We had another busy week, with something going on every evening it seemed. JJ had two book club meetings for the Murray State Women’s Association, one on Tuesday evening and the other on Thursday afternoon. (Because I somehow ended up a group leader and this was our first meeting(s), I went to both. We have an evening one and a day one that is kid friendly. They both were really enjoyable for different reasons. We were discussing "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" It was about two boys who were sent to reeducation camps in China during the cultural revolution. It is semi autobiographical. I really enjoyed reading the book.) I played a little tennis on Tuesday evening with my league team members for about 45 minutes before taking the kids so JJ could go to the book club. That was the first time I played since playing with Gordon when he was here for Thanksgiving.
Wednesday evening we went to a little informal dinner at a colleagues home for a new hire in our department for next Fall. They were here looking for a house, and since they have a couple of young children, all of us with kids went to this dinner to enjoy the evening. (It was a perfect evening outside. The weather was warm, and it was just very pleasant.) It was nice. Afterward, JJ took Rachel home and Claire and I went on a date to the movie, Horton Hears a Who, and we both enjoyed it. Claire thought it was funny, and she loves to tell people about the movie, except that if one hasn’t seen it, like her mom, her recollections are kind of hard to follow. (I didn't remember the book right away and so even though Claire's explanation was pretty detailed, I didn't quite get it until Paul reminded me of the plot of the story.)
I spent the week at work doing the final edits on my conference presentation that will take place next week, as well as the finishing touches on a book proposal that I will try to sell to some of the publishers who will be at the conference. The success of the proposal is much more important to my career than the presentation, so that has taken up its share of time.
Thursday JJ went visiting teaching in the evening, and Friday she worked so that she could make up for missing the next Wednesday when we go to New Orleans. So I stayed home with the girls all Friday, taking them to Messy Art class and hanging out at home while it rained. Our friends from church, the Eubanks, came over for pizza that night, and while their three boys and Claire played upstairs, we played Rook and enjoyed it. I almost forgot how to play, and kept making mistakes, but because JJ had hardly ever played before, she and Erin didn’t take advantage of my errors. (Paul enjoyed playing with them because they had made up some rules too - Paul always makes up his own, or changes rules to "improve" the game. They also won because the women always get distracted talking, etc.)
Saturday morning began with a pancake breakfast at the church for a Boy Scout fundraiser, and then we went from there to Paducah where JJ had a Relief Society training meeting. After she had planned this, I had found out about a tennis match that my team had on Saturday, but I thought I couldn’t go until they said it was in Paducah, near the church. So JJ went to the meeting, taking Claire with her because they had babysitting, and I took Rachel around to a couple of stores that I wanted to check out, and then picked up Claire and JJ after the meeting and went to my match. But it started to rain as we started, so we moved it to an indoor facility across town. We had to pay a little fee to use the courts, but at least we were able to play. They were really nice courts, and my partner and I won our match after losing the first set. JJ and the girls were able to watch from a viewing area, and I had fun. We drove home after the match and mostly hung out at home the rest of the evening.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Rachel's Vietnamese Outfit
Oanh (our friend from Vietnam) brought some fun things back with her after she visited home. One of the things was this adorable outfit that fit Rachel perfectly!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Happenings 3/17/08 - 3/23/08
Happy Easter everyone! Happy Birthday to Cornelea and to Julia!
This week was Murray State's spring break, and it was a nice week. J.J. worked on Monday and Wednesday, so I was at home with the girls on those days, and that was fun. On Monday we hung out at the house mostly, but I did take them both shopping, which went pretty well. Claire pushed her own mini cart around the store, and luckily didn't run into anyone else but me. I bought some strawberries to make jam, but by Wednesday they were bad, so I returned them Wednesday morning and got new ones after taking the girls to the library for storytime. The weather was nice and Claire played outside with her friends after they got home from school.
Wednesday was a busy day -- besides making jam, I also prepared three pork roasts for a Relief Society birthday dinner that night, along with some rice. I also did some laundry. It rained all Tuesday night and into Wednesday, giving us over two inches of rain, far less than areas around us that flooded. (We had our Relief Society BIrthday Celebration that night and it turned out very well. I had volunteered Paul to cook the pork and rice while the other members of the presidency took care of the veggies and bread and dessert. We had over 30 people there which is our most well attended activity thus far. It was a good dinner and we played some fun games. I think the women had a fun time. I did. I am lucky to have such a great presidency also. They make things a lot easier. I am especially thankful since I didn't know any of them when I was called and chose them)
Tuesday was my day to go into the office and write, and that's what I did. I spent eight hours writing more on a paper that I am presenting at a conference in two weeks. I wrote around 3000 words to add to the 3000 I had already written, but now I need to go through all of it and pick out the 3000 words that will be best for the 20-minute presentation. (Huh?) Later, I will use all of it as I polish it into a journal article. It was very nice to have a whole day to work on it and mostly finish it, so that I could relax the rest of the week.
Thursday morning, we headed southeast to Chattanooga, Tennessee, making it there in about 4 hours. We went straight downtown and went to the aquarium, which was quite nice, with lots of different fish and sea creatures that we all enjoyed. Claire loved the penguins and seahorses a lot, and was also quite amazed at the large tank with sharks and sea turtles. She could always spot the clownfish wherever they were. Upon Claire's request, we ate pizza downtown and then headed to our motel, which was a few miles away. Our motel wasn't very nice, but that was the only drawback of the trip. (It had a pool, which was a big bonus for Claire, although it really was more of a "big bathtub" as Claire put it. It was bigger than a hot tub, but still quite small for a pool and it was pretty warm. With 12 people in it, it kind of gave me the creeps, so the night I took her to the pool, I only swam for about 10 minutes and then watched Claire and her baby swim for awhile. Claire didn't come out with any skin diseases or anything and for that I am quite grateful. Rachel crawled around on the motel floor and from the looks of her dirty knees and feet and hands, I'm surprised she didn't come down with something! Gross!!)
Friday morning we drove the short distance from our motel to Lookout Mountain, which is a "mountain" about 2000 feet higher than Chattanooga. When we were telling Claire about going to this mountain, she was excited and said, "It's been years and years (one of her favorite phrases lately) since I've seen mountains!" I asked her if she remembered the mountains of Utah when she went skiing, and she said "Yes, but they had snow on them, so it's been a long time since I've seen real mountains!" I thought that was funny. Lookout Mountain is a place that has tourist traps from 80 years ago as well as homes and second homes that range from simple to opulent with great views of the valley. We went to two tourist traps -- Rock City and the Incline Railway. Rock City is difficult to describe, but the best way I can think of is part Hobbiton, part slot canyon, and part Indian ruin on a cliff. In the 1930s, a family bought an area that had lots of natural rock bluffs and streams on the edge of the mountain, and added rock walls and walkways and bridges through the narrow walls and up on top, so that now you walk over and under and through all of these places. It was pretty neat, and had a definite fantasy aspect to it. Claire liked everything but the Fairlyland Caverns, which took you underground and had all these fake gnomes and fairy tale scenes under black lights. It wasn't that friendly of a place, but that was only a small section. Rachel just rode around in the front pack and fell asleep at the end.
Claire loved the Incline Railway, which goes straight up from the valley to the top, and then down. We rode down first and had lunch, and then rode back. It's steepest point is a 72% grade, and it feels that steep. It was busy, either because lots of people had Good Friday off or because it was spring break around there also. It was a beautiful day, and once back in the valley we went to the city park, which was busy also, and laid out a blanket and let Rachel crawl around in the grass and Claire played on some giant animals. We all rode the carousel once -- Rachel and Claire loved it -- and Claire and J.J. rode it once more. After a couple of hours, we ate at a restaurant nearby, and then headed back to the motel. The worst part of traveling with small kids is the motel, because the rooms seem to have a secret energizing effect on them, and they get wild and have a hard time sleeping. Meanwhile, that makes it tough for Dad to watch NCAA basketball games :) or read because the lights need to be off. But we made it through two nights, and had fun anyway even though BYU didn't win.
Saturday we checked out and went to the Chattanooga Choo Choo, which is a hotel where the train station used to be, and they have train cars there that have been converted into rooms, and they are connected to an old engine. Being a big Thomas the Tank Engine fan, Claire loved climbing on the engine and pretending to drive it. We took an electric bus from there to downtown, played around the park/aquarium area for a bit, and then went back to our car and tried to find an overlook to the Tennessee River Gorge, but ended up going all over the place on Raccoon Mountain until we found a small park that kind of had an overlook. The park had a sand volleyball area that gave Claire and Rachel a chance to play around for awhile, then after driving down the mountain to have lunch at Cracker Barrel, we drove home, making it back by 6:00. (That night after Rachel went to sleep, Claire and I dyed Easter eggs. I think I enjoyed it as much as she did - which was quite a lot. We made all kinds of bright colored eggs - even the grayish ones you get when you try all the colors on one egg)
Today was a nice Easter, except that I didn't get the memo that there was no bishopric meeting, so I was there early by myself. I did a few things I needed to do, then went home, where Claire showed me the eggs she had found around the house. (The Easter Bunny had hidden the eggs she and I had dyed around the living room area. They weren't quite totally hidden, so she would be sure to find them and Claire thought, "That Easter Bunny sure hides eggs in funny spots." She then was amazed that the bunny could hide an egg up on the book shelf. I think she imagines him as a little regular sized bunny. Claire was allowed to eat two pieces of her chocolate the Easter Bunny gave her, but then snuck "three, and then three more". She got some seeds and child sized gardening tools in her basket, so we are going to plant some flowers soon) We had a lot of people in church, and I was one of the speakers. (Paul gave a great talk.) J.J. and her Relief Society sang a hymn, and they did a great job considering they were asked last Sunday. We invited a few people over for dinner -- Trevor and Shara Harper and Vernon Mersman, and it we had a nice time eating ham, potatoes, and asparagus. (It was a very nice dinner and it was sure fun to visit with our friends)
This week was Murray State's spring break, and it was a nice week. J.J. worked on Monday and Wednesday, so I was at home with the girls on those days, and that was fun. On Monday we hung out at the house mostly, but I did take them both shopping, which went pretty well. Claire pushed her own mini cart around the store, and luckily didn't run into anyone else but me. I bought some strawberries to make jam, but by Wednesday they were bad, so I returned them Wednesday morning and got new ones after taking the girls to the library for storytime. The weather was nice and Claire played outside with her friends after they got home from school.
Wednesday was a busy day -- besides making jam, I also prepared three pork roasts for a Relief Society birthday dinner that night, along with some rice. I also did some laundry. It rained all Tuesday night and into Wednesday, giving us over two inches of rain, far less than areas around us that flooded. (We had our Relief Society BIrthday Celebration that night and it turned out very well. I had volunteered Paul to cook the pork and rice while the other members of the presidency took care of the veggies and bread and dessert. We had over 30 people there which is our most well attended activity thus far. It was a good dinner and we played some fun games. I think the women had a fun time. I did. I am lucky to have such a great presidency also. They make things a lot easier. I am especially thankful since I didn't know any of them when I was called and chose them)
Tuesday was my day to go into the office and write, and that's what I did. I spent eight hours writing more on a paper that I am presenting at a conference in two weeks. I wrote around 3000 words to add to the 3000 I had already written, but now I need to go through all of it and pick out the 3000 words that will be best for the 20-minute presentation. (Huh?) Later, I will use all of it as I polish it into a journal article. It was very nice to have a whole day to work on it and mostly finish it, so that I could relax the rest of the week.
Thursday morning, we headed southeast to Chattanooga, Tennessee, making it there in about 4 hours. We went straight downtown and went to the aquarium, which was quite nice, with lots of different fish and sea creatures that we all enjoyed. Claire loved the penguins and seahorses a lot, and was also quite amazed at the large tank with sharks and sea turtles. She could always spot the clownfish wherever they were. Upon Claire's request, we ate pizza downtown and then headed to our motel, which was a few miles away. Our motel wasn't very nice, but that was the only drawback of the trip. (It had a pool, which was a big bonus for Claire, although it really was more of a "big bathtub" as Claire put it. It was bigger than a hot tub, but still quite small for a pool and it was pretty warm. With 12 people in it, it kind of gave me the creeps, so the night I took her to the pool, I only swam for about 10 minutes and then watched Claire and her baby swim for awhile. Claire didn't come out with any skin diseases or anything and for that I am quite grateful. Rachel crawled around on the motel floor and from the looks of her dirty knees and feet and hands, I'm surprised she didn't come down with something! Gross!!)
Friday morning we drove the short distance from our motel to Lookout Mountain, which is a "mountain" about 2000 feet higher than Chattanooga. When we were telling Claire about going to this mountain, she was excited and said, "It's been years and years (one of her favorite phrases lately) since I've seen mountains!" I asked her if she remembered the mountains of Utah when she went skiing, and she said "Yes, but they had snow on them, so it's been a long time since I've seen real mountains!" I thought that was funny. Lookout Mountain is a place that has tourist traps from 80 years ago as well as homes and second homes that range from simple to opulent with great views of the valley. We went to two tourist traps -- Rock City and the Incline Railway. Rock City is difficult to describe, but the best way I can think of is part Hobbiton, part slot canyon, and part Indian ruin on a cliff. In the 1930s, a family bought an area that had lots of natural rock bluffs and streams on the edge of the mountain, and added rock walls and walkways and bridges through the narrow walls and up on top, so that now you walk over and under and through all of these places. It was pretty neat, and had a definite fantasy aspect to it. Claire liked everything but the Fairlyland Caverns, which took you underground and had all these fake gnomes and fairy tale scenes under black lights. It wasn't that friendly of a place, but that was only a small section. Rachel just rode around in the front pack and fell asleep at the end.
Claire loved the Incline Railway, which goes straight up from the valley to the top, and then down. We rode down first and had lunch, and then rode back. It's steepest point is a 72% grade, and it feels that steep. It was busy, either because lots of people had Good Friday off or because it was spring break around there also. It was a beautiful day, and once back in the valley we went to the city park, which was busy also, and laid out a blanket and let Rachel crawl around in the grass and Claire played on some giant animals. We all rode the carousel once -- Rachel and Claire loved it -- and Claire and J.J. rode it once more. After a couple of hours, we ate at a restaurant nearby, and then headed back to the motel. The worst part of traveling with small kids is the motel, because the rooms seem to have a secret energizing effect on them, and they get wild and have a hard time sleeping. Meanwhile, that makes it tough for Dad to watch NCAA basketball games :) or read because the lights need to be off. But we made it through two nights, and had fun anyway even though BYU didn't win.
Saturday we checked out and went to the Chattanooga Choo Choo, which is a hotel where the train station used to be, and they have train cars there that have been converted into rooms, and they are connected to an old engine. Being a big Thomas the Tank Engine fan, Claire loved climbing on the engine and pretending to drive it. We took an electric bus from there to downtown, played around the park/aquarium area for a bit, and then went back to our car and tried to find an overlook to the Tennessee River Gorge, but ended up going all over the place on Raccoon Mountain until we found a small park that kind of had an overlook. The park had a sand volleyball area that gave Claire and Rachel a chance to play around for awhile, then after driving down the mountain to have lunch at Cracker Barrel, we drove home, making it back by 6:00. (That night after Rachel went to sleep, Claire and I dyed Easter eggs. I think I enjoyed it as much as she did - which was quite a lot. We made all kinds of bright colored eggs - even the grayish ones you get when you try all the colors on one egg)
Today was a nice Easter, except that I didn't get the memo that there was no bishopric meeting, so I was there early by myself. I did a few things I needed to do, then went home, where Claire showed me the eggs she had found around the house. (The Easter Bunny had hidden the eggs she and I had dyed around the living room area. They weren't quite totally hidden, so she would be sure to find them and Claire thought, "That Easter Bunny sure hides eggs in funny spots." She then was amazed that the bunny could hide an egg up on the book shelf. I think she imagines him as a little regular sized bunny. Claire was allowed to eat two pieces of her chocolate the Easter Bunny gave her, but then snuck "three, and then three more". She got some seeds and child sized gardening tools in her basket, so we are going to plant some flowers soon) We had a lot of people in church, and I was one of the speakers. (Paul gave a great talk.) J.J. and her Relief Society sang a hymn, and they did a great job considering they were asked last Sunday. We invited a few people over for dinner -- Trevor and Shara Harper and Vernon Mersman, and it we had a nice time eating ham, potatoes, and asparagus. (It was a very nice dinner and it was sure fun to visit with our friends)
Easter
The night before Easter, Claire and I spent the evening coloring eggs for the bunny to hide for us. We colored a whole dozen - minus one that got broke.
Luckily we found all the eggs the Easter Bunny hid.
Lo and behold, when the Easter Bunny came, he even filled our Easter baskets!
"He knew I wanted the Aristocat movie!" - Claire
He even thought of Rachel and filled her plastic eggs with Cheerios instead of that no good for you chocolate.
Claire did get chocolate in her plastic eggs (of which snuck all day long).
"Are you sure I got the same things in my eggs that Claire did?" - Rachel
Easter basket goodies.
Picture taking time again! Rachel just didn't want to sit still.
My beautiful girls!!
It's always hard to get everyone looking - let alone smiling - at the same time. It took a few like this....
To get this.
Boy that Easter Bunny sure was good to Claire. Barbie stickers AND a movie!
Mommy's three Easter presents!
Claire found her own interesting way of hiding the plastic eggs!
Luckily we found all the eggs the Easter Bunny hid.
Lo and behold, when the Easter Bunny came, he even filled our Easter baskets!
"He knew I wanted the Aristocat movie!" - Claire
He even thought of Rachel and filled her plastic eggs with Cheerios instead of that no good for you chocolate.
Claire did get chocolate in her plastic eggs (of which snuck all day long).
"Are you sure I got the same things in my eggs that Claire did?" - Rachel
Easter basket goodies.
Picture taking time again! Rachel just didn't want to sit still.
My beautiful girls!!
It's always hard to get everyone looking - let alone smiling - at the same time. It took a few like this....
To get this.
Boy that Easter Bunny sure was good to Claire. Barbie stickers AND a movie!
Mommy's three Easter presents!
Claire found her own interesting way of hiding the plastic eggs!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Chattanooga, Here We Come!
The trip to Chattanooga started out with a visit to the aquarium. Out side the aquarium there were fun little places to climb and explore. So Claire and Rachel and Mommy did just that while Daddy went to buy the tickets.
What a ride! Now if there were just one big enough for me.
Claire was having so much fun, she even lost her shoe!
The aquarium is right on the river, so it has a pretty neat background.
Once inside, there were all kinds of sealife to see. Even penguins, which were Claire's favorite!
Luckily, real penguins aren't this big, or they may be a little more scary than cute.
It didn't take much to entertain Rachel, even lights on a wall were pretty good.
Oh my gosh! It is a "clairefish"!
Oh no, it's just Claire getting a fish eye's view of the underworld.
They also had a section of butterflies. Another highlight for Claire. They were beautiful and everywhere.
Our next stop on the viewing of tourist traps was Rock City. It is pretty wild. It is a huge rock garden, with all kinds of paths and exciting tunnels. Years ago, they did their advertising by painting on bird houses and the sides of barns. Here are two little birdies we found on the way in.
There were little slot canyons. There was even one, that Rachel and I barely fit through.
Claire didn't have much of a problem.
Lots of little tunnels and "secret passageways".
This is Lover's Leap. Of course there is a tragic story associated with this waterfall, but it was beautiful.
The Walker Family.
Another narrow gap to pass through.
Claire and Paul bravely crossed a big canyon on this swinging bridge.
uuuurrtthtuiuiuiiuiutiuyiurugjfkgfjkgnkbjkgbjvbnmbblkkjnknkjjjjjkjkbjkjkjbkiibuij nbknbnkblknlknllnkllknllknb kn l knlknl kmlnkmknlk mhhhhhhm kmnjimnjomnjoihkmmmmmmymiuuuuuuniomuuiiuopi;m,,,,,iummmmmpupimimlmyiu0nmunnou
Claire added this caption to the blog. I am sure she is describing this princess and prince.
Fairyland Caverns was in Rock City. It was caves full of glow in the dark statues of fairytale characters.
It was also full of trolls, which Claire found a little scary.
After visiting a few places, Rachel let us know that that was enough for the day.
Looks like it was enough for all of us!
One day, we visited the incline railway. The "steepest incline railway" (in the world, I am sure).
You get a pretty good view of Chattanooga and it's a pretty fun ride! It really is steep.
We spent a beautiful day playing in the park right by the river.
These stone statues squirt water out of their mouths during the hot summer months and there is a play area in the middle with fountain type water things to play in also. Looks like it would be great fun!
They had a carousel in the park and we all had plenty of chances to ride it. The girls loved it!
Nothing like ice cream to top off a fun day.
We explored another park area and found our own beach! (It really was a sand volleyball court, but good enough!)
And who could visit Chattanooga without going to the Chattanooga Choo-Choo! Claire loves all trains and she wished so bad that we could go for a ride on this one. They have turned some of the cars into hotel rooms. It sure would be fun sometime to stay in one.
What a ride! Now if there were just one big enough for me.
Claire was having so much fun, she even lost her shoe!
The aquarium is right on the river, so it has a pretty neat background.
Once inside, there were all kinds of sealife to see. Even penguins, which were Claire's favorite!
Luckily, real penguins aren't this big, or they may be a little more scary than cute.
It didn't take much to entertain Rachel, even lights on a wall were pretty good.
Oh my gosh! It is a "clairefish"!
Oh no, it's just Claire getting a fish eye's view of the underworld.
They also had a section of butterflies. Another highlight for Claire. They were beautiful and everywhere.
Our next stop on the viewing of tourist traps was Rock City. It is pretty wild. It is a huge rock garden, with all kinds of paths and exciting tunnels. Years ago, they did their advertising by painting on bird houses and the sides of barns. Here are two little birdies we found on the way in.
There were little slot canyons. There was even one, that Rachel and I barely fit through.
Claire didn't have much of a problem.
Lots of little tunnels and "secret passageways".
This is Lover's Leap. Of course there is a tragic story associated with this waterfall, but it was beautiful.
The Walker Family.
Another narrow gap to pass through.
Claire and Paul bravely crossed a big canyon on this swinging bridge.
uuuurrtthtuiuiuiiuiutiuyiurugjfkgfjkgnkbjkgbjvbnmbblkkjnknkjjjjjkjkbjkjkjbkiibuij nbknbnkblknlknllnkllknllknb kn l knlknl kmlnkmknlk mhhhhhhm kmnjimnjomnjoihkmmmmmmymiuuuuuuniomuuiiuopi;m,,,,,iummmmmpupimimlmyiu0nmunnou
Claire added this caption to the blog. I am sure she is describing this princess and prince.
Fairyland Caverns was in Rock City. It was caves full of glow in the dark statues of fairytale characters.
It was also full of trolls, which Claire found a little scary.
After visiting a few places, Rachel let us know that that was enough for the day.
Looks like it was enough for all of us!
One day, we visited the incline railway. The "steepest incline railway" (in the world, I am sure).
You get a pretty good view of Chattanooga and it's a pretty fun ride! It really is steep.
We spent a beautiful day playing in the park right by the river.
These stone statues squirt water out of their mouths during the hot summer months and there is a play area in the middle with fountain type water things to play in also. Looks like it would be great fun!
They had a carousel in the park and we all had plenty of chances to ride it. The girls loved it!
Nothing like ice cream to top off a fun day.
We explored another park area and found our own beach! (It really was a sand volleyball court, but good enough!)
And who could visit Chattanooga without going to the Chattanooga Choo-Choo! Claire loves all trains and she wished so bad that we could go for a ride on this one. They have turned some of the cars into hotel rooms. It sure would be fun sometime to stay in one.
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