I Love Democracy!

WOW! Life has gotten so crazy for us lately that blogging has taken a backseat. That being said, I had to quickly share an experience we had this week. Dylan was very excited about the voting process-to the point of nagging his parents. Owen and I took Dylan with us to early voting so that he could see what it was all about. He was very upset when he learned that he was too young to actually vote! (They did let me take him with me while I voted and he actually cast my vote by pushing the button at the end which made him a little happier.) I decided that this was a wonderful time to explain what a blessing it is for us to live in a democracy and what that means for every American. I actually got choked up while I was explaining this to him and was surprised at just how tender and strong my feelings were about it. Dylan said "So it's pretty important?" Yeah baby, it is.

Creepy Crawlies

Home Schooling is awesome! I adore teaching Dylan and allowing him to exhaust me with a million questions about a topic that he's really interested in. (Seriously, thank goodness for the Internet and a great public library at these times!) For science we're focusing on animals for the next few weeks. This past week we studied arthropods in particular. As a part of my lesson plan, I thought that it would be fun for us to look up some "scary" looking bugs which proved to be quite amusing for both of us (and hopefully for you as well since that's what this post is about!). So without further adieu, here's our top three creepiest crawlies:


Here's the Potato Bug. Also known as The Jerusalem Cricket or my favorite, Nino la tierra (Child of the Earth) because it's face is thought to look like that of an infant. It's "song" sounds like someone playing the bongos badly (which we did with relish). It lives primarily underground and only comes out at night to eat dead plant matter. Honestly, could you imagine encountering this large insect in the middle of the night? SCAAARRRY.





Here's our friend the Golden Orb Weaver. This massive missus hails from Australia. The adult female is usually about 6 inches wide (about the size of your face if you're wondering) and has been known to eat birds! Although the bite of this giant arachnid won't kill you, it will make the flesh around the wound die and fall off of your body. SPOOOOOOKY.

Our final crawlie is the African Millipede. Although totally harmless, (note the kid under this guy) just the thought of such a large and multi crawlied myriapod on this boys face makes us shudder and cringe. YIKES!

I hope all of you have a great Halloween this week!

New Glasses

At Dylan's annual check-up, he had a hard time with the basic eye screening so I took him to an Optometrist. We found out (sadly) that Dylan has significant eye sight problems and probably has had since birth. As a result, Dylan has been inducted into the "Glasses Club". He said to me "Mom! Now we're a glasses family!" I guess so.


After the exam we went to chick-fil-a to play. Dylan insisted on wearing the little disposable sunglasses that you get when they dilate your eyes. Dylan told the kid he was playing with "I just found out that I'm blind! I have to wear these glasses forever now." To which the kid replied "HOLY COW! I've never known a blind kid before!"
When we went to pick out frames some of the funnier declarations Dylan made were "Too up and down." "Too squarish." "Too roundie." and my favorite "AAAAARG! I LOOK LIKE LARRY KING!" which made everyone there laugh. (Owen surmised that Dylan knows what Larry King looks like from his appearances on various PBS kid shows.)


When we walked out of the Eyeglass shop Dylan said "WHOA! Everything looks so weird!"

Wonderful Qualities

I was challenged by my sister-in-law Heidi, to list 5 wonderful qualities of each of the members of my family including myself.

Here goes:

Dylan: 1) Intelligent. Super smart kid from the womb.
2) Intuitive. He can pick up on nonverbal vibes like a grown up.
3) Creative. He draws, writes poetry, and comes up with some really funny stories!
4) Empathetic.
5) Hilarious! I have scars on the inside of my cheeks from biting them when what Dylan has said is inappropriately funny.

Owen: 1) Tenacious/ Persevering. The man can stick it out!
2) Confident.
3) Pragmatic. He keeps my drama in check.
4) Even tempered. Again, he dilutes me.
5) Passionate. In work, hobbies, parenting and marriage.

Rebecca: 1) Compassionate
2) Artistic
3) Nurturant
4) Bold
5) Hard Working

There you go. If you'd like to make a list please do! It made me see how blessed I am with the men in my life.

Einstein or Eddy?

The Punkin' Festival

Today we decided to get out and enjoy all of the various fall festivities around the county. Here's a few pictures from our travels.

Nirvana

The other day I finally experienced one of Owen's favorite restaurants, The India Palace. It's a place that Owen and the other "lab rats" from Dr. Mumma's lab go each week for a lab meeting. It was totally a new experience for me. When we walked in, there was no menu, no waiters or daily special boards. In fact, I felt like we'd arrived at an informal pot luck dinner party. The food was laid out family style and we could sit wherever we pleased. Occasionally, the turban clad proprietor came around to fill our water glasses. There is punjab music playing in the back ground as we feasted on jasmine rice, naan, palak pakoras, various dals, chaat, and lobia. It was delicious! The problem was that about half way through my meal, I began to feel like I was in a total trance. Maybe it was the heavily spiced food, or the music or both. I don't know, but I felt totally relaxed and like I needed a nap right a way! At one point Owen looked at me and started laughing. He said that the exact same thing happened to him the first few times that he ate there. I guess that his reaction to the restaurant is a favourite anecdote in Mumma's lab. Is this the typical Native Utahan's reaction to authentic Indian food? It does make me wonder...

General Conference

This past weekend (as most all of you know) was General Conference. It was really wonderful. On Sunday we decided to make use of the new video stream offered online and stay home. Unfortunately the stream didn't work (we presume caused by the high volume of users) so we ended up just being able to listen. General Conference brings such a calm and reassuring spirit into our home. It truly is like a tall drink of cold water in a parched desert. Dylan is usually a spiritual barometer for our family and the fact that he was sitting quietly (as in NOT talking constantly) and listening (albeit while playing with Lego's) says a lot. We had some really big revelations about the course our family should take and all left with a resolve to live the gospel more fully. What a blessing General Conference is!

The Corn Maize

Here are a few pictures I took on Dylan's first field trip to the corn maize. I just love being around so many little kids at once. It was SUCH a fun trip!

The Garage

One of my favorite places in our home is the garage. If I'm feeling overwhelmed, I always find myself in the garage sitting on the step leading into our home. It comforts me to be there. This room is the only one that is totally utility in nature. There is no pretense or careful planning of color, placement of furniture or any other decor. There is a beautiful unfinished wall lined with mismatched plastic containers keeping our seasonal and sentimental clutter in check. Our well used garden tools gleam in the light of the bare bulb lighting the room. There is a place to recycle, a place for tools, chemicals and other aids, and a place to store items used to make fun with the family. This is how I wish I could run the rest of my life; walk away from the frill minutia and in the vein of Thoreau- live simply by brushing off the nature to adorn.