Go Timbers!

Swimming with the Buds

Roz is on the left, in goggles. She went swimming with her friend Ashton (second from right), Ashton's sister Brielle (right) and another little girl. Fun times.

Seattle

Ew! The gum wall!

If you ask to use the Magic Mouse toy store restroom...

If you ask a Magic Mouse toy store employee if you may use the store restroom, she will smilingly tell you that they don't have one.

(I call BIG FAT LIE on that one, since I know that state (federal?) laws require all places of business to have a restroom on their premises for the employees' use. I know you have a restroom, cute Magic Mouse employee. You could have just said "It's only for the employees," and saved yourself the title of Liar Liar Pants On Fire that you now have.)

Magic Mouse employee will also tell you that the Starbucks across the street has one you can use. So you will leave Magic Mouse toy store, walk across the street, and see that Starbucks has no intention of letting you use their restroom without your becoming a customer, i.e., buying something. 

So you'll get in line. Still having to pee. You'll look in the display case and decide to buy a blueberry scone. You'll purchase the scone, ask for the restroom lock door code, and walk back to the restroom door.

While you are waiting at the restroom door, a man will pop out, looking rather alarmed, and inform you that there is no toilet paper in the restroom, and "about four or five paper towels on the back of the toilet." You will find this annoying, still having to pee. After the man informs the baristas behind the counter that the toilet paper situation is dire, you will stand and watch them for a few moments as three of them continue to serve customers and do absolutely nothing about the toilet paper. 

You will get back in line, bagged scone still in hand, still having to pee. You will follow the other people in the line as they make their purchases. The employees will continue to do nothing about the toilet paper. You will finally get your chance to speak, and you will politely ask the barista for a roll of toilet paper so that you can go in their restroom and, you know, do your thing.

SHE WILL REFUSE.

She will say, "I'm so sorry, I know we need to fix the toilet paper, and I just can't quite get in there right this minute."

You will be aghast. Still having to pee.

You will ask for a refund on your blueberry scone. 

You will get your refund with huffs and rolled eyes (sorry, girls, I'm not the one who can't refill the toilet paper), leave the store, and promise yourself to write a scathing! SCATHING! review of your experience on every online customer review site in the history of Father Al's Internets.

You will meet your family, and then walk five more blocks until you find a wonderful place to have dinner, Italian Family Pizza.

You will be directed to the well-stocked restroom by their very friendly, kindhearted employee. 

You will eat monstrous pieces of pizza. (No, seriously, monstrous. We ignorantly ordered two pizzas and were extremely, pleasantly, but overwhelmingly surprised when we saw them...)

You will walk back to the car, very content, no longer having to pee.

I have found the magic.

Come to Butt-Head

My mommy sent these to me in a birthday package. I have since discovered that Fwee Fwee sells them. Mmmmmm

Maverick: "It had just been a [crappy] week from the beginning."

And how! Just starting back up with early morning Seminary alone was ... gahhh. Horrid. Never has the first week of school of the new year just been so hard. DANG. Maybe it has to do with, you know, everything.

Today's epic drama: the ward deacons, bless their little hearts, planned a combined Young Men/Young Women sledding activity for tomorrow, back at the plan-the-whole-year meeting in the bygone era of December 2014 (as in, two weeks ago) but heck if we were prepared for it. It really snuck up on us.

Now the activity is TOMORROW, the young men are also SNOW CAVING TONIGHT on MOUNT HOOD, and now, because of the snow caving, we have no rides for the young women who are looking forward to sledding with the ward young brethren. No one who isn't already up there wants to drive up there. Or can, or will, or whatever.

I am in full SHUT UP mode and listening to Wichita Lineman on a loop and bawling my eyes out and grouching at everyone within the sound of my voice and/or text messages. And my husband and children are frightened and the kitties are hiding.

So, of course, it's time for this:

And this:

Possibly this:

And I hate to think of it, but maybe even this:

"I'll just have to endure it," indeed.

P.S. Upon seeing the snow situation when they arrived, the young men leaders decided sledding would be better left undone. My wonderful longsuffering YW presidency and I enjoyed a long, relieved laugh. What a happy ending. 😊

Ward Temple Night

I played the organ in the temple for our ward chapel session tonight - first time doing that, ever. Pretty cool, but I didn't realize that the temple peeps keep their own version of the hymnal on the organs (some hymns are considered too rowdy for temple use), so I brought my big old one, and subsequently left it there. Dang it!

I traveled over with good friends Candice and Matt S and joked about all the white bread normies in our ward. What?

Hard to believe

And here it is January 2nd already. Can you believe the way this year is just flying by?

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Glad to report that we saw Mockingjay Part 1 last night, and no one had any nightmares... one of us was absolutely certain she would. (Those Peeta scenes at the end were quite intense and disturbing for Little Miss R.)

MENTAL HEALTH HUMOR

Child #2: What's your New Year's resolution?

Me: To not kill you.

Child #2: That makes two of us

For our annual New Year's Eve celebration, I made artichoke dip and some other snacks, and grasshopper pie and brownies for dessert. Tasty. 

Hubby took C and R to the C's for a New Years Eve party. Jeremy and Terina always throw one for their kids and friends, and Terina also teaches C's Sunday school class so she had all the Sunday school kids over, as well.

Around 9:30 we went to the downtown theater and watched Mockingjay Part One. Ooooh, scary! It was a beautiful evening and the movie was great. By the time the movie ended and we drove home, we were just in time to ring in 2015 together with sparkling cider and the usual hijinks (whatever those are). Hope it's a great new year!

Missing you, Dad

But the endings always come at last
Endings always come too fast
They come too fast, but they pass too slow
I love you and that's all I know

(Hey look, another Jimmy Webb song.)

Wherefore Art Thou, Jimmy Webb?

I am a lineman for the counteeeeeeeeeee....and I drive the main roooooooad....
(Wichita Lineman)

Lately my grief has taken the form of (Form of! Shape of!) Jimmy Webb songs - they remind me a lot of my dad, probably because of the time frame when they were popular. Wichita Lineman sticks out in particular, because my dad was a "work with his hands" kind of guy. 

Might also have something to do with the lyric "And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time..." I am damn mad that my father is dead. I miss him, need him, want him around still. I wasn't nearly done with him yet. Part of my sadness comes from the fact that we weren't particularly close, not for a long time, and I always wanted that to be better. Always thought I'd have more time to fix it with him, as much as we made each other crazy sometimes. I mean, literally crazy. 

We don't have all the time in the world to make things right with the people we love. Lesson learned - the hard way. 



I never knew how much I liked Jimmy's stuff until this: 



From this I learned that Jimmy has written every awesome song in the world. Well, quite a few of them, anyway.

Al, you're so educational. Thanks for the enlightenment.

(And Wikipedia, because I knew Jurassic Park was a parody of MacArthur Park, but I didn't know who wrote McArthur Park until Wikipedia took me by the hand and made me understand.)

Christmas at Grannie's

First, for the Christmas gripers on either side of the religious fence (those people really chap my hyde):

"We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."

Merry Christmas!

Now for the fun part. What a jolly Christmas we had at Grannie and Grandpa's. 

Does it get any better than this? Oh no, it does not.

Enjoying a vintage Charlie's Angels chase scene featuring Bosley on foot, Tiffany on a bike and Kelly on roller skates trying to catch Ed Begley Jr. on skates (he limbo-ed under a semi truck) while dodging shots from a security guard on a bike, with a 70s guitar scratching away in the background. Intense! Television genius!

The best part was when Bosley and Kelly stopped the car and jumped out to chase Ed, and Kelly was already wearing skates. And my family wonders why I DVR this show! 

Later, we took off for Grannie's house. Looking forward to a fun time together with her, Grandpa, Ernie and Jeremy. It's been a really long time since we left our home to have Christmas elsewhere. I guess we were waiting until the kids' gifts were small enough (and already assembled) that we could take everyone AND their gifts on a road trip. This was that year. 

Grannie, Grandpa, Ernie and Hattie the dog were very happy to see us - especially Hattie. 

Thirteen years ago today...

...this cute kid showed up.

Kind of a rough morning

Twenty minutes old

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that my cutie youngest son is now a teenager. Carter is one of the sweetest boys on the planet, with a gigantic sense of fairness and right-from-wrong. He is funny, kind, creative and talented, and I am proud just to know him, let alone have the opportunity to be his mom.

Love you, my Carter boy.

Today being three days before Christmas, Hubby once again had the fun opportunity to dress up as Santa for his office's annual work party, which they share with their "clients". Rojo the Llama showed up this year, too. Pictured are Hubby's co-worker Daryn and her hubby Bryce.

Merry Christmas!

Ding, ding, ding

Today was Rozzie's soccer team's day to volunteer for the Salvation Army. Hubby knows one of the head SA honchos in our area (a soccer parent) and has set this up for first Bella's team, and now Rosalind's, for the last few years.

Rozzie was super excited. She did a great job and got really tired, but had fun, especially when her teammates showed up. Good job Rozzie (and Daddy).

C'mon, give the kid some money

"You have to admit, she is rather mannish"

If only I could get rid of the nasty virus, and keep the sexy man voice. It's kind of fun blowing people away with it, being laughed at on the phone and hitting the low notes with Elvis, but enough's enough. 

Brother Car... in my bishopric, on the phone: "Sister Nat, you sound.... awesome."

WHY people????

"My Favorite Things" is not a Christmas song. I cannot stress this enough. Whoever thought it would make a good Christmas song should be taken out and mocked repeatedly. 

Meanwhile, there's always this (thanks Carrot Jello:)

Sick Again

Now that the funeral and graveside services are over, my body is pooped. I could feel it coming on over the last few days, but now I have the same virus that I had last month before Thanksgiving. (I'm not giving thanks that it came back.)

My cutie husband is "young lady"-ing me and making me stay in bed. Bless his heart - I really don't know what we would do without him.  

Dad's Memorial Service

I'd never watched a graveside service with full military honors for a veteran before. When Gran died, two months after the War on Terror began (October 2001), no military personnel were available to give him a salute or play Taps for him. This time was really, really cool, and poignant. Dad would have liked it.

Two Air Force servicemen were there to meet Dad's casket at the little shelter in the cemetery; they performed the flag folding ceremony and handed the flag to Neenaw (something we five children agreed she would like).

After the cemetery spokesman said a few words, he invited us to speak, but we were all too overwhelmed, I think - and had had the opportunity to share memories and thoughts at Dad's funeral two days before. So we were all perfectly silent as we looked at that beautiful casket one more time and bid Dad "see you later."

Dad was buried in the same national cemetery that his father, maternal grandparents, and grandaunt Rozila and granduncle Kenneth were buried. We actually watched as the cemetery personnel lowered his casket into the ground. I felt oddly peaceful, like, yep. This is what you do with a loved one's body after he leaves it behind. It was the last thing we could do for him, and it felt right to do it.

Afterward we walked a little ways up to Gran's grave. From his resting place, we're able to look just down the hill, and there's Dad's spot. "Just like in Brookings," Uncle John and Ernie both noted, alluding to the time during my childhood when we all lived on the same property together.

Then, we all went out to Sweet Tomatoes in Portland and enjoyed lots of great healthy-ish food, and bid each other safe travels. It was a hard, but very good day.

Till we meet again, Dad.