Category: Copyright 2012

Give Thanks

Jacob:
I am thankful for our water heater because hot water is important to all of the ways we stay comfortable in our house, like radiant heat, I can take a warm shower, and wash dishes in hot water.
I am thankful for my bicycle because it helps me be healthier while having fun at the same time.
 
Marcia the Elder:
I am thankful for filtered water in the fridge door so that I can have clean cold drinking water anytime I need it, which helps me try to drink enough water each day.
I am thankful for stocking caps/hats because I am cold most of the time, and some of my migraines are triggered by my forehead being cooled down, so I wear them much of the time from fall through spring.
 
Marcia the Younger:
I am thankful for technology like computers and my camera because it helps us communicate with everybody.
I am thankful for a lot of blankets for my bed because they help me be warm and comfortable when I need to sleep, and when I sleep, and when I want to sleep.
 
Hinckley:
I am thankful for life itself because if we didn’t have life how would we have a good life?
I am thankful for family because if you did not have family you wouldn’t have anybody to live with in your childhood.
*
I am thankful for pop because it tastes great and fizzes on my tongue.
I am thankful for ice to make the pop be less fizzy.
 
Corban:
I am thankful for a real machine that gives life to everybody and that gives seat belts to every body…the machine that makes seat belts because seatbelst keep us safe and alive.
I’m also thankful for a machine that makes people, no I mean robots, robot chickens.


* Hinckley said the first two first, and then when we explained that we wanted actual things to “touch” he gave the second two.
 
 

Give Thanks

Jacob:
I am thankful for the temple, where families are sealed together forever, and where I married my best friend.
I am thankful for my home office because that’s where I work to provide for my family, it’s where I study and learn a lot, it’s where I do some of my favorite leisure activities like playing chess and writing music.
Marcia the Elder:
I am thankful for the Grand Canyon because nobody fell in!  And because I enjoyed spending a week down in the there hiking among the beauty, while I was in college, and then a couple years ago we got to go as a family* with the Fairlie women!
I am thankful for the hospital where I birthed my children, because there are caring doctors and nurses, and I am so glad that I did not have to clean up the “Lake of Machu Picchu”** in my house.
Marcia the Younger:
I am thankful for libraries because they have lots and lots of books, and I love books!
I am thankful for Compton Park because the bridge is very good for riding your bike over and it has a beautiful “river” there.
Hinckley:
I am thankful for our house.  I love our house because if we didn’t have our house we wouldn’t live anywhere, but we do have our house so that we have some shelter and a place to live.
I am thankful for the school because I need to learn, and the school is exactly the right place*** to learn.
Corban:
I want to do what Hinckley said, but a little bit, a little part:
I am thankful for our house, well, because it has dishes.
I am thankful for Earth because it has a lot of houses, and a lot of people, and a lot of houses for that people.

* This was the only time Jacob had been to the Grand Canyon, even though he lived in Mesa, AZ for 14 years.

** The lake was so named by the midwife, because the older two children named the unborn Corban, “King of Machu Picchu” and he made a great lake during labor.
*** “Place” may be more of a concept than an actual location, because this year our kids are attending school online only. Here is the setup they have.

The “lockers”
   

Give Thanks

I am thankful for my parents for bringing me into this world, and for doing their best to keep me in it, too.
I am thankful for my husband Jacob, I might drive him crazy at times, but I love him.
I am thankful for Marcia Holland, Hinckley, and Corban for making me a mom, and for making me feel joy in more ways than I ever could have imagined.
I am thankful for my sister Ronda for being a great sister and example to me.
I am thankful for dedicated teachers who make a difference in the lives of children.
I am thankful for good friends who know and love me for me, and don’t try to make me be someone I’m not, you know who you are!
I am thankful for Elder Williams for using the priesthood, without whom I’d be unable to be here typing this.
I am thankful for my mission companions who taught me many things about myself, and how to love others better.
I am thankful for the many people that I have had the pleasure to serve with in the various church callings I’ve had over the years.
I am thankful for all the people who have been able to make me smile and think of good throughout these crazy times.

Thank you all of you world helpers!

Give Thanks

Eight years ago today, we welcomed this little guy into our family.

We are so very thankful to have him with us.  Every day he makes us laugh.  Every day he looks for something new to learn.

Today he chose to be baptized in the same way that Jesus was baptized.  There were 8 of us in the room where it happened.  With more than double that attending over Zoom.  I am also thankful for the ability to have virtual meetings where we can be together, and apart, at the same time.

Here he is with Jacob at his birth minute, only minutes before they stepped into the water.

There is joy in my soul today.

How the Prairie Dogs Ended EVERYTHING! (part 3)

—The Beginning as told by Hinckley—

Mom:  …  Okay then. So, what was at the beginning? If that was the middle and the end was the end, what happened before the middle?
Hinckley:  Uh, I already said.
Mom:  When they were in Australia, what happened in Australia?
Hinckley:  Uuh, renember they spreaded all the black, the thing they needed…
Mom:  But they did that in Arizona. What’d they do in Australia?
Hinckley:  No! Australia, renember Australia also got sprayeded all with ….
Mom:  Well, who sprayed it over there?
Hinckley:  The prarie dogs!
Mom:  But where did the prarie dogs get it?
Hinckley:  Remember the plane?!
Mom:  But where did the prarie dogs get the plague?
Hinckley:  Oh, the prarie dogs caught it from the very first one which is kind of weird and kind of embarrassing, but from elephants!
Mom:  From elephants?!
Hinckley:  Yeah!
Mom:  Do you think there are elephants in Australia?
Hinckley:  No! The elephants are in, um Africa!
Mom:  So, okay, so…?
Hinckley:  So, they started at Africa, spread it all, to all the animals there, except for the elephants so. Wait, the elephants did it to all the animals there except for the prairie dogs. The prairie dogs got the plague, then the….
Mom:  Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait, I need to understand. So, the elephants had the plague in Africa?
Hinckley:  Yes.
Mom: And gave it to prairie dogs?
Hinckley:  Yes.
Mom:  And the prairie dogs, how did they get to Australia? Because you said that they got it in Africa.
Hinckley:  Umm…
Mom:  Or did the elephants…
Hinckley:  They got the plane in….
Mom:  Wait wait wait wait!
Hinckley:  In Africa and got the, and got to…
Mom:  So did the elephants go on the plane?
Hinckley:  …Australia to from the plane and they spreaded all the people with it, then they did it to Arizona, and then BOOM! All done!
Mom:  So wait, you’re telling me that prairie dogs got the black plague…?
Hinckley:  From elephants.
Mom:  The bubonic plague from the elephants in Africa, and then they went to Australia and spread it all over there, and now they came to Arizona to spread it all over Arizona?
Hinckley:  Yes.
Mom:  Where are they going next?
Hinckley:  They’re going to spread it all over the world.
Mom:  Why would they do that?
Hinckley:  So that they’re the only ones alive.
Mom:  Oh, so you think that the prairie dogs are trying to take over the world?
Hinckley:  Yes.
Mom:  I don’t know that I like that. Where would I be?! I don’t want to be a prairie dog!
Hinckley:  So, they all did not live at all happily ever after, but the end!

How the Prairie Dogs Ended EVERYTHING! (part 2)

—The Middle as told by Hinckley—

Mom:  Alright, now tell me what happened in the middle.
Hinckley:  Um, everyone was dy-ing.
Mom:  Why were they dying?
Hinckley:  ‘Cause they, wait mom, what’s the sickness that has black as a word in the name?
Mom:  The black plague?
Hinckley:  Yeah, everyone got the black plague.
Mom:  Did they get it from the prairie dogs?
Hinckley:  Yeah.
Mom:  Why were they in Arizona?
Hinckley:  That’s where the prarie dogs are?
Mom:  That’s where the ones I know of are that are spreading the plague. Whats another name for the black plague?
Hinckley:  Um, killing.
Mom:  Bubonic.
Hinckley:  Bubonic.
Mom:  Yeah the bubonic plague.
Hinckley:  So, and before they got that, they were in Arizona. But the prarie dogs haven’t gotten there yet. The prarie dogs were coming towards it.
Mom:  Where’d they come from?
Hinckley:  The prarie dogs came from Australia.
Mom:  Okay, how did they get to Arizona from Australia.
Hinckley:  Uuuuh, they took a prairie dog plane.
Mom:  Okay.
Hinckley:  And after they, and before they took that plane they spreaded all the uh, on purposely, they spreaded all the Black plague that they could spill to the Arizona people as in they spreaded all they need to kill everyone in Arizona.
Mom:  And all Arizona?
Hinckley:  I mean, in the…
Mom:  What about the apes apartments?
Hinckley:  Ugh! Stop! As in I meant Australia.
Mom:  Okay.
Hinckley:  Then they took that plane to Arizona and they spreaded the black plague all over there.
Mom:  Oh, how did they spread it? With a butter knife?
Hinckley:  No. They spread…..
Mom:  With their poop.
Hinckley:  Ungh!
Mom:  That’s true.
Hinckley:  So, and somehow they put the black plague as a liquid into a bottle and sprayed it everywhere.
Mom:  Do you know how prairie dogs spread their, the black plague?
Hinckley:  Yeah.
Mom:  How?
Hinckley:  Um, no…poop?
Mom:  Their poop! So your telling me they put poop into bottles and put water in and they made it liquid?
Hinckley:  Yep!
Mom:  And sprayed it everywhere?
Hinckley:  Yes!
Mom:  That sounds disgusting.

Isn’t It Nice

…when you can successfully Rickroll your own children?

On school day mornings, in an attempt to expose the children to many different songs, we (honestly, Jacob is better at getting up first these days) wake them with a song.  Most of the time they haven’t heard of it before.  Sometimes they recognize it from a movie.  These last two mornings we have played Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

And they have been humming and singing it! It is a good thing they stay on mute unless they are supposed to talk for class.  Otherwise we might be inadvertently Rickrolling two online classes.