Learning to Braid

When I was a little girl, Cabbage Patch Dolls were all the rage. I don't remember which year exactly, but one Christmas, the dolls were selling for outrageous sums ($500!) and though I wanted one, I knew that would never happen. My family was just too poor. As an adult, I realize that we were VERY poor, but as a child, I didn't know this. Anyway, when Christmas came, my younger sister and I each received a Cabbage Patch Doll...of sorts.

See, my grandma Reed, my mom's mom, was handy with crafty stuff and sewing. (This trait is clearly not genetic as I have none of those same talents.) My grandma had spent the fall sewing a doll for me and a doll for my sister. The only difference between our two dolls is the hair color. My doll had blond hair and my sister's doll had reddish-brown hair. A few years ago, my mom gave me my doll.

My grandma did her best to replicate the fat little feet and dimpled arms. My cabbage patch had a dimpled face. My grandma even painted her big eyes on. This doll is wearing one of the dresses that I (or my sister or both) wore when I was a baby.

Pardon the mooning, but you have to see the detail my grandma put into this doll. She has a dimpled butt! There's a leg coming unstitched and I'm not sure what to do about that. Grandma?

Yesterday morning Kilee wanted her hair braided. It's just getting long enough for little tiny braids. While I'm braiding, she informs me that so-and-so and so-and-so already know how to braid and will I teach her how to braid after school? And how did I learn to braid? Did Nana (my mom) teach me? That part I can't remember. Maybe Nana, maybe Aunt Monique. Probably Aunt Monique. For some reason, Monique (my sister five years older) did my hair most of the time growing up and taught me how to curl my bangs. I tell Kilee that I don't remember for certain, but that I practiced all the time on my Cabbage Patch Doll, which is now in her closet.

After school, Kilee brings me the doll and sits next to me on the couch. I pick up some yellow yarn hair and split it into three sections. I show Kilee how to hold her hands and put the hair between her fingers. I pick up three sections on the other side of the doll's big head and I spend the next ten minutes teaching her how to do a simple braid.

I teach her to rotate her wrists as she passes the yarn from one hand to the other. I teach her to keep her hands close to the bottom of the braid for a neater braid. I teach her to keep two sections between three fingers on one hand and then on the other hand. She learns fast.

Today, I'm eating lunch and Kilee is sitting in my chair behind me chattering away to me while I eat and read the paper. "Mom, this is what you did when you were a kid, isn't it? Who taught you to braid again? Aunt Monique? How many is she in your family? How many are in your family, Mom? Wow, seven. Mom, you are so lucky. You're luckier than I'll ever be. You have two sisters and I'll never have any." (Cue tears.) I turn around and there's my little girl, with a Cabbage Patch Doll in her lap, braiding away like she's been doing it forever.

After just one day, her braids look so much better than yesterday. Her fingers know exactly what to do and her wrists rotate like they've been doing it forever.Kilee's right. I was lucky. I was blessed with two sisters. One who taught me to braid, and the other who spent hours across the bedroom from me, braiding her own doll's hair. I was blessed with a wonderfully talented grandmother who made very special gifts for me. I was blessed with a little girl who is curious and talkative and so much like my younger sister that there are times I think the line in Heaven got mixed up and I got her daughter.

I never did get a "real" Cabbage Patch doll. I already have one, and now, so does Kilee.

Concentration

McKay has discovered scissors. He doesn't know they're called scissors, though. He just says, "Mommy? Cut. Cut paper, Mommy." Luckily, we have plenty of child-friendly, rounded-tip scissors at our house. We also have plenty of scratch paper that I'm willing to donate to his cause.

Little side note: When we lived and taught in Owyhee, my students there never called them scissors. It was a scissor. They would ask me for a scissor, or ask if they could borrow my scissor. And they would ask, "Why do you say scissors like there's more than one? It's just one. A scissor."

Now that I've typed the word scissor ten times, I'm not even sure I'm still spelling it right. It suddenly looks strange.

So the other night, McKay is sitting at the bar in the kitchen with his new method of entertainment and a fresh piece of paper.

I don't mind the cutting because he will sit still for a good twenty minutes. It's like heaven. And he is so focused on chopping up that piece of paper.

He cuts with both hands. Using one hand on the scissors does not produce as large of a cut. Two hands makes for big cuts. And for some reason, cutting with his mouth closed is akin to putting mascara on with your mouth closed (which, by the way, I can do).

Check out that tongue!

Close-up of that cute tongue. He doesn't even know I'm taking pictures! Usually when the camera comes out, McKay holds still, smiles, and says, "Cheese!" Not right now, though. He is so focused on cutting.


He put the scissors away and got out the handbroom and dustpan. "Clean up, Mommy. Sweep."

This is the part where I fell in love with my baby all over again.

The Month of Men

Braxton has had a lot of attention lately. Appropriate attention, I might add. It is only fitting that it falls in what my older brother calls The Month of Men: February. My three older brothers were all born in February (evidently May was good for my folks). Braxton came along in The Month of Men. So did my nephew, Benjamin. Just to be fair, though, I have two nieces born in February, too. But this post is about Braxton.

It started in January when Braxton won his school spelling bee. I'd like to be all proud and say something like, "He beat out 350 6th graders to win first place!" But that would insinuate that ALL the other sixth graders cared, and that's not the case. In all reality, Randy and I were really surprised Braxton did so well. Typically, he doesn't like to stand out in a crowd (I think it has something to do with his small stature). I will tell you, though, that he did win 1st place by spelling REALLY hard words such as flannel and albatross. On to the county spelling bee which had equally hard words like repair, patio, neon, daily. But there was this one word that Braxton didn't know how to spell...Because we didn't spend any time on EASY words! We studied words from Latin, Greek, Italian, Arabic. So when the moderator gave him the word reservist, as in someone who serves with the national guard, as in his uncle who goes to Iraq on March 7, as in could be any number of people from Elko, Braxton missed it. Oh well.

While we were studying spelling words, Braxton started his science fair project. He decided to find out if families share the same germs...or something like that. It morphed several dozen times. What it did involve, that I am aware of, was petri dishes, swabbing our mouths, and multiple trips to the microbiology lab at GBC. We couldn't have done it without the help of Kara Miller (below), the lab coordinator, who was very knowledgeable. Thank you, Kara! What did we learn? Actually, I don't know, but Tanner had bacteria unrecognizable, so a word to the wise: Don't share with Tanner!

And while we are busy working on science fair projects and spelling bees, the stake held its annual Priesthood Preview for all the boys in our stake who will turn 12 this year and receive the priesthood. This is - really and truly - one of the best evenings that the stake puts on. And I'm not just saying that because I help plan it. We use the 11-year-old boys in as many capacities as we can, from prayers to leading the music. One gets to give a talk, and this year, one got to play the piano for "Love is Spoken Here."

He was nervous, but did a good job. It was a great night; the boys turning 12 this year (16 of them!) are a great group of young men.

The very next week, Braxton turned 12. We had a little birthday party. I thought that Braxton, Landon, and Sean looked great in their bowling shoes.


The very next Sunday, Braxton received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained a Deacon by his dad.
I did not take this picture. It's kind of a funky picture. ......

I think the month of Braxton is over now. Time to move on to the month of Trulee who is going to disappear until her capstone project is finished and the master's degree is secured.

Maybe....

On the disappearing part, not on the master's degree part. That one will happen.

On Discipline

My younger sister to her 3-year-old son (overheard during a phone conversation):

"Sit down and eat your lunch, mister, or you're going to get a safety violation and it won't feel very good."

Ports of Call (Final Cruise Post)

Our first stop was Puerto Vallarta. Our group split up in this port. Three couples went zip lining. Randy and I really wanted to, but were afraid it would be too painful on his knees so we opted to spend the day with Jess and Lori Marin. Jess's mom and dad were in Mexico, staying about 5 hours from Puerto Vallarta. His parents and two sets of aunts and uncles came over to Puerto Vallarta to spend the day with us.

We got off the boat early and met up with his parents. It was so sweet to see Jess's mom; she was so anxious to see him. Jess's dad (Jesus) rented a van for all of us and away we went. We went to breakfast at an outdoor cafe where the food was really good. Then we did some sightseeing and some shopping. When we stopped at a street vendor, apparently I worried Jess's dad. Jesus sent his sister-in-law, Val, over to take care of me. Her comment to me was, "You don't know what you're doing. Jesus told me I couldn't leave you alone."

We drove up in the mountains and saw some zip liners. We had lunch at a nice place in town where the waiter came right to our table and made guacamole. We spent some time just walking around Puerto Vallarta. Jesus bought us all a paleta. It's like an ice cream bar, but better. Chunks of fruit or nuts in them and not as sweet. We managed to plant ourselves on the beach as the sun was setting and we watched the sun go down and the colors were just beautiful. Unfortunately, that day had to come to an end and we had to get back on the boat. I loved spending the day with Jess's family.

Our next port of call was Mazatlan. This was a fun place to be. We started off with all of us together heading out to snorkel. Randy and I had never been snorkeling before so this was really an adventure for us. The first place the boat stopped was not a good snorkeling spot, but the second one was okay. We didn't see a lot of animal life like you would in Australia or even the Carribean, but the experience of snorkeling was so much fun. Sometimes I forgot I couldn't dive under the water so I would reach for something on the ocean floor and my tube would fill up with salt water. It was quite the experience.

Following the snorkel tour, our group split up. After the taxi driver took us to the retaurant from which I'm sure he got a cut of the profits, we walked a ways back until Jess found the street vendor we were looking for. Jess negotiated lunch and the six of us ate carne asada, tortillas, rice, and beans with a delicious chile sauce for $9. It was great. Then we walked to the market and did a little bit more shopping. If I knew then what I know now, I would have bought everything I wanted in Mazatlan. It had the best shopping of all the ports. Since I didn't get everything I wanted, I have to go back. What a bummer that is (NOT). We found a great taxi driver who took us downtown to the market place that I don't think a lot of tourists visit. Jess really enjoyed this spot because it reminded him of the Mexico he visited when he was a teenager. I would have to agree that Mazatlan was the most Mexican of all the ports we visited.

Our final port of call was Cabo San Lucas. We got up early and went up on deck to watch the sun rise. It was a beautiful pink when we got up there and then up came the sun. Up on deck, we had a great view of Cabo and the fishing boats heading out to sea. After breakfast, we caught a tender and headed for the pier. As soon as we got off, all kinds of men were lined up trying to get our business. Lori took charge and negotiated with one gentleman for our entire group to go sight seeing, whale watching, and parasailing for one low price. I've never seen trained fish before, but our driver motored to a spot and pounded the side of the boat and here came the fish. Oh- then he fed them bread. Pavlov's dogs. We spent a lot of time chasing the whales, and that was fun. Trying to figure out where they'd come up again, trying to time the picture just right- clearly, we never got that right. Another reason to go back. And then the parasailing. It was more relaxing than I thought it would be and I loved it. It was probably the thing I enjoyed the most. When we got back to the beach, we hunted down a restaurant, ate more really good Mexican food, and then meandered back towards the pier, passing a lot of vendors as we went. Cabo was the most American of all the ports we went to. It was almost sad to leave Cabo because it meant our trip was coming to an end.

To see other photos of the cruise and my friends' take on the trip, go check out their blogs (on the right): Howards, Zimmermans, and Jeppsens. We were relaxed and happy and there wasn't anything about this trip I wouldn't do again. Would Randy and I go alone? I don't think so. I loved being with friends who didn't expect anything from me and didn't care if we did our own thing. I loved having other people to do things with when Randy didn't want to. I loved getting home and perusing 1,500 photos. I loved the time with my husband. We loved going on this trip and are already looking forward to the next one.

Playing Dress Up (Formal Nights)

Two formal nights were held on the cruise. This meant we got to dress up in fancy clothes we don't normally wear and take lots of fancy pictures...something like a prom, I suppose. Our formal night was so much fun. First, we got all dressed up and then went out on deck and took pictures.
We took several pictures with several cameras by several people and this is still the only decent picture I have of Randy and me.

Then we went inside and took more pictures on the floating stairs. First the girls.


Can anybody tell me why we don't have an equally lovely picture of the guys on the staircase? Except it wouldn't be a lovely picture; it would be a handsome picture. I digress.... Then we have the entire group on the stairs.

We're having fun. Even Jason is smiling just a little. Following the picture frenzy, it was off to dinner. Following dinner we went to the show in the Taj Mahal lounge and then we went dancing. Randy can swing and two step. (He took a class in college. Go figure.) He's patient with me. I didn't used to let him lead. Actually, it wasn't letting him lead as much as it was learning to follow. (Life parable anyone?) I think I'm learning, though, and we enjoyed dancing together. We couldn't dance very long because of his knees, but he was a good sport about it. Following dancing, we all changed our clothes and went to play cards on the Lido deck. (Shocking, I know.)

The second formal night was a little less formal. We did dress up again, but we didn't have the same picture frenzy. Except, we did step out on the deck just as the sun was setting. Picture perfect.

The Ship and Fun Days at Sea

First, a correction. This cruise is NOT my first and only vacation. Randy and I and the kids have been to San Diego and last summer the kids and I went to the Oregon Coast. This was, however, my first vacation alone with my husband (no kids and no other relatives).

We got on the Carnival Pride at about 12:30 on Sunday. We couldn't get into our rooms until later in the day and we didn't set sail until 4:00 p.m. So, in the meantime, we investigated the ship.

This one. The Carnival Pride. One of Carnival's biggest ships and the longest ship to sail through the Panama Canal.
This is the Lido Deck, where the three pools are. This is also the deck that the Mermaid Grill is on. That's where we played cards most of the time. It was also where a lot of the activities took place.
This is the 11th deck, and I cannot remember it's name. Note that there are lots of places to soak up the sun.The ship also had a water slide. I never tried it out, but Robert did and got to experience sea water in a water slide.

In the middle of the ship was the atrium. The atrium was open from the second deck to the 10th deck. From the 9th to 10th decks was this glass "floating" staircase. Standing on it and looking down did a number to my stomach.

This is the bottom of the atrium on the 2nd deck and the staircase to the 3rd deck. Note the bar. Can you see the piano behind the bartender? That made this a piano bar. Cruise ships are not known for their performers, let me tell you.

We're still in Long Beach. Here's Vicki and Jason (on the left) and Lori and me (I'm in the back) on the 10th deck just checking out the ship.

At 4:00 we were required to participate in the muster, which consisted of getting our life vests from our rooms and going to our assigned place on deck 3. There, we had to line up shoulder to shoulder and learn how to put our life vests on. I was bored and decided the vest made a nice pillow so I put my head back and soaked up some more rays and took a little nap. The life vests have a salt-water activated light and a compass. One comedian on board informed us that those were to make it easier for the sharks to find us. Our life vests also came equipped with a tiny little whistle. Initially, you think, "oh, that's cool." And then the comedian reminds you that the ocean is HUGE and that one little whistle will do you absolutely no good.

"Jack...?"

"Jack...?"

Quick- name that movie.

And here's the ship at night. Pretty, huh? When it finally got warm enough at night to be out on the deck, it was fun. When the ship finally set sail, which they very quietly do while you're all mustering, it was time to get down to business!

Here's Jason, Vicki, me, and Lori at the bar, business as usual. Jess is standing back trying to decide... HA HA. I'm only kidding. The bar was the only place to get a Sprite or Diet Pepsi or Mr. Pibb. The bartenders were also good at making non-alcoholic drinks. Vicki, Lori, and I had a strawberry something or other. It was yummy.

Seriously, the business was having fun! The ship had games on the Lido deck all day long. We (not necessarily I, but we as in the collective group we) participated in scavenger hunts, yes/no games, adventure quests, and just observed other people making idiots of themselves. We managed to watch the ice carver take a chunk of ice from this:

To this:

During the day there were also classes you could attend. A previous post has the dance classes. On the last day, Vicki, Randy, and I went to the towel folding class.

There were photographers all over the ship. They took your picture at dinner, getting on and off the ship, waiting in line for dinner....it was nonstop. At one point, I took advantage of some downtime and convinced the girls to come get a picture. The European photographer had no idea what an old west photo was like and seriously needed to spend some time in Virginia City (and maybe photography school since he put the shortest woman in the back between the two tallest women). However, it was still a fun picture to take.


Then we tried one this way, with our heads all together. This one didn't turn out quite so cute so all you get to see is this one that one of the husband's took.

At one point, we even got a tour of the galley. It was huge. The soup vats were bigger than my washing machine.
This was the section where they prepared the dinners. I'm not sure if this picture even does justice to just how large the galley was. One neat thing about the galley, though, was the view from down here.
Just a note on the port hole. This was the only place I ever saw a window this small.

During the day, we would go our separate ways, but by dinner time, we were together again. Everynight but one we ate dinner together as a group. Dinner was a fabulous experience and the food was always good. I think, though, that the reason dinner was so wonderful was due in large part to the company.
From front to back, with spouses sitting across from each other: Robert and April Howard, Denny and Mary Zimmerman, Jess and Lori Marin, Randy and I, Jason and Vicki Jeppsen.

At night, there were always shows in the Taj Mahal lounge. A previous post shows the fiddler who came. We had two different comedians entertain us. The Carnival Pride dancers and singers entertained us a few times. One night there was even a ventriloquist. We would go straight to the lounge after dinner and wait for the show to start. And while we waited, I....
read a book that I kept in my bag. And here we are again, waiting, and I'm .....reading. See the book? From left to right down the row: Lori, Jason, Vicki, Denny, Mary, and Trulee, reading again.


When I look back on this trip, there will be some memories that really stick our for me. But one thing I will always remember

Cards in the card room

Cards in the Mermaid Grill

Cards late at night on the Lido Deck

Cards when we were so stinking tired we were all in sweats and had our contacts out. That's not a very pretty picture of me, so try to ignore me yawning...or whatever it is I'm doing.

So that was the ship and what we did while at sea. Still to come: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas!