Happy Birthday, honey

Guest blogger: DH

While Bettie worked on her birthday, the girls and I headed for the Organ Mountains. Isobel quickly dubbed them the "Napolean Dynamite Crystal Mountains," since they're as jagged as the crystals that powered Uncle Rico's time machine in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbFeS3PrLtE

Here's a photo of the mountains.

Highlights of our day at Dripping Springs, a pretty BLM-managed picnic area with some jagged rocks, ranch history and a seasonal spring:

• At the visitor center, the girls told the host they were going rock climbing. She said "Oh no" to them, "La Cuevo is a very safe trail" to me, and "you'll get to use your climbing muscles, though" to them.
• I nodded and then we drove back to the La Cuevo trailhead and headed straight to the top of a neighboring fin of rock. We missed Uncle Devin, but made it to the top and back. ("Don't you move from this spot. I'll go help Eva.")
• Eva chose a prickly pear as the spot for one of her spills, and I picked little thorns out of her hand, side and leg for much of the rest of the afternoon. There were even a couple left over for Bettie when we saw her two hours later.
• Eva and I were looking at a tiny lizard with a long blue tail when I said, "Isobel, do you see this?" "No. Look. A snake," she said. And there was the back half of a bright green snake, maybe a Black-tailed Rattlesnake, its dark rattle disappearing last off the side of the trail. (We also saw a roadrunner, my first.)
• At La Cuevo, a cave where a saintly hermit was killed in the 19th century, Eva had to go. So I dropped her pants and held her up, like I have with Isobel dozens of times. But Eva said, "No. In a potty. My pee is scared of the ground. It's staying up."

Anyway, wish you were there, Bettie, but someone's gotta bring home the bacon.

My Birthday Weekend (wahoo!)

Where to begin? Thursday night my family and I drove four hours to Las Cruces. If you can't locate a map to know where that is, it is in the center of the southernmost boundary - it borders Texas and Mexico. We had never been there before and were kindof embarassed that we were surprised how pretty it was. :) There were mountains all the way down the state! We checked into the hotel, starving, ordered pizza and tried to keep the kids from jumping on the beds and the floor. Once we finally ate, it was time for bed. Well by this time, about 11pm, the kids were a bit exhausted - thus, irrational and screaming. Eva was screaming her famed 100dB wail that makes all of us ready to run down a board room table and jump out of the 21st story window. Finally, DH was laying with her in the other bed when Eva said, "I wanna sleep with Mommy, cus she is da softest." How could I say "no" to that? So, DH slept alone, Isobel slept on the floor, and I sorta slept with Eva. She's a mover, a snuggler, and a sweater. So she'd snuggle into me more every time I'd try to move a way, lay on my arm and sweat all over it, and then wiggle around for about 10 minutes -- ALL NIGHT LONG! So, about 30 minutes before the alarm was supposed to go off (like 5:50am), I got up. You can imagine how tired I was staying in a conference room and listening to a lecture/training all day.

When I got out of the training, I had to wait for my family for quite a while. I had the privilege of observing a very long ant trail that went from across the sidewalk to up the side of the building and onto the top.....I was bored. But when they arrived, they had gotten me a dozen roses! 6 red and 6 white. (For your info: I have never gotten roses. Mostly I get daisies, daffodils, or on occasion a carnation. Not that I don't absolutely LOVE these kinds of flowers, It was kinda fun to get roses.) Then we went to the Outback for dinner and they sang to me and I got a hot fudge sundae - yum. Then we drove up to a campground just below the Organ Mtns. It was very pretty. I was a little embarassed to be receiving phone calls in my tent (thank you Verizon) but it was fun to be remembered. :)

The next day we took the LONG way home. We were planning on meeting my brother's family in ABQ that evening so we wanted to take our time getting there. We went to White Sands National Monument. It was fun to play in the sand and exfoliate my feet;) It was pretty crazy because the sand is white - hence the name - but the sand blows across the roads and they plow it, just like snow. You know how when they plow the snow it kinda leaves a little tiny layer of snow and ice on the ground, smooth and kinda bluish-colored? Well, these sand covered roads looked just like that. Honestly. We were nervous everytime we turned a corner - we slowed down and prepared to slide a bit - but it was sand! It was crazy. Quite a trip.

Then we took the scenic route home thru Alamogordo and Ruidoso and up around to some ancient ruins that I can't remember the name...Gran Quivira (Salinas Pueblo Missions). When we got to the ruins it had just stopped raining so we walked up the trail and as soon as we got to the huge buildings sprawled out over the hillside, it started to rain pretty good. We couldn't go down at this point, so we just walked/ran around while our faces were dripping with water. We were quite the sight. It is a cool place. Eva asked a random woman in the gift shop to read her a story book about the tres javelinas (three little pigs retold), which she willingly did:)

We were supposed to meet my brother, who was moving to ABQ, around 6 or 7ish pm. But moving always takes longer than you expect - "oh, just a few more things, a few more, almost done, almost cleaned..." So we went to dinner and the dollar store. I wanted to get some candles and buy a cake at the grocery store. I got a coconut cream pie instead. We got to my bro's hotel around 8:30pm and the kids had finally sacked out so we let them sleep. Then when my bro arrived around 9:30, his kids were out, too. So there was no need for candle burning. We visited and they gave me a super cute flower lamp from IKEA. Yeah!

Sunday morning we wrestled 5 kids in church clothes around the hotel lobby for continental breakfast - what a zoo. Then my family and one of my brother's girls came to SF for church and my brother's family followed later. That night my friends brought over a birthday cake and sang to me. (Too bad I'd been away from home and didn't have any ice cream! I'm lame! Don't worry, we're well stocked now:) I had some messages from my mom, e-mails from friends, couple text messages, and my sister even started a blog in honor of my day: theseglesnest.blogspot.com. All in all, it was a great birthday!

Isobel's first day of school :)

(Guest blogger: my hubby;)

If you think that's a happy face, you should have seen the one we didn't capture on film. In fact, Bettie and Eva didn't see the happiest face of all (hence the guest) because it happened just after Isobel's and my mad dash to her first bus, which we would have missed if we'd waited for Eva's usual performance. (This performance - they happen nearly every time we go anywhere - had to do with a pair of shoes, I believe.)



We made it in time and Isobel hopped on the bus. The driver handed me a form, told me which bus to look for in the afternoon and other "matters of consequence" and then started to pull away. I then realized I wasn't sure which seat Isobel was in and started a quick search so I could wave goodbye.




There she was: Second seat back, my side of the bus, grinning, waving and actually pumping her fists as she rode the bus to her first day of kindergarten.




Missing the bus wouldn't have been too serious, since after the bus pulled away, I walked back, grabbed Eva, got in the car and drove to Isobel's school. I probably beat her there. I had to drop off some supplies, but she wouldn't ride with me.

After finding a place for the supplies, I followed all the other parents into the classroom. The kindergarten kids sat on little letter mats in the front of the room and the parents, along with Eva and a few kids who preferred to sit on daddy's lap for an extra minute, sat on little chairs behind.

The teacher read a story about a scared raccoon who used a kiss - left by his mom in his hand - to feel better on his first day at school. Isobel watched, never looking back at her dad. Eva fought for (and was denied) access to the dolls, cash register and other toys in the room.



The raccoon's mom taught her baby (and the teacher taught all the kids in the class) the sign for 'I love you.' When the story was over, the teacher told the kids to stand up and turn around. All the kids turned around and looked at their parents. Except Isobel. She did a 360 and looked back at the teacher.

Then the teacher said to sign 'I love you.' All the kids signed it to their parents. Except Isobel. She signed it at her teacher.

Then the teacher said to 'Wave goodbye to your parents, and we'll start school.' So Isobel turned around to wave. It may have been the first time she'd thought about me since entering the class, so she wasn't really sure where I was. She located me eventually, waved and gave me that big excited smile one more time.

My Husband is SO CUTE!!!

This is the highlight of my day yesterday. DH and I were trying to get things cleaned up and organized - still. So we were going thru things and deciding what to put in our storage closet out on the balcony. I asked DH to get something from storage (I think a hammer and nails to hang pics) and he promptly went to get it. Well, in his rush, he opened the door and smacked into the screen! :) It was SO funny that we laughed for like 20 minutes. When he came back into the house, his forehead was black with dirt from the screen! We laughed another 20 minutes:) He finally remembered to go wash that off. We moved on to bigger and better things like boxes and putting together bookshelves. DH had to go get something out of storage to finish putting the shelves together. When I came into the room where he was working, I noticed a bit of black on his forehead...and then on his nose, too!!! I asked, as politely as I could, "Did you run into the screen again?" He was so mad that I had found out! The proof was written across his face! I caught him. He wanted to hide it because it hadn't been as funny to him the second time - but he forgot to check is face for evidence. I about died!!! I am still laughing as I write this. What a wonderful day! I love my husband!! :)

I finally met the woman who made all this happen...

So, yesterday was the last day of training (wahoo). Like the silly girl that I am, I didn't check my schedule. I showed up at 8 (like I had been all week) and went into the directors office area and asked where we were meeting. I was informed that we weren't starting til 9. So I called Bryce to come back and get me, but he didn't answer. So I sat outside on a bench and read files. After a while a woman came walking up-and past me-noticed the files and said, "Are you new?" "Yes." "What is your name?" "Bettie Petersen." "OH, FINALLY - I'm Joanne" and she gave me a hug. Well this was the coordinador of our program, the woman who is related to a family that I am good friends with...the woman who called me and offered me a job right before I was planning on going to Seattle. She has been very encouraging and kind to me about everything. I have talked to her a bunch of times on the phone and e-mailed her several times but never seen her in person - so we finally met. It was nice. We talked about our mutual friends;) and we talked about how funny it is that we hadn't met. After the presentations, she took us to lunch and I told her about some of her mannerisms that remind me of her sister. She was happy to resemble her sister in any way. She gave me a note from my friend - which also made my day.

After a long week of training, it was good to have the last day be calming. I felt happy to have met Joanne, happy to have a note from my friend, and happy to be finishing up the week. Now that the week is over, I am feeling much more relaxed. I was very nervous about meeting people, getting all the info that I needed, looking cute, and making a good impression. But after meeting Joanne, I was just happy that she accepted me so easily and that all the anticipation was over. Whew.

So today I am going to hang out with my mom before she leaves tomorrow. See if we can find any fun stores to look at:)

Isobel

This is my Isobel. She will be registering for Kindergarten tomorrow. Whoa. She is getting so grown up. Bryce and Isobel went to register today, but didn't bring important info (like imunization record, birth certificate). Bryce said that she was so excited, but got nervous as they were going in. Once they got inside, she just clung to her dad. It reminded me that she is still young. She's still my little girl and I need to remember that although she acts and talks so adult, she still needs support and love to help her get thru. Man, she has a crazy life ahead. Just imagine - ten years and she'll be in High School and wearing more make-up than Mom puts on her... and kids will be mean to her sometimes. I'm glad she's not there yet:)

By the way, in this picture, it looks like she is saying "I love you!" But she's really saying she's 5. She's excited.

If you get a minute, give her a phone call. She loves to have friends...me too.

3 days down, 2 to go...

Hello. I have been a bit looney today. No, that's not the right word. I've been a bit blah. Oh, and ornery. My supervisor, when she told me all the filing she wanted me to do, told me to stop before it "kills your spirit." I told her it probably wouldn't kill my spirit, but I might throw all the files on the floor. She told me to stop before that happens. :) Luckily, I was able to finish all the files and no fits...til I got home. Poor Mom. I was so tired and done making decisions and being in places where I don't know where anything is...etc. I got home and was trying to make salsa (tomorrow they have a salsa competition at work) and I couldn't find a tupperware lid. I was frustrated because my cupboards are overflowing, but still have nothing in them (like oil and a lid). So I was getting on Mom to help me find the lid and she was getting defensive because she thought I was mad AT HER (which I wasn't - just frustrated).

Bryce thinks it's because I wasn't hydrated enough. Which might have been true. I didn't see a drinking fountain in any of the buildings I was in, only like the Culligan water tanks. However, I didn't have a cup of any sort. I was sharing a room with the jug, but couldn't drink any. I was tempted to put my mouth under the spigot. ;)

I copied all the files on the kids I will have. For now, I'll have 8 families to work with, and two more soon. Most are in Santa Fe - which is good - and I think I'm done filing for a while. One of my friends in Logan talked about the worst part of being a Parent Advisor. She said it's "Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork!" I agree:)