Retiring

My dear brother-in-law drew my name in the family gift exchange. He gave me a new iPod compatible clock radio (thanks Daryl! I love it!), so I'll be retiring my well-loved Magnavox D-3240 clock radio that I picked up for a steal at a yard sale in 1993. This inspiring technological marvel has served me well at my desk for my last 5 jobs, and despite its inability to meet my current need to dock, is still a fully-functional desktop accessory for someone with, shall we say, "more basic" needs.

I was going to make the generous offer for someone at work to adopt this precious artifact, but I discovered it may have some untold value to collectors, so I've decided to put it up for sale. If you would like to acquire this little treasure for your own, you may wish to place a bid on the item on ebay. Search for "Vintage Magnavox Clock Radio" and happy bidding!

Stay-cation

Wilson County schools has a two-week fall break every October. This is the 2nd week, so Grant decided to take a few vacation days. I only had one day to take, so today is the day. It's a stay-cation for us . . . a quick trip down the road to the Hermitage. We've lived here 2 years and this is the first time we've toured Andrew Jackson's home. Here's a few shots of the visit.

The Hermitage is toured via audio commentary, hence the headphones.

Holly and Lauren noticed an area on the grounds where the sod was moving, literally, like it was breathing! We stood there and watched for awhile then Grant pointed out the path of the mole's burrow that extended several feet across the grounds.

Lauren refused to have her photo taken, kind of feeling sick most of the day, so you might be able to see the top of her head just behind Grant in the bottom picture.

Grant and the girls have a few more days of relaxation and maybe some fun this week. But for me, it's back to work! Ah well, better some than none!

12 lbs

We've had Snowcone for about 4 months now. She's really gotten bigger. She still has that youthful puppy look and she's fun to play with now. But wasn't she just the cutest little precious thing back then?

Lauren turned 16 on September 22nd. We surprised her with a Sweet Sixteen party the day before. With the help of one of my friends who "needed a babysitter" we were able to have Lauren away from home after school on that day. Holly decorated the den and kitchen, I made a cake, and Grant cooked up a heaping helping of shish-kabob.

A bunch of Lauren's friends came and helped with the surprise.

And at times they acted a wee bit crazy . . .

There was a cake depicting several of Lauren's little girl birthdays including her day-of-birth, her first birthday, her Harry Potter birthday, her Mickey Mouse birthday, her carousel birthday, and her baptism birthday.

Her cake had sparklers in the shape of the number 16. They were very smokey! We were lucky the smoke alarm didn't go off.

Lauren's heart's desire came true for her birthday . . . no, she didn't get a car for her birthday, she received a Chi flat iron. She was very excited! All the girls squealed when she opened that gift. Go figure!

She did get her own set of keys to Mom's and Dad's cars. Funny, she still asks to borrow our keys when she wants drive.

All in all, we successfully pulled off the surprise. And Lauren successfully managed to make it to sixteen. Hard to believe isn't it?

Band Season

It's band season again. It's been very busy, but this time, we have two kids marching, and one dad on the boosters executive board. The theme for this year's band show is Lunar, with music representing Orbits, Tides, and Reflections.




















Every year the kids and parents get a theme t-shirt

The high school's football team is undefeated so far, which means we'll most likely have a the season extended by several weeks. We have two out of four competitions finished, the first was very successful and the second was a little disappointing, even though the band performed well. I think it was just a matter of somewhat stiffer competition.





















This is Lauren and her section leader, Leah.





















Here's Holly, the short one playing the saxophone.
She can't help it, it's just that all of those guys are tall and
skinny, by comparison she looks miniature!

Another Driver in the Family

Lauren passed off her Personal Progress value experiences. This qualified her to finally get her learner's permit. Here's a few photos of the day she got her permit:

She passed the eye test








She took the driver's test in Booth #1











She only missed three











Then, she had her photo taken











Here's the happy permitted Lauren! Congratulations!









And then, the first time she could legally drive!

Snowcone

We got a puppy! She's a West Highland Terrier that we named Snowcone. She joined our family two weeks ago and has been growing (in stature and personality) ever since.

She doesn't seem as frail anymore and she's getting used to the routine.

Her little terrier side is starting to show,

she's taken to digging in the yard already, but she's mostly a good little doggie.

She still sleeps alot because she's a baby, but it's always a relief for us when she does because that means we don't have to watch her like a hawk to try keep her from leaving little gifts on our carpet. She gets to visit the tree in the backyard every couple of hours, so we only end up dealing with accidents every so often.

Tonight, she made her first visit to the PetSmart store. That was fun for her, especially when we took a little walk down the dog food aisle. Snowcone found a few choice morsels just within puppy reach under the shelves.

The garden is growing like crazy! Grant put up these fences to keep the wascally wabbits out, but it seems they're serving a dual purpose . . . they're holding the produce in too! We got a cucumber this week. Pretty soon, we won't know what to do with all of it!

Three weeks ago









Today (click to enlarge)

Invitation? or sneak attack?

I've faced two out of three of my greatest church fears: being RS president, and working in the nursery. One was definitely as bad as I thought it would be. The other, not bad at all. In fact, I really, really liked it! You can guess which is which.

Now, I've faced the third. Being "invited" to share my testimony during Ward Conference. My bishopric knows that I won't give a talk, they stop asking. I tell them, "I'll pray, teach a lesson, take a meal, whatever you ask, but I can't give a talk." But Stake Presidencies don't know me that well. For the last 18 months, I've felt pretty comfortable that I was too new for any of them to know my name, so I wouldn't get an invitation. I guess invitation isn't quite the right word . . . more like Shock & Awe. I always sit in those conference meetings trying to look as invisible as possible. Crossing my fingers helps, but I forgot this time. When they called my name, seriously, my first thought was "I wonder what would happen if I got up and walked out?" The bishop was speaking first, so I had that much time to pull myself together, then it was my turn. The hardest part is right at the beginning when my shaking fear drives my tears, then the tears drive my embarassment, the embarassment causes trembling and more tears. It's all a vicious cycle . . . A cycle I hope to avoid for another 42 years.

How does your garden grow?

Another first for our family: a garden. Yep, that's right, after twenty years of marriage, we've finally gotten around to planting a garden. With Grant and I being raised in families who pretty much always had gardens and fruit trees and grape vines, I find it hard to believe that we've taken this long.

The soil in our neck of the woods is pretty rocky, so most locals recommend building raised garden beds. It took several weekends, several loads of dirt, and several ibuprophen, but Grant got them built and planted. Then miracle of miracles! Three days after a Miracle Grow treatment, things just took off!
These are my babies. Strazzberries! I've been wanting to plant strawberries, but kept putting it off. This year, I ran across these in a catalog. Strawberries that are supposed to have the flavor of raspberries. My curiosity got the best of me and I ordered 20 plants. Since we didn't have another garden bed ready for them, I found this neat patio planter. I hope it works! So far, so good. We'll see if they put out any flowers pretty soon. Then hopefully we'll get a few pieces of fruit this year to sample the raspberry flavor.

Happy Anniversary

Grant and I just celebrated our 20th anniversary. We're still happily married after all these years and looking forward to another 20++++++ years. We were able to enjoy a little getaway to Asheville, NC for the weekend. It's so nice to have our anniversary near Memorial Day weekend because it always affords us the option of the long weekend in case we decide to go somewhere fun.We enjoyed visiting the Biltmore Estate, had one great dinner, one really, really bad dinner, and two nights in a nice place. Before leaving, we stopped off at the Asheville Farmers Market and picked up 4 gallons of SC strawberries. When we got home, we experienced our first family event of topping, slicing and freezing strawberries. We'll probably check out our local farmer's market and try to do it again sometime.

Spring Break

Spring break was exciting this year because we got to go on a mini vacay! We left late Tuesday night (after a youth temple trip) and drove as far as the TN/VA border, spent the night in Abingdon, VA. After sleeping in late on Wednesday and eating a wonderful Cracker Barrel breakfast, we made final 5 hours to Washington D.C. Made a little pitstop in Buena Vista, VA to visit the Southern Virginia University. That was quite a disappointment, very small campus, about the size of a city block, lots of portable buildings and one large beautiful old administration building in an old, run-down town.


When we finally got to D.C., it was too late to do much, so we just checked in at the old Candlewood Suites and watched American Idol and ate take-out PF Changs. Gotta love that, right? The Candlewood gave away our one bedroom suite, so they gave us two single rooms, four doors away from each other. That was weird. We couldn't let the girls stay in the 2nd room by themselves, so we had to split up. We were HOT! The next morning, the manager got a piece of Grant's mind! So did they fix it the next day? No, still don't have our one bedroom suite, unless we want to stay in a smoking room. There was nothing we could do, so we took the smoking room. It was gross, not dirty, but just stale and stinky. Grant was HOT! Ooh wee, you shoulda heard him holler at Mohammad (the desk clerk)! The girls talked about that scene for the rest of the week!


Anyway, back to our adventure:


Day One in the City


Took the Metro from Fairfax to downtown D.C. (Smithsonian Station).

Here's Holly enjoying her ride before the train filled up with commuters.

And here's Lauren and Grant plotting our trip on the Green Line.

We first tried to tour the Bureau of Engraving. The tour is free, but you have to get there early to get a ticket.


We had a 2:00 pm appointment to tour the Capitol. This was our first experience with Washington D.C.'s heavy security. Everywhere we went there were metal detectors and bag searches.

This is a photo of the dome in the Capitol Rotunda. This is they allow the public to pay their respects to a deceased president for a few days before the funeral. Lot's of famous American History art in this room, like that painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The painting inside the dome is of President Washington, surrounded by a bunch of women that represent things like courage, victory, freedom, etc.

This is our tour guide standing next to Brother Brigham. This room was the old House of Representatives, but it now displays all kinds of statues. The Capitol has at least two statues from every state in the Union. This one was given by-- you guessed it-- Utah. Brigham's seat had little beehives carved into it. This room also had a statue of Daniel Boone and another of the guy who invented air conditioning. This room has something called a "Whisper Spot." It's a place in the room where you can whisper, and your friend on the other side of the room can hear you because the accoustics are so profound.

After the tour, we waited by the statue of King Kamehameha for a rep from our Congressman's office to meet us with passes to see the House Gallery (this is not part of the normal tour). Congress was not in session, so we just enjoyed sitting in the Gallery and imagining ourselves sitting with the First Lady during the State of the Union address! It was a quiet time of reflection. No cameras or bags were allowed for this part of the tour.

When we rode the train, we had to park our car in a metered parking space at the train station, so we couldn't stay in D.C. for long that day. We hurried back to the Fairfax station, then hunted down a Cheesecake Factory for a delicious dinner.

Day Two in the City

First things first, when we got to the train station on this day, we made sure we got there early enough to park in an all-day spot. The train filled up fast that morning! Interesting, that no one gives up their seat for the older ladies. The only time I saw someone give up their seat was for a pregnant woman (thanks goodness--I guess chivalry isn't completely dead). Rode to the Smithsonian Station again, and went directly to the Bureau to try for tickets again. Right next door was the Holocaust Museum. We scored there, but still no luck at the Bureau. I don't remember why, but we decided to go to the Smithsonian and save the Holocaust Museum for later in the day.

But first, a photo op at the Washington Monument. One of the few times on this trip that the sun was out.

We went to the Smithsonian's American History Museum on this day. We saw Dorothy's ruby slippers, C3PO, the First Lady Inauguration Gowns, the Star Spangled Banner, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff.

We also saw Kermit the Frog . . .

. . . and Lincoln's top hat . . .

After the Holocaust Museum, we walked several blocks to have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe before we walked another many blocks to catch the train to Union Station.

On the way, we passed the Navy Memorial. There were several of these ships's masts, and a fountain with real sea water -- you could smell it!

At Union Station, we signed up for a Twilight Tour of the Monuments (no girls, it didn't have anything to do with Edward Cullen!) It was lots of fun, except for the rain and our aching feet. Please excuse the water spots on the Tour photos.

Here's one of the bronze monuments at the Roosevelt Memorial. Did you know that there are only about 4 photos of Roosevelt in his wheelchair? In those days, it was considered impolite to take photos of disabled people in their wheelchairs or on crutches.

Roosevelt was president during the Great Depression. This monument illustrates the suffering of the many unemployed people who had to stand in bread lines.

We were in D.C. during the Cherry Blossom season. It was very hazy, rainy, foggy every day that we were there, but we managed to capture this night-time shot of the girls by a cherry tree at the Roosevelt Memorial.

Shot of the Washington Monument, taken from across the basin. Those people with the umbrella are strangers and they just wouldn't get out of the way, but as it turns out in silhouette, it's quite romantic.

The Jefferson Memorial

Here's a night-time, rainy shot of the Korean War Monument. All of these statues of soldiers were represented in rain gear to reflect the type of conditions they endured during their service. It was very poignant to experience this monument in this weather.

We were also able to see the Vietnam War Memorial. By this time, it was very dark, and the Memorial wall was not well lit, so I didn't get any good photos.

Then we were able to visit the Lincoln Monument.

The final monument on the tour was the World War II Memorial. We were so exhausted by this point, and the rain was really coming down, so we wimped out and stayed on the bus. We were already making lists of things we didn't get to do, so many things that we knew we'd have to come back to D.C. sometime. We'll just have to catch the WWII next time.

Day Three in the City

On the third day, we drove into the city.

We passed this monument during the Twilight Tour, so when we saw it closer up during the day, I made Grant stop so I could take a photo. This is the Air Force Memorial.

And this is the Marine Corps Iwo Jima Monument. Grant and I read Flag of our Fathers a few years ago, so this monument was meaningful to us. We told the girls the story of these Marines raising the flag on some old iron pipe. We explained why this battle was such a difficult battle during WWII.

Then, we spent quite a bit of time at Arlington National Cemetary. We highly recommend this tour, where you can see the graves of Robert, John F., and Jacqueline Kennedy. Also, Thurgood Marshall, William Rehnquist, Audie Murphy, and of course the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The story of selecting the soldiers for this tomb is remarkable, and the solemnity of the changing of the guard is amazing.

The gravesite of John F. Kennedy and the Eternal Flame. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is buried next to him along with two of their children who died as infants.

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There are actually three unknowns buried here, one each for WWI, WWII, and Korea. There was a tomb for an Unknown Vietnam War Soldier, but his body was identified by DNA tests a few years ago and his body was moved by his family to his hometown of St. Louis, MO.

Did you know that if you take video in the portrait orientation, you can't rotate the image for viewing? Hmmm, if' I'd only known, you wouldn't have to lean way, way, way over to the left to watch this clip (either that, or hold your laptop sideways!). (Britt, if you know how to fix this, please let me know!)

After Arlington, we made another quick trip into the "Mall" to visit the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

We saw the big elephant in the rotunda . . .

. . . and the Hope Diamond . . .

. . . and lots of other old bones, stuffed wildlife, and naked people.

Our last stop was a drive up to Silver Springs to see the Temple. If you've ever been to D.C., you're familiar with that shocking amazement when you're rounding the bend of the beltway and the bright white temple springs to view above the trees.

Due to all the fog and misty rain, we had to get right up to the temple before we could see it.