Greenpark Ward 24th of July Celebration

Early this morning (the 25th of July) the members of the Lehi Greenpark Ward gathered for a 24th of July Parade and celebration.

The Parade

They asked the service members inthe ward to wear their uniforms, and everyone else to decorate their bikes or wagons or what-ever to walk in the parade through the subdivision.

Simon and Ben and Daddy getting ready for the Parade.  Every 16 month old should have a grenade to play with while riding in a parade.  :o)

Everybody Lining up:  They had the three soldiers, one retired Vet, and one rather jet lagged from the trip home Missionary go first.  Followed by the Scouts with the flag, then everybody else, and finally the Bishop with his rather skittish horse and wagon.  One soldier, his newly returned Missonary son (came home the day before) and the Vet all rode in a Jeep.  The other soldier and I walked behind, I kind of needed to walk so I could pull Simon in the wagon, and Melinda could walk with Ben.  We decorated Simon's wagon with service flags and yellow ribbons in honor of the fourth soldier in our ward.   He was just recently mobilized for Afghanistan.  We also have an Airforce Reservist who had drill today, and he wasn't forgotten either.

The Parade is off:  Melinda and Ben were soon at the back of the parade.  This in spite of Ben being so excited that he ran almost the entire distance, up the block and down the other side to the park.  Not far for an adult, but quite a run for such a little guy.

The Bishop was taking periodic detours to keep his horse under control.  Here he is turning down into our cul-de-sac as the parade passed by it.  Click on the picture and look at how good our wild-flower flower garden is doing.

At The Park

The 11 year old Scouts had lashed this together a day or two before, and the Scouts raised the flag just before the parade.

At the park:  We had a short patriotic and spiritual program in honor of the 24th (and a bit of the fourth as well).  Everybody posed with a very large flag while a photographer in the ward took our picture.  Hopefully he'll make it available digitally so we can post it.  Then we had a pancake breakfast and then there were several pioneer era games to be played.  In this picture brother Jensen, the 2nd counselor in our Bishopric, is winning his potato-sack race.

The kids really enjoyed the Stick-pulling, and the Tug-o-war.

Well most of them that is.

Meanwhile what were our two boys doing?  Totally ignoring the games and playing on the playground equipment.  Here Simon is crawling back and forth on the bridge, going between mommy's legs.

And Ben was having a yelling contest with a couple kids on top of the tunnel tube.  It was just yelling, not crying or fussing, they were having fun with the echo'y sound.

Cute Boy

Bang!

Then the Bishop brought out his Black Powder rifle and entertained the kids.  I wished I'd thought to bring mine, he was getting heavily swarmed at times, and could have used another gun to reduce the crowd.  Although in this picture the kids weren't mobbing him anymore.

Bishop Raff let the kids help him load the rifle for each shot.  (Powder and wadding only no bullets.)

Then each time he'd let another one of the kids acutally pull the trigger, they thought it was soooo cool.

And what was Simon doing during the shooting?  Mostly ignoring it to toodle around in the sand.  He'd jump a little and look over at each bang but otherwise was not bothered at all.  Too busy having fun.

A Busy Day

Today Simon and I turned over the front flower/tomato garden with a shovel.  Okay, I did it while Simon played on the lawn on a blanket.  I turned it over and mixed in a couple bags of Nutrimulch.   My arms and back are sore from that much shoveling.

Meanwhile Mommy and Ben were digging her lavender bushes out of our real "Garden" aka the weed patch.  She's dug them out and potted them in preparation for tilling the garden.  And now all four lavender plants are now in pots.  We'll baby them for a couple days before putting at least a couple out by the front flower bed/garden/litterbox, in hopes that the lavender will help keep the neighbors cats out. 

We planted the lavender and a few other xeric plants our first year here, but due to the difficulty Da had weeding them while pregnant with Ben, she wasn't able to keep up with the weeds, and the plants were soon well surrounded by weeds.

Actually, most of the plants she planted are still doing fine, though some of them tend to get well hidden by the weeds that rule the garden.  But we're only going to save the lavender bushes.

The Garden, we think it was the garden of the previous owners by how well it grows weeds, but on the otherhand it's so sandy it might have been the site of a swing set.   The sandy quality of the soil is the main reason we haven't planted a garden there before this year.  I've been dumping leaves, small branches from our willows (Anyone need twigs?  We've always got a million of them.), and any dirt I dig up from other parts of the yard into it to try to build up some organic materials.  

Now we just need to borrow a tiller from some neighbors, and till it all in to see if we have soil, or just sand only capable of growing weeds and xeric plants.   Da has already arranged it, so Dad doesn't need to bring his down.

We also started a whole bunch of plants today.  We like those little greehouse trays with the peat pellets.  Ben liked watching them grow when I filled the trays with water.  We have tomatos, zuchini, beans, crookneck squash, oregeno, and basil planted so far.  By mid April they should be ready to transplant to either the garden, or the flowerbed/garden we've used the last couple years. 

So we all enjoyed the great weather today, while working/playing in the yard.  I'm sure it won't be the last time if the weather holds.  The biggest problem will be avoiding the temptation to put plants or seeds into the ground too early.

The Ultimate Webcam -- Almost

A few days ago, a soldier from the Guard called and asked if I was going to the Christmas sing-a-long at the Energy Solutions Arena. I said I probably wasn't going. He told me that the sing-a-long was going to link up with the soldiers overseas, and they wanted to do a spot on a few of the deployment babies, and Simon was one of four babies chosen. They'd put us up on the Jumbotron, and link Dirk in by satellite, and wow! I was still stammering something stupid about taking little kids downtown. He said to come if I could, and meet him at the ticket offices, and I didn't need to call back to RSVP if I decided to come, they'd just find me.

Well, I started picturing something like they do at Stadium of Fire, and that sounded great! Susan met me in the parking lot, and Shawn and Kris and family met us in the Arena, and I went off looking for my five minutes of Jumbotron fame with Simon.

After about 45 minutes with a very nice man trying to figure out what I was talking about, a man in uniform (unfamiliar rank insignia - just one star, which I hadn't seen before) found me and was horrified that no one had called me. Probably I wasn't on a call list because I'd been iffy about coming. There had been technical problems with the connection, and they weren't going to be able to connect with anyone in Afghanistan at all. He apologized profusely, and was concerned about how disappointed I was. I assured him I was fine, and we'd just enjoy the program.

I thumbed through a program and recognized the picture of the man who apologized about the mix-up. Brigadier General Jeff Burton was participating in the show. Holy cow, that's what one star means! So I didn't get to be on the Jumbotron with my uber-cute baby and talk to my honey by satellite, but a Brigadier General apologized to me personally for the disappointment!

The link with the soldiers turned out to be a camera that showed a room full of soldiers watching the program with us. They didn't interview anyone individually. But it was funny to watch the soldiers when they realized they were on the Jumbotron. They'd do the wave, hold up signs, and once they even got a chorus line together and did a cancan!

Anyway, the program was tons of fun. Short, free, and we all got to sing. The boys did great. I think we'll make it a family tradition. The most amusing part was that the cameras just picked people out of the audience and put them up on the Jumbotron. It was a riot to watch people realize they were up there, and then wave and point. I kept hoping they'd put us up there so I could say Simon made it to the Jumbotron after all, but it didn't happen. I did see a couple people from our ward, though!

Burnout

You know what I noticed? There's no one else on the planet who posts every single day. I am blog-exhausted. Ack. I'm going to be normal now. I'll see you a couple times a week.

I made cute things!

Now that Halloween is over, let me be the first to brag about my stunningly adorable Christmas decorations! I made our Christmas stockings!

Just stuff

My Internet connection gets the hiccups whenever I try to upload video these past couple days. Until I can figure out the proper raindance to restore the Internet's good humor, I'll do some photoless updates.

Ben's big news is that he's in a big boy bed. He goes to bed at night just fine, but he's not convinced he still needs to take naps, now that he can escape his bed. I still put him in his room for "quiet time" in the afternoon, but judging by the amount of bumps and thumps I can hear, Ben considers it "jump off the bed time."

Ben's first sentence was, "I'm social" pronounced 'soshow'. He loves his little friends, and his day is perfect when it turns out there are other kids at the park to play with.

Yesterday, we went to a BBQ at the neighbor's. They had a little play house. Ben parked himself in the play house for nearly two hours. Occasionally he would come out on the porch, announce "house!" and go back inside. To make his evening even more perfect, there were three other little boys there too.

Simon's big news is that he rolls over. He goes from his back to his tummy, which is different. Most kids start out going from tummy to back. He will get himself on his tummy and then holler because he doesn't like it as much and he can't get himself back on his back.

Simon is also thrilled to have inherited Ben's crib. Simon outgrew his travel crib, and when he wiggled himself sideways, there wasn't room to stretch out.

I'm doing the mom thing, and liking it a lot.

On the non-mom stuff, I went and saw the movie, "The Errand of Angels" last week. It was about sister missionaries, and was really good. While I liked the "God's Army" movies, they were so dramatic as to be unbelievable. This movie was more authentic, and really caught the flavor of being a missionary. I highly recommend it.

A friend in the ward introduced me to Georgette Heyer novels. She writes Regency romances that are a lot like Jane Austen's romances. The characters are interesting, the plots are fun, and they're just good to read. So if you've been lamenting that Jane Austen didn't write more books, you should check out Georgette Heyer's books.

I also got my craft table set back up, and can finish the Christmas stockings I started last year.

Dirk has passed the halfway point on his deployment! He will be home on his leave in about five weeks. I am not going to count days, because that would be too exciting. I'll start counting days when we get to the one-week mark.

That's us without pictures. Nothing too exciting, just the enjoyment of everyday life.

Memories

Since others have asked here is our edition:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

I didn't edit the wording to say so, but Melinda and I are both fair game.

Oh and I promise, at least a couple pictures are coming soon. I just have to remember to get the memory chip our of the camera.

The big Five Oh

It was a sad, sad day the last time I pulled up to the pump. It cost me $50 to fill up the gas tank. I've been filling the tank before it got really empty to avoid the $50 mark. It's been $49.87 and $49.03, but it hasn't rolled over that fateful number. It's just so sad to spend half a hundred for a tank of gas in a car that cost me less than $25 to fill it back when I bought it.

Maybe I should fill the tank as soon as the gas gauge reads 3/4. That way I could avoid that $50 mark again. Yeah! That would work! Look at me figure out a way to make gas cheaper!

And you know what ticked me off? I pulled into a gas station that advertised gas as $4.17 per gallon, and the pump said it was $4.23 per gallon. So I drove to another gas station, thinking I would at least buy from someone who had their real price posted. No luck. They did the same thing. The sign said $4.17, and the pump said $4.23. Creepy gas station people ought to at least be honest about how much they're gouging out of us. *grumble*

When did you hit the $50 milestone? Or are you trying to avoid the $75 milestone and think I'm whiney for complaining about a $50 tank? If so, you have my sympathy.

The Futility of Being Motivated

I asked a friend if she was reading anything interesting. She said she was reading a biography of Elder Henry B. Eyring.
“Is it good?” I asked.
“Yes, except it’s frustrating.”
“Why is it frustrating?”
“His life and sermons are so motivating that I think of all the things I want to do.”

I nodded. We were sitting in her son’s bedroom, watching our toddlers play together. My son cries if I leave the room, so here we are. Both of us had a baby on our respective laps.

The next morning, I decided I would go help my sister-in-law wash walls and clean her house in preparation for putting the house on the market. Her kids adore Ben, and like to hold babies. I would be able to work while Ben played with his cousins and another cousin held Simon.

It didn’t work out that way. The cousins were eager to help with my kids, but my kids wouldn't cooperate. Ben is cutting a molar, and won’t eat even though he’s on Ibuprofen and Orajel. I woke Simon up from his nap to put him in his carseat, and he never forgave me. I did about seven minutes worth of work at Kristanne’s house. I was there for over an hour, though, trying to coax Fuss Baby to eat, comforting Molar Boy, and changing diapers. Finally, I decided the most helpful thing I could do was leave.

By the time I got home I was too tired to even be frustrated that I can’t do anything besides take care of babies.

At Church, I was invited to help clean the Church building this Saturday. I could bring the boys with me. I thought about it. Then I said no.

I love my boys. I enjoy them. They are the cutest things ever (as you can see from my endless blog posts about them). I wanted babies for at least a decade before I had them, and I am so grateful they are here. And I am also glad that this teeny-tiny stage is just a stage. I'm sure I'll be nostalgic about it right around the time I get to hold a grandbaby.

Dirk's Wii, Ben's Wee, and Me

While IMing with Dirk yesterday, he mentioned that he’d ambushed the soldier in the PX who was carrying a Wii. Dirk is now the proud owner of a Wii. I told him to bring it home in good shape because I want to play tennis on it.

Dirk did get a great deal on it, but I started thinking that perhaps we ought to stop spending money like water (have you seen all my new clothes and books? Wheeeee!). So when Chelle offered to cut Ben’s hair that evening, I said yes. After all, saving the $8 that Great Clips charges to buzz Ben’s head will go a long way in helping offset the purchase price of a Wii. Yep.

Ben took it like a trooper. He sat on my lap working on a little wooden peg puzzle while Chelle buzzed around his ears and over the top. Ash blonde hair spilled all over his bare shoulders and I had a shuddery vision of what Ben might look like with a hairy back.

Suddenly my lap felt wet. I shifted his weight to reveal a large wet spot on my leg. Well, you can’t push a kid off your lap with half a haircut, regardless of what he’s just done. So I sat there with the wet spot spreading to the other leg while Chelle finished buzzing his head while simultaneously laughing her head off. It’s a wonder Ben escaped without having his ears nicked. Come to think of it, it’s a wonder Chelle escaped without getting smacked.

While Chelle rummaged around for clothes for me to wear, I plopped Ben in the tub and pulled his diaper off him. It made a squishy “plop” in the garbage can. Note to self: change Ben’s diaper at least once after lunch and before bedtime.

Diapers are 38 cents each. There was at least three diapers worth of wee in the one diaper that is marinating in Chelle’s garbage can. Combine that with the eight dollars I saved on the haircut, and we’ve practically paid for Dirk’s Wii!

“Country Roooaaaads . . . Take Me Hooooooome . . .”

I bought a John Denver CD because it makes me feel brave. Really.

I have no real interest in music. In high school, I tried to up my coolness quotient by memorizing what bands played what songs. Cool people knew what bands played what songs. It didn’t work. Putting songs with bands was like trying to memorize baseball statistics. My brain knew I just didn’t care about music and refused to cooperate. I was doomed to uncoolness. (On the other hand, random Star Trek facts stuck effortlessly. Did you know the name of Vulcan’s moon is T’Kuht? Do you see why I needed to work on my coolness quotient?)

So when I got a job cooking for a Boy Scout camp in the Grand Tetons the summer after high school, I had no music to take with me. Fortunately, as a cool person, my co-cook had a battery-operated radio and lots of tapes (yes, this was before CDs). She offered to share air time with my music, but I didn’t have any. We listened to her music all day every day. She liked the 60s folk singers – John Denver, James Taylor, Jim Croce.

We cooked in dutch ovens without charcoal. Instead, we torched a six-foot pile of wood every single day to get enough embers to cook all the dutch ovens we filled for the scouts. (Starting more than 40 bonfires in one summer surely qualifies me as a Willden.) We bought biodegradable shampoo so we could wash our hair in the Snake River because that was our only running water. We slept next to the campfire every night, and spent every day outdoors under the peaks of the Grand Tetons.

On my weekends off, I joined the scouts in canoeing through the rapids on a 30 mile stretch of the Snake River. I canoed more than 200 miles that summer. I jumped off a cliff into the river just to prove that I could.

I was brave! Really, truly, physically brave for probably the first time in my life. (Well, except for that time I had to rappel down a cliff when I was 14 years old. I cried though, so that didn’t really count as brave.) John Denver sang in the background through all those adventures. I can’t link song titles and bands, but I link songs and emotions. I was brave that summer, even though I still wasn’t cool. (Did you know that Hikaru Sulu’s first name translates as “Shining One”? Did you even know Sulu’s first name?) I hear John Denver’s raspy voice singing about eagles and aspens, and I remember setting things on fire, living in a tent and jumping in a river.

So I bought his CD to remind myself that once upon a time I did things like that because right now, eating a PBJ at the park seems pretty adventurous.

What music makes you nostalgic?

Mother's Day!

Dirk sent me flowers for Mother's Day! They came in a box from UPS. He timed them really well too. His mom was here when they arrived, so she was able to make them look bee-yoo-tee-ful. Then Kecia and Ed came by too, so lots of people got to see how thoughtful Dirk was. There are two dozen spring-colored roses in my bouquet, and I love them.



My other fun Mother's Day surprise was this morning, when Simon actually smiled at me! Simon has smiled at both grandmas, one grandpa, and at least two aunts, but he has not smiled at me. I got three or four really cute smiles from him. What a sweetie! We'll try to get his smiles on camera so Dirk can see them too, but give me a couple days. His smiles are still several days apart, and not very predictable yet.

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope you get fun surprises too!

Goodbye, again

Dirk is en route. Contrary to the rumors we'd repeated, the powers-that-be did charter a widebody commercial jet, and the whole battalion is traveling in economy class comfort together. It beats temporary web seating in a military cargo plane!

He boarded sometime in the middle of the night, and is already on the East Coast. He just called me from their layover location. So many military flights go through that particular airport that the locals have rallied around our servicemembers. Welcome and farewell groups meet each flight, so Dirk and his friends were welcomed by a group of people shaking their hands and thanking them for their service. I'm glad the people at their last stop on U.S. soil are nice to them. There's a coming-home flight scheduled for this morning too, and some of the welcome wagon got mixed up and welcomed Dirk home! I sure wish he was headed the other direction!

They will stop in Europe, and then in one of the -stan countries, before finally getting to their destination.

We chatted on the webcam last night, and Dirk got to see both his boys. I thought that having him gone would be the same whether he was in Washington or overseas, but it turns out that it's hard all over again anyway. I'm glad my sister was here.

Goodbye, again, honey. I miss you.

Dear Sweetie,

I noticed something ironic just recently. It's been ironic for a couple months now, but I just recently noticed that it is ironic. I'm a little slow, lately.

Between the two of us, I am definitely the Luddite. I'm the one who likes pictures printed off and taped in a book, rather than just stored on a hard drive; the one who gets overwhelmed by too many special effects in a movie; the one who would rather pick up the phone and call instead of sending an instant message (okay, that one makes me a Luddite only because phone technology is so much older than IM technology); the one who checks out non-fiction books from the library rather than just reading the Wikipedia entry on a given topic. But I'm the one putting up all these fancy, multi-media blog posts! Where are you, my beloved technophile?

You have a digital camera, a computer, and an Internet link. What website can possibly be more interesting than this one? And only one of us is making it interesting! I want pictures here, honey. I want a description of what you've been doing the last couple months, complete with photos. You have a slow week this week. I want photos of the barracks, the guys you pal around with, the mess hall (do they really call it that?), and most of all, I want photos of you!

Your boy loves photos of you. He watches my screensaver with great attention. I printed off a couple extra photos of you and he packed them around until I put a magnet on them and stuck them to the fridge. You're a fridge magnet, honey! Mr. Boo has accorded you the ultimate honor, too - your fridge magnet likeness actually gets put in the magnetic Wiggles book that is his favorite toy. Imagine! Your magnet alter-ego gets to drive the Big Red Car! No other fridge magnet has been accorded such a privilege.

So, I want pictures posted. I want descriptions. Surely you can get at least one blog post out of two months of training. And let me just head off one objection right now. You're going to say there's nothing interesting to talk about. I will just remind you that I made an entire blog post about a toddler eating a peanut butter sandwich. See? It's possible to write a post about day-to-day humdrum details, because there is assuredly nothing in the world so ordinary as a toddler eating a peanut butter sandwich.

All those who agree with the requests herein, please signify in a comment.

Love you tons, honey! Get chatty!

:)
Melinda

And a HUGE "thank you" to Boofer's grandmas and aunt!

Today is the first day in a month that I've been on my own. A couple weeks before Boofer's birthday, my mom came down to help with Mr. Boo and make sure I wasn't alone in case something happened - like me giving birth. It was such a huge relief to have someone help. I didn't realize how worn out I was, both physically and emotionally, until I had help.

Susan came down the day Boofer was born, and stayed until she took Dirk back to the airport on Saturday. Mr. Boo loved having his grandma around. And I know Dirk loved having her here for his short leave.

Because of the trouble I had with my epidural, I was under instructions to not lift anything heavier than 10 lbs for two weeks while the puncture healed. Mom and Susan set up a tag-team to make sure I had someone living here for those two weeks. I couldn't have done it without them, literally.

Mr. Boo's grandmas were great sports in taking him outside to play. They also did all the Boo-lifting - in and out of his crib, up to the chair to eat, up the stairs when he was protesting a threatened diaper change, and in and out of the car seat.

And best of all, they are good company. It was wonderful to not be alone those first couple weeks after Dirk left. I needed my wonderful mom and mom-in-law as much as Mr. Boo needed them.

My sister was also wonderful. She took Mr. Boo that first week for most of the days when he had such a drippy cold. As a blessing for her sacrifice, she caught Mr. Boo's cold and then passed it on to all three of her kids. Sorry Chelle!

Many thanks and undying gratitude for your help.

That question tag thing

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago I was in my second year of law school. I was managing a BYU student housing complex with 80 students in it, and working as an assistant to a professor whose passion was religious liberty. I got very involved in a conference dealing with religious liberty, in which I got to meet a bunch of very high mucky-mucks, such as a Supreme Court Justice from Portugal, a South African intellectual who was instrumental in ending apartheid, and a law professor from Kazakhstan who flirted with me (I still have the bracelet he gave me).

5 things on my "to-do" list today :
1-Visit with a friend who came over
2- Drop off cards to the ladies I visit teach since we didn't visit them this month
3- Load of laundry
4- Eat
5- Spend lots of time outdoors with Mr. Boo
(Does anyone else write to-do lists backwards? These are five things I did today. I didn't have them on any kind of a list in advance.)


5 Snacks that I enjoy:
1- Bread and jam
2- Cold cereal
3- York peppermint patties (must be name brand)
4- Dove dark chocolate (must be Dove)
5- Chocolate milk

3 bad habits:
1- I dunno. Ask Dirk. I'm sure I've got some, but I'm so used to them I don't notice them anymore.

Places I've lived:
1-Utah - all over the Wasatch Front
2-Connecticut
3-Wyoming

5 Jobs I've had:
1- Attorney
2- Newspaper stringer
3- Research assistant
4- Apartment manager
5- MTC teacher

5 Things people don't know about me:
1. I'm sick and tired of special effects in movies. I want to see shows that are good stories about believable characters. I don't care if the CGI team can blow up a building and crash a car with maximum flames and multiple camera angles.
2. I have depression. I'm off meds, and mostly stable, but I have a few quirks. For example, noise and crowds will frequently set me off, which makes me seem somewhat anti-social at family parties. I love the people; I can't handle everyone all together at once unless I'm having a really good day. Dirk has learned to recognize the expression I get when he's got 20 minutes to get me out of there before I start to cry. He didn't make it at the Porter farewell party, but I managed to hide before bursting into tears, and afterwards everyone thought it was because I was worried about Dirk. Mmmm, no. It was just too much noise and too many people. I have the same reaction in the mall at Christmas time.
3. I think taxes are really interesting. I have nifty monologues about why the death tax is a good thing, why a flat tax just can't work, and how stupid it would be to try and replace the income tax with a national sales tax. Sadly, not many people want to hear my monologues. Sigh. But every so often, someone does question why the Church can run on 10% tithing, and the government can't just impose a 10% flat tax, and so I get to tell them all the differences between taxes and tithing. That makes me happy. Probably makes the person wish they'd never brought it up, though.
4. I have really good hearing. I hear a lot better than Dirk does (based on a website test we took). This means I always want to turn down the radio and the tv. I have yet to find an advantage to excellent hearing.
5. I have memorized several entire books, such as "Jamberry", "Sheep in a Jeep", "The Belly Button Book" and several other important childhood classics.

Bye Sweetheart. Stay Safe.

We saw Dirk off at the Air Base this morning. It was an early morning. We got there early enough to get a couple of chairs. The departure point was an airplane hangar with about 200 folding chairs. The other 400 people had to stand. There were many, many soldiers and families there.


We got there about 7:30. Dirk had to have his final duffel bag weighed, and then we mostly just sat around and waited. Benji played with his stuffed fish, because every boy needs a stuffed fish.


Dirk and I had already talked ourselves out about his departure and the upcoming year. There wasn't much left to say that we hadn't already said forty times. But, you know, it's nice to have someone you can talk to about something forty times. I will miss talking to Dirk about nothing in particular, even if we've already said it. Sometimes you talk just because you want to hear each others' voices even if there's nothing to say anymore. That's easier to do when you can lean on each other, rather than just talk on the phone.



Quite a bit of family came to see Dirk off because my sister and her family had another soldier to say good-bye to. My brother-in-law's cousin, Kindy, has been living with them for the past several months, so their family came to see Kindy. Giving Dirk another hug was a happy bonus for all of us.





Susan, my folks, and my brother Mike also came. I'm sure Kelly felt bad he couldn't get off, and we missed him too.



It was odd to watch Dirk walk away towards the plane. There were so many soldiers, and they all blended in to each other. That camouflage really works! Benji hugged a couple of knees dressed in 'daddy pants' before looking up and realizing it wasn't Daddy after all. He had a hard time with the early morning combined with the noise and crowds. I don't think he knew what was going on, but he knew it wasn't all happy.



I didn't cry. I'd already done some crying, and I'll probably do more later, but not at the air base.

I've skipped a lot of the details of exactly how the procedure went, since Susan did such a great job at describing the ceremony on her post. Be sure you read her post too.

Dirk just called me from his training base. The flight was about an hour and a half long. Just before they landed, the pilot had them look out the window. They were below the peaks of Mt. Ranier on one side of the plane and Mount St. Helens on the other side. It was quite a breathtaking view. He's in transient barracks (which means they're in lousy condition) with lots of other soldiers. The weather there is warmer than here, but it's still about in the 60s. He does not have Internet access yet because the provider is charging an arm and a leg. He may go in with a bunch of other guys for shared access, or the battalion is talking to someone about getting a better rate. He did not give me a snail mail address yet either. When I get that, I'll send it around on the email.

When I got home, a couple of friends in the RS Presidency dropped by to see how I was doing. I live in a good ward, and I have good friends here. With my wonderful family too, I am surrounded by a lot of love and support and I think we'll make it through this year just fine.

Many thanks to my brother Mike who took most of the pictures I've posted. I'll get the rest of the pictures into the gallery in the next day or so.

Husband quiz

What is his name? Dirk Willden

How long have you been together? We started dating June, 2005.

How long did you date? Just four and a half months.

How old his he? 36

Who eats more? Me. Dirk tends to think microwaving leftovers is too much effort. If I don't set it in front of him, he doesn't eat.

Who said I love you first? He did.

Who is taller? Dirk.

Who can sing better? Dirk.

Who is smarter? It depends on the subject matter.

Who does the laundry? I do. Dirk has to put away his own clothes, though.

Who pays the bills? I do. But he earns the money.

Who sleeps in the right side? I do.

Who mows the lawn? Dirk.

Who cooks dinner? I do. See the answer to the question about who eats more. :)

Who drives? He does usually, especially long distances.

Who is more stubborn? Um, I don't know.

Who kissed who first? This point is under dispute. I made it easy for Dirk to kiss me, but he did have to move the final 1/16 of an inch. Therefore, he kissed me.

Who asked who out first? He asked me out after I told him I would twist his arm until he asked me out. He's pretty good about taking hints like that.

Who proposed? Dirk did.

Who has more friends? Me. We both have really good friends we've had for a long time. But if you counted them up, I think I've got more.

Who is more sensitive? Me. It's nice that Dirk is such a good listener.

Who has more siblings? Me.

Who wears the pants? I wear skirts on Sunday . . .