The Burk Family

December Part 1

2012-02-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

Benji turned 8 on December 7. About a week before his birthday his class celebrated. His teacher has it set up so that each child has a special week, and on Wednesday of that week they have a little spotlight time and sing Happy Birthday and stuff. She said that families are welcome to come and be a part of the little celebrations, and said we are welcome to do a skit or make a poster or something. Benji and I had fun making this poster together. I interviewed him a bit and typed out his answers, and then we glued that on with pictures of Benji at different ages. Benji was just so pleased with it, and I was pretty pleased myself. :) And he chose Ding Dongs to bring in and share with his class.

This is Benji in his classroom standing next to his teacher. She is Mrs. Apgar, I believe or maybe Ms. Anyway, she has them call her Apgar. I like it. Anyway, she is way silly. Here she has her little keyboard and it played Happy Birthday while they all sang to him.

Then she put this silly cake hat on his head and squeezed the candle to make it play Happy Birthday, and she held his arms and made him lead the music all crazy. He was giggling. He also got to choose how they sang it, and he chose opera style.

Then he took this big pencil and pointed to the words as the other kids read this poem to him. They all signed it and he got to take it home.

Then he told them about his poster.

And then he stood in front of the class and he'd point to somebody and they'd say something they liked about him. And then he got to share his treats and they all went to work at their desks as they munched. It was all so silly and fun. I like Mrs. Apgar. She made that really fun.

This is the first year that we've had a real tree. I loved how it smelled! We got it all decorated and then took pictures on November 30. Here's Mikey!

The mice ate my tree skirt, so I used my blankie.

Jill was watching the snow outside.

And Timmy decided to go watch too.

We stomped around in the snow a bit before school the next day.

They all went out to play after school. I suited Jill up and she went to play with them. This is Hyrum with Jill.

I really like this picture of Jill. :)

Hyrum

Benji

That evening we went to the school to watch the boys in their choir concert. It was a little play about Christmas in the west. It was cute, and it was fun to see it all come together. They'd been coming home singing pieces of the songs for months. Joshua is on the left of this picture next to the girl in the green shirt.

Michael is in the middle of the front row here in the white shirt.

Hyrum is the last one on the right in the back row.

Benji's that one in the middle with his arm up.

Here's Joshua again. No, they're not very good pictures, but I had to have proof that we went!

November Part 3 - Thanksgiving

2012-02-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

We stayed home and did our own Thanksgiving this year. It was really fun! Timmy had a great time. :)

We left most of the food on the stove because ther ejust wasn't room, but here's everyone but Timmy and me waiting for the prayer. :)

Yes, that is six pumpkin pies, and, yes, they are all necessary. ;)

Benji!

Two days after Thanksgiving Aaron and Kenzie came on their way home from Idaho. They brought Susie and her friend Megan with them. They stayed overnight and then went home on Sunday after church. Here we have Jeremy with Timmy, Ryan (with a tape measure), and Jill.

Susie and Aaron

Jill with Ryan and Brookie after church

Just a few seconds before I took this Ryan was also poking his head out from under the table! Well, Jill looks cute anyway. Someday I need a mind powered camera. ;)

Aaron, Ryan, and Susie

Jill absolutely LOVED Susie and was so, so sad when she left.

I tried to take pictures of Timmy in his cute new birthday outfit from Grandma, but he was too busy eating his pretzels. "Let me eat my pretzels, Mommy!"

Playing "smash the meat" (steamroller?) for FHE. Yes, the floor is cluttered and, yes, that is a pile of laundry that needs folded on the couch. But we had fun. :)

This chicken was wandering around our parking lot one morning as we were getting in the car to go to school. It laid an egg under our neighbor's car. I didn't want the egg to get squished, so I brought it in. It had been pecked, but the inner membrane wasn't broken, so I used it. :) Hey, a free egg! :) I never heard what happened with this chicken. Maybe I should've cooked that too. ;) Free dinner!

November Part 2 - Timmy's First Birthday!

2012-02-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

I made this felt car mat for Timmy for his birthday! :D I was really happy how it came out. Here's what the little buildings are (left to right and clockwise around cul de sacs):

Top left street: police department, school, Lin's (grocery store)

Top cul de sac: church, Grandma Badger's house, Timmy's house, Grandma Burk's house, hospital

Middle left street: fire department, aquatic center (complete with yellow curly slide and outdoor pool with diving board)

Bottom cul de sac: slide and swings next to the library, fish pond, McDonald's (just cuz it was easy to make ;), Wal-Mart, gas station with car wash

Bottom left street: Airport with control tower and airplane taking off on from runway

This was really fun to make. The older boys seemed to really enjoy watching it take shape. :)

Here's the birthday boy!

Tradition - he gets to open one present in the morning. Michael made that silly guy that Timmy is holding out of felt. Don't you love Jill's morning hair? Yes, Ralph the Night Hairdresser enjoys his work every night at our house. :)

And that present is always a birthday shirt to wear that day.

In the evening we had Timmy's birthday party. That chocolate frosting turned out pretty yummy. :)

What is it?!

New little cars for Timmy's little hands!

Oooo!

Joshua made this felt cube for Timmy.

Michael chose this light globe. It took Timmy a while to figure it out, but now he can get it to work all by himself.

Timmy got tired of opeing presents, so we let Jill help. Yes, she is topless. If she gets her shirt dirty or wet she rips it off and throws it in the dryer.

Dong! Just kidding. The gift Michael's holding was really in front of Timmy's head, not bouncing off it. I guess he was just blinking at the flash. This big old book that Grandma Badger gave him has been really great. Timmy and Jill both really like it.

New ball! Unfortunately, somebody popped it right away. We found it all deflating a day or two after Timmy's birthday, so it went in the garbage. I really need to get him some little ones that fit in his hands. Or really, I should just dig out those old tennis balls that are in some toybox around here. :)

Timmy loved his cake so much he ate almost 2 entire pieces!

Yumminess by the fistful!

Silly Jill eating raisins on the bench

Michael fell asleep in the coat box.

Now, this looks familiar. This is what happens when I try to use the iPad too. And it also happens to Jeremy... Cute kiddos!

November Part 1

2012-01-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

Jill and Timmy found the "Ha' Pad."

At the beginning of November, Timmy and I took a trip to Phoenix to go to Time Out for Women with Jeremy's mom and sisters and Kenzie. It was a great trip - a little long, but lots of fun!

Early in the morning we flew out of the airport in Cedar City and landed in Salt Lake City before the sun rose. This is a view out the window at the airport in Salt Lake.

Here we are just sitting and having breakfast in the airport. We had a layover for 2 or 3 hours, so we did a lot of wandering around. Several times, I set Timmy down and just let him run while I chased him.

We finally found the little playground. Timmy didn't stay on this little horse (Just his size!) for very long. He was more interested in escaping that playing with any of the toys. But still, he looks pretty cute on that horse.

The little boy behind Timmy kept talking to his mom in Chinese or something. It was just so darn cute! Why is it so fun to hear foreign children talk? It just is.

When we got to Phoenix Tom and Jennifer picked us up at the airport, and then we hung out at their house until Mom came.

Here we are having lunch during a break at Time Out: me, Kenzie, Becca, and Susie. Mom took this picture and I stole it. :)

Below (darn Blogger won't let me put a space between the next 2 pictures!): Susie and Timmy just before we left Time Out.

After Time Out I went back to Globe with Mom and those guys. We went to church and then had Sunday dinner before going back to Jennifer's house. Here Aaron is sharing his iPad with Ryan and Timmy.

Joe

Timmy playing Fun Bubbles

Brookie, Ryan, and Timmy

Timmy and Jocelynn - she is 18 days older than him and is so cute and petite. These guys remind me of Ryan and Jill. They were a week apart, and Ryan has always been the chunk guy while Jill is just little.

Susie, Joe, and Timmy

Grandma and Ryan

Timmy and Jocelynn

Aaron and Jocelynn

Dad

On our way back to Tom and Jennifer's house we stopped to see Rob and Anne. Here is cute Noel. She's getting so big!

I handed the camera to Mom and she took a bunch of pictures.

Cute little Helaman

Helaman and Anne

Celeste and Timmy

Noel

I love the look on Helaman's face: "Why are they playing with my head?!"

Charity and Noel were running around and around and giggling. I had lots of fun watching them.

Then somebody turned on the TV and things changed. ;)

Jennifer and Thomas - I took this one to prove to Hyrum that I really did see Thomas.

Timmy was quick to discover Jennifer's cake stuff - lots of round pans. He loved them.

I love this one! Trying to sit in the cake pan.

Brooke, CJ, and Thomas all ready for school

Emily and Brooke

Timmy found a kitty and was thrilled. He chased it all around the house, jabbering away.

We got back to the airport and had a little time to play before time to fly.

We found a little playground with a slide.

Timmy on the airplane, ready to fly to Salt Lake.

This is the kind of plane we flew in from Salt Lake to Cedar City - a little turbo prop plane. I liked it.

Taking off from Salt Lake

Little fella slept the whole way from Salt Lake to Cedar City.

The Great Salt Lake (with a great view of the propeller housing - or whatever you call that - and the wing. Yes, I did have a great seat.)

Got home the day before Michael lost his first tooth! He lost the other one on the bottom a few weeks later and is now growing some new ones.

Jeremy's dad gave us 2 big pumpkins (for Jeremy and me) and a bunch of little ones (one for each of the kiddos). I decided that I really did want to cut and cook them, so one day I spent a good part of the day (and part of the next day) carving and cooking them. Jill was eager to help, and Michael and Timmy wanted to later, too. I let them get butter knives and hack away at the pieces.

I made pie that first day, and it may have been the best pumpkin pie I've ever, ever had.

Papa, Jill, and Timmy with the Pad.

This takes talent. I put a couple of tortillas with cheese in the broiler, and the next thing I knew there was a bunch of smoke coming out of the oven. We opened it up and the tortillas were flaming. It was crazy!

October Part 4 - Halloween - Finally!

2012-01-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

I love how Timmy zones out when he's watching TV. It's kind of funny. And Joshua is sure concentrating on that book!

We have a picture similar to this one of Jill. The difference is that in the other one it's Hyrum barring the door, trying to prevent Papa from going to work or school.

3 little pumpkins! I made this costume when Hyrum was 1. Most of my boys have worn it for Halloween. This little guy is all ready to go trick-or-treating. I was really tired and didn't feel up to carrying him all around the neighborhood, so Jeremy suggested we sit him in the wagon with our pumpkins. Cute!

Jill got a "Lella" (Cinderella) dress for Halloween. I made it using this tutorial with a few tweaks. I'm so happy how it came out, and Jill was thrilled as well.

Joshua is obsessed with Harry Potter. So, of course, that's who he was for Halloween. :)

Benji was Black Link from The Legend of Zelda. We couldn't find his hat on Halloween, so I had to hurry and make another. Good thing they only take like five minutes!

And Michael was Red Link.

Timmy got tired of riding in the wagon, so I ended up carrying him anyway. Jill decided she would take a turn. After every house she'd run back to the wagon, telling us that she had to "sit a dragon" (sit in the wagon).

Here they are after trick-or-treating.

The little pumpkin fell asleep.

Joshua enjoyed his peanut butter cup so much he ate the wrapper too. Just kidding, huh, Joshua?

I wanted a few more pictures of my princess. I had a hard time getting them because she was holding her candy and wouldn't hold still and my camera display only worked after the picture was taken. Funny thing, though, all this time I thought it was broken, but at Benji's baptism a few weeks ago Hyrum borrowed my camera and pushed a button and it started working again. It had been like a year since that button got mysteriously pushed and I thought it was just broken. Ha, ha!

October Part 3

2011-11-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

Joshua was assigned to do a report and diorama about a Utah mammal. He chose the coyote. Here he is with a few of his classmates. His teacher took this picture. Jill, Timmy, and I went to watch him give his oral report and I forgot the camera!

Happy Timmy driving his car while Jill rips something that I hope wasn't important. ;)

I sewed Jill a Cinderella costume for Halloween. I didn't have a zipper in it for these pictures, but I decided to try it on her and see if I did ok.

I put her tutu from last Halloween under the dress to make it poofy. She was thrilled with the dress and spent a good amount of time dancing around the living room. :)

This is the first picture Jill ever painted. She said it was for Grandma Burk, so we sent it to her. We ought to have her do one for her other Grandma. :)

I love the staticky hair in this picture - and the cute smile.

Cute Timmy just hangin' out.

Jill, Timmy, and I went to the school to see Hyrum's class's volcanoes. This was one of the cooler-looking ones. He built it around a bottle of Coke and then just twisted off the lid and dropped in some Mentos.

We made Hyrum's volcano out of salt dough around a water bottle. We tried to dye it brown, but it came out green, so we just said it was grassy.

He did a variaton on the baking soda and vinegar mixture for the lava, and it made it ooze slowly. The teacher pointed out that some volcanoes are like that. Some erupt quickly and some ooze.

Not bad. :)

I am not sure why, but Joshua taped his ears like this and gave me a good laugh. Oh, the joys of masking tape!

Papa and Timmy

Well, I guess I've been using these wrong all these years. Jill found my bag of them and brought them in the living room. I helped her open them and she plopped down on the floor and started putting them on her arms. OK. :)

Timmy turned 11 months old on October 19.

For Fall Break we went to visit Jeremy's mom's family up north of Salt Lake City. Jeremy's grandma lives in Syracuse, UT. Here's Jill playing outside Grandma's house.

Timmy and Joshua on the porch

Benji swinging

When Joshua was little he used to be afraid of this face on Grandma's tree. He would tell us, "I don't want to look at the face on the tree." The first thing he said when we drove up to Grandma's this time was, "That face isn't scary!"

Timmy loved all the sticks and brooms and shovels on the porch.

Grandma had a bag of little gourds and she said the kiddos could have some.

Jill

Jill saw this little statue and right away she knew who it was.

I took pictures of some of the things on Grandma's walls that have always made me smile.

Jill

Joshua

Benji and Michael picking dandelion seed bunches

Jeremy and Grandma

Grandma took Jill to see the donkey, and then when we had to leave the donkey Jill was very upset.

Michael, Jill, and Grandma

Benji, Jill, and Michael with Eyore

We went to Aunt Jane's house to sleep. She had an enormous bean bag that the boys really liked.

Hyrum with Jeremy's cousin Kate.

Jill, Kate, and Timmy

Michael and Jill

Benji

Hyrum really loved playing games with Kate and was bummed when he couldn't find her to ask her to play with him. But he had fun stretching out and watching TV for a while. I think my boys ran poor Kate ragged.

Joshua

We went back to Grandma's house before we went home. Here are some things above her table that I love.

More stuff in the kitchen

I love this one. :) "Friends don't let friends drive drunk."

And this one's pretty funny.

Aunt Carol and Uncle Alfred came to see us at Grandma's house. They'd just been on a trip to England and Aunt Carol showed me lots of pictures on her camera.

Grandma and Timmy

On our way home we stopped to see Lynnette and Kelly in Provo. We met them at Arby's. It was so good to see my sisters! Here are Jeremy and Kelly.

Lynnette and Jill

I don't remember what Jeremy was doing. Ha, ha!

Kelly and Timmy

Jill had another month-birthday but wouldn't let us take a picture. She laid on the floor and cried.

But we got her later. I don't know how she ended up sleeping on top of a blanket and under a rag, but at least it was a clean rag. :D

We got our first real snow on October 26. The boys just had to play in it before school.

Benji

Jill came out in her fuzzies to see the snow.

Joshua

Benji

Joshua made a little snowman

Jill

Joshua's snowman

Jill

Jill kept grabbing clumps of snow and throwing it in the little river that runs in front of our sidewalk.

Jill and I finished this snowman that Benji started before school. It was all melted before the boys got home.

Jill's hands got too cold, so we went inside and had cocoa. :)

And I think that's enough pictures for today. I've got other things to do!

October Part 2

2011-11-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

I'm telling you, I'm bad about taking pictures of our visitors. Maybe I don't want them to run away because I'm so snap-happy. I only got 2 pictures of Grandpa Burk visiting and the other was worse than this one. But here is proof that he was here. We did have a lovely time having him.

I love the matching blank expressions. I believe we were watching Harry Potter.

Timmy

Jill got a cookie.

Joshua and Hyrum

Hyrum

Benji, Jeremy, and Michael

We wanted our children to bet acquainted with our new Temple, so on October 9 we took them to St. George after church to see it. It was a good experience and I loved watching them ooh and ah over the Temple. They were so amazed by how pretty it is and they were so happy to be there.

Hyrum

Joshua

Benji

Papa and Timmy

Benji, Jill, Papa, and Timmy

Michael was upset about something, so he wouldn't cooperate and get a picture by the Temple. So I took a picture of him anyway - sulking. ;)

Papa and the babies

We went in the Visitors' Center and Jill enjoyed exploring every inch of it.

Cute little Timmy

This corner faces the Visitors' Center

Papa and Timmy

Michael and Benji by the entrance to the baptistry

I think Joshua asked me to take a picture of him on this bench.

So Hyrum needed one on the other bench.

Standing by the fountain in front of the annex where you enter the Temple.

Jill really liked that fountain

I tried to get a picture of Jeremy and me and it didn't work.

So I had Benji take a picture and because of the angle I have at least 5 double chins. ;)

So I took one of me for good measure.

Joshua, Jill, Timmy, and Benji on the front steps

Michael and Hyrum on the other front steps

Then the boys all wanted individual pictures by the door at the top of the steps. I didn't do so well cutting their brothers out, but I did take the pictures. :) Here's Michael.

Joshua

Papa and Timmy

Jill

Hyrum

Benji

I like this picture. I think I may print it and frame it.

October Part 1

2011-11-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

General Conference weekend means that the children get a new tub of Play-Doh. Then they spend a good part of the day playing with it. It's a great tradition. :)

Michael's snood

Joshua's new hand

Hyrum's new nose

Benji's new trunk

Michael's eyepatch

Benji's lovely necklace

Benji's new face

Michael drew these chalk pictures on the patio and they made me smile every time I went outside.

Happy little Timmy

Jill's "Lella" (Cinderella) cup is her favorite.

Joshua

We always have balloons for the little guy to play with. They are free for kids at Lin's, our grocery store.

Happy Timmy

I think Benji may have taken this one himself.

School Pictures

2011-11-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

I took Timmy and Jill to the school on picture day and they got to have their pictures taken too. Grandpa Burk was in town that day, so he came with us too. :) I'm really pleased with the new pictures and I enjoyed comparing them with last year's pictures as I hung them on the wall.

September Part 4

2011-11-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

Sleepy Jilly

Timmy

We were playing outside in the dark and Timmy took off down the sidewalk. It was a lovely evening and we had a nice time. I think Joshua even brought his homework outside.

Michael, Jill, Benji, and Timmy

Michael

Joshua

Benji was trying to throw rocks to the rock pile across the street. And, yes, I did quickly discourage throwing rocks in the street.

Little Fella

Pictures - September Part 3

2011-09-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

Happy little Timmy - he turned 10 months old on September 19.

This picture turned out fun, even if he is a little teary-eyed. He didn't want to hold still for a picture and Mommy made him.

Jill needed a turn too. :)

Love this one!

When we get in the car I usually give Timmy a graham cracker to help him not cry. He fell asleep with it in his mouth.

Hyrum turned 11 on September 21! We had a quiet little party at home after Papa was done with school. He wanted coconut cream pie for his birthday cake. I made that and chocolate cream pie because some of the boys don't like coconut.

Jill's ready for a party.

Papa lit the candles.

Papa gave Hyrum some mints in a little vial.

Michael bought Hyrum some donuts with his own money.

Benji picked out some sticky feet to hang on the window.

Hyrum really wanted some goggles with a nose cover thing. We were in luck. I found some on clearance. :)

He also wanted 2 books from the Bone series.

Joshua got Hyrum a silly mask.

What is it?

Apple sauce! (Back story: Every now and then Hyrum asks me things he doesn't really need to know about - like what his brothers are in trouble for or what's for dinner when I don't really know yet - and instead of saying, "None of your business," I say, "Apple sauce!" I thought it would be funny to say, "It's apple sauce!" as he opened this and have it really be apple sauce. He laughed pretty good and so did I.)

Happy birthday boy with a full mouth

Joshua tried on the mask too.

The same day Jill turned 2 1/4.

We got these balloons from Lin's (our grocery store). They give them out for free and the boys insist on getting them every time. Jill kept trying to blow it up more.

The boys' school had a walk-a-thon. Some football players from the university came, and Joshua's teacher took this picture of the boys in her class with the football players. Joshua told me after that day, "Some famous football players came and my teacher took a picture of all the boys with them. And one of them put his hands on my shoulders." He also said that the girls got a picture with Miss Iron County (and probably her attendants too).

Joshua's been looking for some good Harry Potter glasses. He found these at Dollar tree. They are nerd glasses, but they're the shape he was looking for, and I think he wants to pop out the lenses somehow. Jill had to try them on. Isn't this a fun picture? I think I'll have to put it on Facebook.

Timmy munched on this piece of corn for hours, and boy could you tell from his diaper the next day! It was a bad one! It got all over my skirt and the floor and his clothes. But he sure loved that corn.

I made chocolate cookies and Timmy devoured a few.

He even left me some nice little chocolate handprints on the laundry room door.

Michael has been enjoying the fall leaves, especailly after Joshua's field trip to find plants. The other day Michael went out and found all sorts of leaves and taped them to a Fruit by the Foot wrapper somebody had given him and taped that to his dresser. He also decided this green shirt was his fall shirt ("because it's fall") and taped a leaf to it. He put it in his drawer for another day. Yesterday he was so excited to pull it out and put it on and then wear it to school. The leaf fell off at school, so he got another one and put it on there when he got home.

Joshua's teacher took this picture of Joshua doing a science experiment in class. They made mini lava lamps. I think all that was in them was water, oil, food coloring, and a piece of an alka seltzer tablet. He got to bring home his test tube and a little piece of alka seltzer. It was pretty fun. :)

Pictures - September Part 2

2011-09-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

One Friday after school there was suddenly a parade coming down our street. It was the homecoming parade for our high school. We love parades. I think we live in the right place. They have parades all the time. This one had lots of candy and 3 of our boys got T-shirts from the choir. :)

This is the band. I love the school's colors - black and light blue. It looks nice.

Timmy

Joshua and Timmy

Jill and my nose. ;)

Oh, I wish this had cut out my face instead of Michael's!

Pretty girly. :)

This little guy tells me a million times a day, "Mommy, I love you. You're pretty." Jill must be paying attention because the other day she was sitting on my chair with me and I told her, "I love you." And she responded, "A pretty," and stroked my face and grinned. Cute kids!

Benji made Wolverine spikes with crayons. :)

I know this wasn't his desired effect with this pose, but his eyes look really pretty here.

Joshua's been trying to learn how to crochet. It's sure discouraging at first! He's also been working on the beginning piano book I have and is absolutely loving it.

Pictures - September Part 1

2011-09-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

We bought a new printer because it was cheaper to buy the printer with ink than to buy just ink for our old printer. Michael thought this picture was so funny. He made it look like the box squished him and then insisted I take a picture. :)

I made chicken and dumplings. I didn't have a recipe. I just really wanted some. So I made sort of a chicken stew and put biscuit dough on top. I thought it came out really pretty, and it was sure yummy!

Jill loves being on the table. This particular day there happened to be a little seat on the table for her. Ha, ha.

We took this picture for Benji's school project. He was trying to show how he's good at taking care of his baby brother. It took a few tries before Timmy would hold still and make a happy face. Silly boys!

Jill loves spaghetti.

Michael

Jill

I was supposed to be getting off my bum and taking kids to the aquatic center at this particular moment, but I took pictures of kiddos instead. Here's Hyrum.

I'm not sure why I took a picture of this. This is Timmy's foot. Jeremy says his own feet did the same thing. I'm not sure what causes it, but it sure made me sad to discover it. :(

After posing the first time Hyrum decided he needed to pose with his sword and shield. He tried a few times and asked to see it, and he kept finding something wrong with the picture. He thought this one was the best. He's right. :)

Michael all ready for swimming

And Benji too

Jill needed me to pull her hair up again.

Silly Benji

Silly Joshua

The boys laughed pretty good when they saw this picture.

Timmy was way tired this Sunday. He kept waking up, though. I needed to get dinner cooked, so I put him in his high chair with a graham cracker (he LOVES graham crackers) and he fell asleep again. I think he wasn't feeling well. Cute little fella.

Silly Jill

The day after September 11 the boys' school had Patriot Day. There was a program that morning out by the flagpole. Benji's teacher led all the second graders in singing "Let There Be Peace on Earth." You can see Benji on the back row of the picture. His head is sticking up right next to the far left window.

Little ones who monopolize their parents' bed every night - still so darn cute!

Pictures - August Part 2

2011-09-23T20:51:00.000-07:00

Timmy turned 9 months old on August 19.

Look at those two front teeth coming in!

This is a silly one of Jill, but it's a great one at the same time. :)

Gotta sample the grass.

Timmy LOVES climbing the stairs, but he can't get back down. If he starts climbing he seems to have no choice but to keep going. Then he either cries at the top until I come and get him or he goes and finds his brothers' toys in their bedrooms. One day I found him crying because he'd crawled up on Jill's toddler bed and couldn't get down. Silly boy. :)

Jill and Timmy got the sugar bowl. They were all sticky!

Timmy

Joshua decided he needed a pillow and blanket.

Timmy, Jill, and Michael

Timmy and Jill

Joshua

We had corn one night, and Timmy reached up on the table and grabbed one. He loved it.

And Jill needed to pose if Timmy was. :)

Michael

Hyrum made a top hat out of K'nex.

Timmy waited with me in the cafeteria one morning while his brothers ate breakfast.

Michael had his first day of kindergarten on August 30.

Pictures - August Part 1

2011-09-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

Timmy didn't finish eating his carrots, so Jill decided to help him finish. She loves mothering him. :) She fed him while I cleaned the kitchen, and she made a great mess doing it. :)

Timmy loves to play the piano

Handsome little fella after church

Pretty princess

Somebody left the black stool by the piano bench, so Timmy climbed up and that and then onto the bench, and he would have gone higher if I hadn't caught him!

Sleepy boys

Loungin'

Jill can't seem to keep her little hands out of Papa's desk.

Jill brushed her teeth all by herself first thing in the morning. :)

Somebody left a bowl of cereal on the edge of the table. Timmy reached up and pulled it down and tried to finish it off. He's getting so tall!

First day of school for the 3 oldest boys. This came out pretty darn good despite the fact that they were fussy about me making them stop and pose. They were ready to find their classrooms right away.

Hyrum had treats and stuff on his desk.

Hyrum sat next to a pretty little girl and a pretty little boy! Look at that poor kids beautiful blond curly locks! No wonder Hyrum was smirking. ;)

Joshua in his new classroom.

Benji in his classroom ("All right. You can leave now, Mom!")

Well, fine! ;)

Ptctures - Last Few From July

2011-09-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hyrum and Jill pleayed out front on a rainy day. The water was high on the edge of the road and was lapping over the sidewalk, running fast. It was a little scary, so I made Jill come in.

Hyrum and Timmy

Timmy

These little ones and I were playing upstairs in the hall. When I left them for a moment I came back to find them both playing with the Primary songs on Papa's iPad. :)

Update

2011-08-28T21:13:00.002-07:00

Dear everyone,

Happy birthday to Grandpa Burk this week! We hope it’s a good one!

And happy Sunday to everyone! I’m so thankful to have had this day. I feel recharged, and I feel like I have some direction again. Thank goodness for Sundays, huh?

And speaking of Sundays, my favorite Sunday afternoon activity (besides Skype) is dipping our toes in the stream in front of our sidewalk. I keep thinking I’m really going to miss that when winter comes. The three youngest usually come out with me when we go play in the water, and I hold Timmy while he splashes all over me. :)

Oh, and today at church Jeremy got set apart as the secretary in Elder’s Quorum. I got to be there for the that, and I was so thankful. He got put right to work today, too. He ran around doing this and that with the presidency this afternoon. And I came away from church with three play dates and a calling. They called me to be a den mother in Cub Scouts. No surprise there, huh? ;) I figured with all these boys I have that calling would come sooner or later, and I think it’ll be good. Maybe I’ll even figure out scouts before Timmy is through. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be working with the bears and wolfs. That includes Joshua and also Benji as soon as he turns 8 in 3 more months.

The children are all growing by leaps and bounds. Timmy’s still making progress with walking. He pants while he walks because he’s so excited. He’s really been fussy the last few days, though. I think he must be teething because he drools and chews on his finger. There’s only so much you can do in that case. He is also getting tall. He can reach a bowl if the boys leave it on the end of the table, and has pulled a few right off and dumped old cereal all over. I do wish they would finish their food! He's been to nursery with Jeremy a couple of times when Jill wouldn't let her papa leave, and he loves it.

Jill has gone and lost most of her guggies (pacifiers). Thank heavens. It really is past time to wean her off those, but I’ve been reluctant to take them away since she gets so much comfort from them. Last night we couldn’t find one at bed time, so she slept without one. It’s going to take a while for her to get used to sleeping without one because she wakes up often looking for it. Yeah, I think we’ve let it go too long. But better late than never. Jill also loves getting all dressed up pretty for church. I must say, I enjoy getting her dressed up too. :) She's getting too tall for all of her dresses, though. I've got to go look in the box and possibly make a trip to D.I. Timmy needs some white shirts anyway. I tell you, they're all getting so tall!

Jeremy started school this week. It’s hard for him to find some quiet time for homework, but he’s sure trying. He may have to start doing homework at school. :( But it’ll get done and I’m sure he’ll do fine. He had some little stories to tell about school this week. He said one of his teachers said children are welcome in her class. Brave woman! I can’t remember what else he said, but it sounds like his classes are good.

Benji had a better time this week, though he did miss the bus to school and home from school one day. That’s ok. It’s not far. He says his class worked with snails one day this week. He showed how the teacher taught him to pick them up so they don’t get hurt. They put the snails in a box with some food and had to find out which food they went to eat. And they also dipped the snails in paint and had them slither out some paint lines on paper. Benji was pretty excited about that and thought it was funny that his snail kept crawling off his paper.

Michael is about to go nuts with boredom. He really needs to go to school! Thank goodness school starts on Tuesday for him. We’re not sure if he’ll be in morning or afternoon kindergarten, but I sure hope he’s in morning kindergarten. I have such a hard time remembering things. I’m afraid I’d forget to take him early on Wednesdays if he was in the afternoon class. (Wednesdays are half days.) But it may be that I just need to get myself some sort of PDA or something. My phone won’t remind me of anything anymore, and I may have to go pick him up every day after school anyway. I’m not sure if there’s a bus in the middle of the day.

Did I tell you Joshua is riding his bike good now? Yea, Joshua! He rides it pretty much every day and has lots of fun. Joshua has also been doing well with homework. For some reason he’s always had a hard time with certain things in math, and one of them is patterns, specifically the ones where you have to figure out the rule and then write in the numbers. I’ve explained it every way I can think of, and I’m sure they have at school too, but he just doesn’t get it. We’ve got to look for another way to make it click. Now if I can just boot the boys off the computer for long enough… We’ll get it, though.

Hyrum helped Jeremy volunteer at the moon walk this week. It was a community thing where people walked or ran a path at night and then there was fruit and water and a movie. Jeremy and Hyrum held flashlights, and they got T-shirts for helping. They are neon green. That’s the second volunteer shirt they’ve gotten since we’ve moved here, so that’s pretty fun. Hyrum is getting really excited for his birthday coming up. He’s going to be 11. Good heavens! Hyrum insists that he's going to be a baker with his own bakery someday. I would appreciate it if he'd play football or wrestle first and get out some aggression. :) But I wouldn't mind sending him to culinary school. That would be cool.

I worked in a cafeteria for the first time on Friday. They needed a substitute out in Parowan. That’s 15 or 20 minutes away. I was kind of nervous because I didn’t know what to expect, but the ladies were really nice and it was good to work. I love working in industrial-size kitchens, even if it’s just washing dishes. In fact, washing dishes was a lot of what I did. First I made a huge salad, though, and I also did a few other things. They tried to get me all familiarized with things because they want me to come back whenever they need a substitute. I think it’s the 8^ththat they want me to fill in again. After the dishes were all done my tummy was all wet. :O I was glad I wore an apron. I loved playing with the sprayer, but it sure made a mess. I ate a piece of pizza and a whole lot of the salad I made, which turned out to have some of the best tomatoes I’ve had it quite a while. Oh, that was so good! And they sent me home with a chocolate popsicle. They boss lady said that some people don’t end up keeping up with working in the cafeteria because they don’t realize it’s real work until they go do it. I like some real work. :) It feels good. It also felt really good to come home to my honey and my babies. I’ve been glad that I didn’t get the everyday job. I love just being home with my children and Jeremy. They’re pretty wonderful. :)

Well, I’m sure I forgot something, but that’s all I can think to say right now. If I remember something later you can go find it on the new blog (http://talesfromhappyland.blogspot.com). I love you all! Have a lovely week!

Love, Christine

Changes Are A'comin'

2011-07-30T15:18:00.001-07:00

And no, I do not know which kind. I do know that this old blog is tired. And since we're in a new place and the old blog is getting full, I think I'm going to start a new one. In fact, I already did start a new one. It's here. I think I may keep this one around just for posting longer stuff and pictures. I want the new one to be simpler (less wordy and less crammed with pictures), but I know that my mother(s) appreciate(s) pictures. I may decide to go private here or somewheres, but for now I just have 2 blogs that I'm working on, and you're welcome to check 'em out if you feel like.

And just in case you were wondering, yes, I have been reading the Mitford series and it makes me want to talk funny. :)

Pictures - 24th of July

2011-07-27T08:21:00.000-07:00

A miracle has occurred! I took the children to the 24th of July parade on Monday and without making the children pose I took their picture. I didn't arrange them. I just told them to look and smile, and the result is, well, miraculous!

Jill

Benji and Jill

At first we grabbed a free spot near the end of the parade. I wondered why it was wide open. Hmmm... Maybe it was because there was a big stream running right in front of it down a storm drain. After the boys played in it and then started splashing each other we moved to the corner. It gave us a better view anyway.

Here we have throngs of onlookers waiting for the parade.

I thought this was a clever float and a real, genuine showing of LDS corny humor. It's from Cedar 13th Ward. These guys were sitting on a wagon whacking away at dutch ovens with spatulas and spoons. The truck pulling them had music playing that they drummed to. And the bottom of the sign says, "Tasty Rhythm Served with Steel." Another ward had a huge kazoo band. Corny! But it's a little of who we are. :)

I didn't get the point of this chinese dragon. Maybe it was meant to go along with the foreign exchange float that was just ahead of it. Hmmm...

Jill loved the bands and the dancers. She's just stand transfixed, watching them and turning to see them pass by.

There were little ponies

with big horses immediately following.

Timmy had had enough of being held. I let him down and he immediately got all black. Black and happy.

And that, my friends, pretty much catches you up on pictures. :)

Pictures - Navajo Lake

2011-07-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, July 23, we went up to Navajo Lake in the mountains about 30 minutes from our house. There were lots of these bluebell flowers. We went to skip rocks because Jeremy wanted to teach the boys how. There were lots of flowers and lots of green stuff period. There were lots of pieces of wood lying around. But there were hardly any rocks. We had fun anyway.

This area used to have active volcanoes, so there is a lot of lava rock insterspersed throughout the evergreen trees and sycamores. There isn't much lava rock that you can see right at the lake, but you can see it all along the drive there.

Benji

Cute Timmy!

Hyrum, Michael, Joshua, Jill (hiding behind Joshua), and our neighbor friend Tim.

A stick and a cracker - what more could a little guy want? He really does love Graham crackers. :)

Michael

Hyrum

Joshua trying to skip a rock

Hyrum

Papa, Benji, Jill, and Michael

Jill had lots of fun throwing sticks in the water and then saying, "Uh-huh!"

Joshua

We brought strawberries and Graham crackers to eat. Jill kept taking one bite of her strawberries and then throwing them on the ground. And Timmy wanted to eat hers and the ones that I gave him. They got very dirty because he kept dropping them. :) But he was happy.

Timmy says, "Give me that strawberry!"

Jeremy helped Michael make this boat.

Jill and a stick

Joshua brought paper boats to the lake. Jeremy used one that came apart to make a boat for Joshua.

Here are a few pictures of the view around the lake.

Here you can see the road cut (the yellow dirt/rock place on top near middle of the picture). It doesn't look like it here, but that spot is high enough up to give an impressive view of the lake, and I believe there's even a little turnout for a scenic view right there.

Joshua and his boat

None of the boats lasted very long, but they were fun.

Jill ate spaghetti and then chocolate. Just look at that face!

Jill at Momm's computer

Pictures - Home in Utah

2011-07-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

The girly who doesn't like to wear pants

Michael and Timmy

Timmy's a master at pulling up now.

Michael

Jill after her bath

We found this bungee cord at the campout, and the boys liked to lock themselves on the stair rails with it and say they were stuck. ;)

We skyped Katie and showed her around our messy box-filled living room, and she pointed out that these two boxes made a happy face. :)

This is one thing I've loved about this summer - we've been to the library a bunch and that also means that Benji has been spending a lot of time reading. :) The other boys have too, but I can expect that from them. To get Benji to voluntarily sit and read it's got to be something fun.

Michael putting a Band-Aid on his knee while Jill eats a cookie in the living room. Grrr! No food in the living room! I can't convince her...

Hyrum's K'nex glasses

and mail holder

Benji got all the guys in the Lincoln Logs set to guard one horse in a corral.

This was Timmy's 8 month birthday (July 19). We took him to the little park by our house, and it was perfect. The light here seems to be great for pictures. :)

I love that these show off his cute little teeth. He still only has two teeth, but he's working on those top two.

Jill

Jill and a stick

This is how the little guy crawls - one foot and one knee.

I just had to have this picture of Jill with her hair standing straight up and illuminated by the setting sun. :)

Papa and Timmy

Michael climbed this tree in the park and then a little girl followed suit and got a lecture from her mom. The mom was right, of course. Those trees are little and we probably shouldn't climb them. I felt guilty for cheering the little gril on only to have her get in trouble. :( But this did make a good picture. :)

Jill is 25 months old as of July 21. Michael just had to get in on the picture-taking action.

This one is proof that Jill is related to her brothers.

I think she got a little sunburned on her cheeks, chin, and nose earlier that day. They have little red spots on them.

Becca, Austin, and Rachel came to visit. I didn't get pictures of Becca and Austin. :( But here's Rachel cuddling with Michael and Hyrum.

Papa

Timmy

Rachel and Timmy

Pictures - Badger Campout

2011-07-25T13:56:00.000-07:00

We went right back to Arizona after a few days in Utah. We had to get the rest of our stuff and the Badger campout was going on too, so we did both.

Leah

Dallin, Timmy, and Leah - the 2010 Badger babies (except only Leah has the last name Badger)

Sword fighting - we start 'em young, raise 'em right. :)

Grandma Badger brought these swings, and they were great!

This was the best part of the campout. The airplane got stuck in the tree and we tried and tried to get it down.

Spectators

Sibling love

Now the football is up there with the plane.

Our last attempt of the day - taping lots of sticks together

Having so... much... fun... with Grandpa's flight simulator

Megan painted faces. Michael was a lion until the boys told him he looked like a girl. He ran off and washed as much off as he could and then just sobbed. :(

Spider-Man

Benji was a tiger

Hyrum - yin & yang

Thomas - Mario

Jill

Jill's pretty butterflies

Jeremy's shark :)

Jill

Joshua has been pretty interested in Harry Potter lately. So this face paint request was no surprise. :)

Kelly got a tree

Uncle David - Groucho Marx

Lots of faces painted

Then Megan pulled out her balloons. Michael got a monkey again. :)

Benji the tiger eating his deer

Hyrum got a wand.

Joshua got a dolphin.

Jill got a penguin.

We stayed the night at Aaron's house before loading up the rest of our stuff and driving back toward home.

This is what I found on the bed in the morning - Jeremy playing games on the iPad with Brookie. :)

And now a few of the ones that I stole from my mother. Bwah-ha-ha!

They did get that plane and the other things out of the tree in the end, but we weren't there for it.

Pictures - Fourth of July

2011-07-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

We went to the parade down Main Street for the Fourth of July. They threw saltwater taffy. :)

Timmy loved this dog.

Jill has purple taffy juice on her face. :)

In the evening there were fireworks all around us. Jill and I went outside to play in the grass in the cool evening. It was a lovely little moment. Michael joined us too. Then everybody else came out and that was fun.

Joshua rolled down our tiny hill out front.

Our house is on the left. We noticed later (and you can kind of see in this picutre) that the screen fell off our bedroom window on the second floor onto the little roof below.

Pictures - Moving

2011-07-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

And now on to some pictures you will surely (not) find exciting. We drove all day Thursday, June 30. By the time we got to Hurricane we were spent, so we got a hotel. These are the only moving pictures I took, but this is about how it went.

We can label this picture (or, rather, these crackers) "Mommy's attempts at getting the boys to calm Jill down."

You can see how well that went. Don't you wish you could've cleaned it? :D

And here we have Mommy's attempt to get the boys to calm Timmy down. About as fruitful. Really they were all pretty good until the last few hours on the 30th.

And here we have Benji's failed attempt to not throw up - along with his guns and the squishy end of a light-up pen from Grandma Badger. They were all thrilled with those pens. They promptly pulled off the squishy parts and turned them inside out so they looked like jelly fish. Oh, and some of them opened up the hole wide and stuck them on their chins like beards. I do wish I had a picture. Fun times!

And here are the sleeping angels.

Don't you love how Hyrum is so wrapped up in the blankets that you can't see him and the sheet is coming off Benji's end?

Michael was supposed to sleep with Joshua, but he preferred to sleep on the floor by my bed, just to be near me. We put him in the bed in the morning.

Jeremy doing iPad. We used the phone in the hotel to change our phone numbers that morning, and I think Jeremy was looking up the phone number to do that in this picture. Oh, and that basket was a life-saver! I put diapers and wipes in it and kept it under the seat. It was easily accessible. I didn't have to hunt down or open a bag. I just reached under the seat. Woo!

You can kind of make out the H on the mountain (for Hurricane).

Our lovely moving truck

And this is what I read all the way to Cedar City as I drove behind Jeremy. See that red arrow? The phrase "freight truck deck height" got stuck in my head because of it. I think it's because all 4 of those words end in a hard syllable. It sounds funny. I can just imagine my siblings and me chanting it all the way to Salt Lake City on one of our long trips. My poor parents! And don't worry. My children have inherited the chanting gene too.

Pictures - Last Days in Arizona

2011-07-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

Timmy and Grandma Badger

This really dates us. This is from senior year. Jeremy was the winner! We took a picture because it was ripped and he was getting rid of it but didn't want to forget. I don't blame him for being sad to give it up. I should do more of that (giving things up). *Sigh*

Pictures - Jill's Second Birthday!

2011-07-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

Jill turned 2 on June 21. She said she wanted ice cream, so Papa took her to the store and got her some. :)

Mommy was running short on time again, and Hyrum came to the rescue - again. He made the cake! Papa bought the fancy candles - 2 stars and a number 2. That's 3 candles, but oh, well. :)

Kenzie took the pictures. Thanks, Kenzie!

Jilly was so sleepy! She was sleeping right on through her party. I just had to wake her. She sat there looking glum. But she did love this little picture that Grandma Burk gave her. Oh, and we've had a hand-me-down mirror sitting in our closet in Globe for, like, years that we never found a place for. We went ahead and brought it, and Papa hung it in the hall upstairs at the perfect height for Jill. He also hung a little nail on one side to hang her little picture that she's holding above. But then she wanted a nail on the other side too. When Jeremy put one there she moved her picture to that side. She's had lots of fun moving it back and forth.

Ryan was a very willing helper. :)

Clothes from Grandma Burk

Jeremy's holding Cinderella on DVD. Hopefully she'll be more excited about it in the years to come. Right now she's way more excited about The Wiggles.

Aaron and Kenzie gave Jill a little princess doll in the box she's holding. I believe it's Cinderella in her wedding dress. Oh, and Brookie gave her a birthday crown that she had made, but we didn't get a picture. :(

Don't tell, but this Cinderella Barbie is a hand-me-down from Aunt Kelly. But it was never opened. :) And Jill does like it.

Jill loves he bubble bucket and this Pinkalicious doll that Benji chose for her.

Orange slices from Grandma Badger!

Bubbles!

Jill with her new dolls

Pictures - Timmy's Blessing Day

2011-07-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

Timmy was blessed on Father's Day, June 19, 2011. I'm sad we don't have a picture of Timmy with Jeremy. And somebody (probably Jill) got fingerprints on my lens, so all these pictures are fuzzy. Still, Timmy's cute enough to make up for that. :)

Sleeping during the lunch after church

Grandma and Emily

Jill swinging round around her squishy light ball

Megan and Leah

Joshua, Thomas, Hyrum, Grandpa, and Michael gathered arounf Grandpa's iPad

Grandma and the girlies

Aaron and Timmy

Joe and Jill

2 Grandpas and Jocelynn

Aaon and Kenzie

Coincidentally, that was our last turn for Sunday dinner before we moved.

And it was Timmy's 7 month birthday. :)

Timmy

Benji

Papa says, "I'm getting too much help with the iPad and can you please not take that picture?"

Joshua

Benji and Timmy

Timmy got 2 teeth!

Hyrum was way excited about reading scriptures. :) (He really was reading scriptures.)

Michael and his good friend Little Bear.

Jill

Pictures - Random Ones from June

2011-07-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

Jill "helping" Papa with iPad

Jill got hold of my camera!

Silly girl :)

Benji and Timmy

Jill and Timmy

Joshua made a TV and made Tiny flying in it. (Tiny is a stick figure comic guy he made up.)

Forgiveness

2011-07-22T15:34:00.002-07:00

I've arrived at the conclusion that in the end forgiveness is a conscious and sometimes daily choice, but it always brings peace and joy.

Pictures - Campout in June

2011-07-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

We went on a campout at Pioneer Pass in June with Tom and Jennifer.

Emily

Brooke

Jennifer and Tom

Emily, Thomas, and Hyrum

Hyrum

Maybe you can't tell from this picture, but Michael is sleeping horizontally instead of vertically in his sleeping bag.

Tom cooking bacon

We went on a hike after breakfast. Some people (Benji and Michael and possibly a few others) weren't very happy about it, but we went anyway. We found a pipe that ran under the road. Michael, Emily, and Jeremy were among the few brave souls who crawled through it.

Benji saw the US Forest Service symbol on this and said, "Mom, what does U tree S mean?" ;)

Pictures - Random Ones from May

2011-07-22T13:20:00.001-07:00

Jill plugged the GameCube controller into her pluggie.

Silly boys

Jill's fancy fur coat (Timmy's bear suit)

Kenzie fixed Jill's hair and then let her play with her phone.

Timmy eating blueberry pancakes

And this picture will have to do for Jill's 23 month picture. I'm slackin'.

Pictures - Benji's Program, Morning at the Park, Laurie's Graduation

2011-07-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 crummy pictures from Benji's school concert in May.

Benji is in the blue shirt in the back on the left. (You'll have to click and zoom in.) He kept dancing around and was really fun to watch.

Timmy and me

Benji and Michael (We played outside for a few minutes after the concert.)

Benji

Joshua blowing Jill's belly

Some random kid, Jill, Benji, Hyrum, and Michael

Jill

Michael and Hyrum

Michael and Jill

We were bad about getting to play group, but we went this day. Here's Michael!

Hyrum

Jill

Joshua and Jill

Benji

Timmy

Timmy swinging

Jill in the puddle

Jill again

Jill, Timmy, and I went to Laurie's graduation while Papa and the other boys went to Fathers and Sons. We slept at Jeff and Laurie's, and Jill had lots of fun with Grandma's iPhone.

Tyler and Timmy with Grandma

Jill and her baby (This baby went with us all the way to Cedar City the week before. There was a little armrest or something in the little car next to Jill's seat, and it was the perfect place for Jill's baby.

Timmy

I made Jill a sandwich to take with us to the graduation since it was lunch time. Jill spotted it and grabbed it and wanted it open right then.

The graduate!

Laurie by the sign ;)

Jill

Laurie, Jeff, and the boys

Pictures - Twelfth Anniversary

2011-07-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

For our twelfth anniversary (May 7, 2011) we took a family trip up the mountain. We had hot dogs. Jeremy cooked some steak. We also had s'mores and a huge bowl of chocolate pudding. And be borrowed Aaron's BB guns and shot at our cast iron skillet. It makes such a satisfying *ping* when you hit it.

This is the best anniversary picture we got. My shirt is up and Jeremy's mouth is full. Love it!

Thoughts

2011-07-21T10:18:00.002-07:00

I’ve been thinking about things and about how when I got married I was so young. I was 21 and I thought I was so grown-up. I’ve learned a lot about myself over the years and I hope to continue that. I think it’s part of self-improvement. For one thing, I’ve learned that I was a very selfish, self-absorbed person. I had my own ideas about things and kind of went ahead with what I wanted gosh darn the consequences. For example, I feel sad looking back and seeing how right from the start of our marriage I was not content to just be Jeremy and Christine. I wanted a baby right away. I wish I had seen back then how selfish that was. My poor husband! And that’s just one example. Who even knows what he’s put up with over the years! (Sure, we put up with each other, but I’m talking about me here. ;)

Anyway, as I think all this through I feel like I should feel horribly guilty or down on myself and I’m not sure why I’m not. Certainly I feel sad that I didn’t just relish the whole experience of just Jeremy and me, but I guess I have decided that I like myself. I’m not sure when or how that came about, but I’ve liked myself for a while now. I’ve stopped beating myself up so much. I guess maybe I’m learning to be more objective instead of hurt. I like that because I can improve when I don’t just get hurt over every nit-picky little thing, you know? I really was far too sensitive. That was another of my problems and probably still is, but it’s something I can work on.

It’s a really nice thing to like myself. It sure makes things convenient with moving. I don’t worry nearly so much about the people around here and what they think because I am happy with myself whether I’m conventional or not. I’m an individual and I’m happy with that.

And just as a side-note: I started running again the day before yesterday. We used the car and measured out a mile, so I ran that far and back and that was 2 miles. I decided that was a good starting place after not running for a month or so. And besides that, part of it was on an uphill grade! That’s new. It will take some getting used to, but I did it and I’m going to do it again this week sometime. I missed running. It makes my body sore, but it feels good to work my body, and it feels good to have a goal that I’m working on.