Happy Birthday Claire

Claire's birthday was squashed into a week already filled with a bridal shower for a future aunt, outings with out-of-state cousins who were visiting in-state, a wedding, the luncheon, and a wedding reception. A BIG thank you must go out to all the family who helped Claire's day still be fun for her.

Claire is now 5 and she is still my sunshine girl.

We were talking and she told me, "Mommy, since Heavenly Father is like a king, and all the people on earth are a child of God, that means all the girls on earth are princess's and all the boys are prince's!" You should have seen Claire, her eyes were all big and round as she shared this exciting insight "...all the girls are princess's." Watch out Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. The earth has a few billion people on it and you've got some serious competition.

To my Claire I would say that yes you really and truly are a child of God (you might temporarily forget it in those rocky teenage years but it doesn't change the fact: You are one special girl with a Heavenly Father who loves you so much!)

NO...not the plants!

Yesterday we got back in town after being gone for a few days. I noticed something was not quite right with some of the plants, they looked "off." Today upon closer inspection we saw that nearly every perennial or shrub has leaves that are blackened or falling off. It was baffling. Was this a result of a very mean spirited joke? Was it a rampaging fungus caused by the 3 weeks of near-constant rain? Turns out it was neither.

As I walked from plant to plant, from behind me I heard Jeff say, "I wonder if the fertilizer I applied on Wednesday did this."

Apparently the ratios vary GREATLY when you apply Iron Chelate on a lawn versus the shrubs. Drive by our house and take a look. Lawn looks great. Shrubs and perennials aren't looking so hot.

My initial 911 call went out to Shelby. I left her a message saying, "Shelby I need to get that pasta salad recipe, (deep breath here) and by the way I think Jeff just killed all of my plants!" She called right back and said, "Do you want to talk about plants or the salad first?"

Okay okay, I am probably over reacting and chances are they will bounce back. This falls into the wait and see category.

I'm not mad at Jeff because it was an unintentional mistake (why did it have to happen to my plants!). I have made plenty of mistakes which have cost more to fix then the cost of replacing a few dead plants. When I make those pricey goof-ups Jeff never says anything to make me feel worse than I already do. He will give me a hug but he won't ever berate me and say how stupid I was. He is just not the kind of guy who will freak out over things that can't be changed. I really love my plants but I love him more.

Balance

One of Erik's jobs is to unload the dish washer and put the dishes back where they belong. On this particular morning he did unload, but left for school before doing the second half of his job.

Although he did a good job of balancing the dishes without any falling and breaking.

(Side note: if you have the option of buying kids cups in a variety of colors...DON'T. Only buy ONE color. This will prevent you from picking out the wrong color of cup when pouring beverages for children. And it will also prevent arguments from breaking out when your daughter sets the table and puts a pink cup at your sons place when she knows he wants a blue cup. Really, I'm just happy the table is being set.)

As for balance in my life, there hasn't been much of that lately. Not that I'm complaining, because I was enjoying myself very much in what I was doing. For about a week and a half I dropped off the face of the world and into the pages of 4 different books. Pretend people. Pretend problems. It was nice.

By the time I was part way through book #4 Megan had had enough. She came up to me one afternoon, closed my book and said, "No Mommy." Megan then selected one of her books and climbed up on my lap. I got the point. We read her book instead.

Despite having enjoyed my reading binge I am feeling a little out of sorts. But it gave me the break I needed. Gotta get balance back in my life. Real people. Real problems.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) consider temples to be a very sacred and special building. As members of our faith live in many different countries it is a desire to build temples for them to attend. Anyone can attend an LDS meetinghouse for Sunday worship, but to attend the temple an individual needs to be a member of our faith and have a current LDS temple recommend. Right now there are over 140 temples worldwide either in operation, under construction, or have been recently announced.

After temple construction is completed and before the temple is dedicated there is a period where they are open for all of the public to visit. This provides people who have questions or are just curious the opportunity to walk through and see for themselves what goes on inside of the temple. I have attended open houses for temples in Utah and Costa Rica and most recently the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in South Jordan, Utah.

The Oquirrh Mountain Temple will be open for touring until August 1, 2009. To attend the open house you need a ticket (free) and they can be obtained from the website http://www.lds.org/ When you arrive you will be shown a short video about the temples. Once inside you can go at your own pace. There are ushers all over the place directing you from room to room so you don't get lost. There are signs giving brief explanations of what occurs in that room. At the end there is a large reception tent set up with people available to answer any additional questions, or you can grab a cookie and go.

Jeff and I recently attended the open house with our children. They are too young to receive a recommend for regular temple attendance, and I loved being able to be inside as a family. Great care goes into the building of each of the temples and the detail inside. The Oquirrh Mountain Temple is no different and is simply beautiful. I really do love the temple. For me it is a place of peace and for further instruction to learn more about God. It strengthens my own faith that God is very aware of me and has a plan for me...as he does for everyone.

Off to Hamster Heaven

Having moved on...

How would an obituary go for a hamster?
It would probably say something about living to a ripe old age of 2. There would be mention of having raised 11 babies and how she outlived at least 5 of them. Perhaps a paragraph of the activities she enjoyed: running around in her hamster ball, stuffing her cheeks full of goodies, and being a master escape artist.

Hamster #1, Rocko, from 3 years ago was only around for a month before he died. He wasn't very friendly and had a tendency to bite so we weren't too attached to him. Rocko's burial location was the garbage can.

Now Mother Bear we had for nearly 2 years and she was such a good hamster the entire time. We thought she deserved a better resting place. In trying to decide where to bury her I suggested the back yard. Jeff vetoed it on the grounds that I move around plants way too much...something about how he didn't want to be digging up Mother Bear later on this summer when the hostas moved to a new location.

Well, we went on a drive and found a nice mountain location and buried her. There probably is a law about not dumping dead animals in the mountains. But this wasn't a 60 lb. dog or a horse, it was a hamster. Claire decorated the grave with flowers while Erik inspected a jaw bone from a deer who had been long dead. I'm thinking that if a big smelly deer can die and rot away in the mountains becoming part of natures cycle, then burying an itty bitty hamster shouldn't be a big deal (just this once).

Erik and Claire are already talking about saving up their money to buy another hamster which is fine. So we will see, I hope we get one more like Mother Bear and less like Rocko.