Sunshine?

Just a short blog to say: the sun is breaking through the clouds. The house is taking on a new light and it’s wonderful…sunshine…I love it. I guess it’s a good thing I live in California. We’ve had about a week or so of nonstop rain/storms/fog—I don’t think it’s necessarily over, but at least I can see a little blue. And as the RS pres in Daisy’s ward so eloquently stated: “You don’t have to shovel sunshine.” Sorry dad, get back to shoveling. Or, just come and visit.

Orange Trees

It has recently occurred to me how different my kid’s lives are than mine was as a kid. And this mainly has to do with living in differing climes. So as we’re driving through the central valley on our way to St. George for big Canyon’s wedding—I keep pestering the kids every time we drive past orange orchards.
Me: “Lily, Canyon…look at all the orange trees.”
Them: “yeah, great mom.”
Me (ten minutes later): “Lily, Canyon…more orange trees.”
Dustin: “You keep talking about the orange trees.”
The kids: “We have one in our back yard, big deal mom.”

Oh yeah. We have an orange tree in our back yard. How do I explain to them that the first orange tree I ever saw was in Mesa, Arizona when I was about thirteen years old. It was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. Oranges, just growing on trees: everywhere. I guess I felt a little like Laura Ingalls when she tastes her first orange, I think that she was about fifteen. Anyway, I just sort of came to this realization that my kids aren’t interested in orange trees, they have one in their back yard. It reminds me of when Dustin and I first moved out here. We had several occasions at the beach (obviously) and it truly was amazing to me that people could go to the beach and not swim. I mean, growing up, when ever we made it to the ocean—maybe once a year on the Oregon coast, brrr—we thought it was the greatest and we swam in it for hours: oblivious to currents, creatures, and cold. Every time we went to the beach the first few years that we were married, Dustin would just stand on the beach and watch me swim. I’m sorry to say, that, lately…I’ve been content to just stand on the beach myself. Anyway, things are just different. My kids, however, are EXTREMELY excited to see snow in ANY form—and that could be the water in the tractor bucket that froze over night, or the snow brushing the top of Mt. Diablo, or frost on the roof. Looking back, snow was exciting for us for about a day…and then we probably treated it like an orange tree: “Snow, oh yeah, we have that in our back yard.”

Yeah Sushi!

Alice, Jane, and I have been eating a lot of sushi lately. Yes, you heard it right. Alice LOVES sushi. When I bring it home she says “Yeah! Sushi!” Jane loves it also and Canyon will eat the seaweed and rice because he believes that Pirates probably eat seaweed sometimes. I think it started because I would get the ‘real sushi’ and make mac & cheese for the kids. Alice caught on real quick, though, that because I was making them eat something else, this sushi thing must be really great. So, I can’t keep it from her anymore. Lily wants to like sushi, but she can’t get past the texture…So it’s our big treat and once and a while, we can’t help it…and we get sushi.

Desperate Housewives

So let me preface this entry with the fact that I do not often watch “Desperate Housewives.” I would probably have never watched it at all except that when Tammy and Derek came out here a couple of years ago…they would come over every Sunday night and watch it religiously. So, for awhile, I was somewhat aware of the characters, etc. However, I haven’t watched it much since then…mostly because Dustin throws little man fits whenever the History Channel/Discovery/The Learning Channel isn’t on. Anyway, the last few weeks for some reason--probably because we’re both so tired we haven’t had the muster to change the channel—we have watched parts of it. So I was watching it on Sunday and Dustin was on the computer trying not to watch it (he’s so above “Desperate Housewives.” Now, let me explain one more thing…I can’t for the life of me ever remember the main character’s names…let alone new characters. So I’m always saying things like, “what happened to that one girl who was the writer? She’s pregnant now?” and things like that. The only one I remember is Lynette, because she is the most normal.

Anyway, Dustin starts saying things about the show, things that only a diehard fan should know (like character names). He’d say something like, “You know what’s going to happen, Victor and Carlos are going to fight and one of them is going to get killed.” Despite the fact that this statement is insanely ‘out there’ I’m freaking out because I don’t even know who Victor and Carlos are. How does he even know their names? It gets even weirder when Victor and Carlos do fight and Victor gets impaled by a fence post (they’re fighting in the middle of a tornado, yes, a tornado: I didn’t say it’s realistic).

Then he says: You know they just brought Sylvia on so that they could kill her, so you know she’s going to die.
Me: Who’s Sylvia ?!?
I’m absolutely incredulous. For the entire episode he’s spouting off accurate information. And all I can think is that he really must like “Desperate Housewives” more than he ever let on. It’s like this weird revelation: Dustin’s a closet “Housewives” fan.

I’m still reeling in disbelief as we go to bed…until the next morning. I open the computer to check my email and a “Desperate Housewives” blog comes up…with a synopsis of said episode, it includes all the names and explanations. I peed my pants I was laughing so hard. For those of you who don’t know Dustin…he’s not the most funny guy, but when he wants to, he can really kill.

When presented with the evidence, he was pretty proud of himself. So, if any of you are wondering what’s up with Susan, Edie, Bree, Lynette, and what’s her name, give Dustin a call.

Holiday Things

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with everyone it was full of food (of course), lots of rough play with uncles and aunts and nanas and papas, our new sport obsession, tennis, sleeping out in the barn, being the ball boy at Stanford (dad), a trip to the city (big kids), and a hike with nana and papa (little kids). Wish you all could’ve been here. We had a lot to be grateful for, and in our Family Home Evening last night we were able to get out of the kids what they were most grateful for (thanks to Lily, she did the entire lesson). Canyon: Jesus & Pirates, Lily: friends, Alice: Uncle Belle. Just a quick side-note, Alice calls Belle (the princess) Uncle Bill. We laugh about it, and called Uncle Bill to show proof, and in the great Uncle Bill fashion, he sent princess plates to Alice to have a little party with her friends…so she truly was grateful for Uncle Belle (as we lovingly call him now).

Now we are officially in the throws of the Holiday melt-down. Our DeHaro Christmas party is on Saturday and so we are busy getting the barn ready and figuring out food and such. It’ll be great fun…it just seems like a lot of work to get there. So if anyone is bored and wants to come and clean out and decorate the barn…feel free to stop in.

Pretty Princess Pantelettes

The inevitable day has come…we are now in the season of potty training. We have been gearing up for this one for a while with Alice. We would read the “Princess and the Potty” every night before bed and talk about princesses, potties, and pretty pantelettes (princess talk for panties). We would even leave a diaper off in the mornings while we were home to “see what would happen.” And the answer to that question: nothing. Apparently Alice has the ability to “hold her water” for hours, nay, perhaps days at a time. So she would never have an accident…and never really went on the toilet either. Eventually she would go in her diaper when we went out. That all changed with a combination of things: we happened to “catch” the pee in the toilet, and we traded the Grandma Laurie approved, but not so pretty, granny training pants for pretty princess panties. That seemed to do the trick and we’ve had few accidents in between. A little side-note for those who are interested: apparently it’s ok to poo in your pretty panties—just not pee.

Anyway, wish us luck…because there’s no turning back, we are officially on the slippery slope (literally) to being trained.

Something About Me

So, I’ve been tagged for the second time. The first time…by my friend Lisa—and I neglected to post. So, I guess the second time I’d better do something about it. My brother-in-law, Shayne, tagged me and so here goes nothing:

Places I’ve lived:
1. Logan, UT
2. Garden City (Bear Lake), UT
3. Hamilton, New Zealand (Yes, Middle Earth)
4. Livermore, California

Jobs:
1. Scout camp merit badge counselor
2. Lifeguard
3. A technician at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in the Biology Dept. (You know that little Human Genome project: that was me).
4. Substitute teacher

Favorite Food:
1. homemade chicken Pot pie
2. York peppermint patties
3. Sushi
4. gyros

Children:
1. Lily
2. Canyon
3. Alice
4. Jane

Favorite Books:
1. Great Expectations—Charles Dickens
2. My Antonia—Willa Cather
3. Heidi—Johanna Spyri
4. Little House on the Prairie—Laura Ingalls Wilder

Favorite Movies:
1. Out of Africa (much to Dustin’s dismay)
2. Spanglish
3. Stranger than Fiction
4. Drowning Mona

Talents and Abilities:
1. Having babies (not sure if this counts…but it’s at least something I’ve done often and hope to never do again.
2. bagging groceries: seriously, I once had a checker ask me, as I was bagging my own groceries, if I had ever done it professionally.
3. faux cleaning: this is making things appear clean, even though, upon closer inspection, they clearly are not.
4. cooking. While I continue to not impress my children with my cooking abilities—I never cease to amaze myself.

Favorite T.V. shows:
1. I don’t watch tv, I mainly just have intellectual conversations with my children in the evenings.
2. all right: Lost
3. House
4. The Office

Favorite places I’ve been on Vacation:
1. Disneyland, CA
2. Epcot Center, DisneyWorld, FL (ok, I know, I’ve turned into a Disney Freak).
3. Backpacking on the Pacific Coast Trail
4. Yosemite

Best time of the Day:
1. Bedtime
2. Naptime
3. Early morning swim workouts (sans kids)
4. Sunday mornings all together

Things I used to like to do:
1. backpacking
2. snow skiing
3. climbing
4. water sports (canoe, kayak, sail…)

Things I like to do now:
1. read to my kids
2. make quilts and Halloween costumes
3. swim/run
4. read with Lily, play pirates with Canyon, play princess with Alice, nurse Jane

There you go, now don’t go asking me to bag your groceries for you. I tag Trieste, Katrina, and Canyon.