Been a bit busy...

This year has been so, so, so, so, so busy!  I've neglected my blogging.  I've neglected my digital scrapbooking.  I've neglected my family.  I've neglected my home.  So, what have I been doing?

Well....as part of the requirements for the University of Utah Graduate School, I had to take two consecutive semesters of full time coursework.  So, in Spring and Fall, I was full time in the PhD program.  It was three classes a semester...which doesn't sound like a lot, but at the PhD level, it is a ton of work.  I learned a lot, and I survived.  I'm done with that now, and I look forward to getting back to a bit more of a "normal" schedule for this year.

I'm taking one course in the spring, and trust me, that will seem like a cake walk after this past semester.  For those who want to know "how much longer I have," that is a difficult question to answer.  It's not like being an undergrad where you have 124 hours to complete and a relatively regimented curriculum.  In a PhD program, you must complete your coursework (5 more classes to go for those who are counting).  You then must study for, take and pass your comprehensive exams.  I will study for several months.  After that, I have to write a dissertation proposal and finish my research and writing for my dissertation.  That is the great unknown...depending on the research topic.  So, I'm shooting for 2015 or 2016.  I know that seems like forever, but it's not.

I have a wonderful job that is always throwing me new challenges and opportunities.  I have three teens still at home.  I have a lovely grandbaby.  I have a lot to keep me busy in addition to the PhD work.

Did I mention that I am on three volunteer boards (like I don't have enough to do!)  I was honored to be asked to sit on the Alumni Board of Directors for my alma mater, Bradley University.  This requires regular travel back to Illinois for board meetings.  The board is a wonderful group of people who really care about the university, and it's a great honor to be a part of it!  I also work with my local PTA...one of my favorite, favorite jobs in the whole world.  I'm also on our Council level PTA (one level up from local).  This is more administrative than anything else, and all in all, it doesn't take too much time.  My season heats up with PTA next month because I'm the Legislative VP and our legislature meets for 10 crazy weeks starting in January.  I'm amazed at how accessible our state legislators are.  I'm sure there is more to come on that front.

My husband and kids have tolerated me this past year.  Let's just say that sometimes I don't manage stress well.  I researched and wrote SO MUCH this year.  I haven't added them up yet, but I know that I cranked out well over a hundred pages (probably closer to 150 pages) of original work.  That is a lot.

In addition to my academic, volunteer and work stuff...we had a new grandbaby born.  We took a major family vacation to Arkansas and Tennessee (WAY FUN!), Dean and I went to Jamaica for my dear friend's wedding, Dean and the kids went on a road trip to New Mexico. Dean's grandpa passed away.  Dean's mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and has been battling that.  Dean was released from the bishopric.

Yes, we have been busy.  But through it all, we are so very, very blessed.  We know the origin of all our blessings is our God!  We are so thankful for our temporal and spiritual blessings!  We're looking forward to a blessed new year!

Tulip Festival

On Saturday, we loaded up in the van and headed to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point.  It was an overcast day.  We've had a colder than normal spring so the tulips hadn't all "hatched" (as Elle would say), but it was still a good time...except that I sprained my ankle.  And did I mention that we walked a mile and half?  Oj!  Still a fun time!

Where does a genie live?

Tonight we were at dinner at Mimi's Cafe. I had a Cobb Salad with blue cheese dressing (on the side). They delivered it in a container that looked like this: Probably prompted by the shape of the container, Dom asked, "Where do Genie's live?"

I said, "In a bottle?" Because whenever I think of Genies, I think of "I Dream of Jeannie" and something that looks like this:Dom: "Not a bottle!" "Like that (pointing to the salad dressing thing)! A Genie lives in something that looks like a gravy boat." (still pointing at the salad dressing thing) Click HERE to see previous confusion related to a gravy boat.

Me: "Ah, yes, I genie can live in a lamp" (And why I'm pretending like genies exist is an entirely different matter).
She thought we meant a lamp like this:

Or perhaps this:

Since we have one of these up in our house from Thanksgiving to New Year's each year.

We then tried to convince her that something that looked like this:

is actually considered a "lamp."

Me: "Have you heard of the Parable of the 10 Virgins?"

Dom: "No."

Me: (Pointing at Dom) "One." (Then pointing at Elle) "Two."

We had an interesting conversation about oil lamps. For whatever reason, Dom hasn't seen an oil lamp (or if she has, she doesn't remember seeing one). We don't have them at home. My mom used to have them. We had the colored oils and everything. I don't know why we ever used those things. I can't imagine the fire hazard that they were. I don't remember seeing one after about 1979 (or about the time that we got our first CB Radio.....connection? correlative? hummm?)I LOVE having these times with the girls. I'm so glad that Dominique (at the age of 12) still asks questions like "Where does a genie live?" I love that it leads us down unexpected paths of conversation and exploration. When we eat at home, we actually sit around the table and talk; some of my best conversations with the kids happen there. Tonight it was at a restaurant table. This is the fun stuff of life.

Where does a genie live? Why of course, a genie lives in the imagination of a child.

The things children fear....

Tonight I watched the Nightline special on the "memorial" meeting that took place in Tuscon tonight. (I watch Nightline almost every night.)

Dan Harris did a segment with school children who had written letters to Gabrielle Giffords. Kids are so cool. They tell you exactly what they are thinking. A young boy said that he was afraid the the shooter might know where his classroom was (implying that he might be able to hurt people in his class). Dan, of course, reassured the young boy that the shooter could not hurt anyone else.

It reminded me so much of my experience with Dominique almost four years ago when we discussed the Virginia Tech shooting. I received my Masters in Political Science from Virginia Tech in their On-line Masters Program. I'd been to campus a few times, and I decided to walk at graduation and take the whole family with me for this important occasion. Graduation happened less than 3 weeks after the 2007 shootings.

In April 2007, Dom would have been 9 and in the 4th grade.

We talked about the shooting, and we all wore our Hokie colors on the Friday after the shooting; I put that family picture in my graduation announcements.

(And my walls are gross and ugly here with no paint on them yet.)

Anyway....several days after the incident, Dom came home from our neighbor's house and she said, "Lisa said that the guy who killed all those people killed himself." She was noticeably relieved. I said, "Were you worried about going to campus, Dom?" She said that she was worried that the killer was still at Virginia Tech, and she was nervous to go to the graduation because of that. It struck me then that we need to give our kids "all" of the information...not just parts. I was surprised that she thought that!

It reminded me of the segment tonight on Nightline when a young boy feared that the killer in the Tuscon shootings could still somehow hurt him.

I'm always surprised at the information that kids cling to and what they fear. I felt badly that Dominique thought I would put her in harm's way. We talked for a long time as a family about the VT shootings, and we made a special point to pay our respects to the fallen when we went to campus.

Here is Dom signing the memorial board. She wrote, "I'm so, so sorry." Simple and heartfelt.

Here is the whole gang looking at the tributes to the 32 Hokies who died. That make-shift memorial has now become a permanent one.

Here is me and Domi after my graduation. She wanted to "wear the hat." We are by Lane Stadium.

There were 12 students in the International Studies/Poli-Sci Department who were slain. At the department graduation, they all received their degrees posthumously. It was the saddest thing I have ever been to. I cried and cried and cried and cried. It was so hard to be "happy" on that day...and I was because of my huge accomplishment, but it was tempered by the tragedy.



My kiddos learned a lot of lessons from the trip to campus. Some had to do with the tragedy. I'm also hopeful that they remember that the reason we took them all out there to see me graduate was to show them what a college graduation was like to inspire them to achieve that for themselves.

This is our dorky family looking every which way but at the camera! I love very single one of them, though!

Peaches and Herb and the Scriptures??

So, I've been on this marathon reading event with Dominique and Elle. We've been reading the Book of Mormon *most* days since Thanksgiving in an effort to finish it by the new year. We will fall short of our goal, but we'll finish it sometime in January. It is a monumental feat no matter how you look at it.

We're way past the 1/2 way mark and it's all done but the readin' for now.

Recently we read a long explanation in the BOM regarding death and resurrection. For those who are unaware, Latter Day Saint doctrine teaches that the spirit and body separate at death and that resurrection (a reuniting of spirit and body) is a gift that will be given to everyone at some future point in time (after Christ comes again....but then it gets a bit tricky because there are multiple resurrections, blah, blah, blah). ANYWAY!

When we finished reading that part in the scriptures, I asked Elle if she understood what was said, and she said, all I could think of were the lyrics, "Reunited...and it feels so good..."

I laughed and laughed and laughed. All day long, we would just start singing "Reunited...." and laugh some more.

Who knew that this chorus from Peaches and Herb:

(Chorus:)
Reunited, and it feels so good
Reunited, 'cause we understood
There's one perfect fit
And, sugar, this one is it
We both are so excited
'Cause we're reunited
Hey, hey

had a secret, second meaning!!!!

I've loved this experience in reading with Dom and Elle. I don't know if they are getting anything out of it, but I sure am!

A word about the new family picture....

Now that the Christmas cards are all sent (all but 15 of them...which I have in my bag and intend to do tonight), I felt like we could change the family picture on the blog. You will notice that Bradley is noticeably absent from the picture (and the Christmas card). This was not intentional.

We actually tried to take family pictures with him in early October, but he was late by a few hours because of a previous commitment. Those pictures were kind of cruddy anyway. Then the opportunity came up for a photo shoot in later October...on a day that you would never have imagined would have been good for taking photos. We ran with it. Unfortunately, Bradley was out of town on that day.

We are *hoping* that before he goes we can get one more family picture with him in it. I just didn't want anyone to think that we intentionally left him out. We didn't. We still love him....most of the time ;-)

The best part of a photo shoot....

I asked my friend, Daisy, if I could use these pictures from our photo shoot. With her permission, I wanted to share a few of them with you!

We took our pictures on a rainy Saturday, and we just happened to find the two hours of the day when the rain had dissipated. The leaves at the location were simply gorgeous! They were gently falling off of the trees, and honestly, it was just idyllic. I had the brainiac idea that if we could get a picture with the leaves falling in the background that it would look really cool....so Dean indulged the request, and Daisy took a bunch of pictures.

For this first attempt, he wadded up some leaves and kind of threw them at us. This is how those pictures turned out...
Clearly Elle and I are amused. Having wet leaves thrown at us was not really the effect I was going for. Here's another one where we are still laughing about it...The look on Mariah's face is classic. Next, Dean got the idea to get in the tree and "shake the leaves on us" to create the effect that I was looking for. Here is a picture of Dean in the tree.
Remember....it had been raining...so as soon as he started shaking the tree, it was really obvious that this was a bad idea. Leaves fell...and so did the left over raindrops.
This is me telling everyone to power through it and smile for the camera. Elle with closed eyes was not helpful...Riah doesn't want to get wet, and Dom just thinks it's all funny.
This is a close as we got to a picture with falling leaves. Major fail for a picture taking moment...and it definitely looked like we were trying too hard. Oh well! It was probably the most fun we had on the shoot, and it is definitely the part we will remember.

The importance of sitting down for dinner....

Even with our crazy, busy schedules...when we are all at home, we sit down to dinner. I can't tell you how important this is to our family. It is the best way to start a conversation with our kids (and we have them captive for at least 20 minutes!) We've literally had some of the best conversations that started around the dinner table.

Tonight was a classic Sunday night meal (minus Dean who is fast asleep because he has to get up at 10:15 PM to go to work). We had pot roast with carrots and potatoes. We had warm bread with butter. Elle set the table with a table cloth and cloth napkins, and to touch it all off, she lit candles. I love making the table look pretty even when it's just a Sunday dinner. Elle has become my go-to girl for table decs. We have a book that shows you how to fold dinner napkins (it was a gift, I would never buy that), and she follows the step-by-step directions to fold beautiful napkins.

I love that my girls know how to cook meals and know how to set a nice table. I love that we talk about everything from church to sex at our table. I love that we laugh, make fun of each other and play rousing games of "remember when" when we sit around our table.

The week Dean and I got married, we bought our table. It's fallen apart, and Dean has put screws in the bottom to hold it together. It's a mess of a table...the shellac is all coming off...it's had super glue permanently affixed to it; it has been gouged by sharp knives (don't ask), nail polish remover has ruined various parts of it....but it's our table. The age marks on it are all earned. We've done countless craft projects at that table. We do homework at that table (even me). That ragged, old table is part of our history.

One thing that I hope my kids will do is try their very best...as often as possible to sit down to dinner with their families (when they have them). It's so, so important.

'O Ye Mountains High

There is a goregous hym in our hymn book that I really love; it's called "O Ye Mountains High." Several weeks ago, we took a Saturday morning drive on the Alpine Loop in Utah to gawk at the beautiful fall colors. Here are a few shots from our outting.

Verse 1: O ye mountains high, where the clear blue skyArches over the vales of the free, Where the pure breezes blow and the clear streamlets flow, How I’ve longed to your bosom to flee! O Zion! dear Zion! land of the free, Now my own mountain home, unto thee I have come;All my fond hopes are centered in thee.

Verse 2. Tho the great and the wise all thy beauties despise,To the humble and pure thou art dear;Tho the haughty may smile and the wicked revile,Yet we love thy glad tidings to hear.O Zion! dear Zion! home of the free,Tho thou wert forced to fly to thy chambers on high,Yet we’ll share joy and sorrow with thee.

Verse 3. In thy mountain retreat, God will strengthen thy feet; Without fear of thy foes thou shalt tread; And their silver and gold, as the prophets have told, Shall be brought to adorn thy fair head. O Zion! dear Zion! home of the free, Soon thy towers shall shine with a splendor divine, And eternal thy glory shall be.

Verse 4. Here our voices we’ll raise, and we’ll sing to thy praise, Sacred home of the prophets of God. Thy deliv’rance is nigh; thy oppressors shall die; And thy land shall be freedom’s abode. O Zion! dear Zion! land of the free, In thy temples we’ll bend; all thy rights we’ll defend; And our home shall be ever with thee.