I don’t know if people like it when I post YouTube videos. But this one is short and clever. My favorite kind! Not funny clever, but dramatic clever. I guess it was part of a contest done by the AARP called “u @50”.
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summer’s first SNOW CONES
In desperation last night I pulled out Cameron’s piggy bank and asked him if he wanted [to treat the whole family to] a snow cone. He answered in the affirmative, of course, with contagious squeals of delight that sent Eli into fits of excitement.
“Nose cones!”
Toddlers are famous for the way they mix up the consonants in the words they try to pronounce. Or maybe just my toddlers, who knows? Some of our favorites with Cameron were/are “Heh-coppert” and “Ta-mah-wer”. But it is part of what makes any attempt at language adorable. That and Eli’s high pitched nasally tone. In any case, for some reason he has a hard time with the word “snow” and it comes out “nose”.
Richard and I love to tease him. Richard will say
“You want a nose cone?”
“No. A NOSE cone.”
“Oh, a nose cone?”
“No! A NOSE cone!”
“Right, a nose cone.”
“NO Daddy, a NOSE cone!”
“Oh…. a SNOW cone?”
“Yeah.”
Poor kid, he knows the way it should be, but just can’t make the word come out right. We play this mean trick with all kinds of words like “Lawn Moy” for lawn mower and “Nules” for noodles. It never gets old for us. We are terrible.
But with snowcone in hand, you can’t bring these guys down.
the flu comes around
The stomach flu paid us a visit the last few days. It started on Thursday with Eli, and for an unexplicable reason waited until Monday to strike Cameron and myself yesterday.
I am blessed during pregnancy that despite being frequently nauseated I rarely ever throw up. But this virus was determined to see otherwise.
I spent the majority of the day in bed. Luckily my kids are thrilled with any opportunity to spend extensive amounts of time with our On Call Parent. (The television.) I suppose now their brains have turned to mush.
They were so worn out from their time with the OCP that they both took long naps. Cameron slept for 2 1/2 hours and Eli for 4. It made my day. But Richard wasn’t so excited about their long naps when I told him that they wouldn’t exactly be ready for bed at 8:00. But he forgave me for letting them oversleep. How can you not forgive someone sitting on the bathroom rug hovering over the porcelain throne?
It wasn’t until Richard got home and took the boys outside that I had my own turn in front of the t.v. It was short-lived though because I had to change the channel every time a commercial about food came on. That was exhausting so I went back to bed.
Fortunately today after a priesthood blessing and appeals to Heaven I am doing much better. But just to play it safe I am sticking to the BRAT diet.
Time for another bowl of applesauce. It’s a good thing it is delicious homemade applesauce. 🙂
recession hits home
They cut my hours at work. Since I only work one day a week any cut is significant. They actually cut everyone’s hours. 20% across the board.
The other day we received our county assesors estimation of the value of our home. It was worse than we thought. But we had seen it coming and worked through the appropriate stages of grief. Denial, Pain, Anger, Depression, “the upward turn” and Reconstruction.
We are now in the Acceptance & HOPE stage. Richard assures me that this experience will make us better people, and our posterity will be more frugal and financially wise. I think he’s right. I appreciate his optimism.
For awhile I didn’t directly feel the effects of this recession. Even though I watched people around me struggle it didn’t hit home. But now we are starting to make our own sacrifices and I hope that we DO learn from this.
I read an article the other day that talked about how self-reliance isn’t just self-serving. I have been able to personally witness examples of families who practice financial wisdom being able to assist families in need.
So even though it isn’t death we are dealing with here, it is nice to feel HOPE.
retreat, part I
I spent the weekend at Richard’s aunt and uncle’s cabin in Donnelly. It was a retreat with some members of Richard’s family including his mom and her inlaws. I’ll admit I was a little nervous about it. But when my Friday departure was threatened by Eli getting sick on Thursday night, I realized how much I wanted to go.Fortunately he was feeling better Friday morning and I could entrust his recovery to my own dear mother and I left.
The purpose of the weekend was to make preparations for an upcoming 80th birthday. I spent an extensive amount of time scanning old pictures for a slideshow of Grandpa Bird’s life. I had the privilege of having his wife, Richard’s grandmother close at hand along with two of his daughters and two daughters in law.
What a great experience this was for me. My own four biologic grandparents all passed away before I was a teenager. It has been so fun for me to have grandparents again through marriage.
As I scanned the pictures the women around me shared the stories and background. And although I know it sounds cliche, the people came alive to me.
This picture was my favorite. It is of Grandpa & Grandma Bird in 1949 before they were married. Also in the picture is Grandpa’s sister, JoAnn. It just struck me that 60 years ago Ray & Larene were in love. Here they are almost exactly 60 years later still in love.
Talk about committment. I’m so grateful for the choices they made along the way that have directly affected my own life and I am so grateful to know them.
how about some good news?
It’s that time again. The fertile month of March has blessed us with a bun in the oven. That is to say, I am pregnant. 12 Weeks to be exact, due date December 10th. For the first time I am going to plan on being two weeks early so as not to be caught off guard yet again. But of course that means I won’t be early.
To my good friends who are finding out this news on my blog, please don’t be offended. I get sweaty and anxious when I tell people face to face that I am pregnant. Richard was opposed to sending a mass text to our family members, which was my first choice.
One more thing-
Because there are people dear to me who are facing obstacles in this regard it is my sincere desire to be sensitive to your struggle. While I am excited about this blessing I am also somber and grateful. I hope that as I blog about pregnancy I will not act in any way that might contribute at all to your pain and suffering. You remain in my thoughts and prayers.
impromptu rambling
I’m just going to type and see where it goes.
Yesterday was Memorial Day. I had fun but our dog got out on Sunday and ran away. That left a pit in my stomach all day yesterday. And today. It is really starting to upset me.
We went bowling and boating for Memorial Day. Cameron was in a 4-year old paradise. I’m quite sure those are his two favorite activities.
Every Tuesday a Jehova’s Witness couple comes to chat with me. I’ve politely informed them of my own religious resolves and they insist they just like to visit. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for these visits and I don’t invite them in. Sometimes even when I invite them in I can’t focus on what they are saying because the man’s mustache is so long it completely covers his upper lip. I am perplexed because I don’t see how it could be possible for him to kiss his dear wife.
Sometimes when I invite them in and I actually pay attention we have good conversations about Jesus Christ. And that can only be a good thing. They take their job as a witness of Jehova very seriously. I can learn from that too I suppose.
That’s all that is on my mind today. Misha. J-Dubs.
wedding bells
On Saturday my little brother Darren got married in Twin Falls. Richard & I observed something inspiring about the event. But first, some background. 
I have spent my whole life actively participating in my church. But I have only ever viewed the other members of the church as they related to me. Any service I provided was good for the recipient but mostly I thought about how good I was for doing it. I’m not sure how well I am making my point here so I’ll cut to the chase.
I have spent my whole life actively participating in my church. But I have only ever viewed the other members of the church as they related to me. Any service I provided was good for the recipient but mostly I thought about how good I was for doing it. I’m not sure how well I am making my point here so I’ll cut to the chase.
My family wasn’t involved a great deal in the planning of this wedding. I wasn’t sure what to expect. But members of the church in Twin Falls, who Darren and Ashley hardly knew, rallied together to arrange a nice ceremony and reception. A woman who is Ashley’s visiting teacher spent her Saturday setting up, serving, and cleaning up for someone she hasn’t yet been able to get to know very well.
(We missed you Ev, prego picture of Lori is for you!) What really affected me was realizing how I fell on the other end of the service. Up to this point with regard to serving people I believed I was always the one providing the good works. But when I realized the sacrifice these strangers were making to help my brother I realized I’ve never really done anything so good. I’ve never done something so inconvenient for someone I hardly knew. There are surely people within my reach who have families praying for them daily and I am doing nothing to help.
My family has been blessed because of humble people willing to do the Lord’s errand for completely selfless reasons.
None of this really came out the way I wanted it to so I will defer to a great talk recommended to me by my mother. It is called “Honest, Simple, Solid, True” by C. Terry Warner at BYU in 1996.
Here is a quote:
Here is a quote:
“We are members one of another, connected to each other, and especially to God, by spiritual sensitivities and obligations profoud as eternity. And just for that reason, we become most ourselves when we are most true to God and to one another. We become most right with ourselves when we are most right with them.”
I am so grateful for good people everywhere whose quiet example inspires me to be better.
if this doesn’t make you smile
your day is going worse than mine.
gag-worthy
I’ve seen some pretty gross things on blogs. Here is yet another warning, that this is one of those gross things. This is the kind of post that we will use to blackmail Cameron when he is a teenager.
On Sunday Cameron had a bad cold. I have spent the last three years trying to teach Cameron how to blow his nose, and I have been unsuccessful all along the way. He only knows one way to blow his nose and it is to sneeze. If I hear Cameron sneeze from across the house I come running, kleenex in hand. He knows the “sneeze freeze” and he holds completely still until someone gets there to wipe. It’s been three years, but it never ceases to be disgusting.
My father-in-law likes to tease me when the boys are naughty or silly that whatever they are doing is a “Hall trait”. I can confidently say that this is a Bird trait. That’s all I will say.
The only reason I was able to get this picture was because I had my camera in hand, taking a picture of something else when it happened. Usually I am quick on the draw, making mucous-clean-up my number one priority. Poor kid, he looks miserable.
Just Your Average Jo 