I get to go to Church!

I can't tell you how long it's been since I really was able to attend church. I mean, sure, we go each week, I'm hardly inactive, but when you're stuck in the hallway during classes with a playful toddler and getting the family ready to go is such a chore, and sacrament meeting is a lost cause you feel like you never get any spiritual uplift from church.

AnnaMae is now in nursery. what a blessing! I got to attend Adult Sunday School- wow. I can't tell you the last time I went to that. And then, I got to enjoy R.S. without interruption as well. This is incredible. I actually got things out of the lessons...

One thing that really hit home today was in Sunday school they told the story of the saints leaving New York in 1831. It was May and they had to get from Buffalo down to Ohio. At this my ears perked up- I was just in Buffalo! The problem the saints had was that Ice was blocking the lake and the boat couldn't get out into open water.

Look! Here is the view again out my plane window of Buffalo and the ice blocking the lake. Wow. The saints prayed and the ice cracked just long enough for the boat to get through, then it closed right behind them after they passed. So this won't melt for at least another couple months. In this day and age it wasn't a problem because my life wasn't in danger and I flew right over it. Back then it was a major struggle.

It's nice to know that my travels help me experience the gospel up close in ways that aren't apparent at first, but with the opportunity to actually attend church then I can see the connection. Thank you Nursery!

Niagra Falls, Toronto, and home!

Whew! I'm back! I'm not really sure what time zone I'm in, nor do I have a clue what's going on, but at least I'm home again and I really only have a small trip next month so I've got a bit of downtime.

Monday night I was picked up by a dear Canadian named Laura, who obviously was nice if she shares the same name as one of my BFF's. We negotiated our way through customs with minimal confrontation (we've found that if you have one american and one canadian then you get through either border much easier). We found our way over to Niagra Falls, Canadian side (I guess the American side isn't very exciting). They've built up their side of the falls with casinos, amusement parks, hotels, and all sorts of entertainment which you can tell in the Summer becomes a really happening place.

In the winter everything is dead and frozen. Can you see the lump of white among the falls? That's not an iceburg, those are frozen trees on a little island. They're so caked in ice that you can't tell from far away that they're not a solid block of ice.

Brrrr! It was freezing! The mist off the falls was collecting on trees causing them to be encrusted in ice and to split. I hopped out of the car to take photos and in the minute I was out of the car my eyes were watering from the cold. Everything close to the falls was caked in ice.

The locals informed us that they had already had their Spring thaw. Thaw? What Thaw? I can only imagine what it looked like before all the ice melted off. I guess in Deep winter they have a colored light show on the caked ice. The falls themselves never totally freeze from what i've heard, but there is so much ice on everything that it looks really cool.

Then I taught workshops in Toronto for a couple days. This is a typical scene of what my workshops look like. Imagine 50 ladies in a room huddled around tables with piles of little things to color. Each class is about 7 hrs. and all we do is color, talk about coloring, and then we airbrush and color. It's a really hard job, but somebody has to do it!

After my class on Wed. I got to scramble to the airport in Toronto in a Pakistani taxi (there are tons of immigrants in Canada). I did purchase one touristy thing at the airport becuase I couldn't resist, which is saying a lot because I also don't buy t-shirts for my kids. This t-shirt however, was perfect for little AnnaMae.

Elmo Loves Canada

It's a little large, but it's the smallest size they had. She was very excited and kept running around scraming Elmo! Elmo! I'm glad to know that someone was happy about my trip.

When I got home from the airport at midnight the family had made me this fabulous sign on the garage. We took this photo Thursday morning so you could see it. It's now hanging in the garage so I'll know just how much they miss me when I leave home. Note: the garage door now works! WhooHoo!

Thursday afternoon it was so nice that after work we headed down to the playground at Skinner's Butte. As always, this helped brighten up the kids and wear them out, even though Luke got his fingers slammed in the car door. Ouch. Now it's back to the same old, same old.

I think I really like Canada. They're nice folks and they have a good view of all the foibles of America without having to react the same way we do. If I ever wanted to immigrate I hear it's pretty easy, since they had this ad in their national newspaper. It's now hanging in my office at work: Immigrate the easy way with just one spray of Instant Eh!

Shuffle off to Buffalo, and CT, and MA, and...

So I'm in Buffalo, NY right now. I got in a few hours ago. Where have I been in the last week? It's more, where have I NOT been...

It's easiest if you look at this map to get a scale of where I've been and what I've seen in just 4 days or so.

Wed I got in at 10pm and had to drive in the dark an hour and a half to find where I was going down along the coast of Connecticut. THank goodness for GPS! I have relied on this sooooo much this trip. I love it. Google maps are one thing, GPS is so much better. I was staying at my sales rep's condo. She lives alone with her cat overlooking a gorgeous lake within a mile of the famous Mystic CT Aquarium (which I couldn't go see since i was teaching).

I taught all day on Thursday in Mystic CT, then Friday I did a shorter training session back up near the airport where I flew into, so another 1 1/2 hrs driving back up to Hartford. Then I drove up to my sister's in Pittsfield Mass. I met her at her school where my nephew had play practice, so we sat around during rehearsal, had a quick pizza dinner, then ran off to my nephew's band concert.

Saturday we drove to Boston, since my sister's ward had a temple trip there. It is a very small temple, about half the size of P-town's and it was packed because it was a Saturday. Here I am in front of the lovely Boston Temple. It is only 9 years old, and the interior decor feels very clean and modern. Their stained glass is simple yet elegant. I'm sure that if the flowers were in bloom it would be even prettier.

My sis. lives about 2 1/2 hrs from Boston, so we were driving all day to get there and back. Then we got home, ran errands, and headed to bed. It was my nephew's birthday, but he was never home for us to celebrate.

Here's a picture I worked up of my niece, Hannah. I was showing her some of the simple things you could do in photoshop to turn ordinary photos into things that look like they were custom designed. She loved it!

Today I had to get going back to the airport by 10am so I could return the rental car. Here's a photo I shot of one of the beautiful churches that dot the New England landscape. Everything was rolling hills, piles of shoveled snow, and it was bitterly cold with the wind. They thought it was warmer than usual. This is why I could never live there. All their grass was dead and brown. It looked like our lawns look in August. I'd rather have my green lawns from Sept-June rather than April thru October, since i know that with a little water I could have my lawn green the other 3 months whereas they have no hope of green during their brown season.

I flew from Hartford down to Philadelphia and then up here to Buffalo. Here is my view from the airplane window of the frozen great lake. It's starting to melt around the edges, and you can see the other cracks, but that's a lot of Ice.

The lakes around my sister's house were still covered in ice, but they said it was kinda risky walking out on it this time of year. Lots of people were out on the ice though. I guess the ice gets a couple feet thick in the winter. BRRR! I can only imagine how many people have fallen into frozen lakes and died! My father used to tell me about how int he wintertime they would take their old Model T ford out on the ice after church and drive around in circles, skidding around on the ice. After seeing where my father grew up and the ice in march I really can believe it.

I had Korean food at a little place across the street- I've never had it before. I loved my main course, but the side dishes were odd. The little Korean man brought me a tiny bowl of every odd thing under the sun and I tried a bite of each. THe only thing I liked was the broccoli, which is saying something, since I HATE broccoli. The main dish was some marinated, fried pork and rice. It was great. Now I wish I had some good american dessert to cleanse my palate.

It's late, and I need to get to bed. I miss everyone, but I still have 3 more days and one more country before I'm home. Tomorrow after my class I drive up to Niagra Falls and then on to Toronto. Sleep well!

My Itinerary this week

This post is more for my mom and family to know where I am, but you'll get a flavor for what one of my business trips is like. I'm sitting at Eugene Airport typing this up:

Wed, March 18: 6:30 am Eugene to Seattle, Seattle to Cincinnati, Cincinnati to Hartford. Pick up rental car at 10pm Eastern Time. Drive 1hr, 15 min to Mystic, CT where I'm staying at my sales rep's house.

Thurs, March 19th: Teach a class from 8am to 4:30 pm. Go to my rep's place for dinner. Workshop from 6 to 8pm.

Friday: Drive 1 1/2 hrs to visit a store in West Hartford, CT from 10am-12pm. Get lunch. Drive 1 hr, 20 mins to get to Massachusetts, meet my sister at the school she works at. Evening, Band Concert for my nephew.

Sat: Drive 2 1/2 hrs each way to Boston to visit the temple. On our way back stop to watch my Nephew's play before going to bed.

Sunday: Drive to Hartford, return the rental car. Catch a 1:30 flight to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Buffalo. Get some dinner.

Monday: Teach a class from 8 am to 4:30 pm. Get picked up and drive up to Niagra Falls, have dinner, then go through customs. Drive to Toronto.

Tuesday: Teach a class from 8 am to 4:30 pm. Go out for dinner with my Canadian friend.

Wed: Co-teach a class from 8 am to 3:30 pm. Catch a taxi over to the airport for my 6:30 flight home. Toronto to Denver, Denver to Eugene. Arrive back in Eugene at 11pm a week after I left.

The upshot of this trip is that I'll see my Brother-in-law, Niece, and Nephew who I haven't seen since I was preggers with Luke. I haven't been to my sister's house since I was 15. Aaannnd... since I'm staying the weekend with her I'm not using any vacation days! Woo Hooo! Weekend visit to my sister paid for by work. Now I just need that trip to SLC and Denver...maybe May?

I'll try to post photos for everyone. Have a great day!

Garage Doors

We have a love-hate relationship with garage doors.

We love that in a happy world you can drive up, push a button, and the thing opens. We love that it allows you to park your car within the privacy of your own home so that if you have forgotten something inside said car you don't have to get fully dressed to go get it (and we even put carpet remnants up to the car doors so you can do this without getting your feet cold either). We love that in this world of having too much stuff we can proudly say that our garage has our car like it should, and not just stuff like everyone else on the street whose garages are full of stuff. We love having a clear driveway because we only have one vehicle and it stays in said garage. This means that in the summertime my tomatoes get full sunlight and the world is a happy place.

However, there comes times when our garage door does NOT make us happy. Like when it comes off track and jams through the ceiling (that's happened a few times). Or like when the main spring breaks...

Sunday morning we had a slight opportunity to get to church early enough for the opening song and for them to announce my new calling (teaching R.S. once a month). We scramble to get everyone in the car and we hit the button and for a slight, blissful moment we hear the whirring of the electric marvel that is our garage door, doing it's duty and lifting, lifting...

Nope. not gonna happen. Today we shall NOT get our car out through our garage door.

You can't squeeze a sedan through a 6" gap no matter how much you stretch the laws of physics. Grrrrr... It's raining and cold, so we're not gonna walk with two kids.

We call up my mom and get a ride to church and inform our landlord, the Whitmers of the horrible plight (this will be the 4th time we've had problems with our garage door in 4 years). We get rides home from church from our friends. All our Sunday evening activities where we thought it would be cool to drive to were stymied. Our dear home teacher, Bro. Stanley looks at the thing after church, as does James, and they both see that there's no way it'll work.

Bro. Stanley has been itching to do some kind of service for us for a long time now. We have taken him up on the offer once in the last year or so that he's been our Home Teacher. Finally, we capitulate and agree to service, so Stephanie comes to get Luke in the morning to drive him to school.

I however, will ride my bike the 6 miles one way to work. It has been at least 9 months since I did this, but I NEED to do this to train for the half-marathon in May that I'll be walking. Lazy Marianne took about 1 hr. and 15 minutes to ride 6 stinkin' miles in a nice morning drizzle. My legs are sore now. Last year I got it down to about 45min. on a good day. I'm just not that fast at riding my bike. I got a ride halfway home so I only had 3 1/2 miles home, which took me 40 + minutes. Joggers were passing me up. From Autzen Stadium to my house took 19 minutes! I could do it in 10 before (Actually, it might be longer than 6 miles to work, now that I think about it).

I get home and they tell us that they can't fix the garage until WED??? I'll be on a plane to CT on Wed. !! They were supposed to at least come and help us get our car out Monday. Hah. that didn't happen. So today I get a ride because my little legs are not up for a 12 mile round-trip stress again. Oh look, it's raining. Even better...

I MISS TECHNOLOGY THAT WORKS!!! Whaaaahhh!

Happy st. patrick's day!

Sunny Friday!

Friday was gorgeous! So off we went to Skinner's Butte park, our favorite playground. Armed with a pizza for dinner and lots of sidewalk chalk.

I was tagging Elmos all over the rocks, because some little someone in my family adores Elmo. I won't name any names or else she'll run around saying "Elmo? Elmo?"

Meanwhile, we had fun enjoying the amenities of the playground. All the slides and climbing tubes. This is one of our favorite parks by far!

Brian and I had our engagement photos taken just down the grassy slope from the playground. And there's a branch over the river that in the summer when the water level goes down is perfect for photos. However, this time of year it's underwater so we stuck to playing on the playground.

AnnaMae and Luke were really getting into the sidewalk chalk. I think we created some little tagging artists this weekend. They were having fun writing on everything and no one was stopping them.

Drawing at home isn't the same. If they tried drawing on the fixtures and walls at home they know they'd be in deep trouble. I am glad that AM sticks to drawing on her easel and not on the walls though I know that one of these days I'm going to walk into their room and find the walls covered in gorgeous artwork.

AnnaMae was really being brave. Every time I turned around she was running up the main structure then bending over the deep holes that have ladders and such. I was sure she was gonna fall down and need stitches or something the way she was heading all over. Last time we came to this park she was barely walking so it wasn't as much fun as now when she's big enough to climb onto even the trickiest of things.

However, it was Luke who hurt himself. We hadn't been there 5 minutes and he had fallen down. He was wearing sandals so he got a cut on both feet where the sandals bit into his feet and each knee got skinned. Ouch! We slathered the owies with neosporin then he ran off. Next thing I know he'd buried his feet in the sand to "kill the germs". All this did was cause the sand to stick to the lotion around his wounds. great.

I tried to get photos of Luke but he did not want his photo taken. So of course we got more photos of AnnaMae.

I have a feeling that as the years progress we will have LOTS of photos of AM and only a few of Luke. It's so hard to resist taking photos of those cute golden curls! she's so cute!

I'll post a few more photos of the kids and then I'd better get the kids to bed. I can hear daddy in the hallway playing something that rattles. I think they're stacking the coins we got from Mardi Gras. AM has really been having fun playing with those.

Friday was such a nice way to end a week. Too bad this weekend has been so rainy. Blah. I know we need the rain but it doesn't help when you're tired of being cooped up inside all the time and then it warms up, you get a taste of summer, and you have to go right back to being cooped up.

Anna Mae at 18 month checkup

AnnaMae had her 18 month check-up yesterday (a couple weeks early). She is 25 lbs, and 33 inches tall. The doctor says she is in excellent health and is developing well in activity and speech. She didn't even cry much when she got her shots.

AnnaMae is obsessed with drawing. She wakes up and the first thing she does is run over to her easel and start coloring. Sometimes I draw pictures for her to color, other times she just scribbles. She is learning her color words and getting into repeating back whatever you say such that you can actually understand her.

She loves letters and anytime she sees them she says "A-B, A-B" her word for the alphabet. She loves everything Sesame street and can tell you the names of most characters. Anna Mae, we love you cutie, smiling girl! We are truly blessed to have a healthy, happy baby. Congrats on surviving to 18 months. Now you can go to NURSERY!!!

The Climbers, part 2

Saturday Brian and Luke braved the rain to climb Spencer's Butte. This is a traditional Father/son activity they do every few months. Brian's parents live only about 10 min. from the base of the butte, so after a long day of hiking they go crash at grandpa's house and go hot-tubbing. This time I finally got them to take the camera and get some photos...

First, here are the two happy explorers goofing off with the camera...

Here's a photo of Daddy that Luke took...
Some photos of Luke trekking up to the top...

Luke's grandma let Luke choose the camoflauge coat. i don't really approve, but he sure fits in when he wears it hiking. Brian was worried that he'd never find him if he got off the path.

And, finally, the beautiful view they got at the top. That's not fog, that's rain you see making everything hazy. The top of the Butte was inside a raincloud. All that climb for this...

Lilacs and Teddy Ruxpin

Here is a picture that I just drew and colored from my work blog. I thought you would find it enjoyable to look at as spring approaches.

Work has kept me VERY busy so I haven't had a chance to post what the family did this weekend. However, we did learn yesterday from Luke that his ancestor is Teddy Ruxpin. Where that came from I have no idea, since we don't currently own nor have we ever owned a Teddy Ruxpin. They're possesed plush freak shows (Things from the 80's can be creepy). The only semblance between Luke and Teddy Ruxpin is that they are equally talented at moving their mouths.

Luke also claims that he is a robot and can "redo life" or rewind segments he doesn't like and do it again so it comes out the way he wants. If all of this is true, then he might really be descended from Teddy Ruxpin. The only question is if it's from my side of the family or Brian's?

the climbers, part 1

We have a whole family of not just Walkers, but climbers...

While I was at work on Friday I got a message from Brian that AnnaMae was on top of our dresser throwing things. Did he remove her? NO. He just took photos and called me up to tell me what she was doing.

sickly babe

When I came home from Florida I had a cold. Little AnnaMae was kind enough to take it from me. Now she has had the sore throat, congestion, boogers, and slight fever. Poor thing. She's on the upswing but it meant that I did NOTHING all weekend except watch Sesame Street Videos. I'm starting to think that 15 videos is not enough. I have them all memorized. And if I hear another sick, sad little whimper of the word "elmo" one more time I may go insane, start giggling and shake uncontrollably...oh wait, elmo's already done that.