October 29th

Hi Everyone

We are having a trying day today. I am starting to have real fear about what is going to happen to us all when this new baby comes--not because of the baby but because of our charming son who is suddenly an emotional firestorm. The constant crying and screaming are starting to drive me a little nuts.

We did do some fun things this week, though. Saturday was a work day at our house. Jens, who is still sick, was a great helper, helping carry the doors downstairs and watching Mike paint while eating Cheerios. It wore him out. Mike got a bunch of the doors upstairs painted so we could put on the new doorknobs. Yay! I cleaned the garage and tried to organize things so we could find stuff. Saturday night we went to our ward party, which Jens loved. He especially like seeing Cosmo the Cougar who made a mysterious guest appearance and of course, the trunk or treating.

Sunday we carved pumpkins, something Jens has been waiting for with much excitement. It did not disappoint, even though he clearly felt lousy. He spent all day coughing, starting at 4am. JP and Natalie came over, which is getting to be a yearly tradition, and we carved pumpkins and had pumpkin bars. JP, true to form, carved a motherboard, which he and Mike thought was the awesomest thing ever. Natalie and I thought it was the nerdiest thing ever. Jens wanted to make a grouchy face, but Mike wanted to use a template and there wasn't a grouchy face template. He is happy with his happy grouchy face.





Monday Jens was sick enough to stay home from school. I took him to the doctor and once again he is on the 'roids. We are a little discouraged because we felt like his new inhalers were really working, but this time they just weren't strong enough to help him kick this cold. Monday afternoon I had a doctor's appointment. All is going well. We are looking into a Dec. 1st induction if sister hasn't come on her own by then. I am feeling pretty sure that she will be born on Thanksgiving Day, mostly because I think I will have dinner all planned and purchased and then we won't be able to eat it. Dr. Raju is guessing that she might be about 5 lbs. by now, and she is lying on her side, head down, with her butt and back on my left side and her feet on my right. It is pretty crazy to feel her feet kicking all the way over on my side. She is a busy little bug, especially at night. We are excited to meet her, but know that life will get a little more complicated pretty soon!

I will finish with a recipe I tried today--Golden Pumpkin Cake with Buttercream. It is very delicious and not healthy at all except that it has pumpkin in it. I found the recipe online this morning.

1 box Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Butter Recipe Golden Cake Mix
2 t. pumpkin pie spice
2/3 c. pumpkin
2/3 c. water
3 eggs
1/4 c. butter

Beat all ingredients together until well mixed. Pour into two greased, floured 9" loaf pans and bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Honey and Spice Buttercream Frosting

1 t. unflavored gelatin
2 T. water
1/2 c. honey
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. water
2 t. cinnamon
1 1/2c. butter
1 t. vanilla

Combine gelatin and 2 T. water and let sit 10 minutes

In a saucepan combine honey, sugar, and 2 T. water. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool 3 minutes.

Stir 2 T. of honey mixture into gelatin and stir until dissolved. Whisk all honey and gelatin together with cinnamon. Pour into a mixing bowl and beat until doubled in size and cool, 10 minutes.

Add butter, 2 T. at a time, beating continuously. Add vanilla.

Yum!

Now that I have made this, I think the frosting, which is much more complicated than the actual cake, might be made with more ease by using marshmallow cream, honey, butter, and cinnamon, because basically it tastes like honey butter with a stickier texture. I also think an 8" loaf pan would be better than the 9". If I experiment and try out the frosting sometime, I will let you know, but I have a lot of pumpkin cake recipes that I want to try, so I might not get back to it this fall.

Happy fall, everyone.

More Jens Funnies

J: "We should get a new Casey dog."
Me: "Why would we do that?"
J: "She's old. We need a new one."

*

Betty got me some Hot Tamales for my birthday. I shared one with Jens, thinking he probably wouldn't like it because they are a little hot. He loved it. He calls them Hot Olives because he can't remember the Tamales part. This morning Mike and I were trying to sleep in for a minute and sent Jens down to eat his cereal without us. I was comfortable with that because last night I remembered to lock the pantry door--I bought a hinge lock to keep Jens out. We heard a chair scraping across the kitchen floor but still felt okay. Finally we came down to see what he had done. He had pulled his chair with the booster on it over to the door, which made him tall enough to flip the hinge lock. He had helped himself to three "Hot Olives." He very matter-of-factly told us exactly what he had done and how. We are trying to encourage honesty, so we didn't get mad or anything, mostly because it was pretty funny.

*

A few nights ago Mike went to check on Jens, who had fallen asleep with the lights on. He was lying face down on his bed with his pj pants pulled down just far enough to show a full moon. They weren't pulled down in the front at all, just the back. I wish we had a picture, but we don't. We did laugh a lot, though.

October 23rd

Hi Everyone!

Happy Birthday to Aunt Karen and Gramp. I have been thinking about Gramp a lot this fall--something about apples brings him to mind. I was wishing I could have him send me his recipe for apple butter. I did make applesauce this week, which always makes me think of him since I use the colander he got for me. Also, I was very sad because he is still on my family e-mail list and they have started bouncing back to me. I should go in and take him off the list, but I just don't want to. I will miss our annual birthday call today!

I am reporting on a short week since I wrote so late last week, but we have still been busy. We had a fun weekend with Nan and Jacob. We are so glad they came to visit--we love having family come. We spent Saturday morning up at Apple Hill. Apparently the middle weekend of October is the busiest weekend of the season. I believe it! We enjoyed our regular treats,
we picked out pumpkins.
and the boys rode horses. Jens was very insistent about riding a horse, which seemed very tall

and Jake was equally insistent about a pony being perfectly sufficient. They both had very big smiles on their faces!

Sunday was my first week in YW. I am the Mia Maid adviser, which I think will be fun. Tonight is my first activity--we are having a personal progress night and making sparkle pumpkins.

Jens's newest fun play with Dad is being wrapped up like a burrito. I am not sure why he likes it because he can't move at all once he is all wrapped up, but he thinks it is hilarious.

Monday I made and canned applesauce. It turned out delicious and after the pear debacle, I didn't break a single jar, thanks to Brenda's excellent advice. Monday night Mike and I went out on a date for a pre-birthday birthday dinner. We have been celebrating all month! We got Thai food and went to Borders where we were going to look for baby names but instead got sidetracked by some of the amusing baby books. One of the funniest was the name book where the authors had collected impressions based on certain names. There were a lot of names that made people think "Fat and old." We laughed a lot. I don't think we will choose any of those names.

Tuesday Jens and I had a fun day. I am finally feeling a little better, so I am making an effort to spend as much one on one time with Jens doing things that he likes. We went to the park and I pushed him in the swing for a really long time, then we went to the zoo and then story time. In the afternoon we went to Winco and open house at his school where he was able to show me the jobs he likes. He showed my the red bars, some of the graduated blocks, a scooping job, a clipping job, and a sweeping job. He did not want to go home. He really likes his school, which makes me happy. Tuesday night he helped me make apple pie caramel apples--apples dipped in caramel, white chocolate, and rolled in cinnamon-sugar. Then we watched "Danny and the Dinosaur," a ten minute movie of the book.

Yesterday I did yard work. Our front yard is so ugly, and it got extremely messy when we had big wind storms a few weeks ago. I chopped up branches and raked up pine needles and even cut up some more juniper bushes. I could have kept working, but I filled up both of our green waste cans so I stopped.

Jens and I are going to the park with friends this morning, so I need to go get ready. Have a happy week and enjoy the fall, everyone!

Letters

A conversation as we went to check the mail:

Jens: "Should we send Grandpa some mail?"
Mike: "Would you like to send him a letter?"
Jens: "Yes!"
Mike: "I bet he would like that. We should write him one."
Jens: "Let's send him 'S'!"

BOO!

Jens put his laundry basket on his head and was being a ghost. He is mostly just a very noisy and sometimes violent ghost--I wasn't too scared. Then he took the basket off and told me "Mom, I took off my ghostume."

October 18th

Hi Everyone

It has been a very busy week, as evidenced by the fact that I am just now getting around to my weekly update on Saturday. Jens and I were both sick last week and continue to feel sub par. I am hoping that tomorrow we will both wake up totally well, but I am not counting on it. Jens is well enough to go to school and after cloistering myself all day Sunday I am feeling functional, but what with being a big fat tired pregnant lady already, having a cold on top of it all is making me pretty lethargic.

Saturday we did Jens's three year pictures. After the monkey pictures when he was terrible we went prepared with mini marshmallows. Every time he did an especially good job following directions, I gave him one. It felt sort of like dog training. We got some cute ones, though, which made me happy. He followed up his good performance with multiple tantrums in the car which was very pleasant. Saturday we also watched the Gators play, which actually was very pleasant. It was a great game and they played really well, unlike our poor Cougars who played Thursday night.

In exciting news, our friend Sophia had her baby on Tuesday. She was 7 weeks ahead of me, which means we are starting to count down. Ahh! We aren't ready! As a result of baby Audrey being born, we enjoyed company this week. Her two big sisters spent the night Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Tuesday we went to Fog Willow Farms Pumpkin Patch, which the kids loved. There were tons of pumpkins, animals, and playground, a pyramid made of hay, and even a hayride. The kids had a blast and aside from a moment when Chloe wandered off, I had a good time, too. I have never lost a child before--it was heart stopping, but the farm was totally fenced off with only one exit and she was recovered quickly. The kids all slept on the way home, so I picked up strawberries to prolong the drive and finally make our strawberry jam for the year. Mike and I also canned our pears for the year, which was easier this year but also more frustrating as I broke out the bottoms of 5, yes FIVE jars! I don't know what I did wrong that made the jars explode when they went in the canner. If anyone knows, tell me because I need to make applesauce this week.

Jens loved having the girls here, although you would never know by the way he was acting. We had 4, yes FOUR wet pants accidents in two days, including one at school, and a 2 hour tantrum in the middle of the night Monday. Jens hasn't kept us up in the night for years, unless he is sick. But Monday he had a huge, irrational meltdown. Normally I think we would have ignored more, but with two girls peacefully sleeping in the adjoining rooms, we felt a little pressured to quiet him down. Mike and I were both a little cranky with him Tuesday morning.

I don't think he liked sharing my time and attention, but he loved having playmates here. At lunch on Thursday he prayed that Cassie wouldn't leave. Unfortunately, her dad came and picked her up 20 minutes later. Fortunately, though, Aunt Nan and cousin Jake got here a half hour later to spend the weekend with us. We are so excited to have them here, although they are both a little under the weather, too. Hopefully we will all be feeling good enough today to go to Apple Hill and have a fun time. We are going to pick our pumpkins at last, I think.

Something cute to balance out the un-cute Jens news, he has memorized "Five Little Pumpkins," a finger play and will preform it. It is very cute and he does all the hand motions. Also, he is very enthusiastic about reading right now. When I ask him if he wants to read a book with me, he instead gets his magna doodle so I can write words and he can practice reading them. He is still a long ways away from reading on his own, but he is getting really good with letter sounds and yesterday he managed to read 'Halloween,' something else he is very excited about. He can point out the 31st on the calendar and is looking forward to being a monkey. He is still attached to the name Sylvie. He told me we would have two sisters, first Sylvie and then Cora. I told him I thought we would try one sister and see how it goes. The names Sylvie and even Sylvia have both grown on me quite a bit. I guess we won't decide anything until we meet this girl, who is very busy and seems to enjoy stretching as big as she can, by the way.

Last exciting news: The city came and fixed our pipes! They pulled out some of our juniper (I wish they'd pulled out more) and dug a huge hole with a backhoe and fixed everything all up. It is nice to know that problem is solved. We also finally ordered door knobs for all of our doors. So our next visitors will actually be able to close their doors and not have a door knob sized peep hole!

Oh, one more thing. I have been called into Young Women's. I will be the Mia Maids Adviser. I am excited for the change and I am looking forward to meeting new people and working with older girls. I have loved being in primary, but it is good to have a change.

Okay. That is really all. Have a good week, everyone.

Team of Rivals

Well, I just finished reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and it is such a good book that I have to write about it for a minute. It is a nonfiction history of Abraham Lincoln's rise to the presidency and a study of his presidency. Especially with the political climate right now, it was interesting to read about and think about the political process in the US and how it has evolved and changed. It was also interesting to compare Abraham Lincoln with recent presidents, although it reflecting on his amazing leadership leaves me feeling a little ripped off. Where is our Abraham Lincoln? Where is our leader who can set his ego aside and listen to people who oppose him? Who can write his own speeches? Connect with the people without being dumb? Unite the country?

It was also pretty sobering to recognize the scope and importance of the Civil War. Of course I studied that in high school, but I don't think I ever appreciated what a serious situation it was and how important it was to have a leader who could hold the country together the way Lincoln did. One of his secretaries came to believe that Lincoln was chosen by God to be the president during that time, and I have to say that I really believe that is true as well.

Also, he was such a good, decent, ethical person. I really came to like him throughout the book, so much so that I cried at the end even though we all know the outcome of his life.

Anyway. I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone, even people who don't generally enjoy nonfiction.

Yellow

Jens is helping me cook dinner. He points to the soup. "That's yellow!"

"Yep," I say.

Jens answers, "I LOVE yellow. It matches everything!"

October 8th

Hi Everyone.

We have had a busy and enjoyable week. For those of you who were wondering, on Thursday just as Jens and I came home from the park, the city utilities guys were just pulling up to let me know that the city would take care of our cracked pipe. The guys came by just to let me know because they knew I was worried about it. Have I mentioned that I have never dealt with people so pleasant and nice?

Also on Thursday I bought a dresser for sister's room. It was $10 and is very cute--it is an antique, but probably needs to be refinished at some point. It matches our crib quite astonishingly, which is also set up. Miraculously we only lost a few pieces of hardware and we were able to replace everything. We got the room painted and the outlets replaced and covered on Saturday. It looks very girly and cute. Now we just need to hang her ceiling fan/light and put together her closet so we have a place to put things.

In additional baby news, Jens has changed his name loyalties from Cora to Sylvie. Mike seems to be encouraging this, even though neither of us want to name the baby Sylvia, although Sylvie is very cute. He got it from the book All the Places to Love, where there is an older brother and a baby sister. Any name suggestions where Sylvie can be the nickname but the actual name isn't Sylvia? Today he even prayed for baby Sylvie in family prayer.

Thursday night we went to the mall and took pictures for Halloween. We also did a father son picture which turned out really cute. It was not a fun evening--Jens threw a tantrum most of the way to the mall and in spite of the promise of ice cream on the way home if he followed directions, he did not follow directions and spent much of the photo shoot chewing on his monkey costume, the hands of which got very soggy and disgusting. We did manage to get two good pictures and Jens was actually well behaved AFTER the picture taking was over, but we did NOT stop for ice cream. I keep hoping they will send me the link to the pictures so I can show them to everyone, but that hasn't happened yet.

We enjoyed the conference weekend, although I totally spaced it on Saturday and we didn't actually watch anything during the day. Saturday night I had over a couple of families for dinner while the dads went to priesthood. It was nice to have other kids to entertain Jens so I could sit on the couch. We made a Halloween spider craft, had chili, and finished with ice cream when the dads got home.

We actually had rain over the weekend, too--the first rain since May. We were happy and snug under our new roof, and it was lovely to have everything get washed off. It rained all night Friday and half of the day Saturday and never got over 70 degrees. It actually felt like fall. We are back to 80 and sunny now, though, which is also very pleasant!

Monday Jens and I decorated the front yard for Halloween. I got some ghost lights and those white ghost bags that you stuff with a little piece of paper. Jens was a great helper and enjoys admiring our handiwork. Yesterday and today he requested that we take a chair out to the front yard and look at our "ghosty tree" where we hung the bag ghosts. He also continues to enjoy riding his peddle bike, which he is getting very good on. He finally has steering down and can go and stop by himself. We practiced at the park on Sunday in between conference sessions, and he felt especially big drinking from his water bottle and sitting on his bike at the same time. In fact, even when he was done riding and was playing on the playground, he had to sit back up on his bike to get a drink.

One more cute Jens thing--at night Mike and Jens sing a couple of songs before bedtime, and lately that has included making up a freestyle type song about whatever topic comes up (favorite topics lately have been trains and fans). So they were singing the "Fan Song" a few nights ago. Mike started the song singing about how awesome fans are and they twirl around and keep us cool. Jens took over and sang a few of the same things and finished his part with "and I love my Daddy." It was so sweet and spontaneous. Maybe he is trying to make up for the many tantrums we have suffered through this week.

That's all from us. Have a good week everyone.

's

I am having one of those moments where grammatical errors are making me crazy. We just got a newsletter in which the teachers "thanked Jens mom Alison for story time." For some reason, people have a very hard time knowing how to do the possessive "s" on Jens's name (notice the correct usage there!)

So let me just teach a little lesson. You use an "'s" when you are showing individual possession of something, even if the name ends in "s". For example:
Don Thomas's house. Jens's truck. Jessie's car.

You only do an ' by itself if the noun has already been pluralized. For example:
The Thomases' house. The Rhoduses' car.

I don't think any of us will ever be in a position to do a plural possessive with Jens's name, so it should never be Jenses' and Jens' will never be correct for anything unless you are talking about several women named Jen who share ownership of something.

I am sure most of you know all of this already, but as I don't want to correct Jens's teachers, I just needed to let SOMEONE know the correct rule.

October 2nd

Hi Everyone--

Another full week for us. I did another story time for Jens's class, which I continue to enjoy. The kids are pretty cute. More exciting, Mike and Jens went on a scout camping trip Friday night, which Jens loved. He was so excited about going, and had a great time. Of course, before he left I made him eat his dinner including trying a mushroom, which made him throw up. It did not dampen his fun, however, and he apparently ate a whole hamburger and several marshmallows once they got there. Mike reported that although he was up all night, Jens slept like a log. There were only two scouts, and they were really nice to Jens. The trip apparently made the purple car very tired and it is once again in the shop. It is turning into the most expensive free car in history. Okay, not all of history, but in our history. I think we are picking it up today.

Saturday Mike helped a friend move while Jens and I went to Chloe's second birthday party at the park. The kids had a blast running and playing, and they got a pinata, which Jens loved. He was very excited about getting candy. Saturday night I went to the relief society dinner and broadcast, which was fun, but church pews are getting less and less comfortable!

Tuesday was a special school day--Jens went on his first field trip. They walked to the Folsom Zoo, played on the play ground, ate lunch, and walked back to school. Jens was pretty tired when we got home, which leads us to the next excitement of the week. Jens's tantrums have returned! He can cry for an hour about something like putting on his shoes. He cried all morning before the field trip, he cried Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night about going to bed, and yesterday he cried for and hour and a half before rest time and another hour when he woke up. It is exhausting for everyone. In between he is cheerful and happy, but during he is a nightmare.

Also on Tuesday we had a BIG leak. We had been having trouble with a little bit of water in the half bath downstairs, and I thought it was the toilet, so I shut the water off until we could figure it out. Then on Tuesday I noticed a huge puddle going from the bathroom all the way down the hall almost to the kitchen. Yay for the carpet cleaner! I sucked up all the water and dried everything and set up a vigil. I quickly realized that I was running the washing machine and that when the washer was spinning out water was gushing up from under the toilet. I sucked up GALLONS of water and placed an emergency call to our home warranty people. They sent a plumber yesterday and he fixed a bunch of little things and diagnosed us with a cracked main sewer line. One of our trees was thirsty and broke through the pipes and was blocking the pipe with its roots. The plumber augered it out and suggested that I call the city to see if it was on their one foot section of pipe or if it was in my 40 foot section of pipe. I was not reassured by those odds! The city guys came really fast and were so nice. They had to cut out some of our juniper bushes (good riddance to those) and sent a camera down their line, which was totally clear, of course. They let me watch, which was very interesting. Then, to be nice, they sent the camera down our line to see if they could help me pinpoint the problem. Did I mention they were really nice? They sent the camera through and guess what? Our pipes were clear, too, all the way up until our pipes joined the city's pipes. Right where they come together, roots had forced through the seam and were causing the problem. We are hopeful that the city will fix it since it has to do with their line, but we are waiting to see. In the meantime, our pipes have been cleared out and until the roots grow back we will be fine. I was thinking how grateful I am that we hadn't put in wood floor yet, which would have been more disastrous to deal with flooding-wise. Also, the whole time that the city guys were here Jens was throwing a huge screaming tantrum in his room.

And in case you are wondering, I was washing our baby bedding when the flood occurred! It finally came, and it is SO cute. I am now working on choosing a paint color for baby's room so we can put something together for her.

On top of all that excitement, I had book club here last night. We read Northanger Abbey and I made Alissa's recipe for sour cream butterscotch apple upside down cake, which was SO delicious and a big hit. It was a nice night with the girls.

Okay. One Jens cute--he has taken to singing while he plays, and not singing quietly. He belts out whatever tune comes to mind, mixing in whatever words he thinks up. A few days ago it was a charming rendition of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" mixed with the Olympic theme and a days of the week song he is learning at school. Also, he has been learning to ride his bike with pedals! It is a little alarming to watch him try and steer, but he is learning quickly how to work the pedals. He gets very nervous if he goes too fast, though, and he often veers wildly towards the street. It is exciting.