Draper Kids

Ringing in the new year 2012

2012-01-01T22:18:00.002-05:00

We had 1 of the most exciting new years eve celebrations to date! Our friends the Bagleys invited us to their house along with the Haywoods and the Couillens. Kids partied in the basement with rock band and other games and lots of food, while we enjoyed peace and quiet upstairs with lots of food, games, and talking. we had a lot of pot banging as we watched the ball drop on tv and then we had the best new years eve fireworks display I've experienced in a backyard.
Beware, this was the loudest ringing in of the new year I've ever enjoyed!

Happy 2012!!

Pajama Fun

2011-11-13T00:06:00.002-05:00

So the girls kept pulling their arms and legs into their pajamas. I told them if they kept doing that, I would tie their arms and legs together. So I did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwprySXo29Y

Lee attacks at the Drapers

2011-09-09T16:35:00.003-04:00

No, no. None of my in-laws went crazy and ransacked out house. It was Tropical Storm Lee. I had never seen the "little creek" in our backyard so high, so I had to shoot some video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0hhlycqxIs

15th Anniversary

2011-09-06T22:54:00.001-04:00

Tom and I have been talking about going on a cruise for about 15 years now. So when Janine called Tom and offered to watch all the kids while we went on one, we jumped at the opportunity! We dropped off the kids and left them for 6 full days and nights, while we cruised to the Bahamas. Here are a few pictures:

Good Bye Winter Wonderland

2011-03-13T21:33:00.003-04:00

So we came home from Christmas to maybe a foot of snow, and a nice cleared driveway, thanks to our neighbors who cleared it before we got back. That snow never fully melted, and throughout the next 2 months we continued to get a little snow here and a lot of snow there and some freezing rain mixed in. It was beautiful, and I honestly never tired of looking at it. Until it was down to the last bit on the front lawn that is shaded most of the day. I was really excited for that patch to finally melt in a long, heavy, warm rain we had last week. Our last pictures are Lily after playing out in the pouring warmish rain, and then a shot of our front when I was so excited to see that the last snow was finally gone. Yesterday we spent all afternoon with Tom cutting down broken-but-still-attached limbs of trees on 3 corners of our house. When the heaviest snow fell, 2 huge branches fell RIGHT next to the house, not causing any damage, thanks to Heavenly Father. Our neighbors came over with their snowblower and chainsaw and helped Tom clear the way so we could get out of the garage again. But there were other large limbs just dangling, and those have finally been taken care of. So I don't have to worry about one of them falling on someone. Now I just need to worry about Lily, who climbed nearly to the top of one of our huge pine trees yesterday. Not being a big fan of heights, I did not enjoy watching her climb down!

Our Young Woman

2010-10-07T11:09:00.003-04:00

Nervously waiting...

Right...

Left...

Tyra's favorite food, noodles!

The only things Tyra would ask for for her birthday were chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, having mom take her out of school for the lunch hour, getting her ears pierced, and eating Lo Mein for dinner. Even when I offered a huge sleepover, or a small one, or to go to a movie, roller skating rink, laser tag, etc., etc., she just didn't want to do anything that would call attention to herself amongst friends. She's like Queenie Farmer's daughters, except that even when it's her birthday she still asks for so little! Sweet Tyra, she seemed to have an enjoyable, if busy day. She barely had time to accept her breakfast in bed (she takes her shower then goes back to bed while her hair is drying on a towel.) then she had to rush to get out to her bus. She has a crazy early lunch, and so Beth and I picked her up at 10am and met up with Tom at the Burger King where Tyra had a breakfast sandwich for her lunch. We really didn't have time to go home for her to relax or open her presents that Grandma Lee and Grandpa Lee & Pam had sent earlier. But since she had to stop to clean her braces (she's very good and consistent at keeping them clean) so I grabbled her presents for her to open in the car on the way there. She came home from school happy and we basically left as soon as Tom got home early for her to get her ears pierced at Claire's in the mall, and then to a Chinese Restaurant and finally off to her first night of YW where they had a "future missionaries" conference ending with ice cream. Back at home it was business as usual as she had plenty of homework and studying for a test on the Byzantine Empire. She's so cute in her earrings and braces!

Lily turns 7

2010-10-06T12:43:00.004-04:00

Lily wanted a mermaid party and since her birthday was on the second day of school she shared cupcakes on her birthday at school and invited some of her friends to come in 2 Saturdays to her party. She also got waffles in bed and got to choose a restaurant (with her dad's help.)

The party had no surprise younger siblings or boys, so Lily was able to stay in control of her party and all the games, which was a major goal this year, after her distress last year. She drew and painted a mermaid for pin the flower in the mermaid's hair. She stuffed the pinata, she helped put up all the seaweed streamers, and generally did quite a bit of her own work for her party. The next morning when I asked her how she liked the party I was surprised that she still didn't just give it a resounding 2 thumbs up [sic]. She did have fun, but it appears that Lily has finally grown up from the traditional games she has clung to each year, and finally agrees with me that we might not do a pinata next year, that fewer friends might be more fun, and that some of the games are just too young for her. Do you hear the loud huzzah? But just as I was thinking, great, I won't have to spend so much time on games and decorating and stuff next year, Lily said "I think I like decorating and getting ready for the party more than having the party."
I went on to explain how Grandma Linda used to always help Tyra plan and execute little parties just for the family to enjoy, and maybe that's what Lily would like to do too.
I know this is the time for me to write about how amazing our Lillian is, but I think we say so all the time. She's our can-do girl, always willing to try new things, help in new ways, etc. We are so glad she's a part of our family.

Tom's birthday

2010-10-02T23:31:00.004-04:00

After having an amazing delicious hibachi dinner in Winston-Salem on our quadruple date night, Tom decided to do hibachi with the kids. The chef was fun, at least, even if the food quality and pricing were much worse.

Tom also requested éclairs again this year, and I was pleased that they actually looked like éclairs this time, but the camera's batter was dead by then.

The pictures were just before Lily's party (hence the blue waterfall in the background) but I just wanted to capture my handsome man with his blue eyes and awesome hair. He actually just got around 7 inches cut off yesterday.

We are so lucky to have such a crazy, happy guy around, telling bad puns at every turn :)

Thomas Rocks the House

2010-09-12T22:44:00.000-04:00

So GramaLee bought Rockband (Lego and Beatles) for us last Christmas. Thomas was soon playing every song on the expert level on the drums. And then he started taking all the toy drums, buckets, and anything else that could reverberate into his room to set up his own personal drum kit. Finally Tom looked around for a drum teacher so Thomas could both go up and down a level by learning how to drum properly. He is a stickler for form and all the things you can't really learn by yourself. Thomas seems to like it enough to go back to hitting "8 rights and 8 lefts" to just get the sticks to bounce back the right height.
We found a drum set on craigslist that really appealed to Thomas for the variety of drums and cymbals, and I took this video right after we did our best to assemble it in the wine cellar. Which I now realize has duct work that goes right up to the dining room...

Tyra's Terrific Teeth aka Beautiful Braces, at this point

2010-09-08T22:47:00.001-04:00

The pictures say it all...

The All New Betsy

2010-08-29T22:29:00.003-04:00

First of all, the name. She started telling everyone she wanted to go by "Betsy." Well, I chose her name partially because of the endless nickname possibilities. and there's no law saying you have to stick to the one you chose when you were 2.

Second, the glasses. Unfortunately I didn't get a good shot of her with her glasses wwhile she had long hair. Very cute. Then,

third, the new 'do. She finally reached the requisite 10 inches to donate her ponytail to Locks of Love. Very cute, too!

This girl is ready for Kindergarten (all 2 hours and 40 minutes/day that she'll get.)

Thomas Turns Ten

2010-07-01T11:53:00.006-04:00

It was Beth's Party, and She Cried Cuz she wanted to

2010-05-06T10:15:00.003-04:00

With our 1.89 acres...

2010-05-06T10:06:00.004-04:00

You can see our house in the background

Tyra called this the peaceful grotto

Everyone can skip rocks now that we have a smooth surface and an endless supply of perfect shale

From this point on, where Tyra is, Back Brook goes off into Shuss woods

The last picture has me standing right where you step off the lawn down to the bank.

Forrest

2010-05-06T10:02:00.004-04:00

I sort of felt like Forrest Gump after finishing the lawn...

The Real Super Beth

2010-04-03T07:35:00.005-04:00

The movers loaded all of our household goods yesterday. It was a long day for all of us. Lily and Beth had been asking about going to the park all day, so we finally set off to go to the park for 20 minutes.

After a couple of minutes, Thomas, Lily and Beth all ended up with me at the merry go round. I spun and they kept cheering faster. I spun it as fast as I could. They still all screamed "FASTER!". But I was getting tired. After a small break, we started up again, they started asking me why I couldn't spin it any faster (note to self: don't fall for this again).

I explained that we could use physics to help us spin faster, but I needed their help. Instead of being so close to the center, if everyone started on the outside, let me spin the merry go round as fast as I could, and then they could all move to the center, it would end up spinning much faster, very similar to an ice skater tucking inward for a spin.

So everyone moved to the outside and I started to spin the merry go round. Once I got it as far as I could, I told them to move to the center. They all screamed as they pushed inward and the merry go round super accelerated. Then I heard Beth scream, "HELLLLLP!"

Now our particular merry go round (is there a shorter name for that) happens to have a metal railing 8 inches above the surface around the entire perimeter to help prevent small children from being ejected at high speeds. Nevertheless, I have still seen children ejected from this merry go round. They just go over or under the bar. In the second while I was trying to figure out what was wrong, something came at me from my right side and I instinctively jumped back. I realized too late it was Beth.

While Beth looked nearly horizontal, I estimate from how high her feet were off the ground that her body was somewhere between 60 and 70 degrees swept out from vertical. By my calculations, sqrt(tan(60)^2+1)=2 and sqrt(tan(70)^2+1) =2.92, which means she was experiencing something between 2 and 3 g's of force (mathematically inclined friends: feel free to correct my calculations if I am missing something). This makes me think it had to be closer to 60 degrees, because there are very few of us that can hold on to a bar while experiencing 2 g's and it would be almost Herculean to hold on to a bar while experiencing 3 g's.

I started to run after her, but stopped almost immediately, because she was already a fourth of the circle ahead of me. I had to get her on the next go round. I just wasn't sure if she could make it. "Hold on Beth!", I yelled. I got ready like the next runner in a baton relay, and started running in anticipation of Beth's arrival. I grabbed her around the torso, and tried to pull her off , but her grip was too strong. Adrenalin can do amazing things for a little girl. I didn't want to hurt her by yanking too hard. "Let go Beth!", I said. The merry go round started to pull her out of my arms since I couldn't keep pace. "Let go! Let go! Let go!", I screamed. She did.

By the time she had let go, the merry go round had pulled her to the point that I was just holding her thighs in my hands, and my arms were completely extended. I had to swing her around and up just so her head wouldn't hit the ground. She started crying immediately and I thought she was hurt in some way, but as I talked to her, she said she was just scared. No bruises. No scrapes. We were lucky and blessed. She kept saying it all seemed like a bad dream. I'm just glad it had a happy ending.

All I Want for Christmas is My 2 Front Teeth

2010-02-15T15:55:00.001-05:00

It was too classic having Lillian lose her two front teeth right before Christmas!

Christmas with GrammaLee

2010-02-15T14:39:00.003-05:00

DC Temple Visitor's Center, Lily doing Santa Lucia (we didn't stock up on batteries before Christmas!!), Opening then playing Rockband, Tom and Tyra opening their Scotevests, and my favorite group photo :)

Valentine's Day Sunday

2010-02-15T14:38:00.002-05:00

The Big Snow

2010-02-15T14:31:00.001-05:00

Meta-play

2010-02-12T11:05:00.003-05:00

Conversation overheard in the Draper household while we were snowed in:

[ Beth rushes into the room with two fairy wands and hands one to Lily. ]
Lily: I don't want to play fairies right now Beth.
Beth: I'm not. I'm pretending to be a girl who is pretending to be a fairy.
Lily: Oh. Okay.
[ They both rush off waving their fairy wands. ]

Higher Education

2009-11-04T21:00:00.006-05:00

I recently interviewed someone for a job at my work and I was telling Thomas about it on the way to cub scouts:

Dad: So after spending time working in government and academia...
Thomas: (interrupting) What's academia?
Dad: Well, you know how Grandpa Tom and Uncle Brian work at universities...
Thomas: Do you mean the nuts?
Dad: (laughing) I think they might take offense to that.
Thomas: No, academia nuts. You know, the nuts no one ever wants.
Dad: (really laughing) You mean Macademia nuts! But I'm sure there would be many who would agree with your candid assessment of higher education.

PARTY HOUSE

2009-10-25T23:29:00.008-04:00

We have been reveling in our driving-distance family. The PARTY HOUSE is actually defined as "the house in which 2 or more Draper sibling families are gathered." and therefore changes location regularly. We were honored to have our home carry that title 2 weekends ago. And here's how we enjoyed our Rockin' Good Time:

We went to Port Discovery in Baltimore.

The kids here in the Diner.

Lot's of climbing through the 3 (4?) story climbing area.

Making bubbles bigger than the kids themselves.
Tom's cousin Mollie wasn't with us for the kiddie fun, she was hanging out with a friend in DC.
But then that night we all did the unthinkable: a triple plus date sans enfants! That was thanks to a brave Sally Farrell who said she'd come do our regular date night babysitting, with Cora, Eli, and Ellie included. Thanks Sally!
We went to an Indian restaurant.

Saturday we watched the rain a little more from inside (the dining room :) )
Then Janine, Ang, and I went to Emily Robinson's triplet baby shower, which was great fun (and a little frightening, thinking of all the craziness she'll have when they all get home from the NICU!)
Meanwhile, Mollie was home making brownies with the girls for Cora's almost-two birthday party. We danced in the newly-finished basement in the dark with glow sticks, and played a really big round of Ring-a-Round-the Rosy.

Next day KC came to visit, arriving just as we were singing hymns with cousin Mollie, who is a singer. Then we got to catch up with him and his busy life with the triplets. After dinner everyone packed up and left, and The Party House title is in holding for the next time any Draper Sibling families get together...

Lily's Locks of Love

2009-10-21T17:08:00.004-04:00

Lily actually had 10 inches of hair and she'd been begging me to cut it, so we cut it yesterday and sent it off to Locks of Love for a non-profit organization to make wigs for children. Perfect for my Lily who prays every day for the orphans and others in need. Much as I loved her hair long, blunt, and straight, she sure looks cute with her stylin' bob!

Shaos

2009-10-21T16:37:00.006-04:00

****Spoiler Alert******
This is why I don't blog. I write too much wordy stuff, don't finish or edit it, then just give up. My new goal is to not leave any entries as drafts anymore. You may not enjoy the effects of my new goal. That's why blogs are great. There's no rule that you have to read them. So that's my alert, it doesn't get better at any point in the post, but you're welcome to just skip on over this post to the good stuff: Party House.

Years ago my mother-in-law referred me to Flylady.net which is a site where they help you slowly organize, clean, and de-clutter your house in a way that should give you new habits to last your life. Flylady asks, "Is your house in C.H.A.O.S.?" then she clarifies by saying it means Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. Well, with this definition in mind, I'd like to say my house is in S.H.A.O.S., or Shouldn't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. Since we have had the basement slowly creeping up the stairs and into our upstairs living area, I have alternately tried to ignore it or tackle it with bouts of [non-clinical] depression interspersed.
So things come up: bookgroup being held at my house, VT's and HT's coming to visit, Lily's birthday party, then Tyra's. I keep dealing with it as it comes with an attitude of "I can't put our lives on hold just because of this stuff." And we really were getting stuff out, starting with a yard sale and continuing with many trips to the thrift store and craigslisting with the other stuff. But there's still PLENTY of stuff around. Yeah, plenty. (You may who have been here may have another word or phrase in mind)
So when Tom invited all his East Coast relatives to visit at the same time in October I certainly felt some trepidation, but the joy of our togetherness times outweighed any misgivings I felt. So even as things got only worse when every last item came up from the basement and the paint was not drying and it looked like we were only going to have our 3 bedrooms to house all 7 adults and 7 kids, and 2 of the NC families had relatives die right beforehand, and things were looking a bit grim; but the love was felt as everyone sacrificed their own comfort to get together for more family bonding time.

Now a moment about my sister's blog: she recently mentioned the phenomena of noticing after being in a public or social setting, noticing some embarrassing thing about herself makes her want to fix the problem (whacked collar, messy mascara, etc.) and then revisualize the setting over without the problem. I admitted that, as I so rarely look in the mirror, it is not a thing that happens to me often, if at all. However, as I write about the party weekend I realized that I quite often have a similar thing regarding some embarrassing thing about my house that I will immediately want to fix after visitors have left that I then try to revisualize the visit with whatever the problem was fixed. This is often the Sunroom for me. I usually save cleaning the sunroom for last when people will visit, and then feel sorry for it afterwards when my friends follow their kids into the room to help them find toys.

This time I decided to have the toys organized and cleaned up, and I got all the basement stuff as organized into one half of it as I could so there wouldn't be any basement stuff in the living room except for the 2 huge black food storage cabinets where our old piano used to be. What I left were the boxes and boxes of foodstorage and the many open shelving units in the dining room. Our dining room is not actually very small. As a matter of fact, it is holding 3 desktop computers, a china cabinet, a game cabinet, a kitchen cupboard with the microwave/toaster oven/bread machines on top of it, and our kitchen table (which managed to seat 11 over the weekend). Then added to this has been 3 open storage cabinets and a double layer of foodstorage boxes, taller than myself. You might call it a bit crowded. I did remove the one non-food shelving units, but that was about all I could do. I put some extra chairs in the living room and sunroom and hoped that was all we'd need. I imagined sitting in the sunroom with the women-folk while the little ones played and the boys played video games. What happened? We ALL stayed in the dining room almost the entire time, staring at my open shelves. And not even going to the pumpkin patch because it was cold and rainy the entire time!
So what was the whacked shirt in all this? Well the messy piles of apron/sewing machine/sewing box stuff on the china cabinet, the piles of papers on the same and the game cabinet, and the box of paperbackswap books, shredder, and Tom's 2 boxes of computer discs and junk. I had bookgroup here right after the party left and the first things I did was put up some cream colored plastic to cover the open shelves, and move out all the papers and sewing machine. Then I reimagined. Ah. Still very very cramped, but not S.H.A.O.S.

Tyra Turns 11

2009-10-09T23:23:00.007-04:00

BFFs

2009-09-20T00:20:00.000-04:00

Lily's Birthday

2009-09-14T18:09:00.011-04:00

While we were at Rob and Ang's house in NC over Labor Day weekend, Lily looked over the cake books Ang has and decided on a castle cake. From there I told her to draw the cover for her invitations, something that could appeal to the boys she would be inviting, also. She drew a princess, knight, dragon and castle. Aunt Angela provided the wording for the inside, and when we passed out a copy to each child at the end of school on Tues, you wouldn't believe the response! They were all so excited, not particularly about being invited to the party itself, but to receive this awesome card! The next morning when we walked into the class many parents stopped us along the way to mention their child was excited about the party and about receiving the invitation. But the best was as I was leaving the classroom a little girl walked in still holding her invitation, and when I gave her mom a questioning look and she said "She wouldn't put it down all night, and she had to hold it all the way to school!"

As I tucked Lily into bed the night before her birthday she informed me that she would not be waking up until breakfast was ready, that she would be sleeping in until then. How could I not bring her breakfast up on a tray, knowing she thinks it must be such a treat, since Mom and Dad get breakfast that way for their special days. And she didn't fail to notice that I let her use my favorite crystal goblet :)

Although many of her friends would be walking home with us for the party within minutes, we still let Lily share little brownies and juice with her classmates while they sang Happy Birthday to her.

The party went as well as can be expected with boys being invited :) One in particular really couldn't keep away from the sandbox, the swingset, and the scooters, especially not to do party crafts and party games. We tried to let them have plenty of "free play" time, but at one point after he'd left in the middle of Prince, Princess, Dragon (Duck, Duck, Goose) and took half the kids with him, Lily came up to me and said "It seems like my friends just wanted to come over for a playdate and not a birthday party." I felt badly for her and told her we'd let them play a few more minutes then I'd be better at enforcing participation. Which worked better, especially when I told Tom how Lil felt. They did all seem to enjoy themselves, including Lily. Lily was a most gracious hostess, and Tyra was a huge help running things, running to fetch things, etc. By 5:30 all the kids were gone and we relaxed for an hour or so before having Lil choose a Chinese Buffet for dinner.

So Lillian Regina Severina Draper is now 6, and able to do new things every day. It was a pleasure to see her with her friends, as they so clearly took to her sweet, obliging ways.

The Powers that Be.......th has

2009-08-23T13:32:00.002-04:00

I was teasing Beth about all of her super powers again yesterday.

Beth: I don't have superpowers dad. I only have three powers.
Dad: Really? What are they?
Beth: I have normal powers, beautiful powers and Barbie powers. Right now I am using my beautiful powers and my Barbie powers to make this Barbie beautiful, so please quit teasing me.

Techno Fun

2009-07-16T19:43:00.002-04:00

This is an experimental post. I am curious to see how this web app functions. In theory, you click on it and it connects your phone and my phone for a free call. If we aren't here, you get sent to my voicemail, and I can in theory read a transcription of your message online. Please try it out and let us know how it works.

Five Fun-Filled weeks of Family & Friends

2009-07-13T08:50:00.003-04:00

week 1: Huntington Beach House with the DraperFam. Running on the beach in the early morning with the man of my dreams. Crowning event: Mike and Teri getting married in San Diego temple, with a beautifully decorated backyard reception in Fountain Valley.

week 2: Stay at Dad & Pam's, then on to Anne & Matt's. Eat full Korean dinner made by Anne. See Jon with Sam and Amanda at Cal Sci. Ctr. Meet Bella and see Micah & Heather's home. Kyla's birthday party, Tom's graduation party at Ron & Annie's, sleep over.

week 3: Drive up to Utah, see Trisha in passing, stay at GrammaLee's for many nights. Go to Jim Packer's funeral in SLC. Dinner with the Lambert's. Attend Mike & Teri's reception in Provo. Draper Family Reunion. Double date with Glen & Chele. Stay at Grandma Linda & Grandpa Tom's. Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House.

week 4: Drive to Mileses. Chat and chat while kids play and play. Tom and Thomas go to Davidson Institute for Talent Development Summit in Reno for weekend.

week 5: Drive to Anne & Matt's. Lisa comes, go to Mollie's San Clemente condo. Tom hikes Mt. Baldy w/ Matt. Bridal shower for Heather. Meeting and holding William Lee for the first--and second-- time. Lily and me to the Napa Rose rehearsal dinner. Everyone at the Wayfarer's Chapel for the wedding and the Trump National Golf Club for the reception, wherein there is much dancing and eating.

Total of 11 transfers, 8 different beds (9 for Tom and Thomas, going to Reno) and it all was so wonderful, we love, love, loved it!

Poetic License

2009-07-07T20:32:00.002-04:00

I wish to award my daughter the title of poet. She wrote the following poem while we were driving by the factories of Western Utah in the salt flats. If you want to read more of her poems, visit her blog at tzscience.blogspot.com.

Beautiful Earth
Fact'ries torment the Earth,
While clouding the Sun in the sky.
Burning long-dead animals
For their deathly fuels.
Humans claim to conquer the Earth,
While she tries bravely
To keep from collapsing,
Under the weight of
Human hands.
We rip up the mountains,
The oceans,
Our land, her land, God's land.

Now we are dying, yet still overwhelming
Our poor little Earth.
Trash in air,
Trash in water,
Trash in land, trash on land.
People feel guilty for
Deathly polluting
Our beautiful planet.
The only one with life,
The only one we know of,
Beautiful Earth.
Gasping for clean air,
Beautiful Earth.
Thirsty for clean water,
Beautiful Earth.
Can't find a clean place to sit,
Beautiful Earth.

© 2009 Tyra Draper

Robbed again

2009-06-03T02:29:00.002-04:00

I should be blogging about my brother's wedding, and I will, but not now. During the wedding, we have spent the week with my parents, and sibling's families in a beach condo. My brother Rob has always been fond of teasing my wife, from the very beginning. He teases my wife by complimenting her endlessly. "Su, you are the greatest." "Su, you remind me of the babe." "Su, you are as light as a marshmallow and twice as sweet." "Su, you rock." And so on. I call this getting "Robbed". Anyone who knows my wife knows that she doesn't like the spotlight of a compliment, especially if it isn't genuine.

All of this reminded me of a funny time in our first year of marriage. We were visiting my parents for Sunday dinner. Rob and Mikey were going on and on, praising Su's every action. Exasperated, Su finally demanded, "I don't want to hear any more compliments from either of you for the rest of the evening!" Rob stopped and quietly considered the situation for about three seconds. Then turning to me he gleefully stated, "Tommy, you sure do have great taste in women!"

Heart Attack!!!

2009-06-01T15:47:00.005-04:00

I am currently remodeling our basement with the help of a friend. One night Susan took of with Lily to a church activity leaving the Tyra, Thomas and Beth home with me while we worked. Beth enjoys playing by herself, and this evening was no exception. T&T were interested in the work going on downstairs, so they were both watching Jerry and me remove debris, build walls, and install new plumbing.

After a while, I asked Thomas to go check on Beth. After a cursory inspection, he said he couldn't find her. I sent Tyra to go look, knowing that Thomas probably only looked in the living room. After about five minutes, Tyra came back down and said that she couldn't find Beth anywhere, but that her bedroom door was locked shut.

That was a little worrisome, so we all stopped what we were doing and went up to look for Beth. I ran up to the bedroom and tried the door: locked. I knocked, "Beth? Are you in there?" Nothing. I knocked louder, "Beth! Please let me know if you are in there." Nothing. I pounded the door with my fist, "BETH! Open the door right now!" Nothing. Nervously, I screamed at the top of my lungs, "BEEEEEEEETHHHHHH!", while I pounded the door.

All sorts of negative thoughts started fillling my head as I spun around and leaped down the stairs. I knew what I needed, my drill and needle nose pliers. In the basement, I grabbed my pliers and drill, unchucking the bit and letting it drop while I ran. I grabbed the Phillip's head bit and chucked it tight as I shot up the second flight of stairs. I was pretty sure it was Phillip's, and every second felt like it counted. I hit the door like a NASCAR pit man. Pop! Pop! I dropped the screws out in rapid succession. I rotated the cover to the side and awkwardly pinched at the unlocking mechanism with my pliers. I slipped. I tried again. I slipped. I tried again. My hands were shaking and my whole body was surging with adrenalin. I would have been easier to lift half a car than to manipulate this locking mechanism. It turned.

I burst through the door and scanned the room, screaming "BETH!" She was nowhere to be found. I looked again at her bed. There was Beth. My hand shot down to her neck. Pulse. Warmth. Breathing. "Beth!", I exhaled, "Didn't you hear me?" She responded with a slight snore. I sighed, "Why did you lock the door?" Her angelic face continued to disarm me.

I went back over to the door and started to screw the hardware back in. Thomas came up behind me babbling some song. Without thinking, I scolded, "Quiet! You are going to wake up Beth."

Preschool graduation 1 of 2

2009-05-15T14:55:00.001-04:00

The girls did the HS preschool program (loosely) this last year. Joyschool was the main preschool, but I can't post the pictures of joyschool with the other kids, so these are all I'll post (though they loved Joyschool!)

Hugs and Kisses

2009-05-13T21:17:00.003-04:00

Beth made up an interpretive dance to XOXOXOXO.

Lily and the Ball

2009-05-09T00:58:00.008-04:00

My wife and daughter had an interesting conversation before we went to the Armed Forces Gala this evening.

Lily: Are you and dad going on a date?
Susan: Yes. We are going to a ball.
Lily: What!?! You're going to a ball! I want to go to a ball!
Susan: You can't. Balls are for adults.
Lily: That's not true. Balls are for children!
Susan: No. Balls are for adults.
Lily: What about Cinderella? She was a kid.
Susan: No she wasn't. Remember, she got married at the end.
Lily: [Impatiently] Mom! It's a fairy tale. Remember?

More Bethisms

2009-05-04T20:17:00.004-04:00

Scene 1
Me: Bethy, you are so sweet. Are you made out of sugar?
Beth: No.
Me: Are you made out of gold?
Beth: No.
Me: Well what are you made out of then?
Beth: [Seriously] Hinges!
(See Primary Song Book, p. 277 for clarification)

Scene 2
The three older kids have recently taken an interest in set. Beth wanted in on the action, but was having a little trouble.
Beth: Is this a set dad?
Me: No. Two of them are hollow and one isn't.
[ Beth continues to stare at the cards for a minute, and then proudly declares ]
Beth: I think hollow means empty!
Me: [Laughing] You are right. I need to do a better job of explaining!

Retro Boy

2009-04-21T17:38:00.004-04:00

For a second, I thought I was back in the 80s. Familiar beeping and blooping. It wasn't my old arcade or Nintendo. It was my boy.

If that got you in the mood play now!!!

The world through the eyes of Beth

2009-04-17T12:56:00.003-04:00

Now that I finally finished my dissertation, the world I have denied is coming back. One of my first goals was to restart the Parent/Child dating night, where Su or I take one of the children out do to what they are interested in. I sat down with each child to discuss what their goals and interests were starting with the oldest. I almost decided to skip Beth since I wasn't so sure that she would have any opinion. Boy was I wrong.

Dad: So Beth, what is something you really want to do?
Beth: I want to throw meat to a lion.
Dad: Did you say "throw meat to a lion"?
Beth: Yes. I want to throw meat to a lion.
Dad: Hmmm. Maybe we can arrange .... that. Anything else?
Beth: I want Jesus to help me to go to sleep.
Dad: In person?
Beth: Yes.
Dad: Well, we talk to him in our prayers and I know he is watching over you while you sleep.
Beth: Yeah.
Dad: These are both quite difficult, but we will see what we can do. Any other ideas?
Beth: Ummm. I want to be healthy, do ballet, do hair ties and build a house out of bricks.
Dad: A real house?
Beth: Yeah.
Dad: Okay. This is good. We should all work on being healthy and we can definitely look into ballet. I'm not sure what doing hair ties is, but I know mom or Angela would love to do that with you. I'll look into the brick thing.
Beth: I love you dad.
Dad: I love you Beth.

Yes, the DOCTOR is in!

2009-04-17T10:43:00.003-04:00

Easter Weekend at Rob and Ang's in NC

2009-04-13T22:05:00.004-04:00

Built Like an Amazon

2009-04-13T17:31:00.002-04:00

That is, I wish I were. I've always gathered from general reading that the Amazons were big tough women warriors from the Amazon region (Brazil), real or fictionalized I didn't know. A quick wikipedia search shows I was only partly right, as they were not really from Brazil in any of the references. But today I would've been happy to be built like an Amazon (warrior) or a woman from the mouth of the Amazon River: namely my first companion and trainer, the mighty Sister Cavalcante. She was about 4'10" maybe. Sweet dimpled cheeks, never-ending patience, and podorosa (powerful) in 2 important ways 1) she could invite the spirit and invite an investigator to be baptized most powerfully and 2) she could make short work of the heavy, awkward towels, bedding, and clothing that we washed by hand each p-day. Every time I find myself ringing out a completely soaked full-sized towel I think of my mission. Today that means I was thinking about my mission a lot.

I went downstairs to start the laundry from our Easter visit to Rob and Ang's house. I was shocked and disappointed to see that the floor was covered in a thin layer of water, eerily similar to the way it would be after spring rains of years past. But last summer we'd had a sump pump installed, at no small cost/inconvenience. So I was upset to see it hadn't worked. Or hadn't it? I could hear a dripping, and following the sound I found that our furnace was leaking water in a steady stream. Finally all is under control, it has been fixed, and all but the carpet is dried.

Now to make chicken noodle soup for my sick man. Laundry will have to wait until later. But hurrah! I told Ang I'd blog first, and I have! Maybe not about Easter yet, but I don't remember saying that specifically...

Pay It Forward!

2009-03-24T18:06:00.000-04:00

Lucky you! The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
What I create will be just for you.
It’ll be done this year. {might be a little while}
You will have no clue what it’s going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or maybe even some creation I haven’t even invented yet (but Heaven knows it will most likely be totally fabulous and creative… . I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!
I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

Draper Bed and Breakfast --1 1/2 stars

2009-03-04T22:22:00.003-05:00

Sticky chairs. An old mattress on the floor. Noises at all hours of the day and night. Late meals. Endless clutter and dust. And yet they come.

Could it be the 4 excited people ages 3, 5, 8, and 10, who look foward to the arrival with such anticipation? Could it be that they see through the social blunders and realize how glad we are to have them here? Do they realize how much we enjoy the kids-finally-in-bed chatting that helps us know each other better and really catch up?

Whatever it is, we feel so very blessed for the visitors who have stopped by the Draper Bed and Breakfast, in spite of the Bed not even being in it's own basement anymore, and the breakfast consisting mainly of self-serve cold cereal!

Janine and Brian led the way by coming soon after we'd said goodbye after Christmas fun at the Outerbanks beach house (another post that may or may not materialize.) Unfortunately it was related to a lost-in-the-university-mail-system passport for Cora, but they "made the most of it" and stayed long enough to get some Sushi and play some games.

Next came my mom, followed by Angela alone with her kids. (Sorry, that's as far as I got with this post back then...)

Lily and Beth watching Cora watch Lily and Beth

2009-02-01T13:05:00.003-05:00

When will the fun stop? Beth was saying today that she really, really, really, really, really, REALLY WANTED Ellie and Cora to come visit. And that she wishes they were in our family. Obviously, extended family is not good enough.

A Whole New World-sung Ariel-Style

2009-01-29T15:19:00.002-05:00

I've been having a bit of a day. You know the days where you call one place and they can't help you and it involves thousands of dollars you'll have to lose. Then you get an email saying that things you thought you had taken care of somehow didn't get completed by people you trusted to finish them. Then you find out that your son's teacher only this week for the first time all year realized that he has a sense of humor, which really emphasizes, once again, that this teacher doesn't know or understand your child in the least.

Well, there are a lot of other things for that list, but I just wanted to post this picture. But the background was: having a not-great day, but there's something about preschoolers dancing on the kitchen table that just lifts my spirits :)

Bit of a Dream Come True

2009-01-25T21:55:00.002-05:00

I have always loved to sing. My family made fun of me for singing in the bathroom when I was tiny. My chorus class in Junior High was by far my most memorable class, especially when we had Mr. Honnaker who was as tough as a drill sergeant with us. In High School the stoner girls in the locker room asked me why I was always singing or humming. Even in college, when I visited my Nana and Papa, Nana had to remind me that it is not polite to hum during dinner (I really hadn't noticed.)

Unfortunately I don't have a great or a strong voice, and I really have a terrible ear. But because I love it so much I have tried to be in choirs wherever I can. And one of the things I have always enjoyed was singing around the piano. Then I married Tom. who has a better ear for music and the ability to remember whatever he heard just once. But he never felt like he could sing well and had really never tried. So he felt self-concious at his few efforts to sing parts and generally slid by with the least amount of singing he could get away with. (This is NOT including ditties he makes up himself for the kids, or me, for that matter.) Well, whenever I really get to hear his voice I realize what I am missing by not hearing him sing. So when Tyra started trying to sing songs from the hymnbook with me and then Tom started in, I was very excited. And now we have sung many nights together, hammering out parts as necessary, and tonight saw we three: Tyra singing soprano, me with alto, and Tom on bass singing acapella. If You Could Hie to Kolob, All Creatures of Our God and King, For the Beauty of the Earth, and I Heard the Bells. Not very exciting, I know, but I always dreamed about (okay, maybe not asleep kind of dream, but the forward-imagining kind) singing with my own little family around my piano.

Not putting "blog more" on my resolution list

2009-01-04T16:45:00.004-05:00

I simply can't. It's just not important enough to me. I've got a lot more basic things to work on here. I mean really. The ones that are right above eat, drink, sleep. Though I believe those basic things will lead me towards live, laugh, love. Which is where we want to be. So why am I blogging if it's not that important to me right now?

Ever since I came home from Thanksgiving vacation at Tom's brother's house I have been thinking about the great thing the influences of those around us can be. And specifically after extended periods of time spent with others I have noticed how I have been changed, if only nearly imperceptibly. Here's what I mean.

Most noticeably: My nothing-to-me or sister-in-law-in-law Angela. She'd be so easy to hate, if it weren't so impossible to not like her! She is a ballerina by hobby and graceful and thin as one by profession. But that's the easy-to-hate part :) So she opened her home to our family of 6, Tom's sister's family of 3, and their close friend's family of 4 all for the same week of Thanksgiving. I was amazed as we ate muffins she had baked and frozen ahead of time, ate nothing but the most perfect of gourmet meals for every dinner, with everything cooked to perfection. I was amazed and nearly appalled when I realized that she had 3 timers, not including Janine's watch, going for the Thanksgiving dinner. I tend to cook by smell: Oh! Quick! That smells done!!! or overdone, you know what I mean. I also tend to cut as many corners as I possibly can when I cook, and I have been amazed at the precision with which Angela can execute each detail in the Cook's Illustrated recipes (if you've cooked with them, you know what I mean!) This was one thing I could not get over, and the other was that she was a tireless cleaning machine! She was sweeping or wiping or doing something almost the entire time we were there. Her home looks like a magazine, even with 2 small children around. Now here's the thing, of course I'm thinking "That will never be me" and it won't, for many reasons. But when we came home I started cooking with real recipes instead of just any old ingredients I happened to find, or more like: boxes of Kraft mac n cheese. And, strangest of all: I started using my timer almost without thinking about it. And I swept my floor in the middle of the day, even though I know Tyra or Thomas would be half-heartedly doing it in the evening. May not seem like much, comparatively, but it's a start that would not be there without the influence.

This got me thinking about how my extended time with women often brings me to slow changes for the better, especially when the influence is strong. My mother-in-law, LindaMom is who next came to mind. She is a devoted nutritionist, reading up constantly on the latest research on vitamins and oils and different foods and their importance in the diet. She is really a walking Dietary Encyclopedia. And of course I thing "That will never be me" and it won't, for many reasons. But pretty much each and every time I am around her I come away automatically crushing my garlic first so it can release whatever it is that makes it so much better nutritionally before I start to cook it in my recipe, and I was looking for transfats before they were listed on the front of foods. I pop berries thinking of their antioxidants, and while I may forget much of the reasoning behind the things she has explained during our cooking during her visits, the changes slowly happen. I don't stop using the microwave, but I contemplate the least amount of time necessary to warm the food, and try to avoid the plastics to a small degree. It always amazes me how I change when I haven't made the least conscious decision to. If anything at the moment I may be deciding I may NEVER bother to do such and such or eat so and so. But there I am, sort of automatically influenced for the better.

Well, it was easy to see this with all my favorite women I hang out with for long stretches. So that includes my own Mom. Generally speaking, my mom will refer to our Heavenly Father, or the church, or the gospel, or the scriptures, or something related in every conversation at least once. When I gave her money for a birthday she called to tell me she was so excited that she'd just found some obscure Hugh Nibley book probably the only one she didn't already own. She talks about the Spirit more than your average missionary on an average day, but without noticing she's doing it. I will probably never be this constantly-aware of the most important part of life, but I know that after being around her I find myself paying attention an awful lot more, and remembering to "fall to my knees" at least a little more often.

Janine, Lisa, and Anne, your paragraphs may come later, I'm trying to post all my drafts of the last year.

Three More Days

2008-11-22T11:46:00.004-05:00

We are going down to North Carolina for Thanksgiving.

Mechanical Girl

2008-11-17T15:00:00.000-05:00

We have a way of noticing when people do something for a while with energy. I can NOT think of a word to say that, but here's what I mean: If a child seems to eat a lot more on a particular day or at a particular meal we say "You're an eating machine!" or if someone is dancing and dancing and dancing we'll say "You're a dancing machine!" or they power through 500 pages of a thick book and they are called a "reading machine."

Lily received a Build-A-Bear kit for her birthday 2 months ago which we have brought out whenever Tyra and I get out our knitting for her to work by us. It's tricky and Mom is not adept at tying knots and helping tiny fingers with a plastic needle sewing the front and back of the bear's fur together. Lily usually can handle it for around 10 minutes before needing a break for the day. But today she was clingy and needed to be on my lap and instead of reading stories I decided to see if we couldn't finish sewing up that bear. She stayed with it through well over 30 minutes. Tyra came by checking up on Lil's progress every now and then and finally towards the end she exclaimed "Wow, Lily! You're a sewing machine!"

Tyra Turns Ten

2008-11-16T22:46:00.008-05:00

Tyra never seemed excited about doing a birthday party with friends this year, so we decided not to have one. She was excited, however, to get to choose a restaurant for dinner. She chose Chinese, the buffete in Rockville with a sushi bar too. This place keeps us all happy. Tom and I mostly get the sushi. Tyra mostly eats the Lo Mein (her favorite) and Thomas went to town on the General Tsao's chicken and Beth picks around at some french fries and fried rice. She'd take one bite of most anything we offer her, say "Yum" before she'd really chewed, then say no thanks to another bite of it. But Lily was the best. She ate the mussels out of the shells, the baby octopus, the squid, etc.

Back home, I had made some cream puffs per Tyra's request. She was so sweet and encouraging when they kept getting flatter and flatter as they cooled. She told me how they were great, and she loved the chocolate pudding center and the whip cream center, etc. But she couldn't resist calling them "cream flats" instead of cream puffs. We all enjoyed that.

We played some of the games I remember enjoying when I was about Tyra's age, but that at her friend parties she has been too worried about how they'd go to want to try them. We played the Flour Game where you put a cup of flour on a plate and place an item on the top of it (an M&M would be better than the penny I used since I remembered that from my day.) Then you take turns making single cuts, top to bottom, until it the item falls, and the person who made it fall has to get it out with no hands.
We also played the Candy Bar Game: A hershey's bar is placed in a baking pan with 2 socks and 1 or 2 butter knives. Then you roll a die and if you get a 6 you get to put on the socks and try to open the candy bar and cut off a piece and eat it before someone else rolls a 6. I don't know how Tom managed, but he ate almost all of it. He always has been good at games :)

The Candy Conflict

2008-11-16T10:17:00.002-05:00

Two weeks after Halloween, our children still have candy. In this phase of candy consumption, most on the "good" candy is gone, so the "bad" candy is slowly being consumed out of a sense of duty. Last year we resolved this by requiring each child to throw away one piece of candy each time they ate one piece of candy. This unfortunately requires a lot of policing and reminding, and I did not feel up to the task this year.

DISLAIMER: I must say the the following was performed without the supervision of my wife (she was babysitting for a friend this evening). While she may like the results, she often doesn't condone my methods.

So how to get rid of the candy? This year I came up with a bold new idea. I asked Su to buy a bunch of the good candy that was cheap after Halloween. Here was the deal: no one got to partake of the new candy, until they relinquished their rights to their Halloween candy and turned it all in to the authorities (me). Of course, Tyra and Thomas mocked my plan and declared they would never give in, even after I ate five Reeses in a row. Lily was convinced that she would do whatever Tyra was doing.

That left Beth. That poor girl's candy supply had suffered the most from parental and sibling raiding already. So she correctly determined that it was a win for her. She declared that she would turn in her candy, even as Tyra was proclaiming, "Don't give in Beth! It is just a trick! You will lose all of your candy!" Instead of chewing old bubble gum and sucking on Smarties, Beth was now feasting on an assortment of chocolate bars.

"Would you like another Reeses Beth? How about a Three Musketeers? You can have as many as you want on the day you turn in your candy." So Beth feasted and feasted. Yes, I know this isn't great, but I was hoping this was only a one day affair. Within a half an hour, the cracks started to appear. Tyra approached me and asked, "Can I trade some of my candy for the good stuff?" "No." "But I have some good candy that I don't want to lose!" "Then eat it now, and then turn in your bucket." Beth came up and asked for another Reeses, which I happily provided. "Dad! You're killing me!", Tyra proclaimed.

At this point, Tyra and Thomas each sat down with their buckets and started eating. At first they enjoyed it, but by the tenth piece of candy they were each slowing down. Thomas said, "Dad, I don't want to eat all my candy right now." "Then don't.", I replied. "But I don't want you to eat it all." "Then don't give it to me." "But I want some of the new candy." So again I reminded him of the deal, and told him to decide which candy was better, his candy or my candy. "Your candy.", he muttered under his breath. He ate a couple pieces more and then said, "Fine. I give up. Here's my candy.", and dumped the remainder of his candy into my bag. After eating a Reeses or two, I asked him if he wanted any more. "No. I feel sick.", he replied.

Tyra was dying. Reeses were one of her favorites and everyone was "enjoying" them except for her. She knew the end was near. She had a couple more choice pieces and then turned in her candy. She also ate 2-3 Reeses and then "hit the wall". Yes, we were all close to a sugar coma at this point. Lily came in and couldn't believe that her heroine had caved. She was prepared for a long drawn out engagement. "I thought you weren't turning in you candy!", she scolded Tyra. Tyra responded with a shrug. "OK, then I am turning in my candy.", Lily declared. Since Lily didn't eat any of her candy before turning it in, she enjoyed eating the new candy bars much more than her siblings.

Game over! No more private stashes of candy. No more endless sucking of lolipops, jolly ranchers, lifesavers, etc. Just four kids sick from eating candy.

How to stop your parents from stealing your Halloween candy

2008-11-11T16:03:00.002-05:00

Like most parents, I enjoy secretly raiding my children's Halloween candy each night after they have gone to sleep. You just take a little here and a little there. They don't seem to notice if you take things slow. You are just helping them, right? They don't need that much sugar, right?

Well, a couple of days after Halloween, after the parent's supply of candy had run out, I went hunting. I pulled out Thomas' Halloween bucket and noticed a folded piece of paper on top. "What this?", I thought, slowly unfolding the paper. I was a little surprised to see an itemized list of the contents of the bucket, which looked as if it had been updated and re-inventoried each day after minor candy consumption.

I showed it to Susan and we had a good laugh. She had already seen it. Twice. Neither of us dared take anything. I wonder if that would have worked on my mom?

Beth's After-Halloween Song and Dance

2008-11-01T11:15:00.004-04:00

Tell Dad That

2008-10-16T14:02:00.003-04:00

I could write the letter K.
I walked all the way home from the lake.
I unlocked the back door.
I washed my hair in the shower.
I rolled my tape on the first try.

After Lily said "Tell Dad that" for the 5th (at least) time today I told her we better write down all the things she'd done for the first time today. We decided to write it here rather than just on a piece of paper that will get lost.

Cuter than than the AAA guy

2008-10-02T13:07:00.002-04:00

For Joyschool I took the 4 kids over to Greenbelt National Park for a nature hike, as our new unit is on the Joy of the Earth. We had a fantastic time, even with my fire not really starting (I only brought a glossy magazine insert for paper which mostly just turned to ash without making much of a flame, and the wood was still pretty damp from all the rain we've been getting lately) and the kids were darling. They loved looking through their nature viewers we'd made on Monday at any thing someone would point out as particularly interesting. We saw some neat fungi, ferns with spores on the back, mushrooms, bugs, a worm, etc. Anyway, I was cutting it pretty close to time to return home in time for the boys to be picked up at noon when another lady by our van told me that my front tire looked pretty flat. Sure enough. I contemplated for about 5 seconds the merits of changing it to the spare on my own, confident that I could yet equally confident that it would not be quick or easy. Then I happily remembered that this was Tom's day to stay around the house and help me out in any way that popped into my head. Um, I mean, it was his school day, and it was possible that he would be home.

He got there in less time than it took me to get the kids out of the van and start swinging them on the swingset nearby. He had brought the bike pump and told me to load the kids in while he pumped it up. And a minute after that we were driving back home in plenty of time to meet up with the other moms. As I was driving off I looked at Tom and called out the window "You're cuter than the triple A guy would be!" which sparked Beth to say "I just love Dad" with an emotional sigh, "I just love how he pumps up the tire so fast." then Lily added "I love Dad because he's the best Dad in the whole world!" with a similar emotional not-quite sighing voice. He is loved. And needed. And we DO try to let him get his dissertation done when he's home, but he IS a lot cuter than a AAA guy!

My First Race (Sorry Dad, Watermelon Run doesn't count!)

2008-09-28T22:13:00.005-04:00

I do not enjoy competition. I like to win, but I don't like in any way to have a lot of people look at me or fuss about me because I won, so I don't gravitate towards competitive things. Kind of like the opposite of my sweet hubby. (I can't believe I just called Tom that. I would never call him "my sweet hubby" to his face. It's just a computer thing. Sort of like calling him a DH. It's maybe slightly better but also slightly less well-known, and if you have to explain the whole "Dear Husband" meaning for your shortcut, it's soon not worth it. But DH is still better than sweet hubby. The main thing I call him is Tom.) So, Tom is pretty competitive. Since he's not really competitive with me I can say he's the good kind, the kind that gets him up at 6:00 am just to try to beat another person at racquetball. And now that he's started running he's very much trying to improve as quickly as possible in speed and distance, and is very aware of how fast others run--others he talks to who run, Olympians, etc., not actual other runners around the lake. I have been running off and on since a teen and I never even sat down to figure out what a good speed was in a 5k. I've just run for the fun of it, and often for the exercise of it. Which brings me to why at 36, though I've been running all this time, I have just now completed my first* race.

I don't like pain, and the pain of pushing yourself to your absolute limit just to see how fast you are has never appealed to me. But somewhere in the beginning of this year with starting up running as a geezer I started reading up on running to avoid injuries, mostly, and along the way I got interested in things like form, pacing, heart rate numbers, etc. Also, having a treadmill really put the numbers into running. Suddenly I wasn't just running a preplanned, in my head route, I was looking at hundredth miles tick past, speed, incline, pace, time elapsed,etc., and it became natural to try to improve in terms of numbers. Now when I say "try to improve" I don't mean I've ever really gotten serious, and I'm still doing well to run 3x/week, I haven't come close to starting an actual training regimen with hills or speed work. But I like the idea which is new for me.

And to my race. I had just posted about the perimeter trail run on Monday and was getting mentally ready to start trail running more when Tom came home from racquetball on Tues. morning and told me that Vecna, the company where his racquetball buddy works, was hosting a 5K run that Saturday, and that he thought I should run it. I decided to try to do a not-quite-my-best at the lake that day to see what my race pace should be. I ended up running it in just under 27 minutes which was encouraging to me because I always just run a 10 minute mile for around an hour. I thought I'd take off a day then run again easier on Thurs. and then do the race Sat. morning. That was not taking into account the fact that I didn't really warm up or cool down after my practice race and my legs were KILLING me the rest of the week. Really beating me up, with every step! So I didn't run at all anymore. And I left Saturday to decide itself by way of how rainy it would be. Ended up just incredibly super duper humid. Too bad I was too self-conscious to wear the ultra-light running shorts Tom had bought me and I went with my thick cotton yoga capris. It was the first time I've run where I could feel the weight of them.

At the race was Vecna's owner and founder Debbie who did Joyschool with me and Thomas. I hate her. She was wearing her 4th baby who was just 2 months old and looking like a total model girl. She's really nice, but I sure hated her when I realized she was not wearing a number to do the 2.4 mile walk, but that she was going to run. She's awesome. I'm sad they had to move to Boston to start up another Vecna site. Anyway, the run was all official with clips for our shoes to track our time. I started out running by Dana Bearman and her daughter Emma, Debbie Theobold and Allison Watson, but knew I didn't want to just be chatting like I had been in the Watermelon Run with Dad this summer. So I soon just went a little bit ahead of them to not be listening to Debbie chat with her sister (yes, SHE could chat, I had no breath for it, see why I have to hate her!) and figuring that they'd just pass me later. Surprisingly they didn't, I don't think any of them were taking it very seriously. As for me, I was going for my best under the sore-legs, haven't-trained circumstances. My favorite part of the run was seeing my sweet family surprise me at the half-way point at Lake Artemesia. That gave me a little boost. I enjoyed the run, and my only regret was that I didn't stay focused very well, there were many times that I realized I was not even thinking about my running, but was off in la-la land and probably not running as fast as I should, and then I hadn't realized that they were moving the starting rug (that clocks your time in the shoe clip) up closer, because that whole area was around many curves so I couldn't visually see the right time to put in the final kick. So I ended up cranking it up way too late and I missed my practice time by 20 minutes. So it took me 27:21 which is a pace of 8:49. I have to be happy. It was better than I'd've guessed a week earlier, if you'd asked, yet gives me plenty of chances to get PR's in pretty much every 5K I run for the next couple years! For the record I was 59th out of 102 and 2nd female in the 30-39 age group. When I talked to my mom after she'd talked to Tom she said "congratulations on winning!" and I told her how it really was she said "Leave it to Tom to figure out how you're a winner!" (I guess he'd said I was first in my age group or something, which is true if you mean women 35-39!!)

Greenbelt Park Perimeter Trail or 5.3 miles of Pleasure

2008-09-22T14:19:00.002-04:00

Ever since my run in California where I got semi-lost in the canyons near our apt in La Jolla I have wanted to try running trails again. Of course you always hear that asphalt is the worst thing to run on (besides sidewalks, but who runs on sidewalks? Where there is sidewalk, there is road) but I've been happy to get off my treadmill and run around the asphalted every .2 miles marked 1.35 mile track around Lake Artemesia. And I do love that run, it's beautiful. It just requires going around 5 times to get in an hour of run time. So I finally searched this morning for running trails in College Park area and was so happy to see that Greenbelt Park has a trail that goes around it's entire perimeter, not just the little 1 mile trails we usually do as a family. I was unsure how much time it would take to run 5.3 miles of true trail stuff, but it was just under an hour like my lake runs, so that's good news. I didn't see anyone on the trail the whole way around but I felt very safe. I almost ran into a deer, or at least it felt like it, since the deer only moved about 10 feet away when I came running up, and then it just kept staring at me. It was beautiful. The trail was so fun to run, and now I know why in Chi Running it says that trail running is the best for working on your form, especially to learn how to pick up your feet instead of pushing off with them. I've been running the Middle School track last week during Joyschool and my calves were getting tight, and staying tight after running. They feel better now after my trail run than they did before I started. Amazing. Something so kid-like in bobbing around over roots and rocks and stuff. Much more fun to run. At least for now, it's something new, and I like it. So if you want a fun run leave your kids with me and go take an hour at the perimeter trail, you'll love it!

Lily Turns Five!

2008-09-16T17:38:00.003-04:00

What a beautiful peacemaker is my Lillian Regina Severina Draper! She has been my cheerleader for 5 years now, and I'm not sure I'd be here today if it weren't for her. Even before she could talk very much she could see Mommy crying when things got hard with her little baby sister (for example one of those days when all 4 kids from Baby Beth to 6 year old Tyra all had the flu and ear infections at the same time and Mom might have just sat down for a minute with the baby crying in her arms and started to cry herself,) and Lily not yet 2 would come up and give me loves and smiles to cheer me up. And when Thomas started Kindergarten and I would bike around with them in the trailer behind me and the going up Pontiac would get tough Lily would say "Keep going Momma! You can do it!" Then there was the encouragement when Lily was potty training and anytime she would see me in the bathroom she'd be really proud of me doing my business "Good job Mommy! I hear your peepee!"

Lately Lily's encouragement comes in ways she can find to help Momma. She is constantly asking "Are you so glad I made my bed and Beth's bed this morning so you don't have to?" or "Doesn't it make you so happy that I stirred the dinner together so well for you?" etc., and I must say, it's the sweetest little voice in that positive tone that does indeed make me so happy. She has been a natural optimist from the start. I never tire of hearing her talking to herself, Beth, or even me "It's okay, it doesn't have to be perfect." or "We just try our best, so it's okay." And tons of other such comments. She's better than my cd's I bought a few years ago to help me with my own internal speaking that is not exactly optimistic!

And now Lily is 5. I am so glad that she missed the cutoff date for Kindergarten and that I get to have her with Beth and me for one more year. So for her (last minute, I'm afraid) birthday party she invited Anya from down the street, Harper from primary, Camille a family friend, and Josh and Kamari from Joyschool. We just played "Dance and Freeze" a game Lily loves to play, made sugar cookies, played with the parachute, played "I had a little doggie", and hit the Dora piñata. I had a lot of fun decorating my first 3 layer cake and was super happy with how it turned out, considering I used real butter instead of shortening in the frosting and the bottom layer completely fell apart as I was positioning it on the foil. Anne asked for the frosting recipe and it was 1 lb powd. sugar, 1/2 cup barely soft butter, 1 tsp vanilla, just under 1/3 c milk (take some out at this point for roses as they need the stiffest consistency) then add the rest of the 1/3 c milk to make it best for spreading and writing and borders. You may need up to 1 1/2 tbsp more milk.

♪It's All Happening At the Zoo♫

2008-09-15T14:26:00.003-04:00

What a perfect day for the zoo. When we invited Dorey and Lily to Lily's birthday party Joy said they couldn't make it, but suggested we do our long-awaited, oft-spoken of trip to the National Zoo on Friday to at least let them get together. Starting out, Joy has been my friend since Jr. High Chorus. We both wore the most hideous homemade black-and-white gingham jumpers as we gave concerts back then. We stayed in touch when I moved from Utah to California by way of countless "notes" sent as letters with lots of song lyrics written in the margins. When I went to BYU we hung out all freshman year when she and our other friend (third of the Larryetta, Curlyetta, and Moetta trio) moved into Heritage Halls with me. We did a lot of stupid but fun things until her missionary became a returned missionary and came home and whisked her away from us. We forgive him, though we missed her. From there we stayed in touch sporadically, with a few visits during said RM's training in DC, to us visiting them in California. But then I got an Christmas card that said that not only had Joy had their 3rd child within days of my having my 4th child, but that she was now living 45 minutes away in VA. Well, after getting that card I was quite sure we'd be seeing each other quite often. Instead we've seen each other quite regularly, as in once each year ☺ But I've got to say, it is so fun to have my girls love her girls just as much as I've loved Joy. They are very sweet and amazingly enough, all 4 girls seem able to get along quite well. Within minutes of saying goodbye at the end of our time together at the zoo my Lily said "I miss Dorey and Lily, I wish they lived by us." Here are a bunch of pictures of our trip, from the metro trip on (riding the metro is a good 25% of the fun.)
Oh, and all the animal pictures are for our animal booklet, it's actually the first time I've take animal pictures as opposed to kid pictures which may or may not include animals at the zoo.

Things you wish you could type besides ":)"

2008-09-12T16:48:00.002-04:00

I don't know how I didn't ever know that there is a whole amazing world under my number keys. I was trying to write a comment on my sister's blog and really wished I could put in musical notes to make it obvious that the quote was from a song, you know, like this ♪ or ♫. The smarty-pants sent me to this link
I'm still amazed that it's that easy! Now to find out how well it actually shows up in different programs. Thanks Lis!

Do you like bedtime?

2008-09-11T13:45:00.000-04:00

I have never liked bedtime. The sweet ritual of bath, story, prayers, and a goodnight kiss is sooo not the whole story. First of all yelling at kids to "Listen to the scriptures!" as the wiggle and poke each other can get us off to a bad start. Add to that the fact that I NEVER seem to get bedtime started in advance enough to get 4 baths in, so there's guilt that the poor filthy kids have to settle with a quick wipe down of the stickiest parts, mostly hands and faces. Then there's how we have to make sure we get the right toothpaste on the right brushes. Often there's the putting away all the dress-up clothes and accessories so I can walk injury-free in the middle of the night when someone needs me. Then pajamas, but wait, first Beth needs cream for her itchy skin. Then we determine if there's even time for a story. Finally after everyone is tucked in there is the final hugs which require constant reminders of my threat to not give a hug the next night if I get stuck in a neck-hold (? what do I mean?) while hugging them (they love to hold me so tight I can't get back up from leaning over, trying to get the longest hug they can.)

Beth said "I can't see anything. And that's going to make me have nightbears. The bear will be grabbing at me, and roaring at me, and wiggling at me! And I'll be so scared!" Well, it's really fun now that TnT are old enough to get the cute stuff that Beth and Lily say. Tyra just loved that "nightbears" comment of Beth's, she couldn't stop giggling!

So after the lights are out, and I'm sitting by the crib or Lily's bed I do a few yoga spine-lengthening stretches (okay, I try to de-slump for a minute.) I feel relaxed. Then, because there hasn't been any noise or movement for a little while I quietly get up to leave. That's when "I'm hungry" "I want to sleep with Sharky" "I need to go to the bathroom" and especially "I'm really, really, thirsty" seems to crop up. I just love that. Then after I do finally get done with LnE I still have TnT who have been reading during this time, mostly. Now if there is a more likely time for Tyra to get upset about something Thomas does or says it is right at bedtime. And it there is a moment that Thomas is going to mention that he doesn't want to grow up and that he's scared or worried of anything (we won't list the things, as they are a little more personal in nature than "nightbears") it is at this time. Though I like the individual moments with any one of the kids, they are usually interrupting each other (for example Thomas may be read to talk about Heavenly Father while Tyra is howling about her outrage over something he said earlier, and Beth is up for the 3rd time to go to the bathroom and needs a wipe cuz it's #2. Then no one's getting quality time, and no one's really getting much closer to sleep! I still have visions of no cribs or bunk beds or children sleeping on the floor. No just 4 twin beds in 3 or 4 bedrooms. And I go from sitting at the foot of one bed to the next as I hear the joys and sorrows of each child's day, help them settle into sleep and prepare them for the next morning. But when Tom is gone (or when he's home but on the phone or doing his dissertation anyway,) it's just not the way things usually go.
You know, I just love bedtime, don't you?

p.s. I was starting this when Tom was gone, things are looking up a bit now that we're in our school-days routine. And really there is something so sweet about those snuggle kids. I sure do love them!

Joyschool, or "Why Do I Need Someone?"

2008-09-08T13:31:00.002-04:00

Hurrah! Our Joyschool is officially running, as today was day one of week two and everyone is still on board to do it, and the kids are still happy. Last year I really wanted to do Joyschool with Lily, but could not find enough people to do it (one other mom wanted to do it IF we could find at least one other mom to do it with us, which we couldn't, so we didn't.) I kept thinking that I should just go ahead and do it with Lily anyway, since I had all the curriculum from when I did it with Thomas 4 years earlier. But I didn't. I really LOVE Joyschool, and I knew Lily would LOVE it, but I didn't. And if that surprises you, then you have obviously never been around me or even heard of me before reading this post. I just couldn't make myself pull a lesson together for my darling girl.

So last spring I VOWED that I was doing Joyschool this fall, no matter what, and I talked to and emailed all the mom's in my ward and the surrounding wards looking for anyone who'd like to join. Not one person wanted to do it who lived close enough or had kids the right age. So I was planning on doing it solo with LnE when I came home from California. Then I got an email from someone I didn't know from the ward who shares our building. She wanted to do it with me. We started some plans, then she decided on doing just Monday together (it's supposed to be a 2x/wk program) Either way I was excited because I knew that even just having a "reckoning" on Mondays would help keep me on track and doing the lessons more than having no one but my sweet too-forgiving daughters to be accountable to. At the last minute another mom who'd wanted to do it but was worried she lived too far away decided to do it with us. And now after a LOT of back-and-forth about how and when everything would work we are all up and running. I taught the first 2 weeks, and the kids seemed to really enjoy the lessons and activities and songs and playing together. And I feel like the mom I always meant to be :) I'm just not sure why I always need someone else to get me to that point. But I'm glad I have someone.

Side note about the cookies. Lily said she thought Beth's "gingerbread"man looked like an alien with alien eyes. I quickly said that Beth had done a great job and it looked nice. To stop Lily from protesting and continuing, possibly hurting Beth's feelings I quickly shushed her by whispering in her ear that her's looked so perfect. She smiled big and became very magnanimous toward Beth saying "You made a perfect alien Beth! It's a really perfect alien with eyes like that." Luckily Beth was happy with that and said "Yes! Mine is a Alien!"

Dancin' (NOT Kissin') Cousins!

2008-08-22T13:24:00.010-04:00

What a great time T,T, L, and E had with their cousins this summer! I wasn't sure what to expect with all the forced (for them) get togethers, as their track record is spotty at best. But wow was I pleasantly surprised! They seemed to enjoy every single chance they had to play with cousins wherever we went. My photos from the summer are in various locations and will take a while to get all together here, but I'll just keep uploading them here as I get them. So if you're a cousin or relative who cares you may want to check back to this post. But here's what we have from the last week or so of our California vacation.

Beth and Carson while camping in the Sequoias

Beth and Seth, unusually clean for the camping trip.

Beth, Abby, Lil, and Kate the morning after their sleepover.

Carson (sporting his ice pack), Noah, T n T in the K'Nex.

Luke and Tyra waiting for BBQ at Ron and Annie's.

T, E, Kyla, and L waiting for the BBQ.

I loved watching my girls play with cars and firetrucks and whatnot with their cousins, I'd been a little worried before we came out that it might be tough for them to play, but they had lot's of fun.
When we had all the kids in Anne's van it was a chaos to defy all chaos. But I never got any good footage of the crazyness. But here's a bit of the kids rockin' out to Anne's tunes.

Forever in Peace May She Wave

2008-08-20T11:53:00.000-04:00

Hi guys, in case you forgot, this blog is for me, and so rather than work on making my old drafts correct for the moment, I'm going to try to get their pictures added in and just post. The only things I'll add here are that Tyra recited the preamble to the constitution (thanks to Tom encouraging her to memorize it, thanks to Tom's uncle Terry encouraging all his relatives to memorize it.) Also Thomas recited the names of all the presidents in order, so that's what the pictures are when they are standing next to "George Washington." We also have pictures of wheelbarrow and 3-legged races, which don't include TnT as they refused. But they did join in our little parade singing She's A Grand Old Flag. Lily and Beth enjoyed the races and other American games. In the middle picture, holding the flag, is my counselor, Rebekah Barnes, who came to Thomas' baptism with her family. Unfortunately that was because she was in Provo to start BYU. Yes, I currently have no counselors, but am just glad that the summer workers --husband's selling security systems or pest control-- were willing and able to stand in for me all summer long and did a great job.

Yesterday was Flag Day, and the day of our Primary's Patriotic Picnic. As you will see as I begin to blog the last while to catch up from when our modem broke down, things have been pretty hectic with the end of school and many other great activities. I was feeling like the quarterly Activity Day was the last thing to prepare for before I really got down to packing and getting ready for California. (Really I had thought about Father's Day in passing here and there, but never really clamped it down in my to-do part of my brain. So it wasn't until hours after the activity that I realized I needed to get moving for Father's Day prep!)

Before We Even Left

2008-08-11T12:47:00.003-04:00

I guess this summer was just bound to be fantastic. We even had a great time in Maryland for the week and a half before we left. We had our great friends the Pullins' come to visit and catch up on the many years since they left our ward. And I had a fun time taking the kids to Wheaton Regional Park, many closer smaller parks, the Old Maryland Farm, and the Maryland Science Center. Here are the pictures of the Maryland Science Center and our weekend with Brandt and Lori Pullins:

Fantastic Summer

2008-07-14T01:09:00.003-04:00

I've got a couple of catch up posts started but I keep getting so overwhelmed with the billions of things to write about that happened since June 1. So I'll just wait till later and write a quick note saying how much we have all been enjoying our summer in So. Cal. We have not had more than a half-day of down time at home, but it has been a great thing, since we've been visiting family and friends along with doing things like Sea World, the Beach, and Children's museums. My steam is definitely waning, and I feel like I used to feel at midnight by 9pm. But then I can wake up before Tom goes to work and go run in the canyon that's less than a mile away. Even now I'm super tired and want to get in a trip to Sea World before Anne & Co. get here tomorrow around noon. So I'll do pictures later.

Falling off the treadmill

2008-06-01T22:22:00.002-04:00

No, I didn't fall off my treadmill literally, but I sure fell off the wagon, which was my treadmill running, when I got a bad cold a few weeks ago. I was so very surprised when I finally tried to do a regular run again 1 1/2 weeks later how incredibly out of shape I felt! I had read in my running books that when you take off time for whatever reason, injury, sickness, etc., you need to allow yourself double the time you take off to get back up to the same running fitness level. That sounded so weird to me when I had read it. But boy has it rung true as I've had to run shorter distances and work my way back up!

Funny thing is, when I read this in the books I thought immediately of my piano playing days, back when I was practicing up to 3 hours/day. I certainly felt a noticeable difference in my fingers if I ever missed 2 days in a row. Well, we are borrowing Tom's cousin's digital piano and when I sat down to play it for the first time once the kids were in bed I was so happy to be able to play and play with no one listening (partly because of the noise I make, partly because of the mistakes I make) that I ended up playing for over 1 1/2 hours. I was not surprised to feel how out of shape my hands and fingers were in playing well and smoothly, but it did surprise me to feel they were actually sore like muscles will be when worked more than usual.

Since I'd just had this experience on the piano right before the experience on the treadmill, I found myself contemplating the "falling of the wagon" idea and wondering what other things people have felt this phenomenon with. I have 2 sisters-in-law (well, one of them is a nothing-to-me :) --love you Ang!) who took years and years of ballet. I can easily imagine that being something that you would feel the difference between just a few days of not practicing vs. being really off the wagon for a while. Then I thought about another sister of mine and wondered if baking daily as she does creates a fine-tuned feeling that could be lost after a long period of no baking :) So my question to you, my readers, is this: What is something that you have done to such a degree as to feel the difference in fine-tuning when you stop for a short break and then it's even worse when you take a longer break from it?

My last thought, and why I'm actually putting these thoughts in a post is that in reading over the conference issue of the Ensign I've been reading the talks (3 in a row there) on testimonies and feeling the Holy Ghost. It made me think of times I've definitely been "practicing" more, and hence could feel the immediate effects of a short break: When I was in my senior year at BYU I was taking advantage of the Sunday School Scripture Study at Six am to get myself up and going each morning before my student teaching. I'll never forget the one day I missed it for sleeping in. I was walking across the busy campus and when someone cut me off abruptly where I was walking only to move very slowly in front of me I felt such an irritation that it caught me off guard. At that time, being in regular practice, I was certainly used to such occasions (which of course are plentiful for a chronically late procrastinator on a large busy campus) and my usual, unthinking response was always a calm and peace. It took me a minute or two to realize that I hadn't read my scriptures and had a good prayer to ask for the spirit for the day. When you're fine-tuned every little adjustment is noticed. I'm sad to report that I've had such a long break from this level of fitness that it almost seems impossible. Comparing spiritual fitness to the truly physical counterparts can help me believe in it, even when it feels like I'm not sure that regular prayer and scripture study can bring me that level of peace and calm. I just have to compare my attempts at spiritual fitness to pre-treadmill attempts to physical fitness, and pre-digital piano scattered attempts at practicing my music, for they both did not avail physical fitness, nor musical fitness. And with that I need to go get fit in more ways than my treadmill can offer (though it is a great place for thought and meditation.)

Mulberry bushes: Part 2

2008-05-31T15:32:00.003-04:00

Well, we went out in the neighborhood to try to pick as many mulberries as we could, Lily and Beth picking all ours and hearing they were easy to grow, and hard to kill. When we started out, we could tell it was going to rain. When we got on the move, Thomas boosted ahead -- just to make a wrong turn and have us yell to him for about 20 seconds until he turned around. Then it started to rain -- make that pour. There was very little mulberry trees. The first tree had good, low branches and tons of good, ripe berries. But with the next trees, well we weren't so lucky. They either had lots of berries way up high, or had few berries. In one place Lily asked if we could eat 'those' berries. They were wild strawberries which we found out later that they were wood strawberries. We picked as many as we could without getting into poison ivy -- which was about 4 or5. At one point it was raining so hard that we would get drenched if we didn't find shelter -- quick. Luckily Tyra found a long skinny slide that hid us from the rain. The kids were interested when they saw a stream that on a regular day there was no water, but now water was fighting fiercely to get downstream. Thomas started saying "I want to go home -- no, I want to be at home already!" When the question of going to Pops Park or not these were the answers: Tyra "Lets go to the park!" Thomas "No! I want to go home!" Lily "I want to go to Pops Park!". We ended up going to the park to try to pick more mulberries. Half of the time Tyra, Lily and Beth were diving into the mulberry bush to pick berries, the other half they huddled underneath the three-way slide to show how many berries they picked. Once we got home we were thoroughly drenched and exhausted, but be had tons of berries. It filled up half a big ziplock bag!
~Tyra D.

Here we go round the mulberry bush

2008-05-30T14:46:00.001-04:00

So, 10 years of living here and I'm finally eating the fruit off my trees! I guess because early on when our neighbor was walking through our backyard showing us poison ivy and other things she pointed to a tree and said "oh, those are terrible, they're so hard to kill and they make a mess." So I never paid them much attention until Tyra came home from her field trip (they walked over to Greenbelt National Park) where a ranger had them eat mulberries off the trees. As she was describing them I said hey! I've been looking at these berries every time I'm on the treadmill, come see if those are they. She said they were. I was still scared to eat them though, it's just not worth getting poisoned, if there's a look-alike or something. Luckily at baseball the same day (yesterday) Tyra was telling me she saw a mulberry tree and just as I was saying, are you sure? look at the leaves, are they the same, don't just look at the fruit, all worried to let her just start eating them one of the dads on the bleachers reached up and picked a handful and popped them in his mouth. Unfortunately I couldn't encourage my girls to pick them still because they were in dresses ready to take off to a baptism. Beth's jumper was ruined with the juices (well, we'll see what oxiclean can do.) Anyway, then today I finally started eating them at the playground when a mother said "I used to eat them all the time when I was little." I was surprised at how good they were. I have spent a pretty penny to get raspberries and blackberries at the store, and these were just as tasty IMO. They aren't sour, just sweet and good. So now I'm wondering, what other free-growing things are there out there I should be eating? I remember working with a girl from Idaho who said she used to sit in the back of her dad's truck and jump out to cut wild asparagus growing on the side of the road for their dinner. All I remember as a kid eating from wild plants were the desert weeds that grew in the cracks of the sidewalk and road and the little "fruits" were tiny round green things we called cheesies. Anyone know what those were? Anyone know of any other yummy wild things to look out for? And don't say mushrooms, I'd never dare try, though we get those often too!

How did we live without the internet? I've already found mulberry recipes, and satisfied myself that though there are many mulberry hybrids, there are no poisonous look-alikes. ALSO: here's a link to the cheesies I was talking about.

AFA Action Alerts

2008-05-30T10:36:00.002-04:00

Somewhere a long time ago I managed to get signed up for the American Family Association's Action Alerts. They only come into my yahoo account, which is mostly junk, but they usually manage to catch my attention as something I find important. What they do is email you when there is something that you can do to help to make a difference in preserving family values. For example they'll automatically set you up to email your representative or congressman or whoever is appropriate when bills are being voted on regarding religion, gay rights, pornography, and other things like that. So it's easy to email or call or whatever with your own voice saying "please don't take the words "under God" from this or that plaque, or whatever. My favorite part, besides it being so easy, it that they also email you to tell you the results. Sometimes they say "we're still boycotting proctor and gamble, they will not listen" but very often they include a letter from the corporation saying "thank you for your input, we will make a change for our customers"etc., or mention what happened with a bill that was being voted on. So you know how things went. I just went to their website for the link and it's a bit messy, but all you have to do is click on the part that is for the action alerts on the right hand side. Not every issue is one I feel the need to be a part of, but it's such an easy way to make a difference.

One Week Ago

2008-05-25T18:23:00.000-04:00

We drove our 6 hours down to Winston-Salem to visit with Janine and Brian (okay, mostly Cora, but them too.) This time we got to visit with Rob and Angela (okay, mostly Ellie and our first visit with Elijah), and even Mike came out early so he could be in on the sibling reunion. It was so fun and crazy. I didn't take many pictures, and I'll have to get a copy of this picture that has everyone together at the pretty more-like-a-campground-than-a-park park where we had a picnic. One of my favorite things (besides holding my darling neice and nephew) were watching my girls play so much and so well with Ellie. Last summer it seemed to be a little harder for them to interact, being younger. This time they were all up on the social skills, and another thing I liked, Ellie was not going to get pushed around by my sweet little Beth. So often I have to feel bad for, and stick up for other little kids Beth's playing with because she's a little tough. But Ellie is faster and could run away with a toy that was being "discussed" when necessary. So the main thing I had to feel bad about was Saturday morning when Beth woke up at her usual 6:50 am and I said "Do you want to come into our bed?" She said no and quietly went out the door, closing it behind herself. I assumed she'd go down to the toyroom and play since that's what she'd usually do other times we visited. About an hour later I heard her open the door and announce "That's my family" to Ellie who was standing behind her. "How cute" I thought, they're already playing together. Little did I suspect that Beth had made a beeline to Rob and Angela's room, opening the door and announcing "It's wake up time!" and refusing to leave until Rob got up and put a show on for her. Ellie woke up soon afterwards and then I believe it was the two of them kept going in and out of Janine and Brian's room to check on Cora. So, while I enjoyed my extra hour of sleep, the pleasure was short lived when I realized what it had cost the rest of the adults in the house, especially those with nursing babies!
So this picture of Janine was just to show the ever-amazing sister-in-law. I used to always be amazed at how well she could take care of all my kids, but somehow thought "maybe it'll be different when she has her own." Here's proof to the contrary, she's holding Cora while helping all her other neices and nephews with the marble racing set. She has the best teaching tone of anyone I know besides my husband, and my dad. Strong similarity there around kids.

And this picture on the awesome couch that can always fit one more, includes cousin Molly who always takes a little time out from her own crazy schedule to come visit when we come down. She's great and great fun. By the way Molly thanks so much for lending us the digital piano, it is PERFECT, I absolutely LOVE the peace and quiet, and the kids love not being told to get off the piano all the time. Tom's got it set up with 2 headphones so they can still play together, or Tom can come and listen while I'm practicing at 10pm and still not bothering the kids. So thanks again!

Anyway, that was last week, but a million years ago! Rob and Ang are in Georgia, Mikey is off on a YA trip and J & B are in Mexico for the summer. We're just having a fun weekend which I'll post about later.

Last Concert of the School Year

2008-05-24T17:57:00.006-04:00

What a difference we noticed between the winter concert and this spring concert! Tyra did play first, and we were all there in time to see her. Then Tom raced out while the next group was coming up so that we didn't have to feel bad about Lily, Beth, and Thomas all making whiny noises while the other parents were trying to listen to their own kids. It sure made it enjoyable for me to just sit and watch! It seems the titles don't come through anywhere, though I label them, so here are the names of the songs: Rumble in the Jungle, Old MacDonald had a Band, and Let's Go Band. Very fun to have Tyra playing Let's Go Band already, and it sounds more melodic like the way I remember it from all the school games when she's just practicing at home.

You Know Those People Who...

2008-05-21T21:45:00.002-04:00

Are always doing cool things you think you should be doing but are afraid to try? Well, sometimes those people are failing in just the ways you're afraid you might, but at least they tried!

About a month ago Tyra came home and told me that Ms. Bastio was going to get some shad eggs for the kids to help hatch in their classroom, and then to be released into the Anacostia River. When I heard this I thought, "What a great teacher [and she is], I would never tackle such a project as a teacher! It sounds intimidating and possibly complicated to set up and do." Well, Tyra was very excited about it, and told me about them each day. Apparently the eggs were clear while alive, but if they died they became cloudy-white. The students used pipettes to remove the dead eggs from the large tank. One morning while I was in the classroom I asked her if I could look into the huge barrel and running water hose contraption in the back of the room. Ms Bastio came over with me and said under her breath "I'm so afraid they're all dead or dying, we can't see anything hatching yet!" Then that afternoon Tyra came home and told me all about how she was the first one to see the tiny fish swimming that had been there all along. She said she had to look through the water to see them, not just on top as everyone else had been. After that Ms. Bastio used a flashlight and everyone was able to see them. I'm sure Tyra's discovery eased Ms. Bastio's mind, and it made Tyra happy too.

So I was getting all excited for Tyra's fieldtrip where they would release the shads into the river and thinking what a great thing that she's in school and doing these kinds of things. As soon as she came home from school I expected her to be bursting with the news. I was very surprised and somewhat confused when she said "It was okay, only a few kids got to help dump them into the river. We couldn't really see anything." Then I remembered what is NOT so great about doing things in school: you have such a large group that even fun things are filled with long lines and long waiting times, and it's impossible for everyone to have a front-seat view. That's what I chalked her lack of enthusiasm up to. But a few days later when I was talking to Ms. Bastio she confided in me that the Science teacher had put the fish into some container and put it in the back of her minivan to drive down to the river and a short way from the school the container spilled all over her minivan floor! So she drove back to the school and filled up the container with water and continued on to meet with the class at the riverbank! No wonder Tyra couldn't see anything! There was nothing to see! I like to think there were a few fish saved, as per the article in the Gazette, but even if not, they've done the project once now, and like all the programs at BHES, it'll get better every year as they learn from past mistakes!

As for me, I'm just thinking how I need to stop thinking like a perfectionist, i.e. "I won't do it if I can't do it perfectly." The fun is in the learning and the perfection comes from try, try, trying again!

Tyra's Chorus Concert

2008-05-20T21:46:00.008-04:00

The concert started at 7pm. So I left tee ball and Thomas' baseball practices early with the kids to make it on time. Unfortunately potty training kids can't time everything perfectly, and we ended up walking into the multi-purpose room at 7:04pm, just in time to hear the last 30 seconds of Tyra's German song. Apparently the fourth grade did their individual song very first. You better bet I'll be at the flute concert tomorrow night before 7:00! Luckily she still had 3 songs to sing with all 3 grades at the end and she did a great job. I have such fond memories of singing parts in Chorus in Jr. High, I'm really glad she gets to do it already.

Tres Cosas

2008-05-14T21:34:00.006-04:00

I am finally starting to feel the fruit of my efforts in trying to wrangle information from the kids about their day at school. Somewhere in autumn I started demanding that they tell me 3 Things about their day before they could go on to eating a snack or playing. For a LONG time it was pretty much like pulling 3 teeth each, each afternoon. There were definitely days when I thought that whatever I was trying to accomplish was actually happening in reverse: the kids seemed more irritated with me than before. But today I was tired and sick and about to take a nap as Tom had just come home early for that purpose, so when the kids walked in the door and I said "Do you want to tell me your tres cosas first, Thomas?" If he'd balked even a little I would've left it to Tom and hit the hay. (We don't really have hay mattresses, for the record.) But Thomas looked up with those bright brown eyes and came really close to me and whispered "Christian wrote a note that said 'I love Jasmin. I love Jasmin' over and over. Everyone loves Jasmin except me and the other girls." Now THAT would never have come out before the instigation of the 3 Things! Next he told me that he'd had lunch with Ms. Lewis (the special ed teacher) and that she really liked the blondie he gave her. At this point my little devious boy said "Does that count for one?" He does this because sometimes he'll say just "I had P.E." and I'll ask him what he did. Originally he'd be silent or say he didn't know so I'd tell him it didn't count for one unless he told me more. But now he's gotten it down that he can get one thing in by making sure that the first part "counts". See his last one was that he and the other boy eating lunch with Ms. Lewis too were wondering about how to make peanut butter and they got the recipe off the internet, at which point he pulled out his copy from his backpack.
These 3 Cosas were not any different than any other day (sometimes they are much more exciting or funny) but I had a real sweet moment standing there, feeling so tired yet here was my un-talkative son sharing anecdotes about his day, with a smile on his face. Ah.
Then Tom said protectively, "To bed! Put in the earplugs! Get some sleep!" but I wanted to ask Tyra. She was in the bathroom, and is now old enough to need her privacy. But I asked her through the door and she cracked it enough to talk to me, like she couldn't wait to tell me her 3 Cosas too. First of all she said that in PE they learned that when it was time to serve then everyone moves down the line "Oh, you know how to rotate now?" After a nod she continued. And Ms. Carty kept telling us all the last few weeks to NOT GO UNDER THE NET, NEVER GO UNDER THE NET. Then today she told us to GO UNDER THE NET! After we got 6 points she told us to switch sides! (Tyra often tells of what the teachers do/say that surprise her. Thomas, not so much. Many times she'll say "Ms. Bastio was so crazy today...[she got up on the desks acting like a tornado, etc]) I love the school system. I think it would be hard to teach Tyra all the correct skills for volleyball without the other kids to play with her to enjoy her skills at the end!
Ok, and Tyra's other things were that they sang all their songs but the German one twice in chorus in preparation for their concert tomorrow night. and that Ms. Bastio said she's going to get fat from all the blondies Tyra brought her today with her card. See last week was teacher appreciation week and the teachers wrote up their favorites to help kids decide what to give her for a gift. For treats she said butterscotch and coconut, and since our new favorite family treat is blondies with butterscotch chips and coconut I decided to make her up a plate to go with a card from Tyra, and thought that this week would be better than last week, since maybe she'd feel all overwhelmed by too many gifts at once during teacher appreciation week. Same reason that if I send ANY birthday cards at all, they are always belated. Thoughtful me :)

Back to 3 Cosas. I hit the hay feeling rotten sick and tired in my head, but happy healthy in my heart :) My kids can tell me about their day. I understand that many kids do this voluntarily from their first day home from kindergarten, but for me, I am thrilled with the success finally. And I've even noticed a few times lately that when I say "How was your day?" instead of "Are you ready to tell me your 3 things?" that both Tyra and Thomas can actually answer, without prompting, beyond saying "Good"!

p.s. isn't Tom the best for coming home early for me to sleep? I never did that often before, but I really don't want to be sick when we go visit all his siblings in NC this weekend!

International Night

2008-05-14T11:40:00.003-04:00

I keep wanting to blog about the things Thomas does that surprise and impress me. But as I started thinking about this blog I realized that sometime I need to take the time to talk about the things Thomas does that don't surprise, though they still impress, me. Things like how quick he is to show his dimples in a smile. How much he loves a joke. How he immediately helps someone he sees in need. How reliable he is in completing any task he's given. And how very sweetly he plays with and helps his little sisters. So there's a bit of it. But as we know, any of these things (the smile, the help, the completing a task) are held in check until one very important matter is cleared up for him: WHAT EXACTLY HE SHOULD DO. It is very difficult for him to just figure out by watching others or by "faking it" for the first little while until he gets the hang of something.

So tonight was International Night where Ms. Anwar's 2nd grade class sang a long song in Bangladeshi. I had heard from Thomas and Ms. Anwar a couple of times how he wasn't practicing the song with the rest of the class. When I noticed the words at home I tried to find the music online to practice with him, to no avail. But when I finally told him he had to sing through the whole song for me, even if he made mistakes, before he could play on his computer he finally did it for me. After that he began practicing with the kids. Ms. Anwar, who has been so VERY good for Thomas, never told him he had to sing but gave him a maraca to play to still be part of the group. Apparently other kids wanted to try to and it shaped the whole song, but Tyra was proud of Thomas because he got to do the final 3 drum beats at the end. So, why was I so proud of Thomas? Well, he was up in front of a huge audience staying very focused in a boiling, noisy room, doing his best. He even sang a little.

If I ever figure out what to do with the 115meg video clip I'll add it!

Eleanor Roosevelt High School Preschool Program

2008-05-08T12:03:00.000-04:00

This year I hemmed and hawed forever undecided (me, wishy, washy?) about what to do for preschool for Lily. My thoughts are that she learns structure enough at Primary to serve her for Kindergarten, and she learns her basics at home enough to prepare her. What preschool has that Lily lacks is a largish group of children close to her age that meet regularly enough to learn important social skills. So though I wasn't wishy washy about wanting to do Joyschool with her, I only had one other mom-friend willing to do it with me so we both decided not to bother. Then a seasoned mom of 5 told me how much she liked the preschool program at the HS because the students just love the preschool age kids. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that paying over $1000 to give Lily a regular meeting time to get the right socialization seems wrong to me when I'm staying home! So the $40 for the whole year to cover snacks was certainly a bonus. But my favorite part was that it was from 12-3pm, the perfect time when we'd be done with morning activities (playgroup, farm, park, etc) and Beth had to take a nap anyway. It was PERFECT. And it was a big plus that the teacher's teacher, Ms. Bret is a very warm mother herself, very understanding and capable, though she didn't teach the kids herself. She also didn't seem very upset if we needed to be gone for family outings, and I didn't have to feel like I wasting a lot of money when we missed. So now that Beth is no longer taking naps and is 3 I told Ms. Bret to look for Lily AND Beth for next year. (But I'm still in search of mothers who want to do Joyschool also.)
Here are a few shots of Lily the one day I remembered my camera. For the first half of the year she would sling to my hand and arm at drop off time, but there was always a high school student to help her to her station to start off. As a matter of fact, those students gave Lily much more enthusiastic welcomes than Thomas ever got at his regular preschool. They all knew her name so quickly, I was impressed. Anyway, often her papers and drawings she brought home would have "I miss you Mommy" written in by a student/teacher for her because she said she was missing me. But whenever I showed up to pick her up she looked quite happy, often riding a ticycle or scooter around the room with a smile. She also loved wheeling her little back pack Grandma Linda gave her. She was so proud of the fact that this year she too had to tell me three things about her day, just like Tyra and Thomas do. And she loved making me wait to see her papers until we got home so she could surprise me and tell me about them. Now we'll have to finish up the book of her first year of preschool papers.

Lily's Preschool Graduation

2008-05-07T20:50:00.001-04:00

Spring Break in NC

2008-05-02T00:50:00.001-04:00

Running

2008-04-29T22:03:00.002-04:00

Tom bought me a treadmill from Costco and on January 1st Mikey who had just come into town, helped him put it together in our sunroom. I was certain I would use it, but I had no idea how much I would LOVE it! I love seeing the readout of how many minutes, miles, calories, etc I've been doing. I love that I can just get on and read a book while I walk along at 3-4 miles/hour. I LOVE the most that I can exercise whenever I feel like it (almost) I don't have to wait for Tom to be home to babysit, or the weather to be warm enough or cool enough, or for it to be light enough (especially the first and last reasons! Even if I feel like running at night when Tom's home, I don't really want to go run in the dark at 9:30pm, but I'm often on the treadmill at that great time!)

Okay, so I wanted the treadmill to start exercising and especially to lose weight. Well, I'm not losing tons of weight, but I'm AMAZED at the other side effects I've experienced.
#1 I feel SOOO much better emotionally
#2 My blood sugars are soooo much more stable (what I've noticed is that if I fast or if I eat a lot, or if I eat junk I don't crash or feel crummy.)
#2a I have a slightly stronger desire to eat healthily before and after running.
#3 I feel so STRONG to be able to really run fast OR far
#4 I feel like "my old self" who used to always walk and run.
#5 A body in motion tends to remain in motion, I get more done in my day
#5a Even if I DON'T get anything else done in the day beyond the regular care and feeding of children, if I exercise I still feel like I've accomplished something

So there you have it. The best part is that my dad is training to run a marathon, and my friend Joy just ran a 1/2 marathon. After talking to them I thought, hey, maybe I can run further than the 5k I have always stopped at. And sure enough I can! It's exciting to be able to run longer or faster, and after reading a lot of running books I am determined to only work on one or the other to save my 35 year old knees and prevent any other injuries. I'm sure you'll hear more than you want of running, but hey, at least it's not talk of kids throwing up (I just finished posting about our vomitous vacation in Florida, see earlier post)

The many faces of Beth

2008-04-23T11:47:00.003-04:00

I'll do the whole birthday post later, but I just wanted to get this up. Beth is our child who enjoys the spotlight the most. While she was sweetly looking at her cake with her chin in her hands I took a picture, then when interrupted and told to look up she looked grumpy, then when everyone laughed at her expression she just kept going, laughing in between each face she pulled. Of course these weren't even the best one's, since I was waiting for a flash to charge and messing with the zoom, but she loves to put on a show!

BHBGC

2008-04-09T20:41:00.002-04:00

I just want to say how glad I am for the Berwyn Heights Boys and Girls Club. We have Tyra in softball and soccer, Thomas in machine-pitch baseball, and Lily should start tee ball soon. I might be changing my tune further down the season, but so far it is just so nice! The coaches are super patient and just in it for their kids to learn the basics and have fun. Then the weather is just better and better every day. So even though without the tee-ball yet our schedule is 1- 1 1/2 hours every evening Tues-Fri and Sat am, it is so good for me to have something force me to take the kids outside to play for that long every day. Thomas was running around, playing with kids from his school tonight while Tyra played, and yesterday Tyra and a boy in her class chatted and played tag games with Lily and Beth and a new little friend they met. I have yet to meet any "kindred spirit" parents, but everyone's nice enough to chat with, and I'm glad for the socialization for the family. I do wish Tom could be there with us, to be extra eyes (it's hard to watch 3 running kids and pay attention to the one playing the game) and also just to enjoy it with us, but we're glad he's got his nose to the grindstone, and with what seems an eternal "one more program" he'll be done with this computing part of his dissertation :) Then we can all play ball as a family. (Lily and Beth are so cute with their tiny little mitts, catching the ball thrown from like a foot away and getting all excited.) I'll post pictures in this entry if I manage to take some soon.

Why it's worth having kids close in age

2008-04-07T23:29:00.005-04:00

I think it's mentally, physically, and emotionally challenging to have children be born close together (even under 2 years.) But I also think it's well worth it, and I am now (have been for a year) reaping the benefits, which are 2 best little friends with everything in common. Watching Lily and Beth do their thing together all day is a joy, a true joy. I should grab my camera more often, but here are some videos where, after they did what they were doing for a really long time I finally decided to get the camera. In the next video you see some of Grandma Linda's awesome hats she gave the kids, and the hoppy toys from Adam, Nancy, and the cousins.

PTA Ice Skating Night

2008-04-07T23:14:00.007-04:00

We have a great PTA (no, I don't do anything in it but show up to the fun things) and they have annual skate nights at the local rink. It's really a fun time for everyone, but just a little difficult since all 4 kids need a fully-devoted parent for the night. Lily and Beth are so cute in the smallest available size skates. I am AMAZED how Thomas will go for it, since he skated for his summer camp last summer and got over the huge hurdle of it being an unknown thing. And Tyra was awesome. It was so hard for her to stay up and she hated having other kids keep leapfrogging around her on the wall, and even when she landed really hard, enough to cry, she kept trying and trying. I was so proud of her for not quitting.

Spring Break

2008-03-30T19:31:00.005-04:00

This year may have been our first spring break when we actually went away to vacation as a family. With all his work traveling Tom has become a Marriott rewards member and he got a call last year sometime inviting us to stay in one of their vacation ownership resorts for free if we would just listen to the 2 hour presentation about said resorts (time-shares.) He said sure and at some point we decided to do Orlando in spring. We didn't know them how incredibly swamped Tom would be, trying to finish up his dissertation for the spring graduation. Leading up to March 9 Tom was spending very VERY long days at work (getting home between 9 and 10) so we the rest of the family were SO glad for the chance this preplanned vacation was giving us to see Tom.

To start things off, Thomas threw up all night the Thursday before we were supposed to go. He recovered on the BRAT diet the next day and all was well as we started driving south on Sunday. Then in the hotel we stopped at in Savannah, Tom was sick all night freezing under a mountain of blankets. He recovered on the rest of our drive to Orlando. I took the kids swimming in the nifty beach pool while Tom slept. Then Lily was sick. The next day she recovered while we drove around in a little 4-person-pedaling car-thingy (I'm pretty sure that's what they're called, anyway!) The timeshare property was the perfect place to vacation for sick people, because just being in the 2 bedroom apartment overlooking a little (fake) island was "fun" enough. We still kept talking to my brother Ben who works for Disney about possibly getting Disneyworld tickets, but when Thomas vomitted that night we decided it was a good thing we hadn't bought our tickets in advance I we had meant to. Next day was Tyra's turn to be sick and she hung on longer, losing it at various places around the resort. But I will say, she still managed to do some great paddling on the paddle boats. Miniature golf was probably the only outing where everyone was just not having fun by the end. Good part, of course was just going back to the room and letting the kids play in the big hot tub while Tyra slept.

Maybe it's just because I never got sick, but I think that we had a surprisingly good time, all things considered. The best part was that we got to stop by and see cousin Cora on our way home, but's that's food for another post...

Tyra's [first] Winter Concert

2008-02-17T16:39:00.004-05:00

Tyra had her first concert in January. She started playing the flute in the middle of September. Most schools in our area don't start playing instruments until 5th grade, but ours is a music and technology magnet so the kids get to start a year earlier. It's always so amazing to me to see my kids learning new things, especially when I'm not the one teaching them. It feels like magic! I have absolutely loved listening to Tyra practice while I'm making dinner.

Lisa Lee Pawlik comes with kids

2008-02-09T16:18:00.001-05:00

My sister Lisa (younger by 4 years) came to America for the last half of January. We got to see them as they arrived then again as they left (they went to Utah and California in between.) The most exciting part was getting to see our new nephew and cousin, Aaron Levi. He was so sweet with us all! He reminded me of my Grandpa often when he would do a little half-smile like he was sort of indulging me in my antics trying to get him to smile and laugh. He's like a wise little man. I loved that he would actually come to me and snuggle into my shoulder. The kids loved him too, especially Elizabeth.
Grandma Lee had taught Tyra to knit and then taught Evie when she was out in Utah, so the cousins thought they were quite stylin' in their matching knit shrugs. Lily and Beth were delighted to have David and Evie to themselves when TnT went to school, and they followed them around all day long.
As for seeing Lisa again, well, it's always bitter-sweet, since I end up spending too many thoughts on the "what if..." imagining her living nearby. I am so jealous of people who live close to family. Ever since our first gathering as sisters with kids I've dreamed of living on the same block as Anne and Lisa. Sure, we would probably bug each other and end up hurting each others' feelings, but we'd also laugh together, play together, talk endlessly, and help and support each other. Good thing for the phone, as it is.

Draper Family Fun

2008-01-24T23:01:00.001-05:00

This is about the cutest face I've ever seen on one of my kids crafts! Grandma Linda spent hours with my craft-loving girls making these gingerbread men and more. They sure are lucky to have such a great grandma! (Uh, that's wonderful grandma, not great-grandma!!)
So Uncle Mikey came on New Years Eve, and my Mom went home on New Years morning. Uncle Mikey continues to be a favorite with the kids. He ended up babysitting a bunch as I ran this and that errand, and never had the slightest problem. The kids just love him. He sat in the back of the minivan the entire drive down to NC to see Janine and Brian's baby Cora be blessed. He's the mellowest, nicest guy! This picture is in NC when Lily didn't want to fall asleep in her bed so Mikey let her come give him a hug and sit by him and she fell asleep on him like that.
Cora the beautiful sweet baby had a great blessing day. She didn't cry at all during Brian's prayer, and she looked so cute in her hand-crocheted dress.
Grandma Linda bought the girls some very fancy dresses for the occasion so we tried a family photo, though most of the kids weren't in the mood.
And the star of the show, CORA. Here seen on the plasma car with Janine. I was so happy to finally get to know the little person behind all the cooing I've heard on the phone. She refused to look at me most of the time, but was happy to let me hold her, so I held her out and kissed her sweet bald head. My favorite moments with her was when I got to change her diaper and when I was done she finally looked at me and started talking and talking. She has a very advanced vocabulary for a 2 1/2 month old! All sorts of vowels and consonants in there!

GrammaLee Comes to Visit

2008-01-24T22:50:00.000-05:00

I picked up my mom from BWI at 11pm Christmas night. So she missed the traditional stuff, but she'd been with Anne and Matt in her home, so she already got some of that. It was a bit of a second Christmas the next morning when the kids woke up and did presents with Grandma. Then Grandma hardly had time for her planned activities with the kids of playing paperdolls (now in vinyl) with the girls, playing chess with Thomas, and teaching Tyra how to knit. She and Tyra both did a lot of knitting, and you can see the cute shrug they made for Tyra. But she spent a bunch of her time with me helping me buy curtains and pillows and a torchiere for the livingroom to help make it feel a little more homey and put together. I am SO glad I said that little "I would love to have you decorate for me." She has always had such a good knack for decorating, and I just freeze up at the idea of making a "final" decision like the color and style of curtains! She really should have beaned me for giving her grief with every suggestion she made, right after asking for her help. I DID notice where my ever debating children must get it from, arg!

Besides all the knitting and decorating, we also did the drive-through Festival of Lights, went to the lights at the temple and heard a 24-harp concert, and did the Santa Lucia tradition with Lily wearing the lighted crown this year for the first time.

Christmas 2008

2008-01-24T22:06:00.000-05:00

My parents had the tradition of cleaning and doing all the preparations on Christmas Eve day and then eating at a restaurant that evening to not dirty up the house. Then we'd take off for Grandma and Grandpa's house to exchange presents with the Paystrup side. Well, this is the first year that Tyra and Thomas were really involved with the tradition of doing heavy duty cleaning in preparation. Grandma Lee was coming in Christmas night so we were especially busy in the basement getting it sleep-able. It just amazed me to have them do 2 entire loads of laundry from bringing it down the stairs, putting it in with soap, switching it, drying it, etc. They had fun with all sorts of new jobs. So we went to Chevy's, one our most family-friendly restaurants around. Then we let the kids choose one gift to open. The girls chose their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa so it was right in line with my traditions. Tyra and Thomas each opened the gift from each other. Poor Thomas, he's so hard to buy things for, it's no wonder he doesn't get excited for presents. He got a set of Encyclopedia Brown books, and I felt bad for him at the time, but you know, he's read them all and really enjoyed them.
All the kids got great gifts and I don't mean to make it a gift-log here, and I hope I don't offend someone by not mentioning or picturing their gifts. I just thought it was interesting to note that one of the main things Tyra wanted was an MP3 player, which she got and listened to all day except when she was sharing songs with other people. She just loved some of the really touching Christmas songs by Amy Grant and it reminded me of how powerful and important listening to music was for me as a teenager.

Thomas' favorite Christmas present, by far, was the Wii. The Lee family all gathered on Dec 1st to exchange gifts and have their yearly Christmas gathering (due to people traveling and what not later in the month) so we enjoyed that gift for a full 25 days before Christmas. It was actually given to us by Jon's best friend Brian who comes along to family gatherings often.
We like Brussel Sprouts, but I hadn't planned on having them Christmas dinner until I saw them at Giant being sold right on the stalk. I had never thought of how brussel sprouts might grow. I wonder how many other foods I eat that I have no idea about what it looks like before it hits my plate. I should probably read some of those new books on food and society...
And here's Tyra with the Oreo cheesecake pudding pie she helped me make.

Bintu gives me an African Cooking Lesson

2008-01-24T21:40:00.000-05:00

We have held a Christmas Party at our house every year for the last 4 or 5 years. This year there were scheduling difficulties along with difficulties deciding how to fix problems of parties past (too many people invited to successfully interact with everyone, too many different groups invited at same time so many didn't know each other, too many children upstairs with the babysitters, etc) We ended up foregoing it this year. But by the week before Christmas I was missing it and so we invited just family friends, the Farrells for a low-key Christmas get-together. Unfortunately I planned long in advance to have my friend and visiting teachee, Bintu come teach me how to cook her African food. She had made sure she had work off, and I couldn't leave her hanging. So we went to the African grocery store then cooked and cooked 5 different dishes, HUGE pots full. She is amazing to watch, super fast, clean, and confident: a real natural chef. I tried to be her aide and write down the recipes as she made them out of her head. 7 hours, and a huge oil spill later, our friends arrived ready for a Christmas Party that just couldn't happen. I was still finishing up the cassava leaf dish, then Tom took Bintu back as she was picking up family from out of town. So our Party consisted of eating a huge African Feast (Fish, beef, chicken in peanut soup, vegetable soup, plaintain soup, cassava leaf stuff, and cow skin soup.) She kept saying how much she loves cows skin and I finally told her that she should really just take it home with her after Tom tried some because neither myself nor the Farrell's were going to be brave enough to try it. (I bought it after vetoeing the oxtail which she also loves and which I know I don't care for, I felt bad so I said yes to the skin, but UGH it's just thick, hairless, SKIN.) So the Farrell's were kind and forgiving as I was exhausted and not really up to playing hostess to the Christmas activities I'd thought to do for the kids and stuff besides a song and playing with the nativities. It's nice to have friends who can roll with things.

A word about Bintu. I just love her, I've been so happy to have her in my life. She is a very sunshiney person with a very contagious smile and kind, generous ways. She reminds me very much of many of my Brazilian mission companions, especially my trainer , Sister Goncalves. And her use of long, formal greetings for every hello and goodbye remind me of Cry, the Beloved Country.

Procrastinite, and my stylin' girls

2008-01-24T21:09:00.000-05:00

Ok, this is just SUCH a good example of why I don't know how people can stand me :) My loving thoughtful mother sent me a little baby sun outfit that I had worn as a baby (at the time I believe it was "27 years ago." complete with matching little sandals for me to put on my new little baby, Tyra. Well, it WAS a little fragile feeling, but I have no real excuse for never putting it on her even once! Then I was off the hook with Thomas, obviously, as it has flowers and lace. But then came Lily. And then came Beth. It has been on my bedroom desk in various and changing piles over the years, and THIS is when I decide, Beth is IT. It's now or NEVER. She's already a good 18 months past the proper age, but she still FITS, and she was willing to put it on like a dress-up outfit. Who knows how cute it would've been on my girls all those hot. humid summers past, how tender and nostalgic the emotions I would've felt looking at them....
But honestly, I'm mostly just happy I actually got it on my child and got a picture :)

As for Lily's picture, she was so happy in this outfit. She loves to wear summer clothes all winter and I say "Brr, you're freezing me out!" and she wanted me to take a picture after I did Beth to show how she was keeping me warm by wearing her tights. It IS a pretty great outfit, isn't it? It's so fun to see her choose clothes with purpose ("Look mom, red pants and pink shirt because pink is red with white in it!") and every outfit has some reason (though just from looking you could NEVER figure out the rhyme nor reason!)

Thomas with Santa; Lily and Beth not with Santa

2008-01-24T20:55:00.000-05:00

Well, thanks to our incredibly shrinking ward we had little time to stand in line to sit on Santa's lap. Unfortunately no matter what we said we could NOT convince either of them that he wasn't too scary! But for those of you who know me, you know I'm not sad to find out my kids aren't all into Santa :)
As for Thomas' picture, it's so exciting on a regular basis to see Thomas grow and mature and be able to handle new and different things. Tyra has no photo because she was too old, in her own opinion!

First Snowfall of the Winter

2007-12-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

I've been so jealous of Anne's blog with its falling snow, and while this doesn't come close in aesthetics to her perfectly timed music and slideshow with the background snow falling, it DOES beat it in that it's REAL snow :) I'll try for better footage when TnT get home from school. The camera kept getting wet and Beth didn't like looking up into the snow for the camera...this is mostly for the sake of family in never-any-weather-California :)

HALLELULAH! and a Merry Christmas to you from Beth!

2007-12-02T22:25:00.000-05:00

I don't know where she heard it first, or why she started singing it, but Elizabeth has been singing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus over and over for quite a few days now. We all absolutely love it (even when it's the middle of dinner time she gets away with singing it, it's THAT cute.) So we finally got out the Christmas CD's yesterday and played it for her, and here's a video of her singing it tonight.

Tyra crochets a scarf during our Endless Autumn

2007-12-02T22:03:00.000-05:00

I can't remember the last time the autumn leaves stayed on the trees for this long! It has been beautiful, first when we drove up to Princeton the end of October, and again when we drove down to Charlottesville in November. I love autumn! One of the neat things about the last few weeks has been watching Tyra's scarf get longer and longer. She just started doing it herself. She patiently undid many many rows at the beginning that somehow seemed to get skinnier and skinnier (I remember having the same trouble with some of my own early crocheting.) I was so proud of her continual effort even when things got tricky (like Beth trying to "help", losing her hook, etc.) Tom and I both kept saying how excited we were to finally get to wear "my scarf", but Tyra proclaimed the scarf for everyone, and that we could take turns. I decided Tyra would be the best one to model it for you, but I can testify, it really keeps your neck cozy!

Thoughts about Facebook

2007-12-02T21:55:00.000-05:00

So I have joined the social networking phenomenon known as Facebook. Why did I choose Facebook? Because it is a Google derivative -- I mean, because most everyone I know signed up with Facebook instead of MySpace.

My Top Ten Favorite Things about Facebook:
10) I'm now a proud member of the "When I was your age, Pluto was a planet" group.
9) Making friends on Facebook is as easy as sending an email. It also appears that to get married you only need an email confirmation.
8) "Susan is listed as married to Thomas Draper". Phew!
7) I resumed contact with my old Brazilian friend Vitor from High School. I haven't heard from him for nearly twenty years.
6) Getting "poked" doesn't hurt at all online. In fact, I have no idea what it is for at all if you can't use it to raise the ire of your brothers.
5) I was able to "friend" the wonderful Pennington family, who showed me a wonderful time the Sunday I was in Brisbane, Australia earlier this year.
4) I like to "Flip my pillow over to get to the cold side" just like 398,683 other people.
3) My brother Michael was mocking me within ten minutes of signing up. To quote, he said, "Hey boy, what made you decide to join facebook?" Now I know why he never responds to my emails. He spends all his time scoping girls on Facebook.
2) Being "friends" with my mother-in-law is much easier in cyberspace.
1) My cousin Grace is already one of my friends. She has only been married a couple of months. So I was rolling on the floor in tears when I received a "friend update" that said, 'Grace Gordon Hart removed "my husband" from their interests.' Welcome to married life!

Feel free to friend me if you are short on over-aged, married, working males with four children. I seem to be a rare commodity on Facebook.

Car Trouble Plus Security Guard Equals?

2007-12-01T21:38:00.000-05:00

We have been having a little trouble with our car engine recently, and this has evidently affected our fuel economy. I was driving to work up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, when my car started to sputter. I was about 50 miles short of where I would usually need to get gas, and I was actually planning on gettting gas at Costco on my way to work.

The car was sputtering on and off, and I was slowly losing speed. Luckily, there was an exit within half a mile and I slowly coasted down a gentle hill to the NASA only exit not too far from our house. Well NASA might not be as tightly guarded as good old NSA, but they still have security guards. I had my hazards flashing as I coasted up to the gate and pulled off to the side.

One of the guards immediately came out to greet me and I said that I had ran out of gas, and that I needed to call my wife. She said that she would talk to her supervisor and left. A few minutes later she came back and said, "I'm sorry. We don't have a phone that you can use. You just need to move your car out of here." "It's out of gas.", I said, "Do you have any sort of assitance vehicles? All I need is a splash and I can make it to a local pump. I would be happy to pay for it." "I'm sorry", she replied, "We don't have anything like that. Now please move your car."

Again I replied, "I can't. My car has run out of gas." I had noticed that she used a phone to call her supervisor. "Is it really not possible to use your phone? I just need to call my wife or a friend and they could bring me some gas." Again the reply, "Let me talk to my supervisor."

I waited patiently wondering if I had gotten myself into more trouble by pulling of the exit rather than flagging down someone on the parkway with a cell phone. The security guard returned, "Don't you have a cell phone?" "I did.", I confessed, "But we lost it recently." "You really should have a cell phone.", she reprimanded. "You're right.", I said, "We're planning on getting another one." I then hopefully asked, "Do you have a cell phone?" "Of course not!", she barked back, "Why would I have a cell phone?" "I dunno.", I muttered wondering how long this could go on.

"The other guard leaned out of the booth and shouted, "Tell that person he needs to get his car out of here!" The guard at my car turned to me again and said, "Sir. You really need to get your car out of here." I replied, "Do you want me to push it out of here? I don't think I can even push it back up this hill. If you just let me call my wife, she can bring some gas and I will move the car." She emphatically restated, "We can't let you use the phone sir." I said, "Okay. My house is only three miles from here I will run home, get some gas, come back here, and move my car." "You may not leave your car here sir.", came the reply. "So what do you want me to do?", I said. "I want you to move your car out of here.", came the reply.

"I don't know how I can move my car without gas." I said. "Do you have AAA?", she asked. "Will you let me call AAA?", I asked. "No.", came the response. Hrrrmmmmphhh. "Let me talk to my supervisor.", she said again. This time she returned saying, "My supervisor says that it is okay for you to call your wife on our phone." "What a brilliant idea!", I exclaimed, "I wish I had thought of that!" The security guard quickly drew her taser from her holster and I screamed, "Don't taze me sis!" ... No, I didn't really taunt the security guard. But I was thinking it very loudly. As I walked over to use the phone, I realized that my wife was leaving for a friend's house as I left, and I didn't know the friend's phone number.

Well the climax of this story has past. They let me call a friend instead, he brought the gas and I only arrived at work one hour later than I had anticipated.