Crafting, for the Record

Here are a few fun things I've been up to...alone and with friends!

My friend and neighbor Jen have been planning to make this three paneled screen for months. We are such good planners, but the follow through is questionable. Here are the screens sans-frames:

I must confessed we still haven't assembled them in their frames - the painting part has been a substantial time-sink...

And here is a fun nail-art project I did for Valentine's day. I needed to experiment with it to find a very simple version to do with Jacob's class for their Valentine's party. I found out that hammering so many nails into a board is actually pretty challenging for a child, even a very competent 9-year-old. Also the idea of procuring 22 hammers and then listening to 22 kids use them was enough to drive me under the covers with a full dosage of ibuprofen.

So I came up with this variation, after a brief perusal of pinterest: It utilizes foam instead of wood, and as such the nails can just be pushed in. I used my silhouette to quickly cut out 24 4x4" squares of paper with the holes for the heart in their proper places. The kids just had to glue the paper to the foam, push in the nails, string the yearn, and then wrap the outsides with fabric. Jacob's class loved the project although they were easily frustrated by wrapping the yard...and wrapping the yarn again when it unwound itself. Oh and knot tying does not come naturally to third graders, at least not this kind...

My mom convinced me to make this giant "LOVE" sign for my house when I was down visiting her with the kids. The "L" is from an old window, the "O" is a picture frame, and the other letters are from various reclaimed wood pieces. We are all showing off wood projects that my dad helped us do while we were at their house. I tried my hand (somewhat unsuccessfully) at the lathe, Bekah and Beau made a car and a motorcycle, and Jacob worked on his pinewood derby car

And last but not least I had fun making this little poppy print. It could be a whole lot better, but the fact that I took the time to make it equals success in my mind...

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was good this year. I think it is the most bi-polar of all holidays, or perhaps I'm the bi-polar one about it. But this year it was good. I was able to make valentines for my friends, a small elephant print that I neglected to photograph that said "a trunk full of love," and some of my favorite baked goods - chocolate dipped macaroons, YUM!

That night we did our family celebration - a fancy dinner complete with table settings and candle light and good food that everyone loves.

Marianne helped me bread all of the chicken. Actually, I think she single-handedly breaded all of the chicken! She is a great momma's helper!

I had visited a local toy store and couldn't resist purchasing six of their "cannot-be-over-wound-wind-up-toys." I put one on each plate and they were a huge hit! I think wind up toys will be the new theme of our V-day dinners! Rus had the monkey with a leopard print tutu, I had a spaceship that ingeniously cannot fall off of a ledge, Marianne had a frog that could flip, Jacob had a chameleon who could move its eyes, legs and tail, Bekah had an inch worm, and Beau had a cricket that jumped really fast. In full disclosure I will say that there was some slight whining about the toys - Marianne initially wanted Rus's gorilla, and then my spaceship, and then she happily settled on the frog. Jacob was grumpy about his being boring and not flipping like Marianne's. He eventually resigned himself to his chameleon when he realized the eyes moved.

After dinner we did our traditional fondue dessert. Angel food cake, strawberry sauce, and chocolate sauce. The angel food cake was a surprising flop this year, but it still tasted good dipped in chocolate. Because what doesn't taste good dipped in chocolate?

Oh, and I got my poem from my dad. It read:
Roses are red,
And brilliant and bright,
But you are the rare one,
Who turns mundane to light.

I replied,
Violets are pretty,
No hats for a rose.
But you are a man who wears plenty of those.
Woodworker, high council,
Retiree and temple student.
It's not a 'stache but hats
That for you would be prudent.

Ha! We're both such aspiring wordsmiths!

Which Cookie Looks the Best?

All of the kids did science experiments this year, although only two out of the three kids were required to do so. We're overachievers. I used to make Rus do the experiments because my own memories of the science fair were riddled with dark images of myself panicking the night before the due date, painting a shoe box with a hole cut out of it, stringing rubber bands across the hole, and then ashamedly passing it off as a "musical experiment." Dark days those were. Everything changed when I helped Bekah come up with her project last year - the light clicked on in my head and I realized we could do something I was actually interested in! (We dyed fabric using different types of fruits and veggies.)

This year Bekah tested different types of leavening in baked goods, Jacob found the perfect temperatures for making and cooling crystals, and Beau asked the question, "Do cookies look more appealing if they're under different colored lights?"

His project was really fun. And it was understandably easy to find willing participants. Beau made the cookies himself (with my help), and then we called all willing neighbors to come test out his theory. He turned two shoe boxes into four little sections that each had a light in it. They were all white push lights, but three of the lights had colored filters. So one section displayed a cookie in a white light, and then the others were blue, yellow, and red. His hypothesis was that the cookies in the white light would be the most appealing.

To up his numbers, we made cookies for his entire class and had them come up one by one to get a cookie. Here he is with his good buddy Cameron.

And here's a better view of the cookie set up.

I'm sure you're dying to know, so I'll tell you that the cookies under the yellow light were found to be the most favorable! Out of a sample group of 38 participants, 14 chose the cookie under the yellow light, 10 chose blue, 8 chose white, and 6 chose red.

Beau concluded, "I think people chose that light because it looked buttery and warm. I think sometimes the people picked a cookie because it just looked good."

Amen to that. 

White Sands

Our family (minus Rus) decided to celebrate President's day last Monday by going to White Sands National Park near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Coincidentally, the Park was celebrating President's day by giving free admission, a win-win for us! The kids also had Tuesday off of school for teacher in-service, so we decided to go down Monday, stay the night, and drive home Tuesday. I made our plans Sunday evening, but despite the short notice my parents took little convincing to accept my invitation to come along. (YAY! I love that they live close by and that my dad is retired and that they have adventurous spirits!)
We packed up and headed out Monday morning. It's about four hours from my house to White Sands, but the drive was pleasant. We stopped at every historical marker (at my dad's request) and enjoyed being on new roads through new towns that we'd never seen before. They were small specks of towns, but quaint nonetheless.
We drove straight to White Sands, spent a few painful minutes at the gift shop (please, please can I buy that stuffed animal/pin/puzzle!!), and then drove out to the surreal landscape of the dunes. After a few hundred yards the paved road gave way to packed white sand. It looked just like packed snow, complete with plow driven berms of sand lining the sides of the road. White was the main color, accented by dots of color from visitor's clothing and vehicles and interspersed with the occasional desert plant. We drove to the end of the loop because that's where they said the biggest dunes were. Bekah was the first to grab a sled from the trunk and try to sled down the gentle slope in front of our van. It didn't work. My grand plans of sledding froze and I worried that the trip was in vain. We tried another dune with a different disk-sled and it was equally painful. Finally watched a little family send their mother down a steep looking dune and heard her happy squeals as a signal of success. We encroached on their spot and soon the kids were happily sledding full speed down the dune. My mom and dad even took their turns.

Marianne went once with me, and though she didn't hate it, she was unyielding in any attempts to get her to go again. She did enjoy making sand-angels though.

Bekah was the first to be buried in the sand. My dad made her into a mermaid, and much to my embarrassment she couldn't get over the fact that she had boobs made of sand.

Beau got buried next; he was a spider/octopus.

Then Grandpa gave Marianne big feet. Jacob and Beau enjoyed making small tunnels of sand and big dug-outs that could hold their whole bodies.
I remembered that a friend had suggested we try jumping off of the dunes and soon had Beau and Bekah leaping while I took pictures. Then I gave Bekah the camera so she could try to get me. I admit, I found it exhilarating and terrifying to leap off the edge, even though I knew the sand would catch me. It still felt like I was falling. It was my favorite part of the dunes.

After a while, my mom, Marianne and Bekah had retreated to the car and Beau, Jacob, my dad and I explored a few more dunes and took advantage of the blank canvas they provided. We wrote our names and drew pictures; I held the boy's feet so they could walk and leave handprints in the sand.
Eventually we returned to the van, but reluctant to leave yet we found pieces of trash that could serve as molds for building sand castles. We had quite a village by the time we were done. That was my dad's favorite part.

When we were all satisfied, we left and allowed another visit to the gift shop so the kids could spend their money on pins and stuffed animals and two small carved rock animals, and on my part, a small white sand castle.
We decided to see the lay of the land in Alamogordo before settling in our hotel. It is a small town, I think kept mainly alive by its proximity to Holloman Air Force base and the White Sands Missile range. Thus there is a long main strip with a lot of fast food restaurants and not a lot else. (I'll admit our drive wasn't really thorough because we were all tired of being in the car.)
We checked in to the hotel and immediately changed so we could swim in the pool, as much a destination in our trip as White Sands. My dad is really fun in the pool and gave any willing child a chance to ride on his back while he swam underwater. Most of us were quickly drawn to the hot tub, though.
Later we ate some BBQ ("best ribs ever," -Mom and Dad and Bekah), and then went to bed.
The next morning, Marianne made herself pancakes. She had slept in my parent's room, laying with my mom in one bed and telling my dad, while pointing to the other bed, that he had to sleep in the "boy bed." My dad took her to get breakfast and there was the most wonderful machine there. It had a button that said, "press here for pancakes" and when you pressed it, a conveyor belt started inside and within a minute two pancakes rolled off the end of the belt and onto your plate. Marianne was incredibly proud of herself and her cooking ability.
We checked out by 8:30 and decided to visit Cloudcroft before returning home. It was a blip of a mountain town, and unfortunately we arrived too early to enjoy any of the touristy shops it offered. We did get to see a large tourist trap called the Apple Barn that had one invaluable offering: it sold grapefruit spoons. As a grapefruit lover, I'd been wanting one! We also had to stop and sample the locally grown pistachios. We wound up with large bags of our own that we snacked on most of the way home.
And that was it. A wonderful whirlwind trip. I'd go again in a heartbeat!

Marianne the Great

Marianne is my constant companion. That is why she is critical of my driving abilities, likes to pick out what kinds of cereal or mac and cheese we eat, and why she can proficiently bread chicken for frying. She can also crack eggs and whisk ingredients, but as a rule I plan for a 10% loss of ingredients whenever she helps me bake - either because she is messy or because she is a devoted taste tester. 

On a weekly basis we go shopping, and she likes to tell me which stores to go to based on the benefits they provide to her - Smiths has car carts, Sprouts has stickers, and Albertsons has cookies. 

Twice a week we try to go to a yoga class that a ward member teaches at the church. Moms take turn doing the babysitting. This pic is from when it was my turn to play in the nursery with Marianne and she was baking me lots of goodies and serving me tea. She is fine with me "going to yoga" when I'm actually "going to watch kids at yoga." Otherwise, she offers enough resistance that if my own resolve is weak, I am easily swayed into not going.

There are three little girls in Marianne's life to whom she is truly devoted. One is her cousin Rachel. The other is her frenemy Noelle. And the third is her dear friend Sidney. When Marianne and Sidney play together, they are little angels, so happy, and so distracted by their games. This pic is of Marianne and Sidney as Rainbow Kitties.

Marianne is so endearing with her blue eyes and happy smile and her immense conversational abilities that you might never guess that she has a messy streak as wide as the Mississippi. She changes clothes five times a day, and usually empties her drawers onto the floor looking for "the cupcake shirt" or her "kitty pants". Her clothing routine goes like this:

Wake up in jammies.

Change to different jammies after breakfast.

When we have to go somewhere, she changes into her "morning clothes," which are actual clothes.

When we get home she either:

A. Changes into her queen Elsa dress accessorized by her queen Elsa necklace and princess shoes, or

B. Changes into "something soft" so we can SNUGGLE.

At bedtime she always changes into something soft so we can snuggle, if she isn't there already. 

This picture is of the mess she makes emptying our costume bucket in the hall to find the perfect princess dress.

I should have mentioned a fourth favorite girl in her life - her Grandma Cutesy. Marianne and Cutesy have a special bond. Marianne will call her and invite her over and tell her she wants to snuggle and relate to her in detail all of her owies in their expansive stages of healing. And when they are together, they will talk and snuggle, and Marianne will ask for lotion on her back and front and bum and they will talk about her upcoming birthday (in September).

Marianne is at that awful stage where she doesn't nap but isn't the happiest person in the afternoon. (Like Rus. Rus never left that stage.) In January our time slot at church changed to one and Marianne graduated to Sunbeams. She was not in favor of this advancement, however, and spent many long tearful minutes in Sunbeams until I took her out and told her she could enjoy Sunbeams or nap with me. She chose a nap. In the most awkward of positions. She slept like this for at least 30 minutes.

And that concludes my photo dump of the exploits of Marianne. Oh how I love that little tornado.

How to Get Hit By a Car

If you are going to get hit by a car whilst riding your bike home from work, there are some simple guidelines you should follow:

Make sure you and the villainous car are both going at slow speeds. 

Wear a helmet.

Ride in the crosswalk.

Only allow the car to hit you on your front tire, sparing the rest of the bike and your lower appendages any damage at all.

Tuck and roll.

Use your head.

Resist the offer of an ambulance ride.

Have great neighbors, family and friends nearby.

This past Wednesday night a young man in his car with his kids unwittingly played a part in poking our families mortality bubble - you know, that sense of immunity from sickness, accidents, and death. He was turning left and crossed paths with Rus, who was riding straight through a crosswalk. He just didn't see him, despite Rus's light clothing and multiple blinking lights. He clipped Rus's front tire and Rus went up onto the hood of the car and then rolled off the other side, landing on the asphalt on his head and shoulder. The man stopped immediately, was super apologetic, and in a blur a policeman and ambulance were at the scene as well, checking on a super adrenalined Rus. He was hurting really bad on his left shoulder but resisted taking a ride in the ambulance. Instead he called me.

I was at home with nine kids. Four, of course, were mine, and five were Carla's. She and Doug had gone to the hospital to visit a friend whose baby was in the NICU. I had cooked chicken, green beans, and had just started on some pancakes, a weird combination, I know, but I knew it would appeal to the masses. Rus called, calmly told me he had been hit, and I calmly asked him to repeat himself and then we calmly worked out the details of how I would come pick him and his bike up. The call felt not-unlike several that I've had over the past year where he needed me to rescue him because his VW bug broke down. I told him that I'd load up the littler kids and leave the big kids at home, but when I hung up I realized immediately that that was a bad idea. Instead I called my own first responder and neighbor Jen and she came up with her two kids to take care of everyone. She later texted me a picture - she was holding my 15 month old nephew Johnny who had fallen asleep in her arms with a pancake clutched to his face.

I drove to pick up Rus. I was anxious to get there quickly, worried that he'd downplayed his situation and that I'd be greeted by a much more grim scene. Actually when I arrived at the corner where Rus had wrecked, I just saw him and his mangled bike. That was it. 

I loaded up him and his bike and he informed me that it was date night! Just kidding. He said we needed to go to the ER because his shoulder was in a lot of pain. I called Carla, who was naturally very worried when I informed her that Rus had been hit. She was actually at the hospital still, and wanted to see Rus before heading back home to watch the kids.

We had a brief exchange with Carla and Doug at the ER where Carla cried and Doug poked around on Rus's shoulder, and then we sat to wait and wait. It was, according the the employees there, an unusually busy night at the ER. Highlights: Getting to be x-rayed on a brand new x-ray machine, listening to a man chew out the nurses because he had "been there for days," listening to a young woman moaning and wailing uncontrollably, and eating Subway for dinner. Two hours later (not too bad!) we were leaving, papers in hand that read: Fractured Clavicle and Neck Sprain.

By the time we got home, my mom had replaced Carla and Doug (so that they could get their kids to bed), our kids were in bed except for Marianne, and Rus was happy to down some pain killers. The whole ordeal, crash to finish, had taken four hours. Rus was actually in good spirits, and the general consensus was that the whole thing could have been so much worse.

If you have to get hit by a car, that's the way to do it.

Here's to hoping that insurance money buys him his dream bike!

And now some pics: I actually have no idea how to read this x-ray. But to my untrained eye, that clavicle looks really bad.

Rus really loved having me take pictures of him.

Cows for Christmas Again

Richard the Moo Doc put me to work again this Christmas. He has trained me over the years to be adequately good at drawing cows. (Who knew that'd be a marketable skill!) This year he educated me with more cow-health information than I ever wanted to know and tasked me with building a clipboard twice the size of any clipboard on the market. Actually he tasked me with building 25 clipboards for his 25 clients. Lucky for him, I have the tools and the husband and father to make this happen, not to mention sufficient online shopping skills to find the clips and the screw posts I needed.

There is a terrific graphic design firm in Abq called Subia. I love them. I needed them to take the image I had created and glue it to the board and then seal it with a powerful laminate. They did an excellent job.

I love that the owner was the one to call me to let me know they were done and that he quizzed me on how I would finish the job, just to make sure I knew what I was doing. I love that I was tempted to ditch all of the boards I had cut and go with his pvc boards instead (more expensive but potentially more durable), and he talked me out of it, talking himself out of more money in the process. That's the kind of business man I am happy to do business with.

After the boards were laminated, my parents, Rus, Marianne and I spent a morning in the garage putting them together. 25 boards, 50 clips, 100 screwposts. It was hard, but not awful, especially with a great crew.
I hope that the NM Dairy Producers enjoy them!