Archive for April, 2008
Ridgecrest
Posted by Jinny in Omar, Our Family on April 28, 2008
It looks like we will probably be moving to Ridgecrest sometime in the next couple of months. We won’t get a start date until Omar actually graduates and NAVAIR gets his transcripts, so the world is still pretty up in the air.
And for everyone I told I would never move to the desert, I’m okay with it now. All other plans have either not worked out, or just not felt right for our family. We feel like the Lord is directing us here, so here we go.
The job at China Lake is hard to beat, and we’ll be okay as long as we’re together. It’s only about 6 hours away, so we can drive home in a morning. It will be a new adventure.
And on the plus side, there are no skies like desert skies.
Peek-a-boo
When I put Isaiah to bed tonight, I laid him down and put the blanket on him. He gave his, I am about to be funny eyebrows, and then pulled it over his head, and down again, in a perfect peek-a-boo.
He was so funny, he even did it some more for daddy when he came in to see. He is such a ham, he loves it when people think he is funny, and will do anything for a laugh.
I can’t believe he’s really big enough to play peek-a-boo. Time goes so fast when you have a baby.
This picture was him playing with his car tonight. He loves cars. He sits and pushes them around for hours. It’s the easiest way to keep him happy. Especially when he gets his hands on Helaman’s cars.
Is he really this big?
Trauma
Helaman was playing barefoot at Grandma Maggie’s yesterday and got a huge splinter in his foot on the front porch. He limped around all day, and I tried to get it out, but I knew it was going to be a two-person job. When Omar got home, he tried for a bit, but Helaman wasn’t having it. It had gotten a little bit infected by this point, and so even the slightest touch was painful.
Daddy moved to a new tactic, and said that he was going to go into the pit to work under him like a mechanic. Which worked, Helaman was happy, until he actually touched it, and then that was no good again.
So we moved to another tactic, we told him if he would be very brave and hold still, it would be over very quickly and then we would have some ice cream. (Since he didn’t want what we were having for dinner, this was probably his only hope of getting some of the sweet stuff.)
That was incentive for one touch, but that was all he lasted on the ice-cream promise.
Omar is very protective and soft-hearted and really didn’t want to just pin him down. So, we had to think of another tactic. I had already explained that it had to come out, or it would turn into a much bigger owie called an infection. I thought maybe some visual aids would help, so I found this picture online.
Helaman loved this picture. He just wanted to look at it and look at it. He was fascinated. Maybe we have a doctor on our hands. Anyway, that helped him understand the seriousness of getting it out, so he tried really really hard to be brave. He sat as still as he could, with the tears welling in his eyes, squeezing my finger. But in the end, it was too much. He couldn’t take it.
For any of you parents out there, I’m sure you know how this story ended, we had to pin him down and just do it. It was over very quickly, but I am pretty sure it broke Omar’s heart. The splinter was huge. Helaman was excited to take a picture of it to show everyone. So, here it is:
And here’s a happy, bandaged Helaman (taken with no flash-oops).
Who of course still got the ice-cream.
I was letting him play around with my camera after ice-cream, and he took this picture of himself. I don’t know why, I think it looks cools, so I’ll finish with his self-portrait.
And for the record, he was very very brave.
Hiking Feather Falls
Michael, Tara, & Ava had so much fun hiking Feather Falls last weekend, my mom and I and our friend Cynthia decided to give it a go. Omar volunteered to watch the boys, but because we were going to be gone so long I decided it was probably better to take Isaiah with me. Tara let me borrow her backpack, and we were on our way.
The hike was beautiful! I didn’t realize how lush the foothills really are. It reminded me a lot of Washington. There was even moss growing on the trees. There were lots of beautiful wildflowers (My mom had to stop and take pictures of each one) as well.
It felt good to go so much exercise and enjoy the nature. Some of the views are very awe-inspiring, and God is definitely in the mountains. I had a religion teacher at BYU say that God uses mountains when there is no temple available, and I believe it.
Isaiah was a really good boy for almost the whole hike. He slept a lot of the way in to the falls, and part of the way out. For the last 2.5 miles he was done being in the backpack, though. So grandma and I took turns carrying him the rest of the way out.
Cynthia, Mom, and I finally at the falls.
Isaiah being carried out the last few miles.
Today’s Funny Stories
Tara had this picture of Ava and her cousin on her blog. Isaiah loves to chew on Ava’s hands, so I left a comment about how Ava must have tasty hands because babies seems to like to eat them, or something silly like that. Especially silly since the baby in the picture was MY SON! She came over today and I asked her who the baby was in the picture.
In my defense, I still don’t think it looks like him. Ha ha ha, I guess that’s not much of a defense! What mother doesn’t recognize her own baby? Apparently, this one.
The other funny story of the day happened tonight at bedtime. When I was playing around with Helaman getting his pajamas on, he grabbed my hand and asked what my wedding ring was. I told him that it was my wedding ring and it meant that I was married to daddy.
He got his feelings hurt, and said, “Then how am I going to marry you?” (He’s been planning on that for a while now.) I told him I had some bad news about that, that because I had married daddy in the temple we would be married forever, so I wasn’t going to be able to marry him. “Then who am I going to marry?” he asked with great concern.
We started naming girls that he knows, and offering them as possible future brides. He responded with, “How about Greta.” I said that wasn’t going to work because she was his aunt, so he thought Avery would maybe be a good alternative. We named a couple of more girls, and then he snuggled up to me, laid his head on my shoulder, and said, “Or…how about, I will marry you?”
Who could resist such a proposal? Of course, I said o.k. 
Fighting Fires
Posted by Jinny in Helaman, Our Family on April 24, 2008
Helaman went to the fire station for playschool on Tuesday. He was so excited. When we got there, they were even lifting the ladder up on the ladder truck. (“That’s not the fire engine, that’s the ladder truck,” I was told by the three-year-old firefighter expert in the back seat…)
The next day he was playing fireman with the hat they made at preschool and my vacuum hoses. He loves to get out all the different hoses and put them together to make a big long hose. Today he was using the hose hooked to the shopvac, and the shopvac was the fire hydrant.
He was really excited to take this picture so we could show Aunt Cari his hat. I told him I would put it on his web site so she could see, and then I showed him how that worked. He was thrilled with the idea of a bigger audience for his theatrics.
On an unrelated but crazy note, when I was touching this picture up in Photoshop, the thumbnail in the corner caught my eye. When the picture is a little blurry, look how much Helaman looks like a three-year-old Michael (or Billy – okay, they did look a little alike ).
Mexican Baby
We’re trying to get Isaiah to sleep in his own bed right now. This tends to involve a lot of screaming. That in itself is not funny, until he starts doing the “rolling his rrrrrrr’s” screaming. He just rattles that tongue of his, and I can’t help but laugh. Aunt Llael would be proud, she’s been trying really hard to teach Helaman to do that.
This picture is from our picture shoot at the Picture People last week. He was such a good boy for the whole thing. And luckily he thinks mommy is really funny (and who can blame him, she is so funny!), so it wasn’t too hard to get him to smile, too.
The end of the tunnel
Late last night I took the first step in closing my web design business. I emailed all my clients and let them known we were moving and I wouldn’t be doing this anymore. I still have a lot of work pending, and it will be a lot of work getting everyone moved over to there new designers, but we are definitely approaching the end of this particular tunnel.
In a way it was a huge relief. It was getting harder and harder to do the work I needed to and be the mommy I wanted to. It was hard to find the time, and emotional energy, and non-sleep deprived concentration. And then when I would start feeling overwhelmed, I would get stressed out and become mean mommy.
It’s also really sad. I have loved working with my clients, be creative and helping people build their organizations and businesses. I loved the interaction, and learning new things, and creating. I will miss all of that.
It was such a blessing for me to learn everything I have over the last few years. I really love design. I know it was the hand of the Lord that got me into it, what with my Sociology degree and all. It’s been a huge blessing for our family the last few years, too.
But, right now, being a mommy is the most important thing. Omar is working enough now, and full time soon, that we don’t need the money to survive. So we decided that it was time to let it go and let me focus on being nice mommy more often.
Times they are a-changing!
The Fruits
Posted by Jinny in Jinny, We Believe on April 22, 2008
An article in Meridian Magazine really got me thinking this morning. It started with:
When you consider Jesus’ comment, “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20), do you ever ask yourself, “What are the fruits of my life?” I do. I ask what fruits I want to bring forth. What fruits do I want to be known for?
The author had her answers to the questions, but it really made me think about mine. What are my motivations? What’s important to me? What do I want to accomplish? What do I want to be known for? My mind went to my family first, more specifically to my kids. At first I thought I want to be known for raising righteous sons to the Lord. But then I realized that I can’t really say that. While I can influence their righteous choices, my fruits can’t depend on their agency. I needed to rethink that idea. What could I accomplish?
- I want to love my children, and do my level best to teach them the gospel and make my home a place where they can feel the Spirit.
Articulating the goal makes me want to do so much better; to be more patient, and loving, to testify more, and to do more to keep the things that drive the Spirit away out of my home.
The second thing I thought of was my own Spiritual growth. The author of the article said the fruit she wanted was the peace of mind that comes from knowing the Savior. That is a wonderful thought. I kept thinking about all the things that go into that, and the time I want to spend every day getting to know him. I always have great plans for my personal scripture study, the hours I want to spend studying and praying. Somehow things don’t really seem to work that way. But something later in the article helped me articulate the fruit that I was thinking of.
- I want to always remember Him.
I know I already promise to do this, but life gets so busy, and it seems like I forget. When I remember to focus whatever I’m doing on Him, I do feel His peace in my life. I still need to work on training my mind to come back to Christ, to keep him in the forefront of my thoughts and heart all of the time. I know I can dedicate even the mundane details of my life to him, and find joy and peace in say, picking up with Helaman for the 500th time in a day. That’s the fruit I want. A life always focused on Him.
Thinking about the fruits as what I want to be known for really gave pause. When I’m being completely honest with myself, I want to be known for being smart and funny. I want to be known as a person who is reliable, and the person who gets things done. I want to be known for being cheerful and upbeat. For being brave. For being helpful. Perfect, actually, would be great. It’s hard to separate what is just being prideful, from what are really good goals. I know it’s all in my intent, to serve God or be cool myself, but it’s hard for me to tell.
I think what it really all comes down to in the end there’s a simple way to state what it is I want to be known for.
- I want to be known for being good.
Well, that’s a lot to think about….