A Good Article for this Time of Year

I just read mom’s latest article and it has a lot of good information. Many of you live in places where it gets very cold in winter, and all of us rely heavily on electricity. Here are some things to do if you lose yours.

She makes a reference in the article to when we were living in North Carolina and an ice storm knocked out our power for four days.
Our yard looked a lot like this picture, and we used our gas stove for cooking and heating the house kitchen. It was a bit miserable, but also makes for fun stories.

Like getting Hunter and Emma out of their beds and bringing them into our bed with us in the middle of the night. We started to hear the crash of trees falling all around us, followed by flashes of blue light from the wires they took down with them, and couldn’t leave the kids in their room, even if they were sleeping through it.

And having a family come over to take showers at our house by candle light (yes, I know it should have been by glow stick light) because their well wouldn’t run without electricity.

And having ice cream for breakfast, and chicken nuggets for dinner. I was most surprised at how nicely the chicken nuggets turned out by cooking them in a frying pan! I have some great pictures of the huge pine trees that fell literally right next to the house, one taking out our fence, and one breaking it’s top off when it hit our roof. Unfortunately, that was before the digital camera, so I can’t share them…

By the way, Utah clan: Has there been any talk of exchanging names for Christmas? If so, we want in!

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Cinderella Dressed in Yella

So the kids have been coming home from school singing the same schoolyard songs I used to sing. They have especially picked up on the jumprope song:

“Cinderella dressed in yella, Went upstairs to kiss a fella, Made a mistake and kissed a snake, How many doctors did it take? One, Two, Three….”

One I taught them that they think is funny: You need two or more people and stand in a circle. Everyone puts their right hand, palm up, on top of their neighbor’s left hand; and their left hand, palm up, under their neighbor’s right hand hand. As you sing the song you take your right hand and clap your neighbor to the left. You want to go as fast as you can because when the song ends, the last person clapped is out of the circle and you play until there is just one winner. The song goes: “Down by the banks of the Hanky Panky, Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky, Saying hip, hop, hippity hop, East side, West side, Kerrr-plop.”

I guess these don’t mean much without the tunes, but what are some your favorite childhood rhymes?

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Hannah Turns Two!

Hannah turned two years old yesterday! She is such a pretty little girl, and she had a lot of fun. Although, she hasn’t really caught on to what a birthday means, she will now say “two” or “ten” and hold up two fingers when you ask how old she is. I made her a princess cake. I just couldn’t resist because I made a Cinderella for Emma last year and it wasn’t that much work for the wow factor it gives. Hannah loved her “si-sess” cake even though it had a real weird dense consistency because of our funky oven. I think birthday cakes are more about looks than taste anyways! Hunter an Emma each picked out a toy they thought Hannah would like. Emma picked a mini doll house and Hunter picked a driving toy. She was really excited about both gifts. There was also a purple tutu from Sabrina and a mini build-a-bear monkey with a sparkly pink fairy outfit. That was perfect for her because it comes with a little pillow you put inside the monkey to bring it to life. It even has stickers and a birth certificate. (Anyone who needs a fun Christmas gift idea, this is it. I found it at Target and there are also several little outfits to choose from.) Thanks Nana and Papa for the pretty Thanksgiving themed dress! Thanks Auntie Erica, Uncle Jed and cousins for the teddy bear puzzle and fun matching game card! Thanks Aunt Jeanette and Uncle Dan for the two board books!

We all love our little Hannah for her sunny personality and her loving nature. If anyone ever says “ouch” or “oh no”, she always asks, “you ok?” And if you answer yes, she says, “Good!”

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Polka Dot Island in Boutiques

Erica and Mom went to some shops in Oregon and sold a ton of bows for me! I am so happy and lucky to have willing salespeople who won’t get much in return for their efforts!

One boutique bought 22 bows in some of the popular fall colors (shown). The other boutique bought 70 bows in more traditional pinks! I didn’t get a picture of those before I sent them off, but they are very pretty too. Both shops sell for babies and toddlers so they wanted the smaller “ladybug” bows. I need to get out to the shops here now. I just hate trying to convince people to buy stuff– Not a salesperson at all. But that comes with the job, so I need to bite the bullet.

Thanks again for the sales ladies!

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Tough Decisions

After our long and exhaustive search for a new job, we have finally found one. This whole process has been so exhausting for both Rob and me. We wanted to find another job in another building downtown so that there wouldn’t be much of a change for us. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. Rob sent out a lot of resumes and did many interviews and in the end our choice was between two firms. One in Northern California (DB) and one in Southern California (PH) far enough away from where we live now that it would also mean a new school, new ward, new friends, new doctors etc. This will be our family’s tenth move in the ten years we have been married. It’s starting to get old.

But a decision needed to be made. Without going into all of the gory details, “DB” was closer to family and so I really wanted that one to work out, and “PH” was in a department Rob would enjoy and offers global opportunities for him. (That is really condensed, but I’m at the point now where I’ve thought about the pros and cons so much that I’m sick of it.) We debated, and discussed, and thought and prayed, and finally decided that we need to take the offer at “PH.” There were several logical reasons why it was a safer choice, but mostly it came down to the fact that it just feels right. It feels like this is the next place we need to be. I’m going on faith with this one.

So sometime right after Christmas we will be packing up and moving…again. That will be eight months in this house, just as we had eight months in our last one. So for today I am very relieved that the decision has been made, but I am also mourning the loss of “DB,” especially the part about being closer to family. I’m also mourning leaving our fabulous friends and neighbors here. We haven’t told the kids of our decision yet, and I’m sure they will be mad at us for making them leave their school and friends, but I know eventually we will all be happy in our new home. If there is one thing I have learned from moving around a lot, it is that we can be happy anywhere when we have each other!

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