Birthday Fun

Sienna hosted a very fun Tea Party. We had a tea shaped chocolate cake, and blue koolaid! Plus Peanut butter and Orange marmalade sandwiches. We played don't eat pete!

Grace, Royal, Sienna, and I all helped make the coolest cake ever!

Winds of Change are Blowing

Royal has officially put in his application for a job in Missouri. The job is one that would suit his personality better, pay better, have better medical benefits, and be from a better company. We expect to move soon.

Suddenly I find myself packing! It is good.

While we love where we live so much that we would retire here, I expect to love the new area as much. Also, we will probably be closer to a temple.

Our garden is producing tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and has unripened red cabbage, watermelons, cantaloupes, and butternut squash.

I am teaching the Mia Maids (14-15 yrs old) on Sundays. I enjoy myself and I get at least one week off per month.

I got 3 hours completely to myself today! It was wonderful. I got my car fixed, got a new prepaid cell phone for Missouri, and saw a friend. I feel normal again. It is a hard job, being a full-time mom. It improves with a little vacation, though.

8 Weeks are up!

My 8 Week Challenge is technically over! Yea! I did it!

What I mean I did looks like this:

I started the habit of eating a good breakfast (with at least some protein and some produce.)

I did 2 workouts a week of extremely slow weight lifting.

I lost about 9 pounds (forgot to take my weight this morning.)

I nursed a baby (15 pounds now!)

I also try to eat a full meal (450 plus calories) every 3 hours. (4/day or so plus 1 snack)


Now, what did I do perfectly? Well, I did actually get 16 full workouts in, although they were not all on the scheduled day. That's it!

Now, onto more improvements in personal eating habits. I will continue my 20 minute workouts on Monday and Thursday. I'm also really trying to do a little (5 minutes) of trampoline "jogging" or walking per day. I've done it 4 times over the past 8 weeks! Baby steps, right?

I'm curious who will be laughing at me about this post.

I have realized an astonishing (perhaps to myself only) fact about myself: I don't take criticism or correction well unless I have requested it.

Now, I realize, rather abashedly, that many of you might be smiling and rolling your eyes about now, since this fact may have been more obvious to you than to myself.

Nevertheless, I am surprised. And sad. And hoping I remember this long enough to seek out and get a thorough change of heart on the matter.

Mrs. Farmer, our landlady, mentioned that our water bill has gone up rather drastically lately. (We share a water meter with her barbershop, so they pay the water bill, and water is included in our rent.) I thought about all the possible reasons for the increase... Some are that Sienna has potty trained, we have an additional baby (we have more laundry, including some cloth diapers), I'm drinking more since I'm nursing, our toilet has been running now and then, and we were hand washing our dishes for a few weeks, which I believe actually used more water than the dishwasher.

Yesterday, she mentioned the matter again, stating that the bill was $15 more than usual and would I please refrain from watering my garden when rain is expected. She also said she found the water left on so long last tuesday, that it ran out of the garden and down the driveway! I felt ashamed and assured her that I have only watered minimally (once a week on average), and I would be more careful to not leave the water on. I have been very careful about not leaving it on all summer, in fact. But, I missed it once, apparently...

This morning I realized that, with my plants beginning to wilt and me never even hearing what the weather will be, that our verbal agreement would not meet my needs at all. I need to come to an arrangement with her that allows me to water my garden as I need to and her and her husband to feel that we are paying a fair amount on the water bill.

Now, for the criticism part.

Today, when I approached her about the matter, she was very appreciative and kind, except for a few details. One, her garden 1/2 a mile away is doing great without any watering. Two, our weeds sure absorb a lot of moisture!

And, this allowed me to gain the useful realization that I am sensitive to criticism. I assured her that, with my squash plants turning brown around the edges, my garden is not okay without watering. And I accepted her criticism of our amount of weeds. But it sure didn't feel good. ;-) I am glad to find out where my pride has been lurking. Now its time to pull that weed.
We shall see how I do.

'Chini in a Bottle

I read about some Japanese farmers growing square watermelon, so I thought I'd give it a go. In the meantime, I thought that I also might try growing zucchini in soda bottles. It works! It's kind of fun (though a pain to get the bottle off).

A More Suitable Place to Live

We live in a lovely, small home in a lovely, small town, 45 minutes from Royal's place of work.

For 6 months, we have been trying to find an extraordinarily inexpensive home to buy that would be more suitable to our family (read more than one bathroom.). We have found 3, and for varied reasons have failed to obtain them for ourselves.

Now, it has come to our attention that a different job, more suited to Royal's personality, might be more important in our lives than a more suitable home. And a more suitable job has appeared.

So, our buying plans are on hold. The new job would be in the St. Louis area, and it would require a family relocation. We will resume our search for a home here if the job doesn't work out. I hope we know within a week or two.

Talk a Little

This is the two of us, me without any makeup. (oh, well.) The "new" hooded towels I just fashioned from some old towels, and some old handtowels.

Once, when I was a teenager, I didn't have many friends. This was doubtless due to my lack of social skills and lack of gentleness in personality. But, I still blame it on the exclusive friendship circles of the other young women in my church congregation (for that was the entirety of my social life- being homeschooled.)

I remember how it felt when one would say, "Guess what Cali said about you..." And I would say, "Thanks, but I really don't want to know."

Today I got a similar feeling, although the circumstances were very different.

A few weeks ago, I was in Church working with some women I not only admire, but really look up to.

I came into the room, and I got this distanced feeling. Her manner seemed more formal and uninviting than usual. I hope I'm wrong, but I think something was said that wasn't as complimentary as what I'd like her to hear about me. Either that or I did something offensive I'm not aware of. That is a possibility, but one I'm not inclined to postulate at this moment.

Today, I was told by my friend, Jolene, that she told Judith (A girl I'd like to be friends with) some of my desires that I had hoped to share personally. She also informed me that these desires weren't something Judith was interested in accomodating. I'm surprised how sad I feel inside about it. It is a little silly, but still, I'm sad. I know I should have acted sooner, but couldn't Jolene have waited until I had time to talk to Judith myself? Doesn't this put an unnecessary distance between me and Judith, now?

And certainly between me and Jolene.

I'm resolved (and I hope I've convinced you, as well) to stop talking to my friends about my other friends. Now, you all, hold me to this! What should I do when I'm on the phone with someone, and they start to talk unkindly about someone else? I hope I have the guts to say, "I love you, and I love that other lady, so I'm not really comfortable talking about this right now."

I love you, Jolene! I love you, all you wonderful family! Even though we may not always be in warmest agreement. I still love you, and I hope you won't listen to anyone else tell you about me or what I want. Just ask me! I'll try to be sweet and honest.

A cute quote from Sienna

After being tucked in,
"Mommy, I need you to toon off the sunlight!"

(In references to pulling down the room-darkening window blinds .)

Current Photos

Grumpy Mommy on a Kick

Okay. Royal went off to play with a buddy in St. Louis for the weekend.


AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHhhhhhhh.

Glad I got that out of my system.

In theory, it sounds good, Royal going off to have a good time with a long-time buddy. I was happy for him- on one condition! That he get me some help while he was gone, such as some babysitting. He agreed. He has been gone ALOT lately- working 2 jobs, and this past week he did 13 hours overtime at his Day job. I had had enough before he left.

The babysitter wasn't able to come. I had 2 babysitters fall through, actually. (big frown.)

Royal gets back tonight. And, I'm going off to be alone for a month. I think I'll go to Wyoming. I hear there is a lot of space there.

Oh, wait, just kidding. I guess that was just in my fantasy. Actually, I am just going to cry and scream. I'll try not to scream at my girls anymore, though. Poor things. Good thing they like movies.

Why It Is OK that We are Not Good Enough

Here's an excerpt of a letter I sent to my missionary brother last year, inspired by our little garden. (5' by 5')

Hatching Adventures Part 5

Yesterday was hatching day. 5 beautiful, fluffy, tiny, miniature chicks emerged from our 10 bantum eggs. They were colored as a chipmunk. Black stripe down center, and mousey brown otherwise. Now there is only one. 4 dead. One living.

What is our role in the care of our animals? We do not wield the powers of life or healing. What is it to us when our animals die? Killed off by one of nature's numberless opportunities for death! Especially to an infant animal. What am I supposed to make of it?

We have now lost 6 grown birds, and 8 chicks. It is stressful and exhausting to me. I used to think (before I ever had animals) that I was supposed to keep them alive! But, now I find I don't have the power to do that! Just providing the necesseties of life is not enough. You have to anticipate many needs, and even then Chance seems to like to eat chicken!

I think that the death of my animals must not be a matter of moral right or wrong. My ignorance (not for lack of research, either!) has caused some deaths, one was accidentally dropped at a young age, some were killed by a dog, some were killed by other chickens, and some died of disease, one even died by drowning! While some of these causes are preventable, none of them is morally right or wrong!

I think that it is possible to sin, so to speak, against an animal by treating it wrongfully with malice or ill intent. But, I think it is not inhumane to raise animals for our own use- whether that be a work horse, a laying hen, a milk cow, or a beef steer- when we do what we can reasonably do to take care of them. Even killing a bird or horse to prevent its further suffering doesn't seem a matter of morality. How am I to know when a bird is past the possibility of recovering? Only experience seems to teach these things. Experience is spelled: Mistakes made with real live animals.

So, I'm tired. I believe our last newborn chick will die. It isn't because we didn't love it, feed it or water it. It is just going to die because I can't stop it from dying without putting it in my living room! And even then I can't stop if from dying! 3 of our lost chicks died while in my living room!

This morning we tried to save our last 2 newborn chicks from the larger chickens. One still died.

I can live with it, but I'm not used to it yet.

Our Room-mate, Edwin Parker

Royal and I err on the cautious side when it comes to personal information. We never give out our information (address, phone, SSN, etc) to the cashier, to sign up for coupons, etc. We never use our last name on this public blog- even the title is an acronym!

So, when I had the chance to put my name in the phone book, or pay $2 for privacy, I opted to list our number under the fictitious roommate Edwin Parker. His name shows up on caller ID when we call you, and telemarketers have his name sold to them by our phone company.

Today I got the first call for Edwin. Later, I had a chance to chat with Royal online for about 5 minutes. Part of our conversation follows.

ME: Hey, babe, how are you?I just registered us with donotcall.gov . I just got our first call for Edwin Parker.

I think next phone number we use, our fictitious roommate should have a celebrity name like, Tom Cruise. Or, Steve Jobs. Then, when they ask for them, we can at least laugh...

Royal: hey!

ME: How about Mashed Potato for a roommate
in the phone book

Royal: How about Ima Dummy?

ME: Great! I love it!
How bout: Iona Porsche
How about Iwana sellyousomething

Royal: Wiami aL Loser

ME: Willya Marryme

Royal: Stahp Colling

Royal: Ah this is fun
Gotta go and throw pizzas, though

Stink Eye

This is what Grampa Dan calls "Stink-eye"


And, here is Junior already picking it up:

Baby Love

I never felt this way about my babies before, but I think I'm in love! I just adore Jimmy. I still don't adore him as much as I adore his Dad, but I just adore him. I love holding him, touching him, kissing his soft, fat little cheeks, rubbing his fat little legs, smelling his greasy, balding head. I just love watching him. And the girls have got it, too! Whenever Little Jim is awake, they come running in, and with high-pitched voices and squeals of delight, they begin malling the poor dear. He is just the best sport about it, too! He loves all the attention. He smiles for them and stares with rapt attention for all their show.