Snow

In Northern Utah, a winter does not go by with out snowfall. Each winter varies, of course, but I can't ever remember a winter that did not have many, many snowy days with the ground covered in white. The hope is always that it will snow before Christmas and stay white. But often the heaviest snows are in January or February. This year we did have some good snow before Christmas, although we then had some warm days and it was melted off our lawns on Christmas day.

One particularly snowy day, my mom helped SC and Miles find some snow clothes from

the attic. She found the famous, red snow suit that my oldest brother Mark (now 54, I think?) wore and dozens of children have worn since then.

My parents took the two kids down the hill in the backyard a few times, then my mom was generous enough to take them up to the Taylor school hill for some real fun. I was still feeling terrible so was very grateful for such awesome parents to do these fun, memorable things with my kids!

The Trip

Oh how I would like to blog about Christmas and my father's 80th birthday and all of the other things that happened before Dec. 28, but for now I will just go with what I've got.

We loaded into the van early on the morning of the 28th.

We said goodbye to our Chancho's parents, where we'd slept the past two nights, and our mountains.

We drove south and east through the bottom of Utah, cut through some Colorado, then into New Mexico.

After about 12 or 13 hours we stopped for the night at a Holiday Inn Express in Albuquerque. We were up and off again by about 9am the following morning. We drove through a lot more New Mexico and finally entered the Lone Star State!

About twelve more hours of driving and we arrived in Dallas at Paul and Vicki's (Chancho's aunt and uncle) house. They have the most beautiful home in a really cool neighborhood in Dallas. They treated us with such kindness and love. We spent two nights with them before our possessions arrived on the truck on Friday afternoon.

I felt so very blessed. I was truly dreading the drive. I had been so sick and uncomfortable and I knew the kids would not like being in the car for that long. However, I felt buoyed up the whole time. Chancho did have to do almost all of the driving, but I must say it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. The kids all behaved quite well and I was very proud of them. It was a huge relief to arrive here in our new state!

NINE!!!

I was quite worried about how SC's birthday might turn out. She was very upset about Chancho not being there and worried about what we would do since I had been so sick and incapable. Luckily I mustered a good deal of energy that day and she had a very nice day.

SC wanted my Mexican rice, beans, and tortillas, so that was an expensive and fairly easy meal to make. In the morning she went to school but I picked her up early to go pick up her retainer

from the orthodontist (she had her braces removed 4 weeks ago, but, as you know, I have not done any postings). We then went to the store where she chose cookies to take back to her class for her birthday treat and a cake and icecream for that evening. I let her wear her retainer to school, even though she only needs to wear it at night. It made her feel very grown up and

special. For dinner, we invited my sister Nancy and her five kids over. SC loves these cousins,

especially Daisy, who is her same age, and with me, Nancy, my parents, and the 9 kids, we had quite a good little party. We ate, SC blew out the candles on her cake, we opened presents and played with her cousins.

After everybody was gone and things were cleaned up, SC gave me a hug and said, "Even though Dad wasn't here, this was one of my best birthdays ever!" ::whew:: I felt very blessed to hear that from my baby girl because I really hoped and prayed it would feel special for her.

One special surprise that happened later is that she knew a special card was coming in the mail from Chancho. She received it the day after her birthday and was nearly in shock as she shouted, "Dad sent me TWENTY FREAKIN' BUCKS!!!" Even I was impressed.

Happy Birthday, my first baby girl. I'll love you forever.

Dinner Time

When we first moved in with my Mom and Dad, we would have dinner together occasionally, but mostly they liked to eat later and I would usually get something pretty quick for the kids so that I could get them to bed earlier. However, before Thanksgiving I began getting ill and am just now recuperating. The month of December will always hold ambivalent feelings for me. I was terribly sick with bronchitis, then other infections, overall fatigue, weakness, and nausea from the pregnancy, bruised ribs from coughing, etc. The bronchitis is pretty much gone but I have developed asthma and now have to use an inhaler every 4 hours or it flares up, even if I'm just sitting or lying down, and it is very difficult to breathe. It was a difficult month emotionally because Chancho was not with me and I missed him. I had great plans of fun things I wanted to do with the kids for Christmas, but was too sick to do any of them, so I also felt guilty and sad about not being a good mom.

But it was also a wonderful month. Spending such close time with my parents was such a huge blessing and I am going to miss them terribly when we're in Texas. There were so many great things about living with them. Besides lots of fun things, they helped me immensely and I have

no idea how I could have made it through the month with out them. Most days they drove the kids to school and picked them up, ran errands for me, watched the kids while I went to doctor appointments, fixed dinner for us, and Mom read Christmas books to the kids nearly every night. I will always remember sitting at the table together, eating off the the same red placemats that we had before I was married (and they're in great shape!). Many days I felt so crummy I just didn't think I could make it until the kids were in bed. If I was alone, they would have probably been eating ramen noodles every night. Thanks for the wonderful meals, Mom, and especially for the great memories we made around the table!

School Days

Some very good news. Deedle is doing great in school and her teacher has fallen in love with her. We still deal with anger issues at home, but not all of the time. I took her to an appointment down at the Univ. of Utah medical center to see about possibly doing some brain-mapping. I thought it would be something we really wanted to do. But after the appointment and driving home together, I felt more and more uncomfortable about it. And Deedle said to me, "Mom, its like every, single part of my body is telling me that I shouldn't do that." She's never said anything like that before. So, for now we aren't trying anything more, but may look into it in the future.

On Monday I dragged myself out of my sweats and into the blistering, snowy, wind so that I could see not one but TWO of my children honored by their school for their "Circle of Courage". SC was nominated in September for "Belonging" and now the other two were being honored for "Independence." Deedle glowed while receiving the award. Loumy was tentative, but then sat down, turned around, and high-fived Deedle. It was very cute and I am so proud of both of them.

I want to record what their teachers wrote about them.

"(Deedle) is fortunate to naturally have leadership skills. She goes about her day doing what she knows she needs to do. She has confidence in herself, and in her abilities. She is not arrogant, however, just the opposite. She is always willing to help others. Her self-discipline is evident as she sets high standards for herself and works hard to achieve them. I enjoy having (Deeds) in my class. She keeps me on my toes! ~Mrs. Perry"
What an answer to prayer to have this relationship with her teacher change and develop. At Parent/Teacher conference last month, when I told Mrs. Perry that we were moving, she truly had tears come to her eyes!

Loumy is an absolutely amazing child. I am not kidding. I find myself shaking my head so often just wondering, "Where in the world did this powerful spirit come from?" I mean, I've known very well, his whole life, that he has a powerful and amazing spirit, but I continue to be in awe of him and I need to work harder to be a better mother, because he deserves a much more patient mama, but I'm the one he was meant to be with, so I will try harder to be deserving of such a wonderful, little boy.

Here is what was written about him, "I would like to nominate (Loumy) to receive the Circle of Courage award for Independence. (Loumy) has shown great strength in being an independent student. He rarely ever has to ask what he is supposed to do when he is finished with his work. For only being in kindergarten, (Loumy) was grasped the concept of independence very quickly. He has learned how to become a self-starter by coming into class and getting started right away on his work. I appreciate this strength that (Loumy) has shown in the classroom. It is a great quality to have and I hope it will continue to stick with him in years to come. ~Mrs. Rhees"

Oh Baby

In addition to viruses and bacteria, carrying the baby has been difficult on my body. But i know it is all worth it. I had my "big ultrasound" this week. Baby girl is now over 1 lb and everything looks really good for her health. That makes me very happy. Here is a sweet photo of her all snuggled in for a long winter's nap.
We have not decided on a name yet. Of course, I had the dream about "Sarah" and I also had a very profound experience in the temple with a great-Aunt of Chancho's named Sarah. I do feel this is the missing little girl from our family and feel very at peace to know she's on the way. But I'm not sure if this means we need to actually name her "Sarah". But we're thinking about it.

We also like the name of Chancho's paternal grandmother combined with the name of my paternal grandmother. Both of them died before we were born, but we feel a love and respect for them. We like the idea of honoring them. The name would be Lila Pearl.

We're still not sure. I like some other names. I think there are a lot of really beautiful names for girls. Anywho...that's the update on the baby for now.

Memory

It has been well over a month since I've posted anything. And that makes me very sad because I am living a very unique experience right now and I do not want to forget it. My excuses are...hm...well, let me summarize. On the 5th of November, Chancho left us to begin work in Dallas. He is living with his Uncle Paul and Aunt Vicki. The following week I flew down to Dallas with Finn to visit and to see the house that we will be renting for the next 18 months. Finding that house is a really cool story and maybe I will get to it at some point.

Upon my return from Dallas I immersed myself in a project for my Dad. He's turning 80 at the end of the month. I started it quite some time ago but the majority of November, I spent every bit of free time working on this project. More about it later.

Chancho came home for Thanksgiving. I was sick when I picked him up and grew worse over the weekend. And that brings us to today. I still have no voice and don't know what I would have done with out my parents helping me with the kids once C went back to Dallas. The kids have all had their turns being ill, as well, but it seems that my system cannot recover.

Anywho...living here with my parents has been a really wonderful experience, despite the cold, dry air that offends my lungs. I wish I was documenting it more fully. I will miss them so terribly once we move to Texas. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be near them, to continue to learn from them, to have my children really get close to them, and to be loved so closely by them. I'm going to try harder to document little things that I love about being here.

So, here is the first little one: Mom's bread. My mother is 74 years old and has SO much more strength and energy than I do. She constantly amazes me. She is the Relief Society President, works (volunteers) 2 days per week at the temple, devotes herself to her deceased ancestors, and always tries to make herself available to those of us here who love and need her. I am completely exhausted and Mom will offer to read to the kids and will read to them for an hour! And one thing she does at least once per week is to make wheat bread. She grinds her own wheat, raises the dough, etc. And it is heaven! The kids and I can easily down a fresh loaf ourselves, and she always acts happy to have us do it. I am really going to miss Mom's bread!