Must...Keep...Blogging

Some days I really miss my blog. I used to update it so frequently... Around the time I finally got a FB account is about when I stopped posting often. So here's to keeping the blog alive!!!

This picture is the view from the front yard of my Utah house. Last summer I spent so much time outside...just breathing in the cool summer night air and gazing at the mountains that hugged the neighborhood I remember so well. I was in Utah a few weeks ago and I took a nice walk that turned in to a hike in the foothills by my house. It was so beautiful. I miss mountains. I miss open spaces and dry, cool air. I miss hiking! I miss mountain biking! I miss playing basketball with my family on the driveway. I miss these beautiful sunsets. I miss hilly, ragged, asphalt roads. I miss houses that don't conform, yards that need work, yards that are beautiful and unique. I miss houses painted pink and churches on every corner. I miss the familiar clank of my grandparents door when I walk inside to visit with them--the unmistakable smell of grandma's house. I miss seeing children playing and wandering the streets at dusk. I miss, oh I miss aspens--quakies as we call them. I miss the slow pace of an unchanging city. I miss Taco Amigo. I miss shopping at Macey's grocery store. I miss soft green grass that you can lay on. I miss the colors of fall. I miss driving up Battle Creek road--the familiarity of Mount Timpanogos and the thrill of seeing little blotches of red and orange on the mountains in late September. I miss seeing, watching, hearing hummingbirds--dozens of them at a time drinking nectar from our backyard deck. I miss the G on the mountain and the beautiful meadow even higher on the mountain that goes unnoticed by so many hikers. I miss my enchanted waterfall a short hike from my house. I miss running, biking, roller-blading the Provo canyon trail. I miss walking along the canal that stretches for miles in the valley. I miss gardening--being able to plant corn, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes straight in to the ground. I miss family. I miss children laughing, playing, screaming. I miss games around the dinner table. I miss ongoing conversation--opinionated, heated, caring...I miss father and mother, brothers and sisters, grandmas and grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins, neices and nephews. I miss my dear Pleasant Grove...you never, ever change and I like it that way.

Most Embarrassing Moment

As I was going through an old journal, I found a writing of my most embarrassing moment. I was 19 at the time. This was my first summer home from college. I am going to suffer through the embarrassment and shame of this story to make whoever reads it laugh. Enjoy.



"Sometimes people are going to have their share of bad luck. I got hired for Lehi City employment--this required a drug test. So this morning I go in to the place that is specifically for drug and alcohol testing. The building was tucked away in an obscure part of Orem. I felt pretty weird being there. I decided to go on my lunch break (I just started my other job). I was in a hurry to get back in time. One guy ran the drug testing place and he was a hippie. He got my info, put on his gloves, and unwrapped the pee-in-cup kit. He said "This might sound uncomfortable, but I need you to not flush the toilet or wash your hands until I have your cup." He marked the line where I needed to fill it. I felt pressure right away...could I fill it all the way to the line? Well it was stop and go but I did it, with a perfect fill right to the line. It did take a while to fill it and I was starting to worry what hippie man was thinking. I didn't want him to think I was doing anything crazy (like washing my hands or flushing the toilet) and I had to get back to my other job. Without thinking, I set my lengthy stream of toilet paper that I used to wipe on the counter by the sink--why I didn't put it in the toilet I do not know. Was this also a no-no according to hippie man? I already felt so restricted in this whole process. While I was hurrying I felt a tremendous amount of pride in my healthy cup of pee. I did it. I took my first ever drug test! I set it down and fumbled to find the zipper on my pants. To my horror, my unimaginable horror and dismay, I knocked the cup of pee off with my elbow and watched as it slowly hit the floor and quickly spread out all over the place. I didn't know what to do. If I wasn't allowed to wash my hands than I certainly wasn't allowed to spill my pee the floor. I had to let the guy know why I was in there for so long, lest he arrest me for tampering with my test. I threw the door open and looked at the hippie in horror. "I have something embarrassing to say" I blurted. Only I didn't say anything I just held open the door and let him look at the disaster. I can't imagine how disgusted he was--even as a hippie. This is when I realized that my wad of toilet paper was on the basin, not in the toilet. I was so worried about achieving the "in and out" method of drug testing that I had no time to gather my senses while finishing up. Why oh why did I put it on the counter? Well Hippie man wasted no time. He walked straight to that wad of toilet paper, touching only a tiny corner of it, and as it unfolded in to a never-ending stream of crumpled bath tissue, he disposed of it. I was a little thrown off. Why attack the toilet paper so quickly? Wasn't the large amount of pee on the floor the most disturbing of it all? I don't know when he noticed the pee but he must have at some point because he grumbled something about going to find a mop somewhere. He came back with mop in hand and said "I have never cleaned in my life, I have never even held a mop before". I didn't have time to analyze how odd that statement was so I grabbed the mop and cleaned up the Kayla-covered-pee-floor. I was so embarrassed! When it was over I turned to leave--get this--and the Hippie turns to me and actually SAYS "I know how you feel. I spilled coffee on my shirt this morning". Are you kidding? What a consoling man."

And at the bottom of the page is a portrait I drew of Hippie man.

On being Yoo-Neek

Did you know the pronunciation guide in the dictionary for unique is seriously "yoo-neek"? I love that.

I sat down to post something non-motherhooddy but here I am and all I can think of is this:

I have read a handful of blogs today, all Mormon mothers that stay home with their children. And I could have been the author of any of the posts I read. Mostly they talked about the struggles and triumphs of our (Mormon mothers) situation: choosing to stay home with the kids rather than pursue a career.

I like to think of myself as someone that had a promising career (I had fabulous grades in college, I studied music and communication which both intersted me, I had a great internship that could have possibly landed me a great job). But instead of pursuing that career I chose to start a family and followed the teaching of my church which is that mothers, where possible, should be home with their children instead of putting them in another's care.

But I don't recall making that choice. I don't know that I ever even considered the alternative which is that I put my kids in day care, or maybe just didn't have any children. When I met Brian and got married it was a given. We didn't even think about another scenario. We started our family when we knew I could graduate from college, Brian got his education and got a job.

I wonder if it is like that on the flip-side. I wonder if most women (I'm talking non-mormons here) get their job and earn money because it is just the norm. It is a given. And maybe in the thick of the demands of their job, when they come home tired and stressed, they ever realize they could choose to live a completely different life, one where they have children and care for them at home.

Maybe when I have a really hard day and I wish for a different scenario, one where I have a career, there is a woman on the other side of the fence that wants what I have?

I guess what I'm saying is that you have to find happiness with what you've got. Even though on those hard, tiring days, I think I would possibly enjoy a career more than staying at home with my kids, the fact is, I probably wouldn't be.

When I read all these other blogs I don't feel lonely. I know EXACTLY what and how the other stay-at-hom moms are feeling. In fact, I'm amazed at how my situation is anything but unique.

It is when I think about myself compared to most women my age in the world that I feel unique. Really I shouldn't even be married yet, let alone have two children by the world's standards. The uniqueness comes by that comparison.

Not too long ago Brian and I had a small reception at a nice restaurant with the Houston Camerata, a choir we were both in at the time. We sat across from another couple that was probably in their fifties. They both had very busy, accomplished lives. They had no children. In fact, they were surprised to find that we had two children. They even asked if we were Catholic (when we told them we were Mormon they had no response). Probably they didn't grow up in big families. Maybe even they didn't have any siblings. They, like me, probably followed the examples of their parents, which for them was pursuing a career. They probably didn't even realize they had a choice.

Even though I never really gave much thought to life outside of being a stay at home mom, I'm still happy with what I have. I know that I could go get a job if I wanted one or felt like that was a better thing for my family, but for now, I'm sticking with being unique.

Writing Again

Hello Blog. I'm sorry I have neglected you for so long.

I think I'm going to start making this blog more of a place to write.

So here are some thoughts I've had lately...

One of the worse feelings in the world is picking up some trash on the floor and realizing when you've picked it up that it is a dead bug, or worse, a dried up frog.

Motherhood is still hard. But not hard in the literal sense. It is hard mentally. It requires daily positive self-talk. Negative thoughts are my worse enemy. I have to tell myself over and over to be more cheery, to think happy thoughts, to play with my children.

If I think too much about yesterday or tomorrow I go insane. One day at a time when you stay home with kids all day every day. If I can have a good day today, everything will be fine.

I'm always tired. I look tired. I can't get out of bed in the morning. I can't fall asleep at night. Pregnant you say? Nope. Your thyroid is low? Nope. I don't know what it is. Getting older I guess?

I find joy in focusing on my children and recognizing their personalities and unique gifts. When I take time to look at them more closely I can almost see them 10 or 15 years from now. And I feel lucky that I get to be around such cool people all the time.

I'm really blessed that I love cooking and baking so much because feeding my family is a big part of what I do.

Alright, I'm tired so I'm going to take a nap now while I have the chance.

Adieu.

Girls Camp, Utah Trip, and a bit of Geneology

Wow what a summer we've had! And it has been quite a while since I have done a proper post. Our summer has been so great...

In June I went to Girls Camp! It was so fun and so different than the Girls Camp I remembered in Utah where we slept in a sleeping bag in a tent and went to the bathroom in an outhouse that didn't flush and we didn't take showers and ate what we cooked over the fire. At Camp Ta-Ku-La we slept in cabins with air conditioning and ate cafeteria food together in a mess hall. There was no grueling hike, no snipe hunting, but a swimming pool and a water slide and warm showers. It still felt like girls camp though, despite all the differences. I learned a whole bunch of new camp songs, and taught the girls the songs I remember singing as a YW going to camp in Utah. Camp was five days instead of three or four and on the last night of camp there was no "lights out". I wouldn't have cared so much about the stake tradition of not going to bed the last night, except that the next morning as soon as I got home from camp, I would be driving 8 hours to Oklahoma City.

So on to that part of our trip. I was so excited to see my boys when I got home! I had missed them so. I took a shower, and we hit the road for our month long trip to Utah. We hit up Brian's family in OK City and Fort Collins, Colorado. We started our Utah trip with a Cook Family Reunion in Northern Utah. Part of the reunion was a surprise birthday party for my father-in-law. He turned 70! I bet most people my age don't have a 70 year-old father in law!

After the reunion we moved on down to PG and had a great 4th Utah style. I'm telling you, nothing beats Utah's Independence Day celebrations.

We spent a week in Rexburg with our wannabe grandparents and my awesome brother Tyrel and his wife and kids. Julia and David are two peas in a pod. I'll put pics up later and a more detailed post of our time with them. Also while we were in the Burg I got to meet up with Alea! It was so fun to catch up. Alea moved to Idaho when we were in High School and I had only been able to keep touch with her on blogger and facebook. It had been a long while since I had seen her and it was so nice to see her again.

I got to catch up with my other really good friends too and that is always so great. They are one big part of why I miss my Utah!

Nathan turned 1 on July 11th! Just this week he has started walking all around the house.

Brian turned 27 on the 18th...the same day my sister turned 17. They had an awesome birthday. Brian and I took the kids swimming, Rachel got to (finally) meet Jef Holm and tour his business in PG and get free stuff. I think she was on cloud 9. Later that night we celebrated by going to Los Hermanos and having cake and ice cream and games (which included Mexican Race Horses...my fave).

The Grand Finale to our trip was heading down to Fishlake, UT...which is one of the best places on earth...you just don't know it yet because you've never been there. We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary :). I'm going to blog more about that trip too.

Right before we left, we celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday. A few years ago I recorded my grandparent's life history. That propelled me on to bigger and better family history projects. After two years, I finished compiling and transcribing as much ancestry on the Salisbury family as I could find and put together a book for my grandma's birthday. The book included bios and pictures of our ancestors. I loved doing the project, and made me realize that bit by bit family history can get done and it does matter! I thought I would never get the project done, but one day it just came together. Every little bit counts! So the only pictures on the post will be a few of my favorites from my project that I already have saved on my computer.

My beautiful young grandmother, Belva Joan Salisbury.

My grandpa in the Korean War. His story amazed me. Nathan Douglas is named after him.

My Great-Grandpa Salisbury playing the mandolin.

My Great-Grandmother Coral Erickson Salisbury. Isn't Coral a beautiful name?

The best part of the whole trip for me was just being with my family. I love being around my parents and siblings so much. We have a great time together and laugh a lot. We can get pretty silly. In fact, I laugh to myself sometimes that most people don't know how weird I really am. Being around my family is so good...they force the seriousness right outta me which needs to happen from time to time.

So that, in a nutshell, is what we've been doing lately. Ciao.

UTAH, LET ME COME DETAIL YOUR CAR!!

Hi Guys! This is Brian, here.

I wanted to let everyone know that while we're in Utah during the month of July, I will be doing some Auto Detailing. I have only a limited number of days that I'll be available to detail your car, so if you're interested, send me an email at brian@jccook.net.

Here are some pictures of what your car could look like when I'm done with it! :o)

(Toyota Sienna)

Well, this is actually the BEFORE photo.
Here's the AFTER...

(BMW)

(Honda Odyssey)

(Buick LeSabre)

If you think you might be interested... read on!

My full detail service takes at least 8 hours. Can you imagine how much cleaner your car will be in that amount of time?! Treatments include:

Exterior

• Clean Wheels/Rims
• Hand Wash
• Clay Bar Treatment (further removes road dirt and contaminants)
• Polish the Clear Coat
• Wax to protect the Clear Coat
  

Interior

• Vacuum interior
• Shampoo carpets and seats (if cloth)
• Clean/Treat leather
• Treat/Protect vinyl and rubber, including dashboard
• Clean Glass and other surfaces

Rates for detailing depend primarily on the size of the car. Typically, they are as follows for the day-long service:

• 4-door Sedan --- $150
• Small, Cross-over SUVs --- $175-$200
• Mini-Vans, Large SUVs --- $225 - $250

You will love the feeling of driving down the road in a nice clean car! I get HUGE satisfaction by setting you up to go for another year or so in your clean-smelling car. If you have any questions, let me know.

Please reply to brian@jccook.net.

Happy Driving! See you real soon, Utah!

11 Questions

My friend tagged me in this so I'm doing it. I love these kind of things...don't you?

11 Questions: Post these rules
Post a photo and eleven random things about yourself
Answer the questions provided by the one who tagged you
Create eleven new questions for the people you tag
Contact those you choose and let them know they've been tagged

11 Random Things About Myself:

1. I floss my teeth every single day.
2. I have TMJ problems and had to wear an ugly mouth guard 24/7 right after I was married. I still have issues and can't chew gum or eat popcorn or raw carrots anymore. Pooh.
3. I'm still trying to figure out this whole motherhood thing. But oh how I love my children!
4. I'm going to Girls Camp next week. We get to stay in air conditioned cabins. It is the Texas way. Yee haw.
5. I used to be a huge trouble-maker/prankster in middle school and even high school. I did some pretty crazy things. I regret it and get teased about it relentlessly by my family.
6. I am a direct descendant of Pocahontas.
7. I was a radio broadcaster for NPR and a religious radio station while I attended BYU-Idaho. I really loved it.
8. I have legit nightmares and wake up screaming on a regular basis. It freaks my husband out.
9. When we first moved to Texas my husband was victim of a gang initiation crime. It is a pretty funny and slightly scary story. I'll have to write about it sometime.
10. My husband wrote me a song and used the Men's Choir at BYU-Idaho to propose. I got a special VIP performance of it (he almost did it at the actual concert). Best engagement story ever.
11. I started a field on fire once with my friend when I was a little girl. It was a close call. My dad was a fireman at the time.

1. If you could live one day over again, what day would it be?---Most definitely my wedding day.
2. What is one thing you miss from your childhood?---Being near my family and friends. I miss my Utah stomping grounds so so much.
3. If you had 24 hours to live what would you do?---Hug and Kiss my children all day and lecture Brian about not getting remarried. Just kidding of course....maybe.
4. If you had to eat one thing the rest of your life, what would it be?---I really can't answer this question. I have tried and tried.
5. Favorite date night with your husband?---Once we went to a Fun Zone place that had those fast track race cars. We just went to see if we wanted to go mini-golfing there but got caught up watching these little kids race each other on the track. We watched them for a good hour or two and laughed hysterically. Maybe you had to be there but some of those kids were going so fast and would crash into each other or the wall. It was hilarious...and didn't cost a dime.
6. Salty or sweet?---Sweet. But not sugary. We're talking ice cream and cinnamon rolls. Not skittles and twizzlers...yucky.
7. What is one of your favorite memories from high school?---I had some really great memories in choir. I remember when I made the choir I auditioned for it was a happy day and a huge blessing to me (I realized later).
8. What would be your dream vacation?---I really would like to go to a perfect beach. Or Vail/Eagle/Aspen Colorado.
9. What is one thing that always makes your day better?---Scripture study. Personal meditation and reflection. Journal writing.
10. What is one thing you love about yourself?---I keep trying.
11. What is your biggest fear?---Intruders.I can't imagine having someone come in to my house to hurt me or my kids. A close second...never being able to eat ice-cream again or losing my legs...wait no, my arms.

Okay so I don't have time to come up with my own questions so I'm just going to re-use my friend's (getting ready to leave for Camp and Utah and have a million projects to finish).

I'm going to pass this off to Bethany and Alea...Bethany I chose you because you haven't updated in a while and I miss your posts. Alea, I know you read this blog and I would find your answers amusing.

Thanks for thinking of me Amy! That was fun!