Random Pix

As usual, I didn't take many pictures in January, but I found some on my camera worth posting. Once the snow melted, dad got back to work at the ranch. We went down to pick up some cabinets for the laundry room (which are stored in the barn) and Addie helped Grandpa unload the truck at the burn pile.
Here's how the ranch & river look in winter.

Heidi and Addie enjoying their pets today (2/01).
FERRAL CHILD: When Heidi had pneumonia, we had her sleep with us to listen to her breathing, but once she got well, we put her back in her own bed. The first night, she threw that tantrum to end all tantrums between 1am and 3am. We ended up just shutting her in her room and trying to sleep through the wailing. When she wok up in the morning she looked like this. We had put her down in a blanket sleeper (those zip-up one piece warm jammies) in her bed, and we found her on her floor with her drawers emptied, wearing only a silky slip around her waist.
I tried to take a picture and introduce you to our family pets, but Dory the Betta fish is always hiding. Anyway, this is Dory (hiding in the grass) and Gary the Snail in their Spongebob Squarepants tank. Addie & Heidi got them for Christmas.

Bits of News

I am back from a little vacation, cut short by a wicked Norwalk Virus (or something like that). Rich wanted to get some construction work done on the house and I wanted to visit my sister, so I went down to Sandy, UT on Wednesday morning and he stayed and made me a gorgeous new laundry room. I had planned on staying longer and he had planned on doing the bathroom, too, but I got super sick. So once I could hold my head up, I started the drive home (there is nothing worse than being sick away from your own bed). I was sad to miss out on some of the stuff I had planned with my sister, but I didn't want to stay and be a big puking, germ-infested burden, either. So we are home safe and sound. I still feel weak and icky, but I will post some photos of the house progress soon.

Three items of news:

1. You may remember this post in which I felt so sorry for Justice O'Connor...well, today is her lucky day! She can finally retire for reals because the dumb senate finally approved her replacement, Judge Samuel Alito. Although Alito is not a shiny super star like Roberts, I think he's qulaified and will not disappoint. I do not think he will lean too conservative--I hope all of the justices will act as justices and not politicians. Anyway, congratulations to my girl Sandra D.

2. I just saw that Coretta Scott King died today. That made me sad, but also happy for her. She was a dignified and lovely woman. I like to think, as I always do when a widow or widower dies, that there has been a sweet reunion, and that her husband is proud of the life she led without him for 37 years.

3. We are, again, expecting a baby. I wanted to wait until I had conclusive medical results that things are going well, but I am super-nauseated and tired, so that should tell me that things are at least more normal than last time. I am 51 days along today--7 weeks last Sunday, and due September 18th. Yay....

More later--the natives are restless.

BACK TRACK: January 3, 2006

Since poor Heidi ahs never beent o a zoo, we thought we'd go to the Reid Park Zoo in the middle of Tucson on Tuesday morning. Addie & Heidi both loved watching the animals. We waited for the lions to wake up, watched the elephants eat, and heard some crazy monkeys singing a funny song. Heidi was really excited about the big orange fish we saw ("Nemo! Nemo!"), too. It was a really fun day. The girls couldn't get enough of the elephants; Heidi called them "Dup-dup-dee" because she has watched too much Pooh's Heffalump movie, where the elephant sings a song with his name and it goes "Lumpity-Dumpity-Dee."
Addie rides the bronze elephant
These polar bears were my absolute favorite thing when I was a little kid. I thought it was so cute how they played with their ball and rolled around in the water. Now they have added a new underground view where you can see them under water. It's really cool, and so fun to take my girls to see the exact things I loved when I was their age.

Rich & Heidi enjoy the wildlife...
My friend Susan was also home visiting from California, so she brought her nephew, Bailey, and joined us at the zoo. We also took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for a while and they had a great time. It was really nice to see Sue again after several years, especially back in Tucson at our old "stomping grounds"--in fact, the Chuck E. Cheese place we went to used to be the dollar theatre where we hung out with our friends in high school. Anyway, it was good to see her--love ya, Sooz.

ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY...

January 23, 1931 in Helper, Utah, My Grandma Lyn was born (Glena Lyn Marshall).

Happy 75th Birthday, Grandma! Gram & Gramp, August 1950

Four Generations of First-Born Girls: My Mom (1951), Grandma The Birthday Girl (1931), Baby Addie (2001), and Me (1971).

Grandpa Bill & the Birthday Girl at The Pop Stand on their last visit to Montana in April 2005.

Thanks for being you, Grandma! You've always been one of my very best friends and we're (all 4 of us) so glad you were born!

Captain Moroni and MLK: in which I give a U2 sermon

Last week I watched a pretty moving show on satellite about MLK on MLK day. The show played bits of speeches I have not heard and I really felt what he was saying. I have mixed feelings about what the civil rights movement became after Dr. King and Mother Parks (entitlement is one of my peeves), but the things they were fighting against were inherently wrong and his rhetoric in the speeches I heard last Monday was inherently right and true.

Let me preface my little story here with this: I find soul-stirring inspiration and truth in lots of things—I quite like looking for it (like the Innocence Mission song that says, “I look for the good in everything—it hurts when I cannot find it.”)—but I still maintain that the only perfect man was Christ and the only perfect truth is contained in his gospel. But I find his qualities and his teachings scattered throughout everyday life because (a) we are all God’s children and have inherited some of His qualities, and (b) mankind cannot help but be attracted to light and truth.

So either I am way too hormonal, or I rediscovered some spirit-stirring beauty this morning. Probably both. At any rate, I was driving up to the church for a big 4-hour long Enrichment Day (that’s when the women get together to learn and make stuff while enjoying each other’s company and, sometimes, a yummy meal—I was teaching a mini-class on Celebrating Valentines Day as a family—fun traditions and some cute little gifts for kids, husbands and friends). I was listening to my U2’s greatest hits CD and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” is the first song. For some reason, the song just hit me in the gut, the same way it did when I saw the video on some Saturday morning show back in 1983, and I ran and scribbled the name of the band and song in one of my sixth grade notebooks. Back then I didn’t know the meaning of the words, but today I do and they touched me so much, I started to cry.

One man come in the name of love
One man come and go
One man come, he to justify
One man to overthrow
One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resists
One man washed on an empty beach
One man betrayed with a kiss
In the name of love --What more in the name of love ?

(nobody like you...)
Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
In the name of love --What more in the name of love ?

The idea of dying for truth & justice, whether is be the infinite atonement of the Savior, or one of a million lives that have been given so that man may be what he was meant to be…well, it’s pretty heart wrenching. I thought of all the dear friends I have whose skin is darker than mine (well, that’s 99% of the human race) and tried to imagine them being treated as half a person, as another species, as not my equal. It hurts to imagine, and I thank God I was born in my time and place. But it breaks my heart, and I know it breaks God’s heart, too, to see what we still do to each other after all the lives and testimonies that have been given for what is right and true.

So before today, I hadn’t thought of Civil Rights in the gospel context, but I realize now that liberty and equality are always just causes. Heck, it’s the theme of the Book of Mormon—from Captain Moroni’s Title of Liberty to the description of the peaceful times, “conquer we must when our cause it is just, and this be our motto, In God is our Trust.” It’s a worthy fight; I’m just sorry it has cost us some of our brightest lives. I still cling to the ideal:

“And it came to pass… the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land… and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another. And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift.”

-4 Nephi 1: 22-23


PS: I do realize that Bono, like Oprah, has a severe God complex, and I try to look past their enormous egos and admit that they have done some good. We just got the “Rattle and Hum” DVD and I watched it tonight with Rich with our pimped-out surround sound and I must say, it was almost as good as being there. And I WAS there in Sun Devil Stadium, two nights in December 1987 in the cold rain where they filmed Bono singing “MLK”—“Sleep tonight/ and may your dream be realized/ If the thunder cloud passes rain/ so let it rain down on me,” and it totally started raining. I never want to see U2 again because they will never be as good as they were on the Joshua Tree tour (nor will they be as cheap--$5 a ticket). Watching the DVD tonight made me feel all the same exact teenage feelings as I felt, standing there in the rain with my-love-of-that-year, Robert, knowing that we were watching something really amazing. Something new stood out to me this time, though—right before the footage of them singing “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” Bono gives a preface. He says he’s not sure that the song should even be in the film because there is no way the audience will appreciate the way they felt on stage the day of the concert. That same day there was a bombing in Ireland that killed 11 people and injured many others. They had been singing the song for, like, 6 years and still horrible acts of terrorism were still happening in Ireland. When Bono said we wouldn’t understand in 1987, he was right. But we most certainly understand after 2001. So THIS time, 19 years later, I understood what he was singing and why his voice cracked and why he screamed “no more!”

What's in YOUR ear?

So I was just finishing running through my tivoed shows last night, close to midnight (afterall, it was My Name is Earl and The Office, which I had to skip in the evening because I was feverishly finishing my darling Grandma's birthday present--she'll be 75 on Monday, people, so pay her some propers), when Adeline Rose Melin emerged from her bedroom all whiny and groggy and feverish.

"Mom, mom, this ear is hurting! It's hot! Help me!" Shucks! Those dang Melin eustachian tubes have done it again (actually, I am not complaining because she only gets like one ear infection a year). I knew she probably started with the same virus Heidi had and just got infected elsewhere. So I gave her some Tylenol and held her upright (I was upright because I was coughing too much laying down) and fell asleep that way. Then I took her to the doctor this morning.

Her right ear, the "hot" one, was indeed infected. The other ear, however, held a much more fun surprise. The doctor pulled out a little wad of green foil, covered in ear wax. It was a Hershey's Kiss wrapper! And it must have beenthere for a long time because we only had those in Arizona. EWWW! That's what I get for not cleaning her ears for a month. But then again, maybe it's good that I didn't--I could have pushed it in further since I certainly wouldn't have been watching out for FOIL in her EAR!

I had something else really urgent and funny to tell you, but it has gone away.

I do have a special wish: I wish that everyone could appreciate the insanely ingenious humor of the Christopher Guest mockumentary movies (This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best In Show, A Mighty Wind). Seriously--the world would be a better place if people only understood how smart and funny these shows are. Consider this:

They only write story lines and character sketches--no dialogue. So when you see those actors talking in those interviews, they are totally making up everything they say

All the goofy folk songs in "A Mighty Wind" are original pieces written by the cast members. I just can't believe how spot-on they are.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join the mockumentary fan club, and the world will live as one.

My Funny Adeline, Part 3

I looked in our photo archives to see what Addie looked like at 21 months (Heidi's Age). Here are some cute results: Addie & Liam playing at the Petersen's in Sandy, Utah- August 2003
Addie mugging for Daddy's camera - August 2003
Oh, man! How do they just grow up under our noses!?! Look at that little baby face!

Here are two Addie funnies for you reading pleasure:

1. Last night we did some fruitful post-Christmas shopping at Old Navy and she was looking at all the baby clothes and going, "How cute is THIS, mom? Oh my gosh," just like a little woman. And then she found a super cute newborn boy PJ set and said, "Mom, when we get my baby brother can I come back and get this for him? Please?...Promise?..."

2. Tonight during dinner we were listening to the Orrin Hatch music CD that Debbie gave us and the girls were sort of singing along (it's nice family/church music). During the song "No Empty Chairs at our table...", Addie ad libbed and SANG this: "Cuz we don't have chairs, we have benches..." She didn't even know she was being funny, but Rich and I almost choked on our food laughing so hard.

Man, we love her! All of us are feeling better, by the way, except Richard and I have a bad hacking cough (probably from lack of sleep), but we'll be up to par soon. Heidi is doing great--thanks for your prayers.

Down Time

We've been struggling all weekend with a very sick toddler (Heidi) who has come down with pneumonia. I have much to write about, but it'll have to wait until she's been snuggled back to health! Much love to all yall!

PS: I will say this bit: I watched a great PBS show on Saturday night called "Rasing Cain" about raising boys and dealing with their emotional life and ways of learning. It was interesting and heartwrenching. One statistic broke my heart: the U.S .leads the industrialized world in fatherlessness. That's so sad. There were many lost boys on this show, but it was cool to see the ways God provided them to learn to be men. It reminded me how important it is to serve with gusto in the church and community because for some kids, it's life or death. Read more by clicking here.

later.