Monthly Archives: February 2012

When I was nineteen I spent a semester living in Moscow.

And one time we went on a grand trip through northern Russia, across the border to Helsinki, Finland where this story begins, and then across the Baltic to Stockholm, Sweden, where this story ends.

Now, we start in Helsinki, where we arrived at five am after an overnight bus ride from St. Petersburg. Six of us girls stayed with an LDS family who lived outside the city. We spent the day in Helsinki, shopping, seeing the sights, etc. But when it came time to return to Ruska’s house (Ruska was the teenage girl of the host family), someone had the bright idea that we should all dye our hair matching shades of wild red. Michelle opted out, but the rest of us bought our own two-week-wash-out in the shade of our choice.

Now really, if your house was invaded by six foreign teenage girls, would you want them all in your bathroom, dying their hair? I cringe at the memory of this, but still, we did it, and had a grand time in doing so.

In the process of dying our hair red. Silly girls!

And our coifs were wild and furious crimson by morning.

Well, the day or two after that we caught the overnight ferry over to Stockholm, where we planned to stay at the LDS Temple Hotel, the accommodations made for the members of the church who travel from around Europe to do their temple work. It was the nicest hostel at the best price available to us – but if we were going to take advantage of such an economic boon, we’d better do some temple work while we were at it.

And so we each brought our recommends to do baptisms for the dead, and spent the first morning in the Stockholm temple doing the work.

We visited with the workers of the temple, each were missionaries, most from the United States, called to serve and work here at the temple in the Sweden. I am relieved that they were American, for you can excuse the thoughtlessness of your own culture a little easier at times, and I hope they forgave us! Two or three girls had been in the font when someone mentioned that the water was looking a little pink. Then the girls took a closer look at their jump suits, and noticed a reddish tinge. And then the towels were noticed, bright bright red with the rinse of our hair dye!

We all panicked at our thoughtless faux pas. But I remember the lovely temple matron chuckling and telling us not to worry, for hurray! We had given the women something to do that afternoon when the temple was empty, they would wash all the linens and empty and refill the font.

Oh, good grief, we were hair brained – literally.

And months later when I came home to the US of A, my sisters greeted me at the airport with bright red hair of their own, and even my dad had dyed his greys “just a little” to make good fun of me.

I’m going to try and write down memories I have – for my little lovelies who always ask “Tell me a story of when you were a kid . . .”

I’m going to call them “Tales for Tuesdays” – and will try to write one a week . . . unless of course something else happens. In which case I won’t.

You can read all “Tales for Tuesdays” here.

At Christmas Everett still wasn’t talking much. He had maybe a handful of words, but they were small, and used irregularly.

By the end of January he was a little chatter box with a vocabulary as wide as his grin (very wide, don’t you know).

Some of my favorites:

“Me’s” – aka – mine

“Aah-Ya” -aka – Olivia, so cute because my nickname from my brother when I was little was “Aah Ya”

“Nah-nee” -aka- Calvin, although yesterday Ejo concentrated very hard and said “Calvin” for the first time.

He has no problem saying “Andrew” or “Everett”

The other day I was out running errand without kiddos  (a rare experience for me). It wasn’t until my errands were done and I was pulling back into the neighborhood that I realized I was still listening to the kid’s Veggie Tales pirate soundtrack . . . and singing along. And when I realized the kids were gone and I could change the music to something more – mmm – age appropriate, I felt a little hesitant . . . . because I like the Pirate CD. I am the very model of a modern major general . . .

Feb. 16, 2012

My children have never believed in the whole “kiss it better” thing. I tried to convince Olivia, and I probably even tried with Calvin, that my kisses would make those bonks and bruises be okay. But it never took hold.

But this morning Everett bonked his head on the chair. In his tears he came to me and told me “Kiss it!”

And so I did. And the tears stopped.

And I felt like “YES!” I finally get to be a super hero.

Feb. 17th 2012
Today Olivia and I were cleaning the bathroom together, and I was telling her about how my kids were the best thing I’ve ever done with my life. And she said:

“I know mom, you made me, and I’m your most perfect perfect perfect piece of art.”

And it’s SO TRUE.

Apparently I am the greatest artist in the entire universe.

This past week we went down to Grandma’s. The next morning Calvin produced four latex gloves that he had procured for himself while visiting. He asked me to blow them up into balloons.

And then he gave two to Everett, one to Olivia, and kept one for himself.

And that’s just like Calvin. He really is the most thoughtful and kind four year old boy I’ve ever met.

We went to the Valentines Dance last Friday, and the song “Forever Young” by Alphaville came on. Everyone has a “Forever Young” dance song. Mine was especially lame – long story short (can I make a long story short?) – it involved a ninth grade boy awkwardly telling me he didn’t “hate” me at the Christmas dance.

So on Friday night, at the Valentines Dance, when Forever Young came on, this time I asked Calvin to dance, and he said yes. And we spun in circles, and giggled, and he let me cuddle him close. And I closed my eyes to remember this dance – for this would be my new “Forever Young” story, and I finally would have a great one to tell.

And I love that Calvin will be the new center of my dance memory.

We went to the valentines dance.

And Olivia was officially uninterested in hanging out with her mamma and pappa, but was more interested in running around with her little friends. *Sigh*

But lucky for us we had Calvin and EJo to keep us company (Roo sat patiently in his car seat in the corner of the gym). At first Cal wasn’t so sure about this dance stuff, but he really got into it after a while. He even got his groove on and won a prize! (PS – Groovy, that’s his word for describing his moves). Eventually Wyatt and I took a time out to go have our picture taken at the photo booth. When I returned to find my dance partner, he was sleeping sitting up, cookie in hand. I laid him on my lap and enjoyed the festivities from the sideline for the rest of the evening (the last three songs).

It was such a good time, and thank you Cal for being my sweet heart dance buddy.

This summer will be “The Summer of No Pants” – where my days will be spent in comfortable, soft, sweet skirts.

I was so excited I made my first one!

I made a pattern out of newspaper – reminiscent of my mother.

And then cut and sewed and cut and sewed this melony-pink tulle skirt.

Me likey.

“You forgot the question mark” was the first thing he said when he saw it.

“No I didn’t. It’s more of a statement than a question.”

On Monday they spent the afternoon preparing our valentines – signing their names, over and over and over again, each one for a different friend.

For Family Home Evening we made sugar cookies, and decorated them with pink frosting. Each love frosted their own. Everett had patience for only one shmear and set about eating his. Olivia made sure the frosting covered all the cookie real estate in neat even strokes. And Calvin spread his thick, thick and globby.

The next morning, with Olivia at her kindergarten party, valentines autographed from the day before, a special treat for her teacher to boot, and Cal and eJo happy to play with Ila who came to visit, we set about making more cookies. Because who doesn’t need more cookies?

Chocolate chip to be exact, Wyatt’s favorite.

Later, Olivia, Calvin, Everett (and Ila) went to a neighborhood valentines party. More signed goodies, more treats coming home! During the break I took Wyatt a little gift of home made cookies. We promised no valentines – but home made definitely does not count. (And then he broke the treaty and brought me home tulips. Two Lips – it makes me smile).

And then the little loves finished their party, and home we went for a sugar crash. Daddy came home early to play, and with a little dinner in our tummies, we set out to give valentines to all the friends in the neighborhood we had missed.

And when it came bed time the kids went to sleep without a peep, happy and high on sugar, exhausted on activity.

That was Valentines Day 2012.

tonight i am typing on my laptop – something i try to avoid ever since calvin got a hold of it last spring and busted some keys – including the all important ‘shift’ – there will be no capitalization tonight. i may go back later to try and fix it. then again, i may not.

ten years ago today wyatt and i were celebrating our first valentines together by getting on an airplane and flying off to china. salt lake city was the toast of the world, hosting the 2002 winter olympics, and we were leaving the glowing hulabaloo for an unknown adventure in the heart of asia.

that morning i handed wyatt a brown paper bag – my first valentine to him – a few of his favorite candy bars for the flight, and a baseball, signed by yours truly.

and we spent the rest of the day in the air – watching the map on the in flight navigator as we climbed northward along the pacific coast, over alaska, across the bering sea and down the asian side of the pacific. it was very boring.

which sidetracks me to a list:

seas traversed in one way or another:

the bering sea
the baltic sea
the red sea
the dead sea
the mediterenean sea
the sea of galilea
the adriadic sea
the caribbean sea

interesting.

well, there should be more to this story than there is. but really, all of our very first valentines day was spent on airplanes to beijing. how romantic is that?

oh, don’t you worry, there will be a post tomorrow about our tenth valentines. it’s much more interesting.

Because seriously, when was the last time you wrote one?

Seriously, do tell.

Solve the mystery, learn more.

I am so tempted to explain myself in this painting – to tell you all the things I was thinking when I painted it -

But I’ve decided part of letting myself do art in 2012 is not feeling guilty or ashamed of the fact that I’m not the most fabulous artist in the world.

I’m just going to let it be what it is.

So – January Painting