Taco Night

I don't know what it is about the two words "Taco Night" that just makes my mouth water. Maybe it's cuz tacos taste so good, or maybe it's cuz you get to eat a whole meal with no utinsels. At any rate, Anna would agree that Taco Night rox! She's really into feeding herself right now - stubborn kid!

Primary Stress

Last Sunday was our ward's Primary Program. As the presidency member in charge of the program (compiling, assigning parts, running practices), this was a bit of a stressful time for me. There are about 90 kids in our primary which means a lot of them don't get individual parts. In fact, since I am a procrastinating minimalist, that meant A LOT of them didn't get parts. Since I'm also an appreciator of fine music, I threw in a couple of really pretty, lesser-known songs, which added to the stress of everyone involved.

If things weren't already stressful enough, Anna went and got sick the Thursday before the presentation. She got a miserable cold and on Friday it developed into her signature eye infection. Off to the doctor we went. They gave us an eye drop prescription. She also had the possible start of an ear infection. I was given a prescription for that and told to fill it only if the ear seemed to become infected (ie high fever again, lots of crying and pulling at ears). That night was the second where she wouldn't sleep unless held in my arms in the rocking chair. And her fever went high again. So Saturday I ran her to the neighbor's house (the dad is a physician's assistant) and the ear was indeed infected.

We filled prescriptions that day and continued frequent doses of pain meds and dealt with yet another day of clingon-Anna. Kip let her fall asleep in his arms Saturday night while I ran the program practice, which went surprisingly well. Sunday, Kip brought the kids to church just in time for the Sacrament (I had needed to be early, of course). They enjoyed the program. I was quite pleased with it. The kids really pulled through in the end. They sang very well and we got a lot of positive comments from people in the ward. We were told that people liked the simplicity of the presentation and that the songs were performed well. So, procastination and minimalism can sometimes lead to something positive!

I took Anna home right after Sacrament meeting. William stayed and had a wonderful time in Nursery. (He even prayed about it that night.) Amazingly, he never got sick with whatever Anna had. Although, our friend Emma seems to have picked up the eye infection. (She spent the night Friday while her mom recovered from gall bladder surgery.) Sorry, Rachel. And now Anna is doing much better and things are getting more relaxed.

Tonight is the first concert of our orchestra season. The music is good and I hope to perform well. I just wish there were more time to practise. Time when Anna isn't clinging to my legs and crying up at me. I think, though, that she does wonders for my ability to concentrate.

Horticulture In Oregon

Its FALL! as you can see from our changing leaves. So it was the last chance to do some planting in our yard. We had two rose bushes, but only one was producing roses. So I dug up the non-producer and we went to the nursery to get a replacement. While we were there, this Monkey Puzzle tree caught our eye and we bought it! We moved the Bluebeard bush to the middle of the yard, and the MP tree took its spot on the corner. These trees are native to Chile. Its pretty pokey, but the secret is that you can grab it and slide your hand in one direction (kinda like stroking a cat). Going the other way is a real disaster.

RSS Feed?

"What's that?" you might be asking. Chad told me he just opens all the family blogs in his browzer and looks for new stuff. But if you suffer from long term memory loss like me, there is another way... RSS feeds to the rescue!

All these blogs have a built in RSS feed. Most email programs (and even Mac Safari for my Macophile friends) have the option to open the feed and download "new" posts that you haven't read. Plus you can click the link to get to the actual blog and post comments.

So if you are interested, my RSS feed is "http://killpacktravels.blogspot.com/atom.xml" All the other blogs on blogspot use the same format. http://blogname/atom.xml

Good luck! Feel free to post a comment ranking this entry on a scale of 1-10. 1 = I knew all this stuff you dork. 10 = You are the coolest techno-geek out there (apart from Josh Nintedo-Boy Bancroft).

New Calling - EEK!

Kristin told the Primary President that I was bored in my calling ... I said no such thing. But word got out, and I am the new Venture Advisor! That's the priest age scouting program since 1998 in case you were wondering. And yes, venturing is the best kept secret in the church. I went to training yestereday and was amazed to discover that Venture Crews have different uniforms, and awards and ranks. No brown khaki shirt or Eagles here. Instead it's green shirts (venture crews can be co-ed outside the church) and they work on the bronze, gold, and silver badges instead. Check this out if you are curious. Of course they can finish up their Eagle if they want to.

At first I panicked, but now I'm excited. I really loved all my scouting days with Troop 1072 deacons. I'm lookin' forward to lots of fun times with these boys. Our first campout is in mid November. Campin' in cold, rainy Oregon should be a new experience - compared to all the summer Utah desert camping I used to do.

I guess I'm gonna have to get that trailer hitch installed on our minivan after all.

Birthday Zoo Trip

For my birthday, I took the kids to the zoo with a couple of my good friends and their kids. We saw lots of animals. Even the tiger was out for a while. And we had a lot of fun.

The best part was probably the zoo train. William, Emma and Ian loved it and the mommies all got to sit on their behinds with their babies for a while. It was nice.






Of course, William and Anna would probably put the sandpit as a close second. It wasn't bad either, except that Anna managed to fill her diaper to overflowing with sand. I had a lot of fun cleaning that up when we got home. Next time we go there, I'll make sure she wears a onesie.

Baby Doll

Anna loves her dollies. She got three for her birthday and has seriously grown attached to them. She loves to pick them up and cuddle them, then hold them out for me to cuddle. She expects me to hand them right back and can become very angry if I take too long. The other day, she was snuggling her dolly just like I do her. She held her in her arms and swayed side to side. I thought it was so cute I had to take pictures. I asked her to kiss the dolly and she obliged. Of course, Anna-kisses at this point are still frequently more like Anna-bites. In the picture she appears to be attempting to eat the doll's ear.

Chocaholic Daughter

We got some vanilla cup-cakes with chocolate frosting from the Halloween Phantom. William ate a good dinner tonight so he got to have a cup-cake. Anna stopped eating her peas and had a freak-out session pointing at William's cup-cake. So I grabbed one and started to share with her. She wasn't wearing a bib and I broke off the bottom of the cup-cake so there'd be no frosting mess. She picked up the cake piece, dropped it, and pointed at the chocolate frosting covered top that I was eating. I took her cake piece and wiped some frosting on it. She grabbed it back and snarfed it down like cookie monster. I'm so proud of her! She managed to get chocolate frosting on her face, hands, and in her armpit!