Guess Where I Am?

I'm on Minot AFB in Minot, North Dakota! We are spending Thanksgiving with Rich's brother, Jess, and his family (Captain and Mrs. Melin, as it says on the front of the house). The drive was good, and I am pleased to report that the boring flatness of the Great Plains conitinues all the way up north! We are having a great time already--it's been fun meeting baby Matthew and introducing James Ole. And the older kids are having a blast, too. I don't know how much I'll write this weekend, but we'll be home Sunday and I will blog Addie's AWESOME birthday Pajama Party--it was sooo much fun! Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to all yall...may I refer you to last year's post for my favorite Thanksgiving thoughts.

On This Date in History...

...21 November 2001, Adeline Rose Melin

was born at Alta View Hospital in Sandy, Utah.

She's our firstborn and has taught me to be a mother, how to truly love, and has given me a reason to try to be better every day. I had hoped (for her sake) that she could have gone to kindergarten this year, but I am so glad she didn't (for my sake). She is a great helper and I love spending time with her during Heidi's naps. She is sensitive and articulate and curious and I feel so lucky to be her mom.

[photos left to right, top to bottom: first bath 11/21/01; 3 months old; First Birthday babydoll with Grandma Melin; Second Birthday Pumpkin Pie; at 3-years-old with Heidi; Fourth Birthday Cowgirl Hat; Addie at almost five]

a favorite old song:

"She lives in this house over there

Has her world outside it

Scrapples in the earth with her fingers

and her mouth

She's five years old ...

Today is her birthday

They're smoking cigars

He's got a chain of flowers..."

-the sugarcubes, 1988

The Blustery Day

It's a windy, cloudy fall-ish day in Livingston. Heidi is down for her nap, James is almost ready to go, and Addie is watching "The Great Mouse Detective" on VHS, which she borrowed form Grandma Melin's library last night. I tried to post a short post last night, but the power kept going out (because of the wind), so I gave up.

We went to the library today, which is no longer any fun with all three kids. They can neither stay in the Children's Section nor can they obey the rules the whole time. James gets fussy, Heidi gets noisy and gets lots of books off the shelves or tries to run upstairs. Addie is the only one who really gets the concept (because we have been going there for four years and she knows how to be quiet and find the books she likes). She found a couple of fun books, two of which we read for pre-school time today. I chose two out of the enormous pile Heidi made, and we came home and made paper Jack-in-the Boxes ("boxen?") for "J" day (our regular pre-school was cancelled due to most of the kids having a GI virus or chicken pox).

My dryer is not heating up, so the clean, wet clothes are mounting. Figures it would quit a week after we drop $1400 for a new computer. Maybe I can get a new matching set with the tax return. *sigh*

I got this e-mail (as lots of people have, I am sure--it's a year old, but it's for real--I looked it up before I mentioned it) about the balsam wreaths placed on every grave at Arlington National Cemetery by the Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Maine. If you've got some pocket change to spare, you might want to donate to their project. Click here to check out their site.

And now, James would like to have a bit of a snuggle before he naps, and Addie would like me to read her a story, so I'm outta here.

Pumpkin Obsession

The first year I lived in Provo, I lived in a new basement apartment with Jeanne & Mary. A kooky married couple with scooters and chemical imbalances and lots of cats lived upstairs. On Sunday nights we would all get together (with other friends, too) to watch In Living Color and Twin Peaks. Our refreshments invariably included Pumpkin Choclate Chip Cookies from Smith's Bakery and Pepsi to drink. That's where I fell in love with Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies.

I finally found a recipe for PCC's that can take me right down memory lane. They are so good that Addie and I made 8 dozen of them and froze them for the holidays a few days ago. Because I love you I will share the recipe with you.

Mix together:
1c sugar
1c pumpkin
1/2 c oil
1 egg

Sift together and add to the above mixture:
2c flour
1/2tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon (I added a shake of nutmeg, too)
2tsp baking powder

Dissolve and add to the rest of ingredients:
1tsp baking soda
1tsp milk
1tsp vanilla
1c chocolate chips
1/2c nuts

Bake 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees on greased cookie sheets
(do not overcook--cookies are cake-like, or as I said, "just like little muffin-tops." So Top-o-the-Muffin to ya, or in other words, Happy Thanksgiving!)

Possibly the best music video ever made

I heart Weezer. To this day.

ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY...

November 13, 1944:

My Dad, James Arthur Layton,

was born in Thatcher, AZ.

He, like my James, had two adoring sisters...Happy Birthday, Dad!

We love you!

The Smartest Thing I Ever Did

This is a post I wrote on October 28th. I didn't post it because I wanted to post pictures with it, too. Well, I still haven't had time to scan the pix and it's time to just post it and add them later.
Also, have a look at my most recent post at FRAMANISCO.

Also, I wasn't kidding about needing someone to explain to me why there are not term limits for senators. WHY? And what do you think?

Today is the sixth anniversary of our engagement. It was one month and four days after we met. Rich had planned a long-weekend trip to Montana to introduce me to his family. What I thought would happen is that (a) he’d take me to Montana to meet the folks and check out the hometown, and then, if all went well, he would ask me to marry him at the big family Thanksgiving shindig the next month in SLC. I mean, we both knew that we need look no further for our mate, we just hadn’t laid out the plan.

Let me back up and tell you that we met at my birthday party, the night before I turned 29. At that party, I received the Magnolia soundtrack, which is to this day one of my favorite CDs. So I listened to it all the time, unwittingly making it the soundtrack of our courtship. I popped it in the van the other night (the only place I really get to listen to music anymore) and took a little trip down memory lane. I remembered that I was feeling a bit like damaged goods at the time as I had just finished sorting through some emotional baggage from the previous year’s broken engagement (and subsequent dysfunctional-on-purpose dating). I just wasn’t in a “relationship place.” But of course, we don’t get to choose when life throws its curve balls, so I choked up and swung my bat, so to speak. But these lyrics from Magnolia captured the mood so well:

So don't work your stuff

Because I’ve got troubles enough

No, don't pick on me

When one act of kindness could be

Deathly

Definitely

You're on your honor

Cause I’m a goner

And you haven't even begun

So do me a favor

If I should waver

Be my savior

Get out the gun

So lah-dee-dah, I’m just enjoying my weekend in Montana when Rich suggests we take a drive on Saturday morning so he can show me around Paradise Valley. We drive around and we stop for Thomas Kemper sodas at the Pine Creek Store (a cabin, really--and I still have the soda bottles in my cupboard). Then we drive up Pine Creek road to a place where you can see all of Paradise Valley, almost to Yellowstone Park. Rich tells me he’d always thought this hill would be a great place to build a house, with this great view. I start yammering on and on about how this other spot would be even better, and I am walking over there, pointing and surveying, when I notice Rich on one knee and I freeze. What’s the first lovely, romantic thing out of my mouth? “What? Not today! What are you doing??” DUH.

So he asks and I accept, and then I put the enormous ring on my finger and say, “I can’t wear this! It’s too pretty!” Seriously—my hands are still way too not-manicured to be wearing this rock. I keep waiting for somebody to shout out, “Hey, lady, why don’t you hawk that rock for a manicure and a nice outfit?” My answer would be, “What, and then break a nail scrubbing the toilet or making dinner? And then get baby barf or toddler poo on my outfit? Why would I want to do that?” It's beautiful! I call my mom and family on the cell phone, and it turns out they knew all along! I tell them about the ring and they've already seen it (Rich emailed them a picture). How's that for being out of the loop? Rich is just grinning and glowing all day long and I can't stop looking at my finger (while enjoying a really fun day with my in-laws...the next day we went to church with them and I got a taste of what I am now a part of--the Livingston Ward Family. People were hugging me and crying and congratulating us like they were all Rich's grandma's and aunts or something).

Anyway, it was a great day and we have been so happy ever since. Each time I reflect on making that decision, I remember how easy it was, and I didn’t know the HALF of what I was getting. Each time I think about it, there are dozens of new things to add to the list of why it’s a good idea to be married to Rich.

Happy Anniversary, Hun! Thanks so much for asking and for putting up with, er, I mean, growing with me ever since that happy day.

The Darlings

Here are some of the photos we took of the kids while trying to get a fun shot for Grandpa Layton's 62nd Birthday greeting...Heidi being silly, James looking worried
Heidi might be pinching James in this shot...
Adoring sisters, patient brother...
Addie kissing James
Heidi and Addie kissing James

(aww, look at that chubba-bubba!)
Heidi modeling the new nightgown she got from Grandma Becky (it was a very belated bday gift cuz Grandma Becky was TDY in April). Heidi loves the nightgown and hates to take it off!

A Bountiful Harvest of Cuteness

Autumn time has been especially fruitful for our family this year. Not only did we get our Sweet Baby James, but a nephew AND a niece, too! I know we mentioned them before, but look how they're growing...

Rich's brother Jess, & his wife Kelli welcomed their third baby, Matthew Hampden Melin, in October.

Here's TJay (the oldest) playing with Matthew.

We are so excited to spend Thanksgiving with them in North Dakota!

My brother Willy & wife Audrey had their 4th baby this month...look at Liam (#2) loving his baby sister, Maeby Lynn Post (#4).
Audrey with Maeby
Spencer (#3) with Maeby (#4).

We are excited to meet these sweet little babies over the holidays, and we love and miss their families!

Thank You

The Common Soldier
Nobody cared, when he went to war,

But the woman that cried on his shoulder;

Nobody decked him with immortelles;

He was only a common soldier.
Nobody packed in a treasured trunk

Folded uniform and officer's fair;

A knapsack held all the new recruit

Might own, or love, or eat, or wear.
Nobody gave him a good-by fete,

With sparkling jest and expensive wine:

Two or three friends on the sidewalk stood

Watching for Jones, the fourth in line.
Nobody cared how the battle went,

With the man that fought till the bullet sped

Through the coat undecked with leaf or star

On a common soldier left for dead.
The cool rain bathed the fevered wound,

And the kind clouds wept all night;

A pitying lotion Nature gave,

Till help might come with morning light —
Such help as the knife of the surgeon gives,

Cleaving the gallant arm from shoulder;

And another name swells the pension list

For the meager pay of a common soldier.
What matter how he served the guns

When plume and sash were over yonder?

What matter though he bear the flag

Through blinding smoke and battle thunder.
What matters though a wife and child

Cry softly for that good arm rent?

And wonder why that random shot

To him, their own, beloved, was sent?
Patriotic hearts, wipe out this stain;

Give jeweled cup and sword and no more;

But let no common soldier blush

To own the uniform he wore.

Shout long and loud for victory won

By chief and leader staunch and true;

But don't forget the boys that fought —

Shout for the common soldier, too.

-Author Unknown

All Honor To Her
He offered himself for the land he loved,

But what shall we say for her?

He gave to his country a soldier's life;

'Twas dearer by far to the soldier's wife.

All honor today to her!
He went to the war while his blood was hot,

But what shall we say of her?

He saw himself through the battle's flame

A hero's reward on the scroll of fame;

What honor is due to her?
He offered himself, but his wife did more,

All honor today to her!

For dearer than life was the gift she gave

In giving the life she would die to save;

What honor is due to her?
He gave up his life at his country's call,

But what shall we say of her?

He offered himself as a sacrifice,

But she is the one who pays the price.

All honor we owe to her.

-Author Unknown

[I found these poems HERE]

Even though you're all still alive (with limbs in tact), I wanted to thank all the military men I know for your service to our country. I also want your families to know that we recognize their sacrifice, too. I have three sisters-in-law who go long stretches home alone with their children while their husbands serve our country, and I want them to know that I admire them-- I don't think I could ever do what you do and hope I never have to! Thanks to all of you, and those who have gone before us, for the gift of freedom.