Quigley Quibbler November 2011 - will flesh it out whenever I get around to these blog posts.

Camping with Jacob's and friends
Yard work at Jane's (ODD JOBS FOR TRIP)
Babysitting at Fielding's
Organizing at Bucheli's
AMY WEDDING RECEPTION!
Book Group at our place
Twilight
Bountiful Baskest!!
Music practice
Dad in town - River walk
Birthday! - and awesome gifts
Cozy night with Jacob's
Crafting presents

My Sweet Visiting Teacher Made me this DELICIOUS lemon  cake. 

Quigley Quibbler October 2011

These past months have flown by. October Started out with General Conference for our church. We get to hear from our Prophet and other apostles and church leaders. It's an event for sure roughly 7 hours of instruction over three days, but it's so uplifting; we have made it a part of our culture to participate via the internet every 6 months when another General Conference happens. This time we met up with a group of friends at the park and played Ultimate Frisby and had a pot luck breakfast and then we went to another friend's house to watch conference online. The girls got to play and between sessions we had pancakes and pasta. The next day was another session of Conference and we went to our frisby-in-the-park friend's house for another pre-conference pot luck breakfast. So yummy. Our hostess's birthday was that day so we all sang her happy birthday before we left to our homes to watch conference again. I love going to church for Conference, but it has not happened yet.

I have been bitten by the crafty bug (thank you Pinterest.com) and really wanted to do a craft. I got some girlfriends together and we crafted magnet boards one evening. It was really fun. I'm using mine in the bathroom now to store my makeup. Everything is magneted and easy to find. It definitely was not easy to navigate my makeup before.

Now for Pictures! They all have captions and should be self explanitory. Enjoy!

Pumpkin varieties. Crazy!

Two pirates and um, I wore my wedding dress.

Four Generations!

Family Pictures! Princesses and they guys.

Family Picture where Jaedyn is smiling...

Manly men. They're very serious.

Miles and pumpkin carving.

Grandpa Ogzewalla chilling. He is one of my favorite people. 

Jaedyn hanging out at Grandpa's house.

Scott and Jaedyn hanging out at home. Eating cheese, I think.

The pumpkin 'patch' with friends. There are no pumpkin patches here... all the pumpkins are trucked in, but the corn maze and flower picking and tractor rides and petting zoos and stuff are a blast.

I made individual meat loafs... they tasted MUCH better than they photographed.

I ran another 5K. This is the only picture of the event... 

Finger painting!

Our little pumpkin. 

See the baby squirrel? It was FEARLESS!

What a cute little vermin. I happen to really like squirrels. Baby squirrels are sure tiny. 

Kinda gross... this is where the cats hang out. I cleaned it in stages. Clean,  only one pass with the vacuum attachment, and original cat fuzz.. 

She's getting taller!

Preschool field trip to another pumpkin 'patch' at the Elgin  Christmas Tree Farm. Go figure. 

Quibbler September 2011 - with pictures at the end

August and September have kind of melded in my mind. It's hard to know where one stops and the other begins...

Back in August Jaedyn and I went to Story time at the library and had so much fun that we finally went to another library and got a library card. The library system here is different than I'm used to. Each city has it's own library. Our subdivision is 'unincorporated' so we have to pay to get a library card at our local library. The next city over has no fee, so we are going there. In six months we can apply for a Tex Share card that is good at other libraries. ( This week alone I've read two novels and a handful of children's books... it's SO great to have a library again!)

Jaedyn is also into dancing. She boogies during our Music Time each week, doing the traditional toddler be-bop, but when she is bored she will sometimes do 'ballet'. This usually just consists of her balancing on one leg while she holds the other one out to the side. Like an arabesque... kinda. She has also been known to do yoga; balancing on one leg while the other foot is resting beside her knee.

The Activity Day girls (ages 8 &9) that I work with for church were asked to sing at a baptism for all the youth who had turned 8 that month. Jaedyn and I went to support them and then watched as girls from our ward (congregation) were baptized. Jaedyn watched with wide eyes. After the second baptism she turned to me and said “she went under the water!” I told her that's how we do baptisms and she told me she did not want to get baptized. Even after the girl was dressed and we all went to another room to see her set apart as a member of our church, Jaedyn kept telling me how that girl was all wet because she went all the way under the water.

We had the Garofolo's over for Family Home Evening and I read Jaedyn and Sophia a story. When the main character made a good choice they put their thumbs up, when he made a bad choice they put their thumbs down. Even since then we have discussed good choices and bad choices. Jaedyn gets a thumbs up for her good choices and when I say, “Oh, that's a bad choice” she gives me a thumbs down and, usually, stops the offending action. It's brilliant! It also makes reading the scriptures more engaging for her. I read a bit and ask her if the character made a good choice or a bad choice. We discuss it and she remembers the stories.

We had an activity for my Activity Day girls with a Zumba instructor. It was so fun! I really miss the Zumba class I took at the YMCA in Bellevue. It was our biggest turn out, we have 20 girls in our group and about 15 showed up. Jaedyn and I were in the hall getting our juice ready for the smoothies we had as a snack when the gym door opened right onto her bare foot. Her big toe was scraped and bleeding at the knuckle and a huge blood blister popped up at the end of her toe. She was a little hysterical. We got her cleaned up as best we could and she has been in socks and shoes since then. The socks hurt her toe, but she refused to have a band-aid. It was the weirdest thing. Finally I pinned her down, after she stubbed hat toe again, and wrestled a band-aid onto her. She liked it fine after that and wore it under her sock. When it came off she didn't want another one and has refused every band-aid since then.

I have been running. I started at the end of August. A group of, ridiculously skinny and equally ridiculously sweet, girls from church get together and invited me to join them. The third Saturday of September we ran a 5K. It's a re-occurring race so we plan to run it again next month, if we are not doing a mini triathlon. I was sick the night before, I even threw up, and was feeling wobbly right up until we started running. I was not in top form, but Stacy ran at my slower pace and we finished in 34:47 minutes. I placed 142 out of 189, yikes!, and averaged an 11.13 minute mile walk/ run. Seeing the scores has definitely motivated me to do better next time. It was tons of fun! (Currently I run 4 or 5 times a week and each run is either a 5K or just under, depending on the route)
I got home from the 5K and showered and we all dashed to Fiona's birthday party. It was her mom's actual birthday, but she opted to share the day and have her little one's party. We got there late, but Jaedyn got right into eating cupcakes and playing outside with all the kids. She would come back in for water or other candies (if she could sneak them, or find a gullible adult) and eventually found herself with a second cupcake! She ran outside with it and a few minutes later was bawling. She had tripped over the door frame of the Playskool house outside and biffed it. Her cupcake also biffed it. She is still talking about how she tripped and her cupcake was smashed and ruined.

We are getting a new church building sometime in October. It's right across the main street outside our subdivision, so close we could walk to church! Scott was asked to go and do a special training on the sound system in the new building. I tagged along and got to see the insides before anyone else. It's bigger than the chapel we currently meet in and beautiful. We got to poke around before and after the training (everything is automated so you just turn the system on and plug in a mike if you need it) and we even went into the attic. Way cool! Scott has the pictures we took. Hmm, I'll have to get those some day.

The Saints United Choir came to town and we got tickets to go to a show. Our neighbors were going to come too, but fell through at the last moment. Their loss! It was amazing! Gladys Knight directed the choir and sang to us and gave her testimony in a little missionary devotional. It was beautiful and Scott got to shake her hand as she left. That's cool.

The next weekend Scott went with the scouts on a camp out. He took his phone and his laptop and had grand plans to play games all night long. Some of the other campers / leaders gave him grief for not leaving all technology at home. He was surprised when everyone turned in about 10PM. He was expecting the boys to stay up late, swapping manly stories or something. But he got to talking with some of the dads and had a really great time playing mind games with one of them. He came home so excited that this other dad thinks like he does and plays the same 'what-if' games he plays in his head. They talked until 4 in the morning! Then he dutifully logged on to his game. When he saw no one else on, he logged off and went to sleep.

While that was going on, Jaedyn and I went to the house of one of the dads Scott was talking to (not the similar thinker...). Stephanie, his wife, and I made lumpias (Filipino egg rolls) and ate dinner while Jaedyn played with her kids. Actually we just made the lumpia filling. She is half Filipinoor tisae, and just knew the recipe... so I wrote down while we cooked. Then we watched Gigi while we waited for the meat mixture to drain. It was a really fun evening. I left with ½ a gallon zip lock of lumpia filling and some lumpia wraps. I eventually wrapped them at home and fried them. They were SO GOOD! I used about half the filling, so I just need to get more wraps and we can eat it again. Yum!

The Zumba instructor that taught our Activity Day girls offers free classes in her garage. When I found out I jumped on that bandwagon. I went with Jaedyn, Scott was waking up with the scouts at the campground, and Zumba-ed. She watched TV and got bored and came out and Zumba-ed with us. This instructor is different from the gal I'm used to and her steps are different, even on songs I knew. They were simpler and a little slower and I missed my peppy, enthusiastic instructor from Washington. It's fun to shake it, even if the steps are a little more conservative and simple. Afterward we talked about photography and I was inspired to take more pictures and learn more about the camera I got for Christmas.

That night Jaedyn and I went to the General Relief Society Meeting Broadcast. It was a great little meeting and Jaedyn did really really well. We socialized before hand and ate dinner at the potluck. Then we sat with friends and Jaedyn 'braided' the hair of the mom that sat next to me. She has been braiding my hair too and putting it into ponytails and brushing my scalp raw. Usually she just brushes and then gather up a handful of hair and smooths it in her hand saying “I'm braiding your hair.” It's really cute.

She is also very interested when I put on makeup. She likes to watch, actively, grabbing brushes and compacts that I'm not using.

More than once we have gone to playgroups or other social events with her cheeks painted with concealer or eyeshadow or blush. I wonder where she gets it...

We have been potty training and Jaedyn has been working the system. She got to a point where she was not interested in the current reward, a candy, and will carry it around or decorate the house with it. “Awl ssave it for two marrow”, she says with her hand held up to stop me. I don't know what she is stopping me from, but when she really means it, she will tell it to you with her hand out in a 'stop' gesture. That's her sign language for 'emphasis'. What a change this new phrase is.

She used to entertain crowds at church with the phrase “There'ss candy at the sstor”.

Usually when we tell her it's 'prayer time' she folds her arms and either listens quietly at church or starts saying a prayer of her own; if we are ready or not. We don't tell her what to say, she just goes. Eventually we realized that her prayers were getting a little repetitious.

“Dear Heav'ly Fath'r, thank you fo'our food, thank you fo' mommy and daddy take me to th' differnet park, thank you Baloo and Jesseyss, name of Jessus Chrisst, Amen.”

It was cute, but we have other things to be grateful for and other things to ask for (although it's clever that she thanks Heavenly Father in advance for us taking her to the park... and a new one at that!). Once Scott tried prompting her. “Thanks for our good sleeps” turned into something funny that we meant to write down. I was probably something like: Thanks for no sleep”. We cracked up! Now I just mention what I'd like her to add to her prayer and she fits it all in there by herself.

We sure think she's a cutie.

I went to tuck her in one night and she talked to me in a dream. “A pancake” she said and started singing a little song.

In other news, our neighbor gave us an air compressor! Wow. She had it sitting around and didn't want it. I just need to find some cheap heads and I've got myself a nail gun! I can do all sorts of projects with a nail gun! We could even replace our fence. The owner has agreed to reimburse us for parts if we replace the fence for him. Our neighbors have agreed to come out and help when we do it.

Until then I'm just doing small crafts, inside. Crafts like meal planning and sign making. Well meal planning is not a craft, but the frame and exchangeable background sure felt like crafting when I put it together. The signs take more work. I have to cut them and sand them and then paint them and then sand them again to get the weathered look that's 'in' these days. The problem is that the perfect time to do all that is during nap time, but my 'work spot' is on the patio right below her bedroom window. Jaedyn has never failed to wake up in the middle of a nap because I turned on the saw or sander. Sigh. But she has helped me paint some washes onto some boards and I'm excited to see how they turn out.

I also made a door, um, thing. Not a wreath.. but it hangs from the random nail in our door and says “welcome”.

Scott and I left Jaedyn with a fun babysitter and drove to San Antonio to visit the temple there. It's beautiful and sits at the top of a hill, rather grand as you drive around the corner and see the tiny valley before you and the temple on a hill at the other side. We had a fun time, even though it was a really quick trip. We drove through some rain, real Texas rain. The kind where you have to slow down to 30mph on the freeway because you can't see. Unfortunately our neighborhood didn't get any, just big clouds and lots of wind. (We did get rain all last night and most of today though).

The last day of the month I got together with some girlfriends to celebrate a birthday. We had a tiny luncheon at the hostess' house and even though the food was yummy and the conversations fun (we laughed about seeing us running partners with makeup and real clothes on) my favorite part was when we sat down and all told the birthday girl why we loved her. It was such a simple sweet thing to do but it was very fun.

Jaedyn has really gotten the hang of riding her tricycle and has been peddling around the block, to the mailbox and even to the park and back. She has a cute kitty helmet she wears and has fun with her new found independence. Sometimes trucks block the driveways, we have taught her that they are ob-stickles. We go around them. Jaedyn got a cool toy in September. We have borrowed, indefinably, a bike attachment thing. Jaedyn trikes up a storm, but now we can all go on 'fast' bike rides out of the neighborhood. Jaedyn and I were taking a walk to the park and Scott came over to our friends who live across the street from the park and picked up the Instep. We couldn't get it home in our car, so we attached it to Jaedyn's tricycle and she pulled it home. I'm just kicking myself that I didn't get a picture. It was precious! We have been biking on short trips at night, to wear her down, but Labor Day we biked to the Old Settler's Park( about 4 miles away), played for a few hours and biked back. That night when I went running, I felt so good; I could have run, without stopping, the whole 5K!

So September was a good enough month. Scott is still looking for a job and I am still trying to set up a site for Bountiful Baskets in Austin. Jaedyn is still trying to get candy and dessert before each meal. You know, the usual.

That's about all...We love ya! ~ the Quigleys

Biking to park for Labor Day.

Evidence Jaedyn has been in the room. Fly swatter on the window sill; Candy on the side table; spoon tucked into the drawer handle.

Crafting for a special needs non profit school using wood from my pile; menu planning, freezer / healthy meals.

Fiona's birthday party

Fancy hair-dos and “watching” me put on makeup.

Cleaning at Novie and Fiona's: I helped our friends, the Werneking's, clean up for their dad's return. He had been away for 9 months! We tidied the playroom and did an office makeover as well as hanging nick knacks around the house.

The Peppers tried to put out another crop and withered, pumpkins are still going strong, wind storms have knocked over my plants and my tidy scrap wood pile.

My 5K running partners.

Cooking has been hit or miss this month, sometimes at the same time. Perfectly steamed sweet potato and charred potatoes from dinner one night. Not pictured: The nachos that caught fire and melted the silicon; perfect and delicious lumpias and curry.

Waffles for breakfast... I hope she doesn't think all waffles are topped with Ice cream and sprinkles.

Quibbler August 2011

Our First day of August was fun. I got to help in Jaedyn's Nursery class at church and w made play dough. After naps I shaped it into my world-famous-snowman.

Jaedyn helped me take it apart and reposition the pieces.

I borrowed a Kitchen Aid mixer and made up some breads (bread, rolls, muffins and scones to be precise).

We have been in the midst of a huge drought and trying to find things to do inside (out of the heat). We sing with our friends every Wednesday and other days we do play dates. Fiona came over and the girls finger painted. Fun times! Jaedyn had more fun painting herself than the paper and we have subsequently started painting with no shirt / an apron.

We drove up to Dallas for an extended weekend trip to visit friends and have another Massage Party with the Fitch's. It was awesome. Justin and Leah are wonderful hosts. We played and socialized all weekend. Sunday we visited with the Case's from Coppell. They are such a great family. We expected to see them at church, but Tara was having a reaction to new medication and they stayed home. Lucky us, we know where they live and got to spend some time with them at their place. It was great to chat and catch up on their lives. I felt for Tara who, because of the medication, lost her train of thought often. I totally felt like that after I had Jaedyn. It was sad and funny to me to see what it must have looked like to those around me as I would forget what I was saying in the middle of a word. We played games with the Thrapp's and their friends. Boxers or Briefs, which was fun; and a made up game that was way more fun. It's a cross between pictionary and telephone. Way fun!

Jaedyn had a fabulous time with Justin and Leah's dog, Sailor, and has asked if we are going to Sailor's house when we get into the car all week. She took a nap and totally tucked herself into the bed.

We are so grateful to have such amazing friends.

Two weeks later we went to Houston for a quick luncheon at Taste of Texas. Eldon has been at Exxon for 30 years and they gave him a party there. It was very fun to see Grammie, Grandpa Eldon, Aunty Emm, Uncle Ross, and Grandma Bear and Papa Bear Latimer. Jaedyn was amazingly well behaved at the fancy restraunt. One day soon we should get pictures from the photographer that was there. The next Sunday was Aunt Tarah's birthday, but since she is living in Provo we didn't get to see her. I did curry a present her way with Uncle Ross. Thanks, Ross! I hear she likes the lotions and sugar scrub and essential girly stuff I sent.

When we got home I went to a book group and helped a friend who was preping her house for the return of her husband. He had been gone for over 8 months on business! We didn't scrub down the house like we wanted to, the scrubing-type friend was sick, but we tidyied and picked up and sorted and organized and hung pictures and wall art and the house lookes so much more homey now. She was so happy to ave him come back and we were so happy to finally meet him.

I made liquid laundry soap with a friend. It was really easy and had such a high yield that we split it and I will have enough for … the rest of the year or something. Especially if the drought continues and our water is 'voluntarily' restristed.

I had a lovely girls night with a friend. She was doing some research and I was working on a family photo album for the Quigley's while we watched Grace Kelly and Carry Grant in To Catch a Thief. It was so much fun!

Scott's birthday was August 29^th and it was very uneventful. We didn't even have a party or anything. The plan was to have a party that weekend, but it never came together. I think we had birthday brownies.

Jaedyn started Preschool the last week of August and she is really enjoying it. There are 8 kids who get ogether once a week for preschool. We rotate houses and each mom teaches while the kids are at her house. We met and planned out the lessons for the year and who would do field trips and parties. I teach in October and our leson will be on “teeth”. I plan to use some candy experiments from my friend Loralee's blog and upcoming book to showcase ways to save our teeth.

There are no pictures of many of the events, because let's face it. Pictures of Jaedyn a more fun and easier to take, than say pictures of myself.

Other fun things from August include:

We had a family in the ward for the summer and at Music Time one week Annie (age 3) asked Jaedyn “Where's your brother?” She has two and it obviously confused her. The comment has stuck with Jaedyn because now everything is about brothers. Her dolls and toys are / have brothers. One day we were at a friend's house and she said to her playmate, “Fiona, you're my brother.”

So sweet.

She tells us about her dreams after nap time or in the morning. It's always the same. I dreamed about the park, again. When we got home from visiting with the Thrapps in Dallas she had a new dream. She dreamed that she threw a ball high up, up into the air and it got stuck on a cloud and then it fell down and Sailor (their dog) caught it.

We went for a family walk and she found a cell phone that someone had ditched on our lawn. It was battered and missing the battery. Now it's her phone. The first person she called was the train that runs by our neighborhood. She calls the train very frequently with different 'phones' (calculators, cell phones and a hand clapper / noisemaker) the next phone call she made was to Cruella DeVile. They had a lovely conversation. It went on for quite a while. “Hello, Cruella? Oh, HI! How are you? ...”

She has started potty training and LOVES to get a candy after she uses the toilet. She is very good at it now, she can hold it until she get to the toilet, (needs help with clothes most times) gets up by herself, wipes, and flushes; then she hops down and sometimes remembers to wash her hands. We remind her, but she gets up on the seat again and leans over to the sink all by herself. She is quite the climber and balancer.

Jaedyn has started using 'glass' plates and cups at the table now. She brings them over after she's done and puts them on the counter. When I asked her why she didn't put them into the sink she told me they would break if she put them into the sink, because they are glass.

Scott cleared out the garage and we have been able to park our car in it! It's SO nice to walk out to a car the is not sweltering.

It think that's about all for August.

We have been fortunate that the fires in Central Texas have not affected us.

Scott is looking for a job, nothing he had lined up has worked out. It's frusterating.

My Zinnas grew very tall! We got a wind sotrm that pretty much took them out, but they were amazing!

I need to download y pictures and put more in the next Quibbler. Keep your eyes open for a pictures overload next time!

We love you!

Trip II

I'm evidently not over my jet lag... I woke up this morning at 2:30 singing a song I learned yesterday for Stake Choir*.

Back to the blog post.

This will go over much better when I have pictures**. Until then you just get words. Black and white across a screen. Boring... and my imagery sometimes leaves a little to be desired. Are you excited yet?

The second day we went to Hezekiah's Tunnel and walked through. It was amazing***. When we got to the end**** we stopped by our Israeli Tour Guide's ***** brothers shop and bought Widow's Mites and Herodian lamps and stuff.

Then we drove out to Jericho, stopped at the****** Sycamore tree mentioned in Luke 19. Went to the Hebron Glass store. We didn't go to Hebron b/c it was not safe.

Then we went to Lazarus' Tomb. A traditional site that has some evidence that it is also the correct site. !!!

We ate lunch at the Traditional Site of the Mount of Temptation. and then went to a Tel++ and looked over the countryside. The City of Jericho is the oldest continually inhabited city in the world and a few days after we visited they had a 11,000 year birthday party there. Then we drove back to Jerusalem and went to the West Wall of the Temple and ushered in the Sabbath with the Jews. !!!

The next day was Saturday and we observed the Sabbath. First we went to the Church of All Nations. We saw the traditional rock that Jesus prayed at. We touched a tree that is old enough to have been there to witness his agony. Then we crossed the street+++ and went into the Garden of Gethsemane. Evidently there are known pick pickets loitering in the street there, so we were told not to purchase anything from the vendors. In the Garden it was beautiful and peaceful... and there was a gospel choir recording a music video. It kinda spoiled the atmosphere for me. Luckily there was enough room that we could go off and have a quiet contemplation without the choir or the traffic from the roads across the Kidron Valley being too distracting.

Then we went to Sacrament Meeting at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. This is where Tarah is doing her study abroad and we surprised her. We thought she'd be at choir practice so we went in but she was not there. So we had her paged and we waited and waited while she woke up(!) and got dressed and come to see who was wanting to see her. We had another scream and cry fest. It was very fun. She was totally, completely surprised. We sat with her for the meeting and enjoyed the testimonies of the students and a few members of our trip. Then we rounded up professors and a faculty for introductions and permission slips. We were going to take Tarah with us to visit Bethany and drop her off later that night. It almost worked out. Almost. When the guy in charge found out that we were going to Bethany++++, he said no way. 'Student's are not allowed in Bethany, blah blah blah'. So we left her. We drove to Bethany and stopped for lunch at a tent restaurant^^^. We visited the caves where shepherds kept their flocks by night and learned about mangers of the time (they were hewn out of boulders). Then we looked out over the fields were shepherds kept their flocks. Aladdin showed us Jewish Settlements in the Palestinian Territory and gave us a brief overview of that confrontation. As we drove back we stopped at Aladdin's winter house which was beautiful and completed^^^^. We drove through a checkpoint and saw the huge (25' tall) wall separating the Jews from the Palestinians. There was graffiti all over. Some of the pictures were poignant. We stopped at our Tour Guide's friend's shop to purchase hand carved olive wood. I really like the $400 carving of Joseph, Mary and Jesus on a donkey. But I got some tiny carving that were in my budget.

~~

* It's exciting to sing this song, because we are doing the fill score arrangement. Snare Drum, organ and two painos, triangles, pretty much everything; it will be so fun.

** I left my camera at home^ so I would have to opportunity of losing it^^.

^ I was in a lot of my Mom's pictures and no one noticed I didn't have a camera of my own. Dave` was surprised to learn I didn't have one on the last day of the trip. That's how I know.

`Whom you will probably be hearing a lot about b/c he is awesome and he joined my mom and I in Egypt.

^^ I only brought along one 'pricey' item, my new set of scriptures. Which I promptly lost at JFK Airport. So it's probably good that I didn't bring the camera.

*** "It was amazing!" I run the risk of saying this so many times it'll take up the whole post. From now on I'll just give you a little visual "!!!".

**** The tunnel comes 'out' from under the ground once it's inside the city and continues to become the Pool of Shalom+. A building was constructed between where the tunnel ends and the Pool of Shalom so you can't see it, we went up a flight of stairs and down the other side of the building to see the pool.

+ many of the historic sites that contained water are no longer wet. The country diverts pools and streams, and the River Jordan, to irrigate crops and water the population.

***** Did I mention that our guide was Aladdin Saim? He was great.

******So many, many of the sites we went to are "traditional". Only a few have archeological evidence that it was indeed the exact place mentioned in the Bible.

++ A tel is a man made mountain. This one was made by at least 20 civilizations building upon the ruins of previous civilizations. The archeologists cut away a pie slice shape of the Tel and excavated the slice to determine this. !!!

+++ At Christ's time the garden would have encompassed the whole of the Church of All Nations and the street and the walled garden we went into as well as more land.

++++ To get to Bethany you have to pass outside of Israeli occupied territory into the West Bank... the disputed territory that can be dangerous.

^^^ I think the tent was based on a traditional Bedouin Tent. !!!

^^^^ In Israel you have to pay taxes on completed buildings so many buildings are left 'uncompleted' with re-bar coming out the tops etc. so the owners don't have to pay taxes.

Trip I

So here's the full story part one (including bits I didn't know until much much later). There are no paragraph breaks currently... maybe later. Sorry fellow Lynne Truss fans, this is kinda like stream of consciousness.

Tarah is doing a study abroad in Jerusalem this semester. My Mom's dad, Grandpa*, has had a desire to go visit the Holy Land before he dies**. When he heard that Tarah was going to Jerusalem he decided to make his trip there as well and surprise her. He looked up a Church sponsored tour group, Discovery XA, and made arrangements to join their tours of Petra, the Holy Land and Egypt. He called my mom and told her about it, swearing her to secrecy. Months later she asked to tell her husband, Eldon. Grandpa said it was okay to tell Eldon. Eldon said to Mom, 'You should go with him!' Mom didn't think it was in the budget, even though it would be fun. When my brother was in town visiting they called Grandpa to say hi. Eldon mentioned the trip and asked if Grandpa was excited. Grandpa said he was but he'd like it more if Eldon and Mom were coming with. 'Ah hah!', says Eldon. He had work obligations and couldn't go, but Mom was free. Grandpa had open heart surgery a few months ago. Mom agrees to go with Grandpa as a caretaker. She still can't tell anyone else though. So she arranges to go to Florida*** for a horse training thing****. She e-mails everyone telling us about her upcoming trip and mentions that she might be away from a computer for a while. Then she leaves the horse thing early and goes to Grandpa's. They pack everything and head to the airport. When they are unloading the luggage from the car, Grandpa decided he's not going to go. His chest is hurting and he does not want to take chances overseas. It's a little last minute and Grandma and Mom try to persuade him to go and check in and if he still does not feel good to let them know. When he tell s them h already has his patch (medicine) on and he's still feeling off, Grandma agrees that he should put his health first. Off they drive. Mom is left by herself at the airport. She calls Eldon and explains the situation then decides to go by herself. Eldon then calls me and asks if I'd like to go and take my Grandpa's place in the tour group. I do and four days later I'm in a plane to Israel. I missed the Petra portion of the trip. Eldon did an amazing job of contacting Grandpa, Discovery XA (Jim and Carol) and the airlines while I got a passport, packed and found babysitters for Jaedyn. Jim and Carol, the group leaders, knew I was coming and had told everyone else while Mom was asleep on the bus. Mom had no idea I was coming! She thought she would just go and have a great time, pick up some fun Christmas gifts, take lots of pictures for Grandpa... and surprise Tarah for Grandpa. I was in JFK Airport looking for Mormon type people who were flying to Tel Avive on my flight. The problem was that when yo are flying to Tel Avive, most of the passengers are Jewish... and they looked conservatively dressed and religious. Every time I found someone from the group, the lady would be wearing a low cut top or the guy was wearing a yarmulke. It was distressing. There was air sickness involved. When I landed I was supposed to look for a guy holding a sign for Jim Gee - Mormon Group. There were no Mormon's on my flight and no guy holding a sign. I looked and looked. Then I asked about it at the Information desk. The gals there had no idea. The other people were leaving in their tour groups or with family. Finally I was directed to look outside customs and check with another information desk if I still could not find anyone. I walked out of customs and they sigh holder was right there. With a group of conservatively dressed people who were not wearing yarmulkes. I cried a little bit, I was so relieved. We waited around for more people and headed out to our Hotel. I left my bag in Mom's room and went to gift shop to hide until dinner when I would surprise her. Then when Mom's group got back from a day of wandering the Old City, Jerusalem, she found someone's bags had been delivered to her room. She went to the front desk to get the problem 'fixed'. They told her that she was booked in a shared room. She explained that was because her dad was planning on coming but had backed out at the last moment. There shouldn't be someone there. A porter had obviously put some other traveler's belongings into her room and they would be worried when they found their stuff missing. Carol saw what was happening and came to the gift shop where I was hiding out and said, ' you might not want to wait until dinner to surprise your mom.' That's when I came up behind her and touched her shoulder. She turned around and, it took her a few minutes, screamed when she recognized me. She was SO surprised. We hugged and cried for a few minutes. Too bad no one else in the group was around. It would have made for some priceless pictures! We met with the group, and did introductions over dinner. After dinner was a group meeting, we got name tags and after that we went to bed. Mom and I stayed up late talking. She was so happy I was there and told me all about her time in Petra.

~~

* Original name, huh? I like it better than pet names for grandparents.

** Like a bucket list, but he's been around since before bucket lists.

*** Where Grandpa lives.

**** She and Emma do Parelli.

Trip

I was going to hop on and write up a fantastic review of my whirl wind adventure in the Middle East. Then I got distracted reading everyone else's blogs. This is why I never blog anymore. I run out of time.

Anyways.

I got a call about 2 weeks ago* from my new Step-dad**. He asked if would be interested in going to Israel and Egypt for a little over a week~. Um, Yeah! He called back a little later and we worked things out. This is what happened:

Saturday - got a call from Eldon.

Sunday - tell gals at church that I might not be there for the Primary Presentation*** practices b/c of possibility of a trip overseas.

Monday - go to Passport Offices in Seattle^

Tuesday - pick up passport, dinner with friends who babysit Jaedyn, stay up all night watching NCIS

Wednesday - leave for the airport at 3 AM, fly to NYC^^, Fly to Tel Avive^^^, surprise my mom who had NO idea I was coming.

Other days - we were going and going and going, our trip was run on Energizer, I swear.

Other other day - flew to Jordan, stayed the night

Day after that - flew to Cairo

Two days later - flew back to the USA

Okay, I'll post more and better descriptions in subsequent posts.

So don't read the footnotes if you are squeamish or just ate...

*On Saturday the 23 of October

**Ugh, it's weird to call him that, but he IS my new Step-Dad... I just wish there was a less offensive term. Mom's new husband is better but it takes like a second longer to type.

~ Tarah is doing a study abroad in Jerusalem and Miles is in Afghanistan, Emma is going to school full time and I... recently quit my nanny job. I'm like the only one who could go.

*** SO. In church I was given a calling (volunteer opportunity) to be the music leader for the kids ages 3-12. Great. I like it, now that I have seen a REAL chorister in action. I have all sorts of ideas up my sleeves. BUT. Every year the Primary does a Sacrament Meeting Program / main congregation meeting. This year I had 4 weeks between the first week that I started leading the music to the Program. The kids didn't know the songs as well as I would have liked. I didn't know the who's and what's of the program.~~

^I couldn't find my actual birth certificate... or Jaedyn's but that's another story. So I took in early elementary school records, a baptismal certificate and my 'certificate of birth' from the hospital (not official, it had my footprints on it though)

^^I got sick and threw up. Had a little coming out the other end too.

^^^Threw up more. Multiple times. Poor sweet Jewish couple sitting next to me. I've NEVER been airsick before. I could taste everything I ate for the last three meals in my burps. Never a good sign. The last time I threw up I was pregnant and stressed. I was thinking,' oh, crap, what if I'm pregnant again?!?'

~~ But that's okay because on Wednesday evening there was a meeting to introduce new people, like me, to the leaders of the Primary and go over the presentation and stuff. I missed the meeting and still have no idea what's going on.

Today - as written in a letter to my siblings around the world

Today... hmm. there was something spectacular I was going to share... what was it?

Well yesterday Jaedyn and I spent about three hours at the park. I let her go at her own pace and it went very well. She has developed a habit of walking on ledges, like the curb by the parking lot. Yesterday she was holding my hand and walking around the plastic curb around the swings. I spotted a ladybug and we stopped to look at it. I picked it up and it walked on my hand and then we transferred it to Jaedyn's hand. She tried to pick it up and it went "crunch". "Don't hurt it" I said and she immediately let go, dropping it. The ladybug was fine* and we picked it back up. Then she crunched it again and I confiscated it and put it on the flower that was in her hair. She sat there while I took pictures and then she sat there looking out at the kids playing. Then she sat there and looked tired. Finally** she said "hop down, bug, hop down" and I understood that she was sitting still and quiet because she had a ladybug on her head. I was so proud***. Then I 'hopped down' the lady bug and we put her back in the grass. We walked around the curb about eight more times and then she dashed off to the slide. As we were getting ready to go home, she skinned her knee and now she has matching toddler-official skinned knees****.

Today, though... hmm. Scott got a new phone and I got his old phone. Next paycheck I'll get a new phone too. It will be great. I went to book group for the Nineteen Minutes book and we had a fun discussion. We ended up talking about parenting. I'm trying to figure out how I parent and I get frustrated by the different ideas out there. I can see the merit in many of them, but I can't figure out how to implement them; or they conflict~. I also am in charge of the e-mail list for the book group now. Wee! I have the power, I can do whatever I want! Muahahaha. I think I will try setting up a group with Google. My other book group has one and it's great, but it's Yahoo.

Oh, I remember. Today I had Cat` over to spent a little time with Jaedyn. Scott suggested we could have her come over and be a 'Mother's Helper' and hang out while I'm getting dinner or whatever. The more I think about it the more I like. When I was taking her home she mentioned she'd like to know a bit about the Church, she has a member friend but doesn't know anything about us.

I'm going to bed now. I love you!

2010-10-06

~~

* I think she just clicked it's hard outer shell together.

** It was like seven minutes of sitting.

*** I don't like using the word "Proud" but I can't think of a better word for how I feel. She is aware of what is going on and kind way to react to the little bug. She asked nicely to have the bug hop down so she could go play. She obviously got bored and wanted to do something different, but she had enough self awareness to not just run off.

**** She skinned the first one while we were watching Dea and Dylan. We were at the park and she fell.^

^ I would have put her in pants to cover and protect her knees yesterday, but her first skinned knee hurt and she didn't want fabric on it.

~ ie Babywise vs Unconditional Parenting

` She is a co-workers daughter who is interested in babysitting and stuff but very shy.

The front room

Pictures available HERE.

Binki's

Today Jaedyn was playing 'where's my binki? oh. there it is on the table, where I put it' when she saw me sitting there and said binki, binki, binki and put her binki down my shirt. All the binki's* were together.

Dang! I used to have boobs but they've been reduced** to the size of binkis...

*I have two binkis. Jaedyn named them (months ago) when she saw me get out of the shower.... makes one wonder about how much babies remember from when they are tiny.

** She weaned herself at 8 months. I never grew back.

My Building Project

This is the link to the pictures from the previous post...

Things

I'm into:

TV shows

reading other people's blogs

commenting on a select few

crafts

watercolors

embossing

sewing

building

organizing / cleaning

cooking ... I'm learning

washing dishes with gloves... to keep my hands pretty

reading book group books

reading for pleasure

reading to learn skills

I want to :

*yoga

learn to run

oh, all right just get fit swimming, biking, dancing

*journaling

possibly blogging... maybe

family history

*interactive teaching and learning with Jaedyn (<- read preschool or just more quality time)

*eat healthier and remember to take vitamins etc

work with acrylics and embossing meduims

work on canvas

de-clutter and get rid of stuff (AH! I can't let go)

keep reading more book group and pleasure and skills stuff

go to school for design or architecture

There is only so much time in a day... I need to get organized. Maybe if I work on one something each day... hmm.

EDIT Christy hooked me up with Habitforge.com and I have added the starred items as habits to track. I'd add more but some are weekly things, like family history, it's a great Sunday afternoon activity. Some are monthly things, like book group reading. I sure hope this helps me get motivated to do the things I want to do.

Thanks Cisty!

I am

I am building things.

Today Scott and Jaedyn and I went to Monroe with our friend Brian. He helped me buy wood to make this

PLAN: Braden Entryway Drawer Bench

and this

PLAN: Brady Entryway Open Locker. We took it back to his parent's place to put it together. His dad is a professional carpenter with a cabinet shop / business. They had cool things in the shop in their backyard like a big sawdust sucker-upper and big saws and tools and much lumber. We got all the plywood pieces cut before Scott got bored. It took 2 hours. Some other weekend we'll go back and cut the rest of the wood. Brian is going to ask his dad about a sprayer for paint. Cool! Then we'll put it together and paint it... rather we'll paint it and then put it together and add hardware and bring it home. I'm SO EXCITED!

Church is in the middle of nap time

After church today I just told Jaedyn it was nap time and asked for the toy she was playing with. She sat for a moment* and then handed me the toy and grabbed my finger** and walked me to her room where she picked up her blanket and tried to climb into bed***. Poor baby was really tired. Not that I couldn't tell that from the tantrums at church today****. I'm glad she's so good, she was sitting quietly on the couch playing with a toy when I got her for bed.

* It was a tense moment because she would either obey or shriek and throw a huge baby fit. I was bracing for the scream fest.

** This is her new method for 'come here Mother, I have to show you'... that she wants that thing on the counter, this closed door she's like to to through or a cool new thing she has discovered.

*** A gross deviation from the routine of walk in the room; diaper change if necessary; turn off the lights; turn on the lullabies; cuddle for the intro to the first song; and lay down in bed.

**** She would not get her way and give a pouty face. Then it would escalate to sitting down in her big dress~ and an even pouty-er face then she'd throw herself backwards and pout to the ceiling (or me if I was watching) and if that still didn't work she'd start crying big crocodile tears really really loud. ~~

~It was very cute to watch. The dress pooffed up just life a princess dress.

~~ Some of the ladies in Relief Society were amused. Some others were not. The amused ones were the ladies who were close enough to watch her antics and or those who had toddlers themselves. The ones who heard her across the room or who had no kids were less amused.

ta da!

I have succumb to the world of internet -come and read it if you can find it - journaling.