Book Review

Just in case you weren't already feeling inundated by too many posts on my blog, I thought I'd just send you over to my other blog for a book review! :)

http://calloohcallaycallay.blogspot.com/2012/10/book-review-tale-dark-and-grimm.html

A Cake Retrospective

This is just in case you thought I was kidding about having no cake skills.* The following cakes are for Coriel’s third birthday and Brice’s thirtieth and thirty-first. Please note, I think it’s possible Brice even made the cookie bar himself, rather than me.

I suppose my cakes do have a certain sort of chaotic panache, don’t you think?

*And let me just add that I don’t feel bad about this at all. I am quite happily content with having no cake skills. Actually, I do have one very good cake skill—eating it. And that’s the only one I need.

See the clever candles? A "3" and a "1"? Skills, baby, skills.

She was really into How to Train Your Dragon that year.

Just had to include it because it was cute. Plus, it does technically feature a cake.

This doesn't feature a cake at all. But it does feature my really awesome pregnant pegacorn drawing!

At least in the case of this cake, I can pretend to blame it on Coriel.

See? She helped place the decorations.

And had lots of fun doing it.

Happy (Late) Birthday, Addra!

Last-ish Saturday, we had a birthday party for our sweet Addra, who is turning two. It was so fun to have friends over (and oodles of kids) to play together and run around like mad. We bought an awesome cake from our friend Carlynne, we had pizza and hot dogs, we did a piñata, and we had some small obstacle courses and silly races for the kids. We cannot say enough what awesome friends our daughters have. We love you guys, and thanks for coming!

Our little Addra is so much fun (most of the time). The latest awesome thing she does started on Sunday. She saw a very squashed bug outside our church building, and she was just fascinated by it. She was then determined to tell me all about it, and after Brice explained to her that it was squashed, she came to me and slammed her hand down onto an imaginary bug and made a cute noise. … And now that I’ve written it out, I realize this will not even remotely translate well on paper. You’ll just have to trust me. It was awesome. (Or you could come visit and see it up close and personal.)

This is actually an extension of an overall personality trait I’ve seen in Addra. She is very interested in explanations. She needs to know—and share—the why and how of things. Whenever she gets a tiny hurt from bonking into a table or something, she comes up to me and explains (in her small vocabulary) “owie,” then points to where she got injured. Then she needs me to come see what hurt her. The explanation is not complete until I know what corner she ran into or what toy she stepped on or what sister plowed her over. And she needs me to say it back to her so she knows I understood: “Oh, Coriel tried to eat your nose and you bonked heads? Well, mwa! Now do you feel better?” (No, to my knowledge Coriel has never tried to eat Addra’s nose. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she did.) And once she knows she’s been understood, she toddles off to play some more. Another favorite time to do this is after Brice changes her diaper or she’s been on the toilet. She comes up to me, says “poo,” and shows me her hands to let me know they’ve been washed. Again with the supercute untranslatable hand gestures and facial expressions, by the way.

This works as well in the opposite direction. One night a while back, I was changing her out of her shirt to get her into some pajamas. At first she was happy with that, but then she started freaking out that she wasn’t still wearing her old shirt (she gets very attached to her outfits, but that’s a whole different subject). The only way to calm her was to spread the shirt out and point to all the stains and spills on it, letting her know that we were going to wash it so it would be nice and clean again. Then she was fine.

She and Coriel both love animals, but Addra seems to have a particular love of them these days. She calls cats “mlows,” cows “moos,” and dogs “foofs.” It’s pretty great. She also loves singing and conducting music around our house. She usually finds a stool or chair to stand on for this, and she looks very serious.

Her latest love, however, is Play Doh. A particularly favorite activity is getting one of us to make something for her and then her squashing it and giggling. 

And now for the picture extravaganza! (If you need even more photos, because this just isn’t enough, I have more on Facebook, here.)

We had the cow pinata hanging around the house for a couple weeks before the party, and the girls developed a very loving relationship with the poor thing.

This is what happens when our costume box throws up all over their bedroom (which happens on a regular basis).

The lovely cake, with (get this!) edible, nondisgusting fondant! (I bet you didn't think such a thing existed.) And no, I didn't make the cake (I mentioned that above, didn't I?). I have absolutely no cake-making abilities. I think maybe I'll dig up a few old pictures of cakes I've made, just so you can properly compare and realize that this cake was in no way made by me.

Addra wasn't entirely sure what to make of the cake, but she was definitely fascinated by it. (And, true to form, she did eat a bunch of frosting and fondant and very little cake itself. ... More for me.)

One of the obstacle courses. Did I mention that Brice planned this party and did such a good job?! I was a big poo about it, but he did great and everyone had so much fun, and it was lovely that I wasn't the one going crazy and overboard this time. :)

See? Who doesn't love face painting? Brice is always so full of fun ideas and spontaneity. I am really jealous of that about him, but at least I get to bask in reflected glory.

We also had these cool balloon-propelled car toys. Fun times!

More of our adorable friends. Must be mentioned: The baby on the left is about nine or ten months. The one on the right is five months. We love those two cuties!

I think Addra wasn't sure about whacking this creature that she'd been befriending. She got into the spirit of it though.

Everyone got a turn, even some of the adults. The beast was nearly indestructible. In the end, Brice pulled it down and just mutilated the poor thing. Then he tossed the pinata's guts all over the ground for a feeding frenzy.

Coriel got to whack him a couple times. Also, a few days later (because, yes, the carcass is still hanging around our house--but hey, at least it doesn't stink!), Coriel decided she had to give someone a haircut. Since I wasn't willing to let her work on me (how insensitive of me!), Brice suggested she give the cow a haircut. She did so very happily, and there are still tissue paper scraps on the floor.

I'm not sure why she was doing this, but I just really enjoyed it.

See these two adorable homemade dolls that a friend made for her? So great! One is wooden and colored with marker. The other was cut out of felt and had a bunch of changes of clothing to go with it.

Notice the outfit change--the shirt she'd just gotten went straight on (it has foofs on it!). And then the apron Meghan made went on right afterward. And then, of course, all the doll stuff went right in the pocket.

Coriel painted me this lovely flower.

Our beautiful neighbor Jean, the best adopted grandma ever!

One of the books Uncle Kem and Aunt Michelle and Cuzzie Ian sent. All she wanted to do was read those books, not open any more presents.

Yes, this hat is a birthday cake with three candles and three strawberries on it. It was an awesome gift from my sister Dawn a few years ago, and it has become a fine Stay family tradition.

The blue on her leg is paint. And on her shirt too. She's holding the Play-Doh toys she just got. Fortunately, I didn't get a photo of her nearly having a meltdown when it was too late to play with them immediately.

Back to the books from Kem's family.

Because Addra got to blow out candles, so did Coriel. Over and over again. They really like blowing out candles.

Field Trip

On the 12th, Coriel and I went together on her very first field trip. She was very excited about it, and I was too actually. I was excited to go get to hang out with my sweet daughter and just focus on her (well, and on pumpkins) (and on her as a pumpkin!).

There were some wacky gourds there, including gooseneck gourds, birdhouse gourds (go look it up—and then imagine a little girl Coriel’s age saying, “This one looks just like my father!” Everyone thought it was hilarious, possibly except for her father.), and the ones below.

Peanut gourds.

Apple gourds. (Although I think they look like a cross between apples and watermelon.)

Paying rapt attention. Here’s something I noticed: Coriel can be very loud and energetic and bouncing off the walls at home, but she was remarkably quiet and focused while the gourd man was talking and while we looked around the farm.

She got to pet the bunny and look at a bunch of other animals.

Did you know a male donkey is called a jack and a female is called a jenny?

Curse that obnoxious strand of hair. But even with ridiculous hairdos, we had a fun time on the hayride.

I have to confess I was slightly disappointed to discover that “picking pumpkins” entailed just grabbing ones that had been scattered around a field, already cut off. But Coriel was pretty jazzed about it, jazzed enough for both of us.

Good times were had by all!

Now, just for the record, I will mention that once again blogger defeats me and my attempts at pretty formatting. It is a sign of just how fully it has defeated me that I only spent about 15 seconds on it before giving up completely. Sigh. How the mighty have fallen.

In Other News...

Today I got in my first car accident when I was driving! But it really barely counts, for which I am grateful. A guy pulled out of a parking spot into my car, probably going about three miles per hour. I’ve hit speed bumps that jarred us more than this accident. There was this weird moment just before he hit us where I looked over and saw that the car was coming and I realized there was nothing I could do about it except cringe slightly. It was kind of surreal—that whole slow motion, time stopping business. Exciting! And can I also say I’m grateful it wasn’t my fault? Honestly, I didn’t suddenly turn on our car’s cloaking device, I didn’t throw an invisibility cloak over it. I certainly didn’t do that weird thing the ginormous S.H.I.E.L.D. blimp does where they change the frequency of something-or-other-whatnot-blah blah blah. The point is, I was fully visible and driving quite acceptably. So ha! Take that, random dude.

Also, may I take this opportunity to mention that as a driver I have improved dramatically. I totally didn’t freak out today when the guy hit my car. And I’ve been driving freeways a lot more. And I also didn’t freak out a few weeks ago when I accidentally took the wrong exit and went the wrong direction about five times in a row. And I only freaked out a little bit when a semi-truck nearly merged into me (on two separate occasions, no less! I swear, people, I am not invisible). This is so weird to me. On the one hand, it feels so Hooray! victory!-ish to be getting over the whole driving terror. (Though, don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty left to go around.) 

On the other hand, it has seemed like such a big part of me for so long that it’s strange to think of letting go of it. It makes me think about what kinds of bad stuff we hang onto because we wouldn’t know who we were without it. (Apologies for suddenly waxing philosophical. I would tell you it won’t happen again… but it will.)

Okay, enough about driving.

In other news, a few days ago I posted on my other blog. I’m trying to remember to mention that here when I post there, but I’m obviously not always on top of it.

"Everyday Hero"

Over on my other blog, I posted a fluffy piece of flash fiction that I recently wrote. It was for a Mormon fiction contest, though I had absolutely no illusions of winning or even placing for it. Mostly it was just for fun. Anyway, enjoy!

Black Hole

It turns out that while we did not fall into a black hole, some of our belongings did. For starters, the DVDs we burned in Guatemala that contained all of our photos from the trip (and the portable DVD player and case that was carrying them). And also, half of the biggest part of my matryoshka doll.* And a spiral-bound notebook. But fortunately, our black hole seems to be occasionally spitting things back out. Just a few days ago it spit out a small elephant Christmas tree ornament that I didn’t even know was missing. And the notebook came back out too. I’m sure that eventually the rest of the stuff will come back, but who knows when? In the meantime, I am just so very grateful that our photos are also on Brice’s mom’s computer in Guatemala, so they’re not totally lost.

Are you sensing where this is going yet? That was my really big, long excuse for why I haven’t posted anything about our vacation! But I figured that since I was at this very moment actively avoiding working on my current novel or planning my next one, I would at least write a blog post. So, a quick summary, in case I never do any better:

Guatemala was fun and relaxing (mostly; please note sore legs below) and beautiful. We saw…

~Kaminalyuju, an area of ruins kind of right in the middle of Guatemala City. They’re all covered over with dirt and grass, except for the sections they excavate piece by piece. But when they’re done excavating, they cover it again to protect it from the elements. It’s weird to think of going to all that work and then reburying it, but they don’t have the means to keep everything protected if exposed all the time.

~Antigua, an old little town, in which we visited a cathedral (with lots of great statuary), a jade museum (so cool, people! I want to devote an entire post to Maya stuff I learned—especially related to birth! neato!), and a restaurant way up high on a hill. I also saw an avocado tree. Avocados! They grow on trees! (Yes, yes, I knew that, but it was still fun to actually see.) I wanted to steal all the avocados, but I didn’t. Good job, me.

~Tikal, some big ole temple ruins rising out of the jungle. Including that temple in that one scene from one of the Star Wars movies (yes, seriously, that’s exactly how specific I can get about it). This was a full-day trip just for me and Brice, including four hours of climbing up and down ridiculously steep rock structures. Also including some awesome airport adventures (teaser: I got a pocket-sized set of tweezers confiscated. seriously.).

Before Tikal, I had never really viscerally understood how entirely cities could be just plain lost, reclaimed by the jungle. I mean, I grew up in Utah, folks. And there’s no way jungle’s going to be reclaiming anything in Utah. So I just didn’t get it. But wow, now I do. Jungle just slurping up huge buildings, vines growing up over them and trees around. Pretty much, if there’s a regularly shaped hill in Guatemala, it probably has a pyramid underneath it.

This is also where I got the sore legs. That lasted three days. But mostly only on my right thigh and my left calf (that would be from going down really steep steps sideways without switching sides enough). Tikal also has this amazing, zinging echo sound when you get in between a couple of the buildings. I wish that I could explain to you exactly how very cool this echo is. I mean, seriously, if I tell you that one of the very coolest things about the whole vacation was an echo, you’re going to think I’m completely lame. So we’ll pretend I didn’t say that.

Also, spider monkeys and toucans and one really big spider. And allspice, gum, and incense trees.

Wow, I really wish I had pictures to show you all this cool stuff. I hope to have some eventually.

~Pacaya, a volcano that only Brice and his dad went to. I stayed home to write (yes, I confess that I spent several hours on vacation writing—and it was sooooo great, because the girls played with Grandma and had a lovely time, and I had guilt-free writing! amazing!) and to keep my legs from dying ignominiously. I also avoided saddle sores (hooray!). Brice says the volcano was pretty cool (well, okay, it was actually rather hot) and he also picked up some nifty volcanic rocks.

~A zoo (with several big cats, tons of little cats, an arboreal anteater, and caterpillars the size of my hand all over the trees). The children’s science museum. A modern art museum with some gorgeous pottery and a piece that looked a lot like giant baby of a battleship and a grand piano.

~Church on Sunday, at which sacrament meeting was the Primary program—bilingual! And then in Relief Society I understood about three words. :) But that was still good. They were important words.

~Little things like going to markets, eating at Pollo Campero (fast food place—and fast food places in Guatemala are all sort of fancy and sit-down-y), eating at San Martin (pastries! tons of them! for really cheap!), and hanging out playing with Play Doh and such.

Well, I positively have forgotten something, and I have yet to regale you with any of the really funny stories (like the last leg of the flight, in which Addra vomited copiously all over Brice; good times, my friends). But at least I can feel like I posted something!

And now I shall give you some links. Because Brice’s mom is way awesomer at posting pictures than I am. I have no idea if her blog is by invitation only or not. But if not, you can at least see a few of our pictures on her blog:

http://joyceandlarryinguatemala.blogspot.com/2012/09/brices-family-visits.html

http://joyceandlarryinguatemala.blogspot.com/2012/09/saravias-baptism.html

We had a lovely time. Brice’s parents are so marvelous, and we definitely miss them. The vacation was great, but seeing them was better. We love you, Joyce and Larry!

*Matryoshka dolls are those nesting dolls from Russia. And I’m undoubtedly butchering the spelling here. And no, I didn’t get that in Guatemala. My brother got it for me. In Russia. Many moons ago. It just happens to have disappeared into the same black hole.