The Professor and Mary Ann

I have been falling asleep on the blog! I just found this draft from our camping trip at the end of MAY! So here it is. Kathy McFarland reserved a great campground with two cabins at the Heber Valley Camp owned by the LDS church. When it isn't full girls' camp season, families and groups can use it. Here are our kids with Rick and Kathy's -- McFarlands o' Plenty: Jessie, David, Will, Tyler, Maddie, Hannah, and Sebastian. Will and one of the Kerry boys paddling on the lake. There were paddle boats and canoes to take out and we had a good time racing, but phew! Paddling works those legs! On Friday, the family went and did one of the challenge courses. It included a sort of rope spider web that you had to pass everyone through, and this, with two trees and two cables running across them. Maddie and Will climbed up to the top and then rappelled down the same side. Rob actually went across the cable. Crazy!

This week I took our van in to get the emissions done. When I got it back I noticed this little sign on the console between the front seats. I thought that perhaps the mechanics had done it because they have a lot of jokes and political cartoons up in the office, and they know Rob from a long time back when he used to deliver auto parts for his dad's store. Then I found out that it was actually my daughter Maddie who had put it up. It says: Here is Will, who just finished doing his first grade dance at the school's dance festival. He did the hand jive, with the whole thing choreographed with chairs (which I think is a great way to keep your first graders in line -- make them think the chair is a prop and they'll stay where they're put without problems). Just this weekend he took off his own training wheels and then learned to ride a bike in just half an hour or so. He and Rob were going off to the church parking lot to practice and he turned to his sister and said ...

Yesterday Sebastian and I tagged along with my dad and my sister Karen as they went on a hunt for ghost towns in Utah county. There are four or five listed out past Goshen and we decided to head there. I don't head down to Springville in my usual routine, so Spanish Fork is pretty far out, Santaquin is back of beyond, and I'd never been to Goshen. The first one we came to turned out to be Dividend. They mined approximately $80M worth of tin, silver, copper and lead from the mines there before it died out. There is absolutely nothing left, though rumor has it that the company who owns it is considering returning. There were a few cement foundations, two water tanks on the hill, and the remains of this structure. Then we went to Eureka, which is still inhabited, though the mines are closed. We explored this caboose, saw Porter Rockwell's cabin, ate at the Tintic Cafe, and bought treasures at the antique store there. Sebastian got a blue convertible to play with because he ...

Today Rob and kids bought a box of Jelly Belly beans for Mother's Day and a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans for the kids to consume. Will wants to point out that he didn't go on the trip and hence, didn't partake of any flavor beans. But back to our idea, we think that Jelly Belly should include the Bertie Bott's flavors when coming up with their recipes. Here are some of ours: Load of Laundry: grass peanut butter dirt grape jelly soap Gardening: earthworm dirt grass cherry Pizza: roasted garlic sardine Mud Pie: chocolate pudding dirt french vanilla Pork n' Beans: baked bean bacon The Morning After: Baby aspirin (this isn't currently a flavor, but we think they should try it) vomit cappuccino orange juice bacon I think they'd be winners! Can you think of any recipes? I didn't come up with anything good for jalapeno, booger, or earwax. . .

A) Four jobs I have had in my life: 1. Executive assistant at Lawrence Berkeley Lab 2. Peon at BART-SFO extension 3. Paralegal at Farella, Braun & Martel 4. Case clerk at Freshfields, Fleet Street in London (I only did it for the address!) B) Four movies I could watch over and over: 1. When Harry Met Sally 2. Pride and Prejudice BBC version 3. Mixed Nuts 4. When Harry Met Sally C) Four places I have lived: 1. Provo, UT 2. Berkeley, CA 3. Piedmont, CA 4. Richmond, CA D) Four television shows I watch: (we don't have a TV plugged in, so this is theoretical...) 1. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 2. Divine Design 3. anything with Helen Mirren 4. um, think I'll go read a book . . . E) Four places I have gone on vacation: 1. Berlin 2. Vienna 3. Chile 4. Hawaii F) Four websites I visit almost daily: 1. Google search 2. friends' blogs 3. shopping sites 4. my bank G) Four of my favorite foods: 1. chocolate. 2. doener kebap (Berlin turkish food -- shaved spiced lamb in a toasted f...

This is Sebastian with Tomas-my-best-friend-ever. Their daddies took them bowling last night at BYU. Sebastian lives for his playdates with Tomas and he talks about them all the time. Yesterday he said "Kiecoo, guess what? I go to Tomas house on Toosday." Apparently Sebi is quite a topic of conversation for Tomas too; that, and his dog, Foodles. So bowling was no problem for the boys since they had not only the bumpers up, but also the handy-dandy ramps. Roll the ball down and watch it go! Sebastian beat Rob during the first game with a score of 111. There were lots of exciting things at the bowling alley. Not least, the magical automatic ball return. Then after two games where Curtis beat everyone, they had "handbergs" at the Creamery on Ninth and Sebi creeped out the adults by eating everything that had ketchup on it. I'm afraid it was just a reprise of the lunch scene that Karen and I had witnessed. Sebi thinks "keppitch" is one of the four food...

The kids woke up at 5:00am on Easter Sunday to see what was in their baskets. Their papa woke up with them and was not so happy about it. After church and a short nap for Papa and Sebi, we drove up to Salt Lake and had dinner with Aunt Rosemary, three of her kids, four of Reed's friends (ok, a fiance is actually something separate altogether), and Karen and the grandparents Nelson. The food was so good that all of the kids ate it and had seconds. Then we came down to the park where Rob and Karen hid easter eggs while the kids ran around. Maddie could not believe that she finally got to wear her new easter dress. The boys could not have cared less about their easter clothes. Karen and MA are happy that Karen got air in her tires and no one noticed that MA's car registration is due. Here are Madeline, Will and Sebastian with the Grandparents Nelson: Gigi and Leo. They're in their gliders which are like mine only cooler because they have a hand brake. Here Will is watching...

Here is Will, a reasonable child, showing you his egg. He does one at a time, and this one is lavender because it is for Oma, and that is her favorite color. And here is Sebastian, who has figured out birthdays, Easter and Christmas all in the last month. He's also figured out that the squeaky wheel gets the grease and he stuck four eggs into four cups of dye without our noticing (perhaps he's figured out that he's the third child too?). This was one of those years when I should have bought about eight dozen eggs to satisfy his dyeing needs. And here are some of the results. This was managed on a day when Rob also cleaned the window wells and I made cakes, prepared a lesson, we did chores, decorated cookies and left the kids to go see the ballroom dance performance. Next year we're taking the kids -- they were phenomenal and fast and so entertaining. Plus there were pirates and baseball players and glow-in-the-dark dancers; even Sebastian would have loved it.

It was the first day of spring break. The boys wanted to go to the zoo, but Maddie wanted to participate in her first demonstration. She was disappointed that I hadn't taken her to the stroller rallies for married student housing while we lived in Berkeley. On Tuesday night Heather Armantrout and her daughter Sarah made their signs. Rob just threw his together on Wednesday morning, but as always, managed to create a stir. He sat talking for a while to some guy sitting next to him before he realized that he was Tad Walch of the Deseret Morning News. But we knew that Rob would get attention if he showed up, and I was totally unsurprised that he was quoted. I'm relieved that no one quoted Maddie! They did manage to get the spelling right on Voldemort eventually. Here is Maddie with several of our study abroad students, opinionated demonstrative folk that they are. When I ran into Will's friend's mother yesterday, she said "I just have one question: Is Rob really...

Marie-Laure and I took off to Capitol Reef National Park for conference weekend. My father always says "you can either schedule your car maintenance, or the cosmos will schedule it for you". This was a weekend for scheduled mental maintenance in a busy semester. We stayed in a little cottage at the Torrey Pines Inn, run by a German from Cologne and her husband. It was very cute, though we had to move quite a bit of furniture around in order to get enough room to practice yoga in the morning. After yoga, we set off to explore the park. We hiked and hiked and took dozens of pictures of blue sky and red rock. I won't post them all here, but this is the Hickman Bridge which we did in the afternoon. A sun petroglyph in the red rock. There were not only those carved by the ancient Fremont people, there was also a "pioneer register". Now if you carve your name in the rock, you are fined $250 -- amazing that 150 years can turn graffiti into a historical marker. Here ...

So last week I had found the drill, the driver bits, the drill battery, the new drawer pulls, the screws, the dresser, and me, all in the same room at the same time. Taking it as a sign, I began installing new pulls so that we wouldn't have to use our fingernails to pry open the boys' drawers anymore (I had taken the old ones off a few weeks back while trying to make up a useful but low-risk job for Will and Ethan Oscarson to perform; this was ok, but the real hit was using the fertilizer spreader). After installing all six drawer pulls, I realized that I hadn't heard from Sebastian in about ten minutes and it was all quiet in the house. When this happens, it usually means that he's opened my favorite pot of hand cream and is carefully applying it to all of his limbs and his Matchbox cars. So I dashed around the house and found him here: I guess we're not ready to give up naps altogether! Which has been lovely, because it means that I can paint some doors and repla...

Madeline's class had to write a persuasive letter to their parents using backup and reasons with an intro and conclusion. Most of the kids were working on a later bedtime or more allowance, but this is what we received: Fri. Jan. 26, 2007 Dear Mom and Dad, I wish I could have more reading time. One reason is it keeps me Quiet. Another reason is I can learn new things. Please can I have more reading time? One reason is it keeps me Quiet. When I silent read, I am very quiet. I don't make a disturbing noises. Now you see how I'm quiet when I read. Another reson is I can learn new things. I can learn all about bugs. I also learn about different cities. That's how I learn from books. Therefore, you see, more reading time would be verey keep me Quiet and make me smarter. Please can I have moe reading time? Love Maddie

Here is some of the latest Sebi-speak: bweckfwest: "I want some muffins for bweckfwest." oping: "Can you oping this fow me?" Peterjelly sanwich: "Cai have a Peterjelly sanwich?" macawoni, the other favorite lunch Legdichhin, which is his German for 'to lie down' Dinglydumbhead: his favorite name to call people Peter Pans: tatertots. We don't know how these wires got crossed.

This weekend we decided to hike to Delicate Arch with the Oscarsons. Chip and Marie-Laure are far more seasoned hikers than we. They have been known to throw two kids in backpacks and take off up Y-Mount or in Yosemite, and so their kids know what hiking is about. I had to try to market it to our children as "You know that time you climbed up to the castle in Fuessen? Hiking is like that only longer and with no castle at the end. People do it for fun. Especially in Utah where there are lots of great places to hike. Understand?" We drove down on Sunday after church and stayed in Moab, where we walked through the downtown, had Mexican food for dinner, and tried out the motel's hot tub. We watched ice skating finals on TV, and Rob attended a very entertaining evening of cowboy poetry at the Moab Art and Recreation Center. As soon as he left, I told the kids to stop jumping on the beds. Maddie saw Sebastian launching off, and so she grabbed his feet, thereby swinging him lik...

Yesterday was V-Day. I made the kids heart-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches. Maddie had dance class and Will made Pretend Soup for their dinner. Then I set up dinner for me and Rob downstairs. This is a woebegone kitchen island covered with a tablecloth, but our new table came today. Pictures will follow someday. I just figured that we had all of this space downstairs that we weren't using, and we might as well eat down there as go out! We had a roast and salad with pears and blueberries and gorgonzola cheese, and asparagus with white balsamic vinegar and pine nuts, and because I overcooked the rosemary new potatoes, we had tatertots with it, served with Navarro gewurtztraminer grape juice. For dessert we had a Mike Christenson Hazelnut Truffle Torte, which was a great thing for me. When we were newlyweds and didn't know how to cook, the Christensons would invite us downstairs to try whatever exotic dish they had just slaved over all afternoon in their wee kitchen. This was o...

Since we've taken over our basement (after renting it for five years), we've rearranged a lot of furniture and bought some more. Here is my new cabinet, which we've put in the kitchen (as you can see from the pictures, we're still figuring out what we want to do with it). It's not a great quality piece, but both Rob and I liked it so much that we didn't care. It holds the dishes, which means that we can display the china and crystal instead of hiding it in a dresser where it's been for the last several years. Here is Will's new bedding. It took a lot of negotiating with that kid to get to this point. I'd show him a picture and he'd want the twelve foot ceilings and the boat-shaped bed and the hardwood floors and the . . . on and on ad nauseum. He has some good taste -- I'll grant him that, but he is a terrible stinker to shop for. This is why usually I buy something and make it a surprise instead.

Will's science project was called "How does a Tarantula Change its Clothes?" and he investigated tarantula molting. He and Rob not only used lots of great color pictures, they also dressed up two RC tarantulas in doll clothes and Will had a great day explaining his project and freaking out unsuspecting students by making the spiders wiggle. Maddie and her friend Kenzly did their project on Winter Snow where they learned all about the formation of snowflakes and how studying them helps us (did you know that snowflake study helps meteorologists tell airline pilots where to avoid so that their planes don't ice up? and that snowflakes catalyze the change from ozone to breathable oxygen? Mama learned a lot). Both kids got lots of ribbons and are all fired up to do it again next year when Maddie will move ahead to the actual experimenting part of Science Fair.

Transitions to the homeland were made easier by the backyard in general, and the trampoline and scooters in particular. Our aluminum deck cover kept things dry so the kids could roll around on the patio. Rob and I have determined that the "tin can" as we so lovingly refer to it, is going away this year, so I'm trying to justify a better looking backyard against the decreased play time in it. I'm open to suggestions if you have any! Here is Sebi on his SpongeBob scooter which he got from Jen and Eric. And Will loved the snow. We hadn't had any in Berlin, and there has been a ton here since our return. Mama loves that Will is out shoveling the walk. That's my favorite part!

Then we flew home. All three flights were uneventful, on time, with pleasant staff and no problems except us. We were pretty hammered after 27 hours, and we were grateful to have Uncle John, Grandma and Grandpa Shumway come and pick us up and take us home to our house, where they were staying and had already filled the fridge and kept the light on for us. Karen and Betsy decorated a Christmas tree for us and someone even organized all of the Christmas cards. Jeff and Saydi, Hazel and Charlie were downstairs asleep, as normal people are wont to do in the wee hours of the night. But we all woke up the next day and had another Christmas with lots of gifts and wrapping paper for all. Here is Grandpa in one of his most characteristic moves. He is in the kitchen and has just flung a kitchen towel over his shoulder. Whenever he's in the kitchen, he keeps one here in order to wipe his hands with a little fluttering cleaning motion after he has stuck something in his mouth. If he were do...