Marci Christensen

MAD LIB!

2011-08-24T14:21:00.001-07:00

Today for school, I decided it would be fun to Mad Lib. I really liked doing those in school, and I thought William and Marissa would too. I got a 'How to Train Your Dragon' themed Mad Libs at Borders recently, so I was already to go today. I thought you would enjoy the results.

Welcome to Berk

Looking for the perfect vacation destination for your entire smart family? Interested in fighting tall dragons and living the rough-and-sharp life of a viking? Then come to the sticky island of Berk. Our mountainous home is located just ten miles north of America on the scenic Bathtub Sea. Stay at the quaint Dragon's Nose Inn. Relax and have all the roast puppies you can eat at Cross-eyed Mead Hall. Learn hand-to-unicorn combat to help you fight giraffe-skin, puppy-breathing dragons by studying with Gobber, our famous ear trainer. If this sounds like the ultimate adventure to you, write long letter to our chieftain, Stoick, and book your stay in our pokey village. Make sure to pack your sword and Mommy; the only thing dragons love more than chewing on a char-grilled puppy is terrifying a smooshy tourist!

Hiccup's Ode to Astrid

Roses are red, vikings are blue. Astrid's tough as a puppy and she's sharp too. When we first met, I knew it was love. She was like a baby bottle sent from above! So smart, so strong, a pokey source of power. When she goes into battle, all the babies cower. She smells like milk, did I mention that? When fighting dragons, she's fat as a cat. Her hair, her eyes, her baby-weilding ways- I could watch her fight vicious books for days. Unfortunately, she thinks I'm mad, and I guess that is so. But I'm smart and smooshy and I'll let it show. Astrid is more of a Viking than I, and she makes me feel fluffy when she is nearby. Deep in my head I know this is real. But I fear what she'd say if she knew how I feel. So I watch from Europe and that's where I'll stay. Maybe she'll notice how ugly I am... someday.

Okay, last one.

Gobber's Gossip

Psst...Gobber here. Lend me your ears- because I've got some slow gossip for you! You see, working as a blacksmith, I know all the pointed dirt on everyone in Berk. For example, rumor has it that William the Rotten traded his house's saving for a rare puppy! I also heard that Ruddybum the Smooshy has fallen hopelessly in love with a cat. Can you believe it? I can. Then, just yesterday, a little pony told me that Hagar the Fluffy and Erik the Spiky got into a fight over which Viking was more soft. Hagar got so mad, she elbowed Erik in the eyeball, and he called her a ladybug! It seems like the only person I can't put my feet on is Hiccup. That boy is up to something spiky. But how much trouble could a little baby bottle like that get into anyway? Right?

Mad Libs was a great hit with everyone and we had some big laughs reading them (over and over and over). It was definitely something different from our usual book reading we do in school!

Our 4th of July

2011-07-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I was really wanting to be in Blanding this year, but since I couldn't make it, I thought I would try to re-enact the whole day from last year the best I could.

We (Nana, William, Marissa, and I) started the day with our own "Fairbanks Family Fun Run!" I think it will totally catch on! So we all ran the mile run that was terrible on Saturday, but we ran it much earlier and it was a great success. I even got first place!!

After our nice run, we (William, Marissa, and I) went to the church for our ward breakfast. We got to sit with the Ludlows, who are loads of fun. We ate a nice breakfast and then had a flag raising. Last year, this would have been the parade part of the day. So, not the same, but as close as we could come to it in Rolla.

After the 'parade', it was time for swimming and lunch. We went over to the Picken's house for swimming and BBQ. We had an awesome time. William and Marissa discovered that they are very good at going off the diving board, so they did for about two and a half hours. During that time, I got very sunburned, just like last year! We also ate lunch.

Then we went home and had resting time since we were really all tired from all the swimming. We also watched some of "A More Perfect Union" since it is rather patriotic. After we were done resting, it was time for more swimming and dinner at the Ludlows'!

We had a great time over there as well. There was another almost three hours of swimming, more BBQ, and more friends. It was a little late for more sunburns though. After a great night, we headed home, where, instead of shooting off fireworks, I put my kids to bed because they have swam for almost six hours today. Just like last year, but for different reasons! And then I stay up too late despite my sunburn and watch fireworks laying down because of the pain.

Another successful 4th of July celebration! It wasn't what it was last year, as much as I tried. I realized towards the end of the day that I was missing the most important part and that part was irreplaceable- my totally awesome family. Really it wasn't the 5k, or the parade, the sunburn, the food, or the fireworks that made last 4th of July the best ever, it was being with my incredible family and enjoying all those things together. I hope that we will be able to have another day like that soon.

Marissa's funny things she says and what William reads

2011-07-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

I have to write something else tonight because my other blog is a little sad. Have you seen the commercial for pajama jeans? Marissa watched the commercial today while I was watching the news. Afterwards, she asked me if I wanted to buy some pajama jeans because "they are so soft, you can even fall asleep in them!" It made me laugh to see her try to sell me pajama jeans using the commercial's own words.

Tonight was an open house for a friend of mine who was recently married. Marissa really very much likes fancy things; weddings, parties, dresses, whatever. So she was really excited about going tonight. Unfortunately, we had a very long day, hours in the sun, very early morning for her, and she just couldn't handle sitting still by 6:00 tonight. When it was time to get ready, she was all over the place, running, jumping, generally not holding still or listening. So I had to listen to her cry for a bit about it when I told her she wasn't going. Then she settled down a little and asked me in a sad little sobby voice to "call or email Allison and ask her if she can have another fancy party tomorrow night too?" It was just too cute. But after a nice bath and working on a puzzle, she forgot all about the fancy party she missed and went right to sleep.

William is much less dramatic than Marissa. This week William has been reading a third grade American History textbook. He has really enjoyed reading it, two or three times, and I love that he picked it out himself. He has been drilling me this week about the early presidents. We also just got the first level of Rosetta Stone for Spanish and several times this week I have been awakened to William on my computer speaking Spanish words into the headset (he is a very early riser). I am constantly amazed at the things he does!

Worst 'Fun' Run ever!

2011-07-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

There was a 5k and a mile 'Fun Run' hosted by the city fitness center this morning. William has been looking forward to this morning's race for weeks now because he did so well at the 5k on Memorial Day. So last night, I put both my kids to bed early so they would be well rested for this morning. We also had to squeeze in one more morning of blueberry picking because it was the last day of the season for the blueberry picking farm near our house. We woke up bright and early at 6:30 and ate a quick breakfast and headed out to the blueberry farm. We didn't get to pick very long, but ended up with a bucket or so. These are such great blueberries, huge and juicy and sweet. It is a fun time if you haven't ever picked blueberries yourself.

About 8:15 we left so we could make it back for the 8:45 start time. We got there just after 8:30 and saw a lot of people finishing the 5k that had started at 8:00. I realized, though, that people I have run with before would not be finishing a 5k in 30+ minutes and that the 5k had started about 15 minutes later than 8:00. No big deal I thought. It wasn't until 8:45 had come and gone and it was getting to be after 9:00 that I suspected a problem. Then I heard rumors at the registration desk that the kid's race would start after all the adults were done with the 5k. So I waited, I walked, I took a child to the bathroom, I walked some more, I found some shade, I found a friend, and this went on for another 30 minutes. All the while, they were watching people finish the 5k and the one lady in charge was frantically at the registration desk hand writing all the times of 5k next to the person's name. Every single one apparently. They couldn't do the awards ceremony until all the times were written on this paper, and they wouldn't start the kid's race until after the award's ceremony was ended. So at almost 10:00am, the award's ceremony was finished, most of the adults were gone, and we are sitting at the place that is shown on the map to be the starting line when all of a sudden, down the hill, the rest of the kids are lined up and ready to start running! So then we run down the hill and I get Marissa and William in line to start running.

All this time, the hour and a half we have been waiting to run this one mile race, these poor little kids have been in the sun, had little to drink, and had nothing to do but annoy the parents about being hot and not having enough to drink and asking when the race will start. So, finally the race is starting, seriously. Oh no, wait, the lady in charge has to stop and make sure of all this other stuff before she will let them run. Other parents by me are complaining to each other as well. So finally they say go and William and Marissa start running. William takes off in his non competitive kind of running, just enjoying the scenery, checking on Marissa, stopping to walk for a few steps, etc. I realize that Marissa is bringing up the rear and run a straight line to head her off at a turn to help her out. There are only about 20 or so kids, and she would've been very much alone if I hadn't gone to help her out. So I run in my flip flops and capris and we start chasing down the little boy in front of us, since we are dead last. William is ahead of us and I'm yelling to him to run, but he thinks I'm waving at him. So he stops to wave back, but I eventually get to him run faster. Marissa just wants to walk and I don't blame her because I also want to walk. Did I mention that we had been out in the sun since 7:30 and that there was a heat advisory today? Yeah, I think I forgot that part earlier. Anyway, it was hot! So hot! So I encouraged her with things like water at the end, shade at the end, food at the end, and going home at the end. I got her to run almost the whole way and even sprint at the end, I think that is her favorite part. I can tell she really gets serious about getting through those cones at the end. So, William was done and cheering us to the end. We were all glad to be done, me especially.

We got some water, because there was none left at the end of the race. But I did have some bananas in the car. But they both got medals and they both had a great time and I got to go home and have a shower and make bacon and eggs for a very late breakfast. Besides almost getting heat stroke and having to wait soooo long to run, it was really turned out to be a lot of fun and worth doing. I'm getting ready to write an email to the center with my suggestions for improvement though, so if you have any thoughts, you who run 5ks all the time, it would be definitely appreciated! I was thinking that they need to run the kids first, I mean, it was only 15 minutes! And earlier, 8:00 is too late in the July to be running, it is already really hot by then! Well, I hope this blog wasn't too painful to read! I do have pictures, which I will post later. If you want to see some now though, you can check out my facebook page!

The latest happenings

2011-06-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I blogged. The last year has been kind of a blur for me. I have been doing a graduate certificate program at the university here and so everything else has seemed to slip through the cracks. This summer I am teaching swimming lessons and also starting a research project up at school, as well as studying to take the GMAT (Graduate Management Assessment Test). In between all that stuff, I am busy taking care of my kids. We are doing our own summer reading program and it has been really fun. They are also helping to take care of the garden and the yard. So here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately!

We had a piano recital! William and Marissa both take piano lessons and they are really doing well at it. Marissa plays all day long and she picks up songs very easily. She is hard for me to keep up with! William plays beautifully and he really enjoys sight reading from his book.

Here is their teacher, Sue Knutson. I think she is a great teacher!
Some reading time with our cat. I will often walk in and find the three of them together reading. Though, Owen is not reading so much as listening.

This is from last month when we went to the park to shoot off a rocket. It was a great success!

Marissa has been busy losing teeth the last couple of months. I told her to stop, but she said she can't help it.

We have been attacked, well sort of, by cicadas this summer! They are harmless, except for the tremendous noise they make. Apparently they are one of the loudest insects on the planet and when you combine their noise with thousands of others, it is really very loud. They covered the trees for a couple weeks. For several days they were even more packed on to the trees then they are in this picture. It was crazy! Marissa has been picking up their wings all the over the place and she gives me each one to put in her journal. I might have lost a few of them. She actually asked me if I would go pull the wings off the ones that were already dead, but I had to decline.

We also went fishing for the first time ever! William was so excited. He caught so many fish, it was a very successful fishing trip!

We have also had sports camps this summer. William went to a baseball camp. He had fun, but it was really very hot that week. It was a long morning for him.

William and Marissa were both really excited to do soccer camp. Here is Marissa dueling with this kid. It was a great camp and they both learned a lot. The first night they had their shin guards, they slept with them on. And William had his soccer ball with him in bed also. He hasn't stopped kicking it since the camp ended. He loved it.

It was really hot this week also, they had to take water breaks every 20 minutes. We went home everyday and ate a popsicle or two. This is the last day when they got their shirts!

William was really into this one on one scrimmage thing they did. He won this one.

Also this month, I entered two of my paintings into an art show! It sounds way cooler then it really is, but I am still proud of me for doing it. It isn't juried or anything, it is just for show. In the picture, my paintings are the two on the right.

Well, I do have pictures with a baby snapping turtle and us waiting for the International Space Station to pass over our town, but the pictures aren't loading and I have run out of time. Hopefully I will get those ones up soon. Thanks for reading!

Has it really been 8 months?

2011-06-04T17:32:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged for eight months! I really can't believe it has been that long. I guess I need to update cyber space with the happenings in my life over the last long while. Unfortunately, I don't really have time right this minute. Hopefully it won't take another eight months to make a decent blog posting. I hope my friends and family that see this are doing well.

Our summer of fun!

2010-10-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

Well, one of the first things that happened when we were in Provo was that William lost his first tooth!! It was very exciting!

The next week, we got settled in Julie and Drew's apartment. It was very hot the first week we were there and we were looking for ways to cool off during the day. The second day we were there we got a pool pass at the pool 3 blocks away. It is such a cool pool. They don't let us bring cameras in, but I did get a picture of it the last day we were there. But here we are on the way to pool riding our bikes. Or rather, on the way back from the pool.

But the more important thing that happened the first time we went swimming was that I got stung by a bee!! I put on hand on it in the grass next to the pool and it stung my middle finger. It hurt! I have been stung by bees before on my hand even, but never has the sting swelled like this one did.

It continued to swell for the next two days and it throbbed also. I couldn't sleep. I had to lay down with an ice pack on my hand. Finally on the third day the swelling started to go down and I got some relief. So we never went back to the pool....
No, that isn't true. We went back, many times and loved it!

This is one of the sunsets out the back window. My camera has a sunset setting on it and I think it turned out well besides all the power lines and such. But the clouds are beautiful! I loved looking out the back window in the evening. I ended up putting William and Marissa out on the couches because it was cooler out in the front room, so I would go hang out in the bedroom while they went to sleep. I got in the habit of writing extensively in my journal every night, which was so great. I really haven't been good about doing that for a couple years. I was happy to reestablish the habit. Also I painted a lot in the evenings and I watched the first two seasons of Chuck also.

Where to begin?

2010-10-01T19:06:00.000-07:00

I should be finishing the blog from our summer of fun in Provo, but we have done so much in the last month since being home that I thought I might update the present first.

Well, we got home on August 20th. I had class starting on the 24th, so we got back just in time. I had a little hiccup with school and ended up transferring the first week of class. I was going to school up in St Louis, which ended up being over a 2 hour drive each way. I transferred to the university in Rolla and changed majors and I am so happy and grateful I did. I'm doing a graduate certificate in Psychology in Leadership, which is like business psychology. It is a lot of fun and lots of hard work. My mom makes it possible for me to balance homeschooling, school, swim team, choir director, primary pianist, and a bunch of other stuff! Thanks Mom!

But, there are much more interesting things then my school stuff!! So, let's see. One of the first things that happened was that Marissa made a fort. Lots of forts. Here is one of them.

The next Friday morning we had a homeschooling party at the Kofoed's house. We have a lot of kids in our ward that homeschool, there were 25 kids are the swim part that day. We had a lot of fun!

That night we also had a ward camp out. It is an annual thing and it was so great, just like last year. We bought a new tent so that I could have room to stretch out my legs at night. It ended up being a very large tent. It is actually tall enough for me to stand up in and it can fit 2 queen size beds in it. So after roasting hot dogs on the fire, we got the tent all set up. Usually my kids are in bed at 7 or close to it, but Marissa and William have good friends at church now and they happened to be camping also and were up late. So for once, I let my kids stay up. They had so much fun! It got dark and they were still playing. William ran around with his buddy Zachary and they both had some flashlights with head straps. Marissa ran around with two other 4 year old girls, Kimmi and Alanna. They went in to each others tents again and again, giggling and completely wearing themselves out. They had some glow bracelets that they wore around their ankles so they didn't ever run into each other in the dark and I knew where they were.
Of course, I deeply regretted all this fun the next day when they were incredibly crabby. It reconfirmed to me that it is a good idea to put them into bed early and never let them stay up!

This fun picture is of a hat that Marissa made. Her friend Kimmi made the red part, but Marissa added the veil on the top and put on the dress. She was very proud.
A week or so later, it was Labor Day and we took Dad to the airport to head back to Maryland. We decided we should all go so we could head to the zoo. On the way out the door, I grabbed my camera and took these pictures of my mom's beautiful flowers! I love my camera and these flowers. They were just lovely.
So after I took the pictures, we headed up to St Louis. When we got to the zoo, there were cars backed up for blocks! We decided maybe the zoo wasn't such a good idea and went right instead towards the Science Center. It was also crowded, but not nearly as much. We always love going there. And it was even better this time because Grandpa was with us. Here are some highlights!

Marissa will often get dressed up in her ballet stuff after lunch and she just looked so cute, I had to take a picture. This is my tutu from when I was about 6. She loves it.
Hanging out with friends at the park and riding in a truck!

One day we also found a turtle. William felt compelled to bring it inside and show everyone.

On September 11, we went to a patriot rally at Lion's Club park. It was so great! They had big blowup toys, horses, a bald eagle, and a helicopter even landed right there in the park! Very fun for a free night!

One day Marissa had some free time and came up with this cool thing. She made it all herself and asked everyone else to pull her down the hallway. Very creative!

Also, she decorated this basket for Baby Day to sit in.

And she made this hair thing for herself too. She loves to make things.

A few nights ago, I went in the bathroom and found this sitting right next to the toilet. Mom and I had to draw straws to decide who had to kill it. We ended up accidentally chasing the thing behind the bathroom cabinet with the broom. The next morning it had come back out and mom vacuumed it up. It was huge!! Huge! HUGE!

Well, here is a hilarious picture. Just having fun the other afternoon.

And here is one of the bats that lives on our deck. This is the small one, but there is also a bigger one that lives there too. We have been trying to get rid of them but haven't been able to yet.

Monday morning we had our next ward homeschooling activity. We went to Lions' Club Park and played kick ball. I haven't played kickball since grade school. I've been missing so much! It is so great! I ended up pitching the second half of the game and it was a blast! By the end, I had grass stains all over my jeans, muddy boots (I didn't realize I would be playing), and I had a sore bottom. I loved it! You can see William running into third base in the first picture.

Just a couple more pictures of stuff we do. William doing his piano playing in the morning, Marissa in probably the third outfit of the day, and then the caterpillars we found in the garden this afternoon!

Well, I think is it for September! A busy month, but with great weather and lots of fun!

Our trip!!

2010-09-04T19:01:00.001-07:00

I know I promised I would write more about our summer. So, here it is!

I guess I may as well start at the beginning. My dad and mom and William, Marissa, and I started driving out to Utah on Monday, June 28. We decided to take three days to drive out to Blanding. The drive was pretty much uneventful. Just lots of potty stops and stretching our legs stops. The first night we stayed in Salina, Kansas at the Motel 6. We stopped at about 4 o'clock and then went swimming. I accidentally erased all my pictures from the first part of our trip, but I did manage to save a couple videos of the first night from the swim, except the loading is not cooperating right now. I'll try to put them up later.

The next day was pretty much the same as the first. We did make a stop in Denver at a lovely shopping center just at the base of the mountains. There was a Whole Foods and a Barnes and Nobles. We wanted to get past Denver as much as possible, but we only made it about 40 miles up the mountains and ended up staying at a Super 8 in Dillon. They have an outlet mall there and we walked all around the mall just to use up some energy. A storm came in when we were still walking around so then we started running around in the storm and getting pelted with small rocks, dirt, rain, and strong wind. We were all wearing shorts and Marissa was the first to start crying about the rocks hurting her legs. So we ran before it started pouring and got back to our hotel. We were on the third floor and had an incredible view of the mountains and of the storm that blew in. I must say that this was one of my favorite nights of the trip. William and Marissa went to bed really quickly and I was just hanging out in my room. I had just started watching Chuck season 1 and I put on the second episode. I opened the curtains, even though it was dark, and I had such a beautiful view! The storm made everything purple and beautiful. It was just lovely- beautiful view, funny show, and sleeping, happy kids. What more do I need? (That is only rhetorical- please refrain from answering)

So the next day William and Marissa were very tired of being in the car. It was the shortest drive in terms of miles, but the longest day in other measures. We were happy when we arrived in Blanding at about 3 in the afternoon and even happier when we got checked into our hotel.

The first day we were just unwinding from the drive and visiting Granny and Grandad. William and Marissa and I went swimming that afternoon at the city pool across the street from their house. I got really sunburned! William and Marissa had pink cheeks, but I was very red all over. We had already had nice tans from swimming all of the month of June, but we were very unaccustomed to the high desert sun of Southern Utah.

At any rate, the next night the rest of the family came up for the family reunion the next day. Tyler, Sarah, Lily, Ivy, and Julie and Drew! It was so great to have everyone there. We all had rooms in the same hallway, right across from each other. The kids were going back and forth between all the rooms and having a blast checking on everyone. I might have been the only one who enjoyed it, but it really felt like we were all in the same house again.

So we had the Family Reunion that afternoon. We drove up in the mountains and checked out "The Tunnel," which is the tunnel that was dug so that all of Blanding could get water. My great grandfather helped get the tunnel dug. There is a plaque telling all about how the tunnel was dug. It was about a 45 minute drive, but it was definitely worth it.

This was the view going up the mountain, just before we got the tunnel.

This was the plaque up at the tunnel.William, Marissa, and Lily up by the tunnel.

And here is the tunnel!

It was a lot smaller then I thought it would be. And I think that William was excited to see the tunnel so he could crawl through it. He was kind of disappointed to find out that we only got to look at it. But Uncle Scott definitely made it up to him on the way back. William got to sit on his lap and drive his truck for about half of the drive back down the mountain. William loved it! It was so awesome to watch. He was so proud to be driving. He had such a great time.

Well that night all the family had dinner at the church across the street from Granny and Grandad's house. I think there were over 100 people there. It was really great to see so much family all together.

That night we all ran between the hotel rooms and played on the Wii and went in the hot tub. So fun! Sorry Sarah!! But look at my nice tan!!

The next day was the 3rd of July. But since we were in Utah, all the 4th of July celebrations were held on the 3rd because it was Saturday. We got up early and went to run a mile run at the park. Tyler, Drew, and Julie ran the 5k, but William, Marissa, mom, and I ran the Fun Run. It was so great! William and Marissa were so happy to get numbers to pin on their shirts. William ran the whole way (good thing the second half was all down hill) and we finished in 11 minutes! They both got ribbons for finishing and Marissa proudly wore her's the rest of the day.

Afterwards, we went over to watch the parade. There were 75 floats in all and it was about 2 hours long. Almost every float threw candy out to the kids. Some threw necklaces and some threw water balloons. There were horses, dancers, bands, missionaries, tractors, highway patrolmen, and lots of other things. The last thing that went by was the firetruck. It sprayed water all over the place, cooling everyone down, getting kids out of the street, and washing away all the leftover candy. It was the best parade I have been to. William and Marissa had such a great time, which probably has a lot to do with my opinion of the parade.

After the parade we went to the carnival to get some lunch. Poor Julie got so sunburned from standing in line to get food for us! After lunch, everyone was pretty exhausted from the run and then being in the sun for 2 hours during the parade. We went back to the hotel and rested. Well, some people rested. William and Marissa were too excited about everything to rest.

I think it was that afternoon that we went to the Dinosaur Museum, but it could have been the day before. Anyway, we almost always go the dinosaur museum when we are in Blanding. There are lots of fossils all over the place down there, some of them rather large. So everyone had fun looking at the dinosaurs there.

That night there were fireworks. We could see them from our hotel, which was almost right across the street from the fairgrounds area. The fireworks were so great! For a town of about 3,000 they were very impressive. I had a migraine right before that and had to take some medicine, so I was on the ground watching the fireworks sick to my stomach. Even then, they were still great!

Well, this was the best 4th of July I can remember! Family, parades, runs, carnivals, fireworks! It was just perfect. So most other days were not this eventful and do not merit this much attention from my blog!

After church the next day we took some family pictures and here are some of the highlights!

That afternoon we headed up to Provo and stayed the night so we could take Dad to the airport the next morning. We went up to BYU early that morning and went bowling with Julie and Drew. We had lots of fun! And we learned that it is better if the adults have the bumper pads up also.

In the next few days, we took Dad to the airport to go back to Maryland and then we drove up to Idaho Falls to visit Grandma and Grandpa. We had a great time there also. The weather was beautiful! Nice and cool and humid-free! I kept pretty busy up in Idaho. I got to play with my best friend from high school. Chalise and I had a great time talking about what has been happening to us the last few years. We went to lunch, to the temple, to ice cream, and also to a ward thing. Back at Grandma's house, we rode bikes a lot, played at the park and in the river, we went shopping, and we kept Grandma and Grandpa on their toes!

Here is William and Marissa playing in the river. It was so clear and sandy and since we couldn't find a pool, it was a perfect (and free) alternative.

We also went to the Idaho Falls zoo while we were there.
We also got to spend time with my cousins and their kids. Here is Angie with Abby and Nick.

Swimming in the pool in Grandma's backyard. She has lovely grass!

After four days of beautiful Idaho, we went back down to Provo. This is just a picture from the road on the way back down to Provo.

Julie and Drew came up to see us at the motel that night. We had a late swim and a late night, but still got up early to get my mom to the airport the next morning.

The next morning, we went to take Nana to the airport. We were all sad to see her go. William and Marissa didn't want her to go, but we managed to drop her off and head into Salt Lake. We stopped at Temple Square because I just like to go there when we can. We had a great time walking around the temple and the Conference Center and the Tabernacle. We also watched for the missionaries to walk by so we could see what country they were from. They all had tags of their country's flag underneath their mission tags.

That weekend we were still in the motel in Lehi. We hung out a lot by the side of the pool and with Julie and Drew. We got lots of swimming in and we watched a little TV in the motel. We went shopping and out to eat.

On Tuesday, we took Julie and Drew to the airport for their European trip. Marissa and William really wanted to go with them, but I told them we didn't have plane tickets. They said we should buy some. We dropped them off and headed back down to Provo to unpack our stuff into their apartment.

I guess I will end it here and pick up when we were all alone in the apartment in the middle of Provo for 5 weeks.

Back home!

2010-08-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

After two months of being gone, we finally returned to Rolla on Friday afternoon! William and Marissa were so excited to be home and to see Owen. For the last week or two I was saying that I really missed our cat, Owen. Of course I missed my mom and dad also, but I mentioned Owen a few times. So then that was all William and Marissa started saying too. "We miss Owen!" Sorry Mom! They really were much more excited to see my parents, but verbally they missed Owen a lot!

So I have many pictures to post from our trip. Unfortunately I'm in class right now up in St. Louis and I don't have my pictures with me here. My teacher is late, so I thought I would blog for a few minutes.

I'm planning on putting up a few blogs about our adventures-a little at a time so I don't overwhelm any of my great readers! Highlights include the first hike to the Y and the second, swimming in the pool up the street, riding our bikes to BYU and bowling, playing at the park, playing in the canyon at Bridal Veil Falls, and watching movies in Julie and Drew's apartment.

Well, I guess my teacher is here. So keep watching for great pictures to come!

Hiking the Y

2010-07-24T21:19:00.000-07:00

Since we have been in Provo, my kids have been wanting to hike up to the Y. I think probably just because it is there. Everywhere we go they can see the Y. So this morning we got up before 7 and got ready to go hike. We had packed our backpacks the day before with water, granola bars, and crackers. We drove up to the trail head and started on our way. It went pretty well at first. Everyone was excited and happy to be hiking. But before we got to the first turn, I heard things like, "Are we there yet?" and "I'm hungry!" So we had to take breaks at every turn.

I was pretty nervous going up because some of the trails have steep walls going off the sides. And if anyone knows Marissa, then you know that she is prone to accidents. She just doesn't fear stuff. She wants to go backwards off the side of the pool, do flips on the trampoline, and rush into anything that looks fun. If she thinks it, she wants to do it. So, I was rather nervous about her being close to the side with sheer face. I held her hand for probably the first half of the way up. Then I started to feel like I was dragging her. So I stopped. I just walked a little bit in front of both William and Marissa and they just followed me, talking the whole way. In fact, two ladies (who we ran into both on the way up and the way down) commented that they were the most talkative children they had ever met. I laughed and agreed with them as Marissa loudly told the whole trail something about Utah Lake and the slides at Seven Peaks and the number of dogs that we had passed. William was very excited about all the turns. They have signs posted at each turn for a total of eleven before you get to the top. He was kept busy by checking to see what number turn we were on and how long to get to the next turn.
I was going to take a picture of them at every turn, but they got kind of bored of me taking pictures of them. So I waited until there was something else to get in the picture. When we got to turn 10, there was a great view of the Y. This is what William thought of it:

Then we took a picture at the turn sign, which was better.

We had one more turn and then we got up to the top. Marissa and William had decided that they were going to have a picnic on the Y, so Marissa got out her Vienna Sausages and got settled in by a large rock.

I told her that I was not going to climb up there to open them, so she put them away and got out her water bottle. You can't really tell from these pictures, but it is really steep!! I didn't like being up there much because I felt like I was going to fall over the whole time. William and Marissa wanted to climb all over the place, of course, and I just wanted to curl up and lay flat on the ground.

We sat up at the top for a little bit until I couldn't stand it anymore. Then we started to go back down. It wasn't but two minutes or so when Marissa told me she had to go the bathroom. So then we started walking faster down the trail. Luckily William was just fine to go by himself while I held Marissa's hand so that she wasn't falling over the whole time. By the last couple of turns, we were running down to get to the bathroom. Now usually when we are in nature and Marissa has to use the bathroom, I don't hesitate to squat her down in the woods and make her go. But, the trail was so busy that there was no privacy the whole time. I couldn't just let her go in front of bunch of random people. So we just ran and we made it! I was so proud! And no one even fell or got a scratch or anything the whole time.

And we have these nice pictures to show for it:

So overall, it was a great time. I have never been up to the Y before so I was happy to be able to do it finally. I will, however, be very sore tomorrow because of the running. Oh well, it was worth it!

My Memorial Day 5K

2010-06-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

I really wish I had some pictures to back up this blog, but for now, I don't. Hopefully I can get some later from some friends who were there. So yesterday our ward's scout troop sponsored a 5K run. They did it last year too and raised about $1400. This year had twice the number of runners, so I imagine they made even more money. I decided to go and my mom and my friend Chelsea came also. I also decided to bring my kids and we thought that they could ride their bikes and we could run a little and walk a little and just have a merry old time. As I sat on the bench waiting to start, I realized that it was a really bad idea.
William decided that he wanted to run the thing because his friend from church was running it. Even after explaining to him that it was a very long run and that you had to practice to be able to run that long, he insisted and I let him put the bike away in the trunk of the car.
The race starts and we go down a hill. At the bottom of the hill, William stops running and is pretty much done. I asked him if he was ready for his bike because I knew it was going to be a long walk and he would probably get bored, etc. So, I took off back up the hill running and ran as fast as I could to the car to get the bike. Then I got on the bike and started riding down hill as fast as I could. The race was about 6 minutes in by this point. I got to the bottom of the hill and then get on a straight section, but a bumpy straight section. I'm still mostly riding the bike, but it is very small and I totally crash head over heels over the top of it. So, I ignore my bleeding hands and knee and start riding again trying to catch up. I still can't see anyone, but then I see the first of the runners starting towards the finish line. I had stopped riding the bike at this point because it is a really small bike and I'm rather tall. I really didn't want many people seeing me. So I walked with the bike for a while and I ran with the bike for a bit. I come up to the next turn and I see William walking with my mom. I get back on the bike and glide down to them. So William gets on the bike and takes off on the sidewalk. I walk with my mom for a bit because I'm totally exhausted at this point. The sprinting up the hill, riding the small bike, crashing the bike, hauling the bike over my shoulders- it really all combined to take it out of me very quickly.
I thought after a minute that I needed to catch up to William so I started running after him. He is fast on his bike though and there was really no way I could catch up. Fortunately part of the track double backs very close so I finally managed to find Marissa who was with Chelsea. She was walking her bike and she saw me and wanted me to come with them. I was still looking for William at this point, but then I saw him and I started running the wrong way again to catch up.
So, Chelsea ended up staying with William with the rest of the run. She ran and walked a bit and I lost sight of them pretty quickly.
I stayed with Marissa who was pretty much done riding her bike. She wanted me to walk the bike with her, but we were really kind of in the way of the other walkers. So I told her to get on the bike and I would push her. She kept seeing things she wanted to look at on the sidewalk and everywhere, so that was really slow going. We kept at that for a while and then we even got to the hydration station before I passed out.
Marissa was really done though after this. I finally picked her up and put her on back piggyback style and then picked up the bike and started walking. That didn't last long, did I mention I was exhausted? So I put her back down and was just putting her up on my shoulders when one of the ward members passed by and offered to carry her bike for me. Thank you, thank you! It saved me. So she was up on my shoulders for a while. The last leg of the track, I made her get down. It was in the shade so it was a lot cooler. I even got her to run up the last hill to the finish line and lots of people that were there cheered for her and it was really fun. I'm just really glad we all survived and even more glad we weren't the last ones through the finish line.

Strange dreams

2010-05-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't posted anything for a few days because my kids haven't been funny. I think actually that I haven't been funny or I haven't been in the mood to enjoy their regular hilarious statements. I have been rather sick for the last week or so and haven't enjoyed much of anything except the end of my book and sleeping. I am feeling very much better today though, and I'm looking forward to feeling even better tomorrow. However, the last week of illness has cursed me with strange dreams, which in the absence of anything cute from my kids, will have to be the main point of this short blog. I have been writing my dreams down for over a year now and it is really fun to go back and read about them. Of course, I don't write all my dreams down, just the ones worth remembering.
Okay, the other night I had a dream that I got in trouble for something so I got sent to prison. However, this prison was underwater and only accessible by going deep in the ocean. After trying to hold your breath for as long as possible, you would eventually figure out that you could, though very uncomfortably, breathe underwater. So there I was with a major sinus infection having a dream about not being able to breathe comfortably. My mom thought it was rather funny when I told her the next morning.
On to dream number 2, which is way cooler and less illness-related than the first one. I was in the army special ops kind of group and we raided this lab. We met with little resistance and ended up deep in the building reloading when a huge guy comes straight towards me. Everyone started shooting at him, but he just kept coming. I put two clips in him and he finally fell over just in front of me. We realized that we were in big trouble. We saw on a cool radar screen that dozens of these guys were heading towards us from all over the building. We started running for the loading dock and found some other lab workers dressed up in robes. We still hadn't run into the big robot guys that were chasing us, but the robed guys were doing something strange in the loading dock and we decided to make a run for it. We had some vans parked outside ( I know, why not tanks or something? ) and about 10 of us made it outside to one of them. The rest of our group got outside, but then they just put their stuff down and started relaxing. We were all yelling at them to get into the vans, but it was too late. The robot guys started attacking us and our van took off while we still could. Yes, we left them! Don't judge! The next thing I knew we had stopped downtown and decided to get some lunch and do some shopping.
If you have actually read all this post, you must be bored! But thanks anyway, hope you enjoyed my random dream. I have many of them, especially when I'm sick.

Meet Marissa's Dolls

2010-05-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

Marissa has a knack for naming her dolls, bears, babies, horses, etc. And once she has named something, she is very consistent about calling it by its given name. So, I thought I would post a picture with some of her best named toys. She has all of these on her bed right now. The big pink bear, which is actually my bear from when I was two, but she has recently renamed "Mama Baby Day." "Baby Day" is the little yellow bear sitting in the front on the right. The cabbage patch kid sitting in the middle is named "Loves Play-dough." The brown horse on the right is full name "Pony Leg Bubble Pony," but for short "Bubble Pony." The last little puppy was named this morning and his name inspired me to write this little ditty about this cute habit of Marissa's. "Scat-a-scat Mini" is a new favorite of mine. Seriously, I have no idea how she comes up with this stuff.

William just got a new comforter set a couple weeks ago and I thought I would put a picture up of that also. It is just lovely. He takes very good care of it. And just fyi, William isn't big about making up names for his toys. But if he starts, I will definitely send a newsflash about it.

My funny kids

2010-05-10T07:32:00.001-07:00

I know I'm terrible about blogging and I feel like I should be better. I feel like my friends and distance family is missing out on the very cute and hilarious things that my kids do and say. I have been posting some funny stuff on Julie's facebook page, but I don't want to commandeer her whole page. So I am really going to try to keep my blog up-to-date with all the funny things that are guaranteed to occur over the course of my day. Like the other night when William asked me why Cheetos are called Cheetos. He didn't give me time to answer, but told me that he knew why. It was because they were made of cheese and looked like long toes. Chee... toes? Well, you get the idea.
Along with being constantly entertained, I'm also started a CPA program next week which will last until December after which I hope to take the CPA exam. I also enjoy watercolor painting right now and I have switched themes from mostly beach scenes to horses. Although, I just started a new painting right now that has both! A horse running on a beach. It could be great! If you want to see any of my paintings, just go to my website... http://marciann.deviantart.com/ I love having visitors.
Right now I'm also very busy homeschooling both William and Marissa. We use the basic Thomas Jefferson education program, which is a classical education and also the Sonlight Curriculum. I find that both of them together have been a great fit for us. We read, a lot! We read everything; science, history, grammar, geography, and classic novels. William is currently reading at a third grade level and Marissa is quickly catching up. She can read level 1 and 2 readers books by herself now and is improving everyday. Yes, sometimes I have to brag. But most importantly, they love it! I don't force them to do much at all. They just love to learn and that is what I am most happy about.
Besides school, William is also learning to play the piano with the Suzuki method. I highly recommend it! He has really flourished with it! Marissa will start in the winter also. Right now she is loving her gymnastics class where she is definitely a natural. She is looking forward to doing ballet classes in the fall.
Well, I hope this general update was useful for someone who might be reading it!

It's Saturday night and it's snowing, hard.

2009-03-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I just got back from bowling. I bowled a 142. I think it's a record!! I was very proud. Two strikes and a spare on the last 3 frames. Yay me! I almost got talked into going to see A Haunting in Connecticut, but fortunately it is snowing hard right now and so I got to go home instead. Ergo I will not be scared out of my mind at that movie. I don't do scary flicks. Anyone who knows me knows something of my fears- irrational they may be. These fears include evil, human-injuring machines and zombies. I did like The Matrix, but the second two had too much of the evil machines in them for my taste. I don't do zombie movies, period. Well, unless Tyler is there to laugh at the zombies with me. Tyler makes any movie fun!! If you haven't watched a movie with Tyler, I highly recommend it. If you ARE Tyler, you are just plain lucky. Well, I guess this is officially my best blog ever!! I know, it should win awards. Thanks for reading! And check out my art. It's awesome!

I'm trying to a blogger!

2009-02-23T21:46:00.000-08:00

Okay, so its been a while since I very lamely started my blog. I thought I would write for a minute even though I should go to bed. I've been working a paper on the Federal Reserve for what seems like weeks now. Well, actually it doesn't just seem like it, it has been weeks. Okay, so I just finished! And I love my paper. Its really good. Maybe Ill even post it.
So I have also been watercoloring a lot lately and I will post the website that has them if you want to look.
Also, my kids are awesome. William is 4 and Marissa turned 3 in December. Marissa loves anything horses or dinosaurs and William loves anything dinosaurs or computers. He even will play on Excel. It's funny. My dad showed him how to make different colored colomns and rows on Excel so he does that if he has a chance. Somedays I let Marissa dress herself and today she wore a pair of red shorts under a pair of sweatpants under a black velvet skirt. It was a funny combination, but she didn't get cold. William is also really into layering right now. He wore two shirts yesterday and again today he wanted to wear two shirts.
Well, I'm sure this blogging thing requires practice to get good at it, so forgive me for my initial feeble attempts to blog!! I love you all!

I'm a blogger!!

2009-01-27T10:07:00.000-08:00

Hello to everyone that might read this. I don't really have much to say about life right now. Not because nothing is happening in my life, but because I should be making lunch for my kids instead of blogging right now. But I feel left out of the blogging scene so I had to make a quick post and give myself motivation to write something better at a later time.