On a more serious note

Last Sunday at Church one of the speakers wasn't able to make it so to fill the extra time our bishop* said that after the two assigned speakers he would be calling a couple of people out of the congregation to say a few words. Therefore I thought through some ideas of what I would speak about if my name was called.

That morning my husband Scott and I had been talking about how the Atonement does so much more for us than mearly allowing us to repent of our sins. I thought of the scripture from Revelation: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." One year ago last Wednesday my cousin's three oldest children and two of their friends slid off an icy road on their way to school and into a retaining pond. The three oldest were knocked unconscious upon impact and the two young boys tried to break the windows but weren't strong enough. When my cousin and his brother arrived on the scene the police had to hand-cuff them to stop them from stripping off their clothes and plunging into the icy water. It took rescuers two hours to get the car out. When they opened the doors they opened scriptures came out with the water and the younger boys were holding their older brothers. All five children were pronounced dead a few hours later.

Being full-term pregnant, my doctor advised me not to make the long drive up to Idaho for their funeral but the rest of my family did. They said that my cousin and his wife were in silent shock until the time came to close the caskets. My poor cousin Tamra, who buried a two year-old daughter a few years previous, completely lost it. Can you imagine anything more tragic?

As I sat there during the meeting on Sunday remembering these things I asked myself: Do I really believe that God can wipe away the tears Tamra Walker shed as she buried her three children? Can He take away that pain? And I realized a little bit more the power of the Atonement can have.

*A bishop is the lay-leader of an LDS congregation of 200-500 people.

Proposition Compound

For a couple of years now the same thing happens whenever two or more of my brothers and sisters get together. We start planning the Family Compound. All growing up we were surrounded by cousins (91 on my Mom's side) who were fun, capable and strong in the gospel. All of them got married in the temple and all the boys served missions. Talk about peer pressure! Now that my siblings and I are faced with the prospect of raising our own children in a scary world we are remembering the influence cousins can have on each other. And that brings us to ... The Compound (sans guns and ammo). While in Texas last week we all piled into a couple of minivans and drove around the suburbs of Dallas checking out land for sale. Here's my brother-in-law Joshua on the 90 acre plot complete with a pond that we found in a place called Lucas.

Since coming home Scott and I have talked many an hour about what our priorities are for our future family. We love it here in Seattle and can see ourselves raising our kids in a more urban environment than we ourselves grew up in. But what if everybody else is living the farm life in Texas? We don't know what the right answer is but we do know that wherever we live we will want our kids to be close to their cousins. Here's a few reasons why.

Vaness the Great

Whenever Scott has to work late and I'm tempted to complain all I need to do is think of my sister-in-law. Vanessa is 7 months pregnant (and she has tough tough pregnancies) and also has a two year-old daughter, Chrissie. My brother Rick is in his 3rd of 9 years of neuro-surgery residency. And that's after 4 years of living in sketchy Washington Heights while he went to medical school. Vanessa takes care of their house and daughter while Rick works 37 hour shifts and comes home a complete zombie. Kind of puts Scott coming home at 9:00 because he had a work dinner in perspective doesn't it?

Lady Cynthia

Long ago I realized that no matter what I did I could never be as cool as my older sister Cynthia. I wasn't bitter about this because quite frankly I felt lucky to have her as my sister and hopefully have some of her coolness just by association. Five years ago her life took on a new look when she put aside her acceptance letter for a masters program at the American University in Beirut and married Joshua, the Johns Hopkins medical student. But the reason why I would want to live by my sister isn't because she speaks Arabic and has done things like working for an Arab human rights organization in Nazareth (who does those kinds of things?!) but because she is one of the most capable and devoted mothers I know. And the fact that she picks out the coolest clothes for her kids doesn't hurt either.
Here is their oldest, Thomasin, who has hair any girl would be jealous of. It was Thomasin by the way who made the bead necklace for Eve that she was putting on and off all during church on Sunday. One of the kindest and happiest little girls you'll ever meet.

And then there's Marta, who is just two weeks younger than Eve. She is one tough little girl. In fact both her and Thomasin are amazingly tough and adventurous. Marta totally put Eve to shame. Eve may be heavier (ok a lot heavier) and taller but Marta was running circles around Eve. Nothing fazed her. The only time I heard her cry was when she was hungry and then when she got her head stuck under the couch. Ever since we've been home I've been consciously trying to "toughen" Eve up by encouraging her to be more like her cousin Marta and explore even if it means scrapes and her eating all kinds of ... stuff ...

Saint Melinda

If I had to describe my sister Mindy in one sentence it would be that she is practically perfect in every way. In fact that is what my Dad always said about her as a child and though Mindy is no longer a soft-spoken girl who had an innate sense of etiquette, it still holds true. It was at her house that we had our mini-family reunion last week and we all got to see Mindy and her family in their element.
Claire, who is 5, continues to be the sweet but amazingly head strong girl she was from day 1. At 18 months she was kicking elevator doors because they wouldn't open fast enough. She's been known to stash Halloween candy behind books. As Claire has grown up we've all seen how Mindy has channeled this energy away from temper tantrums and into things like sewing, cooking, and into my personal favorite, playing "Cinderella" (washing floors and windows) all of which Claire is amazingly competent at.
And then there's the lone boy cousin, Isaac, who got his name because his parents had to wait so long for him to come into the world. He is 18 months old and completely obsessed with his Mommy. He becomes very concerned whenever she leaves the room and watches the places where she disappeared to until she comes back. I have no doubt that both Claire and Isaac will end up being some of the best people my kids will know. Reason enough to try and live nearby don't you think?

Miss Elizabeth

My almost 21 year-old sister is in a tough spot. She is the youngest of six siblings and the only one without kids. You can therefore understand that she feels a little, left behind. Don't get me wrong she has a lot going for her. She is a couple of semesters away from graduating from BYU with a degree in Humanities. She spent a semester abroad living in Paris and not only came back speaking beautiful French but wearing the most amazing shoes.
Lizzy can sight read Rachmaninoff piano music she's never seen before. She's competed in Latin dancing competitions. Liz has been a 4.0 student for as long as I can remember. She sings, dances, cover screens, speaks French ... and I know not what (Pride and Prejudice, chapter 8). I admire my sister Liz in so many ways and I can't wait until she finds her Mr. Darcy and lives happily ever after.

Farmer Isaac

Yesterday the whole gang of us drove out to my aunt's house where the kids had their pick between the tepee (in the background), the five miniature horses (also in the background), the chickens, the dog, the wide open field where they were pulled around in their homemade-Amish-wheeled hand cart, or the stream. This is a picture of my one and only nephew Isaac in his farmer gear.

Thomasin's egg

So my aunt has two black chickens (a hen and a rooster) named LaFawnduh and Tyron plus a few imported French hens. Here's one of their eggs.

Eve watching Marta eat a carrot

Eve's cousin Marta is only 1 week younger than her. I don't know about you but I want a sweater like that.

Have you ever considered a mural?

So this is just to give you a taste of the inside of my aunt's house. She did the rock archway and the mural. I think she is the most right-brained person I know.

Eve chasing an ant

Don't worry, she eventually caught it ... and tried to eat it of course. Yummmmmm.

Texas in February

This is my niece Thomasin playing in a water fountain where we had our picnic today.

Two words: bum roll

Eve and I are currently in a little place called Flower Mound, Texas. The reason for this is that my sister's husband, who lives in Pittsburgh, had a work conference in Dallas that he had to go to so naturally they decided to all come to visit my other sister who lives in Flower Mound. Well word got out and before you know it my brother and his wife who live in Phoenix had bought tickets. At this point there was going to be 4 of the 6 granddaughters all together. And what happens when granddaughters get together? A Doll Party that's what. And of course once there was talk of a Doll Party the grandparents, my younger unmarried sister and Eve and I had no choice, we had to come!

Last week my Mom and Texas sister sewed the dresses, slips and bum rolls (not only for the girls but also for the dolls mind you). We begain by fixing their hair complete with fresh flowers and ribbons. We emroidered handkerchefs. We had a music recital and dancing. Oh and a tea party thrown in there for good measure. Growing up we always had Doll Party's for the girls and Rendevous for the boys so this is a long-standing tradition that has been revived with the arrival of 6 granddaughters. But in that there is only 1 grandson the Doll Party has trumped the Rendevous. Poor Isaac.

MFEO - Part IV

As I was getting ready for my first date with Scott (apart from the bike ride) I was in high flutter. Think Elizabeth Bennett approaching Pemberley for the first time. Scott, dealing with his own case of nerves, was calling his sister down in Provo to ask whether or not he should tuck is shirt in or leave it out. The doorbell rang and there he was . . with flowers nonetheless. Major score. We then headed off to the restaurant and, after getting a bit lost, had a great Italian dinner. It was so easy and comfortable; the best date ever hands down. After dinner we went to a local production of Fiddler on the Roof where we tried not to whisper in each others' ears too much. Later when he was walking me to my door I asked him if he wanted to come in for a drink of water. He did and we ended up talking on the couch for half an hour or so. I was so happy.

Now let's psycho-analyze the evening a bit before moving on shall we? Scott works very hard to send the message to Rebekah that he is interested in her by bringing flowers, taking her to an Italian restaurant (her favorite country/food) and by taking her to a play because he knew she loved live theater. Of course Rebekah was in too much of a flutter to put it all together but thankfully her father picked up Scott's message immediately and pointed it out to a giddy Rebekah the next morning. But I kept telling myself that Scott was just super nice and he probably goes through such efforts for every girl he goes out with. My Dad just shook his head smiling.

The next day was Sunday and of course Scott and I saw each other as we made announcements and talked about the activities for the following week. On Monday I texted Scott (again not brave enough to call) telling him what a nice time I had and was wondering if I could make dinner for him that coming Saturday. Scott was so excited he showed his Dad the text.

I honestly think that week was the longest week of my life. We had several Young Single Adult activities and with each one I got more and more distracted. Nobody knew we had gone out and had absolutely no idea of the emotional tidal wave surging between us. Friday stands out very clear in my memory. It was June 3rd and one of the first really hot days of the summer so I decided to go swimming and called a couple of girls from the Ward to see if they wanted to come over too. They did and after a while we got talking about boys. They asked me if I was interested in anyone. What should I say? If I said that I liked Scott and then nothing came of it the whole Ward would know and it would be oh so awkward. Opting for the safe route I said that I was going to Italy in a few months and that I wasn't really interested in dating right now. I posed the same question at them. The girl not in our Ward wasn't at all but the girl in my Ward said, and I quote: "I have a sort of fascination with Scott Neuner." Stab my heart with a dagger! After a pause I asked her if she had gone out with him. She said that he had taken her out about a month ago when she had first moved home. Needless to say the swimming party didn't last much longer.

That evening after my younger sister's high school graduation (an important detail later on) we went out to eat, ironically, at the same place Scott had taken me the week before. More salt in the wound. After that the Young Single Adults all met at my house where we were going to carpool to a party given by another Ward's YSAs. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, Scott, me and a few others were out sitting on the curb. I then leaned over to Scott and told him how when I was in elementary school I would throw rocks at the power lines while waiting for the bus. So we then stretched out with our heads on the curb and tried hitting the power lines with pebbles. This memory stands out in both our minds because as lame as it was it was the best part of the evening for both of us and it made Scott realize that the time had come to say something. Of course I was completely oblivious. The more fun we had together the more I grieved thinking that I've finally found a guy that I'm interested in but so are all the other girls.

I was a complete wreck. I think I lost 5 pounds in 24 hours. I wasn't crying, after all Scott and I had gone out on 1 date. We hadn't held hands, kissed or anything. Why was I so upset? So the next day, before my date with Scott, I did the only sensible thing I could think of. I called my older sister. There I was lying out in the sun telling my sister how much I liked Scott but that other girls liked him too. I told her I had no idea how he felt about me and that I was therefore resolved to just stay out of it so as not to offend the girls that I felt responsible for being their YSA leader and all. She then asked me more specifically what I thought of Scott. General gushing then ensued: I've never been so comfortable with a boy before, he's smart, he's righteous, he's humble and fun, he has a great family, he's kind and thoughtful, etc. My dear sister told me that of course all the other girls are interested in Scott; that's how it always is with the really outstanding ones. But she then said that with something as important as this you don't worry about being polite, you fight for the best man out there. She encouraged me to not be so guarded emotionally and to just relax and see where things went; even if it meant getting hurt in the end. Seriously, it was the best pep talk I've ever heard. Feeling determined to put myself out there emotionally realizing that this was war and I was going to fight for Scott to the bitter end (no matter how many casualties), I started getting ready for my date that night.

Grrrrrrrrrr!

There Scott and I are cuddled on the couch talking and enjoying a break from dirty diapers when all of a sudden we hear a low growling coming from the hallway. It grows louder and then there she is. Eve comes crawling around the corner holding a Q-tip in each hand and one sticking out of her mouth, growling at us. Is this normal?

Forgive me for falling into the blog pitfall of "putting up 50 practically identical pictures of their kids and all in the same outfit!"

What's with the Q-tips?

She definately has Scott's eyes the lucky girl

The Neckless Wonder

Saeka the Sushi Master

Sushi and Black Seasame Seed Pudding

Last Friday a Japanese friend of mine (Saeka for those of you who may know her) had me over for lunch. And we're not talking pb&j here. We had four or five different kinds of sushi and for dessert we had black sesame seed pudding (all homemade of course) which as you can see, was a favorite of Eve's. I haven't had sushi since before I was pregnant and I've missed it so much. And ever since moving to Seattle I've been wanting to make sushi because of all the (in Aladin merchant voice) fresh fish. Needless to say, I was so excited to see how it's done by a pro. Saeka if you're reading this, thanks again!

Smile for the camera Eve

She still has trouble keeping her eyes open when the flash goes off.