All The Fun Stuff

Ice Cream at Serendipity



The Gallery Theater

Savannah, Brooklyn, and I enjoyed a “Girl’s Night Out” on Friday night just to make sure we celebrated Brooklyn’s birthday sufficiently.  We went out for pizza and ice cream and then to the local Gallery Theater to see Annie.  We’ve been singing “Tomorrow” all afternoon. 

Wild Wood Cafe

On Saturday, John and I went on a little date of our own after his basketball game.  We were both starving, and since he was positive I didn’t love him as much as the girls because he had to go to Chinese class during our “Girl’s Night Out”, I made it up to him with eggs, sausage, pancakes, toast, fried potatoes, part of my omelet, and OJ at the Wild Wood Café.  He was in heaven.

Winter Formal

Savannah and I learned how to tie a bow tie through an online tutorial just in time to tie one on Jackson before he met his date for Winter Formal on Saturday night.  I think he ended up looking pretty sharp and he had a great time.

Savannah was featured playing the piccolo during her band concert last Monday night.  She also played the flute in sacrament meeting today.  Incidentally, Yuhua spoke in sacrament meeting today and did a fantastic job.

Happy Birthday James!

The kids and I spent your 45th birthday evening writing down 45 reasons we think you’re great.  Enjoy!

1. You are good at eating ice cream. – John

2. Your artwork has inspired some of my own. - Jackson

3. You make hamburgers for us. – John

4. You have a great singing voice. - Betsy

5. You are a good camper for daddy daughter campouts. - Savannah

6. You fix things around the house. - Yuhua

7. You make me laugh. - Brooklyn

8. You are good at earning money.  – John

9. You keep the food stocked up. – Yuhua

10. You are the super awesome fixit dad! – Savannah

11. You can make me laugh. - Jackson

12. You clean my car for me. - Betsy

13. You take me to the store with you. – Brooklyn

14. You take many great photos AND you date and organize them. - Betsy

15. You’re a macho man! -  Jackson

16. When you say you are going to do something, you remember and do it. – Yuhua

17. You are our cats’ favorite person. – Savannah

18. You are good at tickle fights. – Brooklyn

19. You keep our family safe. – Yuhua

20. You are good at mowing. – John

21. When you come home to visit you take time to replace burned out light bulbs and fix things around the house. - Betsy

22. I enjoy our discussions about history and politics.  They have been a motivation for me to stay well informed. – Jackson

23. You are a great photographer. – Brooklyn

24. You are prepared. – Yuhua

25. You know just what to say when I’m mad or sad. – Savannah

26. You frequently ask me where my purse and keys are and plug in my cell phone for me. – Betsy

27. You are good at hotdogs. - John

28. You are always up for a new idea. – Savannah

29. I like having good talks with you. – Jackson

30. You are good at computer stuff. – Brooklyn

31. You are intelligent. – Yuhua

32. You take the time to write thank you notes to people. – Betsy

33. You have great musical interests. – Savannah

34. You make the best lunch. – John

35. You give me good advice about girls, being a man, and stuff like that. – Jackson

36. You are good at imitations. – Brooklyn

37. You teach me how to work things like our DVR. – Savannah

38. You are always on time. Yuhua

39. You tell corny jokes and make us laugh. – Betsy

40. I love hearing your stories. – Jackson

41. If you were a medieval knight, you’d be the hero of the fairytale. -  Savannah

42. You notice special requests the kids make and then remember and wrap up these items as birthday and Christmas gifts.  I love that some of these items have been deemed appropriate for certain birthdays and that the kids look forward to receiving these gifts at the appropriate age. – Betsy

43. You are the kind of dad that I am proud to introduce my friends to. - Jackson

44. You want to fix things when you make mistakes. - Yuhua
45. You help me. – John

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!

Today Brooklyn turned 12.  She graduated from Primary and was welcomed into Young Womens.  She attended tithing settlement with the family and told the Bishop that she paid her tithing this year.  She waited patiently downstairs while Savannah and I decorated for her birthday and made her requested birthday dinner-- crepes with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, whip cream, and syrup (no low blood sugar around here tonight).  She snuggled on the couch with me wrapped in the zebra blanket with arms (Snuggie) she received for her birthday and watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.   She blew out 12 candles on her favorite kind of cake, angel food cake with strawberries (aka angel fruit cake).  She talked to her dad on the phone, told him all about her birthday, and thanked him for the Leatherman (a gift she has been waiting to be deemed old enough for) that he wrapped up when he was home last and left on a shelf in his closet for her to open on her birthday.  When she was ready for bed, she asked me to tuck her in like she has every night, that I am home, since I can remember. 

  12th Birthday

  Brooklyn and Savannah went to Young Women's together for the first time today

The birthday decor

Crepes for dinner

Wearing her zebra snuggie and holding up the Leatherman from dad

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!

For your 12th B-day, here are 12 things we love about you:

1. Your funny sense of humor and big smile

2. Your creativity, art, and illustrations

3. The stories you write – we think you could be an author someday

4. Your desire to do your best in school - You are one smart girl

5. Your love of fruit of all kinds – I think I didn’t feed you enough veggie baby foods

6. That you are really good at accents and got into the first school play you auditioned for because of your great British accent

7. Your baking skills and the way you save an extra portion of special desserts to pack in your lunch the next day -- You have already packed a piece of angel food cake away for tomorrow

8. Your thoughtfulness and the joy you find in picking out gifts for members of your family

9. Your love of books and that almost every morning I find you reading on the couch after you wake up

10. The way you love the cats and they love you and think you are their mom

11. Your talent for good hair dos 

12. Your desire to choose the right

Joy

1999

Last summer while skiing in the sunshine across Lake Cour de alene, I had the distinct impression that my friendship with Andrea and Kelly is one of those compensating blessings in my life.  Over the weekend, I was reminded of this and felt grateful that our friendship is a shared priority.

Lughesworth is a term invented by Jackson and Eli to describe our combined families.  Over the past 10 or more years the Lughesworths have had a ton of fun vacationing together – necessary because we only ever lived in the same town for about a year.   No matter the set-backs, Lughesworth reunions press on.  Despite financial trauma, the rotavirus, head lice, broken fingers, a broken wrist, broken boats, stomach flus, strep, newly adopted children who don’t speak English, post surgery recoveries, mishaps with vacation rentals, distance, scheduling conflicts, winter storms, and challenges that can’t be spoken of here (but this would be more fun to write if they could), Lughesworth reunions do not postpone or cancel.  (The best was the year we picked up RID shampoo for everyone on the way to the coast.) Thank goodness! Because these friends always provide the rejuvenation I need to carry on. 

Our Lughesworth Thanksgiving weekend was a success.  This Thanksgiving I felt thankful for true friends who have stuck with us through thick and thin.  Thanksgiving Day was pure joy – a successful feast to share with our families made and cleaned up in the company of friends.  We cooked enough food for an army: 2 turkeys, 30 lbs of mashed potatoes, 2 pans of sweet potatoes, 3 pans of stuffing, lots and lots green beans, 108 rolls, so much raspberry fluff salad that it became required eating at every meal, and pies galore.  We may have overdone it on every dish except the rolls.   The fluff salad lasted until the bitter end and as I was locking up the beach house to head home, I noticed a trail of pink fluff salad up the front steps.  The fluff salad is a lot like our friendship – enduring.

2010

More photos and highlights of our weekend Coming soon…   



Debt of Gratitude

I’m not sure how you thank people like this. 

Jackson had planned to get his Eagle Project done over the summer after we moved to Idaho.  When we were still here at the end of July, I suggested that he pick a project that could be completed quickly and get started before we moved.  Jackson contacted a local women’s and children’s shelter to find out what they were in need of and see if he could do a drive for them.  When he found out that they were in need of beds, he decided that maybe he could build some.  We discussed this idea, and of course I was thrilled that he had finally decided on a project that he felt good about.  I think we were both naïve about the time commitment though. 

Since James was in Idaho and I had no idea how to build a bed, I suggested that Jackson contact Brother Brooking, a true craftsman, and really good friend.  Jackson found a pattern for a twin sized bed online and called Brother Brooking to see if he would be willing to give him some advice on how to go about this project.  In hindsight, I don’t know if I would have allowed Jackson to contact Brother Brooking if I'd had any idea what we were really asking of him.  Brother Brooking agreed to help and he and Jackson spent hours planning, pricing wood, buying wood, sanding, building a prototype, and then building the beds.  Jackson knew he was going to learn how to build beds the right way when Brother Brooking had him sand all the wood before he even made the first cut. 

The Brookings fed Jackson meals and put up with a big mess in their garage for several weeks while the beds were being built.  It was necessary to work at their house since they had all the tools.  All total, I am sure that Brother Brooking spent over a hundred hours helping Jackson with this project.  

Eventually the beds were brought to our house and Jackson invited friends and youth group leaders to help finish the sanding and staining.  Siblings were involved too.  Two weeks ago the beds were completed and the Brookings came over with another friend in our ward to help Jackson load them onto a trailer and deliver them.  It was pouring down (and I do mean pouring down) rain.  These friends came cheerfully and spent another couple hours with Jackson delivering the project. 

Later that evening, I asked Jackson if he realized how many hours Brother Brooking had spent helping him with this project.  He replied that he did and that he was so grateful.  I told Jackson that I hoped someday he would spend hundreds of hours helping some young boy complete his Eagle project.  He said, “I will.”  We have all learned about a lot more than building beds. 

Who's in charge?

Why is it that days like yesterday (where I go to bed feeling like a good mother because I spent quality time with one child while the other children were having a ball together luging down our stairs) are always followed by days like today where I wake-up wanting to know, "Who the heck is in charge around here?"

"Oh ya."

"Me."

The house was a disaster this morning, three out of five children left important items at home that required me to make extra trips to school, and there were complaints of no clean socks.  On days like today, I’m confident that I should be fired.  Good thing I have some job security. 

Winter Olympics

Jackson and I went to Vancouver today for an appointment and then stopped in Portland to do a little shopping on the way home.  I really enjoyed the time with Jackson, and apparently the younger kids really enjoyed the unsupervised time at home.  While Jackson and I were away, our stairs were transformed into a luge track.  Here is what we came home to…

Of course Jackson and I had to try it out too.  James, the kids insisted that I post this video for you. 

Corn

At 7:30am this morning Yuhua and I headed to a breakfast at the High School where he was honored as student of the month.  His biology teacher/cross country coach had lots of nice things to say about him and his work ethic.  Apparently, all of the kids in Yuhua's biology class were given seeds to plant corn at the beginning of the semester.  Each student grew their corn in an individual pot and after 3 months all the corn has died except for one pot.   Yuhua’s corn is still thriving.  Mr. Downs said that last week someone uprooted Yuhua’s corn plant, and when Yuhua came to class he noticed this and carefully replanted the corn.  When Mr. Downs mentioned that the corn was starting to outgrow its pot, Yuhua came in the next day with a bigger pot and soil to transplant the corn.  I was grinning during this story because this is sooooo Yuhua.  I was also grinning because I remembered the morning that Yuhua took the bigger pot and soil to school, how he asked me if we had a big pot and soil he could take to school, how I wondered why on earth he needed to cart a big dirty pot and soil to school at the last minute, how I never asked him why, how he never told me, and how lucky I was to be sitting there finally understanding what was going on in his head. I was so proud of him.  I made a mental note to myself not to squash my children’s ambitions when I am impatient and clueless about what is going on in their heads.  Usually what is going on in there is great stuff.  It’s just really hard to tell sometimes. 

Dads Are Great

James was able to come home for a visit last weekend and boy were we happy to see him.  Our water tasted bad and Jackson’s “third family car” was making noises.  James noticed many other items that needed attending to and also noticed that the children needed love and attention.  Thankfully he whipped things back into shape around here, spent Saturday morning helping Jackson make his car “Hughes worthy”, and spent some quality time with the rest of the kids.    I was so thankful for his reassuring smile as I waited to speak at conference and for his listening ear as I had lots to share with him.  James, why didn’t we take a single picture?  Next time…

Because I Love You

On Saturday night, I spoke at Stake Conference.   I’m posting this excerpt from my talk because it happened last week, and it's one of those moments I want to remember.  Don’t worry, I told the story about the cops right before I told this story --just to keep things real  ; )

Last Sunday, my bishop taught a 5^th Sunday lesson on parenting.  He said at the beginning of the class that if we remembered nothing else from the class that we should remember to do all things in love.  During the lesson I reflected on an experience with one of my children (John) the day before where I had confiscated some Halloween candy and given a lecture about responsibility.  I had not done that with much love. 

When I was tucking this child in bed Sunday night after the lesson, I told him I was sorry for the way in which I’d handled the candy issue the day before.  I asked if he knew why I’d taken away the candy, and he said, ”because you didn’t want my teeth to rot out?”  I told him yes, but there was a bigger reason too.   He said, “because you don’t want to have to pay for new ones?”  I said yes, but there is an even bigger reason.  He looked at me like he had no idea where I was going with this, and then I said, “because I love you!”  He grinned and then he gave me some candy that he was hiding to eat after I’d tucked him in.  (My bishop is so wise – at last the secret to effective parenting…  It’s actually the secret to a lot of things.)

"Our Mom Has Been Pulled Over by the Cops" and Grumpy Teenager

As Savannah and I were driving home from Young Women in Excellence on Wednesday night, I made a rolling stop at the stop sign by our house… which resulted in my being pulled over in front of our house…which resulted in my children watching the whole trauma from our front windows… which resulted in this video, courtesy of Yuhua …which made me laugh because it is so classic.  Parental Guidance is suggested.

Chicken Pot Pie

Savannah and I stayed up late last night making this recipe.  The estimated prep time was 30 minutes, but it took us 3 hours.  We had big plans for these pot pies – one for a friend, one for us, and the rest to take to the coast for our Lughesworth Thanksgiving weekend.  Would we recommend Ina Garten’s chicken pot pie recipe?  No -- At least not if we are the cooks.  The result was chicken pot soup and a very messy kitchen.  Thankfully the soup is tasty.

Halloween Loot

Since Halloween is on Sunday this year, we’ve begun our festivities early.  Last night was our ward Halloween party.  We missed the first part of the party because Yuhua and John had Chinese class, but we made it in time for the most important part – trick or treating through the hallways.  Everyone came home with a lot of loot and a sugar high.  I encouraged the kids to hide the candy from me.  John had asked me before the party why I had been eating the Halloween candy we were supposed to be giving away.  Well, I said, “Because I paid for it?”  Not a good excuse, I know, but I was just going to eat one miniature Whopper package, and that led to a few more, and then to a minature Hershey bar, and eventually the Kit Kats.  It was a slippery slope.  I obviously bought the Halloween candy too early this year.  The good thing is that I’m now sick of it and hope it disappears as quickly as possible.     

Our Halloween box has already moved to Idaho, but the kids managed to come up with some fun costumes.  Yuhua opted not to wear the disco wig that I was sure would be a big hit.  Instead he went as himself and still came home with a pile of candy. 

Hillbilly and Cowgirl

Football Player

Starfleet Officer

A small sampling of the loot.

A Good Day!

Yesterday Yuhua ran in the 5K race at districts in Oregon City.

  This was his competition. 

Amazingly, he finished 12^th with a time of 18:09.  I love watching my kids participate in their various activities, but I especially enjoyed watching this race. 

Pulling ahead

   

After Yuhua’s race, I raced... back to McMinnville and arrived just in time for John’s soccer game.  Thankfully my support crew -- Jackson, Savannah, and Brooklyn -- assisted in getting John to the soccer field (Jackson is now driving our beater “third family car” which Yuhua informed me tonight that he “hopes he will not have to inherit because it makes really weird noises.”) and making sure he had everything he needed (cub scout uniform, water bottle, and pumpkin) for the rest of the evening.  It was rainy and cold, but John didn’t seem to mind.  His team lost.  They’ve lost every game this season, but John didn’t seem to mind that either.  He ran back and forth across the field propelling the ball with his feet, chest, knees, and head.  It never ceases to amaze me how John instinctively uses his head to stop or change the direction of the ball.  My natural impulse is to duck which is probably why I was never any good at soccer, basketball, softball, volleyball, dodgeball…  : )

We capped off the evening with a pack meeting.  We were wet, hungry, and tired at this point, but there is nothing like a bunch of cub scout cheers to pep you up : ) We shouted lots of silly cheers to celebrate the boy's achievements.  John was in heaven.  And then we hurried home, inhaled dinner, practiced spelling words, and collapsed.  It was a good day!

Worth it!

The navigation app on my Driod saved the day, and I made it to see Brooklyn run her last cross country race of the season.  It was cold and rainy, but she persevered with numb appendages and then convinced me to buy her a cinnamon melt on the way home. 

I think my pictures are blurry because I was so cold, I was shaking.

I love Brooklyn's stride when she's racing for the finish line. 

Pumpkin Tradition

One of our favorite family traditions is carving pumpkins together.   Each of our kids designs and carves their own pumpkin and James and I each help in the carving and goop departments, respectively. This tradition always endures despite life’s craziness because James and I are both on board with this one.  James came home this weekend just in time for our pumpkin festivities. 

For the past several years we have grown our own pumpkins making this tradition even more fun, but this year we thought we’d be living in Idaho by Halloween and didn’t plant any pumpkin seeds.  Lesson # 159 learned from our garden  --  Continue to plant seeds even if you do not plan to be around for the harvest.   Besides some late tomatoes, we are sadly missing our usual fall harvest.   Lucky for us, for a lot of moola, we can buy pumpkins that someone else grew.   So we did, and here are the results:

Yuhua's pumpkin is a replica of R2-D2 and resulted in pumpkin flying everywhere.  The kitchen still hasn't fully recovered.

Brooklyn stirring (not pumpkin) tomato soup from our garden. This soup also created a huge mess that welcomed James home for the weekend.

Boo!



Backlog

I’m experiencing a side effect of blogging.  It’s called backlog – too many good things to remember.  Here are just a few things that we’ve been up to…

• Lots of soccer ~ This was the only rainy soccer day we’ve had all fall.  We love rainy soccer games and especially the hot chocolate afterwards.

• Lots of running ~ Yuhua finished 2^nd in his race yesterday only after being overtaken by a runner at the last second.  It was exciting, and I was yelling so loud I missed the photo opp.  This photo was taken a week ago.

• A scout campout ~ This campout took place on the same weekend as the rainy soccer game.  I was told by Yuhua’s scout leader that Yuhua was out digging a trench around his tent at 4am just in case a moat was needed : )

• Making fall skirts with Savannah and Brooklyn ~ We won’t show you a picture of the bags under our eyes after staying up late to finish these.  

• Enjoying exceptionally beautiful weather ~ This day was heaven.  I wish this picture captured the warm sun and the symphony of geese on their way south, windchimes, and rustling leaves. (The view from our deck that I'm going to miss so much)

• Filling out applications for college and senior pictures ~  Yikes!  Is this a good thing or a bad thing? This is exactly why I have got to keep journaling the moments I want to remember. 

Problem Solved

We’ve had a few mishaps this week.  Lucky for me, I have resourceful children.  I mean really lucky for me--because my kids solved these problems much better than I would have. 

Monday began with a clogged toilet.  After four clogs and each flusher claiming to be innocent of any typical clogging behavior, Jackson asked if I thought the glow in the dark wristband that had accidently flipped off his wrist and into flushing toilet several days prior could be the problem.  “Um.  Yes.”  I was prepared to call the plumber, but Jackson informed me that he had read in Reader's Digest that 80% of all plumbing problems could be resolved without calling a plumber if people knew how.  So, we hung a sign on the toilet, and Jackson headed to Lowes to look for a more powerful plunger.  He came home with this. 

We all gathered around the bathroom door for what seemed to be the most excitement we’d had at our house in a long time, and Jackson went to work.  Turns out, Reader’s Digest was right. After several tries the clog was removed, and I’m happy to report that the toilet is now in good working order. 

Next, we discovered that one of the water barrels in our garage had sprung a leak and flooded part of the garage creating a moldy wet mess.  No problem.  The kids got busy moving wet boxes, mopping the floor, and figuring out how to siphon water from the barrel. There were some differences of opinion about how this job should be done, and I stayed out of it.   

What you can't see in this picture is that Jackson is receiving instruction from James via speaker phone.

Yuhua was the only one brave enough to create the suction to pull the water down the tube.

Last but not least, I got a frantic phone call on Saturday asking me to hurry home quick because a quart of stain had spilled all over our garage floor.    By the time I could get home, the mess was mostly cleaned up and the kids had managed to still stain the beds with the stain they wiped up from the floor. 

I’m not sure what I’m needed for around here.  Maybe I’ll take a vacation :  ) I think I'll also try to avoid photos of our garage in the future. There are a disproportionate number of photos of our messy garage on this blog.