The English Geek

April 2012 in Review

(I'm not sure why I just stopped writing monthly review posts. I totally skipped December-March. Ah, well. Onward and upward.)

April 2012 highlights: "Easter" dinner at my mom's house was a week before Easter this year; we had Wasabi Ranch chicken wings for Easter dinner at our house; our water heater was on its last leg; I took all the kids to Jump On It (one of those filled-with-trampoline warehouse places) and bought a Pass of All Passes for each of them (for stuff to do this summer); my credit card number got stolen and used for online gambling in some foreign country so I had to get a new one. In more specific, person-centered news:

~My mother-in-law moved into a condo about a half-mile away from us. Kendell spent a lot of time helping her get settled in, doing stuff like installing blinds and replacing smoke alarms and rewiring electricity. It is much nicer having her so close because if she needs help she is two minutes away instead of thirty. Plus she totally lucked into a great spot, with all-new everything inside.

~In addition to helping his mom, Kendell finished two more college courses, tech management and geology. Two classes closer to his degree! He also suffered through a month of high pollen count.

~Haley went to San Diego for her choir tour. She went to prom on the day she turned 17. She did lots of homework, finished reading Old Man and the Sea and started reading Hamlet, and got great scores on tests and essays. The choir she is in at school, Con Brio, got all 1's at their choir festival, which means they get to go on to the State choir festival.

~Jake went to track nearly every single day after school. He had two track meets, neither of which I could go to which made me sad. (Trying to save up vacation hours for a fun summer trip = I have to miss some other things right now.) Despite the fact that his school doesn't have a high jump coach, he finally made it over 5'2"! He had state testing at school. Got sick with the stomach flu and then, a week later, a fevery cold. He got a new pair of Vans.

~Nathan also had state core testing. His sixth-grade class put on the play Annie and he was the stage manager. He went on a camp out at the Dugway geode beds. He spent tons of time helping out at his grandma's new place. Along with Jake and Kaleb, he went to Take Your Kid to Work Day at Novell with Kendell. And, after much agonizing, he decided that yes, he will sing in his school's talent show this month, so he started practicing his song.

~Kaleb's teacher came back to school after taking February and March off to spend time with her newly adopted baby; all discipline problems promptly ceased. He got the stomach flu (but no fevery cold!). He spent every single possible second he could playing outside, which is his favorite thing to do. He went to a birthday party for his cousin Jace and started learning multiplication in math. (It's strange...he's still struggling with addition and subtraction but multiplication is coming so easily for him.) He played soccer so much that he wore out his ball.

~I got my hair colored. I went to dinner with my friend Chris. I turned forty and had a surprise party (the only one I've ever had, tee hee). I felt sick for almost the entire month, but I think I've finally figured out why. I read the books Feed, Bud, Not Buddy; I tried but failed to finish The Marriage Plot and The Flame Alphabet. (loved the former but ran out of time and couldn't renew because of the hold list; renewed the latter 3 times but just ended up hating it.) I ran lots of hills, baked 4 cakes, made 5 scrapbook layouts, painted my toenails blue, and bought myself a white denim jacket.

2011: the {hair} year in review

I had big plans in 2011. I had dozens of blog posts—that never made it out of my brain.

I wanted to blog about my hair, for example. But, you know? Blogging about your hair generally should also involve a few photographs. And I’m way more about the words than the pictures when I’m blogging. I know. Blogs with lots of photos are way more appeal. I just hate the whole process. There. I said it. I’m proficient but only barely with Photoshop, and it always, always gives me a headache. And then once you’ve survived the Photoshopping, there’s the uploading and the tweaking and yeah:

I never wrote the blog about my hair.

So instead I’m using "hair" as my 2011 year-in-review theme. (Please. Forgive the fact that we are 1/4 the way through January. I’m slow. I had to open Photoshop.)

the Winter months

My hair in January was pretty blah:

(from Jake’s 13^th birthday party)

In January, Kendell went to Mexico for work. (This meant that, a few weeks ago in December, he couldn’t donate blood.) Nathan did his science fair project on bananas. And I wore a heart monitor.

You see, I’d been having chest pains. Random, unpredictable, but still fairly scary (especially since "open heart surgery," "heart murmur," and "bicuspid aortic valve" are fairly regular discussions at our house). I kept ignoring it, thinking it was, like, sympathetic heart pains. You know. Like a sympathetic pregnancy some husbands have. Anyway. I ignored it and ignored it and ignored it and then, at the end of December 2009, I went to a blood drive at our church. You have to know: donating blood doesn’t freak me out. Needles, while not my friends, don’t freak me out. I don’t get anxious or uptight about it. Generally I just sit in the blue sling chair and feel like donating blood is a fairly easy way to help out humanity. But that day? For some reason, I totally passed out. Just as the phlebotomist was sliding the needle out of my vein (meaning, none of my blood was wasted in the making of this story), I was out. I was in a dark, dark, black place for about four minutes.

And then I woke up wondering why in the hell I was asleep in the church gym.

That passing-out thing freaked me out. So I finally went to the doctor, and he set me up with a cardiogram, an EKG, and a Holter monitor. The monitor is like a cell phone, only it’s also got four wires that connect to four leads that connect to specific parts of your torso. You wear it, and then every time you feel a pain or an irregularity in your heartbeat, you push a button. I wore this for two weeks—I was wearing it under my sweater in that photo, in fact.

I still have scars from the leads.

And the results? Nothing is wrong with me. My doctor thought that possibly the pains happened because my thyroid levels were wonky. A year later, I still have them. My theory is that they are little anxiety attacks, only delayed. I started getting obsessive about it for awhile, tracking the chest pains in relation to stressful events. I started seeing connections. Then I decided that since I can’t change the stressful events, and all the 21^st century’s advanced medical technology can’t see anything wrong with my heart, and because I ran a marathon and my heart never hurts when I run—I’m not going to worry about it.

I’m not sure what that has to do with hair, but it was a big thing in 2011 for me.

Throughout the winter, my hair grew. It grew and it grew and it grew. I went to Haley’s choir concert in February, where she sang show tunes and sounded amazing. Everyone got 4.0's and we went to Krispy Kreme to celebrate. Kaleb lost his first tooth, we got lots of snow. In March I started working on my mixed media quilt, which is still unfinished. My hair got longer and I started wearing it like this sometimes:

which I don’t like to do because I feel like a cocker spaniel.

the Spring months

April came, I turned 39 (to celebrate, I ate a breakfast sandwich from Gandolfo’s in the car by myself, and then I bought myself the sunglasses I'd been wanting for months), Haley turned 16 and went to prom. We celebrated Easter on Saturday at my sister’s house—in a snow/slush/rainstorm. My hair got to the length that Kendell likes but that starts making me insane:

(apparently I also ran out of make up?)

Spring arrived but the rain didn’t stop. The rain! It rained so much this spring that even *I*, Amy Sorensen, lover of rain and of all gloomy weather, wished for sunshine. We did get a lovely Mother’s Day Saturday:

and my hair was really, really starting to bug me. Why do I let it get long? It never looks good. It makes me crazy. My scalp itches. But I can put it in a ponytail at least! Anyway. I left it. I left it through June, when I braided it for Ragnar:

the Summer months

and into July, when Haley insisted on straightening it, just because it was so. long. I totally thought she took a picture of me with my straight hair but I guess not.

Anyway.

The sizzle of the straight iron was enough to finally convince me: get a freaking hair cut! Plus, I needed to record some videos that everyone who took my 2011 Write Now! class would see. I didn’t want to be all sloppy and unkempt. So, I cut it. And I did something I haven’t done in years. Decades, even: I went blonde.

Well, blonde-ish:

I went with the blonde because I knew my favorite hair colors—red and brown—would take a beating in the sun, as I was training for the marathon and outside a lot. At first, I loved it. Then I felt like I was pretending. I debuted my brand new blonde hair on our trip to the Tetons, which included Kendell’s dad’s funeral service. One of my sisters-in-law and one of my nieces does hair, and my other sisters-in-law always look gorgeous and perfectly-done, hair wise. (Make-up too, but this isn't a make-up story.) The hairdressers always make me uncomfortable about my hair, but no one seemed to notice it was any different. Even though I fit in more—everyone, save me, on the Sorensen side of the family is blonde—I felt a little bit off. Not quite right. I went ahead and blamed it on the blonde.

I loved the length, though. And the cut. The only thing that was hard? It was too short for a ponytail, so sometimes it bugged me while I was running. I finally bought myself some Bondi bands and have been in running-headband heaven ever since.

In August, I was starting to have dark roots already for Dad’s funeral

(With my friend Chris) but there was no way I was doing anything with my hair until after the marathon. So I just kept running. I ran a lot. Throughout summer and into

the Fall months,

when we spent a night in a hotel while our wood floor was refinished, purchased a new stove and fridge because our old ones were, well, old, and got everyone started back in school. Kendell and I started going on afternoon hikes together, in theory to get ready to hike Timp, even though we never did. Doesn't matter because I learned that adults-only hikes are a good way to reconnect with your husband. Kaleb had his annual heart check up and, despite my anxiety (and yes, a chest-pain flair-up on my part, two days after the appointment), passed without any complications. 

My blonde hair got rootier and rootier.

And, actually, it wasn’t until after Halloween and after Haley colored her hair red and I ran my marathon and a half marathon with Becky (that I still want to blog about) and I made one of my favoritest-ever baby quilts for friends at work and I taught my Textuality class and I hiked to the top of Y and I had my annual November cold that I finally got my hair done again:

I went back to dark and it makes me happy. Some of the blonde peeks through still, but not enough to bring back that not-quite-me feeling. Since then, Nathan turned 12, Jake turned 14, we had one of the most peacefully-perfect Thanksgivings we've ever had and a Christmas that was wonderful and amazing but also not-so-peaceful in some ways. I got the stomach flu. Nathan lost four teeth in two weeks (one of which he swallowed), I read four novels, one poetry book, and part of an essay collection, and I got a new cell phone.

But, I’m not loving it right now. It’s in that dull-hair-color phase, but I don’t know exactly what I want to do with it. Perhaps continue praying for the magic hair fairy to pay me a visit and bestow some heavy, healthy hair upon me? Or maybe I will get brave and do something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: cut it short. Because, looking at my mom and at her cousin Pat this summer at my dad’s funeral, I realized something: I don’t have a great hair heritage to fall back upon. Women of my mother’s line tend to get thinner and thinner hair as we age. Pat (who Becky and I call Fake Aunt Pat because we always thought she was our aunt until we found out no: she’s our mother’s cousin which makes her...vaguely related to us) has taken care of this by practically buzzing her head. And, you know, it suits her.

Maybe 2012 will be the year I follow suit? Probably not. Instead I’m going to try to be grateful for the hair that I do have. It could be worse, right? At least it’s not completely grey...yet:

(at my mom's house on Christmas day)

(After writing this, I'm certain it was ill-advised.It feels a little too self-centered and look-at-me, look-at-me. I should have just written a 2011 {books} year in review instead. So don't think this will stay up too long. On the other hand, I'm still going to post it. Because I totally photoshopped all those photos and the headache has to be worth something.)

November Summary

I cannot let one more day pass without writing my November in Review post. It would just be lame to have it any later, considering it’s December 11. It's lame I'm only getting around to writing it now! So, without further ado:

Kaleb: Probably this experience will happen quite often in Kaleb's life: A Friday night, and Kendell and I thought it would be good to go somewhere nice-ish to eat for dinner. I'd worked all day, he'd been hanging Christmas lights, we both wanted something relaxing. Since Nathan and Jake were at their camp out and Haley was at her friend Nikki's, our little buddy came along on our date with us. We went to the Spaghetti Factory, which he first protested about, but once he tasted the macaroni and cheese he'd ordered? He was in heaven. There was a man walking around the restaurant making balloon animals, so we got him to make Kaleb a monkey. We talked together, laughed, ate, and of course colored the menu. As my Bigs get older I think Kaleb will have more and more nights like this, when he's just hanging out with his parents. Until, of course, he is old enough to do things with his friends, and then I will get all weepy and lonesome and sad.

Nathan: Nathan turned twelve this month. Twelve is sort of a big deal in the LDS church, as it is the age boys are given the priesthood and can start passing the sacrament. It also means he doesn't have to go to Primary anymore (the children's organization) and gets to go on many more scouting camp outs. He went on one on the weekend of his birthday, which means he actually turned twelve while romping around the Sand Dunes. It snowed during the night of their camp out and I became Anxious Amy, imagining every single possible snow-related disaster, but apparently they'd packed enough warm clothes and managed to stay dry enough, because everyone made it out alive and unscathed.

Jake also had a memorable experience this month: he shaved for the first time. I considered taking some photos of it but I didn't want to embarrass him. It's not likely that he'll need to shave again any time soon, but still: how strange and surreal is it to watch my little Jakey turn into this new Jake, with his deep voice and peach-fuzzy lip and ceaselessly growing body? On one hand, I sometimes desperately miss Little Jakey. On the other, he is pretty helpful! He spent quite a bit of time in November either raking, or supervising the raking of, nearly all the leaves from our trees. He helped Kendell clean out the rain gutters. He survived his two weeks of being on kitchen. He put up our outdoor Christmas lights and detailed the toy room for me before I got the Christmas tree out. Plus he managed his first month of wearing elastic bands for his braces. In fact, his orthodontics gave us a sweet morning, after he'd had an appointment. The time we were finishing up and the time that second period started were just the right amount of distance for him to not bother with the rest of first period. Instead we went to McDonald's for a sausage and cheese biscuit.

Haley’s November can best be summed up by photos:

There's the before shot:

And the after shot:

She’s been wanting to change her hair color for awhile, but I finally got my brain (and my wallet) wrapped around the idea. I think she looks gorgeous as a redhead. And she loves it, which matters even more!

Kendell did what he does nearly every November: hung Christmas lights. This always makes me a titch nervous—and that scaling of steeply-pitched roofs!—but the only accident happened to one of his customers, and elderly woman. She was walking down the steps to show Kendell where her lights were stored, missed a step, and fell. She got a concussion and she broke her hip. Kendell is a little bit haunted by the sound her head made, hitting the concrete; we’re both just glad it wasn’t any worse.

My thing this month was my scrap blast, which I’ll blog more about later. I ran a couple of times and started going to a new sculpting class at the gym, but then I caught a cold and spent the entire last week of November coughing. I even called in sick, something I hardly ever do. It’s only been three or four days since I’ve finally felt nearly better—except for the cough which will likely linger until spring. I read the book Just My Type and started The Tiger’s Wife, but liked it so much I decided I need my own copy. And I started working on Christmas.

There! Check November 2011 off my to-write list!

October 2011 in Review

I had lots and lots of big plans for the month of October. I was going to make a new Halloween quilt. (Check! I accomplished this!) I was going to run my marathon (did it!) I was going to continue running a lot (not really...but sort of. Between my October 8 marathon and my October 29th half marathon, I ran four times. One of those was 12 miles, but still.) I was going to do a big cluster of scrapbook pages to get all the photos from Halloween over the past five-ish years matched up with their stories. (That quilt took me way longer than I expected, so I only got as far as processing and printing the pictures. Oh, and buying a few Halloween-ish supplies. I'm starting my scrapbook cluster today instead.) (If you want to see the layouts I did make this month, you can check them out here. The one about my Dr. Martens is one of my newest most-favorite-ever layouts.) I was going to polish and submit one essay. (Barely got started with the rough draft.) I was going to spend more time with my kids (I sort-of accomplished this. We missed the pumpkin patch, but we did decorate sugar cookies together, do a photo shoot, and carve pumpkins. And I also made sure I got one-on-one time with everyone.)

What I certainly, 100% accomplished is the fact that we ate macaroni and cheese. Several times. And not even the good homemade kind, but Kraft. This was never a goal of mine, but Target was selling Halloween macaroni and cheese—the noodles were shaped like witches, ghosts, and jack-o-lanterns—and I could not resist buying it. Several times. I don’t feel entirely good about feeding my kids the day-glo orange "food" but every once in a while has to be OK, right? And, a perk of having boys: we went through the ten (OK, 15) boxes I purchased very quickly. That happens when Jake and Nathan can each polish off a box all on their own.

One of my favorite days in October was the one before my marathon. We got our kids situated with various responsible adults in charge and then Kendell and I left. Overnight. We didn’t really do anything exciting—there wasn’t even a movie we wanted to see. We did go to the Home Show, which is a convention with, obviously, home-related stuff in it. As all of our home-remodeling energy is gone (as well as our home-remodeling savings!), this wasn’t thrilling, but it was still fun if that makes sense. (Thanks for the tickets Steve!) We went out to dinner, then drove to Layton. Checked out the race finish line, wandered around Walmart, and then went back to our hotel. It was just really, really nice to be away as just a couple, even without doing anything exciting.

Kendell was busy with Brainshare this month, which is the conference his employer Novell does every year. He had to do a presentation this year, which he wasn't happy about, but I am certain he did a great job! The kids look forward to Brainshare every year because of the spiffs, but this year? Totally disappointing. I think he might have brought home some pens and a handful of hard candy. (Nothing like the year when one booth had balls shaped like brains. Those were awesome!)

One of my favorite days this month was with Nathan. He and I went outside one warm afternoon to work in the flowerbeds. Our goal was to get all the nearly-dead leaves trimmed out of my patch of hostas. As we worked together, we talked about all sorts of things. Nothing earth-shattering, but it was a sweet, good moment I imagine will work as a touchstone in the future.

October brought the end of the first term for Haley and Jake. It was interesting to watch as Jake made sure he got straight As—talking to teachers, doing a bit of extra credit, retaking a test or two. I am grateful he’s making the effort to keep his grades up without me having to spearhead the entire endeavor.

Jake also remembered that he loves going to the skating rink. As he is in 8^th grade this seems entirely appropriate to me! He went several times with groups of friends. Two of his new friends are girls, and while he keeps reassuring me that he doesn’t like them "that way," I still wish I could don an invisibility cloak to keep track of these interactions. Jake is teaching me (has always taught me this, really, as the oldest boy in my family) just how differently things work with sons. I worry about different things with him than I did when Haley was the same age. Part of this is, surely, his personality. But it’s also boys. I hope (and pray! Often!) that I am steering him the right way.

Haley was also swamped with end-of-term schoolwork. She read 1984 in two days and brought up all her grades. She ended up with two A-s and the rest As. She’s taking hard classes so that is incredible! The best thing was her physics class, which has been really hard for her, but she managed to pull out an A. Again...this has been interesting. This year is the first year she’s really been pushed by her classes and had to struggle a little bit. I think it’s been good for her to see what she is capable of but also to realize that it isn’t always easy.

She and I also went to a program that the three high schools here put together every year for juniors. We learned about different scholarship options and then talked to some of the local colleges. I’m so happy she is ambitious and wants to continue with her education!

Kaleb’s focus all month has been drawing and writing. He’s still in the cute-spelling phase which I love! He likes to sit down and make books; he draws the pictures and then spells out the words as best as he can. These are always done in secret, with much "Mom! Don’t look!"ing, and then he gives me the book with much fanfare. I love, love reading these and seeing him progress. How can drawings like this one:

 (made just last night while procrastinating getting to bed) not make any mom happy? That is him and me outside picking flowers while it was still warm. He folded it up like a card (only backward, so it opens left to right instead of right to left); on the front is a robot and on the back is a "triangle pattern" and the words "t end." I finally broke down and got over thinking how cute that spelling of "the end" is and taught him the correct way. When he understood, he laughed and said "I always thought that word was T."

This specific October—2011—is one I have thought about for a long, long time. I hate it when people are vague and mysterious on their blogs (I like specific and detailed), but allow me to be vague and mysterious for a few sentences. The 29^th marked an anniversary of sorts, a momentous one, of an experience I had two decades and a bit ago. I don’t know if this will influence my future. I am terrified that it will and terrified that it won’t. I am not who I thought I would be when I imagined myself, 21 years ago, on this October 29^th, and the disparity between what I imagined and what I really am is what terrifies me. This topic will continue to be in my thoughts.

Make sure you write down some of your own October 2011 details!

the one with a Giant Spider (September Summary)

I could say that September 2011 was the month of the kitchen floor redo. I'm glad to have it done—but it wasn't my most favoritest-ever experience. It has led to a chain reaction of other things we need to do: repaint the kitchen, which means repainting the hall, which means repainting the front room. As I would almost rather go to the dentist than paint any room—let alone our kitchen with its vaulted ceilings—I am dreading all this painting that will happen in October. In happier remodeling news, Kendell installed an extra shelf in my kitchen closet. While this did mean more painting, it was worth the free space on my kitchen counters created by the new shelf. And, now that I have finished with the painting of the closet, I am happy to report that it looks much, much better. I had given up even trying to wipe down the walls in there, the paint had gotten so grungy.

 So that should give me some impetus to get the painting started.

 Anyway. Some other, less-stressful-and-annoying September experiences:

      A Month of Idylls. I wrote about this a little bit elsewhere, but I have to expound upon it. This has been the most perfect September I can remember. We had a few rainstorms, but none during the day. The days were just long, lovely, autumnal idylls. The mountains are all lit up with red trees, more red than I've ever seen. The red on Maple Mountain (which, for you locals, is the peak just south of Y mountain) is particularly stunning: wide swaths of red curving around narrow bands of pine. I must photograph it! We were so busy with the floor thing that I haven't done any fall hikes or photo shoots, but I am desperately hoping to do both next week. Every time we go somewhere, I can't help commenting on the mountain colors. This is starting to annoy Kendell.

      A Month of Homecomings. Due to our location, about half the kids in our neighborhood go to one high school, and the other half goes to a different high school. This means that Haley got to go to two Homecoming dances, the first at the high school she doesn't go to, the second at the one she does. Two times wearing the same dress (the same perfect, beloved, exactly right dress) = happiness.

 
(Homecoming no1)

 
(Homecoming no2—Haley totally got that corsage pinned on all by herself! they left later for this dance so the pictures weren't as good.) (Also, I just now went and Windexed those fingerprints off the little window in my front door. How embarrassing.)

      A Month of Fast Food. Again because of the floor, we ate a lot of fast food this month. It took two and a half days to finish the floor, but we couldn't put our appliances back in for another four days. After a week of fast food, (and Eggo waffles for breakfast because—no fridge for the milk) everyone was excited for me to cook again. (This excitement lasted exactly two days, until, on the third day, I made something that didn't please everyone. Which reminds me of a story. Last week at work, I was talking to a friend at work who doesn't have kids. She asked me about dinners at my house. How is it, feeding four kids? What do I make for dinner? My answer: I make at least half of my family annoyed and disappointed for dinner.)

      A Month of Longing. I thought that once Nathan got his butterfly knife, he would cease and desist with the little notes, gentle reminders, and left-open Amazon pages pointing to his heart's desire. Now that he is back in school, his friends have reminded him of how much he really, really, really wants an Airsoft gun. I am even more conflicted about this than I was the knife. I mean, I don't think anyone has ever died from playing with Airsoft guns. But I bet someone has had his eye shot out. ;) On the other hand, probably it is just normal boy stuff, wanting to run around a field trying to shoot your friends. Someone with more experience with Airsoft guns: please, please clue me in!

      A Month with a Day Off. When we had the floor redone, we also had them install wood in our hall. This meant that for an entire 24 hour period, we could only get into our front room. As it was crammed with kitchen stuff, this was not helpful. So we spent a night in a hotel. Haley slept at her friend Nikki's house, but the boys and I had fun hanging out at the pool. Actually—they hung out at the pool while I revived my legs after my last 20 miler in the hot tub. We ate dinner at Red Robin and had candy and chips in the hotel room for snacks.

      A Month of Dreaming Teeth. Kendell had to take the boys to their dentist appointments as I messed up and scheduled them when I was working. No one had any cavities. There were also my two trips to the dentist (check up and filling repair) and Nathan and Kaleb both have wiggly teeth. This overwhelming amount of tooth-related activities meant I also had multiple my-teeth-are-falling-out dreams. I hate that. 

      A Month with Scouting. Jake and Nathan both went to a scouting jamboree where they started working on multiple merit badges. The highlight of that day: I had to work, and we didn't have the fridge back in the kitchen yet (see how the floor thing affected everything?), so Kendell brought them a bunch of McDonald's chicken nuggets. Like...I think he got them the 50 pack. Squee! (I, personally, think the only chicken nugget worth eating comes from Wendy's, but all my children love the McDonald's ones.) Jake also went on an yet another overnight camp out. He is getting to be an expert at camping!

      A Month of Naked Fingers. One of the prongs on my wedding ring broke. Just the very tip, so the diamond was in no danger of getting lost, but all of my sweaters were in danger of being snagged. I finally took it in to get it fixed. It cost less than I expected (bonus!) and came back shiny. I hadn’t realized just how scratched and dinged up it had gotten! The jeweler scolded me for sleeping in my ring—he could tell by how the prongs are worn. I’m not going to stop that practice anytime soon, however. I hate that naked-fingers feeling of not having my rings on. Plus, I’m afraid I’d lose them if I didn’t wear them all the time. Do you sleep in your ring(s)?

      A Month of Brotherly Assistance. In sixth grade on Fridays in Nathan's school, you get what is called STS. This stands for "Sharpen the Sword" which means, I believe, getting out of the classroom to do other stuff than math and grammar, stuff that will help you help other people. Nathan's first month of STS found him helping out in the first grade classrooms—in Kaleb's first grade classroom. I love that he and Kaleb got to be together in such a fun way; it makes me feel like Kaleb got a better start than he could have any other way.

      A Month of Spiders. Actually, just one spider worth mentioning. On Thursday, Nathan came rushing into the computer room where I was wrestling with the American Express bill. "Mom! Quick! We need some spider spray or something! There's a huge spider by the door." I totally thought he was exaggerating. Not so. This was an enormous spider. And while I don't like spiders at all (in fact, they freak me out), I also don't mind squishing them. But this one was so big I was afraid to squish it. I got my big Dr. Marten to do the deed and its sole was covered with goo and venom after i finished. I felt like I had slayed a lion. I can't imagine how a spider could grow this big:

 
(I included the porch railing and a bit of the rug that's hanging out there because I need to wash it, just to give a sense of perspective at just how enormous that spider was. I wanted to hold up something like, I don't know, a pencil or a ruler or someone's finger to help show the scale, but I didn't want to get too close to the giant.)

How was your September?

August 2011: Understatements

Of course, the defining experience of August 2011 was my dad's death and funeral. I haven't blogged about it much but I have written about it many, many times in my personal journal. It was a sacred experience for me, being there with him when he passed. He was surrounded by his family and was at home—surrounded by art that he had made and hung on the walls—when he passed away, and I can think of no other greater wish I might have for my own death.

 

The funeral was also...well, there isn't a word to use here. "Good" hardly seems an apt description for a funeral, but it was just that: good, and peaceful, and funny, and musical. My Uncle Monte spoke, along with Becky and me, and I loved that even though none of us planned beforehand, we all had one thing in common: we shared quotes from books that reminded us of Dad. I loved that bit. My friend Chris came to the funeral as well (she was one of my dad's favorite people; he told me several times "I'm so glad you have Chris for your friend. I like her!") so I took my own advice and got a photo of her and me together, since our last one is now five years old

 

 

But death & funerals weren't the only thing that happened in August. It was actually a good, busy month for us, spent:

 

Visiting with family. My niece Jacqui had her baby's blessing early in the month, and it was nice to sit and talk to some of my more far-flung family members. (Kayci, that would be you!) Kendell and I went to a movie with our friend Steve, who we don't get to see often enough. Plus, at the funeral I got to see some of my cousins who I hadn't seen in a long time—two decades for one of them!

 

 
(There are only four cousins missing from this photo: Susan, Rochelle, Michele, and Jake. And yes: I do have a cousin named Jake and a son named Jake. It's just how it worked out.) (I wish I knew my cousins better than I do. It seems sad to me that most of us live fairly close to each other, but we don't have much of a relationship. I don't really know how to remedy this. The branch of the family I come from has always felt like the least-important one, I think, so I just assume they all have bigger & better things to be doing. Yep. that is pathetic of me!)

 

Swimming. I had a ten-punch pass for the community pool. My Bigs were not excited about hanging out at the pool all day. Is it mean that I sent them anyway? Kaleb loved it.

 

Camping. Our church had a 3-day-long youth conference in August. In the mountains. In tents, not cabins. To say that Jake and Haley were notexcited to go is to severely understate the point. Once they got there, though, they both had a great time. Haley slept in a tent all by her lonesome and loved the solitude. Jake got to be one of the group leaders. I'm so glad that I followed my gut and made them go despite their resistance. And I mean this in the least I-told-you-so way possible: I'm so happy they enjoyed themselves! (Haley took zero pictures at this event, even though she took her camera, so if you're reading this and you have pictures with my kids...I'd love to have a copy!)

 

Running. Haley and I ran a race together (her cross country team's 5k fund raiser), and she's run in a few xc races, too, as her shin splints have allowed her. My long runs have been getting, well, longer. I did two 18 milers in August. Plus, I ran a half marathon race. More on running in other blog posts!

 

Getting ready. For back to school, of course. At first, I really love this process. Love going through the lists and stockpiling all those school supplies. Love that the shelves are stocked with lots of cute notebooks. Love finding cute new clothes. By the end of it, though, I'm tired of the fact that every time I go to Target I seem to spend another fifty bucks. Jake still needs new shoes and Haley could use another pair of jeans...but this mother wore out her credit card so those will have to wait for a bit!

 

Teaching. My Write Now! class ran during August. In fact, it started the week dad died. To say I was stressed about the class during that time is another understatement. I couldn't do all I wanted and had planned to do, and I felt like I was letting my students down. Still, once the first week or so had passed, I pulled it back together. I think the class went well! (Textuality starts again in October.)

 

 Responding. Haley was asked to a Homecoming dance by one of her friends from the youth conference. Apparently all those two ate was carrots, so he asked her with a couple of bags of baby carrots and a funny note. She responded with this carrot cake (made with the carrots he sent!)

 

that said "when life gives you carrots, make carrot cake." Next week we need to find a dress!

Tiling.Our bathroom, that is. We finally couldn't stand the grody linoleum in our bathroom anymore. We found a great tile guy (really...if you live by me and need a tile guy, I have a name for you!) who did a great job, but what really made me excited is just how gorgeous the tile is we got. I love it so much it depresses me because it makes me wish for an entire new house, one that looked as gorgeous as my new bathroom tile.

 

Storming. Of course, we didn't actually storm. But a lot of rain fell this month. I love August thunderstorms in Utah. They are big, windy, thundery things. One of them woke me up out of a dead sleep at 1:28 in the morning. Pouring rain and booming thunder that lasted for what seemed like forever.

 

Going back to school. Haley started 11th grade, Jake is in 8th; Nathan is in sixth grade (his last year of elementary!) and Kaleb started first grade. I can't really explain how strange it is that all of my kids are in school all day. I don't quite know how I feel about it yet, but I've been too busy to have a cry-fest of any sort.

 

Miscellaneous round-up: Nathan wore a hole right through his sheets, so he got a new pair. He also, finally, got his long-desired butterfly knife anda weekend away at his grandma Beth's house. Kaleb, with much trauma, lost his first top tooth. That thing was dangling by a thread, but an apparently extra-thick one. Blood and tears before it finally came lose! Jake also got something long-awaited, Diablo II. I am still not completely happy with this, but he did do what he was supposed to do to earn it. He was a pallbearer at Dad's funeral. He also got to go to a monster truck rally with his cousin Zach, which he is still telling me about. Haley was home much more in August than she was in July, which made me happy! She did a ton of driving, including her first tries at driving our minivan.

And that, my friend, wraps up our August. How was yours?

July 2011: all About the Doritos and the Pepsi Throwbacks

Unless I am specifically assigned them for a barbecue, I never buy potato chips. That's because I like them enough that when I start eating them I can't easily stop, but I don't really love them. If I'm eating fattening, greasy potatoes, I'd way rather have them in french fry form.

Ditto Doritos: I never buy them. That's because I like them. I like them a lot. They remind me of being a kid, when my sister Suzette and I would ride our bikes down the block to the Little Store, which was a gas station + general store + paint-your-own-ceramics store. We'd each buy a can of Pepsi and a bag of Pizza Puffs, which were kind of like puffy Cheetos, except they were shaped like a slice of pizza and sort-of tasted like, well, pizza. (Does anyone else remember Pizza Puffs?)

Doritos remind me of Pizza Puffs.

This month, Costco had an instant rebate on Doritos. An enormous, gazillion-ounce bag of Doritos for just $3.25? We brought home a bag every time we went to Costco.

And we go to Costco a lot.

The month got even better when our local grocery store had Pepsi throwbacks on sale, 4 boxes for ten bucks. Ah, Pepsi Throwbacks! I curse you as I adore you! I love you so much I hate you!

Doritos and Pepsi: the very core of our July. But in case you were wondering what else I haven't blogged about (but still want to) this month, here is a break down:

• Despite my children's protests (nearly all of which included the word "stupid"), I instituted a no-electricity-before-noon rule. Oh, we had things like lights and air conditioning, and I'd even allow the radio. But video games, mindless computer time, and TV watching were strictly forbidden. While this didn't really result in more efficient housecleaning, it did mean more reading got done, which is an exchange I'll gladly make.
• What I don't understand: how, during the month of no-electricity-before-noon, my electricity bill was $178 dollars. What the? I had to read the bill at least ten times before that number would even compute.
• Our trip to Idaho, which included one day at Grand Teton National Park, one day at Yellowstone, and one day at perhaps the most beautiful cemetery ever.
• Kendell finished his photography class. Here is his final project. We spent a lot of time working on it together.
• Haley was gone 16 days this month: five for girls camp, three for the above-mentioned trip to Idaho, and eight more for another trip to Idaho with her friend Nikki. In between my dreams (which quickly dissolve into nightmares in which I'm sobbing as she walks away) about sending her off to various places (college, jobs, and one particularly strange one involving a sketchy modeling prospect), I've decided that teenage absences are the equivalent of pregnancy insomnia. Just a little taste of what will be coming up. I miss her already.
• Speaking of growing up. One day this month, Jake was very, very, very firmly reminded that if he didn't clean his room he would be facing imminent death. This room cleaning evolved into him giving all of his beloved-as-a-boy toys to Kaleb. K. was thrilled to be the recipient of marbles, a collection of black stones, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and a dozen Bakugon. I was happy Jake was so generous but devastated that he realizes he doesn't want his toys around anymore.
• Nathan got a hair cut and then found the hair gel. He likes spiking his hair in really, really sharp spikes and then poking you with his hair when you hug him. 
• Nathan finally got to go on a long-awaited scout camp out. Since I was working on the Friday he left, Kendell took the day off to get him ready. I don't know about your boys, but for mine? A campout is not complete without a can of spray cheese.
• Kaleb's month consisted of as much of his favorite activity as possible: playing outside with his friends. There is nothing, nothingthat makes him as happy as having someone to play with. Favorite activity: running through the sprinkler or, barring Mom's refusal to let him get wet, spraying the grass with the hose.
• We spent Independence Day like this: I went running in the morning, and then came home and mowed the lawn while everyone else putzed around. I insisted on an early-afternoon nap. Then we went to our friend's house for a barbecue. I brought chocolate sheet cake and blueberry pound cake. We planned on an hour or so of fireworks—these friends always get amazing fireworks—but it started to rain so we lit all of them off at once then ate dessert under their patio cover. I can't remember the last Fourth that included rain, but it was a memorable moment: the air cool and heavy with the scent of nitro, the delicioiusness of cake, and the rhythm of rain on a tin roof.
• July always means shopping at Nordstrom for back-to-school clothes. This year, since Haley is on the fashion board, we got to go the week before the sale started. It wasn't as fabulous as years past, selection-wise, but it was fun to shop early in curtained-off sections of the store!
• Jake landed his first job, doing yardwork for one of my librarian friends. She's commented several times on what a good worker he is. Cue beaming Momma!
• We finally renewed our Rec passes so the kids have been going swimming quite a bit. I confess that I do not love swimming and perhaps had at least one wife/mommy meltdown when I really just wanted Kendell to take the boys and let me stay home. Still, watching them frolic happily in the water and jump off the high dive made me forget the miserableness that is damp thighs rubbing together. (I firmly believe that if my thighs didn't touch, I would love hanging out at the pool.)
• One one of these swimming excursions, Kendell went ahead and took his cell phone swimming with us. Trust me: an hour in the pool, including some time in the hot tub and the sauna, is really not good on your cell phone.
• One day I dared to add chicken to my children's second-favorite pasta salad. You'd think, by their response, that I decided to add boogers to their second-favorite pasta salad. Apparently chicken in pasta salad is a horrid, horrid idea. (Kendell and I, however, both loved the chicken-inclusive pasta salad.)
• I did a lot of running, including five long runs: 9, 11, 12, 13, and 15 miles. Remind me to tell you about nearly being taken out by a bike rider on my 15-mile run. It's a great story involving my stellar ninja moves and cat-like responses. One aching shoulder, one sore wrist, and an enormous bruise later...

How was your July memorable?

June 2011

(I know...yet another month in which I fail to get this posted at the beginning. Ah, well. Who needs to feel like a failure over something so silly as a blog post when there are so many other things to feel like a failure over? Onward and upward!)

I'm not really sure where June went. We didn't really do anything exciting, but it seemed to whizz by! We did go to the parade in my hometown, which is sort of the official start of summer. A few details to remember:

HALEY started summer off the exact right way. On the last day of school I picked her up and, after a long tussle over her Spanish book, which her ex-best-friend swore she'd turned in but was nowhere to be found anywhere and trust me, we searched through every single Spanish book the library had, we went to the library where she checked out a massive tower of books. Reading just for fun = the best part of summer! (Well, maybe not the best part, but it made this Momma happy!)

In even bigger news, June was the month that brought driving to Haley's life. She took the test, passed with exactly 80%, and the next day I started teaching her how to drive. It's been less stressful than I expected but still feels a whole lot like potty training a toddler: you can't relax because you're always afraid an accident is going to happen.

Haley also: got a new swimsuit that totally & perfectly matches her style, went to a pool party, hung out with her best friend, and was put into the presidency for her Young Women class at church. AND! She gave a talk in sacrament meeting about getting her patriarchal blessing.

JAKE'S big excitement this month was a basketball tournament. It was a quick one, just two weeks, and as it was his first experience playing basketball it wasn't really about winning. But he had a great time! On the last day of the tournament, he had two games. It was held in Santaquin, which is 35 miles south of us, so we hung out on the southern end of our valley that Saturday. Went to breakfast at I-hop between games, survived an excruciating trip to Walmart (seriously: you know I hate Walmart, right, and that trip is exactly why. I stood in line for 28 minutes beforethe cashier started ringing me up, and there were only two people in front of me. I sent Kendell a text that said "I'm in Walmart hell!" which, when you think about it, happens every time I go there), visited Grandma Sue's kitties one last time.

He went on a scout camping trip to the geode beds and came home with some cool ones.

After much shopping and discussing of options, we found him a new suit and some new church shoes. It is good to see him going to church without his wrists and ankles visible!

NATHAN has made a special effort this month to be a good big brother to Kaleb. I imagine it's frustrating that, at 11, he has to share a room with his 6-year-old brother. Their interests are so different. (On a regular basis, I have a dream that I find a room we forgot about somewhere in our house, and then Nathan can have his own room. Hmmmmm...think this bothers me much???) But he has tried to be patient and kind. I've caught him several times sitting on my bed with Kaleb, reading to him or helping him to read a book. I so appreciate his extra effort! His is a good boy and still has a tender heart.

He's also a little bit obsessed. Nathan wants a butterfly knife BAD. He shops online at Amazon, looking at the practice ones (they're dull so you can learn how to flip them open without, you know, slicing off fingers and various other bits of flesh). I keep putting him off because I can't decide. Is this a cool, fun thing for him to learn to do, like being an expert yo-yo-er or knowing how to juggle? Or will it lead to a life of crime? I mean...why would a person need to know how to flip open a butterfly knife? Am I being too uptight about it?

This summer has given Nathan something he's never experienced before: hay fever. It hasn't been his favorite thing. Zyrtek and eye drops have helped, and it seems to be subsiding, but he's lost his status as the only kid without that fun experience!

KALEB turned 6 on June 7. We had his Grandmas Party on the 5^th(the Sunday before his birthday) so he and Kendell could celebrate together (they’re almost birthday twins). He was sad that no one was coming on his actual birthday, but two people (our family friend Steve and his cousin Ben) called to wish him a happy birthday. He told me that night when I tucked him in, "Mom! What I loved best today was the birthday phone calls! That was so fun!" We celebrated on his birthday by picking up some pizza and snowies and hanging out in the park. Plus he got a new scooter. Not even two weeks later, he scooter was stolen out of our garage. Sigh. (Whoever took it was gracious enough to leave Nathan's old and very beat-up scooter behind.)

Kaleb also got socked by hay fever. He's been taking Benadryl at night and Zyrtek in the day. His has been the worst—his nose gets so stuffy it's literally swollen. When he wakes up in the morning, he'll find me and say "Mom! I have a hayfever today!"

KENDELL finished up his astronomy class with a solid A (after starting the class claiming d be happy just getting a C). He's helped with the teach-Haley-to-drive project in a surprisingly calm manner. He also taught her how to change a tire. He's nearly finished with helping his mom clean out all of her sheds and the garage and basement; they're going to put her house up for sale soon.

Aside from Ragnar, I finally got my marathon race training going in June. I'm not sure what's stopping me, but although i've decided to run the Layton Marathon, I still haven't actually signed up for it. Mostly I think it's a lack of confidence—I'm not certain that I really can run a full marathon. But I've been training like I'm going to do it. And waiting for the magical boost of confidence that finally gets me to click on the "registration" button.

May in Review (better late than never as my mom is wont to say)

(Eventually I might actually write one of these on the first day of the month; I realize that June is already halfway over and I'm just now posting the May review, but I still didn't want to miss it.)

In addition to the endless rain (the wettest month in Utah ever, in the history of weather record keeping), here's what happened in May:

Entire Family Stuff

• We went to Melissa’s baby Lydia’s blessing on May 22; played with her cats, admired the cousins’ ducks, gooed at the new baby
• We celebrated Mother’s Day with a Saturday concert that Haley sang in; on Sunday I made spaghetti and red sauce for dinner, just to make myself happy
• We celebrated Memorial Day by eating lunch at In ‘n Out; the boys went to see Kung Fu Panda 2; Nathan, Kaleb, and Amy decorated graves on the Friday before since it was supposed to rain all weekend (it started raining as we left the cemetery and then rained almost all weekend)
• For who-knows-what odd reason, the neighborhood paper boy picked May as the month to dump all his extra Sunday papers into our yard. Every Sunday we woke up to a pile of 7-10 newspapers. What the?

Kendell

• asked me approximately 1,278 times "what are we going to do to entertain the kids this summer?" Perhaps someone else out there has better ideas than mine?
• won the "I support my wife’s running habit" award by driving me to the top of Squaw Peak Road and picking me up at the bottom. (This involved a lot of sitting around in the car and waiting for me, something he’s not a fan of.)
• decided, on the spur of the moment, to go back to school so he can finish his associates. Classes on the block schedule means that almost every second of his free time in May was spent doing Astronomy homework. (Nathan calls this his "boring space crap")
• has been pronounced completely healed from April's gallbladder surgery.

Amy

• I ran lots and lots of miles in preparation for Ragnar; these miles taught me that running is perhaps the only time when my back doesn't have a low-grade ache going on
• I was astounded at how much I remember from my own Astronomy class, the one I took in 1992 or 1993. It is, after all, my second-favorite science! Lots of helping Kendell with homework and studying.
• listened to lots of Adele and a newly-discovered band, The Naked and Famous
• had a month of rereading: The Lord of the Rings trilogy (which I started as comfort reading during Kendell's hospital stay), The Book Thief and Birthmarked. I also read a couple of books about hiking in Grand Tetons National Park for an upcoming trip (I'm already frustrated at having to choose the hikes; I wish I could just go on all of them!)
• goal for the month: zero soda. None, nada, zilch. I made it! I had a few tough moments but managed to talk myself down from the soda craving.
• To support Haley (see below), I did almost zero baking. I did have to make a cake for a funeral (which, by the way, I remembered I was supposed to bake about 45 minutes before I had to leave for the day; thank goodness for the ease and speediness of a good sheet cake recipe!), and after the scent of sheet cake wafted through the house, I was powerless in the face of my craving until I finally made one for our family (on Mother’s Day). That was it, though, for baking. Much less sugar at our house. (Although, dare I confess: I polished off an entire bag of white chocolate chips in about 3 weeks. You know you’re desperate when you resort to naked chocolate chips for your sugar rush.)

Haley

• goal for the month: no sugar. She did it! I'm very proud of her. She's actually not eaten candy for years, but has a weakness for beverages of the Icee/Slurpee persuasion. And cookies. (Me too, sister!) But she was strong and resisted, even when faced with entire dessert tables.
• Sang beautifully at her Mother’s Day choir concert
• Found out she was accepted on the Nordstrom fashion board, the Con Brio choir council, and the city youth council; these took away a bit of the sting of not making the choir she really wanted to be in
• Finished reading Great Expectations and also read The Diary of Anne Frank—for, strangely enough, her math class (I still haven’t figured that one out!)
• finished her sophomore year of high school with a straight 4.0 for the year!

Jake

• At the end of April, I handed him a book I thought he’d like, The Hunchback Assignments. It had an enormous hold list so he only had two weeks to finish it. He read about 3/4ths of it and then couldn’t find it. We turned the house upside down looking for that book. I nearly just claimed it lost and paid for it several times. Almost six WEEKS later I had the ah-ha moment to check at the library of his junior high. Yep, it was there, along with six other books waiting to be returned to the public library. I took all of them back and still feel relieved, since we looked for the book for nearly the entire month.
• For his junior high awards assembly, he received the Student of the Year award in PE. I only had my little camera with me, as Kendell’s other class is a photography and so he’s always got my big camera. This was the photo I got of him: 
  (and it’s also why even though it’s nice to have a small camera in my purse, I still like using my big camera better, just because of the speed factor)
• Grew another inch or so; he needs a new suit for church because his arms are just too long for his current one. The growing of this boy amazes me!
• Finished seventh grade just shy of a 4.0; he had one A- back in the second term, but in the rest of his classes he earned As.

Nathan

• got to attend the special maturation program at school; plenty of "ah ha" and "that’s gross!" moments. But he survived!
• participated in the "Hope of America" school program that our district kids do here in 5^th grade. It’s every school in our district; they sing different patriotic songs. He liked it just fine, but even better (and I’ll agree with his assessment) was the morning of his practice. He was done with school at 11:00, so I picked him up from his practice and he hung out with me. We didn’t do much: went to Costco, ran to the mall to do some returns, picked up lunch from Sonic. After the errands, we went home and he helped me plant some flowers and some seeds. It was a rare non-raining May day and we just talked, and hung out, and it was a good, sweet afternoon. I loved this day!
• Finished 5th grade with straight As.

Kaleb

• The week before the last week of school, all the kindergarteners were off so they could have their kindergarten assessments. I was griping to Becky about how it seems every other week kindergarten is cancelled for one reason or another. She pointed out that when her kindergartner, Ben, was having a week off for the same reason, she tried to savor it because it was her last week with just him at home with her. I started crying right when I got off the phone with her because I realized just how right she was: my last week alone with Kaleb. So I made sure to savor it, too. We did lots of everyday but fun things, like going to the greenhouse, visiting my dad, stopping by our favorite bakery for dinner rolls. It was a good, sweet week together!
• He astounded me at his assessment. His reading skills literally tripled in the three months since the last assessment. My anxiety over his learning lessened a whole big bunch in that moment!
• Highlight of the month: seeing Grandma Sue’s kittens. He’s still talking about them!

April in Review: In Like a Lion, out Like a...

lion:

 

(the last day of April we woke up to this.) (However, no branches were broken in this snow storm.) And so continues the bout of strange and disappointing springs. All of my hyacinths are finished and I hardly got to enjoy them it's been so cold this month! In further news, here are our monthly details:

Kaleb

Is in the habit of saying "Mom, you forgot something," every once in awhile. The thing I forgot is always a hug.

Got to go on a field trip to the animal shelter. (I refrained from telling him that is where Emily’s last moments were.) He got to hold a kitten, which was definitely the highlight of the experience. He is a kitty lover!

Had his first-ever sleep over, when Kendell was in the hospital. Three + weeks later, he is still talking about it.

Is doing a little better at the sleeping thing. There’ve been a few nights he’s actually slept the entire night. (Including the night of the sleep over.)

Loves, loves, loves going to the park with his brothers. He’s become an expert monkey-bar doer and has the blister scars to prove it. When he came home with his first enormous blister he was terrified that cutting the skin off would hurt. Some gentle machinations with the clipper/scissor thing later, he was much happier.

Nathan

When he was at his aunt Cindy’s house one day while Kendell was at the hospital, he took a pretty good fall from his bike. His elbow and shoulder got the worst of it, leaving him with three enormous, bloody scrapes. Lots of bandaids were required because Nathan is a scab picker. He’s finally scabless but likely will have scars.

Suffered a bout of the stomach flu that’s been hard to get over. He went back to school the next day but has had a few vague stomach aches here and there.

Has fallen in love with mahatma (saffron rice). We make burritos out of it at our house, with black beans and cheddar cheese. So far he’s the only kid I’ve been able to convert to this deliciousness.

Is reading Summerland by Michael Chabon. Everytime I see him reading, I tell him how cool it is to read Chabon!

Jake

April is officially track season, and Jake was very dedicated. He didn’t miss a single practice. He liked doing his extra workouts at the park, so he’d take Kaleb and Nathan with him. They all got in the habit of singing "I will follow you into the park" (a la the Plain White T’s song) when they left

Is not excited about lawnmowing season, although he has graduated, this year, to being able to mow with his MP3 player. (Apparently there is some lawn mowing curriculum that only husbands know the detail of, and not until you’re 13 can you mow and have music.)

Still takes great delight in the fact that he’s taller than me. In fact, he seems to get taller than me daily. He’s gotten so tall that he needs a new church suit, he’s all gangly arms & long legs & broadening shoulders. I’m still the boss of him, though, no matter how tall he gets!

Is making me crazy because all of a sudden he doesn’t want to read. WTH? Not reading is like...so foreign I cannot even conjure up an appropriate simile. Nothing is grabbing his readerly soul. (This is completely freaking me out.) I picked up Orson Scott Card’s Pathfinder last week and am dearly & desperately hoping this will cure his literary anomie.

Haley

At the beginning of the month Haley tried out for student council. She didn’t win, but the sting of that went away when she was asked to prom. Then the Prom Angst began: over the shoes, the earrings, the dress (she ordered a green one but they sent a purple one instead), the date itself. Prom was last weekend and not only did she survive, she had fun!

For spring break, she went to Seattle with her BFF Nikki. They did all the touristy stuff and she fell in love with traveling. I hope life brings her lots of opportunities for travel.

She turned 16. While she still isn’t very interested in getting her driver’s license, she’s excited to be of dating age and went on two dates the weekend after her birthday. I am loving that she’s social & outgoing & capable but not boy crazy in the least. I hope that lasts.

For English she’s reading Great Expectations. As I am not a Charles D. fan, I’ve not been as much help to her with this assignment. I DID buy my own copy to read along with her, but alas: I have yet to crack the dang thing open.

She’s discovered (or perhaps rediscovered) Coldplay. Since I like the group too, we’ve had some cool talks about music.

Amy

my "diet" has nearly been undone by Pepsi throwbacks. I cannot explain how delicious they are to me. The exactly right level of sweetness, bubble, and flavor. I was surprised when I tasted regular Pepsi at how different the flavors are. Luckily they don’t have Pepsi Throwback as a fountain drink or I’d be in trouble.

I made a quilt for my niece Lyndsay’s new baby, who is due anytime now. I had a moment of epiphany at her shower that I want to blog about, but I’ll add: the quilt was cute!

My back pain is slowly getting better. If I sit for a long time at work, it inevitably aches, but this just means I’ve been trying to move around more. I was sort of afraid to really start running a lot, but as I’ve got Ragnar coming up, I need to anyway—and so far, running does NOT make my back hurt. Happy day!

I can’t stop listening to Adele’s new CD, 21. I love her because her voice is so powerful and distinctive, her lyrics are interesting, and she’s not a stupid blonde waif. I admire a bit of intelligence in a musician! Nearly completely on the other music spectrum, I’ve also been listening to a lot of Prince. Oddly enough, Becky has been too. We both discovered just how naughty "Little Red Corvette" is. I never picked up on what the lyrics really mean until this month. DUH! But it’s a great song to run to!

I've been working on a quilt of my own. Yes, not one to give away to anyone. Just one for my front room. More details when I finish it.

Since April included Earth Day, here’s a little shout-out of gratitude to my neighbor, who lets me share his recycling can. It makes me untenably happy to recycle—anxious and annoyed that it’s not easier to do here, but still.

Kendell

After his surprise surgery, he took two weeks off of work, but is now pretty much recuperated and back to normal. Except, he gets tired really easily and can’t lift as much as he normally does. The surgeon told him it might take him up to three months before he feels back to normal again. (Apparently that really high bilirubin level is hard to work out of the system.) Have I mentioned that we are both so, so grateful for good medical insurance? I count this as one of my biggest (financial and peace-bringing) blessings. He might not make a ton of money, but we do have that.

His current musicians of choice: Katy Perry and Bon Jovi. Sort of a strange combo, but whatever!

This probably should go in May’s review, but as we worried about it all April I’m putting it here. Back in...I don’t know, last September? June? sometime last year, the company he works for, Novell, was purchased by Attachmate. It took a long time for the sale to be finalized, but it finally was in April. Today was the day everyone was dreading and worrying about: layoffs. And not just a few here and there...brutal layoffs. 700+ people. Kendell is safe (so far) but gah, my stomach just aches for all those families whose lives were turned upside down today. I have been there before, and constantly fear being there again, and have nothing but empathy to send their way. I nearly feel guilty for feeling grateful that Kendell’s job was spared. Deep breath.

How was your April???