Happy Halloween!

My camera is less than great but my mom is dying to see my little Ariel and George so here they are! We had a fabulous few days celebrating Greg's birthday and of course enjoying all the Halloween festivities. There was a costume parade at Megan's preschool, b-day party for dad, carving our pumpkin, trick or treating at daddy's office and "trunk or treat" at the church. We are exhausted and the kids are all sugared up.

I would say that Mason has probably opened, licked and thrown away about 12 suckers today! He's been a funny boy lately. Here is a quick list of all his current cute phrases:

1. No way, Megan! He went around saying that all day yesterday. He is finally standing up for himself!

2. No way! His answer to pretty much anything.

3. When I asked him if he was going to be a monkey for Halloween he said, "no way!" (of course) and then when I asked what he WAS going to be he said, "Octopus!"

P.S. Greg just came downstairs from tucking in the sleep heads before we go to bed. He said that Megan was asleep in her bed with a sucker in her mouth.

Ariel and Monkey

Monkey boy and basketball

Ariel girl

Carving the pumpkin

Mason said, "spooky!"

16 weeks and counting- due April 23rd.

Imaginary Friends

Megan now has four of them who are human and one who is a moose who likes to eat purple food. She calls him the "asky moose" because he asks lots of questions. But let's focus on the human friends for now. Three of them have been hanging around for over a year and the other one just joined us in the last few months. The thing is that these friends all have consistent stories and backgounds to them. It just blows my mind.



So, I've been doing some research I've been relieved to learn that imaginary friends serve two purposes- they relieve boredom and they are a way for kids to work out stresses and anxieties. Read on to find out why the latter is so very clearly the winner here. I was also relieved to read that I think I'm handling the friends fairly well. I treat them with respect but don't necessarily make too big a deal out of them, except for the fact that I am immortalizing them in this blog.



So, the other day Megan was setting the table for our friends to join us for dinner when she referred to her friends as "her kids." They've always been her friends before so I wondered why the change? She replied that all of their parents had died. My heart literally skipped a beat. The wheels started turning and suddenly I'm remembering how many coversations we'd had lately about death and where are granni's parents and grandpa Furness' parents and why did they die? Also, we watched the movie Annie and the movie Polyanna BOTH IN THE SAME WEEK! What kind of mother shows their three year old two movies in a row about orphaned little girls!?!? I'm feeling horrible but pull it together with a silent prayer to say the right thing. I got down on her level and said "honey, are you afraid that your parents are going to die?" She looked at me with a complelely serious face and said "uh- huh." We then had a lovely little heart to heart which I hope made sense and will maybe somehow counter act the damage done by my "movies from my childhood" marathon. No wonder I have so much anxiety- going around with little orphans singing in my brain all the time as a kid.



It was a memorable parenting moment and in case you were wondering more about the imaginary friends here is a short synopsis. One of them is named Faline and she is cousins with her best little imaginary friend who has been around the longest named Babba (I have no idea where she got that). The other two are Andrew and Bobert, but Andrew I guess is a girl. Faline is the oldest and she can do so many things that the others can't like read and write. The others all have one younger siblings and amazingly enough (before the dying thing at least) all their mom's had babies in their tummies too.



Does anyone have any advice or opinions here?

Jerusalem Reunion

I just returned from an incredible weekend in Utah where I attended my 10 year Jerusalem reunion. Back in 1998 I spent almost 4 months living at The Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies as a Brigham Young University student. As you can imagine... it was the experience of a life time! I would just like to thank my parents for supporting me on my semester abroad- for allowing me to go and for supplying the funds! Thanks, guys! I owe you so much money!

Anyway... we had a 10 year reunion in Utah so I went! Me and my little self went without kids or husband and spent two days hanging out with old friends, roommates and sisters-in-laws. I even ran into old flames and family members of old flames. All my worlds were majorly colliding! It was really fun though! I spend the first night with Annie Valentine Tintle, my dear friend and roommate after Israel. Everyone should check out her blog as she is hilarious and she is also a columnist for a newspaper. Here is the link:

Annie and I attended the reunion together which was very well attended and fun to see so many familiar faces. On a shallow note, it was so great to realize it wasn't just me who gained 15-20 lbs over there. Everyone was so skinny! Seriously! I was also really impressed that 4-5 couples who were our leaders also attended the reunion.

The next day I met up with Greg's two sisters who live in Utah for lunch at The Lion House. As always, wonderful conversation was had and a great chance to catch up. We then walked all over temple square enjoying the Fall weather and checking out all the sights.

Later in the afternoon my favorite roommate from BYU of two years, Alissa, picked me up and we had dinner with her hubby. Again, great conversation and so fun to catch up! Thanks, Alissa.

They then dropped me off at my Rotz grandparents house in West Jordan where I stayed the second night. When I showed up, my 80- something year old grandma and grandpa were engrossed in the BYU game and yelling at the TV just like we would do back home. They were great!

I headed home the next morning so rejuvinated, having loved every moment of time to me, myself and I. I didn't have to feed anyone or sleep on anyone else's schedule except my own. And as every mother can relate how nice that no one needed me to attend to their potty and daipering needs for two whole days! It was so nice to have a get away.

Shout out to granni and grandpa Perry for taking care of the kids during the days and to Greg for giving the "hall pass." Thanks, guys. I love you.

What a great chance to be reminded of so many fun memories... laughing with old friends about the pranks, pulled, the silly romances that blossomed abroad and the unbelievable adventures we had.