Twenty Eight.

Today I turn twenty-eight.
I have a husband, three children, a dog, a house, good running shoes, and I've suddenly realized that I don't still have any clothes from high school. No shirts or favorite jeans...the closest thing is a pair of pajama pants that I made in college. They are holy and have a safety pin sewn into them, but they are comfy. I do still own the two formal dresses I wore in high school - one to a junior prom with Kyle Dunlap and one that I wore to homecoming with Nathan Franz, but I don't fit into them - I've tried. My ribs expanded with each child, I think.
My journal that sits dusty on my nightstand was started in January of 2004. It's only a quarter of the way filled.
My scriptures sit on top of it. They are a Christmas gift from my parents my freshman year of college...and they are well used, but not as marked up as my high school scriptures. They are finally broken in.
I have in storage exactly two totes from my "growing up years." They contain yearbooks, cute notes from high school, porcelain dolls that I will give to Bekah one day, knick knacks, a ragged baby blanket, newspaper clippings from cross country along with medals and letters, and dresses from each of my sister's weddings. I also have an unmarked yet bulging file in my file cabinet that holds all the cards I have ever received. Well probably not all, but most.
I feel like the same person. Not exactly the same - more experienced (not necessarily wiser), and much more confident and fulfilled, and evidently taller - oh and I have these guys to hang out with now:I feel blessed.
I was awake for the exact moment that yesterday became today: 12:00am. Bekah's alarm clock went off and freaked her out and so I got to get up and turn it off and calm her down. I wished myself a happy birthday before I went back to sleep. I might have said it sarcastically.
When she really woke up much later this morning she made me a slew of adorable cards. My favorite is the one in the middle: "I hope you rilly in jowy (really enjoy) your birthday." Oh and the top middle one: "Mom is going to have a happy birthday." Guaranteed!
For my twenty-eighth year I hope to master my handstand (I'm working on it), run a 10K (Turkey trot, coming up!), move and start remodeling, learn the Thriller dance, make a hundred transformers and sell them all, send two kids off to elementary school, kiss Rus a lot, start a cupcake class, start working towards an Art Education degree, and have at least six adventures to unknown places.
I'll have to remember all that when I blow out my candles...

Rus Wednesday

Rus and Bekah fixing the Pontiac, Los Lunas 2005

I have realized in the past few weeks that I can live without chocolate.
I also know from previous experience that I can live without Rus for a few days or a week, (although I always miss him).
But today I realized that I cannot live without both and be happy.
No sir.
The Challenge got me tonight and I had to give in to some frozen cookies and a bite of chocolate praline. It was that or have Rus here instead of in Kansas. (It's only for a week...I'm such a wus!)
I was thinking of another favorite car repair story today. I know I've already told a couple, but you have to figure when you've owned around a dozen cars in eight years you're going to have stories...and when they are all used cars, usually those stories involve something being broken or getting fixed. This story might only be interesting or funny by perspective, but I'm going to share it anyway...
When we were in Flagstaff, before we had kids, we lived in the student married housing. It's apartment style housing with a lot a half a block away where we could park our car. And the cross walk right there makes a really annoying sound when it's time to cross - "Bee Doop. Bee Doop. Bee Doop." Over and over. Totally irrelevant, but still...(Tami, Suzi, do you remember that?)
One day we came home from somewhere, (driving the cadillac), pulled into our parking spot in the near empty lot, and I, the driver, tried to turn off the car. The key wouldn't turn. It was in park, but I couldn't turn the car off. I popped the hood, Rus got out and started checking things out, and the irony of the situation hit me. Out of a million times where the car won't start or the car dies or overheats or fritzes out, what are the chances that it just won't turn off!! BWAHHAHAHA! I'm ashamed to admit that while Rus was cussing and pulling out spark plugs, I was almost rolling on the ground laughing, completely useless. I thought it was unbelievably funny. I still do. Obviously.
Anyways, to make a long story short, Rus got it to turn off, fixed it later, and all was well.
I love that Rus has skills with all things mechanical. Usually diagnosing the problem is the hardest part, and after that Rus works his magic getting things working again.
When we bought the Man Van it needed a new radiator almost right away. (Should have known that when the previous owners said it's nickname was "Trouble.") Rus and I put the kids in bed and got elbow deep in wrenches, nuts, bolts, and grease. It was really fun to work on it with him - he is a patient teacher. I love that Rus is a guy I could dig a ditch with (or fix a car with), and we still have fun together.

What Happens in Vegas

Stays in Vegas.
Except what I'll be telling you about here, because it's too good to keep a secret...
My best friend Sarah from high school and I both were invited to our mutual friend Barbara's wedding in Vegas. (For some reason I have to keep explaining to people that she lives in Vegas. That's why she got married there. Duh.)
All three of us ran cross country together all four years. The real kicker is that Barbara married Matt, another kid from our high school who ran cross country with us and who she really didn't like in high school. It was a mutual show of non-affection...which was obviously misleading because now they are married. So Sarah and I had to go see this match with our own eyes.
We drove ten hours to see it, in fact. Sarah was a great sport - I didn't want to dish up the money to fly so she suggested driving and even provided her car for the trip. We loaded ourselves up Friday afternoon and even allowed for a little stowaway - Bekah. We were stopping for the night in Flagstaff and Amy was very kind to invite Bekah to stay there for the weekend. (Amy's daughter Sarah got to tell everyone that she was getting a sister. And Amy had to clarify that she was getting a cousin, not a new sister.)
Saturday morning came early and cold, as I could attest to when Amy, Sarah, and I (clad in shorts! eek!), went for a walk/run at 6:30am. I have to insert one thing right here about the Challenge - I am so grateful that it made it possible for Amy and I to run together. That hasn't happened since I was in high school and it was wonderful!
After warming up and cleaning up from our walk/run, eating breakfast, and finding Bekah to say goodbye, Sarah and I hit the road. The drive went fast; I enjoyed In-N-Out for the first time ever in Kingman. Tyler clued me in to the "secret menu" so I ordered the single, animal style. Yum. Good stuff.
When we got to Vegas we drove down the strip, wandered around a little bit, saw "Nunsense," a forgettable comedy by singing Vegas-style nuns, and ate a very memorable dinner at Emeril's in the MGM.
Sunday was perfect. We slept in, had breakfast, toured a chocolate factory, ate amazing chocolate, swam in the hotel pool, went to church with my aunt and uncle, were treated to a wonderful lunch by my aunt and uncle, drove up to see the Las Vegas temple up close, and made it back to the hotel with plenty of time to get dolled up for the wedding.
Somehow we were running late when it was time to be at the wedding...but we showed up in plenty of time and didn't have to literally run into the chapel. Matt was the first person we saw when we walked through the doors. He was in the foyer with Barbara's dad, and they both were so happy and surprised to see us. They both told me, "Gosh! You're so tall!" In fact that's what everyone who knew me in high school said. I had to take off my heels at one point to prove that, "See, I'm not that tall!"
Here I am with the bride:And here we are, just like ten years ago...sort of!
Anyways, the ceremony was beautifully done and the reception afterward was really fun. They had a dance floor and played a lot of old school songs and it was really a blast. We danced the night away! I loved seeing Barbara and Matt dance together, and completely cracked up at Barbara's dad dancing...he was a hoot!
And then Monday Sarah and I headed home, swooping in to pick up Bekah in Flagstaff, (Amy said: Keri, Bekah asks a lot of questions!). We made it home in good time and I was happy to see my kids. But not Rus - he had left that same morning for Kansas. I kept teasing that I wouldn't come home till he had left so I wouldn't get any fallout from his weekend with the boys. :)
Again, it was just a wonderful weekend. I really enjoyed Sarah's company and the entire adventure. YAY!

Rus Wednesday

I've been thinking about Rus all day today - the pressure of "Rus Wednesday" is getting to me, I guess. :) Really I've been thinking that I've let the guy down.
Take for example my pantry: It is loaded with food, but not the kind Rus would love - Kashi Cinnamon cereal, Oatmeal Squares, Ritz crackers, granola, granola bars, peanut butter, goldfish, chips, and lots of canned food and noodles. Notice the absence of things like Little Debbie snacks and sugar cereals and most notably, chocolate? Now we do have a cabinet appropriately named "the sweet cabinet," that should have cookies or m&ms or something, but it, too is barren except for a jar of old "healthy" cookies that don't have any sugar in them and use dark chocolate and bananas. Not really the sort of thing Rus willingly eats. My sugar-free sprint is leaving Rus in a flax-like dust and he's choking on it.
In other areas - I sometimes (usually. always.) don't make a lot of effort to conceal the stress of my day when Rus gets home from work. Rus knows with a glance and barely a foot in the door if the kids have been hard or if I've been grumpy. And if that doesn't clue him in then me snapping at the kids for something usually does. I will be the first to admit that I am not a very sympathetic person. (Empathetic? Yeah, that too.) Sometimes it takes me a good twenty minutes to remember I didn't ask Rus how his day was. We seem to spend most of the night coexisting until the kids are in bed, the fog clears, and we can both decompress and say, "Hi! Nice to see you! How are you doing?"
Tonight will be slightly different. I'll say hi for about thirty minutes and then head off to the church and I won't see Rus until after the kids are in bed. He'll be left with laundry on the couch, kids who need showers, and all the whining that goes with it.
So today, for Rus Wednesday, instead of just writing nice things about you, Rus, I thought I'd do something nice. Go check out the fridge, there's chocolate chip cookie dough waiting for you. (He likes the dough more than the cookies.)
I love you!

Balloon Fiesta 2010

This last weekend my sisters and my parents came to visit for the Balloon Fiesta. Amy has come once before but it was Amanda's first trip. We had a successful venture on Friday night to a balloon glow, but the next morning was spent battling traffic and watching the balloons from the window of the car. It was still fun to go but I made everyone swear that they'd only come again on a Friday, not a Saturday. The weather was absolutely terrific, which is so uncharacteristic of the fiesta week...we played on the grass after the balloons had gone up, eating krispy kreme donuts and learning how to do handstands.
Beau watching a kite:The US Flag coming to life:Darth Vader firing up for the balloon glow:Later on Saturday we made a Transformer-making assembly line. I had kits ready for all of my nephews and so they each assembled their own transformers and they all actually turned out good. Amy and Amanda and I also made hot air balloon tshirts for the girls (we each have one daughter), kind of like these shirts from Make It and Love It, but hot air balloons instead of flags. I know you'd love a picture, but...tough.
The other really fun thing we did on Saturday, since it was Preston's 9th birthday, was make him the most awesome cake ever - a haunted house from the book, "What's New, Cupcake?" It actually turned out looking like the picture. It was AMAZING. And I've made a lot of cakes that haven't turned out looking nice, so this is really saying something. I need to get the book, well both books.
Not the best picture...too dark with a funny lookin' background:And a closeup of my favorite little raven:Monday morning Amanda, Eric and I took all the kids up to the zoo. It was beautiful weather and the animals were cooperative, so we had a great time. Jacob and Amanda were best friends the whole weekend - he just loved her and she would do anything he asked. It was really fun having Amanda's older kids take care of Jacob and Beau at the zoo...they would lift them up so they could see, push Beau's stroller, and run from animal to animal with each other. I *heart* birds!

Now this post seems to have taken me all week to write...so I have to add a funny conversation Rus and I had with Beau today:
Rus: Beau, say Daddy!
Beau: Rus!

Say Grandma.
Beau: Honey!

Say Bekah.
Beau: Guys!

Say Jacob.
Beau: Guys!

Say car.
Beau: Baby!

Say Mommy.
Beau: Mommy!

Ha! I'm the only one he got right!

Rus Wednesday

Bekah was born on a Monday evening...perfect at 7 lbs 3ozs and 19" long. In a moment she turned Rus and I into parents and the three of us into a family. Scary. The day we got to go home we carefully loaded her into her brand new carseat, gently wedged her into the backseat of my Cadillac, and slowly drove the two miles home.
There Rus got to really use his first Father's Day gift that had been purchased the month before: a LazBoy rocker/recliner. He swaddled her, laid her on his chest and went to sleep, all worn out from the delivery, you know. ;)That rocking chair was also the first place Bekah laughed, and she did it for Rus. He had her standing on chubby wobbly legs and was singing an awful song that his grandfather had sung to his father. It went something like this:
"Oh I got a bucket,
Oh I got a bucket of lard.
I ain't got no money,
But I've got chickens in my backyard.
Yodelay-he-hoo, Yodelay-he-hoo, old time blu-ues..."
That wonderful bubbling sound just popped out of her like wind chimes suddenly feeling a burst of wind.
She did not have a very discriminating sense of humor, as you can see. But it worked and it took weeks more before she laughed again. Rus was very proud of himself and I was secretly jealous. I think I even tried singing that song to her to get her to laugh but it didn't work. So then I just told Rus that he was funny looking, and that's why.
Later Jacob, and then Beau were also treated to Daddy's special song to rock them to sleep when they were babies. (Better to sleep than to listen?) Sometimes he snuck this other one in just to change things up:
"Oh my daddy had a fiddle it was made out of wood,
Best darn fiddle in the neighborhood.
With it's corn cob neck and horse hair string,
Oh how my daddy would-a-fiddle and sing!"
And while I'll admit they are the corniest songs in creation, I have to also say that they've become a very special part of my parenting memories...Rus singing to our new babies, Rus singing to cranky babies in the middle of the night, Rus teasing babies with his off-key tunes and making them laugh...a dark room in the middle of the night with only the sounds of Rus's footsteps, his hand patting a baby's back, and him very softly singing about a bucket of lard.
Priceless.
I wouldn't change those lyrics or even the old-time-tunes for the world. They're keepers.
And so is Rus.

BeDoodled

Homemade Hero

I am settin' up shop. HERE. (Or use my button on the right). It's called "BeDoodled." It's an experiment, really. I have always loved to draw little stick people and for the last couple of years I have sold drawings to my friends for gifts for their family or friends. I was inspired by a shop on Etsy where the woman sold paintings of just one person centered in the middle of the drawing - I thought, "I could DO that!!" (The format, I mean. Not her drawings, which were a totally different style than mine.)
I thought I'd start simple but also offer a "Custom" button where someone (YOU.) could purchase whatever drawing you wanted, really wanted, for the same price as other finished drawings in my shop. That way you could actually capture that time your child climbed up to the table and painted all over her face with your paints, or your son's love of all things superhero or the fact that your daughter is a princess! The CUSTOM button helps me out because I don't have to think up the idea - you do!
So please go visit my shop and let me know what you think. What you really think. I'm even inviting the constructive criticism here, as it's my first etsy shop and I need all the help I can get. Don't be surprised at how bare it seems - I'm hoping the few drawings I have will spark your imagination so you can order something custom. And by all means, order the ones for sale, too!
Be sure to notice my awesome banner, created by my friend Tami. I dumped a bunch of ideas/thoughts on her and she refined them beautifully into my shop banner. I still owe her for that one!
ALSO - Since this month is Breast Cancer Awareness month, I am donating all proceeds for the month of October to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. This will also help out my sister, Amy, who is raising money for a three day walk.
And if you'd really like to help me out, tell your friends and post a link on your blog. I would sincerely appreciate it.

Beau's Mini

I just got home from "the dirt" as Jakey calls it - the big undeveloped area south of our home. Jacob had been begging me to let him go ride in the dirt on his bike.
"Did you know I can ride in the dirt, Mom? Daddy showed me."
We went so he could show me, too. He rode his bike up the dirt road being chased by Colonel and Beau (who was running, too, just...slower). They all found a big dirt/concrete hill and climbed to the top...then slid to the bottom, rode/ran around a little more, and then headed back to the van. The wind was blowing and the air smelled of rain. All I could think about was how I had made a big point of lightening Bekah's backpack this morning and leaving her umbrella on the counter with some comment of "you won't need this," and how she'll be so mad if it's raining after school now. I got over it and thought instead about yesterday when Jacob walked Beau across the street, holding his hand, to look at the neighbor's Halloween decorations. Then they walked hand in hand next door to see the big scary spider perched on the porch light. They walked back to the road and I saw Jacob quickly turn Beau around to face him and hug him, holding him tight. Jacob was watching up the road and had seen a car coming and stood there hugging Beau until it passed. Then they crossed the street back to our house. It totally melted my heart.
Today while Jacob was at preschool I decided to make a transformer for Beau. He's been stealing Jacob's every chance he can get and it was time for his own. I wanted a new design that only needed two hinges because they come in packs of two. I worked out a new design for the head and I really love how it turned out! This guy is small and compact and perfect for Beau.
"GUY!" (what Beau calls him), he'll have guns at the end of his arms:
"BABY!" (What Beau calls cars - any cars):This is a view from the back. See how the head folds up and becomes part of the back of the car? When it's painted the face will be right there on the back, which I think will be super cool.I think I have more fun designing them and seeing if the design pans out than anything else. I don't want to make a hundred, but I love seeing that the concept actually works.

Jacob's Sherman Tank

When Jacob said he wanted a gun transformer (meaning a tank, I soon found out), I immediately started thinking about how to make telescoping guns. What is cooler than machine guns that can zoom in and out depending on the range of the target?! I found myself in a familiar aisle at home depot comparing dowel diameters and trying to figure out what the best two would be...I came up with 7/8" for the outside of the gun and 5/16" for the inside part. I would tell you exactly how I made them but I think it would bore or confuse you, so let me just say that there's a stop hooked to the part that telescopes so that it doesn't come all the way out. Jacob hates losing his guns and really liked this arrangement. There are three guns on this guy, one that can move left to right (all the way around), and two that can point straight up and rotate 180 degrees.
See the tank with guns in:And telescoped out (it's not a huge difference):And transformed into a man (this one is a bad guy, Jacob says):
And here is the bounty from my peach tree:Eight cups of sliced, peeled peaches. This maybe represents a quarter of the fruit that the tree produced, sadly birds got most of the rest. I am just excited to have this much for a first harvest! Don't they look pretty?

And a picture to show that I'm back in the saddle again. With boots. Heart rate up, knuckles white, not exactly sure if I even like this anymore, but at least I'm driving, right? Driving slower...without mud or trees or sharp hidden corners.