The Spring Garden

I'm debating whether this is a typo or if the Hugh family is well known for their yard sales....what do you think?

We finally had a weekend in town without any plans so we invited a family from church over for dinner so we could start getting to know people in the area.  They have darling teenage girls and the parents are very funny.  We were having a good time when Yo-Yo came to the door to join the party.

Apparently, Yo-Yo's real name is Pelirrojo, which means redhead in Spanish.   That's what his true owner's, our dinner guests, had named him.  We swiped their cat.  Great way to start a relationship.

We talked about his personality and he is definitely their cat.  He desperately wants to be an indoor cat, check.  He's extremely patient with children, check.  He loves to be with people, check.  He's mellow for a kitten, check.  He's about 6 months old, check.  Yo-Yo looks exactly like Pelirrojo, check.

We told them we were sorry for swiping their cat and to please take him home, sniffle, sniffle.  They told us they had plenty of cats and to keep him.  Another reason I love Idaho!

If whitening toothpaste works why are we not all running around with blindingly white teeth?

Meet Yo-Yo.  He adopted us the beginning of July.  He is the sweetest thing.  So good with the children, even when they (Peter) pick him up by his tail.  We've had several lessons, and lectures, about the proper treatment of animals and I think Yo-Yo is very happy here.  I was afraid for a time that he was a pregnant she, but the vet confirmed Roland's diagnosis of male-ness.

I asked around to make sure we hadn't swiped someone's beloved pet but couldn't find anyone to claim him.  So we did.  And, we did rather happily...even though he makes me sneeze.  Oh, well.  What's extra laundry when you get a daily fur fix and unconditional love?  Plus he never complains about what I feed him.  He also bathes himself.  And, when I call him he comes.  Apparently, cat's don't suffer from selective hearing like children do.

I've finally started relaxing and not looking out the window every few minutes like I would back East.  Perhaps, that's a habit I shouldn't break. 

I had to hose him off, plop him in the tub, clean the tub, clean the deck, clean up the path from the back door to the tub, and do a load of laundry.  His brother started the fun but he'd already hosed himself off by the time I looked out the window. Although, he didn't do a good enough job to escape a bath.

10 - Parking Spaces.  Trucks, trucks, trucks.  Everyone owns a truck.  I'm sure the Mayor does, and most of the city council, because they make sure every parking lot has really big parking stripes.  Nice and wide.  No door dings here.  Which is a good thing considering everyone is toting a gun.

9 - People Are People.  I was out and about and a lady about 60 years old crossed my line of sight.  She was rocking bleached blonde hair with a side pony in a hot pink scrunchy.  Loved it!  I need to be her friend.

8 - Hair Cuts.  I paid $23.00 for a haircut.  Twenty three dollars!  When the stylist told me the price I think my jaw dropped.  She asked me if it was too much!!?  Heaven!!  AND, it was a great cut!  People out here are not afraid to cut in layers.

7 - Darkness.  Wow, is it dark at night!  No street lights shining in my window.  I can't see Roland next to me let alone see across the room.

6 - Stars.  See above.  Makes for wonderful night sky viewing.

5 - Mutton Bustin'.  Have you ever seen mutton bustin?  Hill-Air-REE-US!  Everywhere else I've seen it there are 3 kids.  If I'm lucky.  Here there were about 40.

4 - Fireworks.  We sat on the train tracks and watched them.  Once someone told me if a train was coming I would feel it long before I saw it, I calmed down and enjoyed the view.  But, in the interest of full disclosure when we started up the hill to the tracks the man we were initially sitting by warned me to "watch out for the snakes".  What?
  
3 - House Prices.  This is not the D.C. Metro area.  Need I say more?

2 - Crop Dusters.  I love having the house buzzed by a crop duster.  TOTALLY COOL!  It's a little yellow plane and s/he comes around several times a week.  So far I've been unsuccessful in getting a good photo.  Planes are fast.  Another friend I need to make.

1 - My Hair! I used to feel like a big haired woman back East.  I could not get the curl under control especially in the humidity.  Here I can let my hair be my hair and I'm not even CLOSE to having the biggest hair in 1 out of 2 people.  OK, maybe 1 out of 3.  I'm very impressed with how big some women can get their hair.  There is real talent here.  I might ask for lessons....

And now for the bottom few:

3 - Trucks.  See # 10 above.  I don't mind trucks in general, but please Detroit, can't you figure out how to make diesel trucks quieter?

2 - Darkness.  See # 7 above.  Peter has knocked years off my life by wondering into our room late at night.  No light, no distinguishing friend or foe.  It will take time to adjust to living here and getting out of the foe mode.  Remember, everyone owns a gun.  Not a lot of crime.  Especially the kind that could get you killed trying to swipe a T.V.   Not worth it.  At least the TV we own.

1 - ALLERGIES!! Where there are crops, there is dust.  Wow, was it bad before they got the crops in.  Dust everywhere. I thought Peter's hair was getting lighter.  Nope.  He just needed a good dusting.  Now that the crops are in, the hay cutting is making me weep.  For days.  And, my nose is raw.  I'm a hot mess.  But, on the bright side, my hair looks good! 

Our apartment is on the top left of the house.  Basically, the space where you can see the roof shingles straight on.

In one shot you can see the kitchen, dining, living and bathroom.  2 bedrooms are on the other side of the wall from the dining/living room.  The front door jam is just visible next to the bathroom door.

After the drive through town, and regaining control of my breathing, we found what was to be our temporary apartment for several months.  Even though I had seen photos of the place I wasn't quite prepared.  I've always known that I have terrible spatial awareness but this reminded me how off I can be.  We stepped into this small space (that is darling) and I went over the edge.  4 people (3 of which are boys whom should not share a bathroom with me) living in tight quarters.  This combined with leaving friends and a place I loved living, I think it's rather understandable why I went SILENT.  It was either that or unstoppable crying.  I think I chose the best option for the children.  They didn't notice.  Roland did.  He decided to back off.  Very wise of him since at that moment everything wrong in the world was his fault.

When I have a reaction that intense I tend to go through all the phases quickly.  I was silent for 24 hours but by day 3 I was doing pretty well and by the end of the week I was LOVING my new life.

Do you know how great it is to live in such a small space?  Do you know how easy it is to keep clean?   Especially, when all of your possessions are in storage miles away?  You realize that you don't need much.  We got to the point where we thought we should tell the moving company to sell off our storage pod.  Add to all this the fact that we can drive to family in less than a day and you've got a winner!

So, life in Idaho has ended up being pretty sweet.  I think you should all move here.  At the very least you should come visit.

My next post: Top Ten Things I Love About Idaho and a Few Things I Don't

 

After years of living in our Nation's Capital we decided that the time was right for a change.  It helped that Roland was offered a great job that was too good to pass up.  Even his previous employers agreed that it was a no brainer move.  So, this beauty of a moving truck showed up and the moving men started packing us up.  The man that came out and estimated the move was sooooo far off it would have been comical if it hadn't messed up everyone's schedule.  What was supposed to be a half day move was actually a 3 day move with the moving guys working late into the night.  We wanted to be on the road by Saturday morning but ended up leaving at 7:00 in the evening.  We made it all of about 70 miles from D.C.

Roland and I both had to drive as transporting cars wasn't part of the package.  I thought I'd pull out all my hair by the time we hit the Mississippi with how slow Roland was driving.  I finally called him on his cell and told him I couldn't stand following him anymore and I was taking the lead.  We eventually figured out that his speedometer was off.  I was able to talk him into the fact that it was his car, not mine, by pointing out the people passing him, including little old women in Pintos.  The drive went much faster after this discovery.

Our plan was to go through middle America then up to see Mount Rushmore.  When the unexpected spring snow storm hit, that closed all the roads, we ended up changing our plans and spending two days in what I'll call CornHuskerVille.  Since Roland had the map the whole time I've no idea what state we were in but remember chuckling when seeing a sign for Cornhusker Bank.  I honestly thought it was a joke until I spotted another branch.

In this lovely "Corn" place my mood was greatly improved when a waitress whacked Roland in the head with a serving tray.  She didn't hit him hard but the look on her face and Roland's feigning a concussion to get a free dessert was the comic relief I needed after having my hands glued to a steering wheel for 8 hours.  The kids kept scolding me for laughing "at their Dad" but I just couldn't stop.  Kind of like right now.

We made several stops along the way, but again, I wasn't in possession of the map so I'm rather unclear on our route.  I swear I saw the "Welcome to Illinois" sign twice.  I think this was Roland's way of making sure I didn't blaze past him and meet him in Utah.  I must admit the thought crossed my mind.  Especially, when both kids were in his car. Smart Man.

We saw some great country, stopped at fun places and made it safely to our destination.  When we drove into our "town" the culture shock hit me.  The Smithsonian had been replaced by a Tractor Museum, a cow had an antenna strapped to it's back (that may have been a hallucination brought on by hyperventilation) and our Minivan was the smallest vehicle on the road.  When we got to our temporary housing I was in total shock and was completely silent for a full 24 hours.

More on that in my next post..... 

I'm in Aaron's school several times a week.  This past week the "Ode to Mother's" went up on the bulletin boards.  Here are some of my favorite quotes.

Since I'm on a Star Wars roll I thought I'd keep it going with my favorite quote from the movie.

Aaron and I must have been really struck by the revelation about Darth Vader being Luke's father since both our favorite quotes are about it.

Remember when Luke is talking to Obe Wan and asking how he could have lied about Vader being his dad?  Obe Wan's response was, "What I told you was true, from a certain point of view."

All too true Obe Wan!  Our own individual truths are steeped in our belief system, our upbringing, our mood of the day.

Just some food for thought.

This past weekend was a harsh one for my ego.  I don't know that I'll ever recover.

It started with Roland's work Christmas party.  I know, joy, joy, joy!  Ugh, work Christmas parties are the worst!  Second only to high school reunions.  What spouse wants to go?  This year sounded like it might be a better set up so I headed into it with, well, not complete dread.

His company had rented out the whole resort and novel idea, there was childcare.  Whoohoo!  The party didn't start until 7:30 and me being the responsible Mom thought, "Sweet, not much time between party start time and the kids bedtime".  Think about it!  An hour and a half tops?  One if I'm really suffering?  At this point I'm feeling pretty good about the whole situation.

Roland got the kids squared away in the kids room then came back up to our room were we read for awhile then got ready for the party.  I wanted to check in on the kids and make sure this childcare situation was kosher so we popped our heads in.

The little boy sitting next to Aaron asked me repeatedly and very loudly if I was Aaron's grandma.  Made me wonder if what I had decided to wear was severely matronly.  Or, if wearing my hair curly makes me look ancient.  I was feeling really great about walking into the party at this point.

Next ego hit came when the girlfriend of one of Roland's co-workers called me Mrs. Springer.  I wanted to hit her.  I have what 5 years on her?  OK, maybe more like 10 but still!  Mrs?  Really?

Then, and here is the clincher, the next morning we go to IHOP for Breakfast.  They gave the kids the place mats with activities and one was a fill in the story with random words.  You know the ones.  I never liked them, now I have a severe hatred towards them. 

Anyway, one of the words to fill in was 'hair color'.  Aaron looks at me for 10 seconds then tells his Dad "Gray".  I started to cry.  Roland busted a gut.  But, then his shin started hurting.

So, I'm Mrs. Grandma Gray Hair.

Bad weekend.  Really, really bad....

Peter is a tender little soul.  He doesn't like loud noise and he'll go into hiding if things get too loud.  (Something I've been known to do too).  Since we were on a loud train with no where to hide he got some help from his Dad.

Yesterday Aaron and I were looking through our picture archive.  So, I decided to do 12 Days of Favorite Pictures.

Here's the first;  While I was off doing something downstairs the kids stripped and got out all the ice cream.  Peter knows he's not supposed to be on the table and eating in our undies isn't on the list of manners we're learning.  Guess Mom's rules don't apply when Mom isn't around.  

We just bought a new mattress.  Our old one had become lumpy and rippled.  (There is a reason why mattress stores store their mattresses horizontal).  Know what the best part of having it is?  Lying on the old one, that is now outside under gorgeous fall trees, with my boys.

I've had several thoughts running through my head lately.  I thought I'd share them with you.

* To the clueless driver who stops in the traffic lane and flips on their hazards to check their phone you leave me speechless.  Really you do.  Do you not get that all the other clueless drivers will probably run into you?  Do you not see the SIDE OF THE ROAD.  It's safer there.  Promise.

* McDonald's makes people happy.  I sat watching the people in the drive through lane while the kids were in the play land and 100% of the people that came through were smiling and happy.  There IS a reason for Happy Meals.  Let's give the world a Happy Meal and see what happens.

* How did I live so long without liquid eyeliner?  This stuff has been on the market for how long?  I've just discovered that it stays on my watery eyes.  Nice.

* People who do not live in the D.C. area must think we've nothing to do.  News flash!  It's just the politicians that don't do anything.  Roland and I were meeting with a church leader when someone from Texas called asking this poor guy, who is responsible for thousands of people, if he wouldn't mind picking up her Glen Beck tickets.  S.E.R.I.O.U.S.L.Y.???? The United States Post Office really works!!  Give it a try.  We aren't your errand boys.  Or girl in my case.

* I cannot believe how much Aaron is learning in school.  It's amazing to watch how much that little head soaks up.  We were 'taking a nap' today and he started sounding out sentences on the Happy Meal pumpkin.  He read, "Glows in the dark".  Then he said, "Happy Meals make me happy".  OK, not really.  I'm just trying to see how many times I can use Happy Meal in my post.  He did read off the pumpkin though.

* How did I live 30 something years, going to church regularly, and not realize that the David from David and Goliath is the same guy as King David?  Makes me wonder what else I missed.

* There should be severe consequences for the person that doesn't understand that "next in line" means NEXT in line.  It doesn't mean, "Dude in the back come on down past all these women who are trying really hard to keep their kids from destroying the displays".  Not that mine would, I'm just saying..

* I'm tired of "Celebrating Diversity".  It's time for "Celebrating Similarities".  Maybe then we'd all be nicer to each other.  'Cause when it comes right down to it don't we all just want to be loved? Or have a Happy Meal?

I think I'm done ranting.  Thanks for reading.

What do you think of this bad boy?  (You can click on the picture to go to their website).  There are some great options out there now-a-days.  Have you ever seen a dutch box bike?  Those are gorgeous and only several thousand $$$$.  Now we just need to get them to price these fun bikes in a range the majority of the population can afford.

A few Saturday's ago Aaron went to a birthday party with about 30 other kids.  It was crazy and they had a pinata.  It's a rare thing to have the pinata part of a celebration go well, at least in my experience.  So, I'll admit I wasn't expecting a great outcome.

I could see I was going to be proven right as Aaron stood with his hand high in the air waiting to be called on.  He's not one to get in an adults face and with that big of a group you have to be aggressive.  Luckily, he has a slightly aggressive mother.  First problem solved.

On to the next problem.  The chaos that ensues when a pinata is broken can lead to more things broken then the pinata.  Aaron, still not being aggressive, gets knocked to the ground.  Any chance of making it to where the candy fell is long gone by the time I unbury him from the pile.  He starts to cry.  I start thinking about joining him.

So far this little tale is all pretty believable.  Here comes the unbelievable part.  The unbelievable has a name.  His name is Logan.  He's about 9 or 10 from what I can gather from the other parents at the party.  This kid, and I have a hard time calling him a kid, saw what happened.  He walks from the other side of the dog pile with an overloaded bag of candy.  He looks at Aaron's completely empty bag and with a smile on his face says, "Aaron, I'll trade you."  He doesn't wait for a response.  He takes Aaron's empty bag, puts his full bag in Aaron's hands and walks away.

I was no longer thinking about crying, I was crying.  I stood in that field under a tree in complete stunned silence at the gentleness of a young man who with one simple gesture became my Hero.

We've returned from a great visit to Utah.  We had a great time with family and friends.  I'll post some pictures soon.  While there we had dinner with two couples that we lived near in downtown Salt Lake.  There is always fun to be had with that group.  It made me think of a post Joe wrote that made me laugh so hard my abs were sore for a week.  Maybe it's the fact that I know the players in this little comedy that made it so funny to me.  Hope you get a laugh as you visualise what Joe is writing about.  Here you go:

I have been told this is the stuff of legends. I suppose it could be. Families sitting around the dinner table years from now will look back to smirk and guffaw; and were I totally innocent of doing the same, I might cringe. But alas, I myself still get a chuckle at long ago instances of fast meeting testimony singers and too-detailed health updates and travelogues. So here you go, all those that missed the actual incident. Jest away (everybody else in church did)!

So there I was....I remember it as though it was yesterday. Probably because it was yesterday. It was the end of a fine sacrament meeting and Denny was playing the organ for the congregation. We have been trying to get Emma to settle down a bit in church, so I sat near the front with her. Denny joined us in between hymns. After the last speaker finished, Denny went up front to play the last tune, ol' number 35, "For the Strength of the Hills."
The first three verses went as expected. In fact, if Felicia D. Hermans had stopped writing at three verses, I wouldn't be telling this sad yet fascinating tale. Where was I? Oh yeah, Emma started walking slowly to the front. I was thinking "she won't go up to the stand." I flashed her the sign for "candy" as she glanced back, and she quickly returned. She took off again, having broken the proverbial "up on the stand" barrier and went directly to Denny, who now had her attention divided. As Emma climbed up on the bench, two things happened. The world slowed waaaaaay down, and Denny looked down and asked me to come up and get Emma.

I took off for the stand, ducking under poor Sister Gurr who was leading. As I went around the back of the organ, I stepped down on Denny's organ bag, slipped, and nearly went down like a sack of hammers. Them organ bags is slippery. By this time, any hope of surprising Emma was out the stain-glassed window, and she latched on to Denny's neck like Crusher Kowalski doing a full-nelson on a weaker foe (weren't they all weaker?).

In retrospect, I should have taken my chances with letting her stay on Denny's lap. Instead, I grabbed on and pulled, expecting her grip to give. It didn't. Must have been a fine sight. I'm told that those who were asleep or missed church are still kicking themselves. Denny's glasses were totally askew, and her hair was across her face. I had Emma around the waist, and she was hanging on to Denny's neck for all she was worth. A bizarre sight by any measure, much like a scene from Dante's "Tag team match from hell."

I finally got Emma free after nearly pulling Denny off of the bench. To her credit, and to the amazement of the whole congregation, she never missed a beat! Great work. Eye of the tiger. Battle zone organing.

Some poor soul had to then come up and give the final prayer amid the laughs. Emma then jumped down like nothing happened, and scurried into nursery.

There you have it. Use it. Share it. Change the names if you wish or quote verbatim. It's all true. My only hope is that it quickly fades from everybody's memory, or that something even more bizarre happens in church to somebody else. Fat chance. Ok then.