Jackson's Photo Tour

I've been meaning to do this post for a while.  Jackson inherited our old digital camera a month ago, and promptly took over 60 pictures.  If you're willing to stare at a gazillion pictures, join me on our tour of our house and yard via Jackson's photography skills.

First, let me introduce to the photographer and his family.  Here's Jackson:

And Mommy:

And Daddy:

On the way to our front door, you'll see our front flower bed:

Through the front door, you come into the living room.

My AV friends will love the shot below.

Next on the tour, the Kitchen!

And who is in the kitchen visiting us this day (back in August)?

Next, we head to Jackson's bedroom:

Now, we head downstairs.

 And what movie was Jackson watching on that Sunday?

 Yes, that would be "To This End Was I Born," an video put out by the LDS church about Jesus Christ.

Now, let's head outside to see where Jackson plays, and you will now get the glorious site of the fort that Matt built for Jackson.

The Fort

The Red Swing

The Trampoline

The Bike

Where Jackson is NOT allowed to play, but wishes he could

The Side Yard

Looking back towards the backyard

Our trash can

The ants in our driveway

Now that you've seen a lot more of our house than you wanted to, here are a few goodies from Jackson, just for fun.

Good-bye old camera!

And finally, the necessary self-portraits!

This one's for you, Michelle:

Finally, from LeMira's and Kristin's perspectives:

If you made it through this entire post, you're awesome!

In Which I Update You on the Mundane

The Love and Logic stuff is working! Granted, I have been emotionally drained several times trying to do it, but it's paying off! Jackson now will run to put his toys away because if I put them away, then I put them away, and he gets to earn them back because I did his chores for him. Sounds mean? It's not. He's getting the idea, and he's been earning them back like crazy, and I've been getting a lot of chores done around the house that I never would have thought to do because of it. He's adapting, and so am I.

Tasha the Fish swam to the big ocean in the sky last night. Jackson set her off with Daddy's help this morning. Empty fish tank = ugly, but NO PETS! Sorry pet lovers, Tasha did not win me over to the pro-pet-owning side of things.

Jackson has a new neighborhood friend. He's two years older, but also an only child, and comes over almost everyday. They entertain each other, never fight (not yet anyway - knock on wood), and go between houses. Jackson is getting some great peer to peer modeling, and I love it! He's learning how to ask for certain things and learning how to handle different social situations.

We were inducted into the Home Ownership Club this weekend by some minor flooding due to torrential Utah rain (meaning it lasted much longer than five minutes) and clogged gutters. At least our laundry room cement floor got cleaned.

I'm ready to post pictures of my house. Well, soon anyway. I've got to take the pictures first.

Oh, and because some friends have recently asked, no, there is no new adoption news. Nada. No leads, nothing. Somehow, though, I'm trying to stay hopeful. I admit it's sometimes hard to watch dear, very-deserving friends to announce unexpected pregnancies or adoptions. All in the Lord's time, though, will we be blessed with our baby.

Well, that's it for now. I hope you've enjoyed my blogging spree lately.

Close Encounters of the Avian Kind

Life was so simple when one didn't have to worry amount ravenous rabid animals...in the house.

For the past few days we have been hearing odd sounds coming from our chimney. We have a large cast iron wood stove downstairs. The sounds have been intermittent so it's been hard to tell what's making the noises.

LeMira came up earlier today and said, "Something is in the chimney pipe." An 8 inch diameter pipe connects the stove to the rest of the chimney up in the ceiling and sure enough, something was making scratching noises inside it. I decided to try turning the flue damper to see if whatever it was might... I have no idea what I was thinking. As I turned it I noticed there was a little more resistance than there should be. "It" started scratching around more now. I turned the knob back the other direction and that's when we heard it.

"It" made a screeching noise and scratched against the metal pipe more furious than before. I must have pinched it with the damper. I quickly turned it all the way to open we heard "it" fall into the wood stove. Everything went silent. "It" didn't make another sound.

Now, what does one do when something that is probably not too happy, has been stuck in my chimney for several days, and was just pinched ends up in the wood stove? The only way out now is through the main doors. I grabbed a flashlight, a metal bucket and the screen for the stove and set out to open the door.

I opened one side and stuck the screen up to the opening. I couldn't see anything. As I opened the other side though the intruder made a break for it. "It" pushed past the screen faster than I could get it in place and burst out into the room. "It" was a bird.


Apparently, it had gotten stuck in the chimney and since it can't fly straight up, it was doomed to live die in my chimney. We tried opening the window but the bird would just fly into the other side with a thud. Then it flew upstairs into the rest of the house.

Fortunately, at the top of the basement stairs is the sliding door leading outside, and it had tried to get out that way, again thwarted by our Windex-clean glass. I opened the sliding door and with the johnny bar gently prodded it out the door, and it flew away. Note that I did say "flew" away. Whatever I did to it earlier was not enough to keep it from flying away. And with that, we were left alone. If we had a video camera, rest assured we would have won $10,000 from AFV.

Bonus points to anyone who can tell what kind of bird it was. I thought it might be a Starling but couldn't see a yellow beak. Then again it was probably covered in soot from the chimney anyways.

And one last note, I'm told that only mammals can get rabies, so ixnay on the rabid part.

Hug a Tree

What happened at your house this morning? Here's what happened here:


What's that crane doing in front of my house?

Oh, just plucking my 2-ton (no joke) trees and carrying them over my house
and putting them in the road.
Here's my beautiful yard BEFORE the city cut down my trees.

AFTER:Good-bye Shade. Hellooo neighbors.

P.S. My five pine trees had to be cut because they were growing right in the power lines and were a HUGE fire hazard. Who knew? Well, not us when we bought the house. sniff, sniff.

Mirror, Mirror Off the Wall

We started upgrading our upstairs bathroom this week. I finished the finishing touches on the paint this morning, and this evening Matt will install our new toilet. Then, I can figure out exactly how I want to decorate. So far we're both happy with the color we chose. We are definitely not professional painters, but it is fun, nonetheless.

Jackson loved playing with the mirror that we took off the wall last week. Speaking of it, could anyone use a 3 1/2 ft by 3 ft wall mirror? It was glued to our bathroom wall, and it came off in one piece if anyone wants it!


Yes, that is "Holly Jolly Penguin" that I can't seem to remember to put away.

You Get What You Get

Tonight I attended my first Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment Meeting in my new ward. It was strange walking in and recognizing many faces from church, but only knowing a few names and not knowing to whom to talk or what to say. (Those of you who know me well know that I don't keep quiet very much.) I'm pretty sure I can still tell you the SAME names with one or two more than I did before. Anyway, the theme was about the many hats we women and mothers wear. We've all heard this Primary lesson before. I didn't think I would learn anything new -- I was wrong.

The guest presenter was a woman who has raised 7 boys and who has taught Kindergarten for 16 years. At one point she mentioned (not in these exact words) that we chose our situations and that we should all take on the Kindergarten mantra: "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit." Crazy to think that I needed to be taken back to Kindergarten to get over my selfish feelings.

For the past while, I've been fighting my feelings of motherhood. I've been complaining about my child, his attitude, my attitude, and wondering when he'll finally disown me for my tantrums and loss of my temper in response to his tantrums and loss of temper. I keep trying to CHANGE him, not shape, mold or encourage, but CHANGE. When did I think that I could CHANGE another person? I've accepted the fact for a decade now that I can't change anyone but myself, but somehow being a mother has made me think that I can CHANGE my son. No, I can direct, encourage, persuade, love, correct, but never CHANGE him. I get what I get, and I don't throw a fit.

How can I complain about that miracle? I love him to pieces. . .time to get over my tantrums.



Remember me being homesick? Yeah, well last night I went to bed depressed again. "This is my house, but it doesn't smell like my house. There's too much work to do. How can we afford this? I miss my friends. I don't like the color of the walls. whinewhinewhine. . ."

I CHOSE to buy my house. I CHOSE to live here. I CHOSE to give up my discretionary income. My choices. I might as well learn to love them rather than fight them. I really do love my house and where I live. I've never felt so much immediate welcome-ship in a ward as I have here. We'll be fine, and I'm sure I'll learn to love it.

YOU GET WHAT YOU GET, AND YOU DON'T THROW A FIT!

I took this picture of our house from across the street. You are seeing our entire lot, except the back yard, obviously. Those big, beautiful pine trees in the backyard are mine, too. Unfortunately, two days after we moved in we found out that they are going to be chopped down because they are growing right through the power lines and are a very dangerous accident waiting to happen. I'm sad, but we'll move on.

**If anyone has any great ideas of things we can do to give the front of the house a face-lift with plants, etc., I'm open to suggestions and ideas. I can really use them.