It's a Small World

I went to my brother's wedding this weekend in the Provo area. It was so nice to catch up with so many good old friends. One of my good friends going back to the Marine Corp days recently moved back to Logan again. In her blog I could see her house was close to my cousin's house. I saw my cousin at the wedding so I asked if they were in the same ward. Yes! not only are they in the same ward, but e and Kaylee are in the same class at school!! And they had never made the connection that they both knew me. Later I was reflecting and realized that I had actually tried to introduce these two friends years ago when we all lived in Logan. I thought e and Kaylee would get a kick out of this. Here's a picture from Halloween 2005.

ABC Tag

Thanks Erin! I read more than I post. I'm finally getting to this one.

A-Attached or Single: Attached
B-Best Friend: All my friends are The Best
C-Cake or Pie: Pie
D-Day of Choice: Sunday
E-Essential Item: prayer
F-Favorite Color: Sky blue
G-Greatest Accomplishment: I'll think about this one
H-Hometown: Bountiful, UT
I-Indulgences: staying up late
J-January or July: July
K-Kids: Have four we want more, just not right away
L-Life is incomplete without: My family
M-Marriage Date: May 26, 2001 (sadly, I had to look it up, but I guessed right!)
N-Number of Siblings: 5
O-Oranges or Apples: both (in season)
P-Phobias or Fears: child abuse
Q-Quotes: Love them! Here's one of my favorite mantras: Don't give up what you want most for what you want at the moment.
R-Reason to Smile: The world is beautiful.
S-Season: Fall!!! Even in the south where the colors aren't as vibrant I love harvest time.
T-Tag 5 friends: I'll only tag two Camille and Abby
U-Unknown Fact About Me: I was in the Hill Cumorah Pageant twice.
V-Very Favorite Store: Goodwill (I got a gorgeous, pristine, three foot princess castle there today for five dollars!)
W-Worst Habit: Not hanging up my towel (oops, I always forget.)
X-X-Ray or UltraSound: UltraSound
Y-Your Favorite Food: Really good bread
Z-Your Zodiac Sign: I can never remember maybe Gemini

Moved Out

We packed up and moved out. So now we're in a new state. I wont mention which one except. . . o . . that it's the only state that says "hi" in the middle. Of course in Hawaii they say Aloha. I'm starting to learn Air Force lingo. I learned chemistry lingo in college. I learned Marine Corp lingo during our time there, and now it's Air Force lingo. We are in TLF after our PCS from OTS and we're waiting for our house to close. (Translation: we're in a Temporary Lodging Facility after a Permanent Change of duty Station from Officer Training School.)

So I met a man who had retired from the Air Force. He said when Marines greet one another they say "U- rah" (this is true.) But when Airmen greet each other they say "Is there a jacuzzi in this hotel?" So the Air Force is supposed to be the good life. But it looks like he'll be traveling A LOT. They told him to sign up for all frequent flier/driver/guest programs he could then he can cash in when he finally gets a chance to take leave.

I'm Back

I was just going to make a quick post. Then I noticed a few new comments. So I thought I'd explain my long absence. We went on vacation for two weeks at the end of August. When we got back our computer was down. It needed a new power supply. We got it back the night before I left to pick up Tyler and then here we are back and with a huge moving "To Do" List.

I finally got the garden picture posted that I took the beginning of August. We stopped by today and got a ton of tomatoes. What was that recipe for tomato soup again? Anyone?

Oh, and I remember I wanted to explain my comment to Arianne about EC (Elimination Communication). I think the cloth diapers is sort of what I was thinking of. I have come to understand that people have different views of what "EC" actually is. I like my sisters mantra of "Don't marinade the baby." I think of EC as a different way to look at diapering.

Where I live they have mandatory recycling and I realized what a huge percentage of my non-recycleable waste was diapers. I was surprised and wanted to reduce it, but I didn't really want it all to end up in the laundry. So what is your other option? Reduce the number of diapers you need. I never even thought to take a baby to the toilet. I'm not 100%, but I like to reduce the number of diapers I use even if it is just a few. I haven't taken the plunge to cloth diapers yet, but I'm starting to get serious about it. I wish cloth diaper companies were more agressive on marketing. It would make it easier to choose a brand. Suggestions?

Graduation

Graduation Parade. You can see T pretty well third row in the middle.

Pinning on. He's now a 2nd Lieutenant.

Just when you think it will never happen it does. It was weird to walk around the OTS complex (training school) and think that is where he was all that time. It was also fun to meet all the people I kept hearing about. Everyone was really nice and they all talked about how they were glad they got to go through with T. He makes things fun for everyone.

We were really glad that E seemed to remember Dad. She was really a daddy's girl. When we got together with T's family she would check out his brothers. She'd study their faces as if she was trying to decide if it was dad. She was a little shy the first day, but now a week later dad is #1 again.

Now if we can just figure out how to get to our first duty station by the 8th we'll be good to go.

Orders Are In

We finally got orders!!! We report October 8th. We'll be in the same little midwest town as KarateMommy and the McConnells. I'm pretty excited to see our friends from WSV again. Moving so much is hard. It is significantly softened by having friends there to greet us.

I just finished a post about our garden too. I'll have to drag my camera along next time we go out to the garden.

Here's some pictures of the kids. I've always been a sucker for ice cream trucks. I remember chasing them down the street when I was growing up and spending whatever money was in my piggy bank to buy two Nutty Buddy bars. One for me and one for my buddy Tiffany.





Here's some pictures of E at 7 months.

The Parable of the Hoe

I love to garden. One of my favorite primary songs is “The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden,”

1. The prophet said to plant a garden, so that’s what we’ll do.
For God has given rich brown soil, the rain and sunshine too.
And if we plant the seeds just right and tend them carefully,
Before we know, good things will grow to feed our family.

2. We’ll plant the seeds to fill our needs, then plant a few to spare,
And show we love our neighbors with the harvest that we share.
Oh, won’t you plant a garden, too, and share the many joys
A garden brings in health and love to happy girls and boys!

Words and music: Mary Jane McAllister Davis, 1925–1988. © 1982 IRI

Recently I took my four young children (ages 5 and under) to the garden. We really went into town to buy groceries. But I decided we should at least drop by the garden and pick the beans and cucumbers and see if the corn is starting to get ripe. We have done this before. I’ve learned that I have about 40 minutes to an hour before the kids have had enough gardening.

We arrived to find the weeds on the pathway flanking our plot had been mowed down. Our knee high (and higher) weeds growing with our vegetables were exposed! I quickly picked the ripe beans and cukes. Then I started in on a mad dash of yanking out the tallest of the weeds. I was focusing on the weeds around productive, non-vine vegetables and around the edges of our plot where there was a clear line of division between the weed-less neighboring plots and our towering plot of weeds.

As I rounded the bend behind the corn I noticed that my garden neighbor seemed to have weeded some of the larger weeds in our plot. How nice! Then a woman pulled up in a car. I could see she had her own young children with her. She said “I was doing that all summer.” I thought she was referring to pulling the weeds at the edge of our the plot. She must be the kind neighbor. But no, she meant bending down and tearing the weeds by hand. “I spent 5 hours a week pulling out weeds. Then someone gave me a tip and I went to the store and bought one of these.” She then pulled her weeder hoe from the car. “It takes them all out” she explained. Then she demonstrated how to weed with the hoe. It was like a weed broom. Instead of pulling each and every weed, it swept them all out with easy strokes.

I was amazed and somewhat embarrassed. “I have one of those in my car” I stammered. “I thought it only worked on small weeds.” “I had no idea, thank you for showing me.”

How foolish I had been and how grateful I felt. Her kindness truly blessed me. I pulled out my weeder hoe and began “sweeping” out the weeds. I had bought the hoe at the beginning of the season because I knew that’s what my dad used for weeding. But I only remember him using it on small weeds. I thought I wouldn’t work on the big ones. Their roots were probably too deep. Perhaps I wasn’t getting the entire root, but it was much more effective that what I had done previously.

I thought this is really an analogy for spiritual life as well. We know there are weeds that need to be pulled. Weeds are wrong choices that lead to habit that lead to tradition that lead to culture. The weeds stunt our growth, spread disease and can even choke the life out of our plants.

We may wish to keep weeds out, but we just feel it is hopeless. We may feel that the weeds around us shelter our weeds from the world’s view and make it somehow okay. Hey, everyone has weeds. I wont get a red stake and have my plot tilled under because that plot over there is *way* worse than mine.

But in truth, no matter how we rationalize, weeds are not good for our garden. Then some kind person may happen by and share their knowledge. They take the time to leave their own family and show us how to use a tool that will help us rid our garden of weeds. For some perhaps we will have to go invest in a new tool. In my case is that I already had the tool. I learned in my youth it was a tool for weeding gardens. It has been in my car everyday since I planted the garden. I’ve only used it once and didn’t understand the full potential it held for freeing my garden from weeds.

Thank you to a friend at the community garden. You have blessed my life. There are still weeds in my garden. But you have given me hope.