Just Some Stuff

No real cohesiveness to this post. Just some pictures really. Melynn is getting her canine teeth in and is not happy about it. She won't eat much. Here she is with a string cheese and a popsicle, two things she might eat if she is hungry enough.

 Emmett and his very elaborate train track. He is back into his trains again. I'm glad.

 Some Emmett art. This is a picture of Curious George (in the middle), with the man with the yellow hat (pictured here in orange) and their tall apartment building (on the left). He also included the sky, three clouds and the sun. Very impressive drawing.

 Here's a close-up shot. He even put windows and a door on his building. And eye brows!

 Melynn, my little rugrat.

 Emmett in his church clothes. Sister Davis gave him a future missionary sticker to wear so he would "be extra handsome".

 Emmett conked out the other day on the couch. Him napping is a rare occurrence and was a wonderful break for me. I wish this happened more often.

 Who's playing peekaboo?

 Emmett!!

 Just being silly.

 Here's a little video of Melynn at the park. She says, "Wheeee!" but her little voice is so quiet you can barely here it.

Fun Week With Grandma

We have had a great week with my mom visiting. It made the time without Josh go a little faster. The kids still miss him, especially Melynn. Last night she threw fits until he called and told her to go to bed. We took my mom all over town and saw some fun things. We did the zoo, the children's museum, Penzey's spices (we sniffed around until I got a headache), we visited my friend's house and saw her long-arm quilting machine, and more! Here are some pictures from the Children's Museum:

The last one is a cross stitch project that I created for the activity day girls. This is my prototype but I did make a few minor changes after finishing this, including a color change for the flowers. If you want to make it, you can look for it on www.sugardoodle.net. I'm hoping to contribute the pattern to the site for a simple craft for activity days or young women.

Pictures from Preschool

I taught our little preschool today about TRAINS. It was a lot of fun. At the end I had each boy count out 20 train track pieces and then they made a track out of them to play for the last few minutes. They each had their own track so we never had any fighting. It worked great. I took some pictures because the boys were wearing matching shirts, their train shirts!

Melynn was asleep during the preschool time but after she woke up and got happy (which can take awhile) she decided to pose in her new hat. It's cute:

And here are a couple others, just for memories:

Kid Art

I find myself being buried in paper clutter every once in a while. I try to throw a lot of it away as soon as possible, like junk mail. But kid art is really hard to throw away sometimes. I want to preserve it somehow, even if it is just scribbles on a pumpkin coloring page. So, my solution is to scan them in and put them here for all the world to see. And mostly for me to remember. I remember putting Emmett's coloring scribbles up on here just a while ago. And now look what he can do:

Okay, so the pumpkins were scribbled on by Melynn, but he did the other two. He learned all about airplanes at preschool with his friend Ethan. We are doing a little homeschool thing. I teach tomorrow about trains. They made the little airplane picture and glued cotton balls on for clouds. So cute! That was a hard one to throw away. The second one is just a butterfly he colored at the gym. They color a picture there almost every day. That is where Melynn colored the pumpkins. Oh, that is one of Melynn's new words: color. And she said sticker too. Tonight she attempted ice cream. It sounded more like yum yum to me and it was really funny when she put together, "yum yum mo" meaning "ice cream more". Then she giggled. And so did I because she is just so darn cute!

Maybe I'll keep a file folder with all the art and at the end of the month I can have Emmett and Melynn pick out their favorite two to put on the blog. I've got to come up with something or my whole journal will be art. Now that I think about it though, would that really be a bad thing? Probably not.

What I Want to Be for Halloween

On Friday we went to the library for a very special story time. A guest was coming: The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I totally want to borrow the costume for Halloween. Wouldn't I look great in this?

My favorite part was when the caterpillar would wiggle the short stubby legs. It was a riot. Here are the kids, both of them too chicken to even touch it:

And here are some more pictures, just for fun. Especially the really old ones of Emmett. This was from BEFORE I blogged. Crazy to think he was ever this little. He still loves playing in boxes though!

Where Were You Nine Years Ago?

Josh and I had a conversation last night about September 11th. We discussed where we were and the feelings we had when it happened. I told him about a conversation I had a couple years ago with the young women in the branch about 9/11. They were in 2nd and 3rd grade and it didn't really mean much to them as it did to me. And it probably didn't mean as much to me as it did my parents, and their parents. Don't call me a pessimist but I've been writing down all the natural disaster and other calamities that are talked about on the news since about April just as a record of how quickly our world is turning into a continual fulfillment of prophecies about the Second Coming of Christ. I'm not saying that he's coming tomorrow or anything; obviously I don't know when He will come. But I know He will come. And I'm trying to be watchful. Almost every day I can add something to my list. (i.e. Natural Gas explosion in San Bruno, CA; 85 houses burn in Detroit; forest fires in Boulder, CO; flooding in Pakistan; forest fires in Russia; landslides in Guatemala; Mexican drug war; pastor in FL wanting to burn the Koran, etc.) It is sad. And a little scary. But the more I write it down the less scared I feel because I think it would be harder if one day I woke up and my world was a nightmare that I never knew about. At least I'm trying to learn about it and again, be watchful.

So what does this have to do with 9/11? Probably nothing. I'm just rambling about feelings that I've had. And I think I started having them that day, as I walked down the stairs in the HFAC, on BYU campus and someone said to me, "An airplane just flew into the World Trade Center." I thought he was joking. How could that have actually happened? But I walked over to where the BYU radio station had placed a tv monitor for students to watch the live news report and sure enough, I saw LIVE the second airplane fly into the tower and watching the building crumble. It was so unreal. I think I can play that video in my head by just closing my eyes and thinking about it. That was the moment that I knew my world was changing. And it is still changing...boy, is it changing.

I saw this poem on someone else's blog. They didn't know the author and I don't either but it is good. My heart still goes out to all those that were killed or were affected by the tragedies on 9/11. I hope I never forget.

'MEET ME IN THE STAIRWELL'

You say you will never forget where you were when
you heard the news On September 11, 2001.
Neither will I.

I was on the 110th floor in a smoke filled room
with a man who called his wife to say 'Good-Bye.' I
held his fingers steady as he dialed. I gave him the peace to say, 'Honey, I am not going to make it, but it is OK..I am ready to go.'

I was with his wife when he called as she fed
breakfast to their children. I held her up as she
tried to understand his words and as she realized
he wasn't coming home that night.

I was in the stairwell of the 23rd floor when a
woman cried out to Me for help. 'I have been
knocking on the door of your heart for 50 years!' I said. 'Of course I will show you the way home - only believe in Me now.'

I was at the base of the building with the Priest
ministering to the injured and devastated souls.
I took him home to tend to his Flock in Heaven. He
heard my voice and answered.

I was on all four of those planes, in every seat,
with every prayer. I was with the crew as they
were overtaken. I was in the very hearts of the
believers there, comforting and assuring them that their faith has saved them.

I was in Texas , Virginia , California , Michigan , Afghanistan. I was standing next to you when you heard the terrible news. Did you sense Me?

I want you to know that I saw every face. I knew
every name - though not all know Me. Some met Me
for the first time on the 86th floor.

Some sought Me with their last breath.
Some couldn't hear Me calling to them through the
smoke and flames; 'Come to Me... this way... take
my hand.' Some chose, for the final time, to ignore Me.
But, I was there.

I did not place you in the Tower that day. You
may not know why, but I do.. However, if you were
there in that explosive moment in time, would you have reached for Me?

Sept. 11, 2001, was not the end of the journey
for you . But someday your journey will end. And I
will be there for you as well. Seek Me now while I may be found. Then, at any moment, you know you are
'ready to go.'

I will be in the stairwell of your final moments.

--author unknown

Isaac's Mission Call!

Yesterday we had the joy of listening in on a very exciting moment in my brother-in-law's life. He opened his mission call and read it to all of us. I felt all tingly and it wasn't even my call!!! I remember holding my own envelope and trembling a little as I held the phone and read my call to my family as they listened in Idaho. I have pictures of that special moment. I should scan it in to include but it is in my mission scrapbook and I don't feel like tearing that apart. So....

Anybody want to know where he's going? Well, he is going to a foreign country, that doesn't really seem too foreign because they speak English. Well, most of them do. The most foreign part about it is the climate, I think. Can you say tundra? Polar bears? Yep, he's going to Edmonton, Canada English speaking. I told him to pack a coat. I should have recommended a parka. He leaves January 5th. We are so excited for him!

Message From Emmett

I found this on my computer this morning when I got finished cleaning up. He had typed it in Word:


I LUVE YOU MOM

so do you luve me

It melted my heart. 

On The Road Again

Josh left this afternoon to travel to Ohio State for his one month rotation with the ENT department. Another month away from home and we were all sad to see him leave. He was sad to go. I hope he has a good time and that he likes the program.

I started a new night time routine with Emmett tonight to stop the endless whining and wanting to drag bedtime out longer than it should be. We agreed on 7:30 PM as the time that they would be in bed and then we worked backward scheduling what needed to be done and how long it takes to complete it. Basically it was a way to show him what needs to be done before he goes to bed, like picking up the toys and reading books. I hope that over the next few days he starts to pick up on the fact that if he cleans up faster then we can read longer. Or, if he puts up a fight about getting into the tub it lessens his amount of reading time because the bath encroaches on the later things in the routine. That kind of thing. It worked tonight. They've been in bed for 45 minutes and Melynn finally decided to stop crying and go to sleep. I'm sick of the 9:30 bedtime for her. She is old enough to just cry it out.

Am I a mean mother? I think I'm working more on being disciplined, rather than mean, but I'm sure I sound a little harsh to the outside world. Do any of you ever feel like you are too rigid?

It's Official: Josh Has Applied to Residency

The residency application process is hard to navigate. I had a hard time understanding why they do it the way they do, at least until we were submitting it yesterday. You have to manually click on a gazillion things for each school you are applying to and making sure it is all perfect takes a lot of time. We still missed one thing but Josh says since it is an experience that will happen in October that he'll just have to update the programs on later, and be sure to bring it up in interviews. I hope so. *me biting my nails*

But, now that it is submitted we can take a big breath and say, "Phew! Glad that's done." Now the focus is Ohio State for one month, Dominican Republic mission trip (one week in October) and then interview, interview, interview. I'm still trying to come up with a way to visually display where Josh is on my blog. Something that I can create on photoshop maybe. If anybody has an easy idea, let me know. Right now, my best idea is finding a map and digitally putting a picture of Josh pointing to the location with some cute labels. Something like that. But I've never made anything like that before and I am just a novice at photoshop, so the easier the better. I really wanted to have an interactive calendar that you could click on have it show you that picture. That sounds really hard so I don't think that will happen.

We still have a few days left to hang out with Josh and we are enjoying it. We went to the zoo today and rode the train with our free passes from member days. It was overcast and cool enough I put Melynn in a jacket. Wow. Is fall coming already?