Halloween

AAAGH! Spiderman is attacking!!

Oh, I guess Spiderman is okay.

Everyone got to dress up for storytime at the library.


There was no worry about any criminals getting us on Halloween with Spiderman and Wonder Woman to protect us. (Claire and Katey)

The neighborhood knew they were in good hands. Bridget (Katey's mom) even brought along Wonderdog for extra protection.

When your bag gets too heavy, your mask too hot, just sling the bag around your neck, give the mask to mom and trudge on.

Happenings 10/20 - 10/28

This last week we received about 6 inches of rain, still short of the 15 or so below normal for the area, but quite a bit of rain still. It was cloudy and rainy all day for about 6 days in a row, and also began to cool down quite a bit. Because of the rain, I had to drive to work, and couldn't play tennis. Mostly I spent a lot of time doing some writing and preparing for the conference I attended at the end of the week at Arizona State. (I am not a fan of rain for 6 days in a row. A reason I could never live in rainy parts of Oregon or Washington. I like a rainy day now and then and enjoy the warm indoors, but a day, not days. Claire loved it because she got to really use her Dora umbrella outside instead of just using it indoors where it becomes an eye poker outer. She made many visits to Bob and Esther's, just to show off her umbrella skills.)

I left on Thursday morning, driving to Nashville to catch a midday flight to Phoenix. Everything went very smoothly with the connection in Dallas and I was able to grade some papers and read while on the plane. My friend, Peter Wegner, who I knew at NAU and he is at ASU now, picked me up and I stayed with him for the two nights I was there. We went out to eat near his apartment that night and stayed up talking and watching baseball. On Friday I spent the whole day at the conference, which is called the Western States Rhetoric and Literacy conference, and presented in the early afternoon. A lot of people were at my session, though I don't think it was because of me but because of a fairly well-known scholar who was in my panel, but I received several compliments afterward for what I presented, which was about a unique approach to analyzing planning and land use language, and I used the snowmaking controversy in Flagstaff as an example. The theme of the conference was on how rhetoric studies could be involved in sustainability, and there were lots of interesting panels, and I was able to visit with all of the members of my dissertation committee and some other acquaintances while there. In fact, one professor teaching at ASU-East told me that her husband graduated from Murray State a long time ago, and furthermore, she was LDS. It was interesting.

Friday evening Peter and I went to a steakhouse and enjoyed a nice dinner, and then visited for awhile afterward. He lives by himself except for his dog, and during the hot Phoenix summer, has done some interesting projects both related to his doctoral work and unrelated. He built a sort of a chamber in his living room that is about 4 x 4 feet, and consists of three panels of movie screens. He has a computer and three projectors that project an image in reverse from the outside so that inside, you have a keyboard and mouse and a surround screen along with surround sound. I'm not sure it has any use, but it was pretty cool to sit inside and pull up pictures or to type something that went from your left shoulder around to your right shoulder. Peter has some "theoretical" ideas for its use, but he admitted that it gave him something to do to keep him from going stir crazy inside the apartment.

Saturday morning I went to another session of the conference, and then Peter and I took his dog on a hike, and then we had lunch and he dropped me off at the airport. The plane trip back was smooth as well, and I arrived in Nashville at 10:30 pm, and as I was
walking to the parking lot, it was a strange sensation to realize that I arrived home, and it was in Nashville. I still had to drive 2 hours to get home, but that went fine, and I didn't hit any of the deer that I saw by the road in between the lakes.

(I didn't realize until much too late that Paul was going to Phoenix. I was soooooooo jealous. I wanted to go and take a little drive up north to Flagstaff. Instead, we sat here with rain. Anyway, we had a very busy week and weekend. Thursday night it was Kaity - from across the street - over for the evening while her mom went to a meeting. After her meeting Bridget- Kaity's mom- sat and visited until late. It was nice to talk to an adult. Friday two boys came over - Brayden and Logan- while their mom went and had an MRI. Claire loves to play with them and gets along great and they usually go along with her requests to play "doctor check-up" and "school", though they don't play "mommy telling kids what to do" very well. Saturday was a whirlwind. We started out the morning missing Musictime because I had a Relief Society Super Saturday morning. We made it very simple and relaxing. Only 2 hours and the women could decide what they wanted to do between making microwave fudge - yummy- making and painting clay christmas decorations, getting simple manicures, making halloween caramel apples or making postcards and then having lunch. It was really nice and quit a few women showed up, so I was pleased. Claire and Rachel had the two men babysitting to themselves since no other kids were there and they loved it! We then had an hour when we got home to work on getting food ready for the nights party at church before heading off to a birthday party. We went to the park for a birthday party for Braydon- one of the little boys I have been watching. It was so nice because it was the first warm sunny day we had had all week. A perfect day for a party at the park. We then came home and finished getting ready food for the Fall Festival and dressing up. At the last minute, Claire decided she wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast, so we dressed her up and did her hair, dressed Rachel as a jack-o-lantern and me as a witch - easy - a black shirt, skirt, boots and a hat we already have. I have perfect witch hair when it is combed out, it is all frizzy and stands out. I also drew an ugly wart on my chin, which Claire loved. She kept wanting to touch it. We picked up Bridget and Katey who were a witch and wonder woman. The wonder woman costume was great! We went to the ward Fall Festival. It was really fun. They had a chili dinner and then games for the kids followed by trunk or treating. It was really fun and the kids had a great time.)


I got up early to attend bishopric meeting on Sunday morning, though there was some confusion about the time -- I had a pretty good idea that daylight savings time was extended, but J.J.'s clock sets itself, and had turned itself back. So I wasn't sure until I heard on the radio that if you did turn clocks back, it is next week. This is all new to us after living in Arizona for 8 years. After church I went with the bishop to give the sacrament and a blessing to a sister in the ward whom we visited last week and J.J. has visited during the week. We relaxed in the afternoon after a dinner of peanut-butter and jam sandwiches to break our fast as next week is Stake Conference for us. (After making a bunch of food for the super saturday and the fall festival-including a kitty litter cake-, I was in no mood to do any cooking, so PB&J it was. I also had to play 2 songs on the piano for Sacrament meeting since our organist/pianist was out of town and another woman played the other two songs. You know our ward is really hurting for piano players if I am playing for Sacrament - that is why we split it between two of us. Also our chorister didn't show up and so we switched places to lead the music when we weren't playing. Oh life in a small ward.)

That's our week. We love you all!

Brayden, Logan and Claire getting ready for "check ups"

Logan, Brayden and Claire

I love a man who is confident enough to play with a pink, fuzzy magic wand. Logan (behind the wand), Claire and Brayden

Saturday at the park. Rachel loved the swings


Both my girls are swingers, though Claire is not showing great appreciation


Rachel the "Wonder Jack-O-Lantern"

Katey as "Wonder Woman"

Claire as "Belle" after a hard night of games and trunk or treat.

Any day now...

Rachel can't wait to get moving. She has perfected the army crawl and is ready to go for the gusto any day. I on the other hand am not ready.

Mommy Claire

Claire has inherited many of my old babies and is a great mommy! She loves them no matter what they look like.

Princess Claire's Storytime

Two of Claire's favorite things - princess attire and reading.
She loves to read to her babies.

Happenings 10/14-10/20

We had some exciting moments this past week, the most notable being a tornado warning. On Thursday evening, I played tennis with the tennis club, and the wind was increasing and the clouds were coming in. When I got home, we watched the local channels in our kitchen and they were talking about tornadoes north of us. We were in a tornado watch, and then we were in a tornado warning all of a sudden. J.J. had gone to a meeting, and Rachel was in bed upstairs, so following the advice of the people on TV, I brought Rachel downstairs and her, Claire and I took a radio and sat down in J.J.'s closet, which has no outer walls. J.J. came home and found us there, and we stayed in there for about 30 minutes while the storm passed. There was some tornado damage south of town, but nothing happened around us. I wasn't really frightened, but having the kids makes it more serious -- especially when it is so dark outside and you can't see anything. (I was at a meeting and while driving home, the lightening was unbelievable. We had some pretty impressive lightening storms in Flagstaff, but the sky was just lit up constantly from the lightening and I couldn't see anything from the literal sheets of rain coming down and the wind blowing. It was a little scary driving home. When I got home, I was soaked just from walking from the car to the house. I got inside and it was very quiet and I found everybody in my closet. I joined them and we waited out the warnings. While in the closet I got a wake up call in that I haven't redone our 72 hour kits since before Claire was born. She and Rachel don't have anything including diapers, formula, food, etc. I need to get those done. The diaper thing became very clear as the room became stuffy and a little warm and both girls took the opportunity to poop and add a nice aroma to the small area. Claire started to get antsy in there also so I was glad when it was all clear to come out.)

Otherwise, I spent plenty of time at work, in addition to teaching, preparing for a conference I am attending next week at ASU, which will be fun because I can see some friends there. J.J. was plenty busy babysitting all the kids we know almost every day of the week -- Wednesday afternoon (Laynie's daughter Lucy), Thursday all day (the Eubanks' two boys), and Friday evening (the Bakes' two kids). She was ready to be back to 2 kids by the end of the week. Claire had a lot of playmates this week.

Saturday morning I went with Trevor Harper, a friend in the ward, to our stake priesthood meeting in Paducah, about an hour away. The meeting started at 9:00, and it was well attended. The mission president spoke, and he was impressed by the turnout, saying that it would be hard to get people in Utah to a priesthood meeting on Saturday morning with the building down the street. One of the high councilors told me that they have tried other times, but the best attendance has always been on Saturday mornings. It was a good meeting, and when I got home, J.J. and the girls were at the Murray State farm where there was a fall festival. Earlier, they had gone to a children's music class that Claire has started, so they were busy. Later in the day, we went to an informal English department party at the house of one of my colleagues, and then I brought the girls home after J.J. went to a ward girls' night out. (We started Musictime with Claire on Saturday mornings and she loves it. They dance around and sing and play with scarfs, beanbags, sticks, etc. My friend Lainie is doing the class. She has a background in childhood music education and does a great job. We then went to "Fun on the Farm" at the Murray state farm and spent a few hours there. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day. Warm, but not hot, sunny and comfortable. Claire had a great time and all the strolling and looking around wore Rachel out! They had pony rides - Claire went twice and was very serious about it- a petting zoo- ducks, calves, sheep, goats, rabbits, pigs, hens, and llamas- a balloon slingshot - Claire and I figured out how to make it go way up high in the air and she loved it - water duck races, tractor tricycle rides, hayrides - finally a "real" hayride for Claire-painting pumpkins, a corn pit, a corn maze, making butter, and a huge fast slide that I was sure would turn into Claire getting up to the top and crying until I came up to get her down. She surprised me though and talked one of the workers at the top into letting her sit on their lap and sliding down with her - not only once mind you, but a couple of times. The people were really nice and loved it. We had a great time!! That evening we went to Paul's party and I left him there with both of the girls - the brave man- and went to a girls night out with girls from church and had a great time - you can see pictures of this at my friend Shara's blog at www.pilotandprincess.blogspot.com)

Sunday after church I did the tithing and then visited a sister in the ward who had major surgery, and we gave her a blessing and the sacrament. This sister is formerly Anita McBride from Burley, and told J.J. that her brother dated a Paskett from Oakley. When she feels better, we'll have to learn more. Then, later in the evening, we had the missionaries over for dinner, and enjoyed their visit.

That's all for this week. We love you all!

A Day At The Farm

Pony rides were a hit of the day - but serious stuff.



The petting zoo - calves...

...goats....

...and pigs Oh My!

Milking a "cow"

The Infamous Corn Pit - I am still finding kernals!



And of course, riding in the stroller.

Which can can be quite fun if you are the right size and age.

Claire and Mommy - a self portrait

And again, Claire the photographer shooting her favorite subjects - Mommy & Rachel

"Who says riding these tractors is hard? Just give a sweet smile and ask someone to pull you!"

Starring Claire as....a horse,

a pig....

a sheep...

a bull....

and a donkey.

J.J. as a cow....

and a pig.

And back to the corn pit

Claire making corn angels

Another view from the stroller

And down the slide Claire goes!

Whew! What a day!