2016 Car Show!

Last year we missed the car show.  I seem to remember it being a bit of a grumpy day.  This year Derek and Kayli and I made it, and had a good time.

Derek and Kayli in a Corvette

I had to take a turn too!

Derek and Kayli on the really huge Maverik truck.

My cheesy grin by the Acura TLX I liked.

Kayli is always trying to dodge a picture -- she is not happy I was taking another one.
This is her in a jeep.

I had such a cheesy grin in the first picture that I was laughing about it, and Kayli caught that.
I loved the green Honda HRV.

Here's a fine picture of the whole car.

You know, when you get close enough to get a good picture of the person, you can't really tell what vehicle they are in.
This is obviously a yellow one.  No.  Maybe this was the greenish colored one that Kayli liked.

I just really like the look of this one.  I probably would hate driving it because its nose is long
but it looks fun.

I always think the car show is cold, so I was prepared.  I wore three shirts and my coat and was just right.  Kayli and Derek each wore a tee shirt and a light jacket and were fine.  It seems my internal heater doesn't work as well as theirs.  Derek and Kayli were both good company, and we saw lots of nice cars.  Connor opted out.  He so enjoyed seeing and hugging the cars last time that I was surprised, but I guess he had other things he wanted to do instead on his day off of school.

A Tragedy for the Happy Ending Lover

For Christmas this year Santa brought me "The Johnstown Flood" by David McCullough.  Why? Because it was on my wishlist.  I'm not quite sure why I put it there since I knew a story about an unexpectedly broken dam would not have a happy ending!

The account of the breaking of the dam above Johnstown is full of tragedy, but it is also full of miracles.  It showed the worst of humanity, but it also shows the best.  This book is full of interesting little facts like what people were doing during the morning before the dam broke, and why most people ignored the warnings given that morning that it might break.

We read about people who survived the flood by sitting on, or holding onto floating mattresses.  I don't know what the mattresses were made of  in 1889 -- but I found it incredible that one mattress floated in an attic all night, keeping a whole family alive, and another served as a raft that people were able to ride to safety.  There were entire families that were killed by the flood, and entire families that survived, riding on roofs, or huddling together in the attics of the few buildings that didn't wash away.  There was even a baby born during the night while a family was riding down the flood on a roof.  Another baby was found floating down the river 80 miles from Johnstown unhurt in his cradle.

Parts of The Johnstown Flood are so sad that I cried over them, but the story is also interesting and thought provoking.  The book explores questions such as, Who was to blame?, What should have been done differently? Who sent help and why?  and, What did the survivors do in the days, weeks, and years that followed?  It also gave interesting information about the railroads and their owners, and the newspaper men, and the reports they gave of the flood.

I am not sorry I put it on my wish list even though I did have to be careful where I read it so that I wouldn't cry over the sad parts in public!  David McCullough succeeded in making learning history interesting, which is the reason I enjoy his books.

The Non Fluff Books Are Piling Up!

My stack of books in the "to read" pile aren't this high.
I can't decide if that's a good thing or not.
I love books.

I love myself a good "fluffy" book -- that being books to read just for fun, with no real expectation of learning much, just of being entertained.  I like a good romance, especially if it is funny.  I like a good mystery story, or a spy novel, or science fiction, or even the occasional fantasy book. Happy endings are almost a must.  However, with very few exceptions, my favorite books are the non fluffy kind that tend to take a little more work to get through.  I like books of history that teach me about people, and events of our past.  I like books that help me understand church doctrine better, and I love the books that happen to give me an idea of how to do better myself.  Some of my challenges have been solved, or at least helped through books.  Some of the little goals I've tried, I have seen first in a book.

So, when I go to the bookstore, I tend to look on the discount table for both kinds of books.  If one seems especially interesting, or seems to be interesting and an exceptionally good deal, it might end up in my desk in the line of books that I haven't read yet.  The fiction ones, that I can whip through in a day or two, don't stack up, but the more studious type do.

This last year I had a system that has worked pretty well.  I picked a book, and read at least a chapter almost every day until I was done.  I looked at the books I've finished, and I'm pretty sure I read at least ten, and maybe as many as a dozen, non fluff books last year (It's hard for me to remember exactly when I read things -- and some of those were kind of short).

This year I decided to go back to something I did a few years ago.  I wrote a list of 12 books to read.  There is one for every month.  This still left me with one two that were not on the list, and there is always the possibility that I will find more during the year.  The idea isn't to limit me to twelve, but to get through at least the twelve on my list.  There is a problem with this method.  Sometimes if I make a goal to do something, it can make it seem like a job, instead of something to enjoy.  That's why I only did it for one year before.  I'm counting on my last years method helping me with this year's goal.

I'm not sure if this can be called a little goal.  It's more a rearrangement of how I do something that I already do.  Right?  So it should be "easy" to accomplish.  I've already finished January's book.  I'll tell you all about it next time.

Singing On My Way

Ha ha ha.  Imagine the girl in the car is me.

Another little goal I have is to use my time in the car better.  I mean, I always get where I'm going, but I've spent a lot of time punching button after button to change radio stations, and getting frustrated when there is nothing I want to listen to.  What is better than that?  Well, about anything really, but I have another little goal, and I decided I could accomplish both at once.

You see, when I was contemplating what things help me feel happy, singing is right up there towards the top of the list.  I have been that way for as long as I can remember.  If I'm feeling super down, and can make myself sing, I almost always feel better.  So I decided that a good little goal for me is to sing more.  So, instead of changing radio stations five times on the way to Walmart -- I sing my way there, and I sing my way back.  I make a lot of trips around town by myself, and it's been fun to see how many of the hymns that I used to have memorized I can still sing.  I sing other songs too, when I can think of them.

Not too long ago I took Dan to get new tennis shoes since I discovered that his big toe was pretty much walking on the snow.  When we got in the van I asked him what he wanted to sing.  He laughed and said, "Nothing!  I want to listen to the radio.  It sounds better."  Then, realizing that saying this might be insulting he said, "You know, because it has instruments to go with it and everything".  I told him I was going to sing.  I sang for about half of our trip there and then started to talk to Dan (because talking to kids in the car is a good thing to do too).

On the way home I told him we could listen to the radio, but that lasted about 30 seconds because, even though he talked nonstop in the store, he still had a lot to say, and I couldn't hear him with the radio on.  There are a lot of good things to listen to, including children, in the car.  It's not a bad time for praying either (with your eyes open).  I do that a lot in bad weather. You know -- "Please don't let any of us crash!" -- but if you see me driving around town by myself, you will likely see me singing on my way.

I Can't Leave Out the Fruit

Jake chose this picture for me
picture from www.truthfromtheheart.com

I've already talked about my plan to eat more vegetables, but I can't leave out the fruit!  I've been only slightly better at eating fruit than I have been at eating vegetables.  That wasn't always the case.  I remember when I was little my Grandma Fuller had a grape vine that produced big, sweet, green grapes.  They were delicious and I can remember carrying around big bunches to snack on.  I was also one of the ones who would raid Grandma's storage room for the dried fruit.

My siblings and I helped bottle quarts and quarts of peaches, and applesauce, and probably other stuff too, but those were the two I liked to eat.  I also loved a good watermelon.  Unfortunately, somewhere through the years I lost a lot of my enthusiasm for fruit, and oral allergies wrecked my ability to eat any of the delicious melons that I loved, and some other raw fruits too.

My "simple" solution to getting more fruits is to make smoothies for lunch.  Derek brings home protein powder from work, and I add that to frozen fruits and juice.  I've had more fruit in the last two weeks than I probably ate in the last two, or maybe even four months!  Unfortunately, my glass blender container broke a few of days ago.  Fortunately, Derek has a wand type blender that works.  Unfortunately, I'm not so good at using it without splashing stuff all over me and the cabinets and the counter tops and sometimes the clean dishes.  Perhaps I was using too small of a container.  Fortunately, I got a new blender!  It works well, and I can make a smoothie without making a big mess.

I like my smoothies, and am looking forward to experimenting with different fruity flavors!  Feel free to send your favorite smoothie recipes my way.  That will help you feel good about yourself, because you will be helping me fulfill one of my little goals that I hope will help me be even healthier than usual!

I couldn't resist adding this picture because it is kind of awesome.
The picture is from www.diet-blog.com

Reinventing Myself

No, I'm not trying to turn myself into a vegetable!
Picture from weknowyourdreamscom

Once upon a time, at the beginning of January, I was sitting on our couch with a notebook and a pencil in hand.  Derek, on the love seat, was watching a sporting event of some kind.  After I had been concentrating on that notebook for a while he asked what I was doing.  Mostly to get a rise from him I said, "reinventing myself".  It worked!  He said, "Oh no you're not!"  He likes to tell me that I can't make any goals without his permission because I have too many.  He understandably does not want my goals to backfire and, instead of making me better, have them turn me into a blubbering mass of discouragement.  Perhaps, on occasion, I maybe, possibly could have overdone the goal making!

What I was really doing was trying to come up with more little things I could do to help me be better, happier, healthier, smarter, or any other good adjective.  Naturally I came up with a few.  Besides having a thankful Thursday, I came up with six others that I can think of right now that I have started.  (Derek is feeling justified right now about thinking I make too many goals!)

One of those goals is to eat more vegetables.  I generally think they are yucky, but I also realize that they are good for me.  Due to the fact that I have so many oral allergies, I can't eat most raw vegetables, which is how I think they taste the best.  I started out planning how to fulfill this goal by having a conversation with a couple of sister-in-laws and a brother-in-law who were sharing ideas.  I was so negative about vegetables that I'm pretty sure they were very convinced I would not succeed at this goal!  The good news is, when you hardly eat any vegetables, it is fairly easy to improve!

So we tried a recipe of baked cauliflower that Erin (Derek's sister) gave me.  It wasn't awful, but it still tasted a little too strongly like cauliflower (imagine that!) even when I kept dumping seasoning on it.  We all ate it, but it isn't on the favorites list.

Next I tried a recipe for citrus bacon green beans.  Connor had two helpings of green beans for the first time in his life, and I had three -- also for the first time.  Bacon isn't really very healthy, but it sure makes green beans taste better!  Since usually we eat our vegetables dumped out of a can and warmed up in the microwave, I decided that the best way to improve our consumption of veggies was to actually use recipes with flavor so they would taste better.  So, I have three more recipes printed out to try this week.  Feel free to send me all of your favorite cooked vegetable recipes (with no milk and cheese because then Dan can't eat it).  When it comes to eating more vegetables, I'm pretty sure I can use all the help I can get!

Thankful Thursday

Picture from home-grownkids.blogspot.com

You may notice that I am writing this on a Tuesday -- so what is Thankful Thursday about?  I am one of those people who love the beginning of the year.  I think my parents must have talked about goals a lot, and I love the idea of finding some little thing to change that might make a big difference.  I am always on the look out for this kind of change!

After having given a lesson to some young women on gratitude and challenging them to say a prayer entirely of thanks, I realized how often I thank a little, and ask for a lot.  I want to take more notice of how much I have to be thankful for, and so I decided to make sure that, at least once a week, I say a prayer that is entirely focused on being grateful.

I knew this would be a good thing, but I did not realize what a big difference it would make in a very short time.  I started before December was over and noticed a change in just a couple of weeks!  Just making sure I say that one grateful prayer a week has made me more aware of my blessings, and has helped improve the gratitude I feel and express in my other prayers too.  I know from experience that being grateful helps everything, and having a Thankful Thursday is my little way of trying to change myself into a more grateful, and therefore a more happy person.  Any day and every day is a good day to have a thankful day!

A Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma and Grandpa C.'s house eating pizza, having the kids act out the nativity, and singing songs.  On the way home we stopped by at the cemetery where many people, including us, leave candles burning on the graves of their loved ones.  It is very beautiful, and we sing there too.

Next came out annual pajama opening session, and the fun family photo shoot.

After minimal sleep, it was time for the race up the stairs.  There were only three participants this year.
Travis and Tia opted out, and Jake and Dan were still asleep.

Here are Jake, Trisa, and Travis -- not quite looking lively.

Trisa, Travis, and Dan (still going through stocking stuff)

Kayli and Connor.  Connor was trying to be patient while waiting to open his presents.

Tia couldn't resist getting her Dad a Wookie suit, and I couldn't resist taking as many pictures as I could get away with.

One More!

After the presents were opened, and the cinnamon rolls were cooked and eaten, we just relaxed until we got our traditional visit from Russell and Erin and their kids (One of Derek's sisters and her family).  They are great to come and be interested in what everyone got.  It is a happy visit for us.  After that it was off to Derek's parent's house for Christmas dinner.  Ham this time -- and delicious rolls.  Mmmmm.  I love rolls.  Most of our kids went home after that, but Derek and Dan and I stayed.  All of us got to spend time with family members, and besides remembering Jesus, that is the best part of Christmas.  I hope you had a merry Christmas too!

Kayli Turns Twenty

Kayli's birthday, which is on December 19th, was celebrated for three days this year.  We had her open one present, and have donuts on Friday before we headed to the BYU basketball game as a family.

We celebrated without her on her actual birthday by attending the Christensen Christmas Party while Kayli went to SLC on the train with a friend.  Kayli had been asked to be a bridesmaid for a former roommate.  I didn't see her once that day!  Travis, being a nice brother-in-law, got up early and stayed up late so that he could drop Kayli and her friend off at the train station, and then pick them up again.

We had the main birthday celebration after church on Sunday.  She got to open the presents she had patiently waited for.  She also got to have brownies with peach ice cream, and lasagna (in that order -- but dinner was an hour or two after dessert).

Trisa and Travis were here for the celebrations, and Tia came when she wasn't working.  The pictures are by Travis.

Connor and Kayli who are sometimes mistaken for twins.
They aren't twins, but they have been good friends since they were very little.

This is the one present I knew that Kayli actually wanted.

This is a Payson Temple ornament.  I don't know of anyone who is more excited to have a temple nearby than Kayli.

This is a gift card for Walmart -- Kayli's favorite destination...
Well -- maybe not favorite -- but she does love to go there.

This is a gift card for an ice cream place.  Kayli loves ice cream, and brownies, and other things with lots of sugar in them.

Kayli isn't greedy, and insisted over and over that she didn't need presents.  We didn't agree. Thankfully, she received them with a smile.  Our Kayli is kind, a good listener, and fun.  She is a great sister and a  wonderful daughter.  She makes beautiful music, and has a beautiful testimony of the gospel.  She also makes tasty brownies.  My little dark haired baby is all grown up-- which I can love and cry about all at the same time!  I love you Kayli!  Happy Birthday!

Our Before Christmas Activities

1.  The Ward Party.  We took Father Christmas with us this time.  It hadn't been Christmas yet and maybe that's why it looks like Father Christmas hasn't eaten as many cookies as usual.

2.  The BYU Basketball Game with the whole family -- plus my grand niece Mia.

Most of us had more fun than this picture indicates.  BYU won!  And Collinsworth got another triple double.  Yay!  Mia was great.  She ate popcorn, talked to Trisa and Tia, and really wanted to see Cosmo the cougar up close.  She was disappointed that he never came to the nosebleed section to see her.  We rarely saw Travis.  He's not much of a sports fan -- he is just a good sport who's not too good at feigning interest in the game.  I'm guessing the highlight for him was either eating popcorn with Mia, or seeing his mission president in the hall.

3.  The Christensen Christmas Party, which I got no pictures of so ....

Imagine a group with around 50 very nice people, more than half of whom are children.  Imagine us eating lasagna in the church gym, playing games, having a program, playing more games, cleaning up, and then, more than three hours after we started, heading home.  Mia came with her parents Kelli and Jamie.  They were staying with us and so they were invited even though they are from my side of the family.  The more the merrier!  Their whole family participated in all of the activities, and Kelli even participated in the not too secret flash mob that sang Joy to the World at the beginning of the program.

4.  Kayli's Birthday Celebration -- which I'll cover in my next blog post.

5.  A trip to the BYU Museum of Art to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit.

This was Dan's Favorite

This is Travis' favorite.
Travis said he enjoyed the exhibit for 5 minutes.  I don't think he's a big art museum fan either.

I don't remember if anyone else chose a favorite.  We were all impressed by how many paintings he did, and how much preparation he took before making the final, finished painting.

The day after we went to the museum was Christmas Eve -- and I'll include that with Christmas.  My favorite thing was every time we managed to have the whole family together.  That is the best!

Thanksgiving and the Thankful Turkey

You can tell from the number of feathers on the thankful turkey that we have a lot to be thankful for.  We even ran out of feathers -- and were a bit too lazy to make more.  This turkey was made the day Derek was first trying to put in our new kitchen sink.  Kayli and I were headed to Provo and back to pick up a needed part, and I left the boys in charge.  When I got home I told them how much I liked the thankful turkey they had made.  Jake said, "Mostly I made it."  So a big thank you to Jake.

For Thanksgiving we had a delicious dinner at Derek's parent's house while visiting with some of our local family members.  There was a short program after.  I think with this side of the family it is very rare not to have some sort of program attached to every gathering.  Kayli very kindly sang my song "Sunshine" with me for our part in the program.

Shortly after that we headed to St. George where we met up with Trisa and Travis who had spent Thanksgiving with my parents.  We stayed in Derek's parent's St. George house for a couple of days, but spent most of our time at my parent's house where we were a part of the roof removal / replacement team.  Ray started on Thanksgiving Day and I think Jeff and Travis joined him.  It is a good thing they got a head start because we got done on Saturday right after dark.

The weather was cold for St. George.  In the 40s.  Brrrr.  In some ways we were a rather pathetic work crew.  Ray has a lot of experience with working on roofs, but the rest of us -- not so much.  My Dad wanted really badly to be up there helping.  He would have known what he was doing.  However, due to his major back surgery he was supposed to stay on the ground.  Naturally he climbed the ladder several times and made us all really nervous.

Mostly it was our health that was pathetic.  Jenny and Jeff had bad colds.  Derek was sick to his stomach.  Trisa got the stomach flu the second day so only managed to help on the day we ripped off the 2 layers of shingles.  That was the most miserable day, and her help was appreciated.  Travis was in pain with some unknown ailment, and I'm pretty sure that, at least by the second day, we were all feeling a bit old and busted -- except maybe all of the kids, who were a big help too.  Travis and Trisa stayed an extra day so we could use their roofing equipment.

 So, in spite of all we had going against us, we finished the roof.  We needed every minute, every person we had, and all of the energy we had to give -- but it got done.   I came away feeling very grateful for the good people in my family!  Even when everyone was super tired, and occasionally a little frustrated, they were so good to work with.  Everyone was patient, and kind, and tried to watch out for each other.  So, even though we went away sore, we went away with my parent's gratitude, and a feeling of accomplishment, and with memories of working together to get something good done.  We also went away with a strong hope that the roof won't leak!

Connor and Sadie Hawkins

In November Connor attended the Sadie Hawkins dace with his friend Amanda.  Aren't they cute?

Happy Halloween Party!

Every year Derek's Mom and Dad throw a big Halloween party for their children and their grandchildren.  There are a lot of activities.  This year we had dinner, games, a scary story, pinatas, a puppet show, and a hayride into the traditional haunted woods.  This isn't a short activity!  Almost everyone dresses in costume, and the adults and older kids help out with food and activities.  

I decided to make myself a fancy belt buckle so I could be a proper cowgirl.

Doughnuts on a string provide extra snacks, extra fun, and extra entertainment for watchers.

Dan was Mario.  He loved the mustache.  It's a good thing that Connor had a spare one because I forgot to buy any.
We ended up drawing on the mustache for the actual Halloween.

Me and my costume.
(Which is really my regular clothes plus a hat and belt buckle)

That's all of the pictures I got even though there was a lot going on!  It was a busy, and fun night.