June 3, 2007

Hello Everyone,
This has been a busy week.
I'll just briefly update you on what has been going on.
Last weekend I went up to D.C. to visit Naomi. We had a really fun time. It was a bit of an adventure getting there (my flight out of Austin was delayed resulting in my nearly missing my connecting flight out of Dallas, the tight schedule made even more nerve-wracking by the fact that no one was at the gate to connect the tunnel-thingy to the plane so we could get out. We sat there on the tarmac for 15 minutes, everyone about jumping out of their skin because our connecting flights were going to be extremely close as it was. Luckily my departing flight out of Dallas also got delayed at the last minute, so I made it).
On Saturday morning we went to brunch at Anne Sorenson's house. Anne, Erin, one of Anne's roommates, Z Johnson, Dave, Naomi, and I were there. It was really fun, we could have stayed all afternoon talking. I had no idea Z was such a talkative, interesting guy.
In the afternoon Naomi and Dave got ready for a marathon engagement-photo-shoot/tour of D.C. I'd only been to D.C. once before, and it was for only a couple of hours, and after dark to boot. So I enjoyed walking around Roosevelt Island, seeing the Lincoln Memorial, Washington monument, FDR memorial, Jefferson memorial, Vietnam memorial, etc. I'm not used to walking so much so I was SORE the next day! For dinner we went to a Thai restaurant not far from Naomi's apartment. Naomi's apartment was really cool-- 12th story with a view of the pentagon.
Late Saturday night we drove down to Charlottesville where Naomi and I stayed at her friends Norah and Mike's house. They were out for the weekend. Church was nice, and VERY quiet (no kids!). Everyone could tell immediately I was Naomi's sister. I saw Nathaniel Peterson there! What a small world. I don't think I've seen him since he was a little boy, but he still looks very much the same. :-)
Naomi and Dave made a yummy Sunday dinner of spaghetti and meat sauce and green salad. Then we took a little driving tour of Charlottesville, and drove up through the incredibly beautiful countryside to a reservoir with an amazing view of the mountains. Charlottesville is so, so, so beautiful.
Back home again, Dave handily beat Naomi and I at Scrabble (well, ok, he handily beat ME at Scrabble, and barely beat Naomi), and I scrounged around and made some brownies from scratch that were not very good.
That night Naomi and I had an adventure with a bat! It must have been up in the attic bedroom sleeping all day, since the windows were all closed. We were about to go to sleep when it started flitting all over the room. It startled Naomi quite a bit, but I'm used to the idea of bats, thanks to Joseph. We finally managed to get it out the window.
Monday Naomi and I went to Montecello and discussed wedding plans. Then we went to a bridal shop and Naomi tried on wedding dresses. Then we met Dave at his lab and I got a tour of the University of Virginia during a thunderstorm. Took more pictures there, and was again so impressed with what a good sport Dave was about taking pictures. I've noticed most men hate and despise getting pictures taken. Dave must really love Naomi. It was really fun being with a couple so in love. :-)
That evening Naomi and I drove back up to D.C., and then early the next morning it was back home for me.

This last week at home was pretty normal, I guess. Ben took the boys to Galveston on Friday and spent the night and most of the day Saturday there. The boys seemed to have a good time, although the consensus was that the coolest part of the trip was the park they stopped at on the way home that had a herd (flock? pack?) of feral cats living there. Mosey, our resident cat-lover was actually able to pet some of them and, more miraculously, was left unscathed.
Once I got home, I tried to keep the boys busy and not killing each other. We went to the Austin Children's Museum on Friday, and then Friday night I was chaperone for the Young Women during their service marathon weekend. They spent all day Friday working on a Habitat for Humanity house, then dinner at one of the girl's houses, then out to the young men's president's lake house for a devotional and then watching Monte Python. I didn't get back until nearly 1 AM, and then spent a couple of peaceful hours cleaning the house! Ben and the boys spent the night on the trampoline where they all got pretty much eaten alive by mosquitoes... Don't think they'll be doing that again this summer! I've had to tell everyone we've come in contact with since then that no, they *don't* have chicken pox or measles or any other deadly disease, it's only mosquito bites. Seriously, then each got bitten just dozens and dozens and dozens of times. Looks pretty horrible, but doesn't seem to be bothering the boys much.

Saturday was the boys' Tae Kwon Do "graduation" to senior white belt. It was a large graduation with students from every level testing and moving up belts. It was pretty cool to see the upper level students sparring and testing on their patterns and breaking boards.

Today was church and fast day, so after church Ben and I took a nap while the boys fended for themselves and made a huge mess. They were making "juice" by squishing grapes and blueberries and then microwaving the result. So picture grape and blueberry juice all over the floor. Oh well, the nap was still worth it. The Scooba Ben got me for Mother's Day is certainly earning its keep.

Ok, a couple of quick stories about the boys.

Last Friday as we were getting ready to get in the car to pick up Ben and take me to the airport, Joseph found a little millipede type bug on the ground. So he was playing with it in the car, and at some point he says to me, "Millipedes have pheremones because I can smell it on my hand." Isn't my 5 year old really smart to know about pheremones? :-)

A couple of days ago Brigham asks me, "Why was my teacher surprised when I said noise is made from sound vibrations? Everybody knows that!" I mean, duh!!

Last night I was putting Mosey to bed, and decided to just to to sleep at the same time. So again I had the privilege of listening to him talk himself to sleep. He has a few lines from various Weird Al songs memorized and he likes to sing them to himself. So he starts out with "Pet my poodle, si vous plait!" And then follows that with "Waka waka doo doo yeah!" Then he starts counting in spanish, but he only knows a few numbers so it goes something like this, "Dos, quatro, cinco, seis, dos, quatro, cinco, seis," etc., ad nauseum. My mullti-lingual son. But then he said, "I think I love my mom. I think mom loves me. Yeah, I think I like mom!" Awwww... so sweet.

I hope the rest of you had a good week!