Project Car

Underfoot, K2, and I are still in Idaho. While we have been in here, we have played with cousins, aunties and uncles, and grandparents. We have spent time working on little projects for Curves and helping my Mom set up Curves Smart.

Underfoot has been spoiled by his aunties and uncles by getting to watch as much of The Incredibles as he wants in their homes. (They haven’t shown him Cars for him to beg to see that.) Auntie J. and Uncle S. even sent home the DVD with him to watch. Underfoot also got a haircut. After his haircut, he got sick and has stayed sick with a fever for the past three days. We hope that he is not like Sampson, and his physical strength is found in his beautiful hair.

Baby K2 is a great baby. He is given high compliments. My cousin’s son was born in July and is 3 weeks old. Their baby is 1 pound lighter than K2 who is 10 weeks old.

Yesterday, my parents took us for a ride to see the cabin and Merridale Park. It was a lot of fun to be with them as they are both very busy people. I learned about my paternal great-grandparents. It was a great treat to be with my parents and talk with them. Grandpa K. has taken us to lunch and spent some evenings with us.

L4 reports:

I have taken time this week to work on odd jobs around the house. I have painted, worked in the garden, weeded, installed wire for grape vines and berries, tided up, and spent some time working on the Scout.

Yesterday I rebuilt the power steering pump on the Scout. In the process, I broke the mounting bracket that holds the pump to the engine. The pump is currently installed but secured by two instead of three bolts. Hopefully my father-in-law will be able to find me a replacement bracket off an old vehicle in one of his salvage yards. The good news is that the rebuilt pump doesn’t make any noise (like it used to) and it doesn’t leak- I think... There is still that possibility, but so far so good.

The Scout is a unique vehicle. It has somewhat of a mystical quality for me. It belonged to my paternal grandfather. He bought it new in 1974. As a child, my brother and I would go camping with my grandparents in the Scout. I have many fond memories playing in the Sierra Nevada mountains with the Scout always present in the background. Mama has identified it as a project car. For me it is something of a family heirloom. I could never sell it.

Funny Stories

We celebrated our wedding anniversary with neighbors and a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. The company was wonderful, and the cake was too rich. We are grateful for the choice we made to marry and to be together.

After our anniversary, the boys and I drove with a neighbor to Utah. We started early in the morning. The boys traveled beautifully. We made good time considering we needed to stop and nurse the baby every once in a while. It took us about 16 hours including stops with breakfast, lunch, fuel, and a park visit. There is a great park in the center of Beaver.

On Saturday, L4 replaced the exterior door in the garage. Not the garage door but a normal door. The rain has damaged the old door, and the wood was rotting away. While L4 replaced the door, the boys and I attended Boy Scout breakfast, weeded the flower beds at our wonderful family’s home to catch up with them, and went to the county fair. After the fair, we drove to my parents’ home.

Funny stories of the week:

Underfoot decided to make his own cup of chocolate milk. He got a cup and filled it 3/4 full with Hershey’s chocolate sauce. He then brought the glass into me and asked for me to put in some milk. I returned the chocolate sauce and filled the glass with milk. We’re glad he is a thinker.

L4 woke up one morning and found Underfoot in the kitchen eating ice cream in his pajamas on the floor. He had pulled out the ice cream and was eating it with his fingers. He is pretty funny.

L4 asked me to make him chocolate upside down cake. (His Mom made it for him when he lived at home.) He had a tough day at work so Underfoot helped me make it for him. I forgot to put in enough flour so it turned into hot fudge. I needed to prove I could make it and made it again the next day with the appropriate amount of flour. L4 liked both.

K2 had his 2 month well baby check-up. He got his immunizations and measurements (height 64 cm (97%), weight 12 lbs 3 oz (75%), head circumference 38 cm (15%)). He has a long body and a small head. He might be the tall, skinny one in the family.

How many composters does it take?

K2 smiled at L4 today (Sunday) for the first time as he was getting K2 ready for a bath. K2 also had a growth spurt or just has been hungrier this week. He gets lots of love from his brother. Underfoot wants to play ball with him and takes the big bouncing ball and throws it to him. K2 just gets this very stunned look when he actually gets bonked in the head by Underfoot’s direct hit.



Underfoot had his first swimming lesson on Tuesday. He was very excited to go until we arrived at the swimming pool. He didn’t want to go swimming after we arrived. He cried for the first fifteen minutes of the lesson and then started to have fun. He did a great job! He would kick, blow bubbles, and work on getting out of the pool. We only took 1 lesson. He will need more eventually. Underfoot has also learned how to use Mama’s camera. When he takes movies, he’s like a drunken sailor. It’s hard to watch them because of the erratic movement.


On Friday, we went to the Mesa Temple. Afterwards we went to H. & A. Clark’s home. We enjoyed afternoon swimming and a bar-b-que with them. We left their home around 9 and Underfoot promptly fell asleep. We arrived home late that night.

Today (Sunday) we enjoyed one of the musk melons we grew in our garden. It was better than the first- it was more ripe this time. On Saturday we spent some time cleaning up the yard. L4 put in several T posts in preparation for the grape vines. The heat has been a killer this last month. It is possible to work early in the morning, or late in the day, but not mid-day. Otherwise, the sun saps your energy. It is difficult to explain until you’ve experienced the Arizona sun.

We also got our third composter this week. Composter number one was simply an old garbage can turned upside down with a few holes drilled in it. Composter number two was an automatic composter, complete with automatic mixer and heating element. Number three is a plastic 55 gallon water barrel, turned on it side with a bar down the center- so you can spin it. L4 promptly added some drip irrigation to it to help the decomposition process along.

On Thursday I made a delicious apple strudel. L4 said it was one of the best I’ve ever made. The secret is in the cream and lemon- mmmm lots of cream! Lance got to play Settlers of Catan on Wednesday. L4 loves this game. We’ve begun preparations for the 2009 Pie Party. You are invited to attend. It will be on Saturday, November 21st from 5-8 p.m.

P.S.- L4 says A game of Settlers will likely follow!

A Brief View

Family
We went to Tombstone, AZ with Justin M. on Monday. On Thursday we went in to town in the Scout and bought 40 bags of steer manure. On Saturday we deep cleaned our master bedroom and the two bathrooms. Mama and I have returned to having a water competition. This time the stakes are somewhat higher. Each time one of us drinks a quart of water, the other has to put a dollar into our camera fund. I lead 9 to 4. We’ve started having dinner each night at 6 p.m. to help with going to bed earlier.

L4:
hung a clothes line in our garage so we can dry our clothes in the heat (without heating our house. . . )

Mama:
had a midwife appointment and was given the green light to go back to her gym. We are all very excited for Mama to return to a regular exercise routine- she is always happier when she burns off those endorphins. She also had a cavity filled.

Lucas :
was very attentive while were in the Good Enough Mine at Tombstone, Arizona. He was very concerned for the safety of his family. Underfoot got to play with Friends while Mama had some dental work done on Tuesday.

K2:
started smiling this week. He has slept from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. several nights this week. The ward Relief Society brought a goodie bag for his birth.

Characteristics of Effective Families

I think this information is good for any family. The study was done by professors at BYU. I am cleaning out papers I don't want to hold onto the paper. I might as well share the information.

Acknowledgment: The information below was gathered and reported by Dr. William G Dyer, Dean Emeritus, Brigham Young University, and Dr. Phillip R. Kunz, Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University.

In 1987 data was gathered from 200 strong LDS families on the characteristics of effective Mormon families. Here are the some of the things that were discovered:

1. Almost 100% of the families are full tithe payers, attend all their meetings regularly and always accept a job or position in the Church.
2. These families have very clear goals as to what they want for their children. Virtually 100% said their goals included: having their children marry in the temple, get a good education, develop a strong self concept, be active in the Church, Develop a strong sense of family unity and have children go on a mission. (We also found that less effective families did not have these clear goals for their children.)
3. In effective families, 73% said they always or usually held daily prayer.
4. Two-thirds of these families said they always or usually held regular weekly family home evening. Th other one third also held family home evening, but not as regularly.
5. These families did not identify movie stars or sports figures as family heroes. They most often said the heroes in their families were church leaders or other older family members.
6. Husbands and wives work at having good personal relationship in their marriages. On a scale of 1 to 10, the average family was an 8.5 in terms of feeling the marriage was strong and good.
7. Ninety-six percent said they most often would do things together as a family. Ninety-two percent said they always went as a family to activities where another family member performed or was in a game or activity.
8. These families are not free from adversity. Eighty percent said they had some real adversities in their lives (illness, death, problems with children, etc.) but they worked as a family to deal with problems. The family was the first line of defense in times of adversity. They worked things out together as much as possible.
9. Over 80% said they daily express affection physically to other family members.
10. These families on the average watch TV only 1/3 as much as the average family in America.
11. Effective families tend to see themselves as somewhat stricter than other families. They had rather few rules but very high expectations. They expect a lot from their children.
12. They tend to reward their children more by giving praise or some special treat, rather than giving money.
13. These families spend a great deal of time talking together. almost 100% said they talk regularly as a family and also to each child individually on a regular, almost, daily basis.

W. G. Dyer and P. R. Kunz, Effective Mormon Families, Deseret Book Co., Salt Lake City, UT, 1986.

K2 & HJM

These two boys are 3 days apart. HJM is a neighbor of our and was blessed today in church. Their Dads commute to work together and are home teaching companions.

Grand Canyon

This week we’ve enjoyed the company of our friend Justin Manalli. Justin lived with us for a short time in the summer of 2006.
















On Friday morning we decided to go to the Grand Canyon.















Merris, my sister, was willing to let us borrow her mini van for the trip. We are very grateful to Merris because her mini van is much more comfortable than our Civic.

We arrived in the quaint town of Williams, AZ on Friday night. We checked into an old motel and tried to get some sleep. Underfoot was not too keen on the idea of sleeping on the floor, but that’s what happened. We got up early on Saturday morning, in an effort to beat the crowds and the heat. Underfoot, Justin, and I went to the train depot to investigate the possibility of taking a train to the park instead of driving. We opted to drive when we found out the train tickets were 70 dollars per adult! We hit the road and enjoyed banana bread and blueberries.

We were pleased to learn upon our arrival that the park was having a free weekend, so we didn’t have to pay the usual 25 dollar entrance fee.















The free weekend in the park translated into a very crowded weekend. There were lots of people in the park. We were able to walk around and see all sorts of beautiful views.

On our way home we decided to stop for something to eat in a small town in northern Arizona- Camp Verde. We ended up in an authentic Mexican restaurant. The owner of the store was from Guatemala and the food was divine! Across the street was the local corn festival. Underfoot played on the jungle gym while I learned about photoelectric cells. We saw a 1923 John Deere single cylinder gasoline engine that powered a homemade ice cream operation (the ice cream was good too!)














On Wednesday Mama took it easy and planted 10 rows of corn. Mama gave Underfoot and I haircuts on Monday for Family Home Evening. This week we harvested two watermelons and three cantaloupe, along with about two dozen tomatoes. We have 5 egg plants growing and a number of flowers that may yield more fruit.


















We found a way to reduce K2’s heat rash by putting baby powder on him after each bath. This week we celebrated our 1 year anniversary of being here.