March -- Happy Birthday, Grandma

At the beginning of March we celebrated my mom's birthday.  We'd worked together secretly across the country to put together a quilt for her.  The quilt included blocks made of white fabric with iron-on transfers putting pictures on them.  It was a lot of fun and turned out pretty spectacular.  I made the birthday cake, with the owl motif from the starting square of fabric.

(Also, little James -- bottom left -- enjoyed doing his best to use my cane. He had the right idea, but it was still taller than him!)

There was also a book my sister put together of memories and stories of life so far.

The amount of food coloring required to make the cake frosting that shade of blue left everyone looking a bit cyanotic.  My mom also got some beautiful hand-knit mittens and a scarf and pin from Thailand!

All in all, a wonderful celebration of a wonderful mother / grandmother!  Love you, Mom!

February 2013

 February was a flurry of ice, snow, and pain.  There were a few delightful highlights, though.

One benefit of lots of cold and snow, is that it makes the perfect opportunity to try out snow sculpturing.  The girls made this snow dog in our yard.

I enjoy working with the 8-12 year old girls from church.  We arranged a Daddy/Daughter Dinner in February.  We served breakfast for dinner and played some fun games.  I was in charge of decorations.  We decorated with blue, white, and silver and snow.  Pompoms strung on invisible thread, silver glitter mixed with epsom salts in vases holding up pipe cleaner stems for tissue paper snowflakes (cut by the girls), snowflake table scatter shapes, etc.  It's wonderful to see the girls with a father, uncle, brother, or friend who they love.

Since Sabrina is our youngest, this is the last year for me to see the 1st graders production of "The Little Engine that Could".  Sabrina was chosen to be a narrator.  It is done entirely in choral readings / recitings.  The narrators do most of the talking, so they got to read it from a folder.  She loved it.  Especially the poster-paints she got to use for the "costume"

Around this time I took over sorting, scanning, and captioning photos from my mom's house.  There are quite a lot, many of which I don't remember having ever seen before!  Ginger was very suspicious of the scanner, though.  She often stayed handy and occasionally growled at the box that seemed to growl back.

January 2013

 Ginger has become quite the fan of air hockey.  She figured out how to pull the puck out of the return slot and played for quite a while with it.

Also, Ginger fits perfectly in a Cuties box.  She prefers it to be in front of the fireplace when it's turned on.

Playing games on Mom and Dad's phones while hanging out at Grandpa and Grandma's house.

In January the last book of a series Michael and I have been reading (him for some 20 years, me for only a dozen -- The Wheel of Time series) finally came out.  He let me read it first.  I was rather sick at the time with some ear / sinus infections. One morning while I was sick and reading the book, Sabrina brought me breakfast in bed.  Chocolate cake, grape tomatoes (with individual toothpicks), and a peeled clementine.  Not a standard breakfast, but awfully sweet.  There were so many things I wanted to talk to Michael about as I was reading the book, but since I was reading it first he didn't want any spoilers.  So I used post-it notes and stuck the book full of all my questions and observations.  It made a real mess as Michael was reading the book and pulling the notes out as he went.

A Sunday afternoon game of Phase 10 (woo hoo!!!  3 wilds!).  

A play-doh flag made by Sabrina.

And a "beautiful" funky mole that I had to have removed from my shoulder (end result: nothing evil.  yay!).  Good times, right?

Complicated story made shorter: I got to be a guest lecturer for the Timpanogos Gem & Mineral Society.  I spoke on paleontology and making rock / fossil hobbies a family matter.  There was a beast of a storm that night and I was told the numbers might be small because many are senior citizens and don't get out in the bad weather.  There were still around 80 people there!  It was a lot of work, but ended up being lots of fun.

One last reminiscence:  When I was young there were often two choices with Sunday afternoon popcorn and reading time, or early morning scripture study time: hot chocolate, or postum.  Then several years ago Postum production was stopped!  Apparently now you can find it in a few stores, including our favorite local grocer.  Michael brought this home for me one cold, dark day.

Welcome to 2013. It's halfway over. Good luck with that!

This year had some rough starts.  Once again I went through a series of infections which set off severe myofascial pain that just wouldn't quit.  Several doctors, several medications, several frustrations later and it eventually cleared up.  I had had it at the time, though, so I kept putting off posting anything.  I realize now that I should have kept up anyway.  I've got a load of pictures to catch up!

Over all my health has continued to be a bother.  I finally had to give up volunteering in the girls' classes at school and passed the organization of the Boxtops for Education collecting / sorting / cashing in / etc. on to another parent.  I have been in to see a rheumatologist and am waiting to get in to a neurologist next month.  Despite everything we've tried my pain has continued to worsen.  For now I have to greatly limit my activities and be grateful for what I am able to do.  It's been a hard year.  I am tired of always posting about the next flare, the next doctor, the next diagnosis, the next frustration.  Thus: I dropped off the grid for a while since my life is currently balanced around all of those things.  Pretending it's not a major aspect of our lives, though, it would not represent our lives at all.  So for the sake of reality: life is painful and often frustrating, but the important things are all good.  :)

Now, January, Part 1: Outdoors

This past winter was bitterly cold and very white.  We never got enough snow at one time to result in a day off school, but we also didn't see the curbs or grass for weeks or perhaps months at a time!  It did make January a little more cheerful since it wasn't full of brown and mud and darkness.  The snow was pretty and usually had a fresh layer and reflected what sunlight there was for a little more cheer.  It also kept our local snow sculptor busy!  I missed getting pictures of several of them, but they were fun to see.   The perpetual snow also drove deer down to the valley to forage in people's yards.  Our cherry tree didn't survive the winter (with many days below 0), but we got lots of "natural fertilizer" from the deer.

When the gutters started groaning under the weight of the icicles we decided they had better come down.  They were spectacular!  They also came back almost immediately over the front porch.

Ginger was very fond of hunting the deer.  And a wayward wasp that somehow was alive and in the house!

It was sometimes amusing watching the girls plow through the snow drifts to and from the school bus stop.

Finally, one afternoon we caught a beautiful sunset.  The way the light reflected around the snow and shone back off the snow capped mountains was engaging.  This is the best I could do catching it on camera.

2012: In closing

 A few pictures I missed from Christmas:   Ginger was thrilled by all the empty boxes left around.  We did stop by to visit the grands (Grandpa and Grandma Southern and Grandma Abuela, aka Grandma Jensen).

In the week between Christmas and New Years all the available Jarbh ladies of all ages got together for A Doll's Christmas.  We had a beautiful mini dinner complete with Cornish game hens and miniature cutlery.  We did manage to include the Arkansas branch of the family via Skype.  Everyone brought a doll and introduced their dolls around before dinner.

With the teenage nieces and nephews getting around to doing fun things with friends on New Year's Eve we decided it was time for a change of plans.  Instead of a late night gathering we had a morning activity.  The teens planned it and were helpers through the activities.  Breakfast (prepared via short order cooks), puzzles, unique DIY party hats, games, and more!  Each person had a ticket to have "stamped" at each activity.  Then at the end everyone who did enough activities (well, actually we just did everyone :) ) got to pick a wrapped white elephant gift.

There were some fun music activities in the music room with all sorts of instruments.  See?  I was there too!  Little J was taking some experimental steps towards being a grown up walker (which he has been for some time now).  Sabrina got the chocolate bar as part of her white elephant gift.

When it came to the actual changing of the year, this is what it looked like.  We sat at home watching something together, probably on Netflix.  The girls gathered more and more blankets and cuddled up until they were barely awake.  Happy Drowsy New Year!

Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve, opening new pajamas and a Sleep Music CD for each of them put together by Daddy.  They also each got a $25 gift card to our favorite movie theater (the one in Spanish Fork where all concessions are from $1 to $3 each).  They love getting to choose their own concessions for a movie!  Bottom right, don't forget the gummy bear Nativity!

After Santa visited I slipped out to snap a few pictures ;)  The usual spread was left on the table, then all the presents from Santa were arranged around the small tree in the great room while the stocking hung from the mantle.

 Santa left a thank you not for the goodies the girls left on a paper plate.  The family presents were arranged downstairs around the full sized tree and opened later in the afternoon on Christmas day.

Etched glasses for each of us at our Christmas breakfast.

Traditional line-up!  And my girl who wished for her two front teeth ;)

Daddy got a new gym bag and some things for his workout sessions.  The silliest present was a cute little hair brush and accessories from Kate.  He also enjoyed a massager, superhero cartoon, and another 1st grader calender from Sabrina.

Lizzie got the blue ukulele she was hoping for (which Santa already knew before she asked).  Sabrina made Lizzie a puppy out of paper plates.  Kate tried using markers to color a headband for Lizzie too.  Oh, and you can't forget the used mini pie tin wrapped to be used as a dress up hat!

Sabrina was thrilled by a new scooter all her own and a fun helmet.  Each of the girls also got a Thundercats toy which they get a real kick out of.  They also each got some cute new eye things and a new pair of jeans.

Kate got a set of "dressing table" accessories.  A pretty new mirror to go above the desk she uses for her hair and jewelry things, a letter "K" earring and other jewelry holder, a bunch of pretty new jewelry, and even a flat-iron for her hair.  Each girl also got a sewing pattern, some fabric, and any necessary notions to do some sewing of their own on my machine.

I got a new pair of footie pajamas!  Which I quickly changed into.  Also some lovely new leather gloves (that fit my long fingers!) some fun jewelry and lots of handmade gifts from my girls -- including a picture frame made of q-tips taped together and a container of melted chocolate chips.

Over all it was a beautiful Christmas.  Relaxing, fun, and full of joy!

December (part 1)

 Fun new stockings and festive poinsettias:

Picking out a Christmas tree.  Though we ended up with three instead of one.  A tiny one went to work with Michael, the middle sized one lived in the great room on the homework table, and the regular sized one in the family room.  It was a fairly mild evening at the tree lot and smelled wonderful.

Before leaving we did stop momentarily by the fire in a big metal drum to warm our fingers.

Kate, Lizzie, and Sabrina took care of the tree decorating downstairs again this year.  It was cheerful and festive well into February... or March?  (The beginning of the year kinda flew by.)

Alternating sunshine and below zero temperatures led to epic icicles this year across the porch on the west side of the house.  The largest one morphed from stalactite to column!

Shopping at the mall as a family.

The girls were very excited to take part in "Ugly Sweater Day" at school.  I found some base sweaters at the thrift store and picked up some random things at the dollar store.  The girls got to go to town with needle and thread, hot glue guns, etc.  Kate's even had a battery operated line of Christmas lights decorating a tree made of ribbon.  Sabrina loved her sweater (poncho) so much she carefully removed the ornaments afterward so she can wear it again!

We shared a huge Hershey's Kiss.  It was hilarious watching Kate and Lizzie try to get decent sized bites off the thing!  Sabrina was missing both front teeth, so she finally gave up and got hers trimmed off with a paring knife.

Lizzie's 3rd grade Christmas Program!  She even got to play the ukulele for one of the pieces.  Sabrina entertained herself, as the program started to get kinda long, by coloring pictures.  Including the freaky yellow skinned monster!

 Feeling like Christmas at home!

Snow piled up around town all winter, and was reluctant to melt off.  The fellow who does snow sculptures nearby did some great work!  The top right one was specially for the so called "Mayan Apocalypse" on 12/21/12.  If it had actually happened I suppose I wouldn't have to catch up here ;)

 The church (ward) Christmas party included a program my the children.  Lizzie is the shepherd on the right in a blue gown.

by this time the countdown until the holidays was in full force!