Annie Turns 4 and Dreams Really Do Come True

Is it good for a four year old to get every single thing she wanted in the whole wide world for her birthday? That was Annie this year. Emma and Grandma Dennis both gave her My Little Ponies. Grandma McCombs gave her real money! And Joe's girls sent her modest, gorgeous Barbie dresses. We bought her a nightgown which was hard to find in November. Stores are moving to footie pajamas. Kohl's came through for me, though. She wanted a princess nightgown, but it was $35! I was flabbergasted at that price. Instead I got her a cheaper one that came with a matching nightgown for a doll. Cute, right? 

But birthdays are about more than gifts. They are about cake, too. I'm just going to say that this year's wasn't that tasty. But it looked cute-ish. She wanted another rainbow cake, but I'm still recovering from that experience. Notice the new carpet in the pictures below.

Annie is still an awesome person. She is starting to ask me things like, "What does surround mean?" She learns so quickly and thinks about the world a lot. This is a fun age.

When It Floods, It Barfs

Sundays have been kind of crazy around our house lately with Aaron attending the singles' ward. The last Sunday in October was especially crazy because I went visiting teaching and was visit taught as well. We were also invited to dinner at a fellow bishopric member's house. Right in the middle of a game called "Word on the Street" (which was really fun, btw), we heard our phone buzzing with a call. We ignored it since we were engaged in a fierce battle. But when the phone rang again, we decided to answer. That's when the craziness of Sunday really began.

It was Heather on the phone telling us that the water heater had broken, and our living room was flooding. Aaron and Dave went to our house to help. I waited at our friends' house with the kids. About 45 minutes later, Dave came home, and I went home with the kids. All of our stuff had been  moved out of our living room into our bedroom except for the couches which the bailers smartly put on top of paint cans.

The flood was discovered when Heather and Jason couldn't get any hot water. They came downstairs to ask us about it/to look at the water heater, and Heather heard gushing sounds from behind our door. We got call #1 around this time. Heather and Jason got their shopvac out, but it was small and not doing the trick. So Heather went and muscled her way into a closing Home Depot and bought a big shopvac. Then Dave and Aaron arrived and the cleanup continued. By the time I came home, things were under control, but the carpet was still completely soaked. Aaron skimmed over the carpet with a cookie sheet to wring out the water while I vacuumed. That seemed to help, but not enough. Heather's friend with some sweet connections brought over two industrial sized fans. We left those running all night.

Speaking of night, the fun did not stop there. Scotty slept downstairs in his room while the rest of us slept upstairs in Emma's room. We had the baby monitor upstairs to be able to hear Scotty. He woke up around 2 am saying, "Drink.'' When I opened the door to his room, I smelled a strange smell. "Surely, this is just a soggy carpet scent,'' thought I. But, alas, the smell was from barf, not soggy carpet. Scotty was sleeping in his own vomit and politely requesting a drink.

As awful as it is to clean up barf, there is some wonderful bonding that happens when you are cleaning up your own child's barf in the middle of the night. Your little child is so sleepy and sad and dirty and vulnerable, and you're there to help them. You clean up that nasty, stinky substance because you love these kids, and they depend on you.

Cleanup was harder than usual, though, because there wasn't any running water. We couldn't turn off just the hot water, so we had to turn off all of the water to the house. So I had to clean Scotty off with wet wipes. He still had crusty barf particles in his hair all night long.

I cleaned Scotty up the best I could, and put him back to bed. I was still feeling some warm fuzzies from bonding time with Scotty when Annie started barfing upstairs. Luckily, she didn't barf on any of Emma's ponies or barbies that Annie had put around her little fake bed. We cleaned up Annie and got her settled again. It seemed that Aaron and I had just laid our head down on our pillows when we heard the tell-tale signs of Scotty barfing again over the baby monitor. And sure enough, Annie barfed one more time before the night was through. Luckily, Annie is now self-aware enough to aim for a barf bowl. So that cleanup wasn't too bad.

After Annie's last barf, Aaron and I laid down and laughed until we cried. The situation really was outrageous. Displaced flood refugees with barfing children. It was just so funny. Maybe you had to be there. Be glad you weren't there.

The next day we hung out with the Lewises who were so kind and gracious to host us. In the evening, we decided to take our crew up to Aaron's parents' house. But we had dinner with the Lewises before we left. Annie had barfed a few times during the day, but Scotty had not. Then for dinner he was being extra picky and not eating anything. The rest of us finished our food. Then Scotty started crying. I knew he was going to barf. I knew it in my mother's heart, but my brain somehow didn't get the message. I went to pick Scotty up, and he barfed all over me. I tried to catch it with my hands and my body so it wouldn't get on Heather's carpet. That attempt met with minimum success. Scotty and I cleaned in the bathroom which now had running water. When I came out, all of the barf had been cleaned up and Heather and Jason were being totally cool about us living in their house and spreading disease in our wake.

We made our exit as graciously as possible and spent the week with Grandma and Grandpa. The most exciting result of this adventure was that we got new carpet in the basement. Thank you, Aunt Kathleen! We were very excited about that. When we pulled up the wet carpet, look what we found!

My mom chose this carpet when she lived in the house 25 years ago. This is family history carpet!

So this is a faithful narrative of all our dealings with a broken water heater. 

Party Like It's 1813!

Once upon a time I read a novel called Edenbrooke. It was the most wonderful little Jane Austen-esque love story. So I read it five more times. And my wistful sighs and giggles of delight accompanied each reading. Then the author, Julianne Donaldson, wrote another book called Blackmoore. And they were having a launch party for it. So I called up my friend, Emmeline (who read Edenbrooke 12 times), and we went to celebrate the birth of a book into the world.

I'm usually not one to go to book signings. First of all, I don't really buy books. I'm all about the library. But some books I have enjoyed so much that I start to think I owe that author some money. Also, since I have been writing my own book, I am more interested in the kind of people authors are. Could I be like one of them someday? And let me tell you that writing a book is really hard. It's as hard as you imagine it would be. So I wanted to show my support for Julianne Donaldson because I think she is bringing something good into the world.

So I picked up Emmeline on a Tuesday night and drove to the bookstore where we thought the party would be. But we couldn't find any party. It was a bit anti-climatic. The ladies at the front desk told us that the party was next door at the art gallery. So we bought our copies of the book and went on over. Our letter for the signing line was H, and the line was at B, so we had some waiting to do.

We walked in the door and saw Sarah M. Eden. She writes Regency Era books just like Julianne Donaldson. She probably would have taken a picture with us, but I didn't ask because I felt too guilty about all the mean things I'd said in our book group about her Courting Miss Lancaster. It was her first book, and it was quite bad. But many of her other books were very entertaining. You should read them (Friends and Foes, Seeking Persephone). Have I satisfied karma yet? Sarah M. Eden looked adorable in her Regency clothes. I love her red hair.

Emmeline and I didn't have any Regency Era clothing, and I didn't think it was worth $15 to buy an old empire waist prom dress from DI. But we did get our pictures taken with the Regency dressed men hired to be there. They did their job well, walking around looking Mr. Darcy-ish. It reminded me of Austenland.

Do you know what crumpets look like? I don't. But I've always imagined them looking something like this.

We nibbled on them very daintily. 

And some people had awesome dresses on. The lady on the right sewed hers. It was really beautiful. 

While we were waiting, a woman came over and asked us to be interviewed for a promotional video for the book. We said yes, although we both ended up feeling like dorks for the things we said or the way in which we said them. Emmeline did great, though, with her "Ken Jennings for President" shirt.

Letter H came around, and we met Julianne Donaldson.

She's a great author and a lovely person. I hope she writes many more books.

And Emmeline is just one of the best people I know. She's always up for an adventure. I'm glad she came with me. 'Twas a highly amusing girls' night out. I say! The most fun I've had in a fortnight. Tally ho! Wot, wot!

Joe & Anya Family Visit

Several weeks ago, we went to my parents house because my brother and sister-in-law and kiddos were there visiting. We hadn't seen these lovely folks in a long time. What a wonderful family they are! It was so good to catch up with them and hear about their lives and experiences with duct-taping their children's feet:) We spent Sunday evening chatting and playing games in the yard and having a mini-pie fest.

Then on Monday we had the best FHE ever! We went to this place in the middle of nowhere called Steadman's Slides. Basically, this farmer had a hill in his back yard and decided to put huge plastic slides on the hill for the enjoyment of anyone who knows how to get to the middle of nowhere. And it was free! (Donations accepted) It was awesome--all of the fun of a water park with none of the long lines or danger. The kids just ran amuck, and we felt pretty safe letting them do so. Here are some action shots.

Note the tumbleweed: authentic Idaho-ness

And Liz took a tumble on this on and hurt her tailbone. So it wasn't completely safe--hence the waiver we all signed beforehand. 

Scotty wasn't much for the slides, but he was entertained by the watermelon, swings, and dirt.

So, literally, a good time was had by all. Joe and Anya's oldest girls were so sweet to Annie and Klara. They helped them go on the slides and always made sure everyone was included. We're lucky to have such awesome family members.

Fancy 5th Anniversary Getaway

Ever since our 4th anniversary, I have been planning wonderful things we could do for our 5th anniversary. Five years seemed momentous, worthy of a big celebration. After I toned down some of my more expensive ideas, we settled on doing some fun things in Salt Lake and going to the same bed and breakfast where we stayed on our honeymoon. Cute, right?

Mom Dennis not only said she would watch our kids, but she also helped us find an awesome deal on the room which included a gift certificate to Rodizio's. What a mother-in-law!

So I've lived near Salt Lake City for 8 years now. But there are a lot of things I haven't seen. One of those things was the state capitol building. Aaron had high school dances there, dances at which he was so glad the line for pictures was a mile long because that meant he wouldn't actually have to dance.

After the state capitol, we ate at Rodizio's. It was delicious. I'm so glad I'm not a vegetarian...except for when I agreed to eat a chicken heart. I felt a little bit dirty after that.

The only other time I've been to Rodizio's, I was a 16 year old on our laurel trip. I remember thinking the meat servers were cute. This time I thought the guy across the table from me was way better looking than any of them. (Question: Is it legal to only hire dark-skinned people with accents for a certain job? I guess women and pasty white guys can never aspire to cutting pineapple off a giant skewer.)  I was too busy stuffing my face to take any pictures.

At the bed and breakfast we got the room called "November Vintage." The room had a stained glass window which the website claimed "is truly something to experience in person." That sounded a bit melodramatic to me. But I changed my tune when I saw the sun shining through it at 7 a.m. (I couldn't sleep in even without the kids around.) It was magnificent. I took a picture...but it is truly something to experience in person. 

On Saturday we continued our touring. We parked our car next to the McCune mansion so we decided to go see if it was open. Turns out you have to schedule a tour, but we walked around and peeked in windows.

 Aaron in the backyard.

 This wild boar statue was dedicated to the mother of some children connected to this house. Seems kind of rude, but apparently the wild boar is a symbol of strength and fertility. You're supposed to rub its nose for luck.

We found some stairs on the side of the house. They weren't blocked off, so we decided to climb up. It gave me vertigo and a great view of the city.

 Another stain-glassed window.

On our way to the Church History Museum, we walked by the Church History Library and decided to go inside. We could be free-spirited like that because we were sans kiddos. Lovely! We didn't really want a tour, but somehow we ended up on a tour watching a movie that was way longer than the 12 minutes they told us it would be. But the video showed a cool story about Joseph Millett. No tour guide came back, so we escaped and got to poke around. There were some fascinating books on the shelves. We love libraries. 

So then we made our way to the Norman Rockwell Scouting exhibit at the Church History Museum. It was totally cool, definitely worth seeing. 

Then all my dreams came true, and we ate at Chick-Fil-A at the City Creek Mall. I usually have to wait until Cow Appreciation Day, but we were pulling out all the stops. 

Before going back to real life, we stopped at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. They were having a wedding, but we peeked in through the windows at the back. We didn't disturb anybody, I hope. It was a beautiful building. 

We also saw this awesome church, which happens to be an LDS one. It's right across from the capitol. I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot, so I broke it into 3 sections. 

It's a wonderful thing to have children, and it's a wonderful thing to leave them in the care of their grandparents for 24 hours. Aaron is my favorite person. It was a good day 5 years ago when I married him. It might sound sappy, but the days have been getting better and better since then.