Arrival

God has given deep valleys. A wise bishop once told me if I regularly wrote in a journal I’d discover a pattern of spiritual troughs and peaks. Furthermore he advised that I should reflect on past peaks during present-day troughs and remain humble and grateful by musing about yesterday’s low points during today’s high times.
Nathanael’s birth is a peak, and how great it is! and how humbled and grateful we are after the past trough.

God has indeed given.
Thank you, all.

Birth story later. Much later.

It's a gamble.

As of today, December 29th:



Due January 9th, but after my "visit" to the hospital today (loooooong story) being induced is not out of the question due to my blood pressure. Anything can happen! Please place your bets on NH's arrival by commenting on the blog or my facebook status. No time required. There can be multiple winners.
Winner gets something cool*. Promise.

*Cool by my standards. : ) So probably a book or something.

Christmas Greetings, 2010

To Yours from Ours,

Merry Christmas!

AHOY!

Remember this post?
Yeah, well, about that…
You see, right before I attempted to stitch NH’s blanket, my machine went wOnKy while mending some sweatpants.
Darn sweatpants. Darn machine. Just darn.
But alas all is not lost! I have the best of friends out here in Massachusetts, ladies that let me borrow their sanders, and their books and they get me hooked on yummy recipes and also take time out to finish up my what-seemed-to-be dashed sewing project. And, well, just put up with me. ;)
Thank you, Marné. The blanket turned out wonderfully! :)

I had picked out the fabric for the blanket back in August. Aside from names, I am terrible at picking out things for my unborn children. I just don’t know if it will suit their personality or what. With clothes, you don’t have much of a choice. With newborn boys the trend is always blue, earth tones, sport-themed or patched-on public works vehicles. Not much to decide, really.
But, fabric... Ugh. Too many choices, unlimited choices, and I don’t even know the kid yet. Good grief.


Reasons unbeknown to me, I picked out this print:

Guessing that I figured it was fun and colorful?...
‘cause after the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie {gag}

I’ve sworn off pirates. (Haven’t you?)

Things are beginning to make sense though... : |

After Caleb was born and we started to tell people his full name, an institute teacher (guess who) told us that “Caleb Elias” was the best cowboy/mountain man name he’d ever heard. : ) Sometimes, you’ll hear me sing “Caleb, Caleb Elias! King of the Wild Frontier!” I really do love my children’s names.

Anyways. Coincidently, NH’s name sounds sorta, kinda, like a buccaneer, I recently realized.

He also has the tendency to kick out his heel and swish it around in a circle… making it look like my abdomen is shark-infested. That is why I fondly call him my little shark. ♥

So, for now, the fabric fits. Let’s just hope NH is more matey than scallywag, shall we?

Here’s the gist on how to create this easy-peasy blanket. They are the best instructions I could find online, sorry. Caleb and NH’s blankets are both “snuggle flannel” which can be found in many cute designs and on sale at Joann’s year round.

But you may be asking, what about Caleb’s rocketship kiki? Does that fit?... well… : )

PS Did you get our Christmas card yet? If not, I'll be posting it on the blog on Christmas so stay tuned.

All Aboard! (Updated)

Never complain. Remember when Caleb created towers? Ah, the good ol’ days…
Now he has moved onward to trains. Long, elaborate trains that span the length of a room. I snapped some shots of one yesterday- luckily it was in the dinning room and not in the usual kitchen locale where I trip over the dang procession.
Christmas cannot come soon enough.
(Grandma and Grandpa Kappes got Caleb a train set. Less than 30 pieces. Thank goodness, but shhhhhh… don’t tell Caleb)

Can’t wait for the day when my kitchen is no longer Grand Central!

After Caleb completes a train, it derails into a huge pile...
then construction starts all over again.

Civil engineering is in this boy’s future, I’m telling you.
Here’s some videos, not very exciting, mostly just posted for the grandparents.






Christmas is here!

Count on me.

37 weeks. Less than 20 days to go.

(Hopefully.)

DUI

At my baby shower a friend asked what I was doing to prepare for the arrival of N.H. in other words, how I nest. I responded, “Crazy things.”

This is me expounding on that given answer and giving you further insight into my last-leg of this pregnancy:

• On the eighteenth of October I borrowed a sander from my friend Maria. Let me back up further. A year ago, on a fourth Sunday of a month, on our way back home from church in our separate vehicles. Mike stopped to pick up some good ol’ New England curbed freebies, including this:

It had lounged in our entry way since then until we figured it would be more useful/cheaper as a dresser for Caleb. I DUI (decided under the influence of hormones) that I wanted to re-finish it. Early on in the project, like, after three hours of sanding, I felt like I had been Ben-Rogers-ed into this. Tom Sawyer being my hormones. WhatwasIthinking?! DIY projects should not be decided under the influence of hormones.

On the eighteenth of October I borrowed a sander from my friend Maria. And I am glad to announce it will be home for Christmas as I have finished the dresser as of Saturday. Woot.

Now all I have to do is shift all of Caleb’s clothes into the new dresser, wash the baby’s clothes and put them in Caleb’s old dresser. not-so Woot.

• Speaking of clothes, when nesting I become a laundry nazi. Usually I get two loads done a week but under the influence of nesting…. I’ll do a load a day. This habit has resulted in me buying more hangers since half of our wardrobe is no longer in laundry limbo. I usually make Mike lug a load down to the basement in the morning and then shove it back upstairs in the evening.

• I got all my Christmas shopping done several months ago. I had the presents wrapped last month. I made our Christmas card template, like, three months ago and just sent it to the printers last week. :P
  

• My freezer. My poor, poor, poor freezer. Freezer jam, freezer salsa, Asian meatballs, regular meatballs, Café Rio pork, half a roast, Italian chicken breasts, muffins, waffles, shredded chicken, French bread, breakfast burritos, regular bread, various frozen vegetables, hash browns, cake mix cookies, ice cream, bacon, hot sausage, brown n’ serve sausage, and among other things an apple pie from General Dynamics. Yes, my husband works for a company that gives you a free pie at Thanksgiving. He also gets a free bagel and smear on Thursdays. This, I am envious of.
  

Sure, I could buy my own bagels and cream cheese, but most bagels come in bags of six. So if I bought them on a Thursday, I’d be bagel-less by next Thursday. And if I bought two bags, I’d probably toss the second bag in the freezer which would cause my freezer indigestion at this point. What a bagel debacle.

• Just a warning, do not drive slow in front of me. If you are on 109 doing anything under 35mph, you are ruining my life with your existence. If it takes you more than 10 seconds to turn into a Dunkin’ Donuts at 5 o’clock in the evening, the same goes for you. I’d pay a severe increase in taxes if promised in return TURNING LANES on the cow paths you call roads, Massachusetts. My son says “Gosh, go, go!” when I pause for stop signs or wait at stoplights now. He has begun to repeat everything I say. Everything. Well, that’s not true, mostly just the unflattering things I say.

• I’d like to show you a picture of my bed:
  

This used to be my bed:

But this is now my bed:

The sofa offers me support that my bed cannot. It is really putting a cramp on our relationship… and my back.

Now before you go feeling sorry for the Moose, all alone in that bed. He has been spending the last two weeks of evenings downstairs anyways- working on his project until 2 or sometimes 3 in the morning. And sleeping briefly on our love seat before getting up for work at 5:30.

Now you can feel sorry for the Moose. : (

WELP, there you have it. With the semester and this pregnancy coming to a close and the holidays coming head-on, the Thomson household is on the brink of insanity, and I’m the one driving it under the influence.

{gosh, December, go, GO!}

A Little Be-heinz

Just trying to catch-up.

-Ang

If you give a moose a birthday cake...

Relevance

Looking back I think we all can agree that childhood experiences form us or at the least dent us.
I had a roommate who remarked on how often I tend to explain-away most of my quirks or views through a childhood episode. And that’s very true. I do that. Quite often.

This topic is no exception.

When I was in third grade I knew about God. I knew I was Catholic. My experience and ideas concerning religion were innocent. I remember being asked by a close schoolmate what church I went to and after declaring I was Catholic, my peer quickly disregarded me. The interaction left me confused and hurt.
For some reason (I believe we were studying a unit on holidays or such) a discussion of religion came up, and the teacher polled the diverse religious population of our class. She asked for Christians to raise their hands. I raised my hand promptly. The schoolmate, who had questioned me before, rebuked me “You’re not Christian! You’re Catholic. And you,” she spat at my best friend, “you’re Mormon!”
Horrified, my teacher corrected the student’s assertion, “Catholics and Mormons are Christians. And even if they weren’t, they are still people and should be treated nicely.”

That was the first time I ever heard the term Mormon. In that context. Great, right?
When thinking back on that moment two words come to mind: camaraderie and Christian.

Several years later my family would move, and a year after that, I’d have another best friend who was Mormon. There was little camaraderie and few Christ-like peers offered to her in her Young W omen's group.
(I’m pretty steadfast in believing that girls should be isolated from society from the age of 11 to 17 for the sake of mankind. The possibilities of damage we inflect is sky-high and excessive and we can just be down-right ugly to each other.)

So I began going to YW and church activities with my friend.
My sister married a Mormon guy and later was baptized.
My friend stopped attending church and I tried to keep going.
My sister stopped attending church and I tried to keep going.
I was by no means a perfect investigator or a “golden” contact. I didn’t follow all the teachings of the Church (ha, ask anyone I went to high school with), but towards the end of high school I began to recognize a simple pattern: I was more content when keeping the commandments than when I was not. It uncomplicated my life and more importantly how I lived it.
I mean, I was seventeen and I graduated high school without getting pregnant or addicted to some substance and was college-bound. Trust me, that’s a big deal and an infrequent event in my family. Serious cause for celebration. And although many teenagers manage that without a belief system, I couldn’t have. So there.

I was finally baptized at eighteen. I spent seven years test-driving a religion.
So, no, my house wasn’t the last one the missionaries tracked before calling it quits for the day, I didn’t find a discarded Book of Mormon or have a premonition or grand vision to guide me to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It was quite simple. In fact, it may have been how you and many others were introduced to the Church: I knew a Mormon.

The difference is why I joined the Church…
ahem, I don’t think there’s a set of ellipsis big enough to describe the amount of pause endured to reflect on that subject,
but I will try an umbrella statement to cover all my thoughts:

I joined the Church because its teachings were relevant to my life when I was a teenager. And, I will always be a member because the teachings continue to be relevant to my life ['cause like we say from our pulpits- it's true, the church (talk about an umbrella statement, right?)].
That is the very minimal I can say about that.

(I say this after 600-something words, ha.)

Some teachings that are relevant to me RIGHT now (click the images):

Tackle.

Oodles!

I’ve done the math,
I’ve done the legwork
and I have concluded . . .

that a great Halloween weekend
costs: $11.00

Here’s our rundown:

Friday evening:

Pumpkin Stroll and Waterfire @ Choate Park (Medway)
FREE

Saturday morning:
Touch-a-Truck @ Choate Park (Medway)

Admission: $5/child,
trackless train ride $6

There were so many trucks and service vehicles!
police car, police motorcycle, dump trucks, diggers, milk truck,
backhoe, tractors, school bus, cement truck, etc.

A picture for Grandpa Kappes :)

Caleb being a milkman


Saturday evening:
Church Trunk-or-Treat
FREE ADMISSION

Our trunk

The Kitchen Staff
(check out that foliage in the background!)

We hope you had
~~oodles~~
of fun this Halloween!
'cause we sure did
(11 dollars-worth)!

One Year Ago.

PARK IT.

click to enlarge

See you there!

The Others

Maybe you’ve heard.
You know,
that we live in a

very

small
town.

Pop: 7,902

In 1881, the pop was mostly ginger ale though. : )
You’d think after living in here for nearly two years now we’d know more people. I mean, the odds are in our favor, right?
However, those odds are quite skewed by a few factors:
1) the New England disposition
2) the demographic of the Millis population (there’s slim-to-none women my age with children- this has to a lot to do with the cost of living and some to do with lifestyle choices)
3) Caleb is not in school yet.
and 4) I’m a homebody who lives at the very end of a forgotten street.

Our primary social outlet is the Church.
And I love my friends at church but-

… well, that’s just it. I’m not quite sure how to end that sentence. All I know is that it is a pretty big blank to fill.

So Mike and I committed to reach out to our community more, mostly as an attempt to make more friends. We sat down after General Conference and planned on serving or attending a community function each month up until January.

Last Friday we attended a free dinner and a movie night at a local church. We decided to leave Caleb with a friend, so it would be more like a date night and less stressful.

The church is only a minute drive from our house, really. Caleb likes the structure for its clock and tall green doors. When entering the church I quickly realized this church’s floor plan was nothing like I had ever experienced. It was not obvious. And Mike and I, Mr. and Mrs. Magellan, overlooked the directory signs in the entryway (but we saw them on our way out!). We navigated ourselves through a hallway of class rooms, and up a darkened staircase, following distant voices.

The activity was held in a room very much like our cultural hall, just smaller. It consisted of a stage and a serving area attached to a well-equipped kitchen. Six oblong tables were set up (and I know from serving on the activities committee those fit 10 chairs each) along with a screen and projector. They were showing Johnny Tremain to compliment the town’s Revolutionary War reenactment happening the next day. (EPIC.)


The food was nothing special. And I liked it. : )
There was chips, salad, crock pot mac n’ cheese and store-bought lasagna. Also garlic bread prepared by the Reverend who admitted, “Domestic Goddess, I am not!” before serving us.
We talked to her quite a bit, and she was very approachable, a very funny lady.
I offered to bring something the next time we would attend and suggested I could bring a beverage. To which the Reverend thought I was alluding to alcohol. Oops. We had a good laugh over that once I clarified. And then she told us if we have to bring something desserts are always in demand and that food was a big part of their church culture. I said something like “Oh yeah, in our church too.” And then we outted ourselves as Mormons that attended church in Franklin.
…Rather than the revelation of our religion, she was taken aback that there was a church building in Franklin now, she only knew about the Foxboro building. Our conversation concluded later with her telling us she’ll give us the high-sign once dessert was on the table. And she did. Dessert was store-brought cookies. They were scrumptious.

It was a very humbling experience.
Mike and I were released as activities committee a few weeks ago. We know what it is like to throw together an event. We always planned for 120 people.
Only about thirty people, if that, attended the dinner we went to Friday night. The food was simple. Just plastic tablecloths adorned the tables. Not a centerpiece in sight. And it was a nice night.
It has been a very long while since we were able to just sit and enjoy an activity like that and appreciate the simplicity of it. And I loved (and took comfort) knowing that these people weren’t killing themselves organizing it all.
I think they understand, far better than I, that they were performing a service and trying to meet a need rather than creating an event for a group of people. They chose to focus on meeting the spiritual need rather than the preferences of others. I think that was a flaw for me while being on the activities committee, I chose to busy myself more with the fear of the disapproval of church members rather than occupying my resources on addressing a need. That’s’ hard to admit, but very true.

“Meeting a need not a standard” on a post-it note needs to go on my fridge.

There.
Blogdom is as good a place as any.

Please comment and share how a church activity has met a need of yours

OR tell me how you’re doing these days ‘cause I really want to know.

Veintisiete

27 weeks

Overdue.

Starting at the top left corner going clockwise:
my parents house, the Peaks, Heritage Square.

Flagstaff. You’ve probably heard of it around here. Elevation 6906. Founded 1882. “World’s First International Dark Sky City” so the sign claims. Population: 60 thousand something.
Flagstaff. My home.
It’s where I met Mike.
Where I graduated from high school and college.
And where I delivered Caleb.

Starting at the top left corner going clockwise:
My dad shoveling debris from the flood, a house damaged in Bellemont, the Schultz Fire.

This year alone, Flagstaff has experienced a fire that burnt over 15,000 acres and floods as an attendant, this past week tornados touched down near Bellemont, a community right outside of Flagstaff (an area that is part of our old ward).
Did I mention Flagstaff is surrounded by volcanoes? No matter if the field is dormant or extinct with the luck they have been having, who knows.

My thoughts had started revisiting emergency preparedness last Friday as I was prepping for General Conference. I was boiling chicken and my rolls were on their second rise when – my microwave gave that telling beep! that the power went out. It was noon. Luckily Caleb had a friend over so they entertained themselves.

An hour passed. Then two. Then three. FOUR.

It was barely sprinkling out! It was sunny! Yet my power had not returned. Ugh!
I begin to wonder what I’d cook for dinner without a stove, microwave, crock pot, toaster or grill. I resolved we’d dip into our reserves, empty out the fridge and even eat cold cereal if we had to.
After returning Caleb’s friend to his mother (yes, I had two toddlers in my un-powered house for four hours and it was no sweat), upon our arrival home I was greeted by the flicker of my microwave. It was 5:00 and we achieved electric euphoria. Whew.
(After a four-hour rise my rolls turned out a-mazing, by the way!)

With all these events considered, I decided it was time to compile our family’s 72 hours-worth of food. Why 72 hours? You may ask. Welp, supposedly, that’s how long it will take the government or community to respond to an emergency need.

Now, I have food storage. Lots of it. But not as an investment for natural disasters rather financial. Just in case, you know, my husband plans on getting his PhD or something and has to take a major pay cut. Crazier things have happened, right? : )

When approaching this project I found out there were many things to consider: weight of the food, portability, method of preparing, amount of sodium (which correlates with how much water you’ll need), the number of calories and not to mention whether my toddler will eat it.
I could have researched and strategized this to death and never accomplished anything. So, I created a menu that addressed my two most essential concerns:
1. If my family were without power for 72 hours, will I have a menu to prepare without heat or electricity?
2. Will my toddler eat those meals?

After one trip to Wal-Mart -Voila!

So our family will be getting at least 1,800 calories a day (that’s without snacks or water)
Although I doubt Caleb will eat the tuna, I’d be happy to swap him my Nurtigrain for his portion.
All the canned food is pull-top no need for a can opener here. The tuna pouches are nice because there's no need to drain. I also found individually-packaged "vitamin enchanced" drink mixes to include in our lunches. I figured Caleb would get tired of plain water.
Is this menu perfect? No. Is it better than nothing? Heck yes.
The best part about this kit is that it has a shelf life of three years, so if we don’t use it by then we plan on going camping. Yahoo!

My advice on organizing 72 hours worth of food:
Gather. Gather. Gather. These meals can easily be assembled over the course of three months, purchasing one set meal per month (Breakfast x #of family members x 3), you don’t have to go out and buy them today. I blame nesting for my sudden urge to create these not providence.
Group. Group. Group. Put entire meals into one quart or gallon sized bags.
Label. Label. Label. Label each bag with AT LEAST the meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) and the contents. Before I tell you why, I want to say I love my husband and in no means am I trying to debase the menfolk… BUT, if you get separated from your family, your husband is going to be in charge of divvying-out the meals you have organized and he needs to know what’s what. Plus you’ll be using these kits in an emergency situation, less than ideal conditions, it’s best to be organized.
Watch. Watch. Watch. A movie or an episode or two of Gilmore Girls while you compile these kits.

Blogdom: General Conference edition.1

I don’t know about you, but the first thing I do when I receive a general conference edition of the Ensign magazine is review the submitted photographs. I’ve never attended Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City (and probably never will), so those pictures are the closest I will ever get to that experience.
Instead of shuttling out to Utah each April and October I, like most American Latter-day Saints, watch the sessions in the comforts of my own home. A Mormon experience that often gets overshadowed by the Conference Center, but is a part of our unique culture.
So, here’s a glimpse of what a conference weekend looks like in our Mormon household, in case you were wondering.
But first, please scan through the photos of last May’s Ensign here, so you can draw a comparison.

Breakfast Caramel Rolls (recipe coming soon, promise)

I got 36 books for $11.25 at the Millis Book Sale. Caleb's library is growing.

Ham and Swiss Rolls

Mike taking notes while watching the second Saturday session.

Waffle topping made from peach freezer jam.

Chicken Salad Binge of Happiness!

I would like to document our conference next April too, and would love for you to join in on the fun! Wouldn’t it be neat to have diverse Conference experiences displayed throughout all Blogdom? Probably the easiest way to invite someone into your home for Conference without the clean-up!

(Now all I need is for someone to remind me.
Would you be a dear? :) )

For more information about General Conference click here.

PS I've joined a new blog project for LDS moms. Check it out.