Retro Wednesday: Happy Thanksgiving!

This is Minnie at her Thanksgiving Program in 2nd grade.

This program was Atom's first excursion to the school--he was less than two weeks old!

This is all the kids with Nana (Atom is the blanket bundle she's holding.) She came right after Atom was born and cooked us an early Thanksgiving dinner (as well as filling my freezer with cooked seasoned hamburger and chicken for easy dinners!) She could only come for a weekend because she was in law school (and she probably shouldn't have even done that.)

So this Monday I went to Jet's second-grade Thanksgiving Program. (He is the one with the "E" on his chest.) I took Atom with me. He is a bit bigger now! The program was really cute. The kids read some Thanksgiving poems together and then each had a part in telling the story of the first Thanksgiving. Each child drew a picture of what their part was talking about and they had the pictures up on a screen behind them when they said their part. They also sang a few Thanksgiving songs. Jet did most excellent--saying his part loud and clear. He was the cutest one there and I am NOT biased! :)

This is a close-up of his costume showing his fine Indian symbol artwork. He made this Sunday night when I remembered he was supposed to have a costume for the program the next morning! In Arizona we were spoiled--they made their costumes at school. In Utah they expect the parents to be more involved (not a bad thing, but annoying when you forget about it.) I managed to coax our video camera into working so I got the whole thing on tape but I have no clue how to get things from a video tape onto my computer so you'll just have to be content with still photos.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I Love My Basement!

I just have to say that I love my basement. My kids are free to get out every game we own and spread every piece all over the floor without me feeling like I am going to lose my mind. Anyone that knows me well, knows that clutter and chaos cause my mental well-being to deteriorate rapidly. (But only when it's at my own house.) When confronted with it, I have to bite my tongue to keep from screaming (sometimes I don't succeed.) My kids have always been required to help me pick up the house every night before going to bed because I CANNOT start a new day surrounded by clutter. You won't find dirty dishes in my sink in the mornings. My day will just not go right if I have to start it off with dishes from the night before. My friends laugh at me because they know that I have to be intimately involved when my kids clean up their toys. We have to make sure every piece is located and put back where it goes. I know how many Star Wars action figures and ships Jet owns--we started getting them for him when he was two, and now he has the astounding number of 59 little action figures and 36 little ships! And I know that right now, two of the action figures are missing and two of the little blue lightsabers are also missing. See what I mean? I need serious help!! Somehow I have survived the last 14+ years of parenting without a basement and without being carted off in a straight jacket. My children are fully aware of my issues. They may not like how often we have to clean up around here, but they do like that they aren't missing pieces to their games when they get them out to play. So how does the basement help? For the first time in my life, I have a place that my kids can make a big mess and often I don't make them clean it all up for several days! We are all happier this way. I just stay upstairs and block the basement family room and play room out of my mind. They are free from cleaning up every night (except for having to take things that have wandered upstairs back down.) I can sleep at night with a huge mess in the basement. And my kids are free to be kids--they have a space to play that isn't right in the middle of my living space.

A Few Random Things

A few weeks ago we were momentarily astonished to see one of our neighbors putting up Christmas lights. It was the day after Halloween. Then we realized why so early--it was a beautiful day and who knows how many more Saturdays we will have cooperative weather for such an activity? Better to put them up early than chance having to put them up with an icy wind blowing and snow falling. We were right--said neighbors haven't actually turned the Christmas lights on yet at night, although I bet that will happen by the end of this week. We just aren't used to thinking ahead so we don't have to put up our lights in a blizzard. Thanks to our neighbors, we realized that we need to think differently now that we are in Utah. So Niles spent a good amount of time on Saturday putting up our Christmas lights. Thankfully the weather is still being pleasant. But I think that was our last chance--it may snow by next Saturday.

While Niles was installing the Christmas lights, I was in the backyard with Jet and Minnie creating a huge pile of leaves! I let them jump in it a few times before we bagged it all--ten bags worth and there are still leaves on the trees yet to fall! I was pleased with Minnie and Jet--they worked hard and were cheerful and made it fun instead of whining and complaining which is easy to do when facing such a monumental pile of leaves. I wish I had taken a photo of them, but we were on a tight time schedule--trying to finish in time to go to Grandpa and Grandma's to watch the big game. Which we are not talking about now because it was so sad. For three quarters we thought we could win. Then we self-destructed. Oh well, we will just have to rely on our memories of the last two years' amazing wins over our ultimate rival to tide us through until next year.

Christmas Music

Now that I have finally recovered from being sick for most of September and October (two nasty viruses and a secondary bacterial infection that I finally got an antibiotic for), my hoarse voice is gone and I can sing again! So a few weeks ago I did what I wanted to do back in September, but couldn't (because of two nasty viruses and a secondary bacterial infection)--I joined the ward choir. I honestly wouldn't even care if we ever performed anything--I just absolutely love inspirational music. It brings peace and joy into my life. Now we are practicing music for Christmas. And I was asked to perform with a quartet for enrichment meeting next week so that is extra practices. And yesterday we repeatedly watched Atom's new Mormon Tabernacle Choir DVD which is of last year's Christmas program with the King Singers. So I am being saturated with Christmas music and I couldn't be happier. I feel some of the rough edges of my emotions being soothed. I could rehearse Christmas music all day--except then I would probably get hoarse again. And yesterday we also saw the e-mail informing us that we are some of the lucky ones to get tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert! (The tickets are free but so many people want them that you have to submit your names for a random draw.) So life is good. Except that American Fork is having their "Messiah Sing-In" on a day that I will be out of town. Oh well, I'll have to wait until next year for that one. I am grateful for the blessing of music in my life.

The Ups and Downs of Bands of America Grand Nationals

As you all know, Jumble recently attended Bands of America Grand Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana. She had a great time, over-all. These are some of the ups and downs:

1. Down: waking up at 3:00 a.m. so she could meet at the school by 4:15 a.m. (For me, waking up at 2:00 a.m. and not going back to sleep before the alarm went off at 3:00 a.m.!)

2. Up: Seeing the little town of American Fork, Ut awake, alive, and excited at 4:00 a.m. as 250 students made their way to the high school.

3. Up: Missing two days of school and going on an adventure with good friends!

4. Down: Long, boring plane rides and lay-overs when you are exhausted from getting up at 3:00 a.m.

5. Up: Marching onto the Colt's football field in Lucas Oil Stadium and realizing that you are really at Grand Nationals.

6. Up: Knowing that the entire American Fork High School student body and all of your families are watching your preliminary performance as it is broadcast on every T.V. in the school.

7. Up: (for us) Getting everyone ready for school and then hurrying over to American Fork High School band room at 8:00 a.m. to watch your daughter and her band perform at Grand Nationals in a packed room filled with other cheering band families. (for Minnie and Jet) Getting to miss the first 45 minutes of school so you can watch your sister's band perform.

8. Up: Out of 92 bands, being one of the 32 that qualified for semi-finals.

9. Up: (for us) Going back to the band room for the the semi-finalist announcements that evening and cheering with all of the other band families.

10. Up: Buying clarinet earrings and a teddy bear with your band name on it.

11. Up: Performing in semi-finals, and coming off the field knowing that your band performed the very best that they could and was darn near perfect!

12. Up: (for us) Back to the band room at 8:15 Saturday morning to watch the semi-finals performance and seeing them give their best performance ever (along with hundreds of other cheering band families.)

13. Up: Having a Bands of America judge tell one of your directors that you are "solidly one of the top 5 bands here and will qualify for finals--without question!"

14. Down: Feeling stunned and devastated by not being one of the twelve bands chosen to advance to finals, despite what the one judge said. (For us) Back to the band room Saturday afternoon and finding out that you don't get to see your daughter's band perform one more time in finals.

15. Up: Watching some "legendary" bands perform in finals and realizing that their shows are not nearly as difficult as your music and drill. Realizing that your band really is as good as the "legends," just doesn't perform in a theatrical style, which evidentally more of the judges prefer.

16. Up: Knowing that your band had the most difficult drill (over 90 sets) and one of the most difficult musical repertoires, and you still managed to do both of those things together and do it almost perfectly.

17. Down: Realizing that some judges are wowed by props and other gimmicks and don't notice difficult music and drill.

18. Up: No one in your band had their instrument lying in the grass while they were doing weird dancing moves at any time during your band's show.

19. Up: Your band's show did not include any weird chanting narration that made it impossible to hear the music you were playing.

20. Down: Having one judge comment that "the band played for too much of the show." Huh?!

21. Up: Finding out that you finished 6th in preliminaries, and 14th in semi-finals and only missed making finals by a fraction of a point.

22. Down: Seeing that your music scores were much lower than other bands who didn't play very much, and what they did play was easier, was played while the bands knelt on one knee rather than while performing difficult drill, and was nearly impossible to hear with the weird fractured narration going on during the show.

23. Up: Being one of only 3 bands that recieved a standing ovation from the entire stadium crowd during the semi-finals performances.

24. Up: Being told by other bands that they couldn't believe you didn't make finals.

25. Up: Having a band director who sets a good example of being a good sport even when things don't go the way you hoped and felt they should have. Having a band director who is dedicated to music that challenges your musicianship and drill that requires many hours to master. Having a band director that ensures that you all come home feeling like winners, despite the disappointment.

26. Up: Meeting and competing with some of the best bands in the country.

27. Up: Coming home and telling your family all about your adventures and having them want to hear about every last detail.

YW in Excellence

Well, I would really like to post a photo of Jumble but I promised not to. It was the only way she would agree to get her photo taken. For YW in Excellence, they encouraged the girls to wear formals. The older girls have their own from attending prom, and the younger girls were able to borrow formals from one of the leaders who has SIX grown daughters. This was Jumble's first time wearing a formal gown and she looked gorgeous! Sorry, you'll have to trust me on this one. Complain to her, not me! Anyway, for her project she has been working on collecting recipes in a recipe box. Besides her project, we were also told to display a few things about her that would allow others to get to know her better. So the above photo is of Jumble's little area on the display table. We took her clarinet and a few photos of her with her bass clarinet in her marching band uniform. We also took a photo of her in the swimming pool in Arizona since swimming and Arizona are also two of her loves in life. We enjoyed sharing this special evening with Jumble and are grateful for the inspired goal-setting program of Personal Progress. We look forward to Jumble earning her Young Womanhood Award. She is getting close to being finished. We are also looking forward to sharing the evening with both of our daughters next fall--Minnie will be starting Personal Progress this coming May.

Two More Days of Birthday

Atom blowing out the candles on his cake that Nana made for him.

Atom playing with one of his gifts from the Pew side of the family--a xylophone.

Two more days of birthday for Atom. Isn't it great to be near family? Atom said to me today, "I have lots of birthdays!"

Tender Mercies: Jumble and Marching Band

Recently, Jumble declared to us, her parents, "You better not even THINK about moving back to Arizona!" Rather than feeling irritated that our offspring was ordering US around, I think we both almost burst into tears of pure joy. Because this is the same child that was writing us persuasive essays about why we should move back to Arizona just 6 short months ago. This is the same child that was giving us lists of reasons why she hated Utah. This is the same child that we were fasting and praying for in late July because her anxiety level was causing her to reach a non-functional level. This is the same child that I had set up a Dr. appointment for because we were seriously thinking that she had reached the point that she needed some kind of medication, as much as we hated the idea. This is the same child who couldn't sleep at all at night and couldn't get up in the morning even when she wanted to. This is the same child who, in her mind, had no reason to get up in the morning because there was nothing worth getting up for. This is the same child that burst into tears when she found out that the house we had made an offer on meant that she would be going to a new school where she had no friends, AGAIN--for the second time in less than a year.

So what changed? Why is she so happy in Utah that we are not even to THINK about moving back to Arizona? (For the record, we aren't thinking of moving back.) What has changed is a tender mercy that we call marching band. When I went to Minnie's end-of-summer-band-camp concert in June, they had a special surprise at the end of the concert. In marched the American Fork High School Marching Band. I knew in that moment that marching band was exactly what Jumble needed. I felt in that moment a confirmation that we had somehow managed to end up where we needed to be because Jumble would have a chance to be in that marching band and it would be exactly what she needed. She would make friends--and they would be good friends--kids that knew how to work hard and who understood the importance of being dependable, responsible, committed. These would be kids that would be examples to her of working hard, not giving up, striving to do their best. She could feel a part of something, she could belong. She would learn that hard work can be fun and rewarding. She would feel a desire to work harder and to become a better musician. She would have a reason to get up in the morning, something to look forward to, something to work toward.

And I was right. Marching band has been everything for Jumble that I knew it would be. One of the big parts of the tender mercy was that we didn't have to muddle through a year before the opportunity came. When Mr. Arnold, the Jr. High band director, and high school marching band assistant director called us because he had noticed Janna's name on his roll, I knew it wasn't a coincidence. It was divine intervention. It was an answer to our prayers. He wanted to know what instrument she played and how long she had played. Divine intervention that in our school district in Arizona they started band in 5th grade, the same as American Fork students. Divine intervention that she chose to play the clarinet back in 2004 and that the marching band was in desperate need of one more musician--someone who could play the bass clarinet. We met with Mr. Arnold and that evening Jumble attended her first marching band practice. There are about 250 people in marching band and Mr. Arnold introduced Jumble to the whole group. He told them she had just moved from Arizona and was filling in their missing bass clarinet spot. He told them to be extra kind and helpful to her and to make sure she felt welcome. Everyone cheered and many came up afterwards to introduce themselves and to tell her how glad they were to have her in the band. Gone were my fears that she would be lost in that sea of 250 students and no one would know who she was. We felt strongly at the time that a loving Heavenly Father had worked all of this out in the plan for our Jumble. These days Jumble has a sparkle in her eyes and a glow on her face. Of course her life isn't perfect and there are still challenges and difficulties. But she is happier than I think we have ever seen her. The anxiety attacks and the insomnia have almost entirely disappeared. We recognize that Jumble's opportunity to be in marching band this year was a miracle. We are grateful every day for this. It has been one of the highlights of our time here in Utah so far.

Vulnerable

When I started my blog, I decided that I wanted it to be upbeat and positive, not whiny and negative. That's why my blog is called Lingering in Limbo instead of Languishing in Limbo, which was my first thought for a name. But that sounded too negative and melodramatic. And after all, we really weren't languishing--most of the time. So I have tried to be mostly positive. And overall, our life as a family is very positive so it doesn't take much effort on my part to post about positive things. I also haven't said much in my blog about current events--which I really should because it would keep everything in context for my kids someday. So for this post, for once, I am going to depart from the norm and talk about some of the current events and dump some of my more serious thoughts. So skip it if you want. This is a big part of our lives right now and I may need to remember some of it in the future so I'm recording it here. But the next post is going to be about Tender Mercies again, just to keep everything in balance.

Subject #1: For at least all of my adult life, I have realized that one of Satan's big lies is that what I choose to do is my own business, and no one else's. Sorry, it just doesn't work that way! The choices we make have an impact on everyone around us--for good or for bad. It's a truth that we just can't escape. For the most part, I have been the grateful beneficiary of good decisions made by those close to me--I thank you for that! Society as a whole, I can't say the same about, unfortunately. For years I have shredded numerous credit card offers a day that have arrived in my mailbox and thought as I have done so, "It is insane how easy it is to go into debt in this world. Some people are actually getting all these credit cards and spending money they don't have and someday it is all going to blow up on us and we are all going to pay for it." I have just always hoped that someday would be after I departed the planet. (Not that I don't worry about my posterity...)

About 3 years ago, we watched the housing prices in Arizona skyrocket. Everyone started going crazy and buying houses to rent for investment purposes and others were taking out home equity loans on the tremendous equity they had gained as their home's value rose at an incredibly fast rate and Niles and I just looked at each other, shook our heads, and said, "This is crazy! It's all going to crash someday." But we weren't overly concerned because we didn't realize that we would be trying to move out-of-state and sell our house as everything crashed.

So that brings us to our current times, when for the first time in my life, I find that I avoid listening to the news, because all this talk of recession and stocks crashing and bail-outs and dire predictions about where the unemployment rates are headed and such leaves me feeling downright frightened. And I ask myself, what is wrong with me? It's not like I haven't heard all this before. And it's not like I believe the media is giving me an unbiased view of things, either. So I've been pondering why I feel so panicky these days. What is different for me now? I've always known that other people's poor choices (as well as my own--don't get me wrong--I cause myself enough trouble without anyone else's help) could cause me grief. But the difference is that now I have lived the reality of that and I don't feel like doing it again any time soon! I have now lived with the reality of unemployment. I have now lived the reality of gas costing $4.00/gallon. I have now lived the reality of many food commodities doubling in price. I have now lived the reality of trying to sell my house so I can move and having it take almost an entire year while I watched my home's value drop about 28%. And there was nothing I could do about it.

Thank goodness we hadn't taken out a home equity loan and thank goodness we bought our house BEFORE the prices went crazy so we didn't owe more than our house was worth. Thank goodness that we have always looked at what the mortgage company said we could afford and said, "Funny that they think we can afford that! There is no way we can afford that!" And we've looked in a more modest price range. Through the grace of God, and the generosity of family we survived the housing crises and ended up miraculously well. And I mean miraculously literally. When I look at it that way, I have to wonder at my lack of faith because I can see clearly that we were oh so taken care of. I should feel ready to face any challenge with complete faith that it will all work out. Well, I do still have faith that whatever may come, it will all work out. But that doesn't mean that I am feeling gung-ho about facing more challenges just now. And I also know that things "all working out" doesn't mean it will go the way I want it to. As a family, we are still in recovery mode--thank you very much--so I am just not feeling ready for the economy to crash right now. So I really wish it would hold off until we have healed a little and saved a little and had time to feel a little more prepared. In a word, we feel very VULNERABLE right now. It's not a good feeling. I keep reminding myself of the words of one of our modern-day apostles, who reminded us at our recent general conference that you cannot feel faith and fear at the same time. My faith must be lacking because I feel so much fear. I have to do all those things that increase faith if I want to stop feeling fear. So I'm working on it and it is helping...

Subject #2: I am a registered Republican. This doesn't mean that I agree with everything they support. It also doesn't mean that I don't agree with some of the ideals of the democratic party. However, I don't happen to agree with a lot of their ideas about how to accomplish their desires. Just two examples: #1 Democrats want peace. So do I! Reality check--not many people WANT war. Almost none. Do you know what I remember most about September 11, 2001? My 6-month-old son, Jet, started crawling on that day. As I sat in front of the television all day, trying to comprehend what had happened and what it meant and how our lives had changed forever, I wondered, with fear, if my baby boy would some day be in uniform, off to a foreign land to defend our rights and freedom. Of course I pray not. Of course I know that if that ever were to happen, I can't even comprehend the fear and the grief I would feel. But I also know that if it were necessary, I would have to do it. How extremely selfish would it be to try to keep my boys safe when I know that other mothers before me have given up their sons so that I can live in peace and freedom? It is a sacrifice that has been made many times in the history of this country. It is a sacrifice that continues to go on today. So of course I want peace. But I also know that the opposite of war is not always peace. It is often bondage, slavery, oppression. Unfortunately, there are people in this world who hate our country and would just as soon have us all dead. I wish it wasn't so but it is so we have to deal with that reality. The policies of the Democratic party seem to be in denial of this reality.

Democrats want to help the poor. So do I! I just don't think that's the government's job, for the most part. I believe in the free market system. I believe that it will help the most people if we let it operate with as little interference as possible. Of course there are problems and abuses of the system that need to be dealt with from time to time. But if you claim that the free market system isn't working, well, I would say that we can't really tell if it is working because currently it isn't a free market system. The government is already interfering with it far too much for us really to be able to tell. I know that from my point of view, I'd really rather that the small business that my husband is employed by isn't taxed out of existence. I'd rather he have a job than that we qualify for some $1000 emergency relief check from the government. Yeah, that $1000 is going to go a long way to helping us out if my husband doesn't have a job. I believe in giving to others, but I want to choose who I give to. I want to give my money to organizations that I trust will manage those donated funds well in a way that will benefit those who truly need it the most. I don't want to be forced to help the poor through taxes to "redistribute" the wealth. Sorry, the government DOES NOT qualify as one of those organizations that I trust to manage funds well in a way that will benefit those who truly need it the most. I just don't believe that the Democratic party's ideas of how to best help the economy and allow all of us to prosper are going to work.

The most disturbing thing I heard on election day was some lady that they interviewed in an exit poll. Her comment was something like this, "I'm just so excited! I thought this day would never come. He's (speaking of Barrack Obama) going to pay my mortgage and fill my gas tank! This is a great day!"

Reasons this disturbed me:

1. It is not the President's job (or the government's job) to pay any of our mortgages or fill any of our gas tanks.

2. There are people in this country who think it is the government's job to do this.

3. There are people that want the government to do this instead of wanting to be self-reliant and do it themselves.

4. There are many people like this particular lady who cast their votes obviously without doing much research if they think that this is what Barrack Obama is going to do for them.

5. The news media made it very easy for people to think that this is what Barrack Obama was going to do for them. Which reminded me, once again, of how very disturbed I was about how one-sided the entire election coverage was and how disturbed I am that most people don't even realize how one-sided it was so made their election decision with only half the information they needed to make an intelligent choice.

6. Maybe they are right and Barrack Obama is going to pay their mortgage and fill their gas tank--which would definitely NOT be a good thing to do. But I doubt it. I think these people are in for a big dose of disillusionment over the next few years.

Don't get me wrong, I am THRILLED that we live in a day and age when prejudice against people of African-American ancestry has diminished to the point that we could elect an African-American man as President of the United States. I rejoice in that aspect of this recent election. But I just don't think he was the right African-American man. Not that I was thrilled with the Republican Party's candidate, but his ideas about how to fix things more closely matched my own feelings. I have serious doubts about Barrack Obama's qualifications and character. I hope I'm wrong about him, because he is going to be my President. I will pray that he has strength and wisdom as he takes on an extremely difficult job.

Whew! Got all that off my chest. I feel better now.

Three Days of Birthday

Atom's birthday fell on a particularly busy week.

Day #1: We had him open his presents the night before his actual birthday because Jumble wanted to be a part of it and she was gone from 4-10 p.m. on his birthday (to a YW activity in Salt Lake City.) Niles also had a work meeting on his birthday evening. Monday night wasn't a possibility because Jumble had a band concert (which was amazing!) Thursday also wasn't a possibility because Niles had a work meeting for a city up by Logan and didn't get home until 1:00 a.m. (Besides, you can't expect a 4-year-old to wait for his presents until the day AFTER his birthday!) It wasn't like the night we opened presents wasn't busy, though. Niles squeezed in voting and going to the temple after work and I had enrichment night. We still managed to fit in the opening of presents and cake and ice cream.

You can tell it is November 4th--election day, not November 5th. Jet has a sticker for voting in his school's mock election and Atom has a sticker from going with me to vote earlier in the day.

Yes, folks, that is a Mormon Tabernacle Choir DVD--not your typical gift for a 4-year-old boy. But Atom is not a typical 4-year-old boy.

He does like average 4-year-old boy stuff, too. Here he is knocking down pins with his new barnyard bowling set. I would like this toy a lot better if the ball didn't moo and make pins-falling-over noises. But the batteries will wear out sometime soon, and at least it has an "off" switch! Jet is enjoying one of the benefits of not being an only child--you can enjoy your siblings' birthday gifts when it isn't your birthday. I think Jet was as excited about Atom's gifts as Atom was.

Blowing out the candles!

Day #2: This was his actual birthday. He enjoyed playing with his new toys all day and we went shopping for some things for his birthday party. I bought him a "Cars" birthday balloon because I wanted one for his party and I knew from past experience that it would last for weeks--saved me a trip back to the store on party day.

How did he get to be so big?

Day #3: On Friday, we had a birthday party with the boys in the neighborhood and one cousin. I follow my Mom's practice of doing birthday parties when my kids turn 4, 8, and 12 plus they get to pick one extra year. I thought it was a great idea since kids certainly don't need a party every year and the theory was that I could spread out the work of doing parties over the years instead of having them all bunched together a certain year. That theory worked out great until I had 3 of my four children born nearly four years apart! As a result, Atom's is the first of three parties I will be throwing in the next six months. Jet will be turning eight and Minnie will be turning twelve by next May. Oh well. If I could have had my children as fast as I wanted them, I would have ended up with more children total which would have meant more parties to throw.

My husband rolled his eyes when I said I was going to keep Atom's party simple. He thinks I don't know how to keep parties simple. I have to admit that he's right. I can blame this on my parents as well, who did magnificent themed parties for all of us growing up. But I'll save some of those stories for another post. Let's just say that in my family, a party does NOT mean that you pay for a party at Chuck E. Cheese's. A REAL party is at your house with all kinds of fun themed decorations, games, and favors that you helped your parents plan and make stuff for, when you were old enough. And you had the fun of watching your Mom and Dad act a little less like adults for a day while doing fun things with you and your friends. (I don't know if my kids will look back and wish they had the other kind of party someday but I always thought our parties were the BEST growing up.)

Atom wanted to have a Cars party which was easy to come up with great ideas for. Here's some of the photos:

I managed to get my beloved Saguaro cactus into the decorating theme!

Atom playing with the beanbag toss game before the party started. (You can see the wall the former owners never finished painting!)

I had so much fun making these "Lighning McQueen" and "The King" cars out of cardboard boxes for one of the games. The wheels and headlights come off so they can be changed in "the pit" during "the race" and they have removable gas caps on the back so they can also refill the tank during a "pit stop." (The gas can is that orange and white thing in front.)

I love that black and white checkered crepe paper I found.

This is the cake. Niles and I consulted on the design--he is the one that actually made it a reality. I saved the cone candles from Jet's 4th "Bob the Builder" party. They worked great with Atom's Cars theme, too!

I made these place tags that look like traffic lights. The boys gobbled them up, of course!

Coloring cars at "Ramone's House of Body Art."

Rolling tires at "Sally Carrera's Cozy Cone Motel."

"Pit Stop" at "the Racetrack."

Tossing beanbags into tires at "Luigi's House of Tires." That's Atom's cousin, Zane, and his friend, Marcus.

They loved the racing game with pit stops. Those are Atom's friends--Parker, Daniel, and Caleb.

Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles on the cake.

Daniel and Jet help Atom open presents.

I think everyone had a great time, and I know I did, too, although I can't say I'm sorry that the party is now a happy memory!

More Halloween

Our first Halloween in Utah was great!! It waited until the next week to get cold. I don't think the temperature was much lower than what we were accustomed to in Arizona. We also got to go to Grandpa and Grandma's house and share the fun with the cousins!
This is my cute niece Gwen.

This is all of the younger Utah Pew cousins.

This is my cute niece Emily with Minnie. Minnie is only 5 1/2 months older than Emily, despite the difference in their heights. Minnie is on the tall side for her age (I have no idea where that came from with her short parents!) and Emily is on the short side. If you could put me at age 11 next to Minnie, I would probably have been about Emily's height, maybe shorter! I was always tiny for my age.

This is Atom showing our traditional Halloween dinner side-dish. He wanted to display his despite the fact that he had already destroyed it!

This is Minnie showing a non-mutilated version of our traditional jello with whipped-cream and skittles eyes Halloween dinner side dish. I serve one of my kids' favorite meals on Halloween--like Taco Soup or Taco Salad--in the hopes they will stuff themselves and not have so much room in their tummies for candy later! Minnie made sure I did the traditional jello this year. I must confess that last year I let them down--I think I totally forgot about it because my brain and heart were consumed with pining after the-love-of-my-life, who was living over 500 miles away at the time. He was sad about missing the kids in their costumes last year. I am SO GLAD that we are all together again this fall!

P.S. Can anyone tell me why my photos now show up in my post backwards from the order I load them?? It recently started doing this, despite the fact that I have not changed what I am doing to load them.

Our Budding Family Band

On Sunday I witnessed a sweet situation--Jumble and Minnie playing music together, down in Jumble's basement retreat (I say retreat--not bedroom--because it is a HUGE room.) I don't think they have ever played together before so I snapped a photo of the event. Jumble is being a pill about getting her photo taken lately, so that is why this photo doesn't show their beautiful faces. I had to sneak the photo from the hall without warning. Jet says he wants to play the trumpet. Atom, of course, wants to be the drum major! (He has been leading the Tabernacle Choir since he was 18 months old, after all. I bought him a musical baton for Christmas when he was 2-years-old and it is still one of his favorite toys!) Atom pointed the drum majors out to me the first time we watched the marching band play. He doesn't realize he has to learn an instrument first, and be one of the best at it, to be the drum major. So we'll just have to wait until he is older to find out what he'll choose to play. When we ask him what instrument he wants to play right now, he waves his arms in imitation of the drum major!

Speaking of Jumble and photos, here are a few that we got of her (under protest) after the band performed in St. George at the Red Rocks Invitational the night before the Las Vegas BOA Regional Championships. They took 1st Place in their division and swept all categories at this competition as well as Regionals the next day.

I took this terribly off-center photo of Niles with Jumble. My excuse is that the camera batteries were dying and I'd forgotten to bring an extra set with us. So you had to turn the camera on and quickly push the shutter before the camera turned off again.



As you can see, Niles managed to center the one of me with Jumble, despite the camera difficulty! Both Niles and I hate being in photos, as well as Jumble, but we will sacrifice our desires every so often when the event is important enough. I absolutely HATE this photo of myself but I'm being unselfish and posting it since it wouldn't be fair to Niles to just post the photo of him with Jumble. And I am very glad that I got to be there to see Jumble perform with her band--it was totally worth not getting to bed until 5:00 the next morning and only getting 4 hours of sleep before we had to get up and go for the day!

Follow-up on Grandma's Quilt

Annette suggested I send her a photo of the set of salt and pepper shakers that I got from Grandma Pew. I thought I would post it here as well, along with a photo of one of my Blakely's cactus glasses and a photo of my Grandpa Pew's little button-up shoes that he wore as a toddler. I usually have all three of these things displayed in a shadow box on my wall, but I haven't located the shadow box yet since the move.

My Grandpa was born in 1892, folks. So these shoes are over 100 years old! They used to sit on the dresser in my Grandparent's guest bedroom. I always LOVED them so when we went through the house after my Grandma passed away, that is the thing I wanted the most to remember them by. (I would have loved to have the shaker collection too, but of course I couldn't have everything! I already felt guilty enough about nabbing the shoes.) My wonderful Aunt Amy wouldn't stop looking for the shoes until she found them for me (they had been packed away in a box.) My Mom and Dad got the cactus glasses at that time, but my Mom gave them to me when I got married.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about and want to see my previous post on this subject, click here

If you want to see photos of more of my Grandma's shaker collection plus a bunch that Annette has added to it click here

And for all my siblings out there, Annette asked you to send her a photo of your shakers and I want to see them too, so please do it!!

Bands of America Regional Championship Performance

If you want to see a one-minute excerpt of Jumble's band performing at the BOA Regional Championships in Las Vegas, you can click on the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGRgdY4p6ww

This video was posted by Music For All, which is the organization that runs Bands of America. If you click on the "Watch in High Quality" link just below the screen on the right side, you get a much better picture quality, but you have to pause the video and wait for it to load--it takes awhile. If you are interested in marching bands in general, and want to see the other regional champions, type "2008 BOA Champion excerpts" in the You Tube search box and it will pop up all of the videos of the championship bands.

Jumble leaves for Indianapolis on Thursday and they are going to pipe in their performances to American Fork High School on Friday and Saturday so we are excited that we can go over and watch them! We just hope they are able to perform their best. They spent 14 hours in rehearsal on Friday and Saturday alone!

P.S. When Jumble watches this video she says, "We've gotten a lot better since then!"