Random

By the way, Keryn, here is that post I was telling you about earlier today about the spelling bee...I finally found it. It was driving me crazy that I couldn't remember where I had read it!

QOTW

So, I'm totally recommitting to this blog. I was recently looking at the archives and I just love how interactive we all were when we first started this thing. I'm totally guilty lately of not posting...only reading. The trouble with this is, if all of us do it, there's nothing ever to read! And I love hearing about your lives, all the random tidbits that make up my family's everyday lives. So, in an effort to get conversation going again, I thought I would resurrect the Question of the Week. Although I'm not sure that I can come up with such good questions as Caren once did, I will do my best. And if anyone has a question they would like to put as the QOTW, please feel free.

So, without further ado, this weeks QOTW is: What is your favorite board game and why?

This question was inspired by an office party that we went to tonight. At Tyler's old job at IT Training, they were having a Leap Year Party and they invited as many old employees as they could find as well as all the current ones. All we did was get together, eat snacky foods, and play games. And it was a lot of fun. Also, Tyler and I have decided that twice a month (the first and third Fridays), we will invite friends over to play games with us. We want to learn new games and introduce some our favorites to our friends.

My favorite? See, it's a tough question, because there are so many good ones out there. I love card games, like Spite and Malice, Uno, and Canasta. But I also word games, like Taboo, Scattegories, and Apples to Apples. Then there are the strategy games, such as Settlers of Catan (or Zarahemla, depending on what you have), Lord of the Rings, and Risk. But I think my all-time favorite game right now is a game called Bang! It's a card game that involves strategy, but at the same time, it's a lot of really good Old Western fun. If you want a description of the game, you can follow the link above. It's complicated, but only at first. Once you start playing, everything starts to make sense and you spend the rest of the game trying to figure out who's on your side and who's trying to kill you. There's dynamite, jail, Indians, Gatling guns, and a whole lot of shooting. We own it now, so the next family get together, when all the kids are in bed, we'll have to introduce you to this game.

RE: Smith Life

Oh, Telima, I imagine we've all been there--physically exhausted, wishing we didn't have to do what we know we have to do, and yet knowing it is best this way. I'm glad you had that sweet moment at the end.

And I'm not a nanny, but if you want to bring your kiddos over to my house, I could watch them while you get a little nap...if you want. I won't clean your kitchen, though. My own kitchen is bad enough (as you well know!).

(The work party tonight? You still going? We are.)

A Night in the Lives of the Smiths

Let me set the scene for you. We'll start with me: As you're probably aware, I've been pretty sick recently. I'm feeling much better, of course, but I have this lingering cough...you know the one. It makes me sound as if I'm either dying or turning into a big dog, depending on who you listen to. It scares my poor children, especially Jayson, every time I cough. I swear, he's going to have major dog issues because of this cough. Anyway, add to that a really runny nose and you've got my situation down pretty well. Both of our kids are also struggling with major congestion at the moment, which is more of a real problem with Jayson (as it prevents him from eating and sleeping) and more of a real annoyance with Katy (who has snot constantly running down her face because of it). Tyler has been doing pretty well, considering. I mean, the house is in a constant state of chaos because I haven't had the energy or the desire to clean it lately and that sort of stresses him out. (What this really means is that the kitchen is a disaster area...Tyler's good about cleaning everything else, even without my help sometimes.) But I try really hard to let him sleep as much as possible at night, because he has to go to school and work during the day and needs his sleep. This was the state of things last night as we bedded the kids down and then waited a reasonable amount of time to go to bed ourselves.

Katy was completely out of sorts last night, because, although she did take an almost three hour nap, she only got the one nap. She's in a lovely in-between stage right now, where it's better for my peace of mind and hers if she gets two naps during the day, but she's stubborn and will only take one. So, by eight o'clock, she and I were both more than ready for her to go to bed. All seemed well on that front. She went right down, with little struggle. An hour later, I fed Jayson one more time and then put him down. He still sleeps in our room right now. It was 9:30. Tyler and I could be reasonably sure that we would be able to go to bed by 10. It sometimes takes Jayson that long to fall asleep, but rarely does it take longer. All seemed to be going well, Jayson wasn't even crying.

Then, it all fell apart. Around 10, Jayson started crying. Not too hard, but enough. So, we waited. We let him cry it out. When he stopped, we gave him a few minutes to really fall asleep before we headed in to bed. Just as I was about to suggest that we go to bed, he started again. So, we did the same thing. And again, just as I was going to say we should go to bed, he started crying again. Finally, it seemed he was done. By this time, it was almost 11:00 and my sight was starting to go a little fuzzy around the edges for want of sleep. We went to bed. No sooner had we settled in, than Jayson started to fuss again. I'm pretty sure that he didn't actually start to cry, but I'm not certain. I checked to make sure he wasn't laying on anything he shouldn't be, stuffed his pacifier (which he doesn't really like that much) back into his mouth and ignored him. Since I can't usually sleep through his cries, I'm fairly certain that he went back to sleep. Just as I was drifting off, I heard a faint cry from Katy's room and I knew then for sure...it was going to be a LONG night.

Sure enough, I was up twice and Tyler once with Katy, and Jayson fussed pretty much all night long. Never really crying, just gasping for air and being generally distressed. When 6:30 rolled around and Jayson really woke up, needing to be fed, it was still MUCH too early for me. As I groggily fixed him a bottle and rescued him from his bed, I thought about how mornings like this almost make me wish we had a nanny. Someone who could take Jayson in the morning and feed him, burp him, and change him. Someone who would play with Katy, help her get dressed, and change her diapers. Someone who could clean my kitchen (sheesh, my whole apartment, why not) and make fabulous meals for my husband and children. All so that I could go back to sleep for as long as I wanted, take long, luxurious showers, and maybe do my hair and dress up for my husband every once in a while. Ahhh, that would be the life.

But I find as I look at my children this morning, Katy tucked close beside me, her thumb in her mouth and her head resting on my arm as I type, and Jayson contentedly sitting in his swing, that I wouldn't trade little moments like these for the world. I love my children, almost to distraction sometimes, and I wouldn't give up raising them myself for anything. No matter how much I think about it in the middle of a sleepless night.

Update

I am feeling better...just dealing with the repercussions of me being sick now. In other words, it still sounds like I'm dying whenever I cough, which is pretty much constant. But I'm not achy anymore and I'm actually starving after not really eating anything for two days.

On the plus side, Tyler stayed home yesterday to help me with the kids so I could get some real rest. And today, my kiddos are actually being soooo good. Katy's been asleep for 2 hours and 40 minutes now, which is just amazing, and Jayson just went down too. Quiet house! Yay! And neither of them are acting sick.

So, I know that we haven't posted many pictures on here lately, but we're working on getting them up on our website. As soon as we have them up there, I'll be sure to let you all know so you can see some cute pictures of my cute kids. Jayson, especially, since he started smiling, has been charming just about everyone.

Oh, and David? Congrats! That sounds like a busy, but really fun calling! Love you all!!!

Toothy-eye

Ewwww, Telima, that just wigs me out. I'm glad it worked, but...ugh.

Are you feeling any better yet?

And has anyone else gotten this yucky flu? It is dizzy, achy, cough-y, sick-to-your-stomachy, etc. It seriously seems to have a two week incubation period, because I think I got it from Relia--whom I hadn't seen for two weeks, and Telima got it from me but 12 days after I was sick...

How weird is this?

I saw this article today while I was browsing and I just had to share:

Blind Irishman sees with the aid of son's tooth in his eye

New calling!!

Good afternoon All!

I told Mom that I would do this last night but I never got around to it. Yesterday Amy and I were called in to speak to a member of the stake presidency. It seems that the current Stake Young Mens Secretary moved out of the Stake boundaries and they decided that I would like the job. We are excited about this, all except the 6:30 AM sunday meetings anyway. Just thought you all should know.

Thanks,
David and Amy

Joyful Sabbath--Is it even possible with three small children?

The recent worldwide leadership training meeting on February 9 on the topic of "Building up a righteous posterity" gave me a lot of food for thought. (You can listen, watch, or read transcripts now from the Church's website.) One part in particular made an impression on both my husband and me:

Elder Holland: Could I make a plea to our group and to the larger Church that we do everything possible to reclaim the joy of the Sabbath. I don’t know that we could do more to enhance family unity in the Church than to enjoy Sunday fully. And we do enjoy it. I enjoy it. As busy as I am, I live for Sunday. But the early scriptural declarations, I’m thinking particularly clear back into the Old Testament, up to and including our own Doctrine and Covenants pronouncements, have been about the joy of the Sabbath, the joy of worship, and the delight of the Sabbath. Surely we can do better at having a Sabbath together.

Too often for me Sunday is not a joyful day. All our schedules are messed up--missed naps (thank goodness for 9am church this year!), cranky children, long meetings, extra responsibilities, etc, etc, etc. I rarely get anything out of sacrament meeting (three children under five), and although I adore my calling, I don't get any gospel instruction time. Usually I can't wait to put the kids in bed (is 6pm too early?), and veg in front of my computer for the rest of the evening. I go to my meetings, I do my visiting teaching, and I try not to let the kids watch TV or play outside with friends. But a joyful Sabbath it is not.

After the leadership training meeting, my husband and I vowed to do better. Naturally the next week he was called as the Elders' Quorum President. But, interestingly enough, even though he has more meetings on Sunday, we have had a series of marvelous Sabbath days. We've had Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner (they're going on a mission soon), we've played games, written letters, told gospel and non-gospel stories, had a "picnic" dinner in the living room, taken naps (a personal favorite). It's been a joy to spend so much fun time with my family.

Don't get me wrong. Sacrament meeting is still a struggle (last week was mortifying--my children were so loud multiple people turned around to give me sympathetic looks; we have an understanding ward!), the kids still don't like to nap, and we're still barred from going on walks by the weather. But I've enjoyed the last three Sundays more than any for the last year, at least. I hope we can keep it up--it certainly does prepare me for the coming week.

Dental musings

Five and a half hours is a long time to be in a dentist chair. Fifteen-plus shots is a lot for a mouth to handle. But the look on my dentist's face when he contemplated the $4000+ fee for the morning's work, thus paying for his next European vacation? Priceless.

(I kid. Perhaps I only paid for his next trip to Hawaii. It's hard to say.)

I had the TV to keep me amused, which was fabulous. It's suspended in such a way over the chair that you can see it when you are tipped all the way back, mouth gaping open. Suspended over your face in such a way that you spend about five minutes contemplating the bolts holding it to the ceiling, and wondering if there was a 6.0 earthquake (like in Wells, NV yesterday), would the TV come crashing down onto your head?

I got to watch the news (CNN, MSNBC, Fox), Mythbusters (confirmed: the faster you go over a washboard dirt road, the smoother the ride; busted: you can have a car stereo big and loud enough to explode your car), the end of the classic movie "An Affair to Remember", and...I don't really remember what else. Some History Channel stuff about bridges, and a National Geographic thing on big spiders. It's a little hazy, given the amount of novacaine I had in my mouth.

But one thing to take away from this appointment (besides a beautiful, fixed mouth)(mostly): I have an especially thick jaw, especially around the hinge. Like more jawbone then most people have. So, LaDale, if you want some, apparently I have bone to spare. Too bad I can't share the wealth. (Bytheway*, this came up because the dentist had to give me FIVE shots to do one tooth in the back, because my jawbone was so thick it was making it really hard for the numbing stuff to get to the nerve.)

*John!

RE: dentist

Why, yes, my face is puffy and swollen.

Yes, I had one root canal, six fillings, and one wisdom tooth extraction.

And, yes, I'm going to bed now. I love you all. Thanks for the luck, LaDale, it helped.

LUCK

Dentists

Dislikes: five hours in the dentist chair (Friday, eight to one)
Dislikes: Having to pay $3000 (out of pocket, mind you) for the privilege

Likes: Actually being able to pay for it without going into debt. Thank you tax returns and FSA

Wish me luck!

Likes and Dislikes

This is completely random but is something I've been thinking of a lot lately.

Likes:

-Heroes- I've been looking at the series I keep checking out of the library to watch: Lois and Clark, MacGyver, The Pretender (My favorite episodes are the places where he rescues people).
-Dragonhaven- I know it is not a favorite among many who love Robin McKinley. Personally I don't like all of hers but this one struck me for some reason and I really enjoyed it.
-Showers- Especially when it's cold outside and you're tired and but wound tight and need to relax and the water is HOT.


Dislikes:

-When you think it is going to snow--- and it doesn't and you think it is going to snow --- and it doesn't and you think... etc, etc, etc.
-Wal-Mart on Saturday when you spend more time in the check-out line than you did collecting the food you are buying.
-Cold fingers- I love winter. I love when my cheeks and nose are just cold enough I HATE cold fingers.

OK, so I need to end with a positive:

LOVE:

-MY FAMILY- I LOVE you guys and miss you so much. Please know that I think of you often, everyday!! I pray for you and love you!

Jobs

Well, Jeff has two job interviews tomorrow. The first at 2:30, is just for a head hunter place, so nothing much. The second is for an actual company, for an actual job. We also have started to get some feedback from Wells Fargo. I hope to be able to report good things soon!

Quick Trip

Bradley's high school librarian passed away tonight, and we're going to take a quick trip down to Page for the funeral. We're going to leave tomorrow about noon-ish and come back Tuesday evening. Not that any of you really care very much, but I thought I'd let you know.

This will be our first road trip with the iPhone. Which means we can access the internet FROM THE ROAD. I get chills just thinking about it.

Over and out!

Bradley's iPhone

I'm posting this from Brad's new work phone. Pretty cool, huh?

Of course, my regular computer is sitting right next to me, so the fact that I'm typing on a little bity screen is rather ridiculous.

Roses

Fun article about the meaning of flowers, and of colored roses! I always wanted to know!
http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/89450/what-that-rose-says-about-you

Indiana Jones

The new Indiana Jones movie will be out on May 22! The trailer is out, too! See it here...
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/indianajones.html?showVideo=1

Feb 14

Happy Valentines Day!

Good-bye, Dora

Oh, Samuel and Caren, I'm sorry about Dora. When a dog starts biting, though, especially with little kids around...yeah. Not good. Not that I really know, though. I keep telling Bradley we'll get a dog when our youngest is in kindergarten. Maybe I'll never stop having kids...naw, I imagine that someday I'll be unable to forget the trials of pregnancy, and even a puppy will seem like a good thing to do. Someday.

Sounds like Tink will be a good fit for your family, though. Good luck with her! And it's good to hear from you, too, Samuel.

Tonight I'm going to a lecture at BYU on global warming. It should be really good. If I learn anything fabulous, I'll report here! Love you all.

Oh, what HAVE we done??

(Note: The news article is not satire. My commentary may be.)

Veteran Loch Ness Monster Hunter Gives Up

Legendary Nessie hunter Robert Rines is giving up his search for the monster after 37 years...Despite having hundreds of sonar contacts over the years, the trail has since gone cold and Rines believes that Nessie may be dead, a victim of global warming.

I have no words. I am horrified that our greed, selfishness, and disregard for others has led to this tragic event. What, I ask, is the point of living in a world without Nessie?

Puppy Love

G'Day to all who read this.

Most if not all of you know that right before Christmas Caren and I bought a puppy outside our local Walmart. We named her Dora. Since she was bought outside a store and not inside the store, she is a mutt of sorts and we, at least in that respect, knew this much about her. We were told she would be a medium sized dog who would grow to be less then 30 lbs. Well, as of last Sunday, 10 Feb., she was 22 lbs and still growing. As she was still growing and had all the energy of a puppy, she was becoming over-powering for Adam, Kip, and Caren, who had to chase her every time she needed to be put outside. Dora loved to play with Adam, who in turn loved to play with her. This meant that Adam kept opening the back door to let her in even if she was not allowed inside at the time. She also still had her puppy teeth and was knawing at anything and everything she could. In her playing she would bite, although lightly, those that she was playing with. This includes Adam, Caren, Kip and myself. We kept trying to teach her that biting, even in this playful way, was not allowed. The biting scared Kip and started to scare Adam a few days ago. We knew that since she was still growing and we did not have the time to put into her training to become the adult dog we could handle, that we would have to give her up. This, of course would devastate our boys, even though they were starting to get scared of her. they still liked the idea of a puppy. As of today, Wednesday 13 Feb., Dora was taken into a lovely animal shelter where we hope another more suitable family will adopt her.

In a related train of thought we are still on the income of 'poot college student' wages. With 2 kids and minimal income we are anticipating a nice sum of 'earned income credit' from the government. With my father-in-law being willing and able to do our tax return forms for us we have our anticipated date of when to expect 'our' money from the government. With a portion of this money, Caren and I have desided to look again for a puppy to replace Dora. we already have everything for a puppy that we thought would be small. All we needed was the dog.

Last Monday, 11 Feb., our family decided to visit a mall for 2 main reasons. The Choco cat items at teh Sanrio store were on clearance, Caren loves that caracter from Hello Kitty, and to look in their pet store for possible candidates of puppies. All was going well, Caren had to hold back on several item because they were at such low prices. even low prices are still prices and money from our pockets. (Side note: I'm glad Caren can hold back when she needs to.) After this trip we made our way to the pet store. We looked quickly at the prices of the puppies. They had a wide selection and even had several puppies on sale. I asked the woman behind the counter if she could answer some questions about the puppies for me. It turned out that I asked the manager of the store. She came over and I asked if a certain awake puppy was the Silky Terrier from the price tag. She confirmed this and asked if we wanted to play with the puppy. Of course Caren and I knew our boys would love this even if we don't buy this puppy. As we talked with the manager we were able to discover that this puppy would get to be 12 lbs if she was lucky. Most likely she would grow to be 10 lbs. She had a sturdier build then other small dogs and whould therefore be able to handle the play from our boys. By the end of 30 minutes Caren and I were in love with this little dog. We did buy her and brought her home with us. We have decided to call her Tinkerbell or Tink for short. Adam loves her as she is willing to sit in his lap.

Now you all might have noticed that Dora was still home when we brought Tink home. Dora was extremely currious about this new dog. They sniffed each other but Dora is 3-4 times Tink's size. Tink even growled at Dora yesterday. So Dora stayed outside whiile Tink stayed inside. As you know from above we gave Dora away today. Now Tink and our boys can learn how to play with each other without a massive Dora demanding their attention.

The End - SKT

P.S. Pictures will follow if I remember to bring the camera with me to school.

Sister Ruth Faust

Sister Ruth Faust passed away this morning. I'm so glad she is with her husband now.


Oh, and HA! LaDale, I missed the leadership training, but Bradley went. I just asked him if someone said something about it, and he remembered...but it didn't mean anything to him. Awesome! It'll be available on the Church's website on Tuesday, for everyone who didn't make it.

Our childhood

No Bears are out tonight. Daddy killed them all last night.

Shauna turns to me with a total look of confusion and I say, "I loved that game!"

She says, "I've never heard of it."

I guess we were just privileged!

Aaron the Famous

So I imagine most of us have heard that Aaron Fotheringham was featured on ESPN last Thursday. Luckily enough for those of us without ESPN, we can watch the feature online (note: I had to use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox to get it to work). Warning: it might make you cry. Wow! It is a really cool feature, and I'm so proud of Aaron. And I'm glad for my own selfish sake, too...I'm so pumped that my Gideon-boy gets to be related to such a famous guy!

Election

Ok, so what is everyone's take on Romney dropping out. Everything I have read says that he did an excellent job in excusing himself from the race. In fact, the media seems to be all but giving their approval for him to try again in a few years. Also, that leaves McCain as the shoe-in, how does everyone feel about that!

Long lost brother from Arizona, (and his family)

It is late for me right now. 10:30pm on 'super tuesday.' Maybe instead I should be out celebrating Marti Gras? (Most likely not spelled right) I want you all to know that I love you and that I am thinking about you all almost on a daily basis if not more so. Thank you all for thinking about my family in return. There is so much I want to right to you but I am fighting staying awake. The short of it all is that we have found a medication that lessens the burning and itching feeling in Caren's skin. We know this because she tried a different medication on Sunday and Monday which did not work at all and realized this other stuff was helping, even if is not eliminating the problem. Maybe over time it will eliminate the problem. We can only hope. Again I love you and I love reading about your lives. I also enjoy the insight on the election given by Keryn. Last presidential election, as I lived in Utah still, Keryn helped me see the view points of the candidates without declaring who she supported. I liked that. I really don't take the time to find out that stuff on my own. Oh well. I will try to write more soon. SKT

Talent Show

I know exactly what you are talking about! Heather's activity day group did one a few months ago. I know "Fabulous" by heart, so many of them did it! Heather, however, did not join the madness! She chose to perform her own personal piano composition. She practiced and practiced and did quite well, concidering it wasen't a written song!

The down side

The only problem with the wonderful Talent show spoken of below, is the endless repetition of High School Musical music every other child felt like they had to sing to or lip-sync to or dance to.

It was mind numbingly boring!!!


But better than the hip hop dancing that bordered on indecent we used to get at Lois Craig.

We must count our blessings.

Action against poverty

This is kind of neat.

As many of you know, I work at an IB school or an International Baccalaureate School. This means that one think we push is to teach the students to be internationally minded and basically, to think beyond their own close world and to take action to help it. That is part of what our big exhibition is every year. Even though, for the last two years, this process has almost pushed me into an early grave, the action the students have been taking has been incredible to watch. All the students had to complete some sort of action associated with poverty. Some worked at a soup kitchen, others participated in a book drive for those without access to books and still other in some sort of Christmas collection of toys for needy children.

The following link is still another way the students participated. A group of six fifth graders came up with the idea and followed it through with the help of their parents and the teachers at school. Many others, kindergarten through fifth grade participated. It was free to attend, but there was a donation box for those who wished to support the charity the students picked out. (The ONE was throughly researched by the students, then the principal and finally the superintendent before the okay was given.) They raised over $1,000.

Kind of neat, huh?

The ONE talent show

RE: Groundhog's Day

What is that Phil Conners says? "I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life."

Not really. But sometimes it sure feels like it.

On the upside, today Mema comes! Yay! Tomorrow is Jayson's blessing, and that will be awesome, too.

I love you all.

Feb 2

Happy GROUNDHOG Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry, Keryn, Six more weeks of winter.
Phil saw his shadow!