Megan in Peru

In July 2014, Megan decided she wanted to go to Peru on a HEFY expedition. Though there were several different country options to choose from, Megan has talked about Machu Picchu for years, and the realization that she could actually visit there so soon was thrilling to her. The registration didn't open until December 1st, but from that July day forward, Megan put her heart and soul into making the trip a realization.

Mike made it clear early on that Megan needed to earn 70% of the money towards the experience, and she moved forward with full commitment to make that happen. I wish I had photos of the couple of Saturdays she spent in the kitchen making 100+ Peanut Butter Bars, (one of the times coming down with strep throat in the last hours, but we never told the customers that! ha ha) or the neighborhood pancake breakfast she hosted. But fortunately, our favorite and most successful fundraiser, a neighborhood carnival was captured in pictures by our kind neighbor.

As the time for Megan's departure approached, people kept asking me if I was nervous. I wasn't! I had a little apprehension about her connecting with her group at the LA airport as she was flying from Salt Lake to LA alone, but that left as soon as she went through security and I saw a boy wearing the same shirt and realized he was on her same flight. I was reassured knowing they'd retrieve their luggage and get to the International Terminal in LA together.

I thought once all the preparations were finished (woah! was that hard!) and she was off on her flight, my natural worrying self would over-take, but I truly never worried once. Not once.

It was a long 21/2 weeks with little to no contact with my first-born. Although one of the parent coaches did a fabulous job of updating Instagram with photos, and that was so nice to be part of.

Megan has already finished a short 3 minute video of her Peru highlights. And she plans to have more detailed video reports to follow.

There is so much I want to say about her experience there from a mother's perspective thousands of miles away, but all I really can say is how deeply grateful I am for her to have had this experience. The experience tested and strengthened her physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and socially. She gained insight, personal growth and understanding that I'm sure she will never forget.

How great Megan was able to cross Machu Picchu off her bucket-list at 16 years old!

This is the village of Monterrey that Megan and her group served. As a mother, it is an awe-inspiring feeling to know that my daughter was able to experience and serve such devastating poverty.

Yet despite the poverty, Megan quickly learned the people of that humble village are among the kindest and happiest she has ever met.

 

 This photo shows a lovely "trophy" that was gifted to the HEFY groups by the grateful village. Mike and I were fortunate to see this trophy first-hand when we picked Megan up from the Salt Lake airport, as one of the trip leaders was on her flight. Though I don't read Spanish, the leaders' translation touched me deeply when she read the words, "God bless you always."

Though the group enjoyed downtime at dances, sand-boarding, touring the Lima MTC, and visiting the Lima LDS temple...

The majority of their time was spent physically laboring to build the village a medical center. 

What an honor that Megan's name is engraved on a beautiful plaque that now hangs in a small village in Peru.

The possibilities and examples of service in this world are endless, yet this last week as Megan has told us story after story of her experiences, and as we've seen all the clothing and shoes she DIDN'T bring back home with her, and we've heard stories of the villager's responses to our small gifts and tokens, this Bible scripture keeps coming to my mind.

Matthew 25:35-40
"For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

We are deeply appreciative to all those who helped make this experience for Megan possible. Not only did people's donations of time and money bless the people of Monterrey, Peru, it has blessed Megan's life, and for that, my mother heart is truly thankful.

(The sign that hung at the entrance to Megan's fundraiser carnival.)

Megan in 2nd Grade

I just came in from sitting outside on the back lawn with Drew while he was [secretly] eating a popsicle. Secretly, meaning I didn't want siblings and neighbors to see him eating it, because we don't have enough to share with the 8 or so kids out front.

Drew and I chatted about school, the fact he's excited for summer, and even more excited for first grade. He's most excited that first grade will mean, "I won't ever have to go to Dad's office in the morning when you have to go somewhere." (Tough life isn't it, occasionally spending an hour or two a week at an office with people who make you paper airplanes, give you treats, and let you harass them constantly with questions, statements, and suggestions.)

As Drew and I chatted about lunch in the school lunch room next year, he was confused for just a little bit about why Joshua wouldn't eat right after him, and I reminded him that next year, Joshua will be in 3rd grade, not 2nd anymore.

Which to make a long story short, made me think back to Ellie in 2nd grade, Luke in 2nd grade, and for a few seconds, I couldn't for the life of me remember who Megan had as a teacher in 2nd grade. Then I gasped, remembered, and became disappointed that I don't think anywhere in her personal history or mine, that we have the experience of her 2nd grade teacher recorded in detail.

It seemed only fitting to come inside and do it right now. After all, it was about this exact time of year, that one Friday evening,  I left 2 week old Joshua, and Luke and Ellie with our neighbor, and took Megan to the viewing of her 2nd grade teacher.

Yes. You read that right. It was a sad, sad day.

When the children returned to school in January 2007 after Christmas vacation, I happened to be there the morning, a principal and school counselor came in to Megan's 2nd grade classroom to tell the children that their "teacher was very sick" (cancer) and she would probably not be coming back to their class. It was sad. Second graders love their teachers.

Around the middle of April, Mrs Feil made it to the school to be in the class photo with them. The children were thrilled.

(Megan is middle row, middle child-purple striped shirt)

A week or so later, I remember sitting on the couch feeding newborn Joshua when the school called to tell me that Megan's teacher had passed away. They told me they wanted parents to know first, and parents to tell their children.

A few minutes later, Megan came home from school and I broke the news to her. It was sad. And hard.

But the viewing a few days later, proved to be even harder.

Megan and I arrived at the viewing as soon as it started. I didn't want her to have to wait in a long line. Megan bravely held my hand as we walked into the room, and we were greeted by her teacher's husband and two adult daughters. We introduced ourselves, I paid our condolences, and then Megan, in all of her 8 year old prowess, pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Mr. Feil with an explanation, I have never forgotten. I remember it almost verbatim:

"Mrs Feil told me she knew I could reach more than 100 AR (reading) points by the end of the year. I think she would want to know, I have 105."

The last few words Megan spoke through tears, and then as she finished, she turned and buried her face into my tan linen skirt and sobbed.

Megan and I were two of the first guests at the viewing. When we first arrived, it was apparent that Mr Feil and his two daughters were well composed and dry-eyed. They had stayed that way until Megan began her little speech about her AR points.  While Megan continued to sob into my skirt, the three of us adults cried with her. Mr Feil reached down, hugged Megan and said, "I'm sure she is very proud."

I helped Megan say her final goodbye to her teacher, and we left.

It's a treasured memory, I'm glad I now have more permanently recorded.

Permanent Records

From a fairly young age I have loved writing in a journal. I wrote my first journal entry when I was 4 years old in my green hardback journal. I wrote on and off for years growing up, and then when I was about 13, I wrote faithfully daily up until the day I got married. It's been spotty for the past 18 years, but lately, I've been rededicated to writing regularly in my personal journal. (There's just soooo much I don't want to forget about life in all of its ups and downs.)

Every so often I do my best to get my children to follow suit and write regularly in journals too. Ellie is the only one that does it on her own, and I LOVE IT!! Luke is asked to do it every so often, and it is probably one of his least favorite things to do. But like I told him a couple of weeks ago, when there was apparently "nothing to write about." "Just write about ANYTHING!You'll be happy you have recorded the daily stuff of your life."

He must have got the idea, because he proceeded to write about an incident that will likely be fun (for some?) to remember one day. Luke gave a brief synopsis of the event (he is required to do at least 6-8 sentences!), but instead of taking a photo of his version (privacy?), I'll share briefly my own version of it.

On a pleasant Sunday afternoon two weeks ago, Joshua walked into the house from playing in the backyard wearing only his underwear. Of course I was immediately alerted to something being wrong and I asked him what in the world he was doing, and WHERE. WERE. HIS. CLOTHES?!?

As I looked at the family room window to the trampoline, and listened to Joshua's version of the incident, it all fell into place. Luke, Joshua, Drew and a couple of neighbor boys were jumping on the trampoline, when Luke thought it would be funny to chain Joshua to the side of the trampoline and see if he could get himself free. Which Joshua was able to do...but he had to leave his clothes chained to the trampoline in order to gain freedom.

I didn't laugh (at the time). I went outside, yelled at Luke, sent the neighbor boys home, and instructed Joshua to go back and retrieve his clothes. Luke's defense was, he wouldn't have done it to anyone but his own brothers. Mike laid on the couch throughout the whole incident trying not to laugh.

Someone asked me the other day, why I don't write blog posts as much anymore. She complimented me on being funny and writing well in the past, and asked why I stopped. I didn't really have an answer, except to say, that maybe as my children get older, they do less funny things, or more accurately, they do things that are sorta funny/sorta questionable. Such as chaining a brother up to a trampoline and him having to strip down to his undies to get free. Perhaps good judgement would say to keep it in the personal journals only. But here we are. (Which really, now that I think about it...sharing the yellow snow incident a few years ago was questionable too.)

(Joshua drew a picture of the trampoline experience in his journal later that evening to go along with the above entry.)

It just so happened Drew chose the exact same thing to write and draw about that Sunday evening too.

And now I have a whole blog post about an incident I had no intention of recording. I was going to write about journals and how much I love Ellie's journals that she always invites me to read. (I'll give her privacy and won't take a photo of them.) I love how much she writes about herself. Love it! She'll surely treasure those written monologues one day.

Megan on the other hand, has discovered a new way to record her life.
Oh boy.
Megan's biggest fan is herself, and her newest hobby is perfect for her.
Vlogging.
She can talk all she wants to a camera and nobody has to interrupt her to get a word in, or tell her to stop talking.
And she gets to edit the hours of her chatter to her greatest priority. It's quite a good hobby for a self-proclaimed narcissist. (insert winky face)

You can watch her introductory vlog here. (And if you really love it...there's more on YouTube!)

Now. Go record something permanent yourself!
You won't regret it.

Megan and Drew

Though there is some definite musical talent with each of our children, the first and the last have a love for music that goes far beyond talent alone.

Megan and Drew will often be found in the piano room singing, playing the piano, playing the harp, conducting music, etc.

This little duet they did yesterday afternoon made me teary for so many reasons.

I don't think you have to be LDS and/or recognize the song to appreciate the tenderness of the singing. Megan will be less than thrilled that her singing has to be heard first, but Drew's part and then the duet part is too tender not to share.

And I know I'm biased, but seriously, take the almost two minutes of your day to enjoy it.

PS-And who can't love almost 13 year old Luke's enthusiasm for his little brother's performance at the end of the video?!

Megan's Hard Life

When Megan was a very young child, we lived on a fairly main road. As such, a frequent summer sight and sound was the ice cream truck. As first children's luck would have it, I was more than willing to splurge for an over-priced ice cream treat.

Except we had a slight problem. 

Whenever the ice cream truck's music was heard in the background. Megan would begin to scream hysterically and run to my arms for safety. It didn't matter if she was out front in the yard, or safely inside a locked house. Megan feared the ice cream truck.

Fast forward 10-12 years... We live in a cul-de-sac in a somewhat quiet neighborhood, and I can't say as we hear (let alone see) an ice cream truck very often.

Until tonight. Just as dinner dishes were being cleared, my almost SIXTEEN year old daughter became hysterically EXCITED that she could hear the ice cream truck. A couple of the younger siblings were anxiously and anticipatingly looking on at her excitement, when a look of sheer dismay came upon their faces when I announced, "Oh dear. The ice cream truck only plays music when it is out of ice cream." I had them for mere seconds, until Megan turned to me with a look on her face and asked facetiously, "Are you really going to ruin their childhood?"

With that comment, and my general motherhood motto that you all know (enjoy the little things in life for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things),  I ignored my strong feelings about the high prices of an ice cream truck's offerings, I bit my lip from announcing aloud my firm belief/stereotype/judgement that most ice cream truck drivers are child predators, and handed Megan a $20 bill. She ran out the front door, with three younger siblings trailing her out of the cul-de-sac.

Minutes later, they returned home empty-handed and Megan gathered two of the three siblings for the following selfie:

She then posted the photo with the following caption on Instagram...

My mom should win "mother of the year award"... Me and my siblings were sitting outside when we heard an ice cream truck, so naturally we ran inside to ask her for money. Being the loving, caring, giving mother that she is, she told my younger siblings that the ice cream truck ONLY PLAYED MUSIC WHEN IT WAS OUT OF ICE CREAM!! Really Mom?! Are you trying to ruin their childhood? When I finally talked her into letting us go, the ice cream truck had passed and was too far to chase down. Thanks Mom. We love you too. Now our evening is as dull as this picture. (I don't know what is more sad: that my mom said it only plays music when out of ice cream or that my siblings believed her. #iliveatroubledlife #mysiblingsdotoo

Despite her Instagram post being slightly longer than a typical Instagram post, her friends seemed to like it and I did too!! So much so, that I decided to repost her picture and put it on my own Instagram feed. We laughed about the event all evening. 

Well, I did. Megan not so much. She had been so excited about introducing her siblings to the ice cream truck experience, that she harbored a few ill feelings towards me and my slowness to grant permission that resulted in the near-miss of the whole experience.

When we all settled in for the evening (after sharing store-bought ice cream on the front lawn with our neighbors I might add), I handed Mike my phone to look at the Instagram post. I knew he'd appreciate it especially as Megan's younger years ice-cream-truck-hysteria is a fond memory of ours. It was all fine and dandy as Mike read through the post. He laughed. He chuckled. He made a few comments and then all of a sudden he gasped. Handed me the phone and announced, "You have to edit that right now!" One of Megan's very innocent hashtags, turned out to be not really very innocent.

Unfortunately, Instagram doesn't have an edit feature, and (un)fortunately, Megan learned a new vocabulary word tonight. Megan and I each hit the delete button on our phones tonight with a little bit of disappointment of such an innocent, silly, mistake that we didn't want published on the world wide web. (Not without copying it out onto this blogpost first though!)

Note: I changed the wording of the hashtag written above to essentially say the same thing, just in a better way...

Megan has now gone to bed tonight feeling down, because not only did she get no ice cream from the ice cream truck, but then she had to delete the post that she was using as therapy to work out her ice cream truck/motherhood issues, and she was feeling mildly scarred about the brief educational moment she had with her parents. 

Just as Megan said goodnight to me for the last time she reminded me of the time we were in Washington DC and I splurged and bought her, Luke and me an over-priced ice cream from a nearby ice cream truck. She chose a silly Spongebob Squarepants ice cream, and within seconds of her first taste, it landed face first onto the sweltering DC street. She didn't laugh as we watched Spongebob Squarepants melt into a pool of yellow on the hot asphalt road. I choose to remember the experience being that Luke and I didn't laugh either, but instead had absolute sympathy for her distress.

I might add, when Megan emailed me the above photo so I could include it in this post, she titled the email: "ice cream trucks continue to ruin my life."

Poor Megan. 
She obviously has ice cream issues.
I'm hoping there is therapy for that.

The Ordinary

One evening in late March, Drew ran an errand with Mike over to our office. I'm not exactly sure why Drew was wearing his swimming suit, and I'm pretty sure the temperature wasn't any higher than the 60's, but nonetheless Drew went. Turns out they made an unexpected visit to The Chief (friend in the next office over), and Mike captured this beauty of Drew deep in conversation. I think I should begin a scientific study as to why Drew's little bum crack is more often than not...exposed.

Unfortunately, Mike and I are not the kind of parents to laugh at all of our children's antics. Too often we're irritated about the children's poor timing and/or lack of judgement to give into the capers of youth. It seems they always attempt their comedian acts right around bedtime, when Mike and I are not typically in easily entertainable moods. However, one particular night when Ellie stalled the bedtime routine to return downstairs to show us this hairstyle, we couldn't help but laugh.

My in-laws are great to invite my children to their house to sleep-over. Apparently, Joshua and Drew put on quite the "Pirate Show" for them.

You'd think perhaps I should let this next photo be a blog post of its own, but not this time. There's getting to be too many...Meet Packer, (as in Green Bay Packers) Luke's newest goat. Which I will take 100% responsibility for adding to the family. Hank was getting to be lonely, and Luke felt badly for him, which in turn made me feel badly for both Luke and Hank. Luke kept saying he wished Hank had a friend, and I would think, "Oh dear! How lonely for Hank not to have a friend!" and Mike would roll his eyes and say Luke has enough animals and tasks to keep him busy, and then Luke would look at me and I'd think about lonely ole Hank outside all day by himself, and so I, yes, I took Luke to get this new goat. It is actually Dudley's brother from the same litter, which of course endeared him to me even more. What?? Why oh why are goats endearing themselves to me?????????????

(Mike rolled his eyes when I told him I teared up while taking this photo of Packer and Hank meeting for the first time. Or maybe he was rolling his eyes because I was tearing up about it still hours later when telling Mike about the meeting. Roll your eyes if you must, but I see the beginning of a tender goat friendship here.)

When the stomach flu went the rounds of all seven of us last week, I tried not to mentally blame Joshua for being the first to get it and thus pass it all along to us. But then I see his sad, sick face in this photo and wonder what kind of mother was I to think it was his fault?

(Yes, we use empty ice buckets as throw up buckets around here. In fact, Ellie returned from somewhere recently and was describing the ice cream they had at the event: "It was the ice cream that you get in throw-up buckets.") 

Megan thinks she is hilarious and wanted to trick everyone into thinking this was jello in the glasses. Upon the "fool" lifting up the glass it was discovered it was nothing more than colored water and we had quite the mess to clean up.

Such is life around here.

“You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.” 

― Andy Warhol

Going Hungry

Megan went on a science field trip the other day. The 9th graders were to leave the school about 9am and due to return about 2pm, when they would then eat lunch. Megan was worried she would get hungry. Duh! Yes, she likely would, so I suggested she take a snack to eat on the bus.

An hour or so after leaving home, I received this picture text from Megan:

Not only had she grabbed a couple of snacks from home, she made a visit to the school office to procure a couple of safety pins.

Despite the text coming through in the middle of the chaos of getting 3 other children out the door for school, I laughed out loud when I saw it. I responded simply, "You are your mother's daughter."

In the chaos of the morning I forgot to forward the text to my BFF. She too would have laughed out loud. You see, she and I made sure we never went hungry while in high school/college.

We have recollections of snacks pinned to our gowns during high school graduation.
We have memories of warm brownies smuggled into the Salt Lake Tabernacle for a fireside. (Our dates were quite embarrassed when the brownies emerged from our pockets and heads started to turn, wondering how and why the smell of fresh brownies was suddenly permeating the air.)

We took a loaf of French bread into a concert.

Ben and Jerry's ice cream was often a must-have at the movie theatre.

And a loaf of left-over bread from Spaghetti Factory was consumed while studying at the Marriott Library at the University of Utah.

Far be it from me to question Megan's need to have food pinned to the inside of her coat for a field trip during 9th grade.

Although, I'm quite certain had I known for the rest of the day she was carrying around an empty plastic sandwich bag filled only with the sugar remains from the Sour Patch candies pinned to the inside of her coat, I may have asked her to remove it. It looked mildly suspicious when I picked her up from school that afternoon.

Love Megan
Love Me
Love food.

Megan's Christmas Choir

Last Saturday my kitchen/family room was full of 25+ people singing Christmas songs. There are few things I love more about Christmas than joining in singing songs of the season. I was overcome by the spirit of Christmas as adults and children sang together some of the traditional songs of the season...

All a result of Megan and her hard work accomplishing a project for her Young Women Personal Progress. (A program in our church that helps teenage girls set goals and work to accomplish them.)

Megan put together a "Children's Choir." With the exception of me sitting on the couch looking 'threatening' during a couple of practices (After a full day at school, 15 children age 4-11 weren't always thrilled to be 'obeying' a teenage girl.), and Mike helping rearrange furniture on concert day, and me baking some cookies, Megan set this goal and accomplished it entirely on her own.

It was so fun during the practices to see Megan perched up on a stool playing the piano and leading/instructing the children at the same time. She doesn't get her musical talent from me. But her talent for being able to be in charge and boss children around? Yes. That would come from me.

Starting in mid-November, she held 4 after-school practices, and a couple of individual practice sessions.

Based off of the practices, I wondered how the final results at the concert would be. I should never have doubted anything. The concert was fabulous!

It was a joyous occasion watching sweet children sing songs of the season, with all the innocence of children.

I loved that Megan held "auditions" for the children to try out for solo parts, after ascertaining which children were even interested in participating in a solo, duet, or small group part. I was proud of Megan for her ability to help children stretch themselves and do hard things. A couple of the soloists were so nervous to participate, but oh boy, did they all do a perfect job!

(Every time this little boy stayed after choir practice to practice his solo, I would stop what I was doing to listen. Such a sweet song, and such a sweet little voice singing. One of the definite highlights of the concert.)

(Ellie sang the first verse of 'Silent Night', before the choir joined in for the 2nd and 3rd verse. Of course it made me cry. )

I had so many favorite moments from this short Christmas concert. With the exception of a few photos, most of my memories were captured with my heart.

For 25 minutes, it felt like a little bit of heaven touched down in my home on a snowy December afternoon.
Kudos to Megan.

"...and a little child shall lead them."

Isaiah 11:6

A Few Randoms

It's been a while since I've posted on the randomness of our lives lately. It seems my cell phone is always the best place to go to remember what we've been doing around here lately.

I think Ellie's half birthday got lost in the recesses of my cell phone picture gallery. Oops. We did celebrate the half-way, despite the lack of blog post telling anyone about it.

I mean for heaven sakes, we wouldn't have wanted to miss out on sharing that blurry photo, now would we?!

I think the harp recital also got lost in the cell phone gallery, but we shan't forget to mention it.

With the freshly fallen snow, and cold temperatures, the peak season of our business is winding down. Although there is still much to do throughout the winter, Mike and I wanted to do something to thank our employees for a successful year of work. Several of our employees prefer to keep to themselves, and having a big dinner at a restaurant, or some kind of party didn't seem like the right fit. So with a few good brains put together we came up with the idea of a....

taco truck coming to the office...

It worked out wonderfully for those wanting to socialize alone with each other outside, and those wanting to mingle with each other inside.

It was a wonderful afternoon enjoying the company of those that help make our business what it is. Mike threw out all sorts of invites, and it was fun seeing who would walk through the door next. We not only had our employees, we had 2 guys from our bank (who were initially mistaken for being LDS missionaries when they walked in!), sales reps, and subcontractors.

Delicious food and good company are among my favorite things.

Note in the above photo what the people in the back are sitting on... it helped that when we ran out of enough folding chairs, we had plenty of sprinkler valve boxes on hand to improvise.

There are definite perks to being the key decision maker in a company. Hooray for taco trucks.

After a little choir performance at our house today (more on that later), Ellie was entertained forever playing with the microphone stand. Unfortunately (for her) the microphone had been put away immediately following the concert, so it could be returned in good condition to the owner. She didn't ask for a microphone to go with the stand--she improvised and made her own! It was the perfect shape for her to sing into, and she was content as can be singing into... the barrel of a gun! Mike was thoroughly amused and had to snap a photo of the performance.

We had an impromptu Family Carnefel on Saturday night, and each child shared a game with us to play. We did everything from pin the nose on Santa, "ask questions about Christmas" directed at the Little People Nativity set, match pictures of NFL football helmets to papers with the names on them, and trying to feel if someone was blowing warm air on us through a straw while our eyes were closed. (This game was a result of the blowing marshmallows up a straw not quite paning out.) I realize those descriptions don't sound like the most entertaining family activities, but they are for us. They are typically always good for a laugh.

Megan's game was last, and instead of any made-up-game, she chose hide-and-seek. I immediately dismissed it, and she replied, "But Mom, that's what we do!" If she really identifies hide and seek as one of our most prominent family activities, I could hardly say no. Especially considering everyone else (including Mike) were thrilled with the game choice. Of course it was better than having air blown on my face through a straw, but still.

I think one of the reasons I don't enjoy hide and seek is because Mike gets far too creative with the kids and their hiding spots. He had Drew squeezed into the frame of the couch at one point, and Joshua essentially being airlifted into a hiding spot behind a piece of furniture in our family room. I feel like what should be an innocent game of hide-and-seek turns into anxieties about whether a shelf will collapse, my pantry will be put back together again, or if the entertainment center really is strong enough to hold a television and a child.

(Joshua hidden behind the computer armoire in the family room! Even Ellie said, "I can't watch" as Joshua was precariously lifted out...)

I usually roll my eyes at the places Mike comes up with for the kids to hide, but this one was great. Megan walked by the "snow clothes drying rack" numerous times before finally spotting Joshua amidst the overalls and gloves. Definitely my favorite hiding place of the night.

I typically observe rather than play, but somehow I got roped into being one to count and hide. Which begs the question--What crazy mother actually goes in search of her peaceful, quiet, hiding children?!? I was thoroughly enjoying the solitary quietness and alone-ness upstairs in my room "counting" until Mike paged me downstairs. I was aided in my search by a dear friend, who just happened to show up on the doorstep with a Christmas gift just as I was beginning my search for five children. The highlight of the game was my friend, Paula helping me search, and ending up jumping out of her skin when Luke appeared out of the living room curtains and scared her. His claim? "I thought it was mom."

Luke spent the balmy day before Thanksgiving outside in his bike shop working on something. He emerged a little while later and announced "You have to come outside and see what I made."

A trailer for his bike?!
Apparently a neighbor boy was the guinea pig and Luke announced it "Very safe to carry Hank or a friend." I didn't deem it quite as safe, and thankfully the snow fell a couple days later and we haven't seen the trailer out since. Although he has come a long way since his scooter building days, he still has a few engineering/physics skills to master before you'll see me climbing aboard any of his contraptions.

Life is good. I really shouldn't complain.
Happy December!