Halloween and a Birthday

The kids dressed up two nights in a row, first for our ward trunk-or-treat, and then for actual Halloween. After all the festivities were over and they had collected two bucketfuls of candy, guess how many pictures I had taken of them. Zero. After my parents dropped by for a pre-bedtime visit, I dragged out the camera and got them to stand still for a couple shots. I love Luke's expression in these. It's indicative of his attitude the whole time. As soon as he realized what was going on with the whole trick-or-treating thing, he started doing a little happy dance and shouting, "More, more!" every time someone dropped a piece of candy in his bucket. He ran 90% of the time we were trick-or-treating, only because the other 10% of the time he was falling down. I wasn't smart enough to get any video of him either.





Lucy turned 5 today! She has become quite the conversationalist lately, so we've been talking about it for weeks. She woke up smiling and proud that today was finally HER day. She just went go bed, smiling with satisfaction. Apparently today was everything she hoped it would be. At 5, Lucy is positive and optimistic. She likes to help wash dishes and empty the dishwasher. Whenever I ask her to "set up the table", (her words) she always responds with a bright "sure!" She is becoming interested in reading and wishes she could do it by herself. She is learning letter sounds with me during our "preschool" at home everyday and loves to say "that's easy" every time I give her instructions for a new page. She's funny and pretty and is getting quite tall - a cute little lady!

Parenting Success

As parents, we sometimes wonder if what we're trying to teach our kids is sinking in. But every once in a while, we catch a glimpse of something we've taught being reflected back to us, and we realize that we're doing something right. Recently, we had such a moment with Luke. Watch the video...

No, It Doesn't Make Me Feel Old

This is pretty late, but I still wanted to post about Jane's big important birthday! We have an 8 year-old in the house! Jane's birthday was a couple weeks ago, but she's been counting down for months. Her desktop wallpaper says "It's great to be 8!" She makes her own wallpapers with Photoshop. I should post some of them here because they're kinda cool. Anyway, I would have to agree that in many ways, it is great having an 8 year-old in the house. Lately, on the weekends, Jane has been getting up with the younger 2 kids and helping them get breakfast while I stay in bed a little longer. Two weeks ago, on Sunday, I walked out of my room and was greeted by 3 kids who were all fed and dressed for church. Shoes too! Jane knows how to make brownies all by herself and she can handle some pretty big chores (if properly motivated). It's nice to be able to rely on her for some real help instead of the kind of hindering helping that Lucy does when I let her cook or clean with me.



For her birthday, we gave Jane a shrink-art jewelry book from Klutz Press that comes with instructions and supplies to make real jewelry from shrinky dinks plastic. I'd have to say it's the best $25 I ever spent on a kid. She has been making jewelry for herself, Lucy, her friends at school and even earrings for me non-stop. Here she is with her favorite butterfly necklace.



For her birthday party, she got to go on a girls' night with her cousin and my sisters and mom. We went out to eat and then painted pottery together. As you can see, Jane painted a fish.

She requested a new dress for her baptism day and I was happy to oblige. She was so much more excited for her baptism than I remember being when I was 8. It was really nice to see so many friends and family all gathered to support Jane on her big day.

And just to illustrate what a thoughtful young lady Jane is growing up to be, I thought I would post this lovely sign that Jane made for Lucy. I hope you enjoy the bloody scab that is dangling from Lucy's knee in the middle of the picture.

Young Women Handout

Lesson 35: Living Righteously amid Pressures

I use a lot of other people's handout ideas for my lessons, so I thought I would share one of my own.

This is sized to fit on a package of Orbit gum. Get it? Chews? Click Here for a whole sheet of these to print off.

I'm related to Adam (by marriage)

Nate and I were looking around on new.familysearch.org last night. We like to click on a family member's name and then click on that person's parents and that persons parents and that persons parents until there is no more information on that particular family line, just to see how far back we can go. We started with Nate's grandpa, Albert Bowler, and clicked his father, then his father's father and so on. While we were clicking, and getting back into the 1400s, we talked about how we're sure someone somewhere has traced their roots to Adam. The father's fathers kept on coming and soon we were seeing like 300 AD. The names had already changed from Old English to Jewish names and we were shocked that this family line had made it through the medieval times, indicating royalty because records of peasants were not kept during that time. The word "King" appeared in front of several of the names. Suddenly we saw Joseph of Arimathea, born 80 BC. He is the one who donated his own tomb for the burial of Jesus Christ. We kept on clicking, past Noah, right on through, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham and then finally, Adam (first man) and Eve (first woman). That's exactly how their names are listed.


We couldn't click any more past that.



A self portrait from several months ago. Lucy made me add the crown. Fitting I'd say.

Texting...

Periodically throughout the day I will text Hailee to see how she's doing and just say hello. The way that I do this is the same every time.

My text always is this:

"How's it."

That's it. That's all that needs to be said. What's replied back is great and I thought I would share a few of the replies:

"How's it." (yes that is a valid reply)

"Luke pee-peed in the potty."

"At my mother's."

"Lunch."

"Feedin kids."

"Cleaning kids"

"Going to swim"

"Good"

"Starting a load of laundry. It's awesome."

I guess to the casual observer this may seem quite boring. But how is it any different than Twitter or Facebook. At least this way it's my wife and not some random person.

Colorado Trip

Fun Valley sure was fun this year! What I had forgotten about it is that most of the people who visit there are from Texas (I don't know why that is) so we end up picking up a little Texas drawl and folksy tendency to talk to everyone we see. Nate overheard an exchange that went something like this

"Hah, how ya'll doin?"

"I'm fahn, how're you?"

"Well, I reckon."

Nate tells it better. Anyway, the people that run the place are all retirees, and they're happy to help and talk all you want. After a week, I start to get used to everybody and it's fun when we go back how we recognize a lot of them again. So until next time...

Goodbye lady at the snack shack with the drawn-on eyebrows and the tiny mouth.

I'll miss you guy with the handlebar mustache who sits in a booth at the arcade, making change.

See ya next time, neatly dressed gentleman who runs the golf shack.

Bye jovial guy who drives the trolley around all day with his dog Snickers... or Schnookums...or something.

Bye other guy who drives the trolley sometimes and can't hear us yell "stop!" when we want to get off.

Goodbye Lady with the droopy cheeks and pink lipstick who sells the tickets to do all the fun stuff.

It's important to me to get a lot of photos of our trips because I can barely remember this place, or any other place we went to when I was a kid. I think there were about 550 on the camera. Here's a few for you.


Jane and Lucy flagging down the trolley

Waiting to go fishin' at the stocked pond.

Jane caught the biggest and Lucy caught the most.

Luke just wanted to hold one.

This was right after the rain stopped and before I cooked dinner. Late afternoon after the rain was a fun time to come back out and play.

Luke, cleaning up everyone's breakfast bowls.

Inside the tiny log cabin playhouse

Nate and Jane tubing down the river

The Fam

This boy loves trucks. Nuff said.

Mini golf. It's fun for about the first 3 holes until people start stacking up behind us and the kids aren't paying any attention anymore, but won't let us call it quits.

Eulogy

I’m swimming.

I look up, and all I see is the blue of water all around me. Then her substantial black body and her four black dog legs are swimming overhead. Like a dolphin playing near a ship, I twist slowly to avoid her churning feet, and watch her sail on. Moments later, I am sitting at the edge of the pool, soaking up the sight of my family playing in the water, in the sun. She comes to sit beside me and I reach out to pat her back. I listen to the slap, slap, slapping sound of my hand on her fur, still heavy with water. These are some of the last moments with her that I would have, because later that night, she would die, passing from this life to the next while we slept.

Since we aren’t having a funeral for Bindi, and her body already rests somewhere in the desert, under a tree, where Nate says she can be in the shade, I felt I needed to memorialize her somehow.

On the day Bindi joined our family, she was young, but not a baby, kind of like us. We were still newlyweds and went to get her within hours of learning that she was looking for a home. We introduced her to our backyard and imagined she would like it there, but after 4 days and nights of crying and standing with her nose pressed to the back door, she got her way and became an inside dog. She was an instant member of the family, accompanying us on snow trips, trips to the pool, and even one crazy middle-of-the-night drive to the beach, and camping. Camping with Bindi was something to look forward to. She was her best self when she was camping. She loved having her family outside with her all the time, and she loved chewing pinecones and exploring the forest. We had to put a glow stick on her collar at night because she blended in with the darkness.

I’ve said before that if Bindi could talk, I know she would make me laugh. She had a funny, cheerful personality. She knew when to be serious too. She learned all the rules and obeyed them (mostly). We never could convince her not to jump up when people came to the house to visit. She didn’t jump onto them, just up high in front of them, the better to see their face. She had a loving nature and welcomed all people and dogs to our home.

My ears miss her. She was really pretty loud as far as dogs go, and not because of barking (although I was proud the first time I heard her big, deep bark). Her panting could be heard by people on the other end of the phone. She also had some sinus thing or apnea that made her snore loudly in her sleep, but she could be silenced with a firm SSSHHH! Whenever she put her nose to the ground and went around sniffing, the same apnea thing caused her to make a chugging sound, like a train. And lately, she always let out a long groan as she lowered her body to the ground to lay down – probably because of sore hips. All these sounds became a part of our home and our lives, and it feels quiet, even with the three kids running around.


Seems like a lot to say about a smelly, hairy dog. It’s OK if you think I’m weird. I think I’m weird. I didn’t think I would love an animal this way, but I did. I do.

Bindi May 5 2000 - June 30 2009