The Burrs In Our Saddles

I took the girls today (did I wait long enough?) to visit Santa at the mall. M1 and M2 are old pros now, but M3 is a different story. This was the 4th picture we took. The first two were pathetic. M3 was crying and didn't want to be there. The snowman she is holding was a peace offering between her and the picture-taking-lady. Finally I hopped in there because it would be the only way we'd get a picture with M3 not scrunching her face and being generally horrified. Merry Christmas. They were all dressed in red, white and black; I ruined it with my crazy sweater. Oh well. What do you do? FYI--it is really hard to get a decent picture of 4 people. Santa doesn't count because you can't see his face anyway. This particular version of Santa was not very good--not jolly in any way, shape or form. At least we got the picture, right? I hope you have all been stress-free and spread lots of good cheer.

I went on Monday and Tuesday to play with Kurt Bestor. What a blast. He was so nice--hung out with us in the green room between rehearsal and concert, ate chips with us, told jokes. Nice guy.

I never did post our Thanksgiving. The girls and I headed to my mom's house for the big day. The Father stayed home--he enjoys not having to be tied down. He went to the ranch, drove around in the backhoe, moved some rocks, and generally enjoyed not having to report to anyone. He had bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns. At my mom's, we had all the good stuff. My little sister and her 2 girls and hubby came too. My little brother who my girls adore was also there. Oh yeah, and another sister that was such a graceful guest doesn't need to be mentioned any more than that. Most of us cooked, got things ready, ate, and helped clean up. We played some games, which we love to do, watched lots of football, which we also love to do (to an extent), then went outside to the playground in my mom's townhouse complex to play in the fresh air. All the pictures are burned onto a CD that I'm too lazy to get up and get. As far as being thankful, I am. For everything. My kiddos, my family...

Also at Splendid China we went to replicas of The Great Wall, since we were nowhere near it in real life, and a replica of Tibet. Fun stuff! After spending the afternoon with replicas of really important things that we really didn't see, we went to a costume show. It doesn't sound like much, but holy cow! The costumes and dancing were incredible. I think it was my favorite part of the really long week. It took me back to Folk Dancing days. I was impressed with how real those Chinese costumes looked. Amazing. After the costume show, we got McDonald's for dinner and headed back to Hong Kong. Saturday morning, we got up and went to the in-law's apartment. When we got there, M1 had been to the market with her Granddad and picked out a new pet. Since they had been to the Market first thing Monday morning, she had wanted a crab. Lucky girl. We had the crab in the blue bucket for a while, but thought he needed a little more room to roam. So obviously, we put it in the shower. ...

I just had to send this photo to the other ladies in the picture, so I thought I'd post it so you can all share in my experience. Clear back in September (why does that seem like so long ago?) the lady on the left asked me at symphony rehearsal (which is Wednesday night) if I wanted to play the Cetera concert (on Friday night). "Of course I'd love to, but let me check my schedule" was my reply knowing full well I would change whatever I needed to in order to play with Peter Cetera. So we all went down to Pocatello (it's the monstrous city in Idaho where Idaho State University is located) and I played in the Peter Cetera Orchestra. I think he actually called us the Pokie Symphony. FYI, Pokie is what all the natives of Idaho call Pocatello, so he wasn't trying to put us down in any way. Plus, he lives in Sun Valley, so he has every right to fit in with the locals. Holy cow, what fun. When we first started to rehearse, he came over to me and my stand partner (the...

I can't believe I haven't finished this yet. Wait, yes I can. On our fourth day in Asia, we got up to "leave early" aka 8:30 am to hop on our bus. Since when did 8:30 am start being the definition of early? Anyway, my FIL had rented a 15 passenger bus for all of us and three extra couples from the mission offices to go to mainland China. We arrived in China and got our stamps in our passports. I was amazed at the difference between Hong Kong (very modernized--just like a big American city, but clean) and China (just like the pictures you see in books). Not many cars, lots of fields, rice paddies, fish hatcheries, old buildings that look like they are about to fall apart, clothes hanging out people's windows...It felt like we were in a whole new world. The reason for going onto the Mainland was to go to my FIL's ancestor's village. He is half Chinese and owns (because he is the oldest living son) the home that his father lived in. The village is called Fung...

I realized not too long ago that it has been way too long since I have gone through and backed up my photos. So I just went through a whole bunch of pictures and found this one that I absolutely love, and thought I'd share with everyone. Back in August, the girls decided they wanted to do Mutton Bustin' at the rodeo. For those of you who don't know what that is, (I didn't until I met The Father) kids ride on the back of a sheep for as long as they can. Yes, that's all, but apparently it is a lot more difficult than it looks. I think the thing was rigged. My girls got sheep that ran into the shute (the big yellow fence behind them) and didn't get a re-ride. Lame. They had a blast, though and both got participation trophies. I love participation trophies...Make everyone feel good about themselves...(can you hear my sarcasm?)

The Blue Dog The shrine to the deceased. M1 and M2 in front of a statue at the Montestery. The Father and M3. The craziness at the top of the hill outside the temple. You thought I was kidding when I said there were more than 10,000 Buddhas. This is a picture of M1 in the temple at the Montestery. You may think that there is a really bad wallpaper job, but those are all individual Buddhas. About the size of M1s head. Everywhere. Floor to ceiling, which by the way is still 3 rows above where I cut off the picture. I mean 10 zillion Buddhas. M2 with a few of the Buddhas. This little man was repainting all the lips on the Buddhas. What a job. Bright red. The Father waiting at the top of the hill. Montestery in the background.

Wednesday morning (or was it Tuesday at Noon? [that's what time it was where we came from]) we all got up and hopped on the bus. Where was the destination this time? Monkey Mountain. On the way, though, we had a small (few hour) detour. We got to the bus station where we had to change busses, and decided to go and see the 10,000 Buddhas. Who would want to see that many buddhas? you may ask. I tell you what--I surely didn't get tired of looking at buddhas. (Are you supposed to capitalize Buddha each time you spell it?) And I'm pretty sure there were way more than that. Stark contrast to the Angel Moroni we could barely see driving up one of the hills. Let me back up just a little. When we decided to go to Monkey Mountain, we were instructed to bring nothing. No snacks. No drinks. Nothing. Or the monkeys might attack you. After all, my MIL was with someone who bent down to take a picture of a cute little monkey, the monkey saw the corner of a bag of something in her purse, an...

Ok, see? It has been weeks, at least, since I last posted. Now Halloween has come and gone, and I still haven't updated. Kind of like my scrapbooking attempts--I am so far behind I don't know whether I should just start where I am and work backwards, or go from where I stopped and come forward, never catching up. I think I'll go from where I am. So Halloween--Adventures in Hong Kong will return at a later date, because believe me, there were many more adventures. M1 decided that she wanted to be a 50's girl. So we went together to choose her pink felt and pre-made poodle (I wasn't about to try to put that one together myself). M2 was a witch. The same witch M1 was a couple years ago. I realized when sending emails to family with pictures I don't have one of M1 by herself in her costume. Loser Mom. Oh well. M3 was an elephant for most of the day. At one point (no picture to prove it) she was a BYU Cheerleader. Again, elephant and Cheerleader that M1 was a few yea...

So our second day we woke up and the weather was fairly decent. We could see for a ways and decided to go to The Peak. It is a big building with observation decks and you can see all of Hong Kong. We spent quite a while at The Peak taking pictures and looking. Kind of funny, but pretty. We came down back to ground level and walked around a very skinny windy road to go to the spot where Hong Kong was dedicated for missionary work. I have a picture of The Father pointing at the date (7/14/1949) but won't post it for lack of interest. We walked back up to The Peak and ate lunch at Burger King. Nothing like good old American fast food. It tasted so good for some reason. And it's funny because it even tasted the same as Burger King in America. I thought maybe the sauces would be different, but no. All the same. They did have extra things on the menu like spicy sandwiches and stuff, but for the most part, the same. When we came down from the peak, we went to the apartment to regroup....

Last night I had a dream that made me wake up crying. I find it amazing that my emotions in my dreams, which seem so wierd so much of the time, are so real. So the dream went like this. I got up to play a performance; for those of you that don't remember or know, I play violin. So I "played" this beautiful piece with my violin and a spoon, not a bow. How did I make noise? you might ask. I sang it. Someone that was listening said, "That was terrible! No, that was worse than terrible." And I woke up crying. After I dried my tears, I was lying awake and had the greatest things to say for this post. Thoughts so great that almost couldn't have been mine. Now I can't remember them. Apparently, they weren't mine.

After my first unsuccessful post of pictures of my family, I'm attempting a picture of M3. So you can all see just how adorable she is. It's a good thing or with the way she has been acting lately, she may not have survived :-).

Last week we all got the chance to go to Hong Kong and China. It was a really interesting experience. The travelling there wasn't too bad, though it started out terribly. We left on Friday, October 5, 2007 to drive to SLC to the airport. We checked into our hotel room and instead of having 2 queen beds and a crib for our quaint family of 5, there were 2 double beds. Finally, by 11 pm we had a crib (apparently borrowed from a nearby hotel) and could sort of sleep. I don't know how long it has been since any of you have slept with an almost 7 year old or a 5 year old (in a double bed) that kick and thrash all night long, but I had a hard time. Then, an hour after drifting into not-so-peaceful sleep, M3 woke up to vomit in her crib. I got her out, tried to clean her up, and waited for the next episode. Keep in mind we only had so many pjs for the trip and now M3 was down 1; I wasn't about to pack vomitous pjs in one of our 2 suitcases to give everything else that oh-so-pleasan...

Well, I've finally done it. I've hopped on the BlogWagon. I have waited and waited for a few different reasons. 1. I don't think I have anything of interest to post--who wants to read about me except the crazies on the internet who just want to find my kids and do whatever they want with the information I provide? 2. I am so in-eloquent (see what I mean?!) in what I want to say. 3. I have no great epiphonies or thoughts that just must be shared. In fact, I don't have many epiphonies or thoughts. Huh. 4. I am so inconsistent. I'll start this blog and then only post once a year. How interesting for those reading it. Or, I'll start off really well but then lose momentum. That's how it is with a lot of the things I do--cleaning, laundry, parenting, you name it. 5. I'm so technically retarded that it will be (already has been) frustrating since I can't do what I want to do with this wonderful blog. You may say, "What is there to not be able to do? It...