luke 101: the big audible gasp

One thing we love about Luke is how predictable he is. And how he does not mask his emotions, not one bit. He is soooo enthusiastic. Whenever he's been hinting for me to buy something . . . whether it's a snack or special food, or something he's been waiting for for a long time, like a new dvd, it's always the same reaction. He suddenly sees "the item" and there is a big audible gasp of joy and then "thaaaaaanks mooooom". (that's "mom" drawn out for about two syllables). Or if he gets something in the mail that he's been waiting for . . . like a new magazine . . . there will be the big audible gasp and his voice gets an octave higher and many decibels louder and he'll exclaim "it came!!!"

Now folks, I give you . . . the big audible gasp (of joy). (make sure you have the volume loud enough.)

(yes, I confess, I planted that dvd for him to find when he came home from work, and I conveniently was lying in wait with my camera. He's been begging for that for months.)

sunday evening at home

We drove up our driveway after church yesterday and there were Calley, Summer, and Abby waiting for us. I love those kind of surprises.

It had been almost a month since I've seen Abby. I was worried she wasn't going to remember me. But when she saw me, she ran up with her arms outstretched.



After dinner, we went outside to enjoy the last rays of sunshine.

Life is good.

vintage luke, part two

How could I NOT share this with you? One of my friends was doing some face painting and Luke wanted to have his face painted like a clown. I'm not sure of the look she was going after, some kind of mime?

But I see more of a resemblance to Queen Amidala.

She had put some face paint on Luke's lips, and he was so careful not to close his mouth and mess it up. That was some crazy 80's hair on both Luke and Tyler there . . . very poofy. (by the way, I did show this to Luke before posting it, and he gave it a two thumbs up.)

if i were a rich man . . .

Let me just start by saying how much I love getting the new Pottery Barn catalog, even if I get about two or three of them every week. I know a lot of people roll their eyes at Pottery Barn, but it's the look I love. Last week's catalog had a lot of new things in it that are definitely on my wish list. (note to Keith: I am just daydreaming, all right?)

First, the Sumner dining table. I have a weakness for old pine furniture. And I really hate my current dining room table. This table is exactly "the look" I've been searching for. I have an antique pine hutch from England in my dining room, and an antique pine armoire from Sweden in my living room, and I worry that adding a table like this would be overkill with all that pine.

But it would work if I mixed things up a bit with the chairs. I love this look of the distressed painted chairs in different colors. And I'm becoming more fond of my current pressed back oak chairs I already have. I think my current chairs mixed with a different style of painted chairs might look kind of cute. Or maybe just a painted chair on each end of the table, and keep the oak chairs along the sides. I also like this table and wood color too. Ideas, opinions, anyone?

With the holidays coming soon, I zero in on anything charming and wintery. I love these lanterns. But I think what I like the most is how they added the pine sprigs and pinecones inside that big one.

These lanterns remind me of something you'd see in a fairy tale. Again, I love the way they added the fake snow and the little stars. I think a perfect centerpiece would be a mix of these lanterns with little votives scattered around. And maybe some pinecones and mini glass ornaments tucked in here and there.



I love this arrangement for fall in general, or Thanksgiving. I'll have to remember to collect some little dried leaves to tuck in with squashes or wrap around votives like they've done here.

Well, after sitting and staring at my dining room again, I guess refinishing the surface of our current table will just have to do. But I wish it was longer, since our family has grown, there's not enough space for all the chairs we need. And the lanterns will have to wait till after the holidays when they go on clearance.

But in the meantime, is there anyone out there who has any brilliant arranging ideas for my little shelves in our family room? I know they have potential, but I've just come to a dead end. Help?

fall, and cat anger

I was going to write a post about how glorious fall is. I really do love fall so much. Besides the leaves changing, the shorter days and long nights, it brings the anticipation of my favorite holidays. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas. New Years. And my birthday. I should also mention that Luke never hesitates to let everyone know that November 3 is his birthday, he'll tell you that year round. I know I'm in the minority, but I love the stormy weather that will come. Not the power outages. But the rain, the snow, the cold. I love being cozy inside while the weather is awful outside.

Anyway. This was the very last sunset of summer. I was grateful that it went out with a bang (sunset-wise, that is).

I got a pumpkin for the front porch. I can never seem to limit myself to just one, I already got another one today. (oh you know I always end up with nearly a dozen).

And then this boy. Exactly five weeks from today, he'll be getting off a plane in Sao Paulo. The reality has really been settling in with me. We celebrated the first day of fall yesterday by getting him a new suit fitted at the Men's Wearhouse. Then he said since it was going to be Halloween and all, when was I going to make some pumpkin bread? By the way Toby's favorite season is fall too. Just be prepared for me to be getting all sentimental. The missionary mom in me jumped at the opportunity to do something to make these next five weeks wonderful and memorable for him. I had all the ingredients except pumpkin. Is there a shortage or something? Both Safeway and Fred Meyer were completely out. Albertsons, folks. That's the place you'll find it. And we've been enjoying the best pumpkin bread ever.

I digress. What I was really going to write about was how wonderful fall is and everything, and then . . . I went in the living room and on the sofa found this:



I know it's not the best picture and not too clear but that is a whole lotta cat fur. Which realllllly irritates me! Our darn cat Mrs. Snuggles leaves a trail of fur wherever she goes and she knows she's not supposed to be anywhere around the living room furniture. If you look in the lower right corner of the photo, you'll see an "aggressive" cat paw mark. I swear she does this just to make me mad. In the photo down below, you can see her paw marks, kind of smeared, meaning she was making a mad dash across the cushions.

And this. This is the worst. She claws everything. Yes, she has a scratching post. Yes, we've tried everything from sprays, to all those tricks that trainers tell you, to wrapping foil around the edges of all the furniture. I will painstakingly take little manicure scissors and snip away each thread, and she just comes back and does it again. Calley says "declaw her!!" But, living out in "the country" so to speak, she is such a good mouser, and we need to keep those skills (and claws) intact.

I was so mad at her, and I went in the kitchen and found her laying in the sun like she's so innocent. And here I sit with my eyes all itchy and watery, my throat all itchy, my nose all sniffly and runny from cat allergies, and (sentimental again), we need to be guardians to that darn cat because she belongs to Toby. And in two years and five weeks, he'll be really happy to see her again.

So, happy fall, and if you have any tricks to keep cats away from the furniture, pleeeease, tell me. Or just pray that she sleeps for 24 hours a day. What trouble can she cause when she's asleep, right?

yellowstone

It was two weeks ago today that we left and took a little five day trip and drove to Yellowstone, and met up with Keith's brother Bruce and his family. It was the best time. We always have the best time with them, always laughing, everybody likes each other, great memories. So . . . in a nutshell, this is what we did.

The first day we drove to Rexburg, got in at night of course, and went to see Tyler. Thank you Keith for driving me up to the temple to take some pictures out of the car window. It's just right up the same street Tyler lives on. So cool.

Day two we went over to our cabin. Yes, it was SO rustic, but you know, we just managed.

There were bears.

And at night we sat around the campfire and told stories. No . . . make that the projection TV and watched movies. Same thing.

Actually we rented this same house last summer with Bruce and the gang. It's perfect, big enough for us all.

Also on day two, we drove up to the Lewis and Clark Caverns in Montana, and Keith, Bruce, Luke, and Toby went on the cave tour. Deep, deep down in the cave. I sat in the truck and read Harry Potter. (I was worried I'd hurt my knee on the one thousand stairs in there.) They loved it, I had a relaxing time, we all had fun.

Day three we rented some canoes and a raft and floated down the river for a few hours. So serene and peaceful.

And maybe we might have had a few traffic jams.

Besides Bruce and his family, Tyler and Kelsey joined us. This is them taking in the beauty of Old Faithful.

And Kelsey's sister Alyssa, who we consider part of the family, too. She's really fun to have along.

Did we see wildlife, you ask?

Why yes. I saw my first moose. When we were paddling down the river. Luke informed us all that it was a "she-moose". Thank you Luke, doctor of science.

Day four we went down to Grand Teton National Park, to Jenny Lake.

See all the male bonding? We realized this was going to be the last time Toby would see Tyler until after his mission. Good bonding time.

We all cooked together. Making things like foil dinners.

Cooked over the open fire.

Under the light of the full moon. This was the moon on our first night at the cabin, one of those cool big golden yellow moons.

We made smores for the Big D.

And ate them around the big farm style table. Have you tried smores made with Reeses before? I think I figured out the trick to making them work. You need the marshmallow really really hot right off the fire, or the Reeses won't melt. They're good even if they don't melt, but I'm just saying.

The landlord was nice enough to leave us helpful little notes.

Oh . . . Yellowstone, yes, we went there too. We saw Old Faithful.

And my personal favorite. Isn't this such a timeless and grandiose view? Artists Point. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It's so majestic.

But, if you turn around from this masterpiece of nature, you will see this:

And the Fam! Here we all are together. We are a fun bunch. Okay, okay, so some of us were doing the "funny face" pose, and others of us thought we were done with that pose . . .

In the previous video I did the 360 view. Don't worry, in this one I just did a 180. We had just taken the big group picture, and now we were going to do cousin pictures. Here we are, this is us:

If you want to see the "good" pictures, go here. It's just like I did with our Maui pictures, you click on each name up on top of the page, and it will take you to pictures from that topic. (hi Julie, you just click on any word at the top of the page on the link and it will take you to a new page. Let me know if it worked for you).

ps . . . those of you who wondered if Luke got to do everything he wanted to do on this trip:

1. yes, he did get a stuffed buffalo and named him Buffalo Billy

2. yes, he did get a huckleberry sucker . . . and more (huckleberry candy that is). Are you remembering to call him Huckleberry Boy?

3. no, he did not get any fudge. He traded the fudge privilege for the other candy he got.

4. no, no kite flying. There just wasn't enough time, or wind.

5. I could have gotten some huckleberry fudge when we went to the caverns. They had some at the gift shop there, but I don't know what I was thinking! What was I thinking? Why didn't I just buy it, it was all homemade and looked so wonderful. Sigh . . .

wicked!

We're back in business . . . the computer issues are fixed!

And first things first . . . Wicked! We went with the Uffens clan to see Wicked on Saturday. Before I continue, I want to publicly thank you Ernie, for converting Keith to the theater. I admit, we thought that would never happen in this lifetime, but after you convinced him that he would like the Lion King, and he LIKED it, there was hope. Then came Wicked, and he liked it even better! (cue Hallelujah Chorus). The future is looking good!

Here we are (except Keith who is taking the picture), in front of the lovely chain link construction next door.

Thankfully the ushers weren't as strict about picture taking before it started (unlike at Lion King where they pounced on you and stood watching till you put your camera away). It seemed like Mormon day on Saturday. I lost count of how many people I saw there from church. Calley and the Soptich ladies were all there in the mezzanine too, and she saw even more people we know. Luke was so thrilled to go see all of you during intermission! (you know he (not so secretly) wishes he were a Soptich, too).

I love the chandeliers at the Paramount.

Luke. Luke and I have been preparing ourselves for this for weeks. We've both got the soundtrack memorized from having it blasting in our car non-stop. We've been scouring youtube for clips (I'm still amazed at how many people managed to smuggle video cameras in). So, he was beyond thrilled when it started. He was leaning waaaay forward as he was watching it, to the point where his head was nearly inbetween the two women sitting in front of us. And after each song, he'd holler a big WOOOOOO!! It was awesome.

During intermission when he went for a bathroom break, he saw they were selling flying monkeys. Of course he wanted one. How could he resist? After the performance, we got "Bob". Yes, Bob, the flying monkey. I suggested he call him by his name from Wicked, which is Chistery. All the way home Luke was struggling to pronounce Chistery (which came out mostly as "Chester"), so he finally said "Can't I just call him Bob?" Bob it is.

Keith is still talking about how much he loved Fiyero's voice. I think the actress who played Glinda was extra hilarious. I want to see it again, but last night Julie and I figured it would probably be three years till it comes back to Seattle. The one thing Keith (and you too, Ernie) has been saying most is . . . how there were at least twenty women to every man there in the audience. I say . . . so???? It was amazing. We all had sooo much fun! LOVED it!

abby is one

Yesterday Abby turned one year old! I've loved being able to "be there" this whole year to see her grow up, from the day she was born. I missed so much of that when Summer was this age, only getting to see her a few times during her first year. Happy birthday Abby, I love you.

Today is my dad's birthday. I think he would have been so happy to have a great-granddaughter who's birthday is the day before his.

We are still waiting to get our computer/photo issue fixed. But. I can say that Wicked (yesterday) was amazing.

stalled

That is how I feel: stalled all week long. We're having issues with our photo program. We had a really fun weekend trip to Island Park (Idaho) and Yellowstone. So many things to share . . . but for the moment, this picture of our bug splattered truck is all I have to show you. (which is not stalled).

If you see Luke, please call him "Huckleberry Boy". He insists.

We're going to see Wicked tomorrow afternoon! Am I the only one who hasn't seen it? Luke and I have been gearing up for weeks with the soundtrack playing in the car constantly and watching youtube clips.

Happy weekend.

thirty years

date: September 7, 1979

place: Los Angeles Temple

time: 9:00am

Best day of my life.

And we don't even look older. Well . . . barely.