Joseph wanted to make a video out of still photos like they do in claymation movies. Here's what he came up with using 127 photos. I was really impressed!
Saturday, while I was learning to ride a horse, the president, vp, and 11 cabinet members of the Maldives held an underwater meeting to sign an agreement that they would become the first nation in the world to be carbon-neutral within the next 10 years. Pretty crazy to have them hold a meeting under water wearing wetsuits (which, btw, are being auctioned off to raise money for coral reefs-- Larry, I know you totally want one...). So of course, I had to read the crazy story and then I wondered, "Where the heck is Maldives?"
A quick google and some wiki-reading later, I am now a fan. It's one of those nations trying to figure some things out-- it was only in 2005 that it legalized a multi-party system and actually had a fair, multi-candidate election, in which the former president of 30 years (who was re-elected 6 times with no opponents) was voted out by 54%. The rising sea level is likely to bury the islands in water within the next century, so the current president is looking into land that he can begin to purchase to relocate the entire nation. If that isn't interesting, I don't know what is. It was also impacted by the 2004 tsunami (to the degree that maps had to be redrawn as some of the islands were destroyed), so since then they have been working to rebuild the nation's economy and reduce its high poverty. So there is a lot of good to be done in the Maldives and I want to go do it! Besides that, (at least until they relocate) it rains a lot, stays between 79 and 86 degrees all year, and has white beaches and crystal blue water! C'est parfait!!
So here's the plan:
1) Marry someone who wants to move to the Maldives
2) Move to the Maldives with husband and children
3) Husband will work with government in becoming 'carbon-neutral' and I will raise my kids and get involved in helping people in poverty.
Isn't that a great plan??!!
Ok, so I'm being a bit silly. But honestly, I think the Maldives presents a good opportunity for making a difference for some people and I would love to go there. Maybe I will...
My friend Cody came up to visit yesterday and we took the kids horseback riding on my friend's (Melissa's) horses. They were regular little cowboys! I was so impressed!
First Cody took them each for a ride. He said neither seemed to like how bumpy it was. Then they rode around a little corral with someone leading them and afterward rode the horse entirely alone! They were both like little naturals. Joseph said we should get a horse. I wonder if my landlords would care if we let one wander around the apartment playground... Or maybe we could convert our 10' x 3' balcony into a barn. 
Cowboy Joe
Miss Emmie J...
I don't look so hot in most of these (give me a break, I was running...), but here's a link to some photos from the race:
http://www.marathonfoto.com/index.cfm?RaceOID=13112009M1&LastName=CHENEY&BibNumber=7751&Mailing=23275
I'll post some others that my sister took later...
Four months of training, fours hours of sleep, three potty breaks in the trees, and 26.2 miles later I can now say that I have finished a marathon! Had the race ended at mile 24 I would say something like "that was the coolest experience I've ever had, I loved every minute of it." But once I hit about 24.5, I was ready to stop. The last mile was the longest mile I've ever run-- it was all I could do to finish! My legs were so tired and sore, and the end just never seemed to come. I didn't stop until the finish line though. In fact, miracle of miracles, I only walked to drink water at the water stations through the entire race.
So now I have a new appreciation for the word "endurance". In general conference today, one speaker said, "Enduring to the end can be challenging." I chuckled a bit to myself because enduring to the end of that race was extremely challenging. But it was a great experience. Lisa, my 2nd oldest sister, and I ran it together. We wore matching outfits and dedicated the run to our mom who beat breast cancer a few years ago. Our shirts had her photo on them and said "Mom's Runners." On the back it said, "She beat cancer, we can beat 26.2."
I felt so great starting out. We ran a slower pace than I normally do, but I think that helped a lot. I couldn't believe it when an hour flew by and I hadn't once felt like stopping to walk. I really wanted to finish in under 4 hours, and Lisa was shooting for under 4:30. So I told her that at mile 13 I would decide how I felt and decide if I would try for under 4:00. When we got to 13, she was hurting a bit from a previously sore achilles and was stopping to get some ben gay rubbed on her. So she said, "Go get it Lane!" I told her I loved her and I'd see her at the end and started out for the last half on my own.
At that point I was at 2:10, so I knew I needed to make up 20 minutes to make it under 4 hours. I ran hard and felt really great. I passed several hundred runners from that point, which was pretty exciting. At mile 23 I was at around 3:40, so I knew I would be coming in after 4 hours, but was still hopeful for around 4:05. Running into town around mile 24 I still felt good. I tried to pick up the pace, which may have been my downfall. I was hurting so bad and all I wanted to do was stop. I kept wondering when the finish would come. Finally I saw the balloons and it was all I could do to keep running. But I did. I kept thinking how it was kind of like childbirth. No matter how much you want it to end, you just have to keep pushing.
Passing over the finish line was so relieving. I walked around and caught my breath and then headed back to the finish to see my sister come through. I was so excited to see her pass by, she looked really strong and passed a couple people coming in! I screamed and screamed her name, but she didn't hear me. Then I had to get back to the racer area so I wouldn't lose her. I walked as fast as I could (which wasn't very fast) back to the area, but instead of taking the long way around to the entrance, I asked a 16 year old kid to help me jump the fence. He was a bit taken aback, but was kind enough to give me a boost over the 4 foot divider. I ran and hugged Lisa and cried. We did it!! I felt so overjoyed!
I am amazed that I was able to do it. Honestly, I felt so blessed as I ran the last half. The longest I ran in training was 15 miles, and I did it really slowly and stopped many times. So when I had passed mile 16, 17, and 20 without stopping to walk and still felt great, I almost cried. All I could think was, "Our God lives and loves us!"
So my official finishing time was longer than I wanted, but I'm satisfied with it (particularly given the fact that 4 months ago it took me an hour to run/walk 3 miles). I finished in 4:09:52 and Lisa came in at 4:22:24. I was right around the 50th percentile of finishers overall and in my division. It's pretty rewarding.
My brother came to see us run. He decided the night before to drive down, so they left around 6 am and made it in time to cheer us on at the end. He's a cool brother to come see us. And his wife is cool to go along with the ride-- particularly since they had to drag their children out of bed at an awfully early hour. Thanks to both of you! I love you lots. And thanks especially to Lisa. If it wasn't for her suggestion 9 months ago that we run a marathon, I never would have done this. And I'm so happy she did it with me. I love you, Lis!!
Will I ever do that again? At mile 10, I told Lisa we should keep doing these together and even run one when she's 60. At mile 23 I was thinking how much I loved running marathons. At mile 25 I decided once was enough and that I would never again do this to myself. But now I'm thinking maybe next year I'll run a 3:45 and in 2011 I'll do 3:30... we'll see.
So I guess it's official: I'm a runner. I love it. I'm healthier than I've ever been and look forward to becoming even healthier in the future. My next race is in February. I'm going to run the Del Sol Ragnar with Lisa and my brother, Byron. It's a relay race, so we'll have 12 people on our team and each of us will run 3 legs over a 24 hour time period totaling 202 miles (running around 12-21 miles each) through the Arizona desert. I'm really excited to do it. Plus, it will keep me running in the winter months when I don't feel like heading out in the cold.
Hopefully I'll be able to walk soon. I'm pretty sore. Stairs are the worst. My friend, Cody, carried me up some stairs last night and today Tyler carried me around a bit. Sadly neither are here now and my kids aren't quite strong enough to carry me yet. :) 
Oh, and I have some pretty serious blisters on my heels and toes (I had to show a photo... sorry to those of you who find that so incredibly disgusting...). In fact, I have a blister on a blister. It's a bit cold around here for flip flops, but I think I'll sport them for a day or two.
I should be up and running again before the end of the week... I can't wait. :)
Today begins the first day of my new life-- at least for the next year. Since January I have been mulling over the decision of what to do with my life and last month I decided to be a stay-at-home mom for the next year (or possibly longer, if I can continue to manage it financially).
My job has been very demanding, particularly over the last six months. I considered cutting back (which I didn't think would actually work out-- kind of like going back to just holding hands after you've kissed) and then considered getting a new job (thinking I could find one that really would be part time). But in the end I felt very good about staying at home and living off of the little income I get from social security (I'm such a hypocrite).
We are all excited about this new life! It's going to be a good change for us. These last five years have been hard and stressful. It will be a nice change of pace and will benefit the kids greatly in their education. I am excited to teach Emeline to read and Joseph has a lot of interests that we are going to tackle this year. Homeschool has been a lot of fun for us already, but now that it can be my only focus, I am certain we will love it even more!
So I expect the next year to be one of the best I've had. I'll keep you posted on all of our adventures!
I have a pretty amazing mom. She showed up last week around 10 pm one night and took care of my kids while I barely left work for three days. About 2 weeks before, I had complained to my sister about how I was sick and my house was a wreck and I needed to grocery shop and didn't have time to take care of any of it. That night my mom called me and said she would come live with me for the month while I finish up the event I am assisting with. At first I told her not to worry about me-- mainly because I know very well that I have completely chosen to live this way and that it is my responsibility to carry the load. I told her I was under more control than when I had talked to Lisa-- my babysitter had cleaned my house, and I had gone grocery shopping, and had my laundry mostly under control. I also explained that my life is insane and that she would likely be exhausted living with me. She still insisted that she would love to come and help. I knew it would be helpful to have her here and that the kids would enjoy her. So we made arrangements and her timing was impeccable. I am not sure how the kids and I would have survived last week without her. We certainly wouldn't have fared as well as we did.
Not only has she watched the kids, but she has taken them to lunch and shopping and to the park. They've gone on hikes and watched movies. She washed all my laundry and keeps the house in order.
I know we would likely survive without her, but we will be a lot happier with her here. Thanks, Mom for your thoughtful, gentle ways. We love you!!
This week I:
worked over 90 hours,
stayed awake for 44 hours in a row with a 20 minute nap. and
slept about 30 hours all week.
I'm sure I'm not alone in having a week like this every once in a while (finals week was always this way for me and for others too), but I just think it's a bit amusing and don't want to forget that it is possible to live through it.
I rarely get sick, or at least very sick. The last time I was sick enough to stay in bed was close to two years ago. And the longest I've been sick in bed is two days, at least as an adult. But this week I broke that record as I spent most of four days in bed from a very yucky flu. It was very bad timing since I have a large project at work that is due this Friday. So I worked from my bed in between naps, which is not an effective way to heal or work.
With Mom in bed, my house became very "sick" too. The photo above is just a sampling of how bad it got-- I'll spare you the full-disclosure because it would be too frightening.
My poor kids didn't fare much better-- I hardly had anything to feed them. Thankfully Symbria brought me food one night and my friend Melanie brought me groceries the next. She bought us fruit and Joseph held onto the strawberries like a starving person would and said, "Oooohhhh! Foooooooooddddd!!!" Poor kids.
Thankfully we survived. I'm still feeling a bit yucky, but I have energy again. I cleaned every room in my house except for Emeline's room (which will take a major overhaul). So I think we're pretty close to a full recovery!
Primary teacher: What kind of cake do you like?
6-year-old girl: Strawberry!
4-year-old girl: Princess!
Teacher to 4-year-old girl: Yes, but what flavor?
4-year-old girl: Princess!
Teacher under her breath: I wonder what that would taste like?
6-year-old girl: Probably meat.
Dear Runners:
Thank you for registering for the 2009 St. George Marathon. The lottery will take place on Friday, May 8th. A list of all successful applicants will be posted online Monday, May 11th. Please do not call the marathon office for results.
If you do not make it into the race, your registration fee will be credited to your account. The $5.00 online registration fee is non-refundable.
Please note: we will not be filling canceled spots in the race – there will be no waiting lists.
This is what Joseph does when I'm not home... should I be concerned?
I think this was "Imitate Napoleon Dynamite Day".
Tyler helped us can lots and lots of food storage!
I'll never forget how he sealed the can to the canning machine and had to use a rubber mallet to get it off. Tensions were a bit high, but he didn't swear once! That would have been a miracle in my family....
Thankfully Emeline has some amazing muscles that made canning easy....
"I can't put my arms down!"
Draper Temple tour, March 2009
Awww.... ain't he cute?
Joseph created a "Scrubbot" to help him clean his bathroom. Check out his blog for the full demonstration... it's pretty amazing.
Late night, passed out on the couch waiting for mom to stop working....
All my children....
Joseph dressed up like a woman in honor of President's Day. Yeah, I didn't get it either....
They decided they needed a perch. Joseph suggested we build a shelf that could be suspended from the ceiling in the living room, but I thought the top of the fridge might work better. Notice the basket used to transport goods from a rope... isn't it great to be a kid?
We went to a family ball last month (the one where I was mistaken for a 16 year old). When we were getting dressed, Emeline said, "All the boys will think I am so beautiful that they will all want to ask me to dance!" I said, "Yes, I'm sure they will. But if they don't ask you to dance, will you still think you are beautiful?" She replied, quite confidently, "Yes!"
Well, "all the boys" really did think she was quite beautiful-- Emeline was asked to dance several times by three lovely beaus and had a wonderful time.
If you think it's hard to be a single mom, just imagine how hard it is to be the kid of a single mom. Not only do you have to put up with one parent, one style of discipline, and one personality-- but you also have to WORK!! It's bad enough they don't have a mom who cleans up after them and helps them clean their rooms, but they also have to do HER work some of the time. I think my nine year old works harder than most adults. He does his own laundry (from washer to put away), changes his own sheets, cleans his own bathroom, and takes care of the fish and rat. Then he often helps me out by vacuuming the entire house and cleaning the kitchen. He makes lunch for us about 80% of the time and breakfast about half the time. Tonight he even bathed the dog. I honestly don't know how I would survive without him. I hope I don't burn him out.
Emeline has the benefit of being the "baby" and being 5. She doesn't have as many responsibilities, but she still pulls a good load. She can clean her room to look the way I do it and helps me put away her clothes when I finally get around to folding them. She thinks it's fun to wash the dishes and help me make dinner. So she's a good little worker too, and definitely misses out on the stay-at-home-mom-thing. I think it has only been the past year that she didn't think my laptop was attached to my body.
At any rate, I have some amazing kids. They are smart and kind and hard working. I can't imagine my life without them.
If today is any indication of how the next year is going to be for me, I think it's going to be a good one. At any rate, I'm off to a good start for my thirty-third year!
Last week I decided I would just pretend it wasn't my birthday today and go on with life as normal. But I have too many good people in my life to have a dull birthday! I started off the day running for 20 minutes (which beats my record from last week!), made a beautiful breakfast (which I hadn't planned on doing, but was glad I did), and made bread (which didn't turn out, but we'll eat it anyway).
Symbria and Sara (my good friends) brought me delicious chocolate muffins and told me to be ready at noon. They returned with Symbria's two grandchildren and we all headed to the park for a delicious and beautiful picnic, complete with pewter goblets and plates. She made turkey and beef sandwiches on garlic bread with tomatoes, avocados, and sweet mustard and served it with grapes, asparagus, and Trader Joe's chips with homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert and sparkling grape juice to drink. She gave me Lily of the Valley soap and a book of daily thoughts. The kids played at the park and we enjoyed the beautiful and uncharacteristic 65 degree weather. It typically snows on my birthday in Utah, so I was grateful for the sunshine and warmth and choose to believe it was a gift from God for my birthday!
Deb (my mother-in-law), drove up to visit for the afternoon. We went shopping at a fun gift shop and then a local clothing store. She bought me some great shoes and then surprised me with a bread maker, which she is certain I will learn to love. I told her I have a bread maker-- my oven. :) But she convinced me to try it out, so we'll see how it works. Joseph told her I probably needed it because my bread didn't turn out today-- but it was only because I halved the recipe and shouldn't have halved the yeast. Anyway, I'll see how a bread machine is for me. I wouldn't mind it except for my small kitchen... but maybe I'll be convinced that it's worth the space.
We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant and had ice-cream cake for dessert. The kids put my candles on so that they tilted into the center-- 32 candles squished together make a small bonfire with 4-5 inch flames. The fact that they were all so close together improved my ability to blow them all out at once-- I hope that increases my chance of getting my wish! I won't tell you what it is, but I'll be sure to let you know if it happens before my next birthday (let's all cross our fingers that it does...).
To top off the good day, I got several phone calls, emails and messages on Facebook from family and friends wishing me a happy birthday and a great upcoming year. A few of them said the kindest things to me-- I decided to save the messages on my voicemail to return to on a hard day... :) My primary president even brought me cookies with a sweet card. So overall it's been a day of feeling loved by the many good people I have in my life. Thanks everyone for making this a special day! I love you all!
Christmas Eve 2003, five days before Emeline's due date, we headed out to Target and the mall to finish our Christmas shopping. Carter was in grad school and I had been working 12 hour days (which, by the way, is very hard on a 9 month pregnant body) so we hadn't taken much time for shopping that month. To make better use of our last few moments before the holiday, we split up. Mary (Carter's sister) was visiting, so she and Carter and Joseph went to the mall and I went to Target. As I left Target, I was very relieved to finally start having contractions. I had contractions for 2 weeks before Joseph was born, but hadn't felt even one little one with Emeline until that time, and I was worried that she wouldn't be born on time-- which would be sad because Grandma Deb was coming out to be there for the birth and could only stay a few days. So I was happy that I was moving in a birth direction and figured she'd probably be born in a few days.
I went to the mall to find Carter et al, and the contractions got worse. By the time I found Carter, they were so bad that I had to stop walking when a contraction started. We went to Pizza Hut (we decided to start a new tradition of eating pizza on Christmas Eve-- but that was the only year we did it for several reasons...). I insisted on ordering it because it took my mind off the pain. I remember sitting in Pizza Hut and looking out the window at my sweet husband and feeling so in love with him. We went home and ate. The contractions were very regular, but I was certain they would stop and life would go on as normal. Within an hour, however, the pain was so intense I was doubling over. We called my doctor and she advised us to go to the hospital.
We checked in around 9 pm and by 10 pm I thought I was going to die. I was seriously regretting eating pizza, which threatened to return with a vengeance. I finally got my epidural and begged Carter to never let me consider natural child birth again (which I had been insisting on and relented when he begged me not to). We watched A Christmas Story and at 1:21 am Emeline slipped out into the world with very little effort on my part. (Carter kept telling everyone "The birth was soooo easy!" I told him someone was going to punch him for saying that... but he was right, it really was easy.)
So you didn't know you were going to get a birth story (maybe I should have warned you), but that's how my little Emeline entered this world. It is one of my favorite days to remember. I felt so close to Carter and it was really special for the two of us to share the intimate moment of welcoming our sweet daughter into our family. He was so proud of her-- he literally beamed with joy and pride when he held her. He thought she was the most beautiful baby he had ever seen. I felt so happy to watch him adore her.
Of course, being born on Christmas Day ruined her birthday and Christmas for the rest of our lives. Christmas time is still my favorite holiday, but that day is not restful anymore. This year was the first year I finally made the cake beforehand, and that helped. I also had most of her presents wrapped the night before (and no, I don't use Christmas paper for her birthday gifts!). But when things are winding down on Christmas evening, I still have to blow up balloons and tape streamers everywhere. It's hard enough to be a single mom trying to pull together Christmas gifts, but add to that a birthday party and the workload doubles.
It occurred to me last fall that because of the holiday, Emeline had never had a birthday party with friends. So I planned on having one the early part of December, but my relationship with what's his name (bitterness has settled in...) tipped my life enough that I never did. January was a whirlwind because of some changes at work, so I decided to have one in February. I thought I would have a tea party, and asked my friend Symbria and her daughter Sara (who babysits for us) to help me with it. Well, they are big-time party planners, so they went way beyond where I had imagined it. It was quite amazing! The day of the party I told Symbria that it was so neat to have such a special party since it was Emeline's first friend birthday party. She replied, "If I had known it was her first party, I would have made a bigger deal of it!" But I don't know how she could have done that because it was quite the big deal already.
my desk and used it as the refreshment table. They decorated with real tea cups and silver trays.
Symbria made white chocolate tea cups for each child and filled them with pudding which they ate with chocolate spoons. She made three kinds of sandwiches, shaped as hearts, flowers and small squares: egg salad, peanut butter, and cucumber. We had chocolate dipped cherries, chocolate dipped shortbread cookies, tea pot chocolates, 
cupcakes and chocolate dipped marshmallows. They drank sugar cookie tea, which they each poured out of their own tea pots. Sara dressed as a maid and served everyone as classical m
usic played in the background. I've never seen or heard such quiet children in all my life. They were all so proper.What do the numbers 42, 21, 59, 36, 48, and 54 have in common?
Well, besides being integers, they are the ages of men who have either asked me out or taken me out or shown some interest in doing so over the last few months. It's strange, if not sick and wrong, that there is almost a 40 year range in the ages of these men. I have to say that my preferred range doesn't span that large of a distance...
Yesterday I went to a family ball after a conference I worked at (sadly, I wasn't able to attend any classes, but it was productive in getting people to attend our upcoming fundraiser). Since it was a semi-formal, I pulled my hair up in a twist and borrowed my sister's black cocktail dress. As I walked into the dance, I noticed a man who I had met the night before and said hello as I walked by. I used his name, so he did a quick double take before he recognized me. I held out my hand to shake his and the following conversation ensued:
Me: "I have my hair pulled up, so you must not have recognized me!"
Him: "Yes-- you've taken 4 years off your age, you look like you are 16!"
Me: "Well, that would be more than 4 years-- I'm 32 so that would be half my age!"
Him: "Whoa! That's a good look for you, you could get away with a lot!"
Yikes. I can't believe I still get mistaken for a teenager, or even someone in her early twenties! People tell me I should be grateful, but honestly it's a liability more than an asset.
I could list time after time in the past 4 years for when I was mistaken for a teenager. The funniest one is when I was at a homeschool conference about 4 years ago. I was talking to my 13 year old niece and a friend of her's who must have been 13 or 14. We were joking about Strongbad and the boy said, "Where have you been this whole conference??!!" I told him I was in classes and he said, "Which ones? Why didn't I ever see you??!!" I looked at him for a minute trying to understand why he was asking me that, when it occured to me that he thought I was young enough to attend the youth conference instead of the adult conference. I replied "I was in the adult classes. I'm an adult." He said, "YOU'RE AN ADULT??? How old are you??!!" I asked how old he thought I was and he said "16." When I responded that I was 28 with two kids, I thought he was going to vomit on the spot. He started to make gagging and gasping sounds and wiped off his arms as if he was contaminated (although we never touched). I think the reason he acted so strongly was that he must have been trying to hit on me. How amusing. I'm not sure I'll ever forget that... I wonder if he has... he was probably scarred for life.
Now I go to single adult dances because of my new calling, and I get asked to dance by men who could be my father. I'm not sure which is worse. Likely both are equally bad. Although I must say that I really enjoyed talking to one man who was close to 60 at the last dance and hope to see him again sometime. But some are quite odd and don't seem to think I can tell that they are close to twice my age... It makes me wonder how some people can think I'm a teenager and yet some man who is clearly over 50 thinks I might be a prospective dating companion. I wonder about men sometimes.
My friend said she came across a formula for an appropriate age range when dating. I wish I could remember it-- it had something to do with taking half your age and adding or subtracting ten, but there was something else to it. Anyway, I think my range was 25 to 45 or there abouts. Of course there are always exceptions, but the fact that I look as young as I do makes me wonder what these older men could be thinking and helps me empathize a little more with the 21 year old. Though, the latter does know my age, so I don't know what his excuse is.
All I can say is that the adult dating scene is an odd, odd world. I'm trying to enjoy it and keep myself amused at the very least....
My friends have about 40 chickens and 10 ducks that roam around free in their yard during the day. Yesterday my kids (including the small hairy one) stayed at their house while I was at work. Nicky, the hairy child, has small-man complex, so he chases the chickens and ducks (except for the largest ones) to build his self-esteem (he'd drive a really big truck if he could, but since he can't, he chases birds.)
The verdict is still out, but there is evidence that Nicky may have been the murderer of one black duck. The headless victim was found in the yard after said dog had been out alone for sometime. No one witnessed the crime, but it appears that Nicky had foie gras for dinner last night.
Tonight we returned to the scene and kept Nicky indoors. But a dog's got to go when a dog's got to go, and since the birds were put away, we let him out. When Nicky returned, he had something in his mouth, hanging out about 1/2 inch on either side. I grabbed him to see what it was and determined that it was a bone-- and probably the bone left from the duck that had been decapitated. I grabbed one end of the bone and felt a fleshy texture. It was far too disgusting for me and I could not bring myself to touch it and Nicky would not drop it. Not wanting him to be reinforced for killing a duck, I was determined to pull the bone from his death grip. I sent Sara looking for gloves or pliers, anything I could use to grasp the fleshy bone without actually touching it. She took too long, though, and he started to chomp on the bone. I was amazed at how quickly he was able to break it, in spite of my efforts to stop him by yanking back on his head. Within only a few seconds, the two 1/2 inch ends fell to the floor. We all gasped and gagged as we inspected what we thought were bloody stumps of the duck's leg. Upon closer inspection, however, it became clear that the "fleshy bone" was actually the crust of a pizza, which Sara had thrown out earlier for the chickens to eat.
So perhaps my poor dog isn't a duck killer after all-- but the evidence is conclusive that he is, without any doubt, a pizza killer. And I am, without a doubt, a little high-strung.
Today is my wedding anniversary. I've officially been married for 11 years now. It occurred to me this evening that I have spent 5 of those anniversaries as a widow. I wonder what the graph of the quality of anniversaries over time would look like for me. Here's a brief description of our anniversaries thus far (I'll leave out the racy parts... Ha!):
#1-- 1999: No children. No money. But we celebrated three times. The day of our anniversary, we ate at Mandarin Garden (the location of our first "real" date in 1997) and then went to a movie ("You've Got Mail"). The day after our anniversary, our dear friends (Jana, Melanie, and Leslie) surprised us with a fancy dinner at home. We walked in the door of our 300 sq foot studio apartment to a card table beautifully set in the living room. But the piece de resistance was spending the night in one of the suites at Little America in December (which I decided to do because we were both on break from school). The best part was that I surprised Carter-- I was on the "Homemaking" (as it was called then) committee and told him that we were driving to Provo to stay in a cabin as an activity that our committee had planned to surprise our husbands. Carter hated stuff like that, so he wasn't thrilled to be going; but went to support me in my calling. When we got to SLC I told him that I needed to stop at Crossroads Mall to exchange something. As we drove through downtown, I pretended to be lost and pulled into the Little America hotel parking lot to turn around. I parked and he looked very confused as I explained that we weren't really going to Provo to hang out with other married couples who drove him nuts, but that instead we were staying the night in a suite at that hotel. Needless to say, he was ecstatic about the change in plans and very, very surprised.
#2-- 2000: One kid. Even less money. Jana willingly offered to babysit our little 2 month old screamer so we could have a night alone. We downgraded our hotel choice and stayed overnight in a hotel that had a thousand box elder bugs as permanent guests. When we got to our room, we were not happy to find that is was like a scullery maid's room with a small tub and a cinderblock wall. We complained, so they moved us to a suite. It wasn't much better though. The tub was bigger, but we tried taking a hot bath and unfortunately the water didn't stay hot long enough to fill it. And box elder bugs fell on us as we slept.
#3-- 2001: Still just one kid. Still no money. But we weren't going to repeat the same problem we had the year before. So we splurged and went back to the bed and breakfast where we spent our honeymoon. It was beautiful.
#4-- 2002: Yes, we still just had the one and we were quite broke. We decided to go down to SLC and Jana again watched our little toddler. We got the best chinese take-out in town and stayed in the worst hotel. That place was definitely a dump. I'm not sure the saved $40 was worth it.
#5-- 2003: One and a half kiddos. Broke and living in Indiana (which means no free babysitters who will stay overnight). To be quite honest, I'm not sure what we did this year. We probably went to Walmart as that was our typical date location. Geez-- I wish I could remember what we did. Too bad I don't keep journals...
#6-- 2004: Two kiddos. Broke in time and money. My Mom was visiting to help with the new baby, but since we were so poor and little Emeline was so young, we decided to just go out for the evening rather than the whole night. Carter was in grad school, so we went out to lunch that afternoon at a great cafe called Cafe d'Jango (Bloominton had the best ethnic restaurants). A couple months before, I lost the pearl on my wedding ring. I told him not to get it fixed because we didn't have any mula. But he surprised me and fixed it anyway. He gave it to me at lunch in a small, carved jewelry box that he bought from a local shop. That night we went to the third Lord of the Rings movie-- which I thoroughly loved.
#7-- 2005: This was the first one I spent solo-- well, at least in a physical sense. I don't remember what I did. But I remember that it was very sad for me. And we'll just leave it at that.
#8-- 2006: I went to the temple and then took myself out to lunch at a great place in downtown Louisville. Remember: if you go to lunch by yourself, bring a book. I was really bored. The kids and I watched a movie that night after I got back.
#9-- 2007: Temple again-- but this time I decided to drive back and take the kids to dinner. We planned to watch a movie, so I joked with the kids that we could watch the wedding video. I was surprised when they emphatically agreed. They were a captive audience through the whole thing. Then they asked me to put it back to the part where Carter and I danced and they dressed up and danced too. Emeline asked me to put on my "princess dress", so I did (it almost fit...). It was a tender experience for all of us.
#10-- 2008: The kids were in St. George with Grandma because I had something for work or school that weekend. I planned on driving down to spend the day with them, but a blizzard rolled in, so I was stuck. I spent the evening with my friend and her husband and children for FHE watching people play guitar hero while I ate ice-cream. Afterwards we watched DaVinci Code, which I absolutely hated.
So now it's #11. We went out to Applebee's for dinner after I got off work. I thought it was interesting that the waiter asked me if it was a special occasion. We've gone out to eat before and never had anyone ask that-- so I was a bit taken back. I told him that I am widowed and that today is my anniversary, so my kids and I were out to celebrate it. He was very polite and later brought us a free dessert. That kind of sweetness, even from strangers, compensates somewhat for missing out on the sweetness that Carter would be showing me if he was here. After eating too much (dang they have good nachos!), we got into PJs (at home, of course) and played checkers while re-watching our wedding video. The kids' favorite part is the "Dancing Virgins" that entertained us at the reception. Melanie, Mary, and Jana danced to "Wishin' and Hopin'" from "My Best Friend's Wedding." Someday I'll have to make a digital version of that dance-- it was fabulous!
It's hard to say what the quality over time graph would look like for my anniversaries. I think it's on the decline. But we've seen significant improvements in the last 5 years so maybe the worst is over.
