Jamie & Jon...Utah Wedding

I've known Jamie's mom, Annette for nearly 24 years... before either of us were married. We spent 5 glorious months together as mission companions in the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission. We dubbed ourselves the Togetherness Kids and would send our mission president letters begging him to let us stay together. I don't think he actually listened to us, but it just worked out that we got to be companions for that long. The friendship stuck and we've been lucky enough to see each other about once a year since then. Between the two of us we have 10 kids. Whenever we're together as families we line up our kids in chronological order to mark the passage of time. Here is one from last summer. That's Dallin, Annette's oldest, on Jon-Erik's shoulder. Dallin was serving a mission in Spain at the time.

Jamie is #3 in our line up. When I was asked to do her wedding, I was excited to be a part of it. I've seen Jamie grow up over the years. Jon and Jamie adore each other. Jon is the kind of young man that a mother would hope her daughter would marry. He is #10 in a family with 11 children! Through that experience, I think he has learned sacrifice, responsibility and devotion to family. They have a solid foundation to build on AND they're crazy about each other! I'll do this in two parts with images from their portrait session first. I flew in Monday morning, we did these in the afternoon. I worked on the editing at night. Jamie's parents were working on other last minute things for the wedding/reception that would take place the next day. I was in the basement working on photos when all of a sudden there was a flash outside and ALL of the lights went out, EVERYTHING went dark...except for the laptop I was working on, which was running on battery(thankfully!) So, the next few hours were spent in complete darkness. Fortunately Annette and Todd knew where to find their flashlights AND they had batteries in them! Jamie's brother Ethan had kicked a soccer ball into the power line and knocked out the power to the 4 houses on their side of the street. It was over the top "too funny and unbelievable." Hmmm...let's see... what can we do to add more stress to our lives...I know, let's do without electricity the night before the wedding!" It all turned out. I congratulate Jamie's parents on how they handled everything. I'm not sure I would have been such a cool cucumber...first of all...where are my flashlights?!? Around 1:30 a.m., the electricity was finally restored. The headlines in the paper the next day could not have been more fitting. I will include it in Part 2.

Jamie found the perfect shoes to go along with her colors.

They are just too cute!

Yearbook Photos.

Just got back from CA yesterday afternoon. Simon showed me this and I had to try it. If you want a little entertainment, try this with different members of your family to see how similar they look. Here is a sampling of mostly me with a splash of Brian, Adam and Ben. Adam tried it with Annie, our dog. She looked good, but I'm happy to report she did NOT resemble anyone else in our family.

Ben Bakes No Bake Cookies

Ben turned 15 this past week on July 15th. He was away at Football Camp all week, so we couldn't even wish him a "Happy Birthday" or sing to him on his actual birthday. He got home today. Tomorrow we'll have a family birthday dinner for him. Grandma and Grandpa are coming over. Mormor and Morfar are in CA. Ben is such a fun part of our family. It's fun to see how he's growing up. He has a good heart and good sense of humor. He is constantly surprising us with his dry sense of humor. A little interesting tidbit about Ben is that when he was born, he scored a perfect 10 on his first APGAR test. Most babies score a 10 eventually, but it's unusual to have a baby get a perfect score right after they're born. The pediatrician commented that Ben was the first he had seen in the 400 births he had attended. So we tell him he was a perfect baby...which he was...SO cute, a real chunky monkey with the biggest, bluest eyes and dark eyelashes and round little head. He was baby #3 and Simon and Jon-Erik were both old enough to enjoy him, so he was very loved by all of us...still is. I was a vegetarian (except for fish) when I was pregnant with Ben and for a couple of years afterwards. I think this is the reason that Ben was a very picky eater as a young child AND I think it also accounts for his interest in food now. He is my guy that likes to cook and not just top ramen. One of the things that Ben learned how to make this summer is "No Bake Cookies". This recipe came from an old church cook book from our days in Newhall, CA, Cookin' from Scratch. Along with the Chocolate Chip cookie recipes on pages 93 and 119, this recipe gets the most use. Thank you Pam Castagna for submitting it. Here's the recipe:

NO BAKE COOKIES

2 c. sugar

4 T. cocoa

1 cube margarine/butter

1/2 c. milk

Bring ingredients to a rolling boil in a 1 1/2 quart saucepan. Boil for exactly 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in the following:

3 c. oatmeal

1/2 c. peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper and let stand for 10 minutes.

Here is Ben making them. As you can see we kind of use what we have by way of aluminum foil and the scooper.Once Ben realized he was being photographed he made sure he was flexing for the pictures. Please make a special note of his muscles.

Nice form, Ben.

As you can see,the recipe makes quite a few.

Important to leave a little in the pot to clean out.

They are pretty tasty and hey, they DO have oats AND peanut butter in them and go great with a glass of cold milk. AND for my friend, Megan, who is dying of heat in CA, you don't need to turn on the oven and heat up your house.

Well,we're off to CA on Monday to visit my brother, Andy and his family.

BTW, Simon has 27 stitches on his back, plus the one that we took out today from the tube that was draining his spinal fluid in the hospital. Just thought you'd want to know. He's doing really well.

Summer means Kino Swim Team

Well, we went to the final swim meet of the summer last night. When you have kids who are 8 and 12 participating, you are there for quite a while. It is H-O-T!! (And that is an understatement, especially since I just got back from UT yesterday where I wore a sweater and socks to bed. I know...very whimpy, but once my feet are cold...well, that's it. Where they go, the rest of the bod tends to follow.) BUT, heat or not, it is totally worth it to sit and watch my kids swim. I didn't have my camera with me tonight. I couldn't have taken pics anyways...I finally volunteered to be a timer and they(the solicitors of timers) were right: they were the best seats in the house AND they brought us ice cold water and snacks on top of it. Next season, I am NOT going to wait to the last meet to volunteer! Here are just a few images from this year...

Along with great exercise, the kids always make new friends. Glad it's part of our summers.

My Dad

One of the nice things that happens as you get older is that you grow to appreciate things that as a child you didn't fully appreciate. The house that I grew up in seemed to have very thin walls. That seemed especially true of my room that bordered the living room where we had our piano and the room where my dad would also play his accordion. He probably didn't play it late into the night, but it seemed like it to me at the time. I remember sometimes putting a pillow over my head just to try to block out the sound. (Sorry, dad, I was like 11 or 12) Just a note: pillows do NOT block out accordion OR piano for that matter.

Well, now that I am older and my dad's love of music has been passed on to his grandkids, I see his accordion playing on a completely different level. It is endearing. It is so "him". It is something that I will always remember about him. He has even started taking accordion lessons, so now he has to practice along with just playing. Another interesting thing about when my dad plays either the piano or accordion is that he does this monotone humming that is pretty constant. I haven't figured out if it keeps time with the music or if it's just random, but it always seems to be the same note no matter what the song is. I think he has learned that circular breathing that trumpet players can do because I never hear him breath when he hums. So, when my parents come over for a visit, my mom buzzes around the house, my dad will run the kids to and from swimming or wherever else they need to go, but he also likes to play his accordion.

Isn't he cute?

I know he's humming right here.

My parents came over for dinner tonight and I noticed he had a red shirt on so I asked him, "Is that the same red shirt you had on when you were here earlier this week?" "What?" "No, I don't think so, do you think I wear the same shirt all of the time??" "Well, I see you in a red one a lot." "Well, I have 3 of them and I also have 3 black ones." They're his faves, so chances are if you run into him, he will probably be wearing either a red shirt or a black one. Looking back at these photos, I think I know why...they match his accordion. :-)

Thanks for caring so much about us, Dad.

Simon's surgery.

When Simon was born, I noticed that he had a little lump at the top of his little bum. It turned out that his spinal cord was tethered to this fatty tumor. When he was 9 months old his cord was untethered by the famed,bow-tie wearing, pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Peacock. Simon and I spent 5 days at UCLA Medical Center after the surgery. It all went well. There was a good chance that he would need the surgery again with the formation of scar tissue and the cord retethering. Well, that time has come. Simon came home from a 2 week school trip to Austria on Monday night and Tuesday morning we headed over to Phoenix Children's Hospital to repeat the surgery that was performed nearly 17 years ago, this time under the skilled hands of Dr. Manwaring. Dr.'s are kind of like super heroes and I think it would be perfectly acceptable for them to wear a cape as part of their every day apparel. Amazing what they can do. The surgery had it's risks, but thankfully it went as well as we had hoped it would. Dr. Manwaring told us that when he cut away the scar tissue that Simon's cord slid up where it should be. I can almost hear his spinal cord saying, "Ahhhhh...relief." I also learned that the nerves that dangle at the end of our spinal cord look kind of like cooked angel hair pasta, according to Dr. W. I was picturing something much skinnier. I'm glad he had something bigger to work with. No time for jet lag for Simon.

He has been in the PICU since Tuesday afternoon, either flat on his back or flat on his side. He kind of reminds me of a children's book called, "Flat Stanley". I can't imagine not getting up out of bed for nearly 4 days. His catheter came out tonight. His I.V. this morning. He has a tube that allows the spinal fluid to drain that will come out tomorrow and then he'll be able to get out of bed. I will be surprised if he comes home tomorrow, but he may. More likely on Sunday. I know he has really appreciated his friend's visits and well wishes.

Thanks Tanner, Jackson and Jeff for stopping by.

I'm excited for him to recover fully and enjoy increased mobility and decreased pain. But before that happens I might have to challenge him to a game of Ninja. It will be my only chance of beating him.

"E.T., phone home..."

I appreciate my parents coming and helping out while Brian and the other boys were gone at the beginning of the week. Could not have done it without them.

Summer means Scorpions

The other night I was turning all the lights off in the house and closing up shop for the night. When I got to the kitchen I saw a shadow in my sink and I knew immediately that I had a little visitor...I turned the light on and there he was...a scorpion. He had no where to go. He was trapped. That's how I like them. I feel braver when this is the case. I only spent a couple of seconds wondering how he got there, but when I pictured him crawling across my counter, that creeped me out, so I immediately put that out of my mind and enjoyed the fact that he was no longer free to roam the premises. (Sometimes, I have been known to have dishes in my sink at the end of the day. I am so glad that this wasn't the case this night.)

This is how I found him (or her)

It helps to have a tool (or weapon) when dealing with these little critters. 

Possible tools: A magazine, the spine of a book, a cup, the heel of a shoe, a spatula, or in this case a plastic ruler, a pair of scissors and the garbage disposal. 

Now I'm going to apologize ahead of time, because I feel a little bad about the next part. I got Ben to help me. I would like to think this next part was his idea, but it may have been mine. We used the ruler to trap his tail and then we used the scissors to "trim" some of his pieces.

The scorpion and his trimmings.

At this point, I was feeling a bit guilty, so we put him down the garbage disposal and ended it quickly. One thing I admire about scorpions...the only thing I admire...is that they do NOT give up easily. You've got to hand it to them for that. But, they're just too creepy for me to have any real, warm, fuzzy feelings for them in the end.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

We decided that we were going to have a garage sale on the 4th of July, to help our kids earn some money. Ben and I drove over to my parents Friday night in the un-airconditioned truck to pick up a couch (anybody need one?!?), some stackable tables, and a couple of other odds and ends.

(image from the internet)

When we got home, it was later than I wanted it to be and I was less excited about a garage sale the next day. I also disovered a little water coming up through our floor in the kitchen. I had seen this before and knew it wasn't a panic situation, so I went to bed.

(By the way, I had also just finished reading "Enrique's Journey" and this made me think that every Latin family that came to the garage sale had family back in Mexico or Guatemala or Honduras or wherever that they were sending clothes to. It made it hard to get excited about selling anything...just take it, please.)

We also got up early and baked cookies and packaged them very nicely. That would give Emma something to sell. Thanks, Pele, for buying some cookies! :-)

So, what was the final tally? $31.00 plus $4.50 for the cookies. I guess having a garage sale on a holiday is not the best idea. We'll try again...after all we still have a couch and t.v. to sell.

Back to the floor AND the water...

Our refrigerator and our floor have been enemies almost since day one and the refrigerator finally won. I have barely tolerated our floor since it became water damaged years ago. It was only a matter of time before we ripped it up. That day was today. It was clear that water was underneath it out to the middle of the floor. Who do you call when this kind of thing happens?? We, fortunately, call Brian's dad...Jimbo. He is awesome...and a fix-it guy. He also happens to be our favorite Veteran. Marine, all the way! So, on the 4th of July, this Marine was again giving service, right here in his own back yard, Mesa, AZ, to our family as he has done on many occasions before.

We thought we had the problem fixed after tearing out the floor (Yay!!) and fixing one of the leaks under the fridge. Jim and Barb went home. Not long after that, the leak came back, and eventually so did Jim. It should be known that Jim is 76 and has a couple of compressed fractures in his vertebrae that he is dealing with.

The problem was bigger than we thought.

Jim knew how to fix it with this: 

And some of this:

Add a little of this:

Fixed that problem...but when we went turn the water back on outside. It wouldn't turn on! Oh, no. We had made plans to go over to our good friends up in Cave Creek for a BBQ and Fireworks, but it looked iffy. Brian and his dad stayed to fix the NEW problem, replacing 3 valves with Jimbo's sautering skills. They turned out beautifully. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Thanks to Brian's dad, we had water on Sunday AND Brian made it up to Cave Creek just in time for fireworks. (Did not mean for this to get so long, but I have to throw a few fireworks pictures in to what turned out to be a wonderfully LONG day!)

Last, but not least, probably one of my faves. It looks like something you'd find deep in the ocean.

The sky was incredibly black where we were...it felt like the middle of nowhere. Made for a nice backdrop for the fireworks. This was my first year photographing fireworks. Looked it up on the internet before we headed out and now I can't wait for next year. If you are bored and want to see ALL of my fireworks photos, you can here.