My Piece of Foreign Sky

Well, this was the Mothers' Day to end all Mothers' Days! I told Rich I only need a weekend like this every decade or so and I'll be able to keep on truckin'. It all started with these beautiful flowers Rich brought home from his meeting in Bozeman Thursday night.
They are really stunning and I can smell the lilies everywhere!

Then yesterday Rich "let" me indulge in some geraniums and alyssums at Pamida...

...so I spent a beautiful morning potting with my girls, listening to "Says You" on NPR. Later, Rich took the kids outside and banned me from the garage where they worked on my Mothers' Day surprise while I took a long bath to soak my sunburn blisters and read my new "Real Simple" magazine...
This is houw our yard looks now in the dusk...tons of yellow tulips, grape hyacinths, and red geraniums!
Heidi presented me with this darling flower box SHE MADE HERSELF when she went to a class at the hardware store with Daddy on Saturday. The little pots are from Addie's school, and the yellow vase is from Addie, too...what sweeties!

On Sunday morning, I was led upstairs in my robe to the front porch to find...

Come sit a spell!

new adirondack chairs I have been dreaming of! They even face the sunset (which won't be coming til about 10pm soon, but how fun is that!?) and have fold-out attached ottomans!!! Rich just rocks!

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While I was sitting in said chairs, Sweet Baby James came outside with a tiny velvet box, and inside there was...

MY MOTHERS' RING!!!!!

I know, I couldn't get a decent photo, but isn't it sweet? I just love it! Addie (my topaz) said, "I'm the sun, James is the blue sky, and Heidi is the ocean!" Awww...I just love my kids! (and their awesome daddy!)

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There are just no words to express the gratitude I feel for the privilege of being "mother to these three." I resort to lyrics, poems, scriptures, songs when I try to say how glad I am to have these brilliant souls in my care, and to have the best partner with whom to share the work and the joy. They've made all my dreams come true.

“Most of you are mothers, and very many of you are grandmothers and even great-grandmothers. You have walked the sometimes painful, sometimes joyous path of parenthood. You have walked hand in hand with God in the great process of bringing children into the world that they might experience this estate along the road of immortality and eternal life. It has not been easy rearing a family. Most of you have had to sacrifice and skimp and labor night and day. As I think of you and your circumstances, I think of the words of Anne Campbell, who wrote as she looked upon her children:

You are the trip I did not take;
You are the pearls I cannot buy;
You are my blue Italian lake;
You are my piece of foreign sky.
(“To My Child,” quoted in Charles L. Wallis, ed., The Treasure Chest [1965], 54)

You [mothers] are the real builders of the nation wherever you live, for you have created homes of strength and peace and security. These become the very sinew of any nation.”

Gordon B. Hinckley

Ensign, Nov 1996

Happy Mothers Day, Mommy. I Miss You.

What A Week

So I was gonna blog everyday of trip and then I remembered we were going to an amusement park for two straight days and I would lose brain function every night and be unable to blog. But I am back in Montana where it's 50 degrees & sleeting and I can think much clearer (after my 5 hour nap). For now I am going to be lazy and post a slideshow. Tomorrow I will tell stories--it was a great trip adn our kids are so much fun. I am so grateful to have a family I love to be with!

TO MAKE THE SLIDE SHOW BIGGER: CLICK on the screen, then click the "SLIDESHOW" button on the upper left of the Picasa screen. You can adjust the speed of the slides below the pictures.

Taken By Surprise

My reaction to hearing the following song today kind of shocked me. I forgot what an integral part of my early-twenties mantra it was 18 years ago...punch in the gut!

"I'm nobody's wife and I'm nobody's baby
I like it that way
but then again...maybe.
And I'm nobody's valentine and I'm nobody's pearl,
When you get it right down to it
I always seem to find
Just some girl, singing

There are monsters there are angels,
There's a peacefulness and a rage inside us all
There is sugar and there is salt
There is ice and there is fire
in every single heart
There are monsters, there are angels.

I'm nobody's promise and I'm nobody's chore
And I ain't got nobody that I feel I gotta live for
Nobody to live for
I'm nobody's work and I'm nobody's company
And every time I turn around
I always seem to find
Just me....singing..."

I am so glad I grew up.

Early Bird Gets the Worm...

[but who wants a worm?]
I am up early thanks to my children and to all the voicemail on my phone. I was bummed when the kids were up at 6-on-the-dot, but even more annoyed when the messages on my voicemail got my adrenaline pumpin'. Luckily, just before I exploded a la The Incredible Hulk, my husband used his God-given calming powers to talk me into the shower and get on with my day since there is nothing I can do at this crazy hour. So here I am, waiting for my heart to soften.

And my friend Stephanie provides the heart-softener in the form of this post on Beauty. Go read it, it's great. Especially coming from a woman who survived a deadly plane crash that burned over 80% of her body. She is lovely in every way and she makes me feel grateful for a loving and longsuffering Heavenly Father.

Needless to say, I am more grateful than ever that my cutie hubs wanted to use his tax return to sweep us away to So Cal this weekend! He is awesome. Know what else he did? He refinanced our house at 4.6-something per cent, rolled in the car payment, and took out cash to pay off our outstanding medical bills/ repleninsh savings and our payment STILL went down! We closed on Tuesday and dont' have a mortgage payment til June. Yeah, I love him. We had such a fun date going to the temple last night, listening to back podcasts of Glenn Beck and This American Life, being SO excited to surprise our kids and be together for five whole days...YAY!

8:20 update: it's all good. crisis averted. :)
Also: Souter's retiring? Crud. Get ready for more bloody rounds of confirmation hearings. And pray Ginsberg hangs in there, cuz it's only gonna get more "progressive" from here! YIKES!

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HAPPY MAY DAY!

It's so beautiful outside today! Mother Nature got the memo...hooray! Here's a song to celebrate (and HERE is the real way I first learned it :))

Rambling...

'positive thinking, positive thinking...'
So it's all sleety outside and stuff. I am trying to be pleasant about it, and I genuinely WOULD be pleasant about it IF it were 55+degrees and a light spring rain. I like rain. April Showers bring May flowers, you know.

My little yellow tulips are so very brave. Their little heads are held high, trying to open even though winter won't go away. All the seeds we started last weekend (meaning 10 days ago) in start trays, planters, and recycled yogurt cups are sprouting. There is hope smiling brightly before us. It will be a bright-green spring!

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I never told you what made Heidi's bday cake so delicious and frostable, did I? Well, I tried it again last night to make dessert for missionaries' dinner tonight AND May Day cupcakes for a couple of girlfriends. I just made a regular boxed cake mix following the regular directions, but I added a cup of sour cream and a package of pudding. So far I have only done chocolate-to-chocolate, but I want to try banana pudding to yellow cake next. If you try any interesting concoctions, let me know!

As for me and my house, we will take a nap [just fixed up all the new Primary class rooms with Aunt Jen's help, and I started the crock pot with a green-chili beef roast to make shredded beef tacos for said missionaries tonight--still had a headache, deserve a nap!]

Overheard

this morning at 7:52am

[Heidi and Addie were playing with stuffed animals on the stairs--it was Heidi's "Pet Shop" and Addie was shopping for a "polite pet"]

Addie: Oh, I like this poodle!
Heidi: Look, he can do tricks!
Addie: Oh, that trick is NOT polite!
Heidi: Well, how about this kitten! She's sweet, and she does LOTS of polite, AND she can walk backward on her tip toes!

***
I wish Heidi would do lots of polite!

THAT'S What I'm Talkin' About

I've been singing this song in my head all day!

I am so excited for next weekend! We will be surprising our children BIG TIME (so SHHHH!!!) with a 5-day vacation (a super deal with airfare, car, discount Mundo del Mar* tickets--all 5 of us for $600! plus my hotel discount, we're lovin' it). And by surprising, I mean not telling them ANYTHING until we are AT the Airport for their first plane ride...and then making them figure out where they are going with some fun clues presented by the flight attendants. I know, super fun, right? We will fly from Bozeman to Las Vegas, then drive to San Diego on Sunday. Then on Monday we'll go to Sea World in the morning and to the temple/ La Jolla in the evening. On Tuesday we'll do another day at Sea World, then celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Old Town San Diego. Wednesday is beach day, and afterward we will drive back to Las Vegas. We fly home to Bozeman on Thursday. HOW FUN IS THAT!?

So next weekend, it's SO LONG, SUCKAS...this spring snow has got to go! The projected high temperature for the entire coming week is on Saturday, just before we leave, and it's a whopping 49 degrees. We'll probably come home to an 80-degree house, though, cuz that's how Mutha Nature rolls in Montana.

Gotta bail...have a happy Sabbath!

*Mundo del Mar is our code word for Sea World San Diego

Silver White Winters That Melt Into Springs...

When they said "Rain turning to snow" yesterday, I had no idea they meant "20-hour white out!" But just as quickly as it began, the blizzard is gone leaving a foot of snow in its wake. I braved the road to Bozeman round trip TWICE in the past 24 hours (once for Stake Auxiliary Training Meeting, once to replace the $3K battery in the Civic at the Honda dealership) and it was pretty fun, actually. This is how the pass looked out my car window this morning.
Three hours later, it was sunny and clear and snow was steaming up from the asphalt. I took a picture of one of my fave houses in Bozo.

This is the street of said house. It doesn't capture the fabuous canopy-effect of the snowy mature trees, from which blobs of soggy spring snow pelted my car for a mile.

On the way out of town, past a few open fields on Bozeman Trail, there's this great house I'd love to live in. It's only 19 miles away from Livingston...

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So the car is fixed (on Honda's tab--thank heaven the battery broke under warranty cuz that's an expensive repair) and we had a fun time gearing up for summer fun at Target. I will never, no never, get over the awesomeness of Target. Genius on every aisle (I just noticed they are selling Boots stuff in the cosmetics section--I loved that place over in Europe--Fancy a trip to the apothecary?). Their buyers are brilliant. Daddy is taking us to dinner at Fiesta en Jalisco tonight, bless his heart. I'm too tired to cook, so it's tortilla soup and churros.

It's snowing sideways again.

Yesterday while Rich was home from work, he watched a tivoed Sesame Street with James. This segment came on starring Miles (the son of Susan and Gordon) singing a hip-hop song about the number one while wearing a large blue shirt and a sideways baseball hat.

[Did you know that Miles is TURK'S brother in real life? Fer Real!]

As Miles began his song, James sighed to himself and said, "I like Cody." Rich exploded with laughter when he realized that Miles reminded James of Cody. Here is another song by Miles for your hip-hop enjoyment and HERE is Cody.

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Today after school Heidi got to open a late-but-oh-so-appreciated Birthday Box that came in the mail...
What a cute elephant blanket!

And another sweet, fluffy elephant.

That was a bright spot on an otherwise bummer afternoon

(we can't play on our new swings because of the blizzard...shucks)

Sunny Tuesday & Keepin' It Real

Yesterday I spring-cleaned the fridge and restocked it with great sale stuff from Albertson's. The girls were so excited about all the fresh fruit, they ate a whole cantaloupe and some strawberries for after-school snack!
YAY! Summer fruits are on the way!
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After work, Daddy helped Addie practice riding her bike


She obviously inherited my kinetic intelligence, but at least she is learning before she's 8!

(Discussing the braking system on the cul de sac next to our house)

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And now for a photo essay I like to call

KEEPIN' IT REAL:

snapshots of my everyday world

There's a headless bear carrying soaps on the back of the toilet in my guest bathroom.

This is what Mr. Bear used to look like. Poor bear.

We scored a great $5 lamp for our basement family room at Walmart this weekend.

I am so cheap--there is nothing in this photo over $10 except the ottoman cubes (everything--even the frames--was a bargain, homemade, or a hand-me-down).

Guess who took the last bath in my bathroom?

Cowboys shop at Costco.