Cook Zoo

Ahoy Mateys!

2011-11-06T09:05:00.004-07:00

We had so much fun dressing up for Halloween this year. Not to mention visiting the giant pirate ship Kevin's neighbor built in his front yard.

A Few Random Things

2011-11-06T08:58:00.002-07:00

Parrots hanging out in our front yard:

John receiving two rank advancements in scouts. He's now working on his Star rank. Thank goodness for excellent scout leaders who've helped him get this done!

John had some tooth work done and came home with a pretty swollen cheek. He had some fun with this. Video will be forthcoming.

John's Aaronic Priesthood Ordination

2011-11-06T08:42:00.005-07:00

The day after Brian's funeral, John was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. What was nice about that was all the family was still in town, so that Bishop's office was packed full of family surrounding John for that special moment. It was so nice to have all his uncles there to stand in the circle and set a good example for him.

We took some family pictures afterwards:

I love Christopher's goofy faces.

How the Boys are Doing

2011-11-06T08:00:00.006-07:00

Well, it's been over two months since Brian passed away. Things are still fresh for the sons he left behind, although things are improving. The last couple of weeks have felt a little better and I'm seeing more normal days for the kids. For quite awhile there, just about every day was a struggle. School is still challenging for my boys some days. It can feel like too much for them at times. But we perservere and do the best we can. I'm proud of the way they're handling things. It's hard to watch them hurt so much though.

The boys are in counseling now. I've looked into grief groups for kids and there's a great one here in the Valley, but because of the way they do orientations we won't be able to take advantage of it before we move. I'll find them something in Boise.

Shortly after Brian passed away, a friend gave us a copy of the book Tear Soup.

It's a magnificent illustrated children's book about the grieving process, which my boys have read again and again. I highly recommend it for grieving children of any age. If you want to see the review I wrote about this book for Summit Series for Families, go here. I share a personal experience we've had with this book on my America Jane site. You can read about the boys' favorite part of Tear Soup here.

I also purchased three Angelcatcher books, which are journals/memory books for the kids to make to help remember their dad.

It has pages for filling in memories, the lost loved one's favorite things, wishes, feelings, etc. I wasn't sure if the kids would like that or not, but they do and John says it helps.

Because there's not a lot of room for photos in the Angelcatcher book, I also bought them little photo albums for pictures of their dad. We just barely got those and haven't yet begun the process of sorting through photos. If anyone has pictures of Brian and/or Brian and the boys they want to share, please let me know.

The change in my children's lives and the magnitude of their loss will manifest itself at random times and in sometimes unexpected ways. When we were making haunted cookie houses for Halloween, John made this:

It says: "RIP for Dad"

Little acts like this seem to help the boys. They do what they can to remember him.

On November 1, John learned about the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) in school. This is when you make a little memorial for the person who died, with their favorite foods and flowers. Then there's traditional elements like salt and candles. It's meant to be a celebration, and not a sad thing.

John decided he wanted to do this for his dad and he was really excited about it. So we scraped our plans for the evening (including homework) and went to the store to gather all Brian's favorite items. We cleared off the top of the entertainment center and assembled a feast. We had dinner in celebration of Brian: brauts, hot dogs, chips, shrimp. Mmmm.

So, that's where we are. The holidays are coming and we talk together about how to make them easier. John actually came up with a great idea for Halloween. For the first time we decorated the car for Trunk or Treat. The kids had a great time with that. Actually, that entire weekend was a lot of fun, although trick or treating was hard for John because he was missing his dad. But overall it was a good holiday, in large part because of John's idea. We'll see what we can come up with for future holidays.

It's hard to know what to do for my boys sometimes. When Brian and I divorced, I felt like I knew what to do to guide my kids through that trial, because I'd been through it myself as a child. I knew how they felt. I could relate.

This is different. I really have no idea what they're going through, other than what I'm reading or have been told. I don't know how it feels for them. That makes it difficult for me as a mother. But I trust that the Lord is mindful of them, and me, and that we'll get through this day by day, week by week, year by year.

It takes a very long time to heal from something like this, but I have hope that they will. For all of you who have given so much love and support to the boys (and myself) over the past two months, thank you so much.

Funeral Services for Brian Scott Cook

2011-08-24T12:02:00.005-07:00

Most of you are probably aware that Brian passed away unexpectedly Saturday evening. His family, his children, myself, and his friends are all grieving this loss. It's been difficult, but we all feel the love and support of family, friends, and the Lord. The boys are doing well, considering. It will be a hard adjustment for them which will take time, but I have confidence in them and know they will be okay.

I wanted to share funeral details for anyone who doesn't already have them.

Viewing and Funeral Services for Brian Scott Cook

Viewing will be
Friday, August 26
6-8 pm
Bunker's Garden Chapel
33 N. Centennial Way
Mesa, AZ 85201

Viewing again on
Saturday, August 27
9-10 am
Held at the LDS Chapel on Southern, west of Stapley
940 E. Southern Ave
Mesa, AZ 85207

Funeral Services
Saturday, August 27
10-11 am

Graveside Service
Immediately following the funeral
Mesa Cemetery
1212 N. Center St.
Mesa, AZ 85201
Open to all

Luncheon immediately following
Back at the chapel
Open to all.

Small and Pointless Post

2011-04-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

Otherwise entitled, "Ramblings on My New Favorite Hobby."

Kevin and I at the Arizona Museum for Natural History. This was the location of the Saturday dance for last weekend's Singles Conference. The dance was held on the rooftop terrace. Very pretty, but the concrete pavers weren't the best for dancing. We took advantage of the marble foyer when the event was over. No music required.

A few facts you just can't live without:

My favorite song for salsa dancing: "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira

My favorite song for Nightclub Two Step: "Halo" by Beyonce

Favorite song for dancing while Kevin sings to me: "Remember When" by Alex Jackson

A song that is much improved by dancing: "Jitterbug" by Wham. An okay song that is great fun while doing the East Coast Swing.

Favorite venue for dancing: The Paragon. Or the Saturday Night Single's Dances. Or really anywhere Kevin's willing to dance with me, if I'm going to be honest.

Best location for impromptu dancing: The Cheesecake Factory. The marble in their foyer is amazing.

Worst surface to dance on: concrete. As in the concrete floor of the warehouse, location of the Friday dance for the conference. Oh it was bad. Kevin was such a good sport to stay with me.

Number of times I've posted about dancing on my facebook page: way too many. Seriously. I need to shut up about it now.

Maybe this small and pointless post will get it out of my system. I kinda doubt it, but you never know. Thanks for listening. :)

Happy April

2011-04-19T19:10:00.007-07:00

Ah, such generic posts these days. All these catch up posts. It makes me long for the days when I wrote an entire post about something small and pointless. Hmmm. Maybe I'll do that next.

Come to think of it, I haven't been taking enough pictures for this to be much of a catch up post. Unless you call this riveting news:

This is the result of Christopher having such a fit over taking a shower (he didn't want to, in case you were wondering). He cried until he fell asleep. When I discovered him, Ben peeked his head around the corner and said, "Aw. How cute." LOL.

And here are some nice, dark pictures from a recent pack meeting:

See? Aren't you glad you came here today?

I'm actually pretty fond of the next pictures:

Kevin and I hiking the Wind Caves at Usery Park.

My shirt is not wet from sweat. Kevin kept pouring water on me to keep me cool. Worked too. I was actually concerned about this hike. This was the first grown up hike I've done in a very long time and I wasn't sure how I'd do. Turns out I did just fine. I think the dancing is improving my endurance. Makes me feel brave about trying more difficult hikes.

This is the YUMMY dinner Kevin made for us after the hike. Sooooo good.

I say things like "yummy" whilst Kevin would be talking about the balsamic vinegar reduction and topping things off with a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan. It is quite delicious listening to him talk about food.

Which is why I'll never give him the address to this blog. I don't think he'd be impressed with my french bread recipe. LOL. Or my little ramblings about art, because he's a trained artist and actually knows what he's talking about. I do, however, think he would appreciate some of my more humorous posts. He's a riot to talk to.

Now, for those of you who may be wondering, the answer to your questions are... No, I'm not going to marry Kevin. Yes, we've dated. Yes, we are very good friends. Yes, I've dated/am dating other people. No, I'm not going to talk about that. I'm only talking about Kevin because I feel a little obligated to at least clarify since there are pictures involved and there's no point starting rumors. I have no guilt keeping the rest of it secret. LOL.

Other news. The manuscript. Currently in limbo. My "I'm a great big chicken" gene is kicking in, but I'm working on it. I'm also working on figuring out exactly what I want to write next. Truth is, I'm no longer sure. I've changed a lot over the past year and that's coming through in my writing. I'm giving myself time to explore the possibilities before I commit to the next novel.

The boys. They're doing well. They're taking karate instead of spring sports and I can't even begin to tell you how awesome that worked out for me. No weekly practices twice a week at 3 different locations. No Saturdays overrun with games. I just pick them up from school an hour later every Monday. Now tell me that doesn't rock the house.

That's all for now folks. Perhaps I'll write a small and pointless post just to amuse myself. Just like the good ol' days. :)

A Great Start to the New Year

2011-02-13T15:08:00.004-07:00

First of all, Travis came home from his mission in early January.

He's the last of my brothers-in-law to come home. The next missionary out will be my own John. Egads. I can't tell you how extremely grateful I was that Brian's family (and Brian) let me be a part of his return. Travis is such a sweetheart. I really love that kid. I mean man. Whatever. It's been good to have him home.

And here we have Boot Boy:

Christopher is making up for his status as the last child by being the first to get stitches and now, a broken bone. Well, a fracture. In any event, we lived with this fine specimen of high fashion for four weeks. Christopher has had one day without it and is slowly getting his strength back. Getting him to put weight on it was a bit of a struggle. We saw a lot of hopping and crawling there for awhile. Now he's limping but at least both feet are on the ground. Oh, I neglected to mention how it happened. He jumped off the top bunk over at his dad's place. A week later I caught him almost doing it again at his cousin's house.

Are you kidding me?

These next two pictures are here for my own entertainment. After giving a Christopher a shower and realizing we forgot a change of clothes, I left him in the bathroom while I fetched said apparel. This is what I came back to:

He was chewing gum and blew a bubble which popped all over his freshly-washed face. He even had gum in his eyelashes. He thought it was hilarious.

These are pics from our trip to Rawhide yesterday. Thanks to the 40th Anniversary celebration, we were able to enjoy all the attractions for free. (Yeehaw for free!) The lines were a bit long though, so after poking around, riding the train and watching a fabulous gun fight, the boys decided they'd had enough Western adventuring and we went home.

On a more personal note, I continue to receive plenty of encouragement and support from those around me, sometimes from the most unexpected sources. I have been greatly blessed by the Lord and am extremely grateful for it. I'm doing well and am feeling healed and adjusted. I've entered the dating scene and am really enjoying it. I'm tempted to go into more details about that, but I won't. ;) A blog just isn't the place.

I WILL say that I've discovered (or maybe rediscovered) a passion for dancing. I'm talking the real dancing. Salsa, waltz, nightclub two step, merengue, stuff like that. I didn't even know those dances but I'm learning and I can follow a strong lead just fine. Who knew so many men my age knew how to dance like that? That's a new requirement for Future Mr. Whomever, BTW. ;)

Along the lines of discovering or rediscovering things, I feel like I'm rediscovering my old self. There were parts of myself which I had allowed to be buried by my circumstances over the past many years, or which I buried all on my own. Turns out I'm a lot more relaxed, fun-loving and confident than I once thought. I'm having fun discovering new interests (I did mention the dancing, didn't I?) and I'm putting together a whole new way of living my life, which is exciting. There are many things I've longed to do over the years (like hike) which I'm finally getting to. I have a bit of lost time to make up for, but I'm having a blast doing it.

Another thing I'll say, which sort of relates to the dating arena, is this: it's fun to flirt. If you married ladies aren't flirting with your husbands, you should be. ;) LOL

Also, I started working on a new novel last Fall. A series of events caused me to set that aside and pick up the novel I sent out a few years ago, Gift of the Phoenix. I've spent quite a bit of time revising the manuscript and am currently preparing to send it out again. The list of agents I'm considering is short. I'm also sending to the only fantasy publisher who welcomes direct submissions from authors: TOR.

If you love me at all, you will pray for my book.

Because let me tell you, I've yet to find a career path that will provide for my family AND allow me the flexibility to actually be a mother to my children AND which does not first require 2-5 years of full-time schooling AND which will be something I actually want to do.

Unless you consider becoming a successfully published writer as an option.

Which I do.

So please pray for me.

Once I send the manuscript out, I'll return to the new book I started in the Fall. As part of my preparation for that book, I'm planning a research trip to Sedona. My good friend Tammy has agreed to be my chaperone. Should be fun!

As for the America Jane site, I've had no time for it lately. Which is sad. Maybe if I were willing to sacrifice some of my dancing time (which I'm not) or my writing time (which I'm definitely not) I could get something done on it. Oh well. I can't do it all now can I? ;)

Until next time!

Final Post of the Year

2010-12-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've recently switched from my old desktop (now residing in my closet) to my laptop. I forgot to switch over some pictures so it looks like some events will go blogless. I'm sure we'll all survive. ;)

Here are the pictures I have.

John is out of cub scouts and into boy scouts. This was his first Court of Honor:

I absolutely love John's scout leader. He does such a good job teaching those boys real scout skills and running the program the way it's supposed to be run. John has always been an enthusiastic and diligent scout and he's carrying that through to boy scouts. He's earned his Scout rank and is two requirements away from Tenderfoot. He went on his first Camporee in December and had a blast. And mom managed to not freak out too much about him being away from home. It helped me to know he was in good hands.

The next pictures were taken at my work. The company just renewed a 10-year lease at this location. Part of the deal was getting some renovations done. New carpeting, new tile, new paint, new wallpaper, new countertops and splitting the phone room into two so we could have a second multi-purpose room.

When did all this lovely work occur? On evenings and weekends? Oh no. During working hours. It was interesting to say the least. Most of the work was done in stages and the contractor was good about doing his best to work around rooms we needed due to studies going on or clients in town or whatever. For the most part, it wasn't as bad as I'd feared.

Then, the perfect storm.

The absolute worse day of renovations, in terms of chaos and disarray, was the day before we had a full house, in terms of studies and clients. This was carpeting day. It was NOT FUN.

Here's one of the two client lounges at 2:00 pm, which had to be ready to receive clients by mid-morning the next day:

Here's the other one:

Yes, that's a chair upside down. Don't ask me how these kinds of things happened. I'd rather not know.

This is the multi-purpose room, which also needed to be cleared out and set up by the next day.

This is the view from my office. See our desks in the hallway? Isn't that a lovely location for them? Beyond the hallway is the lobby. It also needed to be put together before clients arrived.

This is my office, in the process of being disassembled so the carpet layers could get to it. I hadn't yet moved out my computer.

Literally every room in our entire suite looked like this. Every hallway. Every kitchen (there are two, one of which we needed for clients the next day). Every everything. When I had to empty out my desk and clear out my shelves, it was hard to know where to put stuff. I found a blank spot of floor in the multi-purpose room.

In the middle of all this, with all three offices torn apart and dysfunctional, we were supposed to get ready for clients. You know, the normal work that has to be done prior to a study. Without working computers, that pretty much came to a halt.

By the time the movers started hauling out my desk it was time for me to go and I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

And here we get to delight in the joys of being an hourly worker who gets to walk out of the middle of all this. The two managers stayed late and arrived early the next day to put things back together, direct the moving crews and cleaning crews, etc. By the time I walked in the building the next morning, the place looked beautiful.

It was amazing.

In other December news, the boys had their Winter Sing at school.

Goof balls.

And Christmas. This year I hosted Christmas Eve at my house, which I haven't done in a long time. It was so much fun. Instead of my original centerpiece, I used the gingerbread houses we made.

The boys had a good Christmas, in terms of handling the changes this year. Ben struggled off and on in the week leading up to Christmas, but the actual holidays were really great. They got to spend time with me and Brian both, along with their two extended families, and they had a great time. I had a great time too. :)

So, that's the end of this year. It's been quite the year too. While it hasn't exactly been easy, in all honesty it has been much, much easier than last one was. The Lord has really been with me and my children through this whole thing and we have been greatly blessed. I know I've healed much quicker than I would have otherwise and I'm so grateful for that. I've been feeling really great for awhile now and I'm looking forward to a new year. We'll see what this one brings. :)

December Girls' Trip

2010-12-30T12:17:00.000-07:00

Another fabulous, fabulous Girl's Weekend Away. This was one of my favorite trips. This time we stayed with Lynn in Cali and we had a blast. Steph and Lynn put together Picasa albums with everyone's pictures (read: TONS of pictures) so I'll just control myself and share a few of my favorites here.

I can't wait until the next one!

Happy October!

2010-10-04T15:52:00.007-07:00

Here's the latest in the Cook household...

Last month John received his Arrow of Light award. It was very exciting!

I really would like a different camera. Pictures on this camera come out so dark sometimes!

It was cute to see him cross the bridge. He had to salute his boy scout leader, salute the flag and step off and do the scout handshake with his leader. He was so serious about it. It was like watching a military man. Too cute.

I love that our ward gives the boys these arrow plaques in honor of their acheivement. John really did work hard for this award and I'm proud of him for it. We hung it above his bed.

Speaking of John's bed, I'm working on plans to get this kid his own room. I have all three boys in one bedroom. When they were small this was... okay. Now that they're getting bigger, it's starting to get impossible. John is getting to that age where he needs some quiet place to retreat to, and his brothers don't always cooperate on that front.

I've been using the other bedroom as an office. The office is stuffed full of furniture: a huge desk, a small desk for the kids, three bookcases, my great-grandmother's small upright piano and my other great-grandmother's cedar chest.

It took a little creative thinking to figure out how to get John his own room, but this is what I came up with.

I figured out if I got a small desk to put where the fish tank used to be (in the living room), then switch to a laptop so I can get rid of the huge desk and my ancient, semi-functional desktop computer, we'd make room for a bed for John. My mother kindly agreed to store the piano and chest at her house. I'm combining my books onto the one tall bookcase, leaving one in the room for John to use, and moving the third into what will be Ben and Chris' room for them to use. John has agreed to share some of the space in his room. The tall bookcase with my books will stay in John's room cuz there's really no where else for that to go. I'll put a small filing cabinet on the floor of his closet as well. Other than that, he'll be all set.

Because this plan requires funding, John agreed to having his own room be his Christmas gift this year. This took zero persuasion on my part. John is VERY excited about getting his own room.

So, stage one began last weekend.

I bought an inexpensive but (I think) pretty writing desk from WalMart, which I picked up after Brian got the kids on Friday. I didn't say anything to the kids about this, wanting to surprise them. I figured I'd put the desk together Friday night since we had conference all weekend (loved it!) and I had plans Saturday night.

Here's the before picture:

Here's after:

Let me be more specific. This is 37 parts, 93 screws, 52 nails and 6 hours later. You wouldn't think a desk like this could possibly have 37 parts, but it did.

My hands were pretty sore from tightening all those screws but still, I did it all by myself and it felt GREAT!

When the boys got home Sunday night they were so excited. Totally worth all the effort.

Other updates:

Christopher had his follow-up appointment with a new cardiologist who I really love. He's doing just fine, no more episodes. The plan is to keep him on the medication until he's a teenager and then do that relatively minor procedure to correct the problem. There's really no way to know for sure if he's outgrown it other than to take him off the medication and wait and see. I've never felt comfortable with that plan and this new doctor thinks it's risky too. The idea of his heart stopping one day just does not give me joy. Call me weird. Anyway, Brian and I both feel good about this new plan, so barring any new developments that's what it will be.

For those of you who are interested, I wrote a semi-personal post for the America Jane blog stating my intentions for the future of that blog. I really had to think about where that blog fits into the life of a single mother.

In general, we're doing fine over here. It's been six months since Brian and I separated and 2 1/2 since the divorce was final. Brian and I are very amicable and working well together to raise our children, for which I am grateful. They say it takes at least a year to recover from a divorce and I believe it. But the six month mark felt like a good milestone for me. While there's still healing and adjusting to do, I think the worst is behind me. John as well. Ben and Chris, being younger, are experiencing things differently. I think the reality of it all finally hit them last month. But all three of the kids are doing a good job talking about their feelings, which really helps. I'm proud of them.

Again, I just have to express my gratitude for the outpouring of support I've received from so many people. Your words of encouragement and comfort mean a lot to me. More than anything I have felt sustained by the Lord and I know I am in His hands. All in all, that's not a bad place to be.

To Answer Amy's Question...

2010-08-19T22:24:00.001-07:00

A Few Things

2010-08-19T21:06:00.008-07:00

I took a little excursion to California a few weeks ago. I pulled my camera out on the very last day just so I could prove I was there, LOL. It was when I'd walked down to the beach for a few last minutes with the ocean, but it was the only time I'd been alone. This was a mini girls' trip with Lynn, Polly and Leeann. Can I just say what generous, selfless friends these are?

Christopher lost his front tooth. Which I think is adorable.

The boys' at their desks on Meet the Teacher Day:

And ready to go on the first day of school:

I'm absolutely loving the normalcy and routine now that the boys are back in school. When they're not in school, they're home with me and that's just how it should be. I'm feeling more settled, which is nice.

I took the boys on a hike the other day. Afterward we drove out to the Superstitions for a closer look.

That was the first time I shared that special place with my kids. It was awesome.

This is from the pack meeting tonight.

John's in a tan shirt because he's officially a boy scout now, but he came to the meeting to get his Webelos award. He'll get his Arrow of Light next month (hooray!). He's already earned it, but they'll do the ceremony next month. I really didn't know if he should wear his cub scout shirt or his boy scout shirt. I still don't know.

Here is something John's Webelos den made over the summer. It was quite the project and I heard a lot about it as they were working on it. But it was a surprise so I didn't know what it was until tonight.

It's a hovercraft.

It actually hovers.

How cool is that?

So that is the extremely short version of events over here lately. It's time for bed! :)

How We're Doing

2010-07-17T21:54:00.008-07:00

Well, it's been an interesting summer to say the least. We're adjusting to a whole new lifestyle over here. The summer started out okay, but the kids are getting worn out from going from place to place all the time. They spend their days with one of their grandmas when I'm working (oh hooray, hooray for grandmas!!!) and then go to Brian's every other weekend. My work days are very long so it seems like at least one day a week is spent just getting caught up. Christopher spent most the morning sleeping yesterday, he was so tuckered out. It's just not restful when you can't be home.

Leaving my children all the time has been extremely difficult for me too. And the long days are taxing.

For that reason, I'm looking for different employment. The job I have now has been a huge blessing. It practically fell into my lap earlier this year, for which I've been extremely grateful. However, I'm looking for something that will help me pay my bills better as well as give me summers off to be with the kids. The grandmas can't do this forever. Neither can my kids. Neither can I.

I've recently applied for some jobs with the schools. There are several secretarial/admin. asst jobs that are just during the school year. I'm also keeping my ear to the ground for virtual assistants. I hear tell these are growing in number. So if you know of anything... ;)

Other than that, I've been trying to make sure we're doing fun things this summer. We've seen a few movies at the dollar theatre (How to Train a Dragon is totally cute - Diary of a Whimpy Kid I could've lived without) and found our way into several pools (the water park at Anthem wins the prize).

I actually pulled my camera out for our excursion to Kartchner Caverns. Talk about a fun trip. I blogged about it over at America Jane awhile ago, but I'll put the family pictures here.

Getting these guys to take a serious picture was next to impossible:

Too funny. :)

At the Discovery Center:

The boys looking at a little friend they found outside:

When Ben kneeled down to take a closer look, this little guy turned to take a closer look at Ben.

"How cute," I thought.

Then this cute little guy opened his mouth wide and started raising his body up and down, up and down. I don't speak lizard, but I know a menacing stance when I see one. I told the kids to back off and I gotta say, they hustled to obey.

I also thought I'd share pics of our prayer flags. These were supposed to be prayer chains (again, from a prayer FHE I wrote for the America Jane blog), but we cut the strips too small so we had to improvise. Our flags got a little messy because the stapler doesn't reach as far as we wanted it to. It was a funny evening.

Ben declared my flag messy, so I made it official.

Then Chris decided his was "nedis." That means "neatest" in case you didn't know.

These flags were only semi-successful. They helped the kids remember morning prayers for awhile, but before they were half-way done with their flags they kept forgetting about them. Ah well.

Quite some time ago I made these little appetizers using zucchini from Kathy's garden. They were delicious. I took pictures so I could post the recipe on the AJ blog, but then realized I have no idea how to take good pictures of food. I've been seeing how Pioneer Woman does it. Need I say more?

Oh! But speaking of food. One of the many interesting things I've learned how to do at this job is make beautiful fruit and veggie trays and cheese and nut trays. We make these for our clients who are in town to observe focus groups and what not. The assistant manager happens to be the queen of these things.

The absolute QUEEN.

Her trays are unlike anything I've ever seen. And it took a bit of training for me to get the hang of it. Mine still aren't what she can do, but I did put together some trays I never could've done before I started working there. They were quite pretty. I was really wishing I'd taken pictures. Crappy camera and lack of photography skills aside, I would've posted those babies.

I'm looking for a reason to put this skill to use in my normal life. Surely I have some upcoming event that calls for fancy cheese trays. Surely.

On another note, I want to give an update on Christopher's heart. We haven't had any complaints from him since his big growth spurt in May. After school starts I'll take him in for a check up to see if maybe he's out grown it. Wouldn't that be awesome? But if not, that's okay too. He doesn't have side effects from the medicine and it doesn't bother him to take it, so if he has to stay on for awhile longer that's okay. He'll be fine either way. :)

Lastly, I just have to say that the support we've received from so many people has been huge. We've had a great home teacher take care of various fix-it type jobs around the house, a generous mechanic who has kept our van running, and several people who have helped with the upkeep of the yard. I'm grateful for good friends who lend a listening ear, for priesthood leaders who give blessings whenever they're needed, and for peace and comfort from the Lord. There have been difficult moments, but it seems help is never far away.

So, that's about that. I've been sporadically following everyone's blogs in my Google reader (private blogs have been completely neglected) but I haven't had time to comment. I just want you all to know I miss you and still enjoy reading about what's going on. Until next time...

Ben's Baptism

2010-06-18T09:07:00.003-07:00

I meant to get this post up shortly after the last post, but I was without the internet for a couple of weeks. I got a few things done on remote computers, but this wasn't one of them.

Anyway, Ben's baptism! This cute little bugger finally got baptized and it was a great thing to see. Aunt Kelli gave the talk on baptism, I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, Uncle Nathan baptized him and Grandpa Cook gave him the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

When I asked Ben what his favorite part of the day was, he said, "All of it!" Such a sweetheart. Congratulations Ben!

Girls Weekend - May 2010

2010-05-28T22:03:00.004-07:00

Hello from Scottsdale!

Another fantastic, fantastic weekend. It can be summed up like this: lounging by the pool, eating, talking, laughing, eating, shopping, lounging, eating, dancing and eating. I'm already ready to do it again. I just love these ladies.

I'll apologize in advance for all the pictures. Steph collects all our pictures and combines them into one album on Picasa. There were over 200, so just be glad I'm not posting them all. ;)

We stayed at the Doubletree this time. I really liked this hotel.

June took a ton of great pictures, including shots of the flora and fauna around here. There was something about it that made me see things with new eyes and appreciate the unique beauty that can be found here.

This is the view from our balcony.

I spent a grand total of 18 hours by the pool. I do not understand why I didn't get more color. LOL.

Actually, I was so paranoid about getting burned like I did last time that I used practically a whole bottle of sunblock and hid in the shade from time to time to top it off. Maybe next time I'll get it right and manage to just get a nice tan like a normal person. (FYI, I read an entire book over the weekend too - The Girl Who Chased the Moon. I really liked it!)

We all really wanted Steph to model these crazy pants. She's such a good sport!

Who's the man?

Steph looks like a movie star!

My favorite group picture.

Lynn's classic pose!

Cute!

Our new friends. (Okay, okay. Polly's new friends.)

Okay, you gotta zoom in for this one. This is a picture of what Polly used to look like. The first time I saw this (on one of our trips long ago) I could not believe it was the same person. I gotta say though, Polly may have changed her hair to black but that sweet smile has stayed the same and truly shows the girl within. She's such a sweetheart.

Can you find the hidden tattoo?

Shake your groove thang!

You go girl!

Get on down June!

Rock on Jack!

Until next time girls...

A few random things

2010-05-24T18:02:00.006-07:00

(I haven't taken near as many pictures as I'd thought! Anyway...)

Uncle Freddie came to visit again. I sure do enjoy seeing him. I wish Aunt Moira could've come too but she's still a working gal.

My boys are quite enamored with their cousin's ROTC uniform. John is now informing me he wants to join the Army or the Marines or be a Navy Seal. I'm selfishly hoping he grows out of that.

My sis and her hubby have done a little redecorating and I especially love how they displayed his guitar collection on the wall. And yes, he does play them. :)

The pack meeting:

It's nearly impossible to keep those shirts tucked in. Almost as bad as trying to keep shoes on their feet.

The Spring Sing:

John is in the front row, middle.

Are you noticing a trend with the shirts? You can't tell in Ben's picture below, but I assure you. His shirt is untucked too...

Ben's little face is right, smack dab in the middle.

Christopher, shockingly, was being a little goof ball and messing around instead of smiling for his mother. Fortunately, my camera went off during the split second that made him look like he was smiling.

"My Principal's a Pirate!"

Alright, that's all for now. There will be more coming...

Catching Up

2010-05-24T17:51:00.003-07:00

I'm back! Well, kinda. I make no promises about the frequency of posts from here on out. I still want to keep a record of certain things but life is a little different now. A bit busy. (By "bit" I mean "a lot".) I think things will settle down eventually though. In the meantime, I am fully enjoying nights like tonight.

We got home shortly after 3 pm.

The kids have their homework done and have been playing outside.

I have no appointments, no meetings, no pressing matters, no nothing.

Well, not nothing exactly. There's plenty I could be doing. Plenty. But nothing that has to be done right this second. Or even tonight. Oh, it's a luxury. And I've been enjoying it. It's been nice to have a night that just feels normal.

So, I'm going to see if I can get some personal blogging done. I've managed to kinda, sorta, somewhat keep up with the America Jane posting. But this little CookZoo blog is so neglected I was worried I'd forget my password to sign on.

Rather than one big post, I'll do a few shorter ones. They may be nothing but pictures and perhaps a few captions, but they'll be here. I'll schedule them out too so I don't bombard you all at once.

Lastly, I just want to thank everyone who's been so, so, so supportive over the past few months. I hope you know what a difference it has made. We've been very blessed. The Lord is truly watching out for us.

Love to you all,

Donna

The Aye's Have It

2010-04-25T15:44:00.003-07:00

The blog will stay public. I'm actually glad about that. I've been falling behind on the private blogs I follow because I don't have them in my reader.

Anyway, I know things have been quiet here for awhile. As most of you know, there are some pretty big changes happening in our family right now. I'll get back to some normal blog posts when I can.

Hugs to you all.

I Need Your Input

2010-03-21T14:55:00.003-07:00

Okay, I've been thinking about taking my blog private. I really, really don't want to.

My only reason for doing it is to protect the identity of my children. But sometimes it's such a pain to log in to read a private blog, not to mention the whole process of invites and signing up to begin with. And what if I inadvertantly leave someone out when I'm inviting people and they feel too awkward to ask for an invite? It's how I would feel.

So then I thought about having two blogs: Cook Zoo and Cook Zoo Too. Blogger has this cool feature where you can export your blog into a new blog, carrying over comments and everything. So I thought I could have just put the posts about the kids on Cook Zoo Too (which would be private) and put everything else on the normal Cook Zoo blog. When I put up something new on the private blog, I'd just leave a note on the public blog saying there's a new post on the private blog. People can read it or not.

Then I thought it would be a pain for people to have two blogs to follow, and there's still the whole signing up thing.

I've literally been going back and forth about this for months. Apparently, I'm having difficulty making up my mind.

So I'm asking you. What should I do? One private blog? Two blogs? Please vote for your choice in the poll above. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments too. What do you think?

Very Informative Letter

2010-03-10T17:22:00.005-07:00

Yesterday I got a letter from the Census department. It read, in part:

"Dear Resident,

About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly." Etc etc.

Only the government would send me a letter to notify me that they'll be sending me a letter.

Random Stuff

2010-03-08T10:37:00.003-07:00

Random Item #1

This is Ben checking himself out after getting his eyes dilated.

He wasn't super crazy about the glasses he had to wear to protect his eyes from the sun.

This kid's eyes are (in a word) terrible. His prescription is strong even for an adult. John will be getting glasses soon too. Apparently no one wanted to inherit their mother's perfect vision. I suppose Chris could end up having my good eyesight but I'm not holding my breath.

Random Item #2

Brian and I attended the stake's Marriage Relations Class the last couple of months. I hear there's a stigma attached to these classes, that it's only for folks with marriage problems but that's not true. It's a great class for anyone to take. Good stuff.

Anyway, the last class is held at the Pierson's home where they feed us a delicious steak dinner. Very yummy. Poor Brian had to miss the class because he was short-staffed at work and had to dispatch (for Pete's sake), but I decided to go without him anyway. I'm glad I did. The food was excellent and the last lesson was helpful.

Plus, they have this cool slide in their house. It's for the grandkids and goes down to the basement. It's a tight spiral all the way down. You know I had to try it out!

Now that was fun!

Random Item #3

I'm learning there's a lot to launching a website. I'm getting all kinds of bugs worked out. First, it took awhile to get the site approved through Norton Safe Search. That's the thing that puts a little green check mark next to your site when listed on a Google search. The technicalities of getting that done was a bit of a pain, but it's all taken care of now.

Then I used a free credit I had for an SSL certificate, not really realizing that I do NOT want that on my website, because first of all, I don't need it and second of all, when that certificate expires in a year people browsing to my site will get a warning saying my certificate has expired. Well, I don't want that, so I called and cancelled it. I figure, better to take care of it now while I'm getting pretty much no traffic instead of having that kind of glitch after I've been promoting the site for awhile.

Well, unfortunately my Internet browser's cookies and history was remembering the address for the secure site, so when I tried to pull up my site it wouldn't work.

Now, that's not something I wanted to see.

I called GoDaddy (I've been on the phone with them A LOT the past week) and they told me I had to clear my cookies and history. So that's what I did. And now I can see my site again. Thank goodness for that!

Meanwhile, I discover that if you type "personal progress honor bee" into Google, I'm now on page one of the results.

Victory!

But the link wasn't working.

Not good.

One phone call later and I learn what the problem was. I'd changed the name of the file for that particular page of the site, which Google doesn't like. So I changed it back and now the link works.

WHEW!!!

So glad I decided to go live with this site before it was all the way done, so I could get all these bugs worked out BEFORE I started promoting it to death.

Meanwhile, I've had zero problems with the America Jane Speaks blog, so that's my favorite site. Nice and easy. Ahhhhh!!!!!

Speaking of which, I thought I'd spread the word about a contest I just blogged about. If you know anyone who has a teenaged daughter, Jo-Ann has this contest for girls that sew their own prom dress. There are several prizes, but the grand prize is $50,000 for college and a $1000 Jo-Ann gift card. How cool is that???

Looky What I Did...

2010-03-02T12:00:00.005-07:00

Holy cow, has it really been a month since I last posted? If so, that means it's been a month since I've checked anyone else's blog too, which means I'm up for a few hours of catching up. Hmmm.

For the record, that picture is not what I did. I don't have a picture to go with this post, so I decided to torture myself with a picture of what I wish I could have for lunch. Chimichangas. Mi Amigos. Ah heaven.

I'm really hungry.

Anyway, here's a brief update on a few things that are new with me.

For those of you who don't know, I'm working during the days now. Kind of. I work for a market research firm a couple of days a week, and only during school hours. I don't know how they're going to feel about this arrangement once summer vacation starts, but they knew what they were getting into going in. :) Anyway, I like the work and everyone is really nice, which always helps.

I'm also freelancing a bit. (Have I mentioned this already?) I'm writing these little web content articles for DemandStudios.com They set the titles, I write the articles, and then they pay me money. It's not the most literary work I've ever done (*cough*) and I get tired of their titles sometimes (*shrug*) but some of the work has been really fun and I like getting paid without even having to leave my house. I'm really grateful for it.

But here's the exciting news. Are you ready? Are you???

(Oh man, does anyone think I'm pregnant? That just occurred to me.)

No, I didn't create a baby, I created a website!! And a blog to go with it. It took me quite a long time to get this baby (no pun intended) going and I'm not even halfway done with everything I plan to do. But the first part is up and ready for hits (hint hint).

You wanna check it out right? Right???

I thought so. :)

Go HERE!!!

Viva Las Vegas

2010-02-08T10:28:00.001-07:00

We made another trip up to Vegas last month and since Brian most likely landed this contract for his company he may be going up every couple of months to check on things. I'll continue to tag along. Now that we've found a corner of Vegas we really like (mainly because we found a FABULOUS little Italian restaurant and plenty more enticing restaurants nearby we're anxious to try) I'm more excited about possible upcoming trips.

Here's highlights from our latest quickie trip:

The foot belongs to "Dumbledore." This guy is standing outside a really fun metaphysical shop in the same plaza as our new favorite Italian restaurant.

Poor Dumbledore lost his hand. Hunting horcruxes, no doubt.

But not to worry. He has a friend nearby to cheer him up.

We decided to stop and see the dam on our way home. We pulled over at the Lake Mead lookout, which is on the Nevada side just before you get to the dam.

Look how low the water level is:

This is an information board there which has an illustration of the lake as it should be:

Big difference. If you look to the left a bit, you can see where the boats dock. I drew a red line to show where the water line used to be:

While we were there a ranger was handing out goodie bags and showing people this coyote pelt:

It's not legal to hunt them, but they found this guy dead somewhere and saved his pelt. He's really soft. In fact, on our way home we saw a dead coyote on the side of the road and I was tempted to turn around and bring him home. Do you think we would've gotten in trouble for that?

This is an old train tunnel that was in use when the dam was being built:

Okay, on to the dam. This is a view of the back side. (See the new bridge they're building in the background?)

I remember coming here when I was a kid. The water used to go all the way up to the rim of the dam. You couldn't even see the turbines (are they called turbines?) because they were all under water.

From where I was standing when I took that picture, if I turn to the right a bit, this is what was across from me:

You can see where the water line used to be by looking at the color of the rock.

This is a close up of the same shot. They had to make a little road to get down to the water, then as the water continued to drop, they built stairs from the ramp to the boat. Crazy. I just could not get over how low the water was.

Backing up from that view is this spillway. This also used to be completely submerged and I thought it was really interesting to see.

Looking to the right. You can see how those silver plates can swivel up and down to control the flow of water into the spillway.

Looking to the left.

Left some more.

Standing on that bridge and looking straight down into that hole, it looks like this:

Creepy. :)

That hole leads down to the river. If I were in a movie, there's be some exciting chase scene where I end up sliding down that tunnel like a ride at Disneyland and land in the water on the other side, no worse for the wear, and my enemies cursing at my ingenious escape. Heh heh.

This was posted all along the dam on both sides. It's for the morons who can't figure that out for themselves.

Moving right along. On top of those turbines, if that's what they're called, are these little towers. One has a clock for each time zone.

This came in handy on our first trip when we had completely forgotten about the time zone change. Since Brian had a meeting to get to, that was good information to have.

Looking over the edge:

It was dizzying...

An absolute marvel:

This cool monument is on the Nevada side:

It reads, "They died to make the desert bloom."

At the base of the monument:

I only understood about half of this. There were "helpful explanations" like this all over the place. After this one I didn't even bother reading them, but I enjoyed looking at the astronomical designs anyway.

To the right of the monument:

That's me baby. Watch that stinger.

And that was our Vegas trip.

What should we do next time?

P.S. In case this long post isn't enough for you, check this out. I SO want to do this! It's almost as high on my wish list as Italy. Almost.

Ben's First Pinewood Derby

2010-02-06T10:40:00.004-07:00

These pinewood derbys are so fun. I love looking at the different cars:

Look at that cute happy face one. Actually, I think it's Pikachu. :)

This cheese car was my favorite, and it ended up winning first place.

Here's Ben's car:

A great big thank you goes to Brother Goff for helping Ben with his car. There's no way it would've look this good if we'd done it here at home.

I love watching the boys gather in the pits as the excitement mounts. Here's Ben in the pits, waiting his turn.

I love watching the races. Ben getting ready to race:

I love the little award ceremony they have at the end. Everyone gets a certificate and a prize, and then they award prizes to the three fastest cars as well. Here's Ben getting an award for Most Futuristic Car. :)

It's been fun watching Ben take part in the Scout program. I'm grateful for all the good experiences and memories that program gives to my kids. :)

Interesting Combination

2010-01-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one who thinks this is funny?

Either this is wrong or I'm an idiot...

2010-01-16T09:53:00.001-07:00

Guess which one I'm hoping for.

Okay, so here's a puzzle from my IQ calendar:

M..A...N
O...A...L
L....Z...?

Which letter should replace the question mark?

Are you thinking? Are you trying to figure this out? Cuz I sure did. I finally gave up and looked at the solution, which reads:

W. This is determined by the position of the letters in the alphabet (A=1, B=2, etc). The letter from the first column is added to that of the third column to dertermine the letter in the second column. So L(12)+N(14)=Z(26)

That would be lovely if L, N and Z were on the same row, which they are not. Or if you could add W(23) to ANY letter in the above equation to get the value of any other letter, let alone limiting your choices to some first column number added to W to equal some second column number.

Did they make a mistake or am I missing something here?

Seriously. I need to know. If I hadn't already thrown the box away I'd be on the phone to this company right now. I don't mind when I can't figure out a problem because my brain still gets a work out and I learn something from the solution. (I wish I'd saved the penny one for you.) But this is just driving me batty.

B.A.T.T.Y.

Help!!!!

Big, Big, BIG Numbers

2010-01-15T09:21:00.004-07:00

My one-a-day calendar for this year is an IQ Puzzles calendar. I decided I need to challenge my brain on a more regular basis and this seemed a good way to do it. Some of the puzzles are easy, some are a fun challenge, and some are downright impossible.

Okay, not impossible. Just hard enough that I give up and look at the answers on the back.

The January 6 puzzle is meant to be a math puzzle, but I didn't even try to solve it since it felt more like a trivia question to me. You know, an interesting fact.

For those of you who like math enough to tackle this kind of problem, I'll give you the question and let you scroll a bit for the answer:

1,000,000,000

You have someone counting a billion dollars for you and he counts a dollar per second. He works eight hours a day and takes four weeks holiday. How long will this person be counting?

(Insert Jeopary music here...)

Answer: If this person works five days a week, 48 weeks a year, he will be counting 144 years, 248 days and 1.6 hours.

That's a really, really, really long time.

It kinda gives new weight to the number "one billion" - something we hear tossed around so much that I think we get numb to it. Like gratuitous violence in movies and soft-core porn in our commercials. How many of us really grasp the implications of one billion of anything?

Especially in the following context:

As of January 15, 2010 the United States National Debt is

twelve trillion dollars.

Trillion, not billion. There are one thousand billions in one trillion. And we've got 12 trillion in debt.

If I'm doing my math correctly (feel free to check me, since it's highly likely I'm not) that little dollar counting fellow would be counting our national debt for roughly

1 million 736 thousand 160 YEARS!

That can't be good.

Old Apache Trail

2010-01-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

We did it! We drove the Old Apache Trail on Saturday!

We grabbed some lunch for the kids and headed out about 12:30. When the kids asked me how long we'd be gone, I said a couple of hours. Brian said four. I thought he was nuts. No way was that drive going to take four hours. And I was right.

It took five.

LOL! But we had a great time.

It was a wee bit cold up here. Well, to us anyway. The fellow who so kindly took this picture for us was visiting from Wisconsin and he described the weather as "quite warm."

I loved how the rock hung over the road.

We drove all the way up to the dam.

I seem to remember driving over this dam when I was a kid. Traffic goes over the bridge now, but that was a change made before Sept 11 because they wanted to raise the height of the dam to protect against floods.

I wish I would've taken some pictures of the kids in the visitor's center. It was small but it was cool. Everyone enjoyed it.

At this point we could've gone home via Payson or Globe and we opted for Globe. Shortly after headed down that highway we passed a sign for cliff dwellings. Oh man. I love stuff like that!!

Unfortunately we got there just after the visitor's center closed and we were all too tired to go on a hike. But do you see that little white dot at the bottom of the ruins? That's a guy!

Guess what my next 2010 goal is???

The Last New Year

2009-12-31T14:38:00.006-07:00

I love that song by Tim McGraw, "Live Like You Were Dying."

He said I was in my early forties, with a lot of life before me
And one moment came that stopped me on a dime
I spent most of the next days, looking at the x-rays
Talking bout' the options and talking bout' sweet times.
I asked him when it sank in, that this might really be the real end
How's it hit 'cha when you get that kind of news?
Man what did ya do?
He said

I went skydiving
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chew
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin'
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'

He said I was finally the husband, that most the time I wasn't
And I became a friend, a friend would like to have
And all of a sudden goin' fishin, wasn't such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad
Well I finally read the good book, and I took a good long hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again
And then

I went skydiving
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin'
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'

Every time I hear this song I find myself wondering, "What would I do if I knew I was dying?" (Well, dying much sooner than planned, that is.)

I don't think there's any way to really know what you would do unless you're in that situation, but I like the message of the song. It got me thinking about stuff I'd like to do before I die, priorities I'd like to keep straight once and for all, dreams I'd like to chase, and relationships I'd like to nourish better.

If this were my last New Year's Eve, and I knew that, what changes would I make? What current obstacles would cease to be obstacles? What current projects would fall off the map?

It's been interesting to think about, and a little disheartening that some obstacles really are obstacles.

No matter how you slice it, I do not have the means to travel to Italy. *sigh* Nor do I have control over whether or not I become a bestselling author. *double sigh*

But.

I can decide to see more of the interesting things here in my own backyard. Brian and I have yet to drive the Old Apache Trail even though we've been talking about it for months. It's supposed to be a pretty drive, and I'd like to see it.

I can continue to work on my writing goals and I can take comfort in the fact that I have jumped into that publishing arena, even if I haven't published yet. It took a lot of courage for me to write and submit a book to bona fide New York agents. Sometime in 2010, I'll tackle that goal once again.

As for the people who matter to me, I'd like to take better care of those relationships. That's not a new goal. But I think I can do better. So I'll just have to keep working on that and accept the fact that I'll never be the perfect mother, wife, daughter, sister, or friend. But being perfect isn't the goal, so I guess I'm okay there.

Love deeper. Speak sweeter.

And go to Italy.

What would you do?

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

Is it Raining?

2009-12-22T15:07:00.002-07:00

Hail yes.

Note to Self

2009-12-19T15:27:00.006-07:00

No more scheduling posts in advance.

I thought I was being pretty clever last Saturday. Knowing I'd be busy during the week, I wrote several posts and scheduled them to go live over several days. I thought I'd be able to ignore my blog for a whole week without feeling guilty about it.

As it turns out, I just fretted about whether or not people thought I was taking time to write posts but not to read and comment on their blogs. Every time I'd get an email saying I got a comment on my blog, I felt like I was ignoring people.

Then I would tell myself it's not healthy to worry about what other people think about you. But I couldn't help it, so then I felt guilty about that too.

I could try to straighten out my thinking, but who has time for that? I'll just go back to posting like a normal person instead.

There, I feel much better now.

For no particular reason, I decided to find a Calvin and Hobbes strip to use as my image. I LOVE Calvin and Hobbes. I couldn't pick just one so I got a leeeeetle carried away...

Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum

2009-12-17T18:10:00.001-07:00

Here's my little drummer boy at his first band concert.

He's a percussionist, which means he has several different instruments to learn. The funnest (in my opinion) is the snare drum. I thought it was awesome that he got to play the snare drum for First Concert March. Here's the opening section:

I know I'm prejudiced, but I thought he did great. It was so fun to watch him. He wasn't nervous at all, but just went up there and had a good time.

Way to go John!

Girls' Weekend

2009-12-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures from our most recent Girls' Weekend, again here in Scottsdale. I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do (in fact a few of these aren't even mine), and for the first time I don't have a life-changing story to tell (LOL). But it was a good time. I do love these ladies.

And here's proof that my crock pot was in the most unlikely of places:

Polly's tattoo studio.

Her appointment was actually the reason for the trip.

It turns out this is the coolest tattoo studio I've ever been in. Okay, okay, I've only been in two, but still. Check out the mosaics on the walls.

This is a marble sculpture by Polly's artist.

This was sculpted from 400 lbs of Italian marble taken (if I remember correctly) from one of the quarries favored by Michelangelo. (Click here to see pics of the work in progress.) Paulo's actually working on a Pieta which someone commissioned him to create. I'd love to see it when it's done.

Well, I think would. If he's somehow incorporated skulls into it, then maybe I'd rather not. ;)

While we were there, Lynn got hers touched up.

I was tempted to get mine touched up too. (Har har.)

Turns out the guy did not do quite what Lynn wanted him to do, so in spite of her swearing she's never going through all that pain again she had to change her mind once she saw the changes he made. Poor Lynn!

Naturally, we had to have dinner at our favorite restaurant:

(I have a feeling our Fleming's days are over though. Sigh.)

Leean and Lynn ready to go see Rock Lobster:

Polly was still fighting a cold and decided to stay at the hotel. Since 9:30 is late for me anymore I was pretty sure I couldn't handle being out till 3 am. Plus I had to teach in church the next day, so I headed home as well.

It felt like a short trip, but it was good to see Lynn and Polly again and meet their friend Leean. They'll be back in May, which means lots and lots of swimming. Yeah baby!

Here We Go Again

2009-12-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

After three months of no episodes, I forgot all about the issues with Christopher's heart. (Click here and here and here if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

Well, on November 30 I'm cooking dinner and Chris comes in all cheerful like and says, "My heart's beating fast!"

Oh, right! It took me a second to get my wits about me and grab a timer so I could finally get a pulse on these babies. I set the timer for ten seconds, put my ear to his chest, and counted.

It was hard to keep up.

I counted 45 beats in 10 seconds, though I may have missed one or two. Anyway, that's a pulse of 270.

That's kinda high.

By the time I did my calculations and wrote that number down the episode was over. I went online to see if I could find anything about that kind of pulse. Reading through the articles about WPW Syndrome and all the symptoms kids can have while they're having an episode reminded me I'm supposed to ask him if he feels any pain in his chest.

So I ask Chris, "Did your chest hurt?"

Chris: "Yes."

But he hadn't been acting like he was in pain, so I said, "Did it hurt or did it feel funny?"

Chris: "It felt funny."

Hmmm. "Did it feel funny or did it hurt?"

Chris: "It hurt."

Okay.

Through all this though, he keeps running his finger up his breastbone to indicate where he felt... something. He said, "Almost up to here" indicating the hollow of his throat.

I tried a different word. "Did it feel like pressure?" Brian then puts his thumb on Christopher's shoulder and presses on it. "Did it feel like that?"

Again, Chris says yes and again runs his finger up his breastbone and says, "almost to here." Okay, I know my child well enough to know that he definitely felt something, but he just doesn't know the word to use.

Another common symptom is dizzyness, lightheadedness, etc so I asked Chris about his head and he said that all felt fine. Good enough.

I called the doctor to give them the long-awaited pulse and they want to see him. End result?

Chris is now on heart medication, which we cut in half so he can take part in the morning and part at night. The doctor isn't crazy about that pulse. Nor does he like whatever it is Chris is feeling in his chest, so he wants to suppress the episodes. Chris will take this medication for 6 months to a year, then we'll take him off it and see how he does. The idea is to see if he'll grow out of it on his own, something I'm willing to try if that spares him the surgery.

The funnest part was when the doctor told me that if these episodes get up to 15 minutes, we have to take him to the ER so they can stop it.

The next funnest part was making sure anybody who's ever in charge of Chris when we're not around knows about this.

Maybe "fun" isn't the right word.

But you know, even though I did allow myself the time I needed to feel my emotions about all this, it wasn't that bad because it wasn't that hard to keep things in perspective. Here's why.

The first time we saw this doctor, we went to his Mesa office. This time we had to go to his office in Phoenix, just for scheduling reasons. This office is on the campus of Phoenix Children's Hospital.

I literally cannot drive by there, or even think about that place, without thinking of all the little munchkins in there who are seriously, seriously, seriously ill.

So while it may not have been "fun" to walk my little five-year-old into the office of a pediatric cardiologist, knowing full well that 270 is not a number anyone wants to see, it really was easy to remember that it could be a whole lot worse.

At first, I wasn't crazy about the extra long drive. By the time I was done parking my car, I was grateful for it. The next appointment (in January) will be there too.

That's fine by me.

Can I share a little superstitious thought? I don't know why but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Phoenix Children's hospital, even before someone I knew (one of my YW) had surgery there. It's just such an amazing place and I think anyone who takes such good care of kids in need deserves about a bazillion brownie points to get into heaven.

Here's my superstitious thought: I hope that soft spot in my heart isn't because my Christopher will be there some day.

There, I said it.

Thoughts like that have less power when you shine a light on them.

Right?

Anyway, the night after Chris started the medication he had an episode that was so short it was over before he could tell us it had started. Same thing the next night. Nothing since then, which has been almost a week. I figure the medicine is doing it's job, so hooray for that. We'll just have to wait and see where we go from here.

Fortunately Chris isn't freaked out by any of this. He's such an easy-going, happy kid. And the way he giggles when they put the "stickers" on him for his EKG really is too cute. As for me, I just try not to think about it too much. I don't know what's going to happen next, but I know he's going to be fine. That's all that matters to me.

Sin City... Without the Sin

2009-12-09T16:30:00.017-07:00

Several weeks ago Brian had a business meeting in Las Vegas (of all places) and I decided to go with him. We drove up one day and back the next so we didn't have a lot of tourist-y time, but we did make a few stops. I'm okay that it was just a few. I haven't been to Vegas since I was a kid and I say the name "Sin City" is well earned. We didn't even so much as drive down the Strip, but there were plenty of things I saw I wished I hadn't.

So it was a bit of a relief when we passed through the gates on the grounds of the Las Vegas Temple. It truly felt like a refuge.

The grounds were absolutely gorgeous.

And kudos to Anna for correctly guessing the location of my most recent foot shot. How could you not walk on grass this green?

I told Brian this was the only ground in Las Vegas I was willing to touch with my bare feet.

One of these days I'll come up with a more interesting angle for these shots. In the meantime, I get to add one more state to my foot list.

We also paid a visit to an attraction I wouldn't have expected in Vegas:

The first permanent settlement in the Vegas valley was by 30 Latter-Day Saints who were sent to establish a fort on the route between California and Utah, and preach the gospel to the local natives. In fact, it was earlier Spanish explorers who called the area Las Vegas, which meant The Meadows.

At that time, the area was lush and green, fed by a natural spring that's long since been diverted to supply water to the area's growing population.

The grounds of this historical site include what's left of the adobe residence hall, a recreation of part of the fort's walls, a modest visitor's center, and an artificial stream that barely suggests Las Vegas's greener days.

The residence hall is filled with displays outlying the areas history, and plenty of interesting artifacts.

My favorite was this contraption used to separate corn from the cob.

On the grounds is an old freight wagon, which was restored by an Eagle Scout.

This handcart inside the residence hall was restored by an Eagle Scout too.

We learned in the visitor's center that scouts can earn one of their merit badges here, doing activities such as making bricks the old fashioned way. We saw the area where they do this, but I didn't take any pictures.

Even though this is called the Mormon Fort, the venture was abandoned by the Mormons for various reasons after just two years. Others took over the building, however, and the foundation for a growing city was laid. Am I the only one who thinks it's ironic that Sin City got it's start with the Mormons? LOL.

And that, my friends, is how you do Sin City... without the sin.

Long Time No Blog

2009-12-07T18:45:00.005-07:00

Has it really been three weeks since I blogged? Did I really only write two posts in November? I knew it had been awhile, but...

I haven't been reading blogs either. I just spent the last couple of hours catching up. That's kind of a long time. Now I have no time to write a (real) post of my own, but I'm okay with that. Now that I'm back to my blog and remember what it looks like, I think I'll have another post up soon. This week isn't crazy busy like the last several weeks have been so I should have enough time to spare.

Meanwhile, anyone want to guess where my feet have recently been?

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

2009-11-13T11:06:00.001-07:00

This is cool. I'd like to know what kind of job involves taking an elephant and an orangutan for a walk everyday.

Writing and Nunchucks

2009-11-09T06:49:00.004-07:00

What do writing and nunchucks have in common? Well, let me tell you.

A few years ago I found a writing buddy on that fantabulous website Sparkpeople. We met on one of the writing groups and decided to do daily writing check-ins with each other. We'd set our individual goals, then report our status in our emails. If we met our goals, we'd get a "star" or a "thumbs up" or something like that. If one of us was slacking off, the other would threaten a "kick in the pants". It's amazing how accountability, encouragement, and the threat of a virtual kick in the pants can motivate you.

Well, our relationship has evolved over time. Our short, check-in emails are now long letters about everything from cats to movies to depression to religion to what we wore for Halloween. (When I say "we", I mean "her". I didn't dress up for Halloween, but since Evie had multiple costumes, I figure she covered that arena for both of us.)

Our rewards and punishments have changed a bit too. If we tackle a particularly challenging goal, we might be rewarded with three gold stars! If we need extra sternness, well, someone might threaten to pull out the nunchucks, and that generally takes care of the problem.

It was natural, then, that I would think of Evie when I went to the Moon Festival and saw a performance that not only involved nunchucks, but FLAMING nunchucks. Oh yeah, baby. I took this video just for her:

Course, the best thing about my writing buddy is that she's more than a writing buddy. In fact, due to various life circumstances, neither one of us is doing a whole lot of writing at the moment. But lulls happen sometimes and that's okay too. Meanwhile we're still there to offer each other encouragement and support through life's triumphs and trials, and while we may not be handing out too many "Gold Stars" these days, we're still giving plenty of "HUGS".

Shabby Chic?

2009-10-28T08:30:00.006-07:00

I'm not sure what to call my holiday decorating style. It seems like it should have a name, but what do you call it when it's driven by speed, convenience, lack of funds, and children?

We have a grand total of six store-bought Halloween decorations that still manage to take up too much space in my closets. I let the children decide where these things should go, and this is what Ben did with half of them:

"Don't you think we should spread these out some?" I asked, as I started moving them away from each other.

"No," he said, moving them back. "The witch in the "Witch Workroom" [center] made a giant scarecrow and a giant pumpkin."

Now that's just cool.

A few days ago he brought home a craft from school - a fall tree made out of a brown paper lunch bag - and told me it needed to go behind the Witch Workroom. So we scooted that framed photograph back to make room.

I love looking at Ben's little collection. It makes me happy.

We also have Christopher's craft from school, hanging on our wall:

This led to the four of us making ghosts to add to our ensemble. I envisioned white ghosts with black eyes. You know, the usual. My children had something different in mind:

I didn't know ghosts could have teeth. Or, as Ben so helpfully labeled, spiders and guts:

John's even had arms, horns, and fangs. (Can you tell I live with boys? Can you??)

So, maybe shabby chic isn't really right. Maybe what I should call it is just... fun.

Blog Disconnect

2009-10-23T15:44:00.004-07:00

I had an insight the other day. (Okay, it was a few weeks ago, I'm behind, but still...) I realized that something interesting happens when I'm experiencing something and simultaneously planning the blog I'll write about it. Taking pictures for the blog and making mental notes about what I should talk about tends to remove me from the experience.

Take, for example, our family's excursion to the Moon Festival.

It was a really cool event, but what I remember the most is taking pictures and videos. I remember other things too, and there was plenty of times when I wasn't taking pictures of course. But still. My mind was in blogging mode. And there's a strange disconnect that goes along with that.

I left the festival feeling a little disappointed. I wished I could go back in time and experience it more fully.

The following week we went to the zoo. I deliberately left my camera in my bag. I took one picture during the break at the water park. That was it. It was nice. I have good memories of that day.

I'm not saying I won't be blogging anymore. (Obviously!!!) I just think I need to be careful. There are things I want to write about, for sure. But more than that, there are things I want to live. I need to make sure the one doesn't interfere with the other.

Update

2009-10-13T06:39:00.002-07:00

So my computer's been working since Saturday (HOORAY!!!) but I haven't had a chance to write a blog post yet. I still don't have time for the post I've been planning, but wanted to at least update on the all-important computer situation. Your lives can return to normal now. ;)

Waa waa waaaaaa!

2009-10-09T14:19:00.003-07:00

That's me. Crying. Cuz our computer is dead. Well, maybe not dead. A fine fellow in our ward is trying to resurrect it for us. (Is that being blasphemous??) Anyway, my first concern is for our data, because you would think I'd have learned to back up regularly by now, but I haven't. I can't even think about my second concern, which is what it will cost to get a new computer if our current one gets sent to the morgue. I'm praying for it. Seriously.

So, if you don't see posts in awhile, that will be why. And if I'm not commenting on people's blogs, that'll be why. And if you see me driving down the street crying, that'll be why.

Okay, I'm only kidding about that last part.

Thank goodness for the library's public computers, even if they only give you an hour a day. I'll totally, totally take it!!!!

I'm Famous!

2009-10-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, not really. But this is cool anyway.

Check me out right HERE.

Cruisin' Christopher

2009-10-01T17:36:00.002-07:00

So last Saturday, Chris decided he wanted the training wheels off his bike. This was after months and months of literally not touching his bike at all. So Brian took the wheels off, helped him get started a few times, and that was that. Chris was on his own.

It wasn't until we were at my mom's house later that day that I realized I should be taking pictures of his first bike ride sans training wheels. If it had been my first child, I'd have taken two rolls by then. Poor Chris.

But that's okay. I took lots of pictures AND wrote a blog post about it. So that proves I love him just as much as everyone else. ;)

I Could Keep Him Here Forever

2009-10-01T17:14:00.005-07:00

You know, five days sure beats five hours. That's what Uncle Mike's previous two visits have been. About five hours. This time it was five days.

Still not enough.

I think my uncles should just move here. What do you think?

I didn't take hardly any pictures this time, but here are a few more random shots of the family get-together we had last Saturday.

Looky What I Found

2009-09-28T12:16:00.005-07:00

See him?

Here's a better look. He's in the sun now, moving fast.

Yep. It's a three-foot long Bull snake. The fire department caught him once round the middle, then let him go and caught him near the head so I could get a better picture. (I swear, I did not ask them to do that.)

The guy decided to just hold him, but the snake was mad after so much handling and gave him a nice bite.

But they're harmless.

Mmm-hmmm.

Good for eating rattlers too, they said. Good for having around. I considered that for about ten seconds. Afterall, if a rattler decided to come into my yard, it'd be handy having something nearby that wasn't scared, just hungry. Still, even though my boys would've LOVED having this guy, I would just be too freaked out having him in my yard.

So, the nice fireman who wasn't afraid of a bitty snake bite walked him to the foot of the mountain one house down and let him go.

It was fun having Bull for a visit, but I hope he likes the mountain better. Maybe he'll find a nice, tasty rattler to snack on.

Thanks guys!

Ben's Bobcat

2009-09-25T10:21:00.005-07:00

Ben is officially in cub scouts and he is LOVING it! This is his first official pack meeting, where he was introduced along with the other new Wolf scout:

This is after he received his Bobcat award. (Look at that cute little smile.)

John is in the Webelos den now which has been fun. Here he's receiving several awards he'd earned as a Bear, and one he's earned as a Webelos. They haven't had an awards pack meeting in awhile, and John missed the last one, so there was a lot of catching up to do!

This is a demonstration by the Bear den. They built their own radio. It was cool!

And this was the tree right by our van.

Apparently, it wanted to be climbed.

One Word

2009-09-20T11:14:00.003-07:00

Fantastic.

Whether you have kids or not, this book is a must-read. Absolutely wonderful. If you do have kids, read it aloud to them. My whole family loved this book. We checked it out from the library (naturally) but we'll have to get our own copy. The beautiful illustrations are a bonus.

Snippets

2009-09-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

Snippet #1

You guys are wonderful. Thank you so much for all the comments on my last post. I'm feeling much better now. :)

I, too, have read a few blogs where people are astonishingly honest about the trials they're going through. It's usually very inspiring. But that's not what I want my blog to be and that's okay. My journals cover the serious stuff just fine. My original intent for this blog was to keep in touch with long-distance family, and to create a cyber-version of my photo albums. (Since our photo albums are about a decade behind.) Between the two my personal history is pretty much covered.

An unexpected bonus about this blog is that it captures elements of my life I don't think would be captured any other way. Little things, but still part of my life. I tend not to journal about APOD, pizzokies, or funky sidewalks. But life, as they say, is in the details. I like having a place to put mine.

Snippet #2

Well, this is really more than a snippet but I'm fond of my title, so there you go. I finally heard back from the heart doctor and the results of the Holter monitor are in. No episodes. No nothing. And Christopher hasn't had any episodes since that really long one weeks ago. So HOORAY for that!!!

Snippet #3

I went to the park this morning, all by myself. It was lovely.

Just for the Record

2009-09-14T17:46:00.001-07:00

Blogs are curious things.

My blog shows one little slice of my life. It's a very true slice, but if it's all you know about me, it gives a very skewed picture. Reading back over my entries, there's only a tiny hint of what this year has been for me. To be brief (and blunt) October through March was pure hell. March to now hasn't been as horrible, but it's still been extremely difficult. Truth be told, this is turning out to be a pivotal time in my life. There's been only one other time, eleven years ago, that changed me as deeply as this year has.

Most of the things I've been dealing with (and there have been several) are of the sort that I'm not going to talk about them on a blog. Or even with most of the people I know. Some people know one or two things, but very few know the whole story. And that's fine by me. I'm not saying any of this to whine or get sympathy.

My point is, sometimes I feel like these blog posts are a lie. The Carolina's one is a good example (and why I felt I had to write this post). Everything in the Carolina's post was true and we did enjoy ourselves. But what I didn't say was that the situation that prompted us to go was pretty serious, and that taking pictures for the blog was a grateful distraction from the somber events we were there to discuss. And truthfully, it was no where near the most stressful thing I've dealt with - I'm not trying to make it sound like it was life-changing or anything.

Still, I have zero desire to talk about any of those things here, but omitting all that makes the afternoon sound like a playful romp and nothing more. It makes me feel dishonest.

A good friend of mine made a comment to me about the discrepancy between this blog and my actual life. She's right. I've thought about this before. I'm not trying to be deceitful or paint a false picture. I'm just keeping private things private and leaving the rest. I know I'm not alone in this. But I feel funny about it sometimes. Does anyone else ever feel this way?

Edit: Just to clarify, my friend was not saying that in a negative way at all. It was just an observation - she was by no means the source of my guilt. I did that all on my own. ;)

Carolina's

2009-09-12T15:13:00.001-07:00

Thursday Brian and I had an unexpected opportunity to have lunch together. He suggested a place he'd never been to before which had been recommended to him by a client. He described it as a "hole-in-the-wall" Mexican restaurant with great food. Sounded good to me!

We get there, and this is what we see:

Not only does it have a pay phone, it has a graffiti-laden pay phone.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I ask.

"I'd like to give it a try," he says.

"Will you protect me?" I ask.

"Yes."

See how willing he looks? Notice the tin shed behind him. Uh-huh. Okay then.

Well, we get inside and it's a bit, um, basic. You could also choose the words "old" or "run-down." A word you would not use is "charming." The concrete floor was peeling and the walls were bare... save for several magazine articles in cheap frames declaring the place one of "Phoenix's Best."

Magazines or no I'm still wanting to bail out, but Brian was all for it, so I agree to stay.

The food had better be good, I thought.

We placed our order at the counter fast-food style and got a number. There were several orders ahead of us, something I took to be a good sign. By this time a good five minutes had passed and no one tried to mug me, or even glare at me, so I started to relax.
.

We went to get our drinks at the fountain. They had a station for Coke products, Pepsi products (to Brian's delight), and another for products with Spanish names I'd never seen before. Brian accidentally filled his root beer too high and some spilled on the floor. I grabbed a few napkins from a nearby table and held them out for him.

"What's that for?" he asked blankly.

"The floor."

"This floor?"

"You're right," and the napkins went back on the table.

We selected a spot and sat to wait. Several people came and went while we were there, and I'd never seen such a diversified clientele in one place before. We saw people of all colors, as you do just about anywhere in this city, and most the time we were in the minority. What was unusual, though, was the fact that we saw so many people whose appearances suggested a wide variety of backgrounds. We saw business men in shirts and ties, heavily tattooed girls, younger people dressed all in black, an elderly couple who looked like they came straight from Sun City, and men with scruffy beards and worn clothes who looked a step away from being homeless. I didn't see anyone who scared me.

Nevertheless, I wasn't too keen on drawing attention to myself. Here's a picture I furtively took from our table, flash off:

Can I be frank and say it's weird that I happened to take this picture when there were so many white folks in the house? When we first got there, we were in the minority, but most often there really wasn't a majority or minority of anything. I should've taken a few more pictures, at ten minute intervals say. That would've shown the cool variety people filtering in and out of this place.

Most importantly, here is the food:

I ordered the chimichanga. I have two words. Oh. Yum.

Brian ordered the flautas. I didn't take a picture of those, but I did take a bite and they were pretty good. Carolina's sells their freshly-made tortillas by the half-dozen, so we ordered some to take home.

The bag was comfortingly warm, and the tortillas?

Huge. My initial reaction to their taste was: "Not as good as I imagined." But they were pretty darn good, and now that we're finally out of them I'm tempted to go back for more.

So, final verdict? I'm glad we went. The food was good and, if nothing else, it was an experience. I don't think I'd ever take anyone there, but if Brian and I were in the neighborhood and felt like Mexican food, I'd be willing to stop in again.

Assuming the sun was still up.

Now That's Just Cool

2009-09-10T16:32:00.000-07:00

Extinct volcano crater in Mount Bosavi, Papua New Guinea

You may have heard about this already, but if not, I think this is totally cool. Scientists recently descended into that picturesque volcano crater and discovered a bunch of new species. Having never seen humans before, most of these animals had no fear of the scientists.

Check out an article about it here (which includes a short audio interview I found interesting) and go here if you want to see more pictures.

King Bird of Paradise

It's nice to know there's still unchartered territory left on our planet. Makes me want to be a scientist so I can go play too!

Party Postscript

2009-09-05T15:00:00.005-07:00

As an aside, I found some very interesting posts on Steve Spangler's blog about science education (or the lack thereof) in our elementary schools and the effect that's having on the future of our country. Intel had something alarming to say about it too.

Go here and here to read them.

Bottom line: teach your kids how to read and add, teach them what elephants and atoms are and all that good stuff. But most importantly, teach your kids how to think and how to learn.

Considering that (as Mr. Spangler says though I can't find the reference) most of the jobs our kindergartners will hold haven't even been invented yet, teaching them how to learn is pretty critical.

Based on my childhood experiences, I believe parents can give that gift to their kids no matter what the schools are like. Even though there were times when my dad's lessons in logic were frustrating, for the most part they were enlightening, and I learned how to wonder and ask right along with him... "HOW do we know?"

Just food for thought.

Science Birthday Party

2009-09-05T14:45:00.000-07:00

I realized I've been putting off doing this post because I didn't want to spend hours putting it together. So I won't. What I will do is say that last Saturday we had a birthday party for John and Ben with several of their friends and we had a blast! The theme was science experiments. Here are some pictures along with links giving more details about how these experiments were conducted, if you're interested.

It was a bit of work putting this together, but not as much as you would think and I had a great time planning it. Thanks to all of you who helped contribute materials. Deb gave me a great idea for the cake, but I didn't have time to really put it together. If we do a science experiment party for Chris in December, I'll use her cake idea then. :)

One of my least favorite things about putting a party together is the rushing around I'm usually doing right before the party begins. My goal this year was to have the house cleaned, decorated, and everything else ready an hour before start time. We hit that pretty close and it was sooooo nice. These first few pics were taken by the kids while we were waiting for the guests to arrive:

Chris took a picture of my feet. Where do kids come up with these things?

A little pre-party dipping...

Science supplies standing by...

Cutie patootie

Admittedly, the "decorations" for this party were excessively simple. One of the many nice things about raising boys is they just don't care about that kind of thing. As long as they have some balloons to pop when it's all over, they're happy. :)

Okay, first experiment. (This was one of the experiments we saw in John's Webelos book, for the Science Activity Badge, so I don't have a link for it.) Basically it's demonstrating that the pressure of a gas (like air) decreases the faster it goes - the principle which allows planes to fly. I was a little apprehensive about bringing out my sewing kit for the first experiment, but it worked out fine.

We learned the hard way that not all spools are created equal when it comes to this experiment. Ah well...

Okay, this is the "straw oboe" experiment and it was a hit! Some of the kids had a hard time making the sound, so I wouldn't try this for a younger group. The ones who managed it loved it!

An experiment demonstrating atmospheric pressure (another from the Webelos book). It's a fine experiment, but I'd cut this if I had to do it again just because it doesn't have the fun or "wow" factor that some of the other ones did. At least it was short, so I don't think they had time to get bored. This is a great one to do at home with the munchkins where you can really have them think about it, take the time to explain, etc.

Mini lava lamps. This is a cool one!! Check out the video at this link.

This is a "tie dye" experiment using colored Sharpies and rubbing alcohol.

Okay, we don't have a good picture of this, but this was a fun one too. In my left hand is an empty Powerade bottle, upside down. In my right hand is a de-shelled hard-boiled egg, with two lit birthday candles in the narrow end. (This IS a birthday party, right?) To see what I did with that, go here.

Making CO2 sandwiches. Boys love to make things go BOOM!

Another fun one. Take a mason jar and fill it with water. Fit a piece of screen into the ring of the lid and put it on the jar. Cover the opening with a playing card (since this jar was big, I had to cut a big piece from a laminated piece of cardboard that used to be a JoAnn's mailer). Flip the jar over and carefully remove the card. The water stays in the jar. We even inserted a toothpick through the screen and watched it float to the top! (I saw this at the Steve Spangler site too, but I can't find the link now...)

Ben requested the Diet Coke and Mentos geyser trick, so we did that too. We don't have a picture of the actual geyser because it happens quick!

Then it was time for presents:

... and cake and ice cream.

Then we let them play with dry ice (well, the fog dry ice makes when you put it in water) as we waited for parents to arrive.

This is a dry ice and bubble trick I found at Steve Spangler's fantastic website, where I found most of these experiments.

The dry ice was a huge hit. :)

It was a fun party and about an hour or so after the party was over I completely crashed!! LOL.

Update

2009-08-31T11:58:00.003-07:00

I'm still working on the post for the boys' birthday party we had on Saturday (by "working on", I mean "it's on my mental to-do list") but I wanted to give a short update on Christopher.

As far as I know, Chris didn't have an episode while wearing the monitor (which he was WAY ready to get rid of by the time the 24 hours was up!) but when I told that to the nurse, she said "You never know." Sometimes they have an episode while sleeping, or don't notice them because they're distracted watching TV or something. So we'll just wait and see. The place that processes the monitor results is running behind, so it'll be another week or so until we hear.

Meanwhile, Chris hasn't had any episodes (I assume) and I haven't felt worried about it. Really, aside from that first day when I wrote the blog post, I've felt better and not stressed. That's good. Stressing does nothing for me or Christopher, so there's no point. Anyway, I just wanted to let y'all know what's going on. I'll keep you posted. :)

Here You Go Julie...

2009-08-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

Molly Ringwald is the redhead....

Well Alrighty Then...

2009-08-25T22:25:00.000-07:00

As you may remember, we've discovered Chris has something called WPW Syndrome (and if you don't remember, you can read his story here). Well, he's had four "episodes" of his heart racing in the last three weeks. You know, I wasn't too terribly worried after the first one. A little worried, yes, but not a lot. After the second one I thought, "Hmm." After the third one, I realized that each episode increased my worry and I started wondering what was going to happen next. The first three episodes lasted just a couple of minutes each.

The fourth one, which was last Friday, lasted for 25 minutes.

Well, I figured it was time to touch base with the doctor and let him know what was going on. Since these episodes still weren't troubling Chris, my expectations were that the doctor would reassure me that this wasn't enough to worry about. After all, we're no where near the 2 hour episodes he mentioned in the office. But we were also above the one episode a month thing he mentioned too. I figured I'd give him the details and he'd assure me we were still in "let's keep an eye on it" mode. I was calling him to ease my mind.

The doctor was out on Friday but I talked to his assistant, who said I'd get a call back Monday. He still wanted me to explain what was happening though, and I did. Again he said the doctor would call me back. He also said if Christopher gets lethargic or complains of his chest hurting, he needs to go straight to the ER.

Okay.

Well, I'm thinking to myself, that's just a precautionary note. It's not likely to happen. I still think (hope) that's true. But, I thought, this is also the kind of thing his caretakers need to be aware of, just in case. I had already made sure his school nurse, teachers (school and primary), etc all knew about the situation. That was mainly so they would know to record an episode if he had one (I'm keeping a log). Now I got to tell everyone "Hey, not to worry, but if you ever see these symptoms, please rush my child to the ER."

My plan to be comforted was not working so great. Still, I figured the assistant was just covering all bases and a call from the doctor would reassure me.

Today the doctor called. After I explained what's been happening and he asked me a bunch of questions I didn't know the answer to (like "Do these episodes stop suddenly or gradually?" - a question I never thought to ask Christopher), he basically tells me what's been happening is "concerning."

Now, the word "concerning" was in the middle of a big ol' sentence, but heck if I can remember that sentence because my mama bear brain heard one word: Concerning.

That word flipped a switch. It's the switch that makes a mother worry, no matter what. I keep telling myself the worse-case scenario is this relatively non-invasive, low-risk surgery that will solve the problem. I know Chris is going to be fine. The mama bear in me is only a little comforted by this. Anyone have a solution to this? Because it's completely non-productive to worry over it and there's no point making myself crazy. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The doctor decided he wanted to monitor Christopher's heart for 24 hours, in the hopes of capturing an episode. He wants to see exactly what's going on. If they can't capture an episode that way, they may do some other monitoring thing that lasts 30 days. I don't know anything about that one. I only know about the 24-hour one. Cuz here it is:

I took him straight after school to get hooked up to this (called a Holter monitor). He'll wear it for 24 hours (sleeping, school, everything), then I'll take it back and they'll analyze the data and get back to me in 3-5 days. I was given a little log where I'm supposed to write down the time of meals, going to bed, waking up, and activity - all things that affect his metabolism and heart rate.

It's hard to know what activity to write down for a five-year old. I'll write down recess and wrestling around with his brothers. But what about spinning around in circles off and on for ten minutes while I'm at the bank? Does that count? What about when he's in bed but not asleep and keeps getting up to get drinks and go to the bathroom? Does that count?

The instructions that came with the log say to write down anything that elevates your heart rate. THE LOG IS VERY IMPORTANT! the pamphlet says. But what we're really trying to do here is capture an episode, right? This is a monitor they use for lots of different heart conditions. How picky do I need to get?

I'm erring on the side of caution. I go back and forth between thinking they're going to think I'm a crazy, anal mother putting down things they couldn't care less about, and worrying I'm not being accurate enough and it's going to mess up the results.

Don't even get me started on the fact that most of the hours he'll be wearing this will be at school. I'll get to trust other people to get this right for me. Mama bear is very excited about this.

Christopher, as always, is pretty easy going about the whole thing. He's being careful with it (good thing - replacement cost = $1300 and I got to sign a form saying I'd pay up if it breaks) and he doesn't seem particularly bothered by anything. Even that 25 minute episode didn't faze him. His biggest worry was sleeping with the monitor. He was afraid he'd roll over on the monitor and break it. I assured him he wouldn't. (He won't, right?)

So, yeah. That's that. I'm trying not to worry. I keep telling myself, "Stop worrying! He's going to be fine!"

Well, maybe tomorrow I won't be worried. Maybe I just need to sleep on it.

Look at the Size of This Thing!!!

2009-08-23T19:16:00.004-07:00

Brother Penman brought this back from, of all places, New Mexico. I told Brian we had to get a picture of this thing before we cut it. It's huge and it's heavy!!!

This is for you, Uncle Freddie

2009-08-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

Behold, the pizzokie:

These each come with two spoons, which implies sharing, which is weird, because me no share-y my pizzokie.

Girls Weekend Away!

2009-08-15T10:02:00.012-07:00

I'm finally getting around to blogging about this. Every time I'd think about it, I just didn't know where to start or what to say about it. Finally I realized that my favorite parts about this weekend are too personal to blog about, so I'm not going to try. These ladies are just amazing. I'm grateful for everything we shared and the good times we had.

So here's a somewhat superficial post about my fun weekend with these fabulous women. (To clarify, it was a weekend away for them, but not for me because they came to Scottsdale. Niiiice!)

We did a LOT of swimming at the hotel. (Does lounging on floaties count as swimming?) Anyway, this is the group. Left to right is Steph, Pam, me, Polly and Lynn. (If you want to know how I met Steph, Polly, and Lynn, see my previous posts here and here.) Pam was new to the group, also from Sparkpeople. The only one who knew her was Lynn, but we were happy to have her along. This whole experience has made me open and enthusiastic about meeting new people. It's been fun. :)

As an aside, there was a poolside bar which served drinks and ridiculously expensive sandwiches and fruit. Also the absolutely best french fries I've ever had in my life. I'm tempted to go down there in my swimsuit, pretend I'm a guest, and order some. Yum.

Polly bought everyone a round of drinks, which you see here. Steph and I had Virgin Strawberry Daquiris, which I think is the grown up way to say "Strawberry Slushie". It was quite good!

Lynn is a Superwoman. She truly is.

This is the very lovely lady who took the pool picture for us. I do remember her name, but I won't say it in case she doesn't want that on the world wide web. I'd say half the people we saw at the pool we ended up talking to for some length of time. I'm getting pretty comfortable talking with perfect strangers. People are fascinating.

I won't go into all the people we met and the conversations we had... or the Jewish wedding party we almost crashed. I really thought we were going to do it too because we had an invite from the father of the bride AND her Uncle Steve, so it's not really crashing then, is it? I was stoked, man! You'll never guess who chickened out... Polly. I was so disappointed! But later on when we passed the banquet room and saw everyone had settled down around the tables I was glad we didn't go in. Mingling is one thing, but that would've been awkward (whether we'd met half the people in there at the pool or not!).

And the food. I must give a least a partial account of the food. Thursday night everyone came to my house and I fed them Indian Fry Bread, then Friday I made Crockpot Enchilada Casserole which we let cook in their room while we swam. It was awesome. Friday night we went to Rancho Pinot Grill, a place recommended to us by Scott. It was pretty good!

Here we all are...

And with Scott.

Now, guys are NOT allowed during a Girls' Weekend Away. (And believe me, Lynn's beau Drew really tried to convince us to let him come.) But Scott is different. He knew how to show up at the pool, this restaurant, etc just long enough to spoil us, have fun briefly visiting with us, and make us feel like queens, but he never stayed so long that it kept us from having our girl time and girl chats. Lynn dubbed him Pamperer Extraordinaire and I'd say that's about right.

The Rancho Pinot Grill is across the street from their hotel and Scott's restaurant, so Scott gave Lynn and Polly a ride back in the golf cart.
The next day Polly returned the favor by giving him (and me and Steph) a ride in her new Camero.

Ooooooh yeah!

I think this car suits Polly perfectly! It was only 3 or 4 days old in this picture.

Polly's words as soon as we were done taking pictures? "Okay, stop touching my car now!" LOL!

That night (Saturday) we had dinner at Flemings, which has been a fantastic experience every time I've gone. We requested our same waitress, Michelle, who's expecting her second baby (yay!). It was so fun to see her again. Earlier that day she was talking to the poor guy who was assigned to our table. She asked him if he remembered us from last time, and his response was a terrified, "Oh, the water!!" LOL! We had to tease him about that.

You know, I can't believe that we didn't think to take pictures at this restaurant. We'll have to remember next time. If you're looking for a great restaurant, this is the place to go. The food is amazing.

After dinner we were planning on going to see Rock Lobster again, but right before we left there was a bit of... um... drama. I won't go into it, but I think Pam got some bad news via her text and it upset her. I don't know for sure because she wouldn't talk about it. Anyway, she ended up going to bed and the rest of us went out. That was hard on Lynn - she has a firm Girls' Weekend Rule that no one gets left behind. But there also comes a point where you have to respect another person's wishes, and Pam really wanted to be alone.

Anyway, instead of going to Rock Lobster, we ended up walking around the galleries there in Scottsdale.

(Sorry Lynn, I know you don't like this picture but I don't know why. I think it's cool!)

Love the purse!

This picture feels symbolic to me. This is what I've been doing for the last several months of my life... staring things down. Illness. Trauma. Insecurities. Doubts. Fears. I'm not running from the bulls in my life anymore. It feels good.

This has been a truly pivotal year for me. I'm not the same person today that I was six months ago, one month ago, or even one week ago. And I know I'm not done yet. I'm in the middle of a transformation that has been thrilling, exhausting, frightening, liberating, and wonderful.

There are many people and many events, good and bad, that have contributed to all the changes I've gone through. This girls' weekend and the one back in May have both been part of it. It's been amazing.

As we were walking past one of the galleries, Lynn was ahead of Polly and so saw what was inside before Polly did.

"Don't look," she says to Polly.

I look and see a larger-than-life sized clown, all contemporary and artsy looking. "She's afraid of clowns," Lynn says to me.

I look back at Polly, knowing full well that she's going to look in spite of the warning. Sure enough. She looked, she flinched, we laughed.

Scary!!

This is the second time we've gotten pics of Steph with horse sculptures, which is appropriate because she used to own horses. I've decided that's the recurring theme of our weekends. Horses. (Not the other theme girls... at least, not on the blog. ;)

This is the same place in the hotel lobby where we took the final group picture last time. I think that needs to be a tradition. (It wasn't nearly as late this time, though!)

Before I said my final goodbyes, we sat at a table by the pool and just talked for awhile. When I leaned back in my chair and looked up at the sky, this is what I saw:

I love this picture too, not just because it looks cool but because it makes me remember how I felt at that moment: happy, peaceful (and yes, a little tired because it was late).

Thank you for the great weekend girls. I can't wait until next time.

In Brief...

2009-08-12T17:24:00.003-07:00

If you're looking for a heartwarming, funny, and/or clever post about the first day of school, you'll have to try another blog. You get a photo and the following summary:

The boys left home excited about school and returned just as happy. Hooray!

I had a fantastic (did you see that? a fantastic) day at home.

I love summer and I love my boys, but this school year is going to completely rock.

End of Summer

2009-08-11T13:43:00.005-07:00

Historic Cape Spear Lighthouse

Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada

I ran into Julie at the library today and our conversation reminded me that I've been meaning to give an update on the homeschooling thing. The update is this: we haven't done it for the last half of summer. Nice, right? ;)

The boys kept saying "let's do it next week" and that just kept going. I was not going to push it. I didn't want to make it stressful. Every now and then I'll quiz them on the geography we've learned, to try to keep it in their little minds. I might get a routine going during the school year where we can practice geography and learn new things. We'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, during the girls' weekend we met people from Newfoundland and I was proud of myself for actually knowing where that is! Woot woot!

I think I'm ready for school to start. The boys met their teachers today and they are soooooo excited to start school. I'm both excited and nervous to have the whole day to myself. I had a few days in July all to myself and it felt like I was kind of floating around a bit. I missed the noise and the routine. So school will mean an adjustment for me... but I'm sure I'll figure it out. ;)

Check it out...

2009-08-10T17:34:00.003-07:00

A post about my fantastic girls' weekend is forthcoming, but until then, check this out. I was a guest blogger on Photoloom's blog... do I get to say I'm published now? ;)

Go here to read it.