Challenge

My sister issued a challenge to "write your story in 150 words or less" and post it on a blog.  I missed the deadline because I kept re-doing it.  I think I'm done re-doing!  Here's my stab at it.

I ask the students I tutor, “What is a product?”  It’s the answer you get when you multiply.  I am a product -- of all I have done multiplied by all those whose paths I have crossed.  My life goals include meeting everyone and going everywhere. I am who I am partly because of my elementary classmates in Kentucky multiplied by my friend Angela in Arizona.  The beauty of a bay in Puerto Rico multiplied by the friends I was with on that cruise formed me.  The teenage students on a bus in Wales and amazing past roommates are factors in my life.  Divorced parents, Korea, adoption, Tennessee, special needs daughter, creative son, Colorado, coworkers at a clothing store, Mexico, widowed neighbors -- the factor list is innumerable. I am a product, and fortunately, a product is bigger than the numbers you started with.  

Judging from this week, 2012 will be busy too

That's a long title, but it expresses the sentiment of the week.  We're really only one week into the new year, but it's already been a busy one.  Of course, it's been filled with the daily tasks of getting kids off to school, doing math after school, feeding and clothing the family, walking the dog, etc., but it's been full of lots of other things too.

Let's see.... there's been plenty of thermite.  Any men reading this blog will probably know what that is, but you women may not be sure.  If you combine aluminum powder with red iron oxide, then light it with magnesium tape, it creates an exothermic reaction that burns at a couple thousand degrees.  In other words, you create a fire that requires sunglasses to watch and that will melt a metal can in seconds.  And it does a number on a gingerbread house.  The picture shows the remains of an aluminum can.


Earlier this week, I had a fun opportunity to get to know a local author and speaker named Kris Belcher.  From the time she was baby she had to deal with the effects of cancer that reduced her sight.  About 8 years ago, she had a second bout with cancer and lost her sight completely.  She has learned to deal with it with dignity and humor.  I had the privilege of taking her to Salt Lake for a speaking engagement then bringing her home.  She was very funny and had some great insights about challenges.  I'll have to read her books now.

The end of the week was dominated by cake baking and decorating.  You know, new year -- new cake.  This was for my nephew Adam's wedding.  They were married last week in Newport Beach, California, so a beach-themed reception was appropriate.


And after the wedding celebrations, we ended the week with a murder.  Okay, it was a murder mystery.  We thoroughly enjoyed our Hawaiian-themed murder party with a number of friends.  Well, at least we enjoyed it until we figured out that my husband was the murderer.  It keeps my life interesting, right?

 And, when the week was over, I crashed on the couch snuggled up with Molly.  She wasn't fighting at all, just lying there still.  I guess she loves me no matter what.

I can hardly wait to see what Week 2 of the new year has in store!

Is it the end of the year already??

As I've been writing these blog posts to recap the year, it's been amazing to me how quickly it all went and how much I squeezed into the year.  As I looked back at November and December, I continued to be amazed.  So, here I sit on New Year's Eve trying to complete my summary of the year.  Let's see what those last two months brought.

Technically, I have to back up to October 31.  For my last out of state trip of the year, I left on the 31st to go to New Mexico.  My dear friend Marsha, has an annual conference that she reluctantly attends.  Several times she has invited me to accompany her, but this time I actually did.  We spent 3 fun-filled days in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Los Alamos.  

One of the highlights was a hike in Kasha-Katuwe National Monument.  It was a beautiful slot canyon that you could climb, then look down on the cool natural features.

The weather was great, and the fall colors were beautiful.

In Los Alamos, we went to a couple of museums and learned all kinds of stuff about WWII and the atomic bombs.

Since we were in Los Alamos, we decided to drive over to Espanola where my mom grew up.  This is the house she lived in as a teenager.  I imagine it looks a little different now, but it was cool to see it.

At the end of November, I made my last trip of the year.  Our family headed to Kanarraville to my mom's house for Thanksgiving.  This was the first ever Thanksgiving (as adults) with my family, my sisters' families, and my parents.  It was a party.  Here I am with all the pies I baked for the party!

The day after Thanksgiving, we celebrated Mom's 75th birthday with family and friends at the Kanarraville Town Hall.

 With a theme like "Dancing Through Life," you can bet we did some serious dancing.  We highlighted dances from each decade of her life.  And to spice it up, we donned clothing from those decades.  In this picture you can see me rocking my sister's prom dress from 1978 while dancing with my nephew Andy in his leisure suit.  Yeah!!

 The grandkids did their part to share their talents as well.

 And we closed the evening with an incredibly rare photo of most of the family.  Of course, we were missing a few, but this was a pretty good representation.

 As always, Thanksgiving was followed by Christmas.  I already blogged about our tree, but I couldn't write about December without showing it again.  We loved our "donate to the food bank" tree.

 At the beginning of the month, we were treated to a lovely church Christmas party complete with a nativity.  The shepherd with the red long sleeves is my sweet Cheyenne.

 Mid month I got to attend one of my favorite parties of the year.  We had our annual Derby Girls Christmas lunch at Colleen's.  She has a knack for decorating beautifully, no matter the occasion.  Over the years, this luncheon has proven to be full of good food, lots of laughs, and some great gifts.  

 One of my gifts was from my sister Cathy who had been traveling in New York City earlier that week.  Her gift to me was a collection of food bought in a Jewish market in NY so we could use it for our annual Bethlehem dinner.  I loved the food, but I also loved that she bought it in NYC and carried around al day.

 Once the kids got out for the Christmas break, we took on projects to prepare for the big day.  One day we invited our friends over and we made poteca (a special bread Mom made).  I have fond memories of doing this as a kid.  You can see we had lots of helpers!

 This is the spreading of the nut filling!

 And this is the final product!!  YUM! YUM!

 Before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve day.  The day started with reindeer pancakes.  This one was fun and simple.

 And the day ended with sweet Cheyenne preparing healthy snacks for Santa and the reindeer.

 Christmas day brought lots of smiles.  For Daniel, those smiles were biggest when he opened his gift of chemicals that he could mix and burn for the 'showy' factor.  There may be no stopping him now.

 And, for Cheyenne, the cutest smiles came later in the day when she opened Grandma Wilde's gift -- a ukulele with a dolphin on it.  I can't wait to hear her songs.  

 The partying continued past Christmas as Grandma Wilde hosted a little party at her house a couple days later.  It was fun to see Dale's side of the family.  And I love reasons to extend any holiday!

It's been an awesome couple of months and and an awesome year!!

September that ran into October

So, if August was the beginning of my traveling, September and October were the meat of it.  Those two months kind of merged into one.  I was so busy trying to get ready to go, going, then making up for being gone.  But, would I do it again????  In a heartbeat!!!

The month started with a quick Labor Day weekend trip to Colorado.  We wanted to go see our friends, the Burnhams.  And, we wanted to fly out of Provo airport which now offers one flight a day to Denver.  We loved seeing our friends!!!!  We got to go our first NASCAR race, and we enjoyed an awesome breakfast at a creole restaurant.  And, the flying out of Provo was great!! We recommend it.

 In a rare moment at home, we were 'bonding' with the kids.  We were playing Hide and Seek outside, but no one could find Dale.  When he was finally spotted, he was high in tree (his orange-striped shoes are the big giveaway).  I just loved that at 49, he's still got it.  

1.  In the third week of September, we headed out for a dream trip to Hawaii.  We've talked about it for 20 years, but we finally made it happen for our 20th anniversary.  We enjoyed 10 days in Kauai, Maui, and Oahu.  We did a lousy job of relaxing, but we did a great job of hiking, snorkeling, driving beautiful places, eating new things, etc.  There's no way to show it to you in this way, but come to my house sometime and I'll give you the real photographic tour.  I can, however, whet your appetite here.  Oh, and I have to say, we are Kauai people!  If I ever go back, that's where I'll head.  Let me say publicly that I really appreciate Dale and his willingness to make this dream come true.  I fulfilled some bucket list items, and I had a great time.  Thanks to him and to all of you who babysat so we could go.  None of it went unnoticed!!!

First bucket list item:  A helicopter ride (with no doors) over Kauai on one of the clearest days the pilot had ever seen.  In a word, SPECTACULAR!

 

 The view from our condo.  Wow!!

Next bucket list item: swimming with turtles.  Amazing!

I had to post a picture of this sign.  I am among the world's most stringent rule keepers, BUT.... I went beyond that point!!!!  Can you even believe it??????

This was a highlight.  Along the road to Hana, we took a climb through mud, across an elevated viaduct, through the jungle, etc. till we found this secluded waterfall and pool.  It was secluded to the extent that about 6 other couples were there when we were, but it was awesome.  And it was freezing cold, but fun.

This is but one example of the great food we had.  Loved the fruit, the shave ice, the raw fish, etc.!!!

My dessert treat on my birthday!

 On our final morning in Oahu, we hit the beach to find an outrigger canoe to ride.  We found a perfect one, and we got to take a thrilling ride with our big, burly, Hawaiian friends!!  Overall, the trip was amazing.  And it checked off state number 48 for me.  Just two more to go.  So, this time next year, you'll probably be reading about a different kind of canoe in Minnesota or Wisconsin!

As you can imagine, things were crazy when we returned.  We had lots of catching up to do.  Among the things that were waiting for us were lots of vegetables from our garden.  Among the vegetables we had a plant full of ghost peppers.  According to Wikipedia, in 2007 Guinness certified it as the hottest pepper in the world at 401.5 times hotter than Tabasco.  Dale just wanted to see what it was like.  So, he and and his 'tough guy' 16 year old son took turns taking bites.  Did I mention that the 'bites' were about the size of a pinhead??

Throughout my crazy couple of months, we were also attending dog training classes with Molly.  I learned a lot, but I'm having about the same luck training her as I have in training my children!  

After the training, the next item on the agenda was a 12th birthday party for Cheyenne.  She loves the movie Tangled (a version of the classic Rapunzel story).  And so it is that we had a Rapunzel party.  Lucky for us, Rapunzel herself was there!  And we made some edible hair to share.  That braid was about 51 inches long!  

 And, with 12 year olds, you can do fun things like shoot a blow gun at a Flynn Rider Wanted poster.

 No rest for the weary.  Just a couple days later, I was making a wedding cake for Adam Sellars.  I was pretty pleased.  Again, let me publicly thank and credit Dale, my artistic designer.  He printed a template for me to use to make those sets of 3 dots perfectly aligned.  He makes me look good.  Thanks!

So, we'd had the party, but then we had to celebrate Cheyenne's real birthday on the day.  I love this picture from breakfast that morning.

 In the afternoon, we headed to the Oquirrh Mountain temple.  This picture makes me smile too!

 And the nighttime was reserved for dinner out, complete with a chocolate volcano cake.  That was one very bright, long-lasting sparkler/candle.

 If it's been mine and Cheyenne's birthdays, then you know that Halloween can't be far behind.  At the Wilde house, that means it's time for a Halloween-themed dinner.  This year, Cheyenne has been studying Egypt at school, so we went for the mummy theme.  In the far corner, you'll see a crock that contained certified "innards" or maybe salad with dressing on it.

To complete the month, Dale and I headed out for yet another trip.  This time we spent the weekend in Dallas, TX, to see BYU play TCU at the Dallas Cowboys stadium.  What a place!  

 The game really stunk as BYU continually shot itself in the foot, but it was fun to be there.  The next day we spent the day at Six Flags.  The lesson learned that day is that 'loose objects' left in pockets really do fall out!  Dale happened to have his credit cards and driver license in his cargo pocket, but they were dislodged by some ridiculous roller coaster!  Next lesson learned is that if you look innocent enough, it is possible to board a plane without government issued ID, but with a wife who is excited to show her Thanksgiving Point pass.  Gotta love it.

Whew!  What a couple of months!  And the travel still wasn't over.  Stay tuned for November!