Corn's Up!

We’ve had a busy week. (Aren’t they all. . . ) All week long I’ve been roto-tilling in the evenings in order to get our back yard ready for planting. On Tuesday Mama and Underfoot planted three rows of corn. We noticed this afternoon that it has already started coming up!

On Saturday we planted 5 rows of corn, transplanted 6 pumpkin plants, and made a run to Lowe’s. Our short 2.5 hour shopping trip cost a mere 300 dollars. We originally intended to buy an irrigation system for our recently planted corn. Then we saw that seeds were on sale 2 for 1. Mama bought a lot of seeds for us. We discovered that it is possible to put ten 10’ long sections of PVC pipe (and one piece of 10’ long 1/2 inch rebar) into our Honda Civic. While at Lowe’s we ran into some friends from work. They were doing the same thing- buying irrigation parts for their garden.

On Friday night Mama wasn’t feeling very well. We’d planned to go to the county fair, but instead Wendy went to bed and I took Underfoot to a friends house. Underfoot played with their children while I played board games with the guys. It was the first time since we’ve moved from PA that I was able to play games with a bunch of guys. I had a wonderful time. I played two new games- Nuclear War and Acquire. Underfoot stayed up until we left at around 11:30. Our hostess was amazed at Underfoot’s stamina. (Her children were passed out at around 9:30.) I have learned that Kirkhams can stay up all night, sleep for a few hours, work all the next day, and keep going. I cannot do that. I need more sleep.


Wearing Daddy's Shoes:

Mama has done a lot of cleaning this week. I think she is starting to nest a little bit. She taught two piano lessons. On Monday we went to the Birth Center to learn about their policies. Mama is excited to have the baby in a Birth Center instead of a hospital. The Birth Center is only 45 minutes away. It’s good to live in the sticks. You learn to appreciate everything so much more.


Kissing Grandma:

Explosion

Monday morning started off with an explosion! We left L4’s brother’s home around 5 am, got to the airport, returned the car, checked on 2 suitcases and four 35 pound buckets of wheat, made it through security, and settled on the plane. On take-off, Underfoot erupted with vomit. We were lucky enough to be sitting next to the air vent for the whole plane. Underfoot hit the vent, the wall, his chair, and himself totally and completely. How embarrassing!

Well if this were the end of the adventure, it would be wonderful. We changed planes in Los Angeles. He then erupted from the other end except we weren’t sitting next to air vent. The stewardess asked if he had another change of clothes. I informed her this was his second set for the day. He wore two airline blankets home in toga fashion. Needless to say, L4 had a meeting at work and needed a change of clothes. We ran to Wal-mart and got him a new outfit. It was a crazy day. Underfoot slept for multiple hours after we got home.

Major accomplishments this week have been:

• We ate our first produce, strawberries, from our no-bend-over gardens. They were remarkably delicious. There were 3 strawberries which was just perfect!
• L4 finished (of sorts) roto-tilling our backyard with the compost in the ground. We hope to plant corn and other goodies this week.
• We finished planting all our garden beds (6 beds total). We also have startedto use soaker hoses to water since we didn’t get a watering system in before hand.
• L4 had the carpets cleaned in our house while we were gone. We came home to brand new looking floors.
• The laundry and ironing got completed!
• L4 was elected as the HOA president at the meeting this week. He was struggling to decided if he wanted to stay involved at all. So now we have a new opportunity to build some community.
• I had a midwife appointment. The baby is growing well and sounded great!
  
• L4’s Mom is now a senior citizen. She is announcing the fact.
  
• We went to visit L4’s sister and family for her baby’s first birthday. There were a lot of Locey family members in town (the Lehi Loceys, CA Grandma, and us).
• Tax day has come and gone. We are glad that they are complete, and we are not going to jail.
• Last night was the youth dance performance we taught. The youth in our ward did a wonderful job and had a fun time doing it. We are grateful had the opportunity. Underfoot joined right in with music and loved to dance along.
• Underfoot’s nursery leaders at church said that he used A LOT of language today. He started to say Locey on the way to church.

Idaho

L4 dropped Underfoot and I off at the airport early Monday morning so that we could go to Idaho and help for the preparations of my sister and new brother-in-law's wedding. Underfoot was a usual charmer on the airplane. My Grandpa H. picked us up at the airport. He is a great conversationalist and a wonderful Grandpa. We drove to Idaho after getting Underfoot a journal and scriptures from the LDS distribution center.

My family has been preparing a surprise for the newlyweds. All week they have been creating a honeymoon cottage. They restored a tourist cabin at Meridale Park. Meridale Park was built in the beginning of the 1920s for the area with a dance barn, a ferris wheel, outdoor movie theater, overnight cabins (that rented for \$1 a night), a swimming pool, and laundry and shower facilities.

Needless to say, the Great Depression came and Meridale Park closed. My family purchased the land many years ago and have enjoyed the property ever since. Tia, my sister, has loved this cabin and had a vision to fix it up. Over the past couple months, the family has added in a working bathroom and kitchen for the working "bed and breakfast.'' It was all a surprise to her that her new husband was in on it. This is what Underfoot and I worked on during the week. Tia was very surprised by all the work that had been done for her. (By the way if anyone wants to use the Cabin, it is available.)

L4 worked at home all week. In the middle of the week, he did battle with an errant rabbit that ate the leaves on our grape vines and our berry bushes. He fought them with poisoned cabbage (failed attempt), chicken wire (failed attempt), and finally cinder blocks. We don't know the success of the cinder blocks yet. Hopefully they are successful! L4 flew north Thursday night just before the wedding.

Uncle A., my brother, submitted paperwork to serve a 24-month LDS proselyting mission. In the paperwork, he didn't give any preference for where in the world he would serve. On Thursday in the mail, he received his mission call to the Washington D.C. South Mission speaking Spanish. He will leave for language training on June 17. We are very excited for his desire to serve and the experiences he will have. Uncle A. will be serving in the area where my Auntie and Uncle live with their children K. and M..

On Friday, Tia and Tio married in the LDS Draper, UT temple. What a great chance to be with family! On Saturday, we helped with a dinner reception for them. It was a lot of work but it was a great success. Way to go Mom and Dad!

Here are some funny Underfoot stories for the week. The screen saver at my parents' home is of my brother running down the beach in a bathing suit (a Speedo). Underfoot didn't think that his Uncle A. was modest enough and took a permanent marker and colored clothes onto A's body (on the computer screen of course.) Everyone got a good laugh, and the marker did come off. Another time time this week, we were running some errands, and Underfoot decided to put on my make-up. He did a wonderful job with the mascara putting it mostly around his eyes. He looked like a clown. Lucas loved to play with his cousins and would chases them around all week. In Walmart he would scream Stelllaaaaa! Today we stopped at Grandpa H.'s for a few minutes to drop off some items left over from the reception last night. When we leave family, we salute. Underfoot saluted his Great-Grandpa H.. It was adorable!

In all the chasing around this week, we remember it is Easter and the miracle of the holiday. We are thankful to our Savior, Jesus Christ, for being willing to share His life so completely with us so that we can be resurrected. In the plan of our Heavenly Father, we are grateful that we can have life experiences to learn between good and evil, and when we choose the poorly, we can be forgiven and still return to be with God. We hope that you can feel the love of the Savior this day and always.

Underfoot Highlights

Over the the past week, Underfoot has done some very cute things. On Monday, he would close the sliding glass door while I was making shelters for our tomatoes. He would lock the back door when I would go outside. I would return and knock on the door, and he would come running with a huge smile and unlock the door. He would then run back to his trains. Then the cycle would repeat. I loved watching his happy face come to do a big boy thing.

As some of you may know, I have belonged to a gym called Curves for Women for a while. Since moving here, the best time for me to go is before L4 goes to work in the morning at 5 am. I would return just in time to make breakfast and a lunch for him before he would leave for work. Underfoot is still asleep at that time so L4 can still get ready. I have a neighbor in the same situation. So starting this past week, we have started to swap child care. Her son comes for the time she goes, and then Underfoot goes to their house. It has helped Underfoot be a happier little boy to have a friend and good for me to work out.

Underfoot loves the show, “Signing Time,” which is a children based educational show to teach sign language. When the neighbor boy was here, Underfoot wanted to watch the show and demonstrate what he had learned to his friend. This was the first time that Underfoot has done most of the signs from the movie.

Other noteworthy things Underfoot did this week were: He prayed by himself. He helps water the garden by taking the hose and squirting on the plants without help. Underfoot started saying the word “delicious” in a very cute way when we would eat any treat or something he wanted.

People have said that we own a farm because of the size of our garden and backyard. In our dreaming, we have bought more dirt/mulch to enrich the soil and to plant corn. Our neighbor and her children helped us pick up rocks out of our backyard so we can plant corn. Arizona has great winds. This week I tried to make protective shelters for our tomatoes because they were drying out and dying because of the 40 mph winds. I found that parchment paper only stays with staples for about 3 good wind days. After 3 days of strong wind, the parchment paper is gone. L4 started to use gray water from our dishwater to water plants. Our flowers have bloomed beautifully.

L4 likes cheese bread. I made 1 dozen loaves of bread (5 normal loaves and 7 cheese loaves). He is spoiled.

We participated in the youth dance festival preparation this week and practiced the Virginia Reel again. We taught two more dances: the polka and a traditional Romanian dance. Underfoot loved to dance with the youth.

Saturday and Sunday were the semi-annual LDS General Conference. Here are our family highlights:

• Robert D. Hales talked about debt. He talked about how his family had the goal to go on a trip. When they wanted to buy something during the time they were saving for the trip, they would ask, “Do you want this now or do you want a dream trip?”
• Margaret Lifferth talked about having respect for each other and reverence for God. When we have respect and reverence, we are more willing to love and learn from each other.
• Henry B. Eyring talk that all of us have adversity in common. When we give service to those around us, we will be happy.
• Dieter F. Uchdorf spoke in priesthood meeting about a plane crash where the pilots focused on a burnt out light bulb instead of arriving safely at their destination. The plane crashed because they were too focused on the 20 cent light bulb instead of landing at the airport 20 miles away.
• Rafael Pino talked about there not being tragedy in death because of the covenants and knowledge of the Heavenly Father’s plan.
• Neil L. Anderson share an experience he had with Boyd K. Packer. Elder Packer said, “I am not important. I’m a nobody. Brother Anderson you are a nobody. If you start to think you are a somebody, Heavenly Father will remind you in a very sure way that you are a nobody.” The point is that we need not think we are better than anyone else.
• Thomas S. Monson said, “The future is as bright as your faith.”
  

There were other highlights too. These are just some of ours.

Yard Sale

This week has been very busy. On Monday night for our family night we placed signs all over town announcing the community yard sale that Mama organized. We put the signs on boxes and then put rocks in the boxes to make sure they didn’t blow away. One nice thing about Arizona is that there is always a plentiful supply of rocks just about everywhere.

Speaking of rocks. . . we’ve found that they multiply like rabbits in our back yard. I have spent about 7 hours roto-tilling three measly strips in the back yard. (Mama wants to plant corn and sunflowers.) I’ve discovered that we have more rocks than sandy dirt. The tiller I borrowed went crazy on Tuesday night. All the vibration caused by the rocks unloosened the screw which holds the choke butterfly valve in place. The screw became lodged in the carburetor in such a way that the engine began to accelerate uncontrollably. After I shut down the engine it took me a few minutes to figure out what happened. Fortunately, nothing was permanently damaged and I was able to get the tiller back together with just a bit of effort.

On Wednesday Mama and I taught the youth in our congregation how to do the Virgina Reel, a type of folk dance. We had about 65 youth present that night. It was a lot of fun. Underfoot loved to ‘dance’ in his own way. At one point, he picked up the microphone. It happened to be quiet right at that moment. With a big grin he said, “Chick-en”, which drew a huge laugh from everyone in the hall. It was a wonderfully funny moment.

Mama is now about 32 weeks pregnant, so she had to catch her breath after teaching the dance for a few minutes. She is a trooper when it comes to working. Sometimes I think she forgets that she is building body parts and must work at all times. That must be a maternal trait. Speaking of those maternalisms, Lucas has picked up one from his Mama. When asked if he is sick, Underfoot replies, “I fine”. . . that sounds like Mama. . .

Underfoot still seems to be at bit under the weather. We think he might have allergies because the mesquite trees are blossoming right now and sometimes during the day he is lethargic. At other times during the day he jumps and plays like normal.

On Thursday we had a horrible wind which ravished our tomato plants. On Friday we had a ward dinner party and eggstravaganza. The ‘eggstravaganza’ consisted of people making cars to carry eggs down a track and across a finish line. I got to be a line judge. It was interesting to see the various designs. It is kind of like a pine wood derby with eggs. The family that won the competition has done so for the last few years. The winning car had two electric fans on it.

Saturday morning was the community yard sale. We got up early, made a bunch of arrow signs, and ran around town to put them out. We discovered that some poor soul ran over one of our signs during the week. The person must have felt guilty because they managed to put the sign back together, albeit with road some added road-rash.

We were able to check out the sweet treasures that others were selling because we’d gotten up so early. I found two sets of armor (in honor of Sir Aaron), 3 Tonka trucks for the sand box, and a pedal powered go-cart for Underfoot. He can’t quite reach the pedals yet, but he’ll grow into it. We also got a few other treasures. We sold two items, make a total profit of $1.50. (We only had two items to sell.) We consider ourselves very blessed.

Poem

Here is a poem made by Louisa Mauss Christensen during Franklin D. Roosevelt's time as president. History doesn't start anew it just circles around to confuse us. Louisa Mauss Christensen was my Great Great Grandma. My auntie sent this through an email.

The Government is my Shepard.

I need not work.

It alloweth me to lie down on good jobs.

It leadeth me beside still factories.

It destroys my initiative;

Yes, tho I walk thru the valley of laziness and deficity spending,
I will fear no evil, for the Government is with me.

Its doles and its vote-getters, they comfort me.

It prepareth a Utopia for me by appropriating the earnings of my children.

It filleth my head with bologna,

My inefficiency runneth over.

Surely the Government shall care for me all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in a fool's paradise forever.

Louisa Mauss Christensen

Speed

L4 finished filling the garden boxes!!! We have planted 5 of 6 boxes, and things are beginning to sprout. I enjoy going outside to water and get a daily update on the growth progress. I also transplanted pumpkins and cantaloupe we started 4 weeks ago in family home evening. We also planted watermelon, muskmelon, cucumbers, and lavender. Underfoot helps water almost everyday and gets the stickers from the ground in his socks. He calls them “owies.”

To our surprise, the Thompson grape vine we planted has started to grow leaves. We have had it in the ground for about 3 weeks and thought it was dead. We were very excited. L4 has borrowed a rototiller to till up our backyard. He started and has found more rocks than dirt in the ground. It may take us a few weeks to get the ground ready to plant more things. As I was working outside the other day, I thought of Isaiah’s saying about the desert blossoming as the rose. (Isaiah 35) We are excited to see what will happen over the course of the summer.

When we left to go to the Locey family reunion in February, I ran a red light that takes pictures. This red light infraction cost only $300 or a mere $194 to take a 5 hour class so the ticket could get dismissed. Yesterday, I attended traffic school to learn what the law is in Arizona. I learned that

• A 5-point harness is to be used until a child is 5 years old.

• Running a red light occurs when the front bumper is over the curb line.

• A chevron sign helps you turn a corner.

• A medical emergency is not a reason to speed.

• A fire engine and ambulance have no authority to direct traffic.

• There is a stretch of freeway in Arizona that is 85 mph.

While I was in school, L4 went to the cannery and increased our food rotation.

Underfoot caught a cold at the family reunion in February. He was almost better when he started to get his last set of molars in and got sick all over again. He then shared his cold with his Daddy and then his Mama. The cold hit L4 pretty hard last weekend. It is my turn this week.

We went to dinner at L4’s coworker’s home. They have chickens, and Underfoot wasn’t sure what to think of them. We hope to eventually get some laying hens.