I'm so glad this week is coming to a close.  It's been stressful and long!  I have definitely decided I do not like being a working mom.  It's okay to occasionally have to be somewhere that takes all day, but day after day of it is crap.  And my house shows it.

I subbed for my librarian friend again this week.  She's having a hard time bouncing back from her surgery and the decline in health of her aging parents.  I am happy to help her out, and I have really enjoyed the chance to "teach" library, but being gone from home has been an issue.  I enjoy being here when the older kids get home from school.  And by the time I would get home, it was time for piano, horseback riding lessons, cello lessons, volleyball, or whatever so nothing got done beyond the basics.

In addition, it is the end of the term so everyone is stressed...  And we've had orchestra and choir concerts to attend, to boot.  I love seeing my kids perform :)

Here's some pics...
M's Central Singer's Choir Concert...  They sang Abba songs.  That shouldn't be allowed. 


N's first orchestra concert as a junior high student...  She's the odd one out in our family, playing the violin.


M's orchestra concert...  M enjoys orchestra only because she really enjoys the company of the other orchestra geeks she sits by.  She refuses to try for first chair because then she couldn't misbehave with the basses and 8th grade cellos.  That's my M!


and bnl_fan 's orchestra concert...  She's orchestra president again this year and is working so hard to make it fun and cool.  She's got the orchestra involved in the Homecoming activities, something they've never done, she's arranged for fund raisers for a CA trip, something that's never been done, and she's hosted parties--here--that was weird.  Orchestra kids are just weird.


Strange that they didn't notice the large yellow arrows above their heads...

My sister brought this soup to M's baptism.  It was so good, I have been craving it so I made it Saturday.  aloha_sushi 's was better, but it was still delicious.  Try it, you'll love it!

Thai Coconut Soup (Tom Kha Gai)

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons grated ginger
4 to 6 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
6 cups low sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons fish sauce (soy sauce may be substituted)
2 (14 ounce) cans coconut milk
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and sliced thin
into 1-inch strips
1/2 pound white mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
salt
1/2 cup whole fresh cilantro leaves

1. Heat the oil in a large stock pot over medium heat until
shimmering. Stir in the ginger and curry paste and cook for 1 minute.
Add 1/2 cup of the broth and stir until the curry paste dissolves.
Stir in the remaining broth and the fish sauce. Bring to a simmer and
cook, partially covered, for 15 minutes.

2. Stir in the coconut milk, chicken, and mushrooms. Simmer until the
chicken is cooked, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lime juice and season
with salt. Sprinkle the bowls of soup with the cilantro leaves before
serving.

This weekend was a long holiday weekend for us here in UT.  We were going to go back to Delta (my choice), but the kids rebelled a bit so we decided to stay local.  One day was spent doing our part to aid in the economic recovery of our great nation.  We even got Dilbert into a store!  It was good, although he's feeling a bit of sticker shock after seeing how much it takes to buy just a few pieces of clothes for each of the girls.

The next day we puttered around here, getting the yard and house ready for winter but with the weather so beautiful, it is hard to really get serious about it.  We wont really get going on the winterizing until the big snow is imminent (at least that's how it's been the last few years.)

On Saturday we went to the city library and then to the creek behind it.  My kids insist on playing Pooh Sticks every time we go there, no matter how old they are.  For those who don't know what Pooh Sticks are, here's a lesson.  First, find a bridge over a stream, creek or river.  Next, select a sturdy, recognizable stick.  Hold the stick over the water upstream and drop it.


Then rush to the other side of the bridge and watch for your stick to come under the bridge.  The first stick to pass under the bridge is the winner.  Then repeat the process until your parents loose patience with the game and tell you to stop.



We are very fortunate to have such a lovely park so close to home.  It is really like a hideaway with a thick canopy of trees and cute little paths.  AND a library!  Whoohoo!





I realized that I hadn't marked the passing of our anniversary moving here to UT.  We moved here conference weekend, 2000, so it's been 8 years.  It doesn't seem it could possibly be that long!  But yeah, it has.  I still miss my TX friends, but enjoy it here in UT so much.  I went for a short hike yesterday to enjoy the changing leaves on the bench above our home (and take a few pictures with my new baby).  Apparently everyone else had the same idea, there were so many people on the trail, it was ridiculous.

This is only for those who have nothing but chores to do but are instead looking to waste some time on the computer, instead.

( Click to view )</div>

I broke down and bought a new toy...

Meet my new baby!


Now let's see if my photos improve!

Saturday was M's baptism.  The day was dark, cold and dreary.  It began to snow by 10 a.m. but luckily didn't start to stick until much later.  I spent the morning at the R.S. Super Saturday doing the requisite vinyl on wood and sheet metal craft projects and then raced home to make soup, bread sticks and clean house.  Because I had been working and my schedule was so thrown off, I had forgotten to go to the Stake Center earlier in the week to pick up baptism clothes for M so we raced down to the Stake Center to pick up her clothes.  I feel like such a dork!

Because we had so many children being baptized this month, the stake split the baptisms into two groups.  We got the later group.  M was so excited to baptized on the same day as one of very best friends! 
We met at 6 at the stake center.  We had been asked to do the special musical number for the opening exercises so BNLFAN_1 played the viola (a new instrument for her), N played the violin (her debut performance), Scout played the cello, I accompanied on the piano, and H and two neighbors sang, "I am a Child of God".  It was wonderful to have my children performing together.  After that, as Primary President, I got to do the baptism spotlight on M.  She's a sweet girl with a wicked streak.  Her favorite scripture story is Moses and the Children of Israel being delivered from Egypt because she likes the plagues.  And her favorite song?  "Called to Serve" because it gets stuck in Dilbert's head ever since Frank's MTC visit.  She also shared she likes to ride her bike, read and bake cookies, something she's just developed a skill for and she's very good at it.  Her favorite subject in school is reading (yeah!!!) and her favorite food is bananas.  Her favorite color is white because it has all the colors in it.

Then we went into the font room and Dilbert performed the baptism.  I still can't believe my baby is baptized!  What a milestone.  I'm a bit melancholy about it, knowing it marks the end of an era, but it is also the beginning of something wonderful for her.  She is also the last Christensen grandchild to be baptized.  Of course there will be great-grandchildren, but it is kind of sad to see an era end.After the baptism we came back here for a soup bar and dessert.  Posies did a fabulous cake for M.  She had a wedding cancel after the cake was made so she did it up for M, creating a new tradition...  The BAPTISM CAKE.  It was coconut/pineapple on the top, lemon poppyseed in the middle and chocolate orange on the bottom.  Oh my, were they ever delicious!And the soups everyone brought were so delicious!  Wow.  I had to try everything so I was so stuffed by the end.  It was a good stuffed.  It was good to have everyone together again, especially so soon after Frank's farewell, so I just have to say, "Thanks for coming!"  And to Mom and Day, sorry you missed it.  But Mom, notice she's wearing the little jacket you crocheted for H?  She wanted to wear something of yours since you couldn't be there.  And we missed Frank, of course, but he's doing so awesome, it's really okay that he isn't around.  His letters to M have been very sweet about missing her but knowing he's doing what he should be doing.

I have an awesome family (on both sides!)  But the next get-together is going to be smaller.  Maybe one side of the family at a time, if that's okay!

I haven't posted in quite a while because I've been working AND getting M baptized. I am not used to being a working Mom and I have to admit I am not good at it and I do not like it. I'm glad it is over now. I didn't have internet access while I was working, and by the time I got home, I had so much to do, I couldn't even think about blogging. It was all I could do to read my important e-mails. I am going to post about M's baptism in a separate post...

I have been subbing for a friend who had her gall bladder removed this week. She's a librarian in a new library. It was a really nice library, but with few books (more arriving every day, but it is a little sad to see so many of the shelves bare). Anyway, I learned how to check in and out and sort books and shelve books and NOT get all ticked off when the 4th grade boys destroyed the Star Wars books AGAIN... Well, that I didn't learn.

I got to read fun stories to the kids and be crazy with them, which was really fun. But most of the time I was stamping books. I went from shelf to shelf, stamping them with the school name, on the front and back covers and also one more in the middle, just for good luck. I bet I did 1,000,000 stamps this week. My hand and arm ache. I really wanted to get it all done before Kellen returned from her surgery but I didn't get through half of the non-fiction, although I did get through all the Easy fiction and the YA fiction.

It became a personal goal to make it through all those books and I am bummed I didn't make it. If I just had two more days... What a goof I am!

Anyway, it was pretty great until I woke up this morning with pink eye. Of all the dumb!!! I went into the office first thing and told the secretary that I had it and had only had one dose of drops and she had this panicky look on her face. She said she wanted me to stay and keep subbing because it would be harder to find another sub than to explain to irate parents. I figured I knew how to NOT touch my eyes and then touch surfaces that the kids would touch and I carried around bottle of wipes. I just thought it was funny and ironic and stupid.

This week's e-mail, first what he wrote to Dad:
( Read more... )

I haven't mentioned how much fun it was to have my BFF in town for a few days. Joyismygoal and her sweetheart daughter stayed with me after dropping off Big Z at the MTC. Joy's DH had a work meeting in WA so took off to Seattle while we played, ate and shopped. Oh, gosh! I miss having her around! We are so similar, we even buy the same drinking glasses at Ross. How random, I know!

We spent a day at BYU, which was fun, except all we did was go to the bookstore for HOURS. We bought every "BYU BAG" they had (if you've been to the Y in the last year or so, you know what I mean), to the point I was embarrassed to be holding them in my hands. We checked out the art in the basement and sampled fudge. We ran into old TX friends and sent a greenie package to Big Z. Then we shopped our way home. I love shopping with Joy. She's got an eye for style that I just don't have, and a nose for bargains (she makes me look like an amateur). Even with her eye and nose, she doesn't look at all unusual.

We spent a long morning at Tai Pan, another fun time of shopping bliss (and no, I'm not being sarcastic). Then we went and had an electrolysis session (why does it sound like tortue to spend time with me?) and we went on a hike to Ford Falls in Centerville. By that time, it was time to pick up her DH from the airport and he whisked her away early the next morning. I think he was afraid if he stayed around any longer, we'd go shopping again. Oh, if he only knew!

Here's some pictures from Ford Falls...






and a filmstrip...

Dear family,
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We got this in the mail last week (yeah, I'm finally catching up on all my blogs)

( See it here )

I have been playing with my camera, trying to convince Dilbert I need more than a point-and-shoot.  But the convincing has been fun.  I also really enjoy the post-photography editing.  Here's some of my latest efforts:
( Check these out )</div>

Friday was Dilbert's day off so he took me on a big adventure. He took me panning for GOLD!

We didn't find a lot of GOLD, but we found a lot of golden leaves. American Fork Canyon was beautiful. No, that doesn't cover it. It was breathtaking. Here's some of my pictures

Here's Dilbert panning for gold. He found a few very small flakes but mostly, he just found the water was extremely cold.


And we spent some time trying out his metal detector (but there was too much junk up there to find anything of value.


A shout out to my Mom and Dad... Here's your car amid the glory :)

Jerry Springer DNA test

It's been a nice week.  I've heard from Frank more in the last 3 weeks than I did in 2 months when he was away at BYU.  He called Tuesday morning from the airport, then yesterday we got a package with a letter in it AND his p-day e-mail.  He's being so good, writing details and sharing feeling (ugh!  to get guys to share their "feelings"!)  So here's his latest letter AND his e-mail.
( Read more... )

I have been seeing a new doctor, this past week.  I've been seeing him regularly.

He's a voodoo doctor, very similar to the one I saw a few years ago who looked just like Donny Osmond and whom I let hold my hand whenever he wanted.  My new voodoo doctor, whom I will call Vic, looks like Dan Cortese (please don't ask me why this is important).  He also holds my hands but he also holds my feet.  And that's surprisingly okay.

Actually, what they (he and his father work together doing their voodoo)  were doing was some sort of biomeridian analysis using magnets and magic to tell me why I have become allergic to running.  It has been fascinating and I'm sold on it.  After running electrical currents through me, and testing my meridian points, he determined which of my bodily systems were wacky (in my case it was my resperitory system and my liver), and he gave me a bunch of supplements and some drops of magic water and told me to go off all my prescriptions except the synthroid.  I did it and I feel GREAT.  I don't have problems with my blood sugar any more, my BP is normal, rather than icky low like it has been for a long time, and my head is clearer than it has been in ages and I'm not taking 7 different allergy medications.  So yeah, I'm a believer.  The biggest part that I like is that their philosophy of treating the cause of the symptoms, not the symptoms themselves.  It just makes sense to me.  If I had a blister on my hand from holding it against an iron, I wouldn't treat the blister, I would remove my hand from the iron.  It is just so different from traditional medicine.  How weird was it to have a strength test done and by simply touching a meridian point on my body, my strength cand went.  It is just freaky voodoo magic.

I got a good laugh out of this article in the New Yorker.  You know, just saying I read the New Yorker makes me feel smarter than I really am.
My Gal