Pink birthday

Saffron was very happy with her pink cake and pink ice cream. She has been blowing candles out for other people's cakes, but finally she got to blow out her own!

Marsha gave her a pink tea set with cups that change color when you put water in them. They were a big hit.


Karen finished her graduate work at BYU this weekend. She already has a job working in Salt Lake at the University of Utah Hospital which she'll start in June after she goes back to Ghana.

I went to the Salt Lake Democratic convention on Saturday; it was pretty informative. I'm a delegate, so I can vote for the democratic candidates, but there weren't any elections in my precinct. I got to meet our local state representative, though, so that may prove helpful.

I'm not sure how involved I want to get in the political scene, but I think doing something at all will help me to be less cynical about the whole system.

What a girl wants

Saffron knows that her birthday is coming up. She tells me all the time what she wants. So lately she points out all the things she wants in magazines and books.

One of our favorite books is "Go Dog, Go" by P.D. Eastman. Everytime we read it now, she makes indicates what she wants wrapped up for her special day. Here is a partial list:

1. A red tree
2. A blue tree
3. A yellow tree (I asked her where she would put the trees. She said, "Outside!")
4. A pink helicoper
5. A jack hammer
6. A hammock
7. A dog house
8. A very long ladder

I really hope she won't be too disappointed when she only gets a new toy.

Please raise your eyes

Tonight we went to Miles' cub scout pack meeting. A new cub scout named Michael led the color guard. He said, "Color guard attention. Will the audience please raise your eyes." I think "raise your eyes" sounds pretty close to "arise," don't you?

On another note, Saffron decided that since Mom wouldn't let her cut Lisette's hair that she'd cut her own. You can't really tell until you look up close, but she chopped quite a bit off the top of her head. Someone must not have told her that mullets aren't in style anymore.

Connie's book group selections

Here are the next book selections for the After Hogwarts book group:

May 16th ~ Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

June 13th ~ The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

July 11th ~ The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

Aug 8th ~ Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C Wrede

Sept 12th ~ Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

Oct 10th ~ Surving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan

Nov 14th ~ The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Weekly recap

This week was pretty busy for us and I haven't posted anything. Isn't it ironic how when you have things to write about you don't have the time to do it. Sigh.

Here's a smidgen of when we did last week.

• Wednesday we went to Michel's place to see Grandma Gaile who was in town visiting from Florida. Luckily for us she made lots of food because she wasn't expecting us until we phoned her on our way up.
  
• Thursday I taught a class on native plants to a Catholic women's group. I'm trying to get active with my Master Gardener group again.
  
• Friday we went to Connie's book group. We discussed "Golden and Grey" by Louise Arnold. I finished reading it to Miles and Ian in the nick of time.
  
• Saturday Miles and Ian went with me to get a load of compost from the dump. It was my Christmas / birthday present from Arden and Lorriane. I'm so excited that they now have a truck I can borrow!
  

• Sunday (today) we had dinner at Grandma and Grandpas. Melinda worked on making plans for our Passover dinner next Saturday.

Hopefully we can get more sleep this week. I am excited about putting the compost in the garden and to start planting. I guess I better get the wheelbarrow fixed tomorrow.

I also found a new financial plan that looks really helpful. It's pretty revolutionary, so it's pretty hard to understand at first. I think I need to re-read chapter 3 to figure out where this "saved" money comes from. I can't wait until my subscription to "Stop Buying Stuff" comes!

Conference Weekend

Conference weekend is always so peaceful and relaxing. It's nice to be able to stay at home with family and to listen to positive messages of faith and hope.

As a kid we always watched on our big console television. Now we just hook-up the laptop and watch on the Internet. We used to ask our parents about "the olden days" before TV. My kids are going to ask me about "the olden days" when there wasn't any Internet and we listened to music on "records" and "8 tracks" (I had both) and when there were no cell phones or iPods.

We sustained a new prophet and president of the church this weekend, President Thomas S. Monson. I'll surely miss President Hinckley, but I can see the church moving forward in a very positive direction.

I hear bells...

James gave me a call this evening. It went something like this:

"How's it going?"
"Good, how are you?"
"Are you doing anything this weekend?"
"Just watching conference."
"It was fun seeing you and your friend, Brooke, a couple weeks ago? Are you dating?"
"We'll actually, thats why I called; we're engaged!"

Yeah!!! It's so fun to have siblings get married! Brooke seems really nice; a real catch. Congratulations, lil' bro!

Garden proselytizing

Tonight a taught a class on Square Foot Gardening to a group of senior citizens. Only about 10 people came, but it was still a lot of fun. I always like it when I can spout off about gardening topics to a captive audience.


Square foot gardening is a great way to garden. It eliminates the grunt work and leaves you the fun part.


They have an plot of land behind their apartments, but it's really rocky and the soil looks poor. It would be a perfect candidate for square foot gardening, but I don't think they're going to go for it. I'm not sure if they have the energy or means to build the garden boxes, which is too bad, since gardening would be a lot easier and more fun if they could.


I have to admit I was pretty skeptical when I first attended a square foot garden presentation for the Master Gardeners. But I have since been converted; I have seen the light!


Square foot gardening is great! You don't have to weed, rototill, dig, or thin! You fill your garden box with 1 part peat moss, 1 part vermiculite and 1 part compost. The plants love it and it's so easy.
It's also really fun getting the kids involved. I made 4 boxes so the kids can have their own garden plot.

It's really cute watching them choose what plants they want and how excited they get when they harvest their crop. We'll all be planting soon!

Disneyland burned down!

Melinda was reading the kids a story in their bedroom tonight while I was working on my presentation. Just then it occurred to me that it was April Fools Day and I hadn't fooled anyone today!

So I worked up a tall tale really quick. I ran in their bedroom, and told them that their was a big fire at Disneyland! (trying desperately to keep a straight face and to sound distressed at the same time.) I told them there was an explosion in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and that it was spreading to the Haunted Mansion!

Lisette caught on first, but Melinda looked really concerned and upset. I think Ian went for it, but it didn't take Miles too long to tell it wasn't true. I think Lisette remembered what day it was, plus the kids all know the "Disneyland burned down" joke. It's from an old "Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey:

“One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said. "Disneyland burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down, he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late.”

We actually saw a burned down building in the Anaheim area the last time we went to Disneyland. I tried that joke then, but they were pretty sure that Disneyland was much bigger. Sigh. Kids are so sophisticated these days; they're getting harder and harder to trick all the time.

The big nap

Tomorrow I'm teaching a class on Square Foot Gardening to a group of retired folks. I've been working on my presentation for a couple of days now and it's almost done.

After I got home from work I felt like I was trudging slowly over wet sand. So instead of finishing my presentation I put in some earplugs, donned by sleeping eye mask and crawled into bed.

I woke up 3 hours later at 9:30 PM. I thought about just going back to sleep until morning, but I decided to get up. It's amazing how much happier and calm I felt. Amazing. Maybe I need to read The Promise of Sleep again. Hopefully now I'll be better rested so I won't be ornery or yell at any of the senior citizens tomorrow.