Do you CPR?

Last night I went to receive my CPR/ First Aid certification because it is required to become a foster/adoptive parent. The instructor started the class asking all of us to tell the group our names and the reason that we were taking the class. Not one of us said that we were doing it just because we felt it was a good thing to do. This really bothered me, though I wasn't sure at first why. As I sat mulling it over during the class and then again this morning when I was washing dishes it occurred to me that this is a small example of a common problem with the society that we live in. Why do we always shy away from getting involved? I've come up with a few reasons but that's not the point of this entry. I stand on my soap box to admonish those less selfish/ more socially aware than me to consider CPR/First Aid as a way to reach out to humanity in a proactive/ preventative way. Wouldn't it be great if we could assume that wherever we were, there were individuals who were willing and able to help us or our children right away if something awful happened? I think so.

1-2-3!

This morning was a 1-2-3 morning at our house. One as in the first day of Kindergarten. Dylan was excited and literally bouncing off the furniture and walls. I was fighting back tears and Owen was fighting back overly excited cheers. Dylan has gone to school before but there is something symbolic with Kindergarten. Dylan is now a "grade schooler" and has entered into a new phase of his life. Owen didn't get why this was so sad for me or all of the other women I've been talking with lately. I'm actually on my way out to take flowers to other grieving mothers who's first child's first day of school is also today. Women know! It's a big deal when your first little one moves from your lap to the classroom.

Today is two because Dylan lost his second tooth while eating breakfast. (I've read that children lose their teeth in the same order and manner that they grew them. If this is the case then Dylan might be eating really soft food for a while; as a baby he cut his first four teeth all within two weeks! Time will tell.) Luckily this time Dylan didn't swallow the tooth, but he was thoroughly disgusted and lost his appetite. Poor lamb.

It's a three day because it's the third time that I've taken Dylan to his first day of school. This is a task that never gets easier. Pictures, admonitions, hugs and tears. I guess it's all par for the course. It is also a three day because our three pets are driving me bonkers! Kiwikeahi (that's kitty's name) and Chimi play like they're fueled on crack! The moment it seems that they might settle down, Eddy eggs them on again. It's cute for the first few minutes but then it just gets on the nerves. I hope all of you who had a first day of school are surviving!

New Family Member

This weekend we added Mr. Kitty to our family. Actually, we adopted him from another family in our Ward who can't (or don't want to) take him with them when they move. He has been neutered, declawed, and fully immunized. That is the only reason Dylan and I were able to convince Owen that kitty needed to live with us. The trouble is that we're having a hard time deciding on a name. We've narrowed it down to four:

1) Kiwi

2) Keahi ("fire" in Hawaiian)

3) Jager ("hunter" in Dutch)

4) Arancione ("orange" in Italian)

If you have a preference, please let us know (via comment) because we need to call him something... I'nt he just the cutest lill thang?! SMOOCH! We love our new kitty! (The Chihuahuas are still ambivalent but they'll be loving him completely by the end of the week I'm sure.)

Robotcha

This is Robotcha the karate robot. This summer Dylan has been plagued by nightmares of robot lobsters (we think stemmed from the live lobster tank at Wal-Mart.). Dylan always wakes up terrified and screaming whenever he dreams of these baddies. According to reports, they can use their enormous pinchers to cut through walls, nets and dream catchers. Dylan decided to create a robot that would be able to protect him from these horrible creatures and here he is! Dylan declared that Robotcha was successful last night. Good news for us!

Not a Baby.

This morning Dylan and I went to run a few weekend errands. After we were finished, we stopped to eat lunch at a local burrito shop. (Dylan loves bean burritos.) As we were chatting and eating Dylan stopped talking (which never happens when he's conscious) and seemed to be perplexed by something in his mouth. I looked at his mouth and gasped! I realized that he had just lost his first baby tooth! My gasp startled Dylan, causing him to swallow what was in his mouth which at the time was a large bite of burrito and his tooth! At first we were both so caught up in the excitement of the moment talking about the tooth fairy and getting grown-up teeth, et cetera. Then it dawned on me- our son was no longer my "little baby", he was now a BIG boy! I began to sob! (Sometimes I'm so dramatic! It's so embarrassing!)

As I was trying regain my composure, Dylan must have had a similar thought. He said "Mom, now you can't call me your baby any more! You now have to call me your big boy! " I agreed to this new requirement, but not happily. Dylan was more concerned about what he was going to leave for the tooth fairy! I told him that we'd just have to leave a note under his pillow telling the tooth fairy that he accidentally swallowed his tooth. He was concerned that the tooth fairy would think that he was lying and I assured him that she was totally aware that there was a tooth missing from his smile. He seemed satisfied.

Tomato Vines, Arches and Women

Earlier this week I went out to our garden to harvest a few tomatoes for my salad. One particular tomato vine has been quite impressive at producing copious amounts of beautiful, delicious fruit. The vine itself is a little worse for wear and has required substantial additional support for each of its fruit laden stocks. I have been impressed how this specific plant has been able to surpass its expected size and bounty.

Last week in Arches National Park, Wall Arch collapsed. I have visited wall arch a few times, most notably on our honeymoon. I posed underneath the expanse of many of the arches there and marveled at the delicacy of the sandstone and wondered how long each would be able to stand. Paul Henderson, a representative of A.N.P., stated in an interview "The arch was claimed by forces that will eventually destroy others...gravity and erosion."

Last night I went with a group of women to see a film aptly described as a "Chick Flick". The movie itself wasn't really my cup of tea, but sitting there with women and watching a story about women unfold proved to be quite moving. After the movie ended one lady in our group stopped short, turned around ,and said "If I don't say this now, I never will...I really needed to be with other women today! I'm so grateful for all of you." This made us all cry and hug as women do.

This experience set my mind off on all sorts of thoughts. I thought of my little tomato vine and its fruit and how many women I know laden with the fruits of life (i.e.children, career, marriages). I thought further of the necessity of additional support each woman needs as she completes her duty of nurturing family and others in her life. I thought of the majestic and beautiful arch. How lovely and delicate in nature and yet doomed to succumb to gravity and erosion. Women are also quite lovely and unique. There is never one like another. The ravages of life, childbirth,caring for children, and aging can weigh down on them and erode their zest and zeal for life. Women are remarkable to me. I see the power and ability in each of them just as I am aware of the fragile and delicate nature of their hearts. Forever wondering "Am I pretty/smart/educated/nurturing/etc., etc., good enough?". How important it is to take care of women! To take care of and support one another! I think President Hinckley said it best: "How thankful I am, how thankful we all must be, for the women in our lives. God bless them. May His great love distill upon them and crown them with luster and beauty, grace and faith."

Turtle Adventure

Yesterday morning I stepped into our garage and discovered a turtle. This is not unusual due to the fact that we live 1/2 a block from a lake filled park. I decided to let it be in peace and moved on to the rest of my day. Later that afternoon, Dylan and I were playing in the back yard when we heard a loud commotion from the garage. It seemed that our turtle friend had knocked over a few things in his explorations and was thoroughly freaked out! This concerned Dylan quite a lot so we decided to take action. Dylan and I carried our little reptile buddy to the end of the block to Larry the Biologist's house. We asked Larry if he thought we should call the department of wild life or just take the little guy over to the park. He told us that what we had was a mud turtle and that he was likely from the park to begin with. We decided to take him home. It was very sweet how concerned Dylan was as we got there ("Were will he sleep? What will he eat?" etc). We let him go in the grass and despite the general perception of turtles, the little guy hightailed it back to the lake.

Palo Duro Canyon

Up north from Lubbock a bit exists Palo Duro Canyon or the "Grand Canyon of Texas". The park claims that it's the second largest canyon in the United States. It is cool but it's like the baby brother of the Grand Canyon with a depth of only 800 feet compared to GC's 6000 feet. We had planned on camping in Palo Duro this weekend but were greeted with a huge rain storm as we drove the last 5 miles to the Canyon. We decided spend the day in the Canyon anyway since we were there. It was really beautiful yesterday! The rain cleared but the clouds hung around keeping the temperatures cool. The rain also intensified all of the bright reds and golds and browns of the canyon which made every nook and cranny a sight to behold! We went on several hikes around the canyon. The longest trail we went on was called Rojo Grande which is where we found all of our mishaps for the day. It was a beautiful hike with many water crossings. The trail itself wound along side a small river most of the hike. At the first water crossing, I accidentally threw Dylan into a stream. The plan was that I would toss him as he jumped and between our two efforts Dylan would find himself safe,clean and dry on the other side. What happened was something entirely different! As we began the maneuver, I put all of my weight on my right leg and began to propel Dylan. Simultaneous with this motion, a sink hole opened up and swallowed said leg up to my knee. At this point I dropped Dylan tush first into the stream. Gravity continued it's work on me and I landed face first in the mud. Luckily no one was seriously hurt so all it was was really funny! We completely stopped worrying about getting dirty or wet for the rest of the hike which I think, made it more enjoyable. The other mishap involved Owen and a swarm of horse flies. For some reason Owen smelled really enticing to the biting flies even though Dylan and I seemed completely uninteresting to them. Poor Owen spent the hike flailing about and screaming. He occasionally would sprint ahead in an effort to stave off the swarm. Many times we could hear him up ahead yelping in the shrubs. At one point just as Dylan and I were rounding a bend after Owen had ran off once again, we came upon Owen smearing mud on his legs and arms all while screaming and jumping around like a big monkey. (Later Owen said he thought that if he had mud on him it would mask the sent of whatever was attracting the flies to him.) It was the most hilarious sight! I nearly fell down I was laughing so hard! In fact I was fighting off laughter the whole hike but tried hard not to give in so as not to further intensify Owen's plight. Owen reported that it was the most awful hiking experience of his whole life! (I feel bad that my beloveds agony was so funny to me but even as I write this, I find my self riddled with the giggles!) Despite these little setbacks, we all had really good fun with no further buggy aggravation the rest of the time we were there. We plan to try to camp there again next summer and next time make sure to armor coat Owen with bug spray!

P.S

Owen video taped Dylan explaining why the flies were attracted to Owen. I'll try to get it onto the blog sometime in the next couple of days.

Recycling is Cool

We had a FHE a few weeks ago about our stewardship of Heavenly Father's creations. We talked about some ways we can show our gratitude and respect for what we have been given. One of the things we decided to do as a family was to increase our recycling efforts. Owen and I have always been really good about recycling newspapers and aluminum cans but after a family trip to the recycling center, we decided to add #'s 1 and 2 plastic, tin, and glass. What has amazed us is just how much stuff we end up recycling in a week! Honestly, I didn't believe that just three people could consume so many resources so quickly but I was proven wrong! Now we are discussing building a compost heap (although that needs to be approved by our landlord) to see if we can reduce what we throw out even more. It is surprising how good our family has felt about this effort as well. Reduce, reuse, recycle! (If you're interested, check out OurEarth.org for some good tips in recycling and conservation as well as a list of recycling center locations near you.)

Gazpacho fantástico

Lately Owen and I have been attempting to treat some of our family's ailments with dietary changes. I recently read an article about stress and the theraputic effects of vitamin C for treating stress. They specifically used Gazpacho to treat stress levels with good results . I found it an interesting idea an thought that I would give it a try. There was a little trepidation because the last time we tried Gazpscho, the recipe called for SO MUCH cilantro that Owen and I couldn't even handle how it smelled much less how it tasted. A quick Google search harvested so many recipes out there that it made it difficult to choose where to begin. I finally decided on a recipe that sounded good to me and chopped up a big bowl full... Oh, how I love Gazpacho! It's really refreshing in the heat of the day and whether or not it is capable of significantly lowering the negative effects of stress is almost moot. This soup makes me happy! So bright and flavorful- I could write an ode. Owen and Dylan feel a little bit differently though. I forced Owen to try it and he said that it wasn't soup at all but a salsa that wasn't tangy enough. The other morning I was ladling up a bowl for breakfast when Dylan said "Uggh what are you doing mom?!" I said "MMMMM! Gazpacho for breakfast! Do you want some?" Dylan said "UM, Gazpach-NO!!!! I want cereal." Oh well.