Celebrating Preston

This week we celebrated Preston!Mom says, "Preston is a sweet little dude. He is charming and fun. He is a good reader and enjoys going to school. His endearing personality is enjoyed by friends young and old."

Jacob says "Preston is happy to do things and he's cute."
Caitlin says, "Preston is energetic and funny."
Preston started basketball this week. He is really excited about basketball. That's one of the best things about Preston; he gets genuinely excited about so many things.

You can celebrate Preston too! What do you like about him?

Endear to the End

So we had three great speakers in sacrament meeting today. Caitlin was the youth speaker and of course, she did a great job. To read her talk click here. The second speaker was a sister I truly admire and like to quote because she says really profound things. The third speaker was a brother who is one of my all-time favorite speakers. So wow, the meeting was a real treat. The subject was adversity and the brother who was speaking was talking about how it is important to endure to the end in adversity. The way he said endure sounded a little like endear, so from that I got a little bonus sermon. I have found that my trials have forced me to rely on the Lord in intimate ways, to forge a really close friendship with him and to cherish his promptings and his tender mercies. Through the process I have let God and his words become more precious and dear to me; I have endeared through adversity. So, "Endear to the end" seems to be a really appropriate phrase to me. It reminds me that the gospel is about love: love of God, love of Christ and his teachings, love of our family members and love of God's children. I would love to hear your thoughts on "Endear to the end."

Well, I hope I haven't offended you by being all spirchul on my blog. I prefer to write silly things, so next time maybe I'll tell you about my adventures as a Dumb Blonde Relief Society Counselor. Each Sunday I come home with new stories of really great blunders starring ME!

Here's a recording of our ward choir singing a Christmas song featuring Caitlin on the Bells. Joseph is singing tenor.

Caitlin's Talk

Overcoming Adversity

For much of the week it was unclear to me exactly what I should say to you today. I was asked to speak to you on the topic of adversity and explain to you that with the assistance of our Heavenly Father we can overcome all things. But since this week has been particularly difficult for me, writing this talk wasn’t as easy as I had thought it would be.

As I was searching for some inspiration in some of the General Conference talks from last October I was struck by what Elder B. Wirthlin said in his talk: Come What May, and Love It.

He said:
“You may feel singled out when adversity enters your life. But the dial on the wheel of sorrow eventually points to each of us. At one time or another everyone must experience sorrow. No one is exempt.”

I believe that this is very true. Everyone at some point in their life will experience some form or another of adversity. This does not mean that we will all face the same trials, but each person has to face adversity in order to grow.

When we think of adversity, our thoughts are often turned to those who have gone through some of life’s more serious trials, such as the loss of a limb, cancer, being the only one in your family left alive after a devastating natural disaster and other similar situations. But the word “adversity” can refer to much smaller things as well, such as the everyday struggles we may have at school, with our friends, our family and with ourselves. All types of adversity—big or small—can be frustrating. But the Lord is there to help.

For several years I struggled with problems with my thinking. I often felt like my brain was a senseless blob of Jello that could never be molded into something beautiful.

However, through patience and faith, I was able to follow the promptings of the spirit and the advice of my parents so that I could discover that certain types of exercise could transform my brain into what it needed to be in order to function properly.

Because of this, I no longer have to fight to make sense of things as I had to before. I am able to focus the creativity I have been given into my art, writing and music where it can not only make my life more enjoyable, but the lives of others as well. This has truly been a great blessing in my life.

I also believe that no matter how severe or seemingly insignificant your trials may be, God won’t ignore your needs. He doesn’t choose who he helps first through their adversities based on the enormity of their circumstances. God has his own plan for when and how he will help each person though their own adversities. Just because someone with what seems to be a greater trial is tended to first in some occasions, that does not mean God won’t help you as well. He understands what you’re going through and only wants you to be happy.

There are a lot of great things we can learn from the experiences we have here on this earth. I do not think I would fully appreciate being able to have full use of my mind if I had not at first understood what it was like not to be able to. And similarly, sometimes it is hard for us to truly understand what happiness is until we’ve experienced the opposite.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said:
“The Lord, Jesus Christ, is our partner, helper and advocate. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to be successful. If we do our part, he will step in.”

I testify to you that if we pray diligently to the Lord and have faith that he will help us through our adversities, he will be there for us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Randumb Power Animals

So, I found this website that will tell you how to spell your name backwards (Oh good, because I couldn't figure out how to do that myself) and how to say your name in Pig Latin (another dumb, but funny feature.) It also guestimates how many people in the US have your full name, tells you how to write you name in binary code and the meaning of your first and last names (slightly more interesting and more valuable features.) BUT the best feature of all was that this website tells you what your power animal is - SOMETHING I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW! OF COURSE.

Oh, I suppose that now you want to know what my power animal is. Which animal, you wonder is like a guardian angel to me? What creature will be there to help me conquer my darkest fears and lead me to greatness? What, you may ask, is the animal that is always in my dreams and the most likely to be on my charm bracelet or hanging from my rear view mirror?

My Personal Power Animal is . . . .

The Chinstrap Penguin

Doesn't it look like me? I could follow this fellow into battle. Waddle my foes to death. BUT, where was my power animal at church today when I was so cold I couldn't stop shaking for the entire three-hour block? Oh, that's right, I don't really believe in power animals. If I did though, I would have been warm at church. A penguin should be able to do that for me, right? At least my power animal has an eternal quality - its smile, or is that a very definate double chin. You decide. (I really hope double chins are not eternal. I do not want to be resurrected with a double chin. One life is enough!)

Jacob's power animal is . . .

The Giant Weta (Ta Da!)

We couldn't stop screaming when we saw this photo on the internet. The Giant Weta can get up to 8 inches long. I knew Jacob was talented at bugging us, but I didn't know it was his power animal's fault.

Talk about inspiring courage, Preston's Personal Power Animal is a . . .

Yellow-bellied Weasel (no kidding)

Ahhh! so cute. Now we see where Preston gets it.


So here's a few more:

Caitin: A Black Widow Spider

Roger: Roughtail Stingray

Joseph: Angora Rabbit







Melinda's Relatives
Kimball: White-lipped Peccary



Grandpa Davenport: Desert Dwarf Mongoose






Grandma Davenport: Madagascan Fossa








Darian: Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker








Stevie P: Black Pirranha










Lance: Amazonian Manatee





Nathan: Blue Iguana






Hudson: Blast-ended Skrewt

Roger's Relatives
James: Ring-tailed Lemur










Dave: Honey Badger




Grandpa Lawrence: Leopard Gecko





Grandma Lawrence: Greater Roadrunner





If you don't like your personal power animal, well, too bad for you. I'm not the one who named you (well, for the most part - I guess I did name four people on this list).

I didn't look up everybody because there are sure a lot of people in the world and that would take a long time. And, I thought you might have some fun looking yourselves up. Besides, you might need some help learning how to spell your name backwards.

Here's the name of the site: http://www.isthisyour.name/

Tell me what your personal power animal is (even if you already know, like from a vision or from seeing it on TV).

Snowflakes Are Kisses From Heaven

So we had a nice Christmas, an exceptionally white Christmas, but that didn't stop us from having lots of fun. The road by our house was so bad for the whole week before Christmas, that for the most part only trucks with 4-wheel-drive could get up it. We only got mail delivered once in 10 days and no garbage picked up for over two weeks. Here is an ambulance that got stuck on our road two days before Christmas.

They lifted a person out on a gurney and pushed her/him up the hill. Here's video.

We had a power outage that lasted for several hours, and then, when the power came back on it fried the electrical panal in my oven rendering it entirely useless. Since the roads were so bad that I couldn't just run to the store and buy food for non-oven meals, I had to figure out alternate cooking methods for all the meals I had planned.

Here's how we felt about that.Laurel, Eric, Stevie & Allie came to visit. Roger's brother Mike wanted pictures of our kids to give to his parents, so we took this one with Stevie. We thought about sending this to them and claiming Stevie was one of our children that we had never told them about. Ha, Ha, a secret we somehow kept for three years.

Eric's reaction.

When I was about 10 years old, I got three sets of Jody Dolls and all their accessories. Laurel, who was seven years younger than I was, asked me through most of my teen years if I would let her play with my Jody dolls. I always said no (how mean is that?) because I wanted to save them and give them to my daughter someday. When I finally had a daughter old enough to give them to, I was very dissapointed because Caitlin could care less. She was into Polly's, not Jody's. While staying in Caitlin's room, Laurel found my Jodys, and at last, after 30 years of longing, she could play with them. In fact, I gave them to her, something I really should have done long, long ago.

Each night, we have the kids report on whether or not they got all their chores, homework, practicing etc. . . done for each day. When they do all the "stuff" for 12 days, we give them a candy bar in a special presentation. The theory is that public recognition is a more effective motivator than any prize. It seems to work.

Here's Roger doing a presentation for Joseph. (Don't worry, it's short.)

Here's a presentation for Caitlin.

Laurel wanted a presentation too.

(What some people will endure to get a candybar.)

Stevie got one too!

During the day on Friday, the roads were horribly slushy with ice underneath and the snow fall was so heavy it was blizzard-like at times. There had been little plowing at all on most side roads for days so there was like 6 inches of nearly frozen slush on our roads by Friday afternoon. It was easy to get stuck in. We helped several people by our house get unstuck Friday afternoon. Late, Friday night, about 11:00 pm, it warmed up to 40 degrees which was really weird because it was warmer at midnight than it had been for 10 days. Saturday, the snow had melted enough for us to get around and do a much needed shopping trip, but the going was rough. The side roads and parking lots were like craters of the moon but slippery. When we got home, Roger shoveled snow off the road to our house (imagine clearing the road, the whole road, because no snow plows would come and do it). It was a huge job, but he made two tire track lines for us to drive in so we could get out safely and go to church on Sunday. We still almost got stuck twice on our way to and from church, but Roger's expert driving saved the day. Over the course of 13 days, we probably got 18 inches of snow altogether, which never really melted until today. We have never been so glad to see rain and 40 degree weather in all our years living here. Someone (not me) prayed for a white Christmas. They got it and then some.
A little too much love.

How's the weather at your place?

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Now Stop Already

We've had several big snow storms this week, and it's still snowing now. The kids missed three days of school. Roger telecommuted for three days, and we all stayed home. Our family has never seen this much snow here in Washington. We've sure had a lot of fun playing in it. These are really short videos, so you don't have to feel you have made a major committment when you start watching them.

Celebrating Caitlin & Converse

What do you like about Caitlin?

Preston: She rocks.

Jacob: She is very funny.

Joseph: She's smart.Mom: She is fun to hang out with and a joy to talk to. She very personable and considerate of others. She is impressively creative and inspires us all to pursue our own creativity.

Soccer in the Snow

Jacob's last game of the season was yesterday. That's him in the #10 white jersey and Adidas (of course) hat. He played very well and his team ended up with a tie against the league leaders. Spectating was cold. Jacob seems to think getting his feet really wet and trying to do throw-ins with frozen fingers was tough as well - wimp :) I'm just glad he played on FieldTurf - not sure playing on frozen mud would have been real fun.

We now get a few weeks off without soccer - What will we fill our evenings with now? I'm sure we'll find something to do and it might even involve spending some time with the rest of our family at home - I know, perish the thought ...

Literacy Abounds! (or not)

Caitlin reads a book to Preston everyday.

Preston is starting to read well enough to grab a book and read on his own sometimes. Jacob is reading Tom Sawyer and Treasure Island. Joseph has read every Star Wars book ever published and amazingly keeps finding new ones to read.

All this reading prompted me to read "Twilight." Then I had to cleanse my palate with something well written so I read "The Great Gatsby." I realized during my recent return to voracious reading that since I'm too lazy to consult a dictionary as I read, I’ve come up with my own definitions for certain words.

For Example:

Plaited – flat like a plate “plaited hair”

Wayfaring – Eating wafers along the way “wayfaring stranger”

Supercilious – More silly than most "curled his lip in a supercilious smile"

Fractious – prone to break things into thirds or quarters "an incorrigibly fractious young man"

Sardonic – having to do with sardines “sardonic grin”

Languid – wordy or verbose “a languid mood”

Cherubic – fat “...her beaming, cherubic face.”

Abase – to slide into like home plate “Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased.”

Candor – sounding like a really big bird “The candor of the speech impressed the audience.”

Heinous – causing a hernia “It was a heinous crime”

Multifarious – having something to do with lots of carnivals “There is a multifarious artifice in the structure of the meanest animal.”

Redress – to change one’s clothes “Those wrongs, those bitter injuries, . . . I doubt not but with honor to redress.”

Homogeneous – smart and gay "a close-knit homogeneous group"

Dogmatic – of or pertaining to the worship of dogs “dogmatic theology”

Reprobate – someone who got ripped off when his father’s last will & testament was validated “He was nothing but a reprobate.”

Repugnant – smelling like pregnancy “a repugnant smell”

Implacable – not worthy of mention on a plaque "an implacable enemy"

Acrimonious – using lots of acronyms “an acrimonious debate between the two candidates.”

Our Not-So-Little Drummer Boy

Here's Joseph in Seattle's version of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.


Roger went with the band as a chaperone and took photos and video. It's a good thing. The parade was broadcast on the local TV channel, but they missed Joseph. He's on the wrong side of the band for good TV coverage, but he's there on purpose. It's the side of the band that marches nearest the judges and nobody in the band is better on the snare than Joseph.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving Day Celebration with our good friends, Scott & Beth Storm. We watched (and of course critiqued) the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and stuffed ourselves with Turkey and finger foods (pickles, olives, baby carrots, and cheese cubes with international flag toothpicks stuck in them.)

For some reason, the toothpicks are the most important part of our family's Thanksgiving celebration. When I announced that only the plastic sword toothpicks could be kept after dinner and only if they were washed with soap and water, I was met with protests of dissapointment. Apparently, several of my children have toothpick collections from Thanksgivings gone past. Thoughts of little sticks of wood (no matter how pretty) that were once stuck in pieces of ham, cheese or pickles lying for years in a child's bedroom has given me Thanksgiving misgivings. Oh well, at least they are no longer collecting Happy Meal Boxes.

787 Wing Test Successfully Completed

This last weekend, Boeing successfully completed a test of the 787 wingbox. The structure was subjected to over 1.5X the maximum stress it is designed to undergo in service. A nice video of the test is posted on the Boeing web site. The guy narrating is someone I work regularly with. Pretty cool - now to get the bird up in the air ...
Click HERE and then on "Wing Break Test" to see the video.

Preston's End of Season Soccer Party

Yesterday, Preston's soccer team, The Dragons, played their last game for the season. When I asked Preston how it went, he said, "We won, a lot to 2."

We had a party for the boys at Coach Dave's house. Coach Dave is a great coach, and he and his wife are some of the most gracious people I have ever met. I want to be like them.

Preston's team played so well this season, they caught the attention of the League President who said he had never seen 6 year olds play so well and pass to each other so much. One of the reasons for all the passing is that any one of the boys on the team could steal the ball and dribble all the way down the field and score. Coach Dave had to encourage lots of passing to keep them from running up the score.

So, here's my opinion on that topic. I have noticed that in kid soccer, the more a team gets ahead in the score the less the parents cheer when they make a goal. It's like there's a predetermined decible level that is considered polite for each point ahead your team is. If your team scores from behind or ties the score, you can clap and yell as loud and long as you want. If your team is one ahead you can still cheer pretty loud, but when you are two ahead then you can only cheer at 50%, then at three ahead you politely clap and say "yeah" quietly. Any more than that and it seems that your supposed to politely ignore the game. Well, if my child scores, no matter what the score is, I'm going to cheer as much as I feel like. He still did a good job; I feel just as much pride. The funny thing is, I also find myself cheering when I think a player on the other team does a good job too. I don't care who it is or what the score is, good plays should always be cheered. At least in kid soccer.

Perhaps that is why I'm a musician. I like to cheer whether it's the soprano that wins or the bass. I really like standing ovations and encores too. I like to think the audience can force performers to make more music by ceaseless clapping. It's nice to push people around with your own two hands. Makes me feel powerful. Ok, it's probably more like gratefully requesting more entertainment, but no matter how you look at it, it sure is fun.

Happy Halloween

For Halloween, Preston was Darth Vader.

Caitlin was not sure what she was, so all her friends decided she was an Irish Princess, much to her dismay. She didn't want to be a princess. Every year when I ask her what she wants to be for Halloween she says, "Not a princess."

Jacob was a Jedi Knight. Joseph was a mini black hole, from Switzerland, none the less. I insisted that he looked more like a stranglet, but he said I didn't know what I was talking about. I don't think Joseph can be a mini anything.

Caitlin got to go trick-or-treating with her girl friends and one boy. Oooo, a boy. I didn't ask her if he was cute or not.

Preston & Jacob went trick-or-treating with their dad. No animals were harmed.

I stayed home and threw up. Nice. It was a touch of the flu. It's over now. Thanks for your concern.

New Layout

Do you like my new layout? Is it too pink? Too Girly? Will Roger ever post again if our blog looks like this?