When I was growing up, on Memorial Day we always went to the cemetery in Wendell, Idaho, where my Grandpa Warthen was buried. Dad would get out some five-gallon buckets and put some water in them, and then we would fill them with flowers from our yard, mostly peonies, to put on his headstone. There were peony bushes growing along the ditchbank and the flowers were good for decorating the headstone because you could get nice long stems, but the real reason we always brought a lot of peonies was because Grandpa had always said not to put those stinkweeds on his grave. (I think he said stinkweeds . . . is that right, Mom?) Grammy would come with us. Now she is with Grandpa.
The headstone is right by the dirt road, but it's flat, so you can't see the name until you stand above it to look at it. But it was just a few yards away from a little pine tree, so we knew how to find it. Then one year we drove all along the road and missed it because we couldn't find the little pine tree. We went back and realized the little pine tree was a big pine tree now.
Getting the flower cups out of the headstone was often a bit of an ordeal. We would use the water from the buckets or else go fill the buckets up using a hose, and then we would fill up the cups and decorate the headstone and spend some time there.
And that was it. It was always a simple little trip, but we looked forward to it every year.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Heidi's red skirt and matching flower clip
I did a little photo session last night to try to get some good pictures of the red skirt I made her. I'm not much of a photographer, and a messy house isn't much of a background, but I did have an adorable [wiggly] subject.
I used this tutorial for the skirt, and this tutorial for the flower. Don't be scared by the flower--it's actually not very difficult to make. I sewed and hot-glued the button on and then I hot-glued a hair clip on the back, so I can put the flower on a headband or clip it on her shirt for a little embellishment. If I make another skirt (and I wouldn't be surprised if I did), I will probably change the proportions so it's not quite so poofy, but other than that I feel pretty good about it!
Here are the pictures:
I used this tutorial for the skirt, and this tutorial for the flower. Don't be scared by the flower--it's actually not very difficult to make. I sewed and hot-glued the button on and then I hot-glued a hair clip on the back, so I can put the flower on a headband or clip it on her shirt for a little embellishment. If I make another skirt (and I wouldn't be surprised if I did), I will probably change the proportions so it's not quite so poofy, but other than that I feel pretty good about it!
Here are the pictures:
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Finals were over last week. This semester I didn't end up feeling burned out a month before it was over. Maybe that's because I wasn't taking physics, chemistry, or calculus, and I wasn't eight months pregnant. It might also help that the two classes I took this semester were very good.
But it's still nice to be done for a while. We've had a fun week. I've gotten Kevin outside for a walk or to play most days this week, which has made him a lot more pleasant to be around.
On Friday we went to a new park with some friends. This area has a lot of parks, which is good, because the variety makes Kevin much less inclined to run away. He stayed at the playground the whole time and I never had to chase him down.
Yesterday we finally got around to picking strawberries. I didn't want to go alone, so I asked Ryan to come with me and we brought the kids. I really should have gone alone. Heidi wasn't happy to be on my back in the Ergo. She wanted to eat strawberries. Kevin was a lot better than last year. He helped Ryan. Ryan told him to only pick the red ones, and he understood that, but he also picked a lot of mushy ones that I ended up having to throw away. So I'm going to have to go again to get more, and this time I'm going alone. I've learned my lesson. All my friends blog about taking their kids to pick strawberries and how much fun they have, but that's just not my family. And I'm pretty hardcore about my strawberry picking because I'm trying to replenish our freezer jam supply here, not just make a couple of smoothies, so I probably can't expect to get as many good berries as I want if I take the kids. Oh well.
I'm working my way through Undaunted by Gerald N. Lund. I'm not a huge fan of his writing style, but he does tell pretty good stories. Things have picked up in the book now, and for the most part I'm really enjoying it. It's about the pioneers who went to the Hole in the Rock and the hardships they faced. I appreciate what Lund is trying to accomplish by writing this book. A lot of people say that the expedition was a mistake, but he's trying to show that just like with the Willie and Martin handcart companies, it wasn't a mistake. The people that went built up strong testimonies, and they went because they needed to build up peaceful relations with the Native Americans in order to protect the Latter-Day Saints in Southern Utah. I'm enjoying learning about it. It's a part of church history that we don't talk about very much. We tend to talk about the pioneers reaching Salt Lake and then stop there, but a lot happened after that. I'm going to have to look up some of these books that Lund used as resources so that I can learn more about it.
But it's still nice to be done for a while. We've had a fun week. I've gotten Kevin outside for a walk or to play most days this week, which has made him a lot more pleasant to be around.
On Friday we went to a new park with some friends. This area has a lot of parks, which is good, because the variety makes Kevin much less inclined to run away. He stayed at the playground the whole time and I never had to chase him down.
Yesterday we finally got around to picking strawberries. I didn't want to go alone, so I asked Ryan to come with me and we brought the kids. I really should have gone alone. Heidi wasn't happy to be on my back in the Ergo. She wanted to eat strawberries. Kevin was a lot better than last year. He helped Ryan. Ryan told him to only pick the red ones, and he understood that, but he also picked a lot of mushy ones that I ended up having to throw away. So I'm going to have to go again to get more, and this time I'm going alone. I've learned my lesson. All my friends blog about taking their kids to pick strawberries and how much fun they have, but that's just not my family. And I'm pretty hardcore about my strawberry picking because I'm trying to replenish our freezer jam supply here, not just make a couple of smoothies, so I probably can't expect to get as many good berries as I want if I take the kids. Oh well.
I'm working my way through Undaunted by Gerald N. Lund. I'm not a huge fan of his writing style, but he does tell pretty good stories. Things have picked up in the book now, and for the most part I'm really enjoying it. It's about the pioneers who went to the Hole in the Rock and the hardships they faced. I appreciate what Lund is trying to accomplish by writing this book. A lot of people say that the expedition was a mistake, but he's trying to show that just like with the Willie and Martin handcart companies, it wasn't a mistake. The people that went built up strong testimonies, and they went because they needed to build up peaceful relations with the Native Americans in order to protect the Latter-Day Saints in Southern Utah. I'm enjoying learning about it. It's a part of church history that we don't talk about very much. We tend to talk about the pioneers reaching Salt Lake and then stop there, but a lot happened after that. I'm going to have to look up some of these books that Lund used as resources so that I can learn more about it.
It never fails. I get an itch to start working on a project and get all of my supplies out. And somehow my kids always know and start going nuts. Yesterday was no exception. They had been in bed for half an hour, so I thought I certainly had a little bit of time to get going on it before they woke up. Then we heard Kevin banging and kicking the door. Not a big deal, Ryan could probably keep him entertained with a movie for a little while. I was about to make the first cut. Then Heidi started crying.
And this is what it looks like when I try to sew something while the kids are awake:
Have no fear--bedtime did eventually come, and I managed to make a cute red three-tiered skirt with a matching flower clip for Heidi. Pictures coming
I was quite relieved that this project turned out pretty nicely. My last couple of sewing projects have been a little disappointing, so it was nice to have some success.
the book hospital
I decided it was time to take care of the accumulating pile of damaged books. Despite the best efforts of my assistant surgeon (Dr. Kevin), the books are now intact again (-ish). The Mother Goose book was the one that took the most effort. Ryan and I have decided that I'm getting a new set of scriptures for Kevin's eighth birthday, although I'm not sure they'll last that long.
Heidi is so dainty and elegant. I love this Christmas dress because of the way it swirls around her when she's sitting. (Getting the lint off of it is not quite as fun.)
I haven't felt very motivated to take pictures of the kids lately, or to get them on my blog. For some reason it seems like a lot of effort.
even more Kevinisms
Unfortunately, most of the cute things that Kevin does are spontaneous and fast, which means that I can't catch them on camera, so I have to record them in writing. Or as soon as I get the camera he stops and just wants to play with the camera.
"Oh, sorry about that. Uh uh uh!" (that laugh again!)
"Good job!"
"Go to the ding dong?" (he means Dean Dome)
Kevin broke several keys on my computer keyboard a couple of weeks ago. We looked online to see how much it costs to get a replacement key and found out that you can get a new keyboard for $9, about twice the price of a single key. So with the help of youtube Ryan and I replaced my keyboard in maybe fifteen minutes. And now I have lots of extra keys from my old keyboard that I can use to replace keys if Kevin breaks more (which he probably will manage to do, despite my best efforts).
Before crossing the road: "Oh? A driving? Okay, it's safe." (Unfortunately, he doesn't always actually look for driving cars before declaring it's safe . . . but we're getting closer.)
One day he was standing holding a pepper shaker up to his mouth and singing I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus. He was copying David Archuleta from this video, which is one of his favorites:
I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus (the song starts at around 1:00)
There are these youtube videos that he watched a month or so about these huge spiders that got into a family's house, and the series of videos shows the dad trying to catch the spiders and get them out of the house. So lately Kevin has been copying the videos and pretending there are spiders crawling on him or crawling in containers. He will also pretend that there are ants biting him. (Around Easter he was the victim of a swarm of fire ants, some of which crawled up his pants and bit him--very painful.) He gets really silly and laughs while he pretends to swat away the ants and spiders.
I am really enjoying his imaginary friends. I think this is a great way for him to practice interacting with other people and he is also reinforcing the things we are teaching them by practicing parenting on his imaginary friends. Plus, the things he says to them are so cute and funny! Apparently he is potty-training them right now, because sometimes he will look down at them and say, "Run run run to the potty!"
He has also taken to pantomiming what we do to go outside. So he will pretend to unlock the [pretend] door and open it, walk down the hall, push the elevator button, wait for the elevator, go inside the elevator, push the button to go down to the first floor, wait for the elevator to move and then open, and then walk out. Then he will "come back" to our apartment the same way, and unlock the apartment with a key too. And when he "comes home" he remembers where his pretend elevator and door were from before. I find it very impressive! And I am very pleased that he is learning to imagine.
Now that I'm done with classes, I've been able to get him outside every day this week, and he has been so much easier to deal with!
"Oh, sorry about that. Uh uh uh!" (that laugh again!)
"Good job!"
"Go to the ding dong?" (he means Dean Dome)
Kevin broke several keys on my computer keyboard a couple of weeks ago. We looked online to see how much it costs to get a replacement key and found out that you can get a new keyboard for $9, about twice the price of a single key. So with the help of youtube Ryan and I replaced my keyboard in maybe fifteen minutes. And now I have lots of extra keys from my old keyboard that I can use to replace keys if Kevin breaks more (which he probably will manage to do, despite my best efforts).
Before crossing the road: "Oh? A driving? Okay, it's safe." (Unfortunately, he doesn't always actually look for driving cars before declaring it's safe . . . but we're getting closer.)
One day he was standing holding a pepper shaker up to his mouth and singing I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus. He was copying David Archuleta from this video, which is one of his favorites:
I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus (the song starts at around 1:00)
There are these youtube videos that he watched a month or so about these huge spiders that got into a family's house, and the series of videos shows the dad trying to catch the spiders and get them out of the house. So lately Kevin has been copying the videos and pretending there are spiders crawling on him or crawling in containers. He will also pretend that there are ants biting him. (Around Easter he was the victim of a swarm of fire ants, some of which crawled up his pants and bit him--very painful.) He gets really silly and laughs while he pretends to swat away the ants and spiders.
I am really enjoying his imaginary friends. I think this is a great way for him to practice interacting with other people and he is also reinforcing the things we are teaching them by practicing parenting on his imaginary friends. Plus, the things he says to them are so cute and funny! Apparently he is potty-training them right now, because sometimes he will look down at them and say, "Run run run to the potty!"
He has also taken to pantomiming what we do to go outside. So he will pretend to unlock the [pretend] door and open it, walk down the hall, push the elevator button, wait for the elevator, go inside the elevator, push the button to go down to the first floor, wait for the elevator to move and then open, and then walk out. Then he will "come back" to our apartment the same way, and unlock the apartment with a key too. And when he "comes home" he remembers where his pretend elevator and door were from before. I find it very impressive! And I am very pleased that he is learning to imagine.
Now that I'm done with classes, I've been able to get him outside every day this week, and he has been so much easier to deal with!
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Heidi is determined to continue to wake up at 4:30 every single morning. She will cry for over an hour if I ignore her. I just don't know what to do to get her to sleep. If she would sleep until 6:00 I would be happy, but 4:30 is early enough that I need to go back to bed and late enough that by the time I fall back asleep it's time to get up and I'm exhausted the rest of the day. She has being very clingy and has had a lot of stranger anxiety lately, so I'm pretty certain that she is waking up for me, not because she is hungry. I hate that it is making me resentful, but I just need better quality sleep. She was sleeping through the night before she was two months old and started this habit about a month and a half ago. I'm tempted to move her into Kevin's room to see if the distance and having Kevin's company would be helpful to her, but I don't want Kevin waking up at 4:30 and I am still seriously afraid for her safety.
Today is our primary election day. I had little desire to vote. I tend to identify more strongly with the Republicans than the Democrats, but there are some parts of the Republican platform that I really don't like, and that is making it really difficult to decide who I will vote for. I feel that it's important to make an informed vote because I want to have good options for representatives and such for the election this fall, but I don't like a lot of the candidates, and really I don't believe that most of them will do what they "promise". I'm rather envious of Ryan because he's unaffiliated, so all that was on his ballot was the marriage amendment. Mainly the issues that I've changed opinions on in the past couple of years are environmental issues, immigration, taxes, and regulation. I don't really like the Republican opinions on those subjects, but I don't believe that Democrats will handle them well either.
One of our candidates for the House of Representatives is a crazy man. There are too many words in all caps in his position statements (which are completely incoherent), and his website has enough bright green and yellow to make anyone go blind, but what I'm really concerned about is that he says as a representative he's going to use all legal and ethical means to move Hollywood to North Carolina. First of all, I don't want Hollywood in North Carolina, and second of all, that's not exactly in his job description. Fortunately the other two options are more reasonable. I don't think he has much of a chance of winning.
*****
Well, I never posted this yesterday, so I guess I can add that Heidi slept until 6:00 this morning! Yay!
And I went and voted. I was looking at the results and found it interesting that people still voted for Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum even though they have both pulled out of the race. I wonder if people didn't realize they weren't running anymore or if they just couldn't bring themselves to vote for Mitt Romney. The marriage amendment passed.
We went to the annual physics department picnic today. We had a nice time, and Kevin actually sat and ate a pretty decent lunch. It was held at Henry Andersen park, so once Kevin was full we went and played at the playground. Christy Buck, one of the faculty in the physics department, was there with her little girl Ashley, who is a little older than Kevin, so Kevin had fun having a friend there. Then we had ice cream frozen with liquid nitrogen.
Today is our primary election day. I had little desire to vote. I tend to identify more strongly with the Republicans than the Democrats, but there are some parts of the Republican platform that I really don't like, and that is making it really difficult to decide who I will vote for. I feel that it's important to make an informed vote because I want to have good options for representatives and such for the election this fall, but I don't like a lot of the candidates, and really I don't believe that most of them will do what they "promise". I'm rather envious of Ryan because he's unaffiliated, so all that was on his ballot was the marriage amendment. Mainly the issues that I've changed opinions on in the past couple of years are environmental issues, immigration, taxes, and regulation. I don't really like the Republican opinions on those subjects, but I don't believe that Democrats will handle them well either.
One of our candidates for the House of Representatives is a crazy man. There are too many words in all caps in his position statements (which are completely incoherent), and his website has enough bright green and yellow to make anyone go blind, but what I'm really concerned about is that he says as a representative he's going to use all legal and ethical means to move Hollywood to North Carolina. First of all, I don't want Hollywood in North Carolina, and second of all, that's not exactly in his job description. Fortunately the other two options are more reasonable. I don't think he has much of a chance of winning.
*****
Well, I never posted this yesterday, so I guess I can add that Heidi slept until 6:00 this morning! Yay!
And I went and voted. I was looking at the results and found it interesting that people still voted for Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum even though they have both pulled out of the race. I wonder if people didn't realize they weren't running anymore or if they just couldn't bring themselves to vote for Mitt Romney. The marriage amendment passed.
We went to the annual physics department picnic today. We had a nice time, and Kevin actually sat and ate a pretty decent lunch. It was held at Henry Andersen park, so once Kevin was full we went and played at the playground. Christy Buck, one of the faculty in the physics department, was there with her little girl Ashley, who is a little older than Kevin, so Kevin had fun having a friend there. Then we had ice cream frozen with liquid nitrogen.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
what I'm up to
Finals are over, and I am "free," at least for the first summer term. At this point most of the classes I have left to take are only offered during regular semesters. The exception is the field course, which I'm hoping to do next summer. So I guess I have no choice but to take summers off. But I'm getting closer. I'm guessing I'll be finished in three or four more semesters.
This summer I'm hoping to work on some sewing projects and make more hair flowers and bows for Heidi. I'm making a second attempt at making some baby shoes for Heidi. I made the mistake of staying up until 2:00 last night working on them. Not only was I very tired in the morning, but it wasn't really even worth it because the shoes ended up looking really stupid. That's the only way I can describe it. The seams on the inside are bulky and too visible, and the edges don't come up around the foot enough to even cover her toes. I didn't even bother finishing the second shoe because the first one didn't work out. So my plan is either to modify the pattern by adding an inch around the pattern piece for the top of the shoe, or to scrap it and try a different pattern. This is the tutorial I tried, and I'd love for it to work out because I think the shoes are so cute, but I'm starting to think that something more like this is more realistic for a baby who is actually going to walk and crawl in the shoes because they wouldn't fall off her feet as easily. I found some leather Robeez shoes for 50 cents at a yard sale last week, and the style (very similar to the shoes in the second link) is really great for the stage Heidi is in right now. In the end the main cost is my time because baby shoes require so little fabric that I can use extra scraps that I never threw away from other projects.
I love to sew, but I think I need to just realize that not every sewing experiment is going to work out. I get an image in my mind of what something will end up looking like, and in the end if things get messed up I always get discouraged. Plus, when I sew something, I know about the little mistakes and flaws in the item that nobody else can see, and so when I look at the item I might be happy with how it turned out, but I'll also feel bothered by the hidden flaws that only I know about. I guess I need to get over that.
I've also been hoping to find some more time to work on family history. I've been a little surprised at the learning curve I'm having to go through to figure out even the basic things. I quickly got frustrated with New Family Search and decided to use Legacy Family Tree. That's working a little better, but I'm dealing with the process of figuring out a new program and also figuring out what my system is going to be. But I've really enjoyed the research process and learning about my ancestors. I'm amazed at the connection I feel to them as I look at the records and glean small tidbits about their lives and their families. I'm also amazed at how much work it is and how many people there are!
I am also working on finding new activities to try with Kevin. Pinterest has been a useful tool for finding ideas and keeping track of them. I have a Pinterest board called "to do with the kids." And while we're on this topic, it has been interesting to see what different moms do with their kids, and what different kids enjoy. I'm coming to realize that there are two types of activities to do with your kids: activities that are actually educational and fun for the kids, and activities that make you look like a fun and creative and engaged mom. (Yes, the two types can overlap sometimes.) I'm aiming for the first type. At this point the main thing I need from any activity is that it allows Kevin to explore and do things pretty freely, without me having to be constantly telling him not to be messy or not to break things--because at this point, Kevin needs to be messy and take things apart. Daily walks are going to be essential this summer. I'm still figuring out how I'm going to deal with being sweaty and hot all the time, though. I do have a new swimsuit, so going swimming is finally an option.
Summer is when Ryan gets the most research done. During the school year he usually has to be a TA for some classes, and that takes a lot of time away from working on his project. Hopefully this summer he can make some good progress.
This summer I'm hoping to work on some sewing projects and make more hair flowers and bows for Heidi. I'm making a second attempt at making some baby shoes for Heidi. I made the mistake of staying up until 2:00 last night working on them. Not only was I very tired in the morning, but it wasn't really even worth it because the shoes ended up looking really stupid. That's the only way I can describe it. The seams on the inside are bulky and too visible, and the edges don't come up around the foot enough to even cover her toes. I didn't even bother finishing the second shoe because the first one didn't work out. So my plan is either to modify the pattern by adding an inch around the pattern piece for the top of the shoe, or to scrap it and try a different pattern. This is the tutorial I tried, and I'd love for it to work out because I think the shoes are so cute, but I'm starting to think that something more like this is more realistic for a baby who is actually going to walk and crawl in the shoes because they wouldn't fall off her feet as easily. I found some leather Robeez shoes for 50 cents at a yard sale last week, and the style (very similar to the shoes in the second link) is really great for the stage Heidi is in right now. In the end the main cost is my time because baby shoes require so little fabric that I can use extra scraps that I never threw away from other projects.
I love to sew, but I think I need to just realize that not every sewing experiment is going to work out. I get an image in my mind of what something will end up looking like, and in the end if things get messed up I always get discouraged. Plus, when I sew something, I know about the little mistakes and flaws in the item that nobody else can see, and so when I look at the item I might be happy with how it turned out, but I'll also feel bothered by the hidden flaws that only I know about. I guess I need to get over that.
I've also been hoping to find some more time to work on family history. I've been a little surprised at the learning curve I'm having to go through to figure out even the basic things. I quickly got frustrated with New Family Search and decided to use Legacy Family Tree. That's working a little better, but I'm dealing with the process of figuring out a new program and also figuring out what my system is going to be. But I've really enjoyed the research process and learning about my ancestors. I'm amazed at the connection I feel to them as I look at the records and glean small tidbits about their lives and their families. I'm also amazed at how much work it is and how many people there are!
I am also working on finding new activities to try with Kevin. Pinterest has been a useful tool for finding ideas and keeping track of them. I have a Pinterest board called "to do with the kids." And while we're on this topic, it has been interesting to see what different moms do with their kids, and what different kids enjoy. I'm coming to realize that there are two types of activities to do with your kids: activities that are actually educational and fun for the kids, and activities that make you look like a fun and creative and engaged mom. (Yes, the two types can overlap sometimes.) I'm aiming for the first type. At this point the main thing I need from any activity is that it allows Kevin to explore and do things pretty freely, without me having to be constantly telling him not to be messy or not to break things--because at this point, Kevin needs to be messy and take things apart. Daily walks are going to be essential this summer. I'm still figuring out how I'm going to deal with being sweaty and hot all the time, though. I do have a new swimsuit, so going swimming is finally an option.
Summer is when Ryan gets the most research done. During the school year he usually has to be a TA for some classes, and that takes a lot of time away from working on his project. Hopefully this summer he can make some good progress.
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