C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A (Part I)

As my efforts to blog are a means of journal-ing I will warn you that this is a long post.

FRIDAY (4th)

We have been so excited for the trip to California. The girls started counting down the days in advance but I still manged to not have one clothing item for me picked and packed when Erik got home from work Friday afternoon. Everyone and everything else was done, I just hadn't got around to looking in my closet yet. Erik's goal was to load the car and leave but obviously we still had a good hour or two before we headed out.

We spent Friday evening in St. George at a hotel before heading on to Anaheim. Every time I type out Anaheim I want to say it with a Jewish flare on the 'heim', don't you?

SATURDAY (5th)

So we arrived in Ahaheim Saturday afternoon at the Worldmark hotel around the corner from Disneyland and got familiar with our room and the fabulous amenities. (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Heber for spoiling us with such a great place to stay.)

 I was honestly excited for this...

While Erik was honestly excited about this...

 Erik is a bit crazy and worked out four times I believe while on vacation!

On VACATION I say!

Here was the view from the roof top. We tried watching the fireworks from the top on Saturday but there were only a few. Some technical glitch or something.

(Luckily we were able to catch them again the next week on Friday night.)

No, this is not our dinner lest you think we are really trying to get out of our church callings!

SUNDAY (6th)

Sunday was overcast and rained a little in the morning so we lounged, and then headed out in the afternoon to Newport Beach. No doubt I am the greatest Mom EVER so I didn't bring the camera bag. All photos are via camera phones. We planned on coming back to the beach another day, so I didn't worry too much about photos but alas, we had so much fun at other spots we never made it back to the beach. Another time!

It was windy but it didn't bother us too much. Sailboats were out in force and it was so awesome to watch them race. My heart starts to race and I try to imagine myself aboard as the sailboats tip up on one side with all crew leaning over the airborne side! I love it! I think I need to add that to my bucket list.

McCall was the shell locate-er and found a sand dollar still basically in tact with only a small break in the center top. She loves standing at the waters edge and slowly was enjoying the feel of the waves rising further and further up her legs.



From McCall's example Elizabeth and Claire were soon to follow submerging first toes then ankles, shins, knees... then the whole bottom half.

Oh wait! that was an accident. 

It so happened that the girls decided it would be exciting to hold hands while then jumping over the white edged wave as it came in, ideally landing with a small splash after the passing of the initial foam edged rush of water. Ideas are good, but as Claire and Lizzie learned they are not always carried out as we think. Un-thought-out was the unstable sandy floor on which they came down on (plus an unsteady partner pulling the other down), immediately toppling the two little ones into the cold water. As my sense of humor is such, I heartily laughed, along with everyone else, and then went to see how they fared, brushing sand from them and happy tears from my eyes.

Happy as a lark this one is. If it is wet, dirty, sticky, messy, et cetera - Claire will LOVE it. She found a drift wood stick, worn smooth from the constant wear against sand and waves, fell in love with it, and since I couldn't rightly complain as to the slivers she would get from it, the happy stick arrived back home with us in Utah after much use at the hotel and one attempt to bring it into Disneyland.

Claire was also nicknamed on this trip...

With the earlier rain and the brisk wind, the beach was not very busy initially. (It got much busier later as we prepared to leave.) With the lack of people the seagulls found delight in being able to largely flock together, taking up a good 1/4 acre of the beach or more. As we passed them I saw Claire eyeing them.

I could see her mind start to turn, a plan developed and a course for action began. I watched her bolt away towards the flock (with stick in tow). Within seconds she closed in and with a giant ROAR she charged into the flock. Gulls scattering everywhere as she chased and growled. Elizabeth was quickly beside her. The girls would give the gulls a break just long enough to congregate before plunging back into the flock. While we laughed and at some points ran for cover, the girls charged. This continued for some time before we were beyond the gull habitat and the girls were motioned away.

On the pier there were pigeons. Claire instantly charged forcing the mild birds to scatter, although only scattering long enough to just get out of her reach, accustomed as they are to humans. Thus when the phrase "Come away bird dog" fell from Erik or my mouth, I forget which, the name stuck and as we had repeated run in's with various well fed and well adapted birds at Sea World and Disneyland, the term was used whenever Claire's eyes perked at any sort of bird and we sensed her getting ready to charge.

Stella does not enjoy wind but was fun and happy until...

You know how you can see the wet area that the waves continue to dampen as they roll in? So you sort of feel safe when you see that area and stand just outside of that range.

Then you have that wave that is a little bigger than the rest. It comes in like any other, looking harmless and then it's too late, you realize you are in it's path and other then looking like a ninny and running for it or possibly trying to hop out of it's path - even thought everyone knows you are going to get it and hopping or trying to tiptoe out of the wave will only succeed in splashing you and making you more wet?

Well, as Mom had Stella and was helping her look for shells she made the mistake of setting Stella down and turning to inspect a shell a foot or two away. All to late, Stella screamed and mom too realised her feet were wet from that unsuspecting wave rose. While it was really only 3-4 inches of water (you can just detect the one leg of Stella's jeans slightly darker from getting wet in the above photo), the damage was done and it took a little time to get her to trust to be set down again.

That evening we were back to have a good meal and relax before the events of the week started.

More on our Sea World and Disneyland adventures to come.

Catch Up

 I'm now trying to catch up from all the fun

spent over the past 8 days in California.

I'll be back to blogging soon!

Favorite Soundtracks

Some of my favorite movie soundtracks.

You can click on the song title above the album cover to listen to one of my favorites from the soundtrack.

You'll want to pause the music on my blog to the right. --->

The arrow is to help you in case you are confused about your right.

Gabriel's Oboe

Theme from Out of Africa

Theme from Schindler's List

Main Theme - Nocturne in C-Sharp

A Fateful Meeting

Gnossienne No.1

Theme Song from Braveheart

 Theme from Somewhere In Time

Theme

 Dawn

The Gravel Road

The Wicked Flee

Main Titles

The Ludlows

What are your favorites?

Stop dressing your daughters...

I whole heartedly agree with the sentiments here. Sometimes parenting is tough but we should not forget that we are in control. Parents rule is the way the game was supposed to be played.

Click here to watch this video on  TRAMPS!

Favorite Things

We all have those tried and true balms and ointments that make us look good, or in my case, think we look good! And hey, there is a lot to be said when something can make us feel good, right!

Seriously, this hairspray is bananas!

Lightweight but great hold and while I don't think a hairspray can necessarily add shine,  it doesn't seem to dull hair like many do. I've used many others - too tacky, to dulling, not lasting. I only use hairspray when I add curls to my hair but in my opinion, this is perfect.

I keep this in my shower. I love it's gritty feel on my face.

Erik even uses it to scrub his face, probably because it's INVIGORATING.

Erik did ask if there was something that didn't smell so girly! Maybe he should start shopping for himself as every cream, lotion or lip balm he goes to use is followed up with a "it smells too girly" or "do you have something not so girly smelling?". There is a reason they don't make products to smell like "MAN", man!

Probably the best lipstick EVER!

And I love this Syrup color. It's a shade or two darker than my natural lip color and maybe others won't like it as much but I just love it. I've believe you should stick with the colors you were made with - just tone up or down a bit. Sometime it's fun to go a little bold in hair color but generally what looks best on us is what we were given at birth.

Mary Kay Extra Emollient Night Cream
I have an older tube cause this lasts FOR-EV-ER so I took this pic off the Internet!

I have dryness or eczema around my eyes once fall and winter hit and I love this stuff. It's great for lips, hand, elbows, etc. It is not lotion, it's thick sort of more like the consistency of Vaseline or an ointment. 

What are your favorites?

Words

I love words. I love the way they can create an emotion, stir up your senses, and help instantly visualize something. I love the way certain words roll of the tongue. Some words are beautiful and fluid others are hard and blunt. 


FETID (FET-id) adjective

Definition: having a bad smell, stinking

Used in a sentence: The sippy cup of milk, found under the car seat, was opened up to reveal it's fetid contents.


Fetid is such a strong word. It's blunt, sharp, and direct. It conjures images of decay and rot. It so powerfully creates, in that one 5 letter word, a sense of retched, putrid stink.

I knew beets made you go to the bathroom in pink, a trick that works wonders in getting my girls to eat grilled beets.

But it wasn't until book club last month that I learned that...Asparagus gives you fetid urine.

All these years of eating asparagus, feeding it to my family,  I never knew this.

How, you wonder, did you learn at BOOK CLUB that asparagus makes you have fetid urine?

Honestly, I don't know.

I think when you have 9 ladies together it is hard to trace a conversation back to it's origins but it sure is interesting.

What you may not have known...

This may come as a shock so please prepare yourselves.

You may want to sit down if you're not already.

But seeing you are reading this through a computer you probably already are.

Unless you have one of those data plans and you are somewhere on your phone.

THEN you'll want to sit down.

I do not have a data plan because I am cheap.

I digress.

So here it is...

Opps!

I had to stop and run out back because I could hear sawing outside on the deck stairs.

My kids are outside.

Sawing noises are alarming when they are only 2/4/6.

SO

You may not know...

I have some issues.

WOW, you say, you made me sit down for that?

You are thinking, I've known that for ages.

But for those of you who may not know me well, you'll be glad you sat down.

Right?

Some of my issues result from the aforementioned cheapness and we will now address that here.

This is my eyeliner.

What you may not be able to tell is they are just barely longer than my thumb nail. They are so short that to sharpen them I have to use tweezers to grasp them in the small holed sharpener or swirl them around in the large holed sharpener. Pliers would work well to grasp them by but I don't typically have pliers in my bathroom.

This is my lipstick.

See the brush in the background?

I use that brush to carve out every last bit of lipstick from the container until it is desert dry.

Here is my lip gloss.
When I cannot use the wand to reach the gloss anymore it annoys the pants off me that I still have at least a 1/4 inch of good gloss in the bottom of the tube. When you pay $14 for gloss you sort of want to get your money out of it, right? In those cases I resort to cutting open containers to extract the last bits of product.

I think I used a utility knife to cut through this one, lip gloss tubes are pretty thick. I remember distinctly thinking that if I cut my finger off opening this up it would go over real well with Erik.

Scissors are very helpful for lotion bottles. See all the lotion that gets stuck to the sides? All that would have been wasted but by cutting it open I am able to scoop out the last bits. 

So that it doesn't dry out I just slip the top over the bottom half after I've scooped out the goods from the top, see...

I cut open our Aveeno lotion (they are very thick and it takes a bit to get the initial snip to go through), we get a good weeks worth of lotion from the time the pump stops pumping lotion and I open it up. I've even got Erik trained so it's not always me cutting open our Aveeno bottles.

I can't figure out how to pry open my foundation to get the remaining mineral powder out. I can see probably a good weeks worth in there, if I could just get that top part to pop off. I haven't been able to force it open by hand or with scissors.

It will probably take pliers.

Maybe I should keep pliers in my bathroom after all?

Getting BOO'ed

So we got BOO'ed last week. You know... the ring of the doorbell, the treat left on the step, the return of two treats to another family and the ghost in the window.

So one evening, while McCall was at dance we made some cookies. I will not get into the details of baking cookies with helpers ages 6/4/2, my post is not about all of that, but needless to say that it in itself makes a great post.

So we finished placing the cookies in cellophane bags and headed out the door. There was a small battle over rain boots. I tried to tell the girls it's hard to run fast in rain boots but they wanted to wear them. "Okay, dig your own grave!" I thought.

So we head out ...

So... did you notice that all 4 paragraphs SO far have started with SO? I see a trend in which a lack of adjectives is deeply shocking! I am about being real, keeping it real, so rather than me editing out the above SO's into something more intelligent sounding, I am sacrificing my own personal pride and your perception of my intelligence and leaving the so's for the world (or the two readers of this blog), to view and judge me by. I will be more careful hitherto.

To continue on... we headed out with our cookies, if you still even remember where we were going with this... and went into the neighborhood.

House #1:
Elizabeth wanted to go to this home, so I stood by the mailboxes and told the girls to go and set the items on the front porch and then ring the doorbell two times and then RUN, Forrest, RUN... (ahem) and hide.

Onward they trudge in those darn boots, (in case you have forgotten amid my rambling, the girls are in rain boots), and arrive at the home. Elizabeth is carefully holding the bag of the cookies, while Claire is running ahead with the paper. As they approach the door Claire is at this point most certainly in the lead and I see her drop the paper and reach for the doorbell. "Oh no, busted!" I think. At that same moment I hear Elizabeth scream, about 10 feet from the door, "NO CLAIRE! NO! Don't ring it yet!"

Now, I am watching all this from across a cul-de-sac, and laughing quite profusely. If I can hear the girls from my distance, I'm sure everyone in the home can too!

Among the two girls they get the whole leave the items THEN ring the bell discussion sorted out and the bell gets rung and then they run behind the parked van in the driveway. Despite their best efforts to get caught by peeking out from behind the said van, the homes door gets closed and the girls run away, "thump thump thump" as the rain boots slap their shins across the cul-de-sac.

House #2:
This home has a steep drive and a lot of steps. I told the girls it was a risky getaway but in case you are as uninformed as me, my girls are smarter than I am.

I hide around the bend in the road behind the neighbors motor home with a perfect view of the 'home on the hill'. The girls trudge (still in boots) in the direction of the home.

As they near the home a large truck pulls into our subdivision. It turns the corner by where I am positioned and starts to pull up to the 'home on the hill'. My first instinct was to run out thinking this person is going to snatch my girls. The girls are now heading up the steep dive, as the passenger door of the truck opens and out pops a youth. "Oh crap I think, the son is home from football!"

The rest is basically a blur because the girls are at the door with the youth approaching, I'm thinking "ABORT, ABORT!" and laughing so hard I'm having a hard time standing upright with Stella in my arms.

The girls come dashing back, "thump, thump, thump" and when they get to the safety of the motor home I say, "So you got caught?" Wide eyed, excited, and heavily breathing they tell me "No, we didn't". I ask, "But what about 'name of youth'?" Elizabeth tells me "Well he just said, "what is going on!" but we rang the doorbell and ran away." Claire added, "no one even caught us!"

They returned home thinking they are they greatest, smartest spies in the whole wide world. CIA BEWARE! 


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Flashback Friday - Grandma Boyd

Maurine Eyring Boyd

Erik's maternal grandmother 

Grandma with her sweet sister Jeneveve Eyring Layton.

Such Beautiful sisters - Isn't Aunt Jen's dress fabulous? The cut out along the neck is wonderful. 

Grandma loved pink and wore it always. When we talk about her McCall still says, "the pink grandma?" and the other girls now follow suit.

One thing I remember about her is she seemed to worry enough for the whole family. Her father, Edward Christian Eyring when writing a brief account of each of his children said that she "is of a very serious nature taking life in general just a little too seriously."

I think grandma worried about people. She wanted the best for them, she wanted them to be their best and that brought on her worries and "serious nature".

 

After having McCall, I don't think their was a visit that we made that she didn't council me "Now you know, now days they say not to shake babies, it's very dangerous."

"Yes, grandma, I know! We would never shake her!" I might have been a tiny bit offended but soon realized she just was sharing her knowledge. "They didn't know these things when we were parents," she would finish.

Later when I heard her repeat the same thing to countless other new parents I would have to smile.

Grandma had a really hard childhood and I think that had a large role in her "serious nature". From the story of her life, grandma's mother, Emma Romney Eyring wrote, "a local physician called to see if I could nurse his wife who had been badly burned. I nursed her there for a month. While I was gone, Maurine, at fourteen years of age, kept my hotel washings, another family's washing, cared for my family, canned forty quarts of fruit, and put $18 in the bank. Maurine then sold subscriptions to "Capper's Weekly" to by a wagon for LeRoy's Christmas."

Many times I read about grandma taking care of the children, working to help support the family., attending school and supporting herself while trying to send some money back, taking her younger siblings to purchase coats when she had her own income.

Grandma was notorious for using things up and wearing things out. She would wash plastic bags, zip lock, bread bags, whatever. When they started to wear out she would sometimes stitch them up and keep on using them. She hated to see waste and one of my favorite stories is when Grandpa came home and told her he purchased a golf pass at East Bay Golf Course. Upset at the expense of such a thing, Grandma made him go out every day just so they could get good use out of that pass! 

I can hear in my mind her reply to her husband's wit and humor "Oh, George!"

She was always concerned about her figure. She was a tiny thing and I remember in later years her children piling her plate with food or dessert. When bestowing the offering before her she would gasp, "Oh, I can't eat that!" and then her delighted laughter would follow.

 We were fortunate to get to visit Grandma right before she passed. 

I was days from delivering here.

At her funeral a story was shared about life living in the Hurst House in Berkeley, Ca when Grandpa Boyd directed the Institute of Religion there. Hearing wonderful stories of secret passageways, and one priceless Japanese vase at the bottom of a giant curved staircase that grandma's children used to slide down the railing and bump into the vase. Luckily the vase remained in tact and the vase now sits in the Japan temple if I recall correctly.

 We miss you Grandma!

Good Beginnings

I love opening a book for the first time. 

The newness of the binding, tight and cracking as you stretch it open.

Between the front and back cover a world exists, you will be part of this world for the next few days, or weeks.

You acclimate to the smell of the pages and the smell of  the ink. Musty or sour, it's foreignness fading as you immerse your way through the pages.

Pages that are smooth, almost cool to the touch; or rustic, rough, a faint imprint as you run your fingers along the print.

My eyes adjust to the font, getting ready to settle in...a thick font, oozing out ink or maybe a fine script, delicate and feminine.

Then I come to the first page...the first line, that first statement that sets the story in motion. Your world is ready to begin...


"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."

"My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die. I counted."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." 














"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in it's own way."

"A storm is rolling in, and that always makes me a little sad and wistful so I got it in my head to set to paper all these things that have got us this far on our way through this heathen land."

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."













"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."













I love a good book, but I love a good beginning.



What are your favorite beginnings?

What camera do I use?

I have to laugh when people ask because I know nothing about cameras. I know nothing about aperture, ISO, shutter speed. I play around with manual settings but when it comes down to snapping shots I usually shoot in Auto mode.

Sometimes I can get a good close up shot and I like shooting those, but getting landscapes or group shots to be AMAZING even just GOOD is difficult for me (ask Maureen).

I want to take a class, and will someday. I've been looking into a few, but right now I am busy with other things and when I do take a class I want to be able to apply the things I'm learning. Right now that is not my life.

There are some really good brands but the two I compared were Canon and Nikon. I researched, looked and played with both DSLR cameras prior to making my purchase.

1. Prior Experience: My biggest reason for purchasing the Canon Rebel was that I was a prior Canon user. I'm loyal and if I like something and have good experience then I'm going to stick with it. I had a really great higher end point and shoot digital that took amazing shots. I liked the way buttons and menus were organized on the Canon. I love Canon video too.

2. How it feels in your hands: So when I held various cameras the Canon felt easy in hand ( I have read this same comment from other more experienced photographers). Lets face it, that is one of the most important things to consider, if it doesn't "set well" you won't be picking it up to use as much. You want it to feel stable and secure in your hand and you want to be able to make adjustments and manipulate setting easily. The knobs and controls on the Canon felt more intuitive and easy to use to me.

3. Extraction: When we shopped for a full size violin for McCall we wanted something that was easy to extract good sound. Even two of the same violins extract sound differently. You don't want to feel like you are pulling and working to extract a good sound. In camera's, if you know what you are doing you can get a good picture from any camera. For me between the cameras I had a better chance at extracting a good shot from the Canon - even though I know nothing! Canons are great and rate higher in low light (something I knew I'd be faced with often with kids and their shenanigans). I also read lots of reviews that Canons had better straight from camera shots and needed less editing which was important to my choice.

Ultimately, I think it depends on you and what feels right for you. Don't make your decision based on what someone else uses because it has to feel right to you. When you get into DSLR's any camera can take good photos - just as it can take crappy photos!  It's the user -- so base your decision on the user. I don't think one camera is better than another. ("Pioneer Woman" has a Canon and a Nikon and discusses the strengths of each. She is the best resource for photo info.) Really, you see professionals using various brands, why do they stick with one brand over another? It's what they are used to and familiar with.

TUESDAY TIP: Saturday Jobs

Each Saturday morning my girls are expected to jump in and help out around the house. If we don't get things done on Saturday then our week gets messy and complicated so we try to be consistent in what has to happen before fun time can start.

In our house we have to be specific, so that the girls know what we expect. If we say bedroom and bathroom it just isn't enough, so the girls have things broken down for them somewhat. I got inspired from Shawni.

Bedroom:

Beds are pretty much a given every day of the week, so I don't even have them on the list. You make your bed or you don't play! The older two are great, the younger ones I have to remind often. Stella still gets some help making hers!

1. Dust bed, dresser, nightstand.

(Includes wiping finger prints off of these items too.)

2. Put away everything on furniture.

(All those papers, notes, trinkets, jewelry, books out of place on the bookshelf, toys not put back, ALL OF IT has to be off the dressers, bookcases and nightstands and be put away.)

I knew I could go down and get a good example from McCall. Man I love that girl!

Here is what I expect. This is Elizabeth.

3. Organize clothing.

(This means clothes off floor or that missed the dirty clothes basket. Drawers need to be cleaned and everything folded. Closets organized all clothes hung up in order and shoes in boxes.)

This is what I check for.

4. Pick out clothes for next week.

(see this post.)

5. Vacuum Bedroom

Bathroom:

This one applies to McCall and Elizabeth in their bathrooms. Claire does the basement bathroom but I do the toilet and help oversee the wiping of sink, counter and mirror.

6. Clean your bathroom

(Scrub counter, sink, mirror, toilet, (shower/bath), shake rug, sweep floor and empty trash)

Other:

McCall and Elizabeth have different spots they clean each week.

McCall cleans the coats and shoes at the front door.

Lizzie cleans the bookcases in her room ^ and the 2 girls' room. (McCall's bookcase is under the furniture section of room cleaning. She isn't pulling books out each day like the little ones do, albeit the pencils, erasers and notes from school clutter her shelves to catch up to the little ones messes easily.)

They have a couple other jobs they are responsible for and they check them off with the other jobs. You can see what I use here!

FOR MOM:

I try to get my room and bathroom, kitchen, living room and family rooms cleaned before Saturday so that I can help the kids move along with theirs, but if not, then I'm catching up doing those on Saturday with the girls. I do have a weekly cleaning chart which I do most of the time and I'll share that tip sometime too.

In addendum:

We started this at the beginning of the school year. We have a different way for jobs over the summer. On the first Saturday it took us a while to get the girls drawers cleaned and I heard McCall mumbling in her room ... "I am going to keep my drawers so clean that next Saturday I won't even have to clean them!" 

My point EXACTLY Calla! 

At first I thought it might be too much work but you know, it isn't. I am raising future wives and mothers and they need to have these skills and they need to know how to work - because life is not a shopping trip, a vacation to see pretty places, or a sporting event.

Just last Saturday McCall had to get the vacuum out THREE times (NO JOKE: re-winding the cord up and all) to vacuum and re-vacuum the family room because I kept finding popcorn and other stuff from Friday night.

Erik thought I was being too hard but you know, if you say it nicely then I don't see the problem and I promise you this week she will remember to do it right the first go round!

I think it's preparing the girls for life in the real world. What happens in college or in the workplace when they don't give it their best or do it right. They need to learn these lessons now from a loving parent.