and crying. The boy's mother saw it and quickly started scolding the boy, and when I got to her, Kiersa was pointing her finger at the boy, crying, "Mean!!! Owiee!!" The rest of our time there, she kept pointing and saying "Mean!" Maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious.

Mermaid tears

2009-10-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

After working for weeks on filling her "mermaid tear jar", Talea finally did it! Her prize she picked? A 99 cent fishing game on Hyrum's iPhone. Perfect.

Talea can be stubborn, defiant, argumentative, disrespectful and disobedient at times, so in order to curb that behavior, we've adopted Daisha's mermaid tear strategy. Every time she says "Yes, mother/father" when we ask her to do something instead of arguing or making us ask her over and over, she gets to put a mermaid tear or two in the jar. Each time she pulls her naughty behavior out, she loses tears. It's a great tactic for her!

We tried to get her to say ma'am/sir, but she insists on saying mother/father because my mom taught her that. It's cute anyway, and people laugh in surprise when they hear her say "Yes, mother" after not getting her way in a store or other public places.

Humidity withdrawals

2009-10-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

What happens when you plop an Oregon boy down in the arid climate of Idaho?

He asked for some lotion, so I gave him the Eucerin creme I use for his eczema and I didn't keep an eye on him. He went to town lathering his face until it felt better!

The kids love Idaho, though, and can't wait to move.

The informant

2009-10-31T11:14:00.001-07:00

Kiersa is 20 months and is really starting to communicate well and be one of the big kids.

-She'll bring a book to me and say, "Read it!" She LOVES books!
-She finishes the lines on all the books I read her regularly.
-She can easily count to 10.
-She can sing her ABCs, with assistance.
-She can sing all the bedtime songs I sing her.
-She tattles all the time, on everyone. She's my personal informant. She'll come tell me that someone is being "rude", "mean", or "naughty". When I ask who is being that way to her, she'll name the person and point.
-She no longer calls all animals "Cowboy". She'll say their name instead. She finally calls "Indian" by her name rather than calling her Cowboy.
-She commands the dogs to "sit" or go to their "kennel".
-She is very competitive, so I can get her to eat something if I threaten that I'll give it to her siblings instead, and she'll potty on the toilet if she sees Tilly and Hyatt do it and get a prize afterward. She's very prize oriented.
-She repeats the last word everyone says.
-She loves to squish my cheeks and say "chubby" so I'll tell her the chubby story.
-If anyone is naked around her, or even partly undressed, she sings, "na-ked noo-noo!"
-When she rides something like a horse (your back or the arm of a chair), she yells, "Cow-boy Ba-by!" (Like the Kid Rock song.)
-She understands everything you say and ask and really concentrates and tries hard to answer you, even if you can't understand what she's saying.
-When she gets hurt, she scolds what hurts her. Such as: If she falls and bonks her head, she'll cry, tell me her head hurts, and then point to the floor and say "naughty...floor...head...hurt...no no floor!" She's getting good at forming sentences.
-She recognizes possession. If I put a shoe on her that used to belong to Hyatt, she's look at me all confused and say, "Hyatt's!" She puts the plural "s" on words too now.
-She notices people's emotions, especially when they're sad. She says, "Sad...cry" anytime someone is crying or sad.

Phantom pregnancy

2009-10-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

If I didn't know better, I'd swear I was pregnant.

I mean, all the things it takes for me to get pregnant are in place:
-We went through, and are still dealing with, the most stress I've had in my life.
-We aren't currently remodeling, but we're thinking about improvements we'd like to make to our next place.
-I've gained weight after a recent weight loss.
-We said we're done with having more kids. In fact, Hyrum got the snip to make it final.

AND...I've been having phantom pregnancy symptoms for a month or more. So much so that I've taken 7 pregnancy tests in the last couple of months. I hate surprises and I never have patience to wait for a month after suspecting pregnancy. I can't rely on a missed period since I'm not what you'd consider a "regular" girl, so I just check randomly.

Here are the things I'm experiencing that I've experienced before when I was newly pregnant, which is why I keep thinking I'm pregnant:
-Increased bust size, by a cup!
-Weight gain. Ten pounds since August, but lately it's more body softening/plumping rather than numbers going up on the scale.
-Insatiable appetite
-Lack of desire to exercise, or do anything
-Carpal tunnel pain
-Sciatic nerve pain in my rear
-Nasty headaches

After the first couple of cheap tests looked suspicious, I broke down and bought digital tests...a box of 5. I've been through all the tests now and each one has been negative.

So I guess I'm not pregnant. I'm not hoping to be pregnant, but I wouldn't be sad if I was. I'm pretty neutral on the topic. One thing though, if I am pregnant, I'd finally have a good excuse for my chub! I really don't want to start another pregnancy at this weight though! It makes it sooooo hard to shed! Especially at my age! After 4 kids and being in my thirties, my skin has hardly any elasticity left, I swear!

The sad thing is, all my phantom pregnancy symptoms can be explained away, but I just don't want to face the reality. If I'd finally stop pigging out and actually do some exercise again, I'd lose weight, and then my bust would shrink. I've been sanding the triple bunk we built, so that's probably why I have carpal tunnel. And my sore rear end nerve? Well, I always get weird aches and pains for no reason.

But I keep suspecting that I'm prego! I'm out of tests, so I'm going crazy, and have to hold myself back from buying more.

I'm not pregnant. I'm just fat. I'm not pregnant. I'm just lazy. I'm not pregnant. I'm just stressed. I'M NOT PREGNANT!!!!!

Trailer Park Trash

2009-10-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

(This post is forever long...you've been warned.)

We are last-minute people. We wait until the last second to make any plans or finalize anything. Why, you ask?

Here's a perfect example of why we have given up on planning trips, etc, beforehand:

We planned to leave for Idaho to look for a place to live at the end of September, buuut...it was postponed time and again at the last second, because:

I realized the kids had a dentist appointment, and you know how impossible those are to reschedule...it took ages to get an appointment in the first place!

Hyrum had to get the snip and recover from that.

So we planned to give Hyrum a few days to lay low and then leave October 5th, buuuuut...

The kids, one at a time, all came down sick, AGAIN, and this time Hyrum and I caught it too. It was just a cough and runny nose, so not that serious, but we didn't want to pass it on to Grandma Sheri, who we were planning on staying with in Idaho Falls. So we waited. And waited. We kept checking craigslist for mobile home listings in Idaho while we waited, and Hyrum was getting really antsy to get on the road.

I, on the other hand, was not anxious to leave. We were planning on driving separate cars. Hyrum would drive the crummy, towing a trailer behind, and I would drive the little Civic. A 15-hour drive (that's straight, mind you, without stops for children or dogs) through barren landscape without a relief driver wasn't an exciting thought.

On Tuesday, we figured we may be well enough to go on Wednesday morning, Theeeeennnnn...

at about 5:30pm, after several restless nights and grumpy days, Kiersa finally grabbed her ear and said "HURT!" Hallelujah! She's old enough to communicate her pains!!! A trip to the after-hours clinic confirmed an ear infection.

We settled into bed that night and planned a Thursday departure, but then Hyatt came crying into our room at 2:30 am holding his ear saying it hurt! What rotten luck! He had gone to the after-hours clinic with Kiersa, but we didn't get him checked because only Kiersa had complained of pain!

So Thursday morning I tried to get him into the doctor's office, but I didn't take into account our Johnson Jinx.

Of course, since we needed a doctor ASAP so we could leave, all the doctor's were off that day except for the on-call doctor, who was booked solid, so Hyatt couldn't get in. The walk-in clinic was of course unexpectedly closed also, probably because I needed them that day. I checked with our insurance (DOCS-Oregon's public health) to see if I could just take him to the ER since no one could see him at the doctor's office, but they said they would only cover life-threatening emergencies, and though painful, an ear infection isn't life-threatening.

Sooooo... we had to wait for an appointment at the after-hours clinic at 6 pm. Poor little Hyatt!

While we were waiting, I found out that Bay Clinic had finally found a new surgeon (after mine mysteriously "retired"). I walked in to get an appointment to see if the previous surgeon's mess could be repaired and was told to come see the surgeon in the morning. Good news, right?

Well, back to Hyatt. When 6:00 finally rolled around, we took Hyatt in, but this time we did some pre-planning and took ALL the kids and had them all checked since they all had the same sickness. Well only Hyatt had an ear infection (aside from Kiersa), but it was a double one.

So...now it was Thursday morning, Oct. 8th, and we still hadn't left. I went to my appointment and was told that the banding my previous surgeon had recommended wouldn't work, and that the surgeon had kind of turned me inside out in a way and I'd need surgery to repair it. Great! No insurance anymore, I'm moving, and I don't want to relive the horrible pain I experienced post-surgery! All I could do was cry, leaving the surgeon a little uncomfortable. I drove home, cursing the Honda since it kept freaking out on me.

I stopped to take a sneaky picture of the home I love so I won't forget it. This is the house Hyrum knocked on to get her paint colors for my Mother's Day present. She gets angry about people taking pictures of her house, so I had to do a sneaky one, so it's not that great, darn it.

Though I was puffy-eyed and upset, we ended up leaving that night, around 6 pm. We drove to Christmas Valley and had to wait until morning to get gas.

Don't worry, all you Cluff's, mom's tradition of sleeping in the car won't die with her! We slept in the crummy! We put a mattress in the back and slept. Well, attempted to sleep. Paisli had a really rough night since she wasn't feeling 100% yet.

In the morning, we looked like we'd been beat with a stick, so of course we ran into people we knew at the gas station. Niiiice. That's ALWAYS my luck.

WE MADE IT TO IDAHO!!
At 9:30 pm on Friday the 9th of October, we rolled into Idaho Falls and got to reacquaint the kids with Grandma Sheri.

So, long story long, we've thrown planning ahead out the window and just fly by the seat of our pants these days. Our pre-set plans never seem to work out anymore.

Amidst our crazy house (or should I say trailer) hunting we did there all day long every day, we did manage to do a few fun things.

We went to a neat park in Idaho Falls...

We had dinner with Grandpa Mike...

We went to the falls in Idaho Falls (which are ridiculously puny compared to the falls around here)...

And we spent our 8 days there searching for a place to live.

While we were stressing over the dilemma of which place to buy, Nana, Aunt Maren, Braxton, Jaiden, Aunt Meghan, and Marlee all came up to visit us. We didn't get a lot of time together, but what we got was fun! At least we'll only be around 4 hours from then now instead of 15!

Here is a picture I took of Paisli, Jaiden and Kiersa 8 months ago when Maren's family was living with us. Paisli was a few days old, Jaiden was 6 months, and Kiersa had just turned 1 (about a 6 month jump from kid to kid).

Here they are now.

Paisli is only 5 weeks older than Marlee, so it was cute to see them play together, or at least eat the grass together.

Kiersa was excited to get in some quality Aunt Maren time!

Idaho is farming country, so when I saw a combine, I thought of Edward and couldn't resist taking a picture of it for him since he said he'd rather lose his arm in a freak combine accident than become someone's neighbor on the stupid farmville FB game.

In our search for a home to buy, we discovered a strange fad in Rexburg and the surrounding areas. Giant stars are all the rage in interior and exterior decorating! They are on people's walls in their living rooms and bedrooms and on their walls outside too. Here is the apartment complex I lived in during my first year at Ricks. It's been remodeled since those days, and the remodel includes a giant star on each building. We may have to get one those if we want to fit in with the community!! (I'm not a fan, by the way.)

We were searching for a trailer to live in because we could use our taxes to buy one of those and only have to pay $250 a month for lot rent while in school, rather than renting an apartment or house for $500-800 a month, and then sell it when we're done with school and get some of our money back out of the deal rather than throwing it all away on rent. We'd been looking on craigslist and websites for months, and when we got out to Rexburg, we toured a bunch of trailers and parks and finally had it whittled down to 2 choices: an '85 trailer that was a fixer, but we could install our dream kitchen and bathroom in it that had been intended for our home here, or there was a '99 trailer that was much bigger with more storage, but our kitchen and bath cabinets wouldn't work in it. We were really torn. The big one would take all of our money to the last penny, and the smaller one would leave us with a little money but would take a bunch of time and money to fix up.

Then 2 more big trailers got thrown into the choice at the last minute. We decided on one of those since we could put it on a lot in St. Anthony rather than in a park, but then that fell through at the last minute. So on our last day there, we finally bought the '99 trailer in the Mill Hollow Community trailer park. The park is actually really nice and it looks like a neighborhod rather than a trailer park, and the majority of the people living there are younger couples. I can't imagine what that will be like! There are hardly any young couples in our current area. We had to apply to get into this park and we almost didn't get accepted because of our recent credit plummet! It's really strict, which is how it stays so nice. Background checks and all!

So here are pictures of the place. There are a lot of things I'd like to change, but since it took all our money, it will have to stay as-is. I just hope we can scrounge money to paint the white interior walls! Don't judge it too harshly. I plan to slowly improve some things as time goes by. Look out, Hyrum!

So, we've been trucker trash, 5th wheel trailer trash, double-wide trailer trash, now we're going to be single-wide trailer park trash!!! Yeah, we aim high.

It has a pretty large yard, considering, and it has huge trees Talea will love climbing.

Here is the living room, with it's electric blue carpet. Can you say '90's?

And the nice '90's oak cabinets and laminate. Have I ever mentioned how much I detest oak? Well, I do. At the least the place has sheetrock!

One thing that deterred us from this park originally is that we will have to get rid of all but one of our animals. We are only allowed to have one small indoor pet, and that's it. We've been searching high and low to find a place for our dogs. We have a hard time separating them since they've been together since 2 months old (and they're 7 now), and we hate to lose either one since we've had them 2 years longer than our own kids!

We had 3 until a year ago when my favorite one (the middle one) was hit and killed by a car.

We think we found a place for them though. Some friends of ours that live about an hour from Rexburg will probably take them for us for a few years until we can have them back. If they take both, we can keep our cat. If they take one, we'll have to get rid of our cat. So, if you know of anyone who wants a really cool, spayed, independent cat that has a great temperament and is a strictly outdoor cat, let me know!

On our way back home to Oregon, we went through Sisters, Oregon, and I think that's my favorite place in the country. I LOVE it every time I go through there! This time the leaves were turning colors and it was spectacular! I love the contrast of the yellow deciduous against the dark green evergreens!

Higher mpg here we come!

2009-10-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

We traded our camping trailer

for an economical car.

Sad, but true.

We were looking at getting a Geo Metro for the great gas mileage, but we ended up being able to trade our trailer for a Honda Civic instead. Much better!

Here it is.

Check out the low profile tires with fancy wheels. If you're between the ages of 12 and 25 you're probably drooling over them. Do people over 25 with kids even care that much about their wheels, other than the amount of tread left on the tires? The only people I see with tires like this are teens or college kids. Oh wait, we're about to join the college kid crowd, so I guess we'll fit in better with this car!

I feel very juvenile with tires like this. I mean, what responsible adult throws away good money on something as ridiculous as fancy wheels and tires? Please. Well, at least we'll go up a few notches on the "sick" scale with Dallas and Weston, right?

Now, before you go thinking, "Hey, cool car!", let me show you the stupid things about the car that drive me crazy. I just drove it out to Idaho, and after that long of a drive, I have no desire to drive it ever again. I prefer our 15 passenger crummy over it.

(FYI: in case you're not a lumberjack or an Oregonian, a crummy is a van that transports the loggers up to the jobsite. Hence the mega winch bar welded to our front bumper.)

The windshield is terribly cracked, which is lame to look through.

The tinting is peeling off the driver window. We'll probably get pulled over for it being too dark anyway.

The back window tinting is so bad that it makes it look like you're looking through water or a SUPER dirty window. It's seriously frustrating.

The driver's door handle is broken, so you have to hold it just right in order to open the door.

The automatic lock on the passenger side doesn't work.

The driver window rolls down, but when you roll it up (it's automatic), it makes the most horrific noise and won't roll up entirely unless you have a second person manually shove it up while you hold the up button. That means at drive-through windows you have to open your door instead of roll your window down. VERY lame!

The stick shifter is a slick metal racing one, which is cold and...slippery. Super annoying. I like the ones that are fat so you can just grab it easy and flip it around, not have to actually grab it with your entire hand to move it.

The pedals are racing pedals, which is the lamest thing in the whole wide world! For one, they're slick, so if your feet are wet or your shoes don't have traction, your foot slips off too easily. Secondly, when you push on the brake, the gas pedal is so close that half the time I end up pushing the gas with the brake and then it makes a horrible high revving sound shooting the RPMs into the red. It took me a while to figure out that problem. I've NEVER driven a car where my foot would hit both pedals. SUPER LAME!

The right rear lights collect water in them.

The stereo is annoying since it has a rainbow of colors that flash all night long unless you turn it off completely. I didn't take the time to sit and figure it all out before driving.

The odometer doesn't track real mileage because the fancy-shmancy wheels are actually too big, so the mileage is off. We found that out on our way out to Idaho. We had to rely on Jeremy's mileage. (Jeremy is the crummy because our installer, Jeremy, drove it and our kids think we're driving Jeremy's rig...so we started calling it Jeremy.)

But of all the lame-o things wrong with this car, the thing that grosses me out is flipping down the visor when the sun is in my eyes only to find disturbing mystery spots staring at me. Is it blood? I don't know. I DO know it creeps me out! I'd rather have the sun in my eyes!

The thing that makes me so mad is that we ended up paying an extra $400 on top of the trade to get this car, and each new lame thing I find infuriates me even more that we paid money for it. Hyrum keeps reminding me that we personally didn't pay cash up front for the trailer in the first place (long story how we got it), the trailer was leaking like a sieve and thus had major dry rot, and the fridge didn't work, and a couple windows didn't work, so he thinks it was still a fair trade. Plus, we didn't give the guy the rack Hyrum built for the back bumper, but instead sold it to our neighbor for $250, so Hyrum says we can consider that we only paid $150 for the car. I just say he can drive the dang thing from now on so I'll stop getting mad at it!

BUUUUTTTT...
Even though this car drives me crazy, one thing redeems all the negatives: IT GOT 40 MPG ON THE WAY OUT TO IDAHO!!! WAHOO!!!!

K.I.E.R.S.A.

2009-10-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

Tilly and Hyatt came in and showed me how they could make the letter "K" together, so I decided I'd see if they could spell out "KIERSA."

Not too shabby, though it was probably more work and stress than it was worth. Oh well.

Getting even

2009-10-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

I think I'm being attacked at night. My leg is suddenly covered in over 13 bruises from just below my knee to my upper thigh, and I have no recollection of anything happening to me that would cause bruises. I'm not an easy bruiser, either. And the bruises are only in this one area...nowhere else on my body.

My theory: Hyrum's retaliating for the snip and is kicking me in my sleep.

Stackin' 'em high

2009-10-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

Talea and Hyatt have been sharing a twin bed for years and have been having kicking wars at night.

Kiersa can easily escape her crib, but without another bed for her, she's had to stay in it. We tried putting her in bed with the older kids, but Kiersa thrashes around all night and causes more problems than just Tilly and Hyatt's fighting over who is on who's side.

Paisli is end-to-end in her bassinet and needs to go into the crib, but can't until Kiersa has a bed to go into.

So, we've been looking for bunkbeds at stores and on craigslist and at yard sales, but with no luck of finding anything decent for a decent price. We then decided to find a triple bunk, or at least a bunk with a trundle, so we could fit all the kids in one room in case we have to move into a 2 bedroom mobile in Rexburg. We found some online that we liked, then Hyrum found one he thought he could make, so we decided to give it a try. For just under $300, we're making our own version of a $1,499 triple bunk, and no shipping costs! They'll be able to be separated into individual beds also.

Here's the triple bunk picture we found online.

Here's our version of the top and middle bunk. Obviously it's not done. This is just our progress so far.

I'm going to paint it white with a dark glaze on it (glazes just leave darkness in the cracks so the beadboard will stand out more). We're waiting until we find a place in Rexburg before we make the bottom bunk and ladders and put the finishing details on because we need to know how high the ceiling is first.

We made our own bed (a queen log bed), and have now made the kids' triple bunk. I don't know that we'll able to quit the tradition and buy our own beds again. It gives you some satisfaction knowing you made your own beds.

Snip, snip

2009-10-02T22:11:00.000-07:00

It's official. Hyrum got the snip yesterday!

What a guy! So either we'll have a June or July baby next year (since we've been leaving things to fate), or we're done at 4 kids.

Now, before you pat him on the back too much for being man enough to put his privates under the knife, I'll remind everyone that I'm the one who gave birth 4 times and required surgery to repair the damage after the 4th, and during the recovery of that surgery, I went through pain equal to childbirth (or greater than for me since I always get an epidural for childbirth) 8 times in one day, and several times on other days. I've had stitches in my nether-regions twice, so in my book, that gives me a "get out of a gynecologically painful visit free" card!

Hyrum, being the ever-sensitive-to-my-needs husband he is, took one for the team this time.

We didn't take this decision lightly. We've been thinking about it for a while, but for one, we couldn't afford it financially, and for two, we weren't positive we were done having kids. When we thought about it, I'd turn up pregnant, so we tried to stop thinking about it. Then, a few things happened that prompted our decision to do it now, rather than...whenever down the road,

1. By mere chance and strange coincidence, we found a way to do it for free through the health clinic and their grants, or something like that. Who knows when we'd have the chance later to do it for free?
2. I already know that 5 kids seriously strains my stress-limit (from when I had Talea and the 4 Garcia kids), so 4 seemed like a nice place to stop. I'm already 3 years past my planned stopping age and the varicose vein and sciatic problems that pregnancy has given me is getting worse with each baby. Yep, 4 is good.

The downside we found later was, when it came down to it, we had to go to Eugene (2.5 hours away) to do it, and it was at an abortion clinic. People were picketing outside, and being a pro-life person myself, I felt a little ashamed to be giving the business our patronage. I stayed in the car with the kids while Hyrum went in. He had to sit in a depressing environment with women crying and such.

But...the procedure was quick and easy, with the only pain being when he was given the numbing shot "down there" and the bit when he was manhandled a little by the doctor. I think I was cheated in the it's-his-turn-to-feel-some-real-pain department.

10 minutes and he was done!
No stitches even!!!
I definitely got the bad end of the bargain. His pain isn't even coming close to touching what I've gone through!!! Maybe I'll schedule him for a colonoscopy so he can catch up to experiencing my horrors.
Okay, I actually do feel bad...since it means he can't help out around the house for a couple days! And he can't shower for 48 hours. Yuck!

No, seriously, I hate to see him hurting even a tiny bit, but it is a relief to me that I'm not the one sitting in the recliner with an ice pack on my...well, you know. And I am just the tiniest bit glad that he gets to feel the pain for once. I mean, when I'm giving birth and I get to the point where it's time to push and the epidural isn't helping the pain anymore, he doesn't even feel bad for me! There I am, breaking down into tears, and he's getting excited! He says it's because he knows that the sobs mean the baby is almost here (afterall, he delivers the baby, so he's excited for that). Such a stinker!

Now he has to rest for a few days, taking his turn feeling what it feels like to turn his nether-regions into an antarctic war zone, bag of frozen baby lima beans and all (hey, they were the cheapest small bag of little veggies I could find). A couple days and he should be good as new!

Honestly, I'll NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS understand the guys who aren't tough enough to get the snip, insisting their wives do it instead. All the "no one messes with my manhood" and "I don't want to be neutered" and "I don't want any bad side effects" crud. Show me one woman who comes away from pregnancy and childbirth completely unscathed and maybe I'll listen to the sniveling. Actually, I still won't.

Wedded bliss

2009-09-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

Kaylynn is the first of my parents' grandkids to get married. She's 19 and she married her long-time love, Kevin Muntifering. They've been together since Kaylynn was 13.

We missed her wedding at the Portland temple because Kiersa and Paisli came down with high fevers and vomiting just before we were supposed to leave. That meant we missed her Ashland reception too, but we DID make it to her Coquille reception a little over a week later.

These are some of my favorite pictures I took from the festivities.

Awww

The cake

Parents of the bride

Parents of the groom

The happy couple

The little flower girls (Tilly's in the middle)

The bride with the flower girls

Tilly

Hyatt

Kiersa

Paisli

My niece, Jasmine, and my girls

Dallas and Kiersa Milly

Silly Milly

BFF

2009-09-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

Kiersa's best friend is Moira, but Kiersa only knows her as "Mo".

Mo is one month older than Kiersa and in our ward. They pal around together like this all the time. Not many things are cuter than two curly-headed year-and-a-half girls holding hands wherever they go.

The other day, my Grandma Anna came by our place and saw Kiersa chewing on her tongue and said, "Oh, you got that from me!" Grandma and all her siblings (except for one) all chew on their tongue when they're concentrating or distracted. She said her curls came from the George's though. Kiersa is my first curly-headed kid.

Now, if only I can figure out who Kiersa's ultra-sensitive gag reflex came from and her annoying insistence that she take her right, and only her right, shoe and sock off ALL DAY LONG! Especially in the car. We have yet to go more than a couple blocks before her right foot is bare, and if she can't get it bare herself, her bloody-murder screams get someone to take them off for her in order to have peace and quiet.

England, revisited

2009-09-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

This time last year we were in England. *sigh*

Trafalgar Square

Bateman's (where the author of Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling, lived)

Stonehenge

White cliffs of Dover

Stow-on-the-wold

Top of Eiffel Tower (in Paris of course)

Cheddar gorge

Bodiam castle

Top of the London Eye

Leeds Castle

Click here, and scroll down to September 6 (almost at the bottom) to read my posts about it, starting with day 1. I posted daily for 2 1/2 weeks about our adventures, so there's a lot there to read.

It was so nice.
So much fun.
So interesting!

When we were there, we noticed a disturbing new fashion trend. Men wearing cardigans!! (Gag)

Daisha told me that London is the fashion leader and that I could expect to see men wearing cardigans in the US in about a year or so. I shuddered at the thought!

Today, a Land's End catalog came to my house. Guess what was on the cover?
Cardigans are all the rage here now!!! Right on schedule.

Paisley (the pattern) was also super fashionable out there, and now it's popular here too. We found it appropriate to name our baby Paisli since I was 4 months pregnant with her while we were in England around paisley stuff all the time.

(And one final note...I took the obnoxious word verification off my comments, AND I put my comment box as a pop up AND I allow anonymous comments so you don't even have to log in, so...it's SUPER quick and convenient to comment! No one has the excuse to silently blog stalk anymore! I'm beginning to think only my sister reads my blog anymore. Maybe she is the only one???)

This'll give you the creeps

2009-09-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

Praying mantis...

Dragonfly...

Doesn't matter. The bigger, the better. She's unstoppable!

Though Hyatt found the praying mantis, Tilly had the courage to catch it. I've always been a little afraid of these bugs because they're so aggressive and their spiky arms are a bit intimidating. This one was HUGE too!

And mean.

Did you know their pinch hurts worse than an immunization shot?

That's what Tilly tells me, and she just got 4 shots at once, so she should know. But do you think that deterred her? Not a chance. She just yelped while it pinched her and chewed a little slit in her finger, but she didn't care. I had to flick her finger to get the little monster to stop biting her since Tilly didn't seem to be too interested in self-preservation. I mean, look at it! It's biting her AND pinching her with both arms!

Do you know what they do when they feel threatened? I'll show you.

Boy did this thing have the right to feel threatened! Talea is vicious to bugs. I think she's even more ruthless than Daisha was. She plays with them until their legs are sticking out at odd angles

or their antennas and legs are falling off. Hyrum, who HATES bugs, even starts to feel sorry for them and makes Talea release them so they can limp off to their families and go collect disability in the bug world.

But Tilly ADORES bugs,

and I just don't have the heart to take them away from her, even when she's being too "loving" or careless. Bugs are pestilence, afterall. One less is fine with me. I'm just glad she's tough and doesn't run screaming when a 4-inch bug with spikes, large mandibles and an audible "back-off" noise is touching her.

9 years ago today...

2009-09-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hyrum proposed to me.

He took me up Iron Mountain on horseback around sunset to pop the question.

When we got to the top, he told me "nature was calling" (that was his "creative" way of getting privacy to get an engagement ring out of his saddlebag without me knowing), so I headed toward some rocks in a clearing to wait, but there was a skunk running around. Great, stuck between a skunk and a guy peeing.

Okay, pause the story while I go off on a different tangent. Skunks seem to be almost magnetically attracted to our family, so it has become our family mascot. I know, weird. But if you think about it...

-When I met Hyrum, he was driving semi for Dick Simon, and the logo on their trucks is a skunk.

-When he proposed to me, a skunk crossed my path just before the proposal.

-Our indoor dogs (Miniature Pinschers) got sprayed by a skunk while outside doing their business, so that night became their first night of becoming outdoor dogs. They're still outdoors, though we will have to move them indoors when we move to snowy Idaho. It took FOREVER (and tons of baths in skunk-odor-removal liquid and various other concoctions) before we could bear to be around them.

-In the spring of 2008, a skunk became trapped in the raccoon trap right outside our front door (we'd been having problems with raccoons stealing our cat food by our door), thus trapping us in our apartment until Hyrum shot it, which only caused it to leak it's acutely pungent stink all over our porch. It still faintly reeks of skunk over a year later. Yeah, there's a post about it, but I don't have the time to find it to link you to it. Sorry.

-We pet the skunks at the Wild Animal Park in Bandon.

-The area in which we live was formerly referred to as "Skunk Hollow".

-The other night Hyrum spotted a skunk out by our big house, so we all watched helplessly as it decided to take up residence under the house (it had moved the covers that were over the foundation vents). A few day later, I was cleaning the cars outside when suddenly the dreaded stink of skunk filled my nostrils. It came and went, and even Hyrum smelled it up in the apartment. In perfect jinx fashion, the vile vermin had blown a stink bomb under our house...in the middle of the day...WITH our belongings inside that we planned to yard sale and/or pack for our move. It's been airing for days, and I'm crossing my fingers that there's hope on the horizon of the fumes clearing completely.

-I guess you could say that some, if not all, of our household can give off a pretty good impression of a skunk on occasion.

So, disgusting as they smell, could there be a more appropriate mascot for our family? I mean, it has to be at least AS interesting at the badger, which would be Daisha's family mascot if I could pick one for her.

So back to our proposal story...

Hyrum was expecting a huge moon to rise that night since the moon had been impossibly enormous the night before when it rose, so when the skunk had passed, and he had sneakily retrieved the token of his commitment from the saddle bag (which he had had in his possession for a year and a half waiting for me to be ready to marry him), he joined me at the clearing. We sat and chatted and cuddled. I was thinking it was getting a little dark and we should be heading back to camp, and Hyrum thinking "WHY THE HECK ISN'T THE DANG MOON RISING?!" Finally, he gave up on the moon, and since we were both sitting on the ground, he skipped the tradition of getting down on one knee and just pulled me on his lap instead and proceeded with the proposal.

When he started professing his love and spouting off promises to me, I realized what was happening. I had suspected he was going to pop the question when we got up there, but true to my nature, I doubted that anyone, let alone him (since I had emotionally abused him for over a year), would ever actually want to commit to me forever (and ever) when it boiled down to actually saying the 4 magic words.

Honestly, I don't remember a word Hyrum said. I don't know if he said "will you marry me" or "will you be mine for eternity" or any other coined question. My mind was a confusing buzz of a second guesses and a million questions: This is forever, am I ready to commit?...Is this truly the man I know I should be with for eternity?...Am I ready to be married?...Does he love me enough to stay with me forever and not repeat his parents' history?

On and on the questions and thoughts swirled through my head. Oh, I heard the words he was speaking; I just can't remember any of them anymore. I've always been afraid of marriage because of the prevalence of divorce, and he had scared me a couple of times with concerns he had toward marriage as a result of his parents' relationship that he was raised around. I knew I was supposed to marry him; the Holy Ghost had made that clear to me. I simply remained terrified of abandonment and worried that he, or anyone for that matter, would find it difficult to remain in love with me forever. Thankfully, in my opinion, I had put Hyrum through the ringer during our year-and-a-half of dating, so I had some measure of confidence that if he could/would stick with me through all the emotional torture my on again/off again commitment gave him, he would stick with me forever.

I'm kicking myself for not writing down his promises!!! I do know he promised to love me forever and be a good husband and father, and I'm holding him to it. So far, he's been good for his word.

Obviously, I ended up saying yes to him, and it felt so right that it took my worries away. We got back on our horses (in the still-moonless night) and headed back for camp. It was too dark to see anything when we got in the trees, but luckily, the horses knew how to find camp so we let them take us home and didn't have to worry about a wrong turn.

The end...of the proposal anyway. Sadly, all my pictures to document this momentus occasion aren't digital, and I don't have a scanner (mine is broken), so this post will remain pictureless until...?

Video overload

2009-09-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

This post is strictly videos, but I wanted to post them so you could see the kids riding their bikes.

We've taken them riding 3 times now, and by now they're getting really good.

Day 1: They learned to ride on the grass of the football field.

Day 2: Tilly started out on the grass but upgraded to pavement later and learned to stop without crashing.

Day 2: Hyatt had the guts to start out on the pavement and he learned to stop also.

Day 3: They were racing, starting by themselves and coasting.

Kiersa was part of the biking action too. I wanted to show you guys how when she sees I have a camera in my hand, she immediately says, "cheese!" Listen close, she says it first thing when you press play.

In this one you get to see how she's always chewing on her tongue.

Paisli hung out in her stroller while we helped the big kids, but she remained happy. She's ALWAYS happy and smiling. You can see her two bottom teeth when she smiles, though the second one had barely popped through at the time of this video.

Irish twins

2009-09-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

I catch my little girls like this all the time.

Kiersa always crawls in Paisli's bassinet to play with her little sister, or she lays next to her on the floor or the bed.

Sometimes Paisli would prefer her poking/proding/kissing/slapping/hugging/smashing big-sister (Kiersa) would leave her alone.

Hmmm, looks like she had a similar sentiment in the hospital bassinet.

But usually, she's fine with it.

Kiersa loves to pretend she's Paisli. I caught her imitating Paisli the other day (though by the time I got it on video, I had to have her recreate it).

Sometimes I can't believe I have 4 kids!!!

iPhone to the rescue

2009-09-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

How do you change the mood of Hyrum's offspring?

Give them technology to play with!!!

Our Lady of the Dunes

2009-09-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

Just in case you're tearing it up on the dunes and feel the sudden need to light a candle, you're in luck!

Oh rats!

2009-09-08T08:10:00.000-07:00

How do you know you're going bald?

When you come away from your shower with a rat this size...EVERY DAY!

The only thing that keeps me from panic, is the knowledge that it's growing back. I look like a stinking hedgehog!

Let's go ride a bike

2009-09-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Say cheese! (Kiersa really does say "cheese" each time I point a camera at her.)

I've mentioned before how it took me over a year to teach Talea to skip (granted we weren't working on it every day), and it only took me a couple minutes to teach Hyatt. They both can skip now as though they've known since birth.

I've been trying to teach Talea to swim for years. She's always hated the water (swimming, getting her hair washed, etc). She's so fearful of water on her face! Hyatt, though, was born part fish, I think, because he's always enjoyed being in the water and never has fear. They both learned to swim, for the most part, this year, though their technique needs improvement, and I wouldn't trust them alone in a pool. They can't tread water yet. Talea is actually getting quite good because she'll swim underwater and actually get somewhere. Hyatt, when you push him down, will swim to a toy (underwater ring) and grab it before popping up. He's not as far along as Talea, though he needs no coaxing to do it, and Talea sometimes needs a courage boost.

I started trying to teach Talea to ride a bike a year ago. She had a bike with training wheels, and Hyatt had a trike. She was absolutely far too terrified to learn. She was completely dependent on her training wheels (I'm very opposed to training wheels by the way. If it was totally up to me, my kids would never have them.) After trying with no success to get her to learn last year, and allowing Hyrum to reinstall the training wheels, I only tried a couple more times on the sidewalk by our house.

We bought Talea a bigger bike that didn't come with training wheels, so I was excited for her to HAVE to learn. Yesterday, I determined she was far too old to not know how to ride a bike anymore. She turned 5 in May, and I taught my little brothers how to ride a bike before they were 3. We took her to the track again, and no surprise...she was scared.

Hyrum took round one on teaching her.

She spent her time chanting, "I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared...".

It was time for tough love. I put down the camera (thus no more pictures before dark), I took her on the football field and ran along behind, pushing her, then I shoved her off and let go, willing to let her crash every time until she was sick of crashing and decided to balance. To my, and her, astonishment, when I let go, she rode!!!! For quite a distance!

Grass=courage, but it slows the bike down and she ends up taking her feet off the pedals and crashing.

Now, Hyatt has been riding better than Talea with the training wheels (the training wheels rarely touch the ground), so I decided to put Hyatt on Talea's bike (though it's a bit big for him), to see if he could ride. (Hyatt turned 3 in April.) He ran out to the field wanting to give it a try, so I put him on Talea's bike, thinking he'd crash right away since he's never attempted riding without training wheels before, and when I shoved him off and let go, he kept going with perfect balance and expert control of the handle bars. He only finally crashed when the grass slowed him down too much. I'm sure that if I'd tried teaching Hyatt last year, he would have been riding before 3, like my little brothers.

So by the time we left, well after it was dark, Hyatt was riding like a pro on his little bike around the track and Talea was still wobbling around crashing on the track because she lacks the courage to stay up when she's off the grass. (We didn't have tools to take Hyatt's training wheels off, so we just bent them back so they weren't able to touch anymore.)

We're going tomorrow to try again! I'll get some video next time. I'll work on teaching Hyatt to start and stop by himself, and work on getting Talea to ride on the track versus the grass.

I think it's funny that Talea (who is a LOUD, outgoing leader), was never scared of being thrown around by Hyrum like a little acrobat, she's fearless of climbing really high in trees, she's not scared of any animals or bugs or getting pinched by earwigs or bit by snakes, and she's a genius with technology, like Hyrum's iPhone and the computer, yet she's scared of swimming and riding a bike, and she's too uncoordinated to catch on to simple things like skipping (or at least she was for years). I find it baffling. I would think that purposely making a wild snake bite me would be more terrifying than the possibility of getting a skinned knee. Also, she learned how to make a cork-popping noise with her finger in her mouth after only a few tries. How is it that she couldn't skip??

And even stranger...Hyatt (who is a VERY quiet, shy, follower), is terrified of most animals, bugs, loud noises, baby rollercoasters and most fair rides, and being flung around by Hyrum, yet is fearless when it comes to trying to swim and ride a bike, and he has the coordination to skip after only a few attempts at it. And he's only 3! Maybe he'll learn to read soon too, since Talea has been forever veering around that skill at every chance she gets.

Tilly and Hyatt are pretty much opposites in every way, yet they get along perfectly and are absolute best friends.

Kids, kids, kids

2009-09-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

KIERSA
Kiersa has started counting. She counts to 6 before she just repeats 6 over and over. She wants to try everything the big kids do.

She tries to sing songs and you can sometimes recognize the tune.

She refuses to be fed anything. She wants to do everything herself.

She still has an obsession with reading books, and will undoubtedly be my earliest reader.

She climbs trees now.

She is trying to skip too, but I think it'll be at least a year or 2 before she nails it.

TALEA
Talea still looks forward to getting shots. She had to get 4 shots for starting school the other day, and she was so excited for it! We took her in, only to find we had to wait 2 days. She was so bummed!

It's the band-aids she's after. She's always been obsessed with them. (She's 2 here, with baby Hyatt)

She doesn't actually like the poke, but she's bears it bravely, better than anyone I've ever seen at her age, in order to get a band-aid. I took her to the Dollar Tree afterward to pick a box of band-aids for being so good, but they only had dorky plain ones, so she got a princess ice pack instead.

I FINALLY got Talea to learn to skip a couple weeks ago. It's taken me YEARS to teach her this. Physical coordination is not her strongest talent, by any means. She's taking forever to learn to ride a bike! She took forever to learn to skip. I don't know that she'll excel at sports. We'll see.

HYATT
Hyatt just learned to skip too, just days after Talea and with minimal effort on my part. I tried about 50 different methods of teaching Talea to skip before I finally figured out what worked for her. Hyatt, I tried one. And it took all of 5 minutes of practice.

He rides without training wheels better than Talea, though he can't quite do it alone yet.

He loves to swim and will dive for rings underwater, though he doesn't quite have the swimming technique down yet.

PAISLI

Pretty much the day after we returned from Utah...

...Paisli decided she wanted to start sitting up by herself with no support. She did it fine as though she's been doing it all along. It's very cute to see her sit there and play with toys like a big girl. She hardly looks like a baby anymore!

...Paisli's eczema around her mouth cleared up. I can only imagine the dry climate of Idaho will aggravate it like Utah's did. I guess Eucerin will be our new best friend.

...Paisli decided she hates eating baby food, or any food for that matter. All of our kids detested bottled baby food and baby cereals, but they would eat certain ones. Paisli flat out refuses to eat anything but formula and . No matter how you try, she forces everything out of her mouth and gives a disgusted face. Even delectable black berries! Bottles are the only thing she'll accept, so we can only sneak cereal to her when it's mixed in her bottle. My other kids wanted to at least try table food starting around 4 months. Not Paisli.

...Paisli started holding her own bottle like a pro, full time. I never have to hold it or prop it up anymore.

Talea/Talia

2009-09-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

I'm NOT a fan of Bratz. They're too immodest and materialistic for my taste (if a doll can be such), but there's a Brat named Talia (pronounced Tuh-Leah, just like my Talea), so I got some fabric a few years ago to make something for Talea with it. Like most of my sewing projects, they get put on the back burner for more important things, like...life. When I found all my incomplete projects the other day, I decided I wanted to finish them before we moved.

I pulled out the Talia fabric and decided to teach my Talea how to sew.

She made her first pillowcase!

She pinned the fabric, sewed the seams, pinked the excess seam allowance, trimmed the threads and sewed the opening with a decorative wavy stitch.

She did so well! I barely had to help guide her hands. If I wasn't so protective of my machine (it's a Viking #1+ and it cost me $1800 with my discount when I worked at the Viking distributor...it was top-of-the-line when I bought it), I would unleash her on more projects. It will take me a while to get enough guts to let her loose on my baby.

I used to have a Walmart machine (Brother brand) that I kept when I bought my nice machine, just so my kids could learn on it, but I'm afraid I must have gotten rid of it at some point in order to not become a hoarder. Now I need it, darn it!

I know! Some day I'll get the new high-end Viking and let my kids have my current one. (Yeah, right. Like we'll have space for that while we're traveling.)

She did such a nice job!

Hy's haircut

2009-09-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

I like Hyatt's hair on the longish side. It's cute!

But it becomes problematic because it becomes too hard to style and it gets really messy.

I love it short though, too. I can put spiker in it and do fun things with it.

And no more bed head!

5 years later...

2009-09-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

5 years ago, my sister, Melanie, gave me an adorable dress that came with a flower pattern to stitch on the top. I started it 5 years ago, but never got very far before putting it aside for something.

I never finished it before Talea outgrew it.

I picked it up again when I was pregnant with Kiersa and stitched on it while I was going through the long wait of my glucose re-test.

I never finished it before Kiersa outgrew it.

Then along came Paisli. I wanted to finish it, but couldn't find it after our move to Myrtle Point! I finally stumbled upon it the other day (along with several unfinished quilts and an unfinished afghan that I started on the semi 7 years ago), and I decided I would sit down and force myself to finish it before Paisli outgrew it, since there's a good chance she'll be our last baby.

I'm pleased to announce, IT'S DONE!!!!!

Another one of my sister's gave me her dress from Melanie that she'd never gotten to stitching, but I don't have a pattern for it, and I'm afraid to start another one for fear I'll never get it done! I love them though! They're so beautiful and classic!

Bullard's beach

2009-09-05T17:30:00.000-07:00

We spent the last couple of days hanging out with our friends from our ward, the Willis', who we've never found time to hang out with before. It was fun! They have 4 kids too, and Julia is really into horses and such, so we went riding at her house and let the kids play in the kiddie pool there. Her hubby had to go to church meetings the first night, so she followed us to our campsite and we had a marshmallow roast.

The next day, we met up with her again and we all went to the beach.

Since we're moving away from the coast, we want to do all the things we never had the time to do before. We still need to go crabbing and clamming, but we went camping at Bullard's beach for a couple of days at least. I can't believe we've never been there after living here for 5 years. It's the beach in Bandon we should have taken Daisha to for her birthday...not too windy and the waves aren't too wild.

It was overcast at first, much to my delight (I hate baking in the sun on the beach)...

but then the clouds dispersed and we had to break out the hats.

The dunes were clean and beautiful (unlike the dunes at Bastendorf that double as the latrine).

Talea wanted to be buried in sand, so our friends buried her. She was a mess afterward and had to rinse off in the freezing water. (The ocean is numbingly cold here.)

Hyrum hates the sand,

yet it was his (brilliant?) idea to give the kids tootsie pops while we were there.

Then Kiersa got wet and covered in sand, and then she laid all over Hyrum with her sandy body. It serves him right for the sucker idea. After he was covered in sand, he was definitely ready to go.

Hyrum won't miss the beach.

That night, we had a hot dog and corn roast with the Willis' since her husband was able join us, and it was great fun, until Kiersa got sick out of the blue. She was crying and complaining, then suddenly she threw up just as the Willis' were leaving. Then the chills and fever set in. About an hour or less later, Paisli came down with the same symptoms! They both were feverish and crying all night long, so Hyrum and I, and the little girls, only got about 2 hours of sleep. What a night to be camping!! Thank goodness we were in a trailer so our noise didn't bother people!

My niece, Kaylynn, is getting married today in the Portland temple and then having a reception tonight in Ashland. We were supposed to attend both, but with Kiersa still running a 102-103 degree temperature and vomiting, we won't be going anywhere. Paisli pulled through it after 24 hours thank goodness! I hope it's just a shot reaction and not something we'll pass through the family.

In keeping with the wonderful luck we possess, Kiersa mysteriously blacked her eye while Hy and I were packing up to go camping (see the above picture). She started crying, but not too bad, so we didn't rush to her, and when we got to her, we couldn't tell why she was crying, until the black eye showed up later. She must have tripped or hit her eye on the railing. I don't know. It looks nasty though. It matches her torn up cheek, poor thing. She needs a snuggle from her Aunt Maren, I think. Every time we pull up pictures on the computer, she spots her Aunt Maren, gets excited and giggles and says, "Meh meh!" as she points at the picture. She doesn't giggle when she sees her family, just Aunt Maren. I'm a little jealous!

Reaping the harvest

2009-09-05T15:26:00.000-07:00

My garden did okay this year. We didn't have tons of corn, but what we did get, was good. I planted pole beans with the corn and that was a huge mistake. It took over the corn and made the corn crop smaller. We've been picking, blanching, and freezing tons of beans, eating lots of corn, and making tons of zucchini bread. My tomatoes were the most pathetic thing I've ever seen, but I only plant them for the smell of the plants since only Hyrum likes tomatoes.

Garden-food dinners are the best: corn, beans, brussel sprouts and squash!

I have to say, I think the zucchini bread was my favorite result of our garden...AND, the added bonus was that I didn't have to make any. Hyrum made it all! You can see the kids love it too.

Oi, in action

2009-09-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

I forgot to upload this video of Hyatt. I got him to say his "oi" words for the camera a few months ago.

VIII-OOOO-LIIIIN!!!

2009-09-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

I mentioned a while ago how Hyatt would sing his "violin" song while using his sword as a guitar of sorts.

I know most everyone was scratching their heads, going "wha???" Here he is in action, back in March.

And yes, he did find it necessary to twist the sword in his shirt. Don't ask me why...

Idaho here we come!

2009-09-04T22:08:00.000-07:00

We're moving to Idaho!!! I'm not sure when yet, but Hyrum was officially accepted to Brigham Young University-Idaho today, so we'll be moving to Rexburg, Idaho soon. We're super excited!!!

Hyrum has already been accepted to do courses through them online for the fall, so he's registered for 10 credits. That'll lighten his load a little during nursing school.

I went to BYU-I back when it was Ricks, and I LOVED it!! Rexburg has changed a lot since 1994-1996 though. They even have a temple now! I know we're in for horribly snowy, windy, freezing, long winters, but we'll be close to Yellowstone and the Tetons, so we're excited. And, we'll be close to Hyrum's family! We haven't lived closer than 12 hours to them in 6 years. We'll be just minutes away from Hyrum's Smith parents too, so we'll see them a lot I'm sure. Our kids will finally know their Grandma Sheri and Grandpa Mike!

I'll be 15 hours from my family though, so we're not done with our long-haul trips across the bareness of Eastern Oregon yet.

Idaho is dry and dusty, but they have amazing chocolate milk (with potato flakes in it) at a dairy in Idaho Falls. We can't wait! We loved stopping there while we drove semi.

We're more than ready for a whole new change.

A new house.

A new city.

A new state.

A new job.

A new lifestyle of being poor college kids again. Thank goodness I already have my bachelor's degree so we're not both struggling through homework and kids at the same time. Phew!!

We may even get to go country dancing on Wednesday nights, if we can find a family to swap babysitting with.

I'm NOT looking forward to sales tax again.

I'm NOT looking forward to pumping my own gas again. Especially when I saw several people on TV tonight get engulfed in flames while pumping their own gas simply because their hand created an electrical charge when they touched the nozzle. Did I mention Rexburg is dry and staticy? Yeah, I'm not excited about that.

Congratulations on being accepted, my Love! I never doubted you'd get in, but it's nice to have it official. I know you'll ace your classes!

School time already?

2009-09-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

Talea is going to start kindergarten this year! I can't believe it! I have a school-aged child already??

I'm enrolling her in Connections Academy, which is an online public school. There's a waiting list for Oregon, but she'll probably get in soon. I've talked to a lot of moms lately who had their kids in traditional school, but then put their kids in this school, and they found it far more effective than traditional school, so I'm giving it a try.

I don't have anything against traditional school. It's great for the majority of people. It's just that for me, I decided long ago that I would homeschool my kids if I ever had any (after being a teacher in traditional schools and seeing what a joke their budgets are and the way kids slip through the cracks all the time). I've never envisioned myself putting my kids in school where we're all strapped to the school's schedule. Hy and I are spur-of-the-moment people and like to pick up and vacation when we have the chance, and we have gypsy blood after driving semi, so we want to do travel nursing, which will make it necessary to homeschool our kids.

I've seen A LOT of my friends and relatives pull their kids out of school and start homeschooling them in the past couple of years, with great success. I'm excited to try it now in our family. Hopefully it goes well! If we don't love it, I'll simply enroll her in traditional school. Since Talea's schooling is mostly done online, I think she'll do great because she loves technology.

I'll keep you posted.

A spot of trouble

2009-09-04T21:43:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned before how each pregnancy leaves me with a scar or some strange lingering ailment. Paisli's pregnancy was no exception. While pregnant with her, a strange, peeling spot showed up on my forehead. It looks like an old zit that's trying to dry up, but it just never goes away. I've had it since mid 2008. (Click the picture to see it.)

It finally went away a couple of weeks ago! I was thrilled! I couldn't believe it when I'd brush my hand across my forehead and not feel the bump. What a great feeling!

My excitement was short-lived. The dang thing is back again. (Stinking thing anyway.)

When we move...

2009-08-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

I'll miss the ocean!

I'll miss the waves.

I'll miss the fog rolling in from the sea.

I'll miss the ocean birds and the seals.

I'll miss the sand.

I'll miss silhouetted sunset pictures.

I'll miss bonfires on the beach...roasting hot dogs and corn on the coals.

I'll miss the look on visitors' faces when they take in the scenic beauty of the Oregon coastline.

I'll miss the tide pools.

I'll miss the impossibly clear rivers.

I'll miss the lighthouses.

The kids will miss it too. Hyrum thinks going to the beach is too messy, so I don't know that he'll miss it much, but the kids and I will. I took them there the other day while Hyrum was in a meeting and we just fed the seagulls, played in the sand, and smelled the sea air for one of our last times in who knows how long.

I'll also miss places like Crater Lake,

and the Medford Temple,

but they won't be as far away.

Moving will be incredibly bittersweet.

Twang

2009-08-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

When I met Hyrum, he had a twang.

A verbal twang.

It's an accent, of sorts (yet I'M the one who gets asked about MY accent, dang it!). Its from a conglomeration of areas since he moved around so much as a child. The strongest influences (as far as I can recognize) seem to be from Wyoming and Texas.

He's slowly losing his twang.

It's sad.

Though with the loss, he sounds a bit more...educated, or...articulate... or, less redneck...

I didn't really realize he was losing it (since I'm around him all the time), until I heard his voice on video from back in the late 90's, and I was shocked how...redneck or twangy it sounded.

Lest he loses it forever, I'm documenting some of the words he says "twangy". These are the only ones I can remember right now.

Cran................... crayon
Powl.................... pal
Hill...................... heel
Heel.................... hill
Pill...................... peel
Peel.................... pill

You won't catch him admitting to his twang, so you just have to keep your ear open for it.

I like his twang. It's endearing. It's part of what drew me to him, since it made him sound like a cowboy and I always had a thing for cowboys.

He's turned out to be an excellent husband and father. I always knew he would be.

He's my best friend, twang and all.

First tooth!?

2009-08-27T22:40:00.000-07:00

Paisli cut her first tooth!! It's her bottom, middle, left...I don't know dentist lingo.

I'm shocked! She's only 6 months! Tilly and Hyatt were 10 months when they cut their first ones. Kiersa was 9 months. What in the world happened here!?

Now I have to start brushing her tooth! Bummer.

Buckle Up!

2009-08-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking I could open up my own car seat store!

We, by law, are required to have our kids in these car seats! 4 seats! These are the seats I had to take out of my van to wash after our trip, and reinstall afterward. What a pain. If you haven't disassembled a car seat lately in order to wash all of its various straps, covers, buckles and frame, you are one of the luckiest people on this planet. It's a horrific chore. Especially with 4 of them!

I have discovered that out of the Cluff's and Johnson's, and probably all of my friends that I know, I'm the most strict car seat/seat belt user of them all. I've rubbed off on my kids, and if you get in my car and don't immediately buckle your seat belt, my kids will be all over you, saying, "Put your seat belt on!!!" My dad got it frequently.

Thievery

2009-08-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

Normally if my kids want to take something from Kiersa, they just grab it, which results in a tug-of-war and/or screaming.

Kiersa has wised up to them and usually ends up spinning in a circle with her toy-bearing arm guarded as the other child chases that arm in an attempt to snatch the toy.

Not to be outsmarted, Tilly has discovered the power of distraction. Tonight, when Tilly wanted the toy Kiersa had, rather than battling her growing sister, Tilly exclaimed, "Kiersa, LOOK! A zebra!!" What child could resist a glimpse of a zebra trotting through their own living room? Of course Kiersa looked, and Tilly got the toy.

I wonder how long it will take for Kiersa to wise up to that gimmick.

Utah or bust!

2009-08-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

We went to Utah.

Tilly brought along the alligator lizard she caught, and a garter snake and two large grasshoppers. Oh, a spider, too. She later accidentally snapped the lizard's tail off when he was escaping into the car's DVD player, to which her comment was, "Eeww, his tail is still wiggling." The lizard proceeded to get lost in the car, and has never been recovered. She caught a second garter snake in Utah, but she released the snakes and grasshoppers and spider outside.

On our way, we of course stopped for our traditional rolling of rocks off the Cliffs of Insanity in Eastern Oregon.

I guess we should have seen the signs of impending jinxes when we got to the salt flats and the wind took the visibility from bad

to worse. SCARY worse!

After the salt storms, came the smoke storm from fires by the freeway.

We went for a Johnson reunion of sorts, and to get our van door fixed, BUT...

We caught the stomach flu that the Johnson clan had just gotten over the week before.

I was the only one in our little family who didn't lose the contents of their stomach (you can thank my cast iron Cluff stomach for that...and the suspicious Babcock food I was raised on that made me immune to any stomach-churning toxins). Instead I suffered from severe sleep deprivation since any move or peep from the kids in the night jolted me awake and sent me running in case there would be vomit.

We stayed in Gram and Gramps immaculate basement...the LAST place in the world you would want to be spreading sickness and vomit.

Could the Jinx get any worse? Of course!

Talea gave Hyrum a rude awakening in the night after crawling into bed with us by throwing up all over him and Kiersa.

The van ended up costing A LOT more than anticipated to get fixed.

We caught a cold, WHILE suffering from the stomach flu.

We went out to dinner at a rib joint with some of the family, and Kiersa choked on her french fry and threw up all over, twice.

Yet, amidst the vomit, diarrhea, runny noses, head aches, coughing and borrowing cars while ours was getting fixed, we managed to have A LOT of fun. It was our most enjoyable visit yet! Probably because it wasn't a rushed trip with a deadline to get home. We didn't want to leave!!! It even made us want to move out to Utah to be closer to family! And for a visit to make us want to move to the desert of Utah after being in the green paradise of the Oregon coast, it must have been great.

We visited Hyrum's dad's grave.

We had lots of get-togethers!
We got to hang out with Tana and her family a lot too!!!
Here is Hyrum holding (from left to right) Marlee (David's girl), Omar (Tana's boy) and Paisli (ours of course). Omar is 2 1/2 weeks younger than Paisli, and Marlee is 5 weeks younger.

Marlee and Paisli are pretty much opposites. Dark features/light features. Hairy/bald. Innie/outie. Strictly breast-fed/mostly bottle-fed. Skinny/chubby (do they take after their daddies?...nahh).

We had a family picnic and pictures (though we were still reeling from the stomach flu).

The kids were introduced to Duck-duck-goose, Red-Rover and Fag-Tag (who made up THAT name?).

The babies (Marlee, Rocky and Paisli) got a chance to play together. Rocky is Teresa's son who is 6 weeks younger than Paisli.

Teresa was a stellar Aunt to my kids, as always.

Tilly was in absolute heaven with so many cousins to play with, and is now wishing we lived in Utah so she could play with them.

Hyatt was just there for the food.

And Kiersa was just there to be cute and love on her Aunt Maren. I'm not kidding, Kiersa was obsessed with Maren! She would call for her all the time and only wanted to be with her, not me.

We took some spur-of-the-moment sibling pictures, even though Rachel wasn't there. At least we had 6 together at once! Getting a serious picture out of this family is next to impossible! Between the barbeque smoke and the fanny-pinching, it was rough getting a decent picture. Such a fun family!

Here are all the sisters with their mom, minus Rachel (Teresa, Maren, Nana, Susan and Elisabeth).

There's even a squeeze from Teresa for Rachel!

The two boys of the family, Hyrum and David...10 years apart in age. If the baby of the family is always the spoiled one, what is the #3 child?

The favorite!!!

Even with the age gap, they have similar interests...uhhh, spitting sunflower seeds.

Tana's boy, Omar, and Paisli got to hang out, which is cool since poor Kiersa has never met her Smith cousins who are only about 6 weeks older than her.

Paisli is constantly scowling,

while Omar constantly looks surprised,

so it's only fitting that they were both doing their famous faces with each other.

Rocky joined the tummy-time,

and so did Marlee (though she was asleep).

Hyrum with his Johnson and Smith siblings that had babies within 6 weeks of Paisli.
David & Marlee, Tana & Omar, Hyrum & Paisli and Teresa & Rocky.

They're imitating what their baby is doing...sleeping, looking up, crying and sneezing.

We also went to Thanksgiving Point while there for the first time ever. We went to the dinosaur museum since they were having cheap admission that day. Too bad that EVERYONE else in Utah county was there too to make it choked with people.

Hyrum was frustrated with the crowds and pretty much bored stiff...until he remembered he could entertain himself by offering our kids as sacrifices to the displays.

Next we went to the Monte Bean museum (Dakota's favorite in his early childhood) and Tilly was in heaven with all the animals and bugs.

She got picked to imitate a turtle and was lucky enough to wear a real turtle shell while the guide pretended to be a grizzly attacking her.

We played at Raging Waters since Rain got us in with a great discount. The jinx struck when I got whiplash on one of the rides. What's up with that?

There was a big-rig truck show at Thanksgiving Point, so we went to that, but it was rather disappointing.

The coolest thing was the quad pulling a train of cow-cars. Tilly and Hyatt LOVED it! They sat in the first two seats.

The tree climbing was a hit too, and Kiersa's old enough to want to join in.

They also thought it was pretty cool to look around inside the semis.

Poor Paisli is always in a stroller or car seat in pictures since she's such a tub-o-lard. She gets so heavy so fast!

We swam at Nana's several times, and before we left, we had another family get-together at her house where we barbecued and went to the park.

Awww, Tilly and Braxton holding hands.

When we'd been there for almost 2 weeks, it was finally time to head home. We didn't want to go, but our van was fixed and we had looked into schools and housing, just in case. We didn't want to leave Utah this time! I know. Crazy.

We took the Boise route home and stayed with Hyrum's cousin, Josh. Hyatt threw up in the night! Of all the rotten luck!! So not only did we give Gram a laundry nightmare while we were at her house, we left infected laundry at the Smart's! Turns out, their kids got sick from us a few days later and a much anticipated backpacking trip was canceled because of it. Dang the jinx! So so sorry guys!

In Burns, Oregon, we stopped at a gas station that even Edward would be proud of.

We went to Bend to look into a school there, and found a sweet lava flow not far from there. I'm telling you, the west is nothing but scenic routes and cool locations!

There was a super-cool lava castle there with neat peep holes that pinpointed and named the various volcanoes and mountains around. How have I never been here before?

Of course there was a car-fire in the road on our way home that had emergency crews blocking the road for hours, so we turned around and found a park in the woods in a tiny town and let the kids play until it was cleared up.

Though the jinx threw it's punches left and right, we still managed to have such a great time. We even got to visit with Darin for the first time since he married Teresa!! Yeah! We miss all our Johnson and Smith family out there and hope to move closer in the future.

Changes

2009-08-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

We've had some changes in our house. When our business shut down, my dad moved back home to Ashland. We miss him a lot. Kiersa is bewildered as to what happened to her "Bump-ah". She doesn't have anyone to race down the stairs now. It was great having my dad around because he made us his famous biscuits-and-gravy, his delicious homemade salsa and he read my kids Brer Rabbit stories, which is priceless. We grew up on my dad reading us those.

Know you are loved, Dad.

In the 17 1/2 months that we've been living in this apartment, we've had it arranged in a lot of ways.

First, our bed was in the living room, and the kids' bed and the crib were in the one bedroom. Then after I got walked in on by a friendly relative while I was in my skivies nursing Kiersa, we decided to move our bed into the bedroom and put the kids in the living room, and it's been that way since. The crib has moved from the bedroom to the living room and back many times, and a bassinet was moved into the bedroom when Paisli arrived 5 1/2 months ago. When my dad moved in, we moved a second twin bed into the living room and the babies went back into our room. Now that we're down to 6 people again, we took one twin bed out, brought in a recliner and a dresser/bookcase (our $4 garage sale steal) and moved the crib back into the living room.

We also moved the computer armoire into the bedroom so that when Hyrum starts school he can shut himself in the bedroom to work on the computer while the rest of us banish ourselves to the living room/kid's bedroom.

Oh yeah, we moved a couple of our big dining room chairs into storage and brought up a couple of smaller stools instead for the bigger kids. The house actually feels quite large now!