Harry Potter

I know! It's only been 2 weeks and I'm actually posting again! What's made me do it? My unending love for Harry Potter, of course. Yes, I'm a geek.
I got to go see the first showing at midnight in the theaters. Our small town theater was...interesting. Apparently black mini skirts (and I mean microscopic--I am in California) and blond bobs are the new "Harry Potter" fashion. It was a theater full of teenagers--but keeps me young, right? (or grateful to be growing up.) At any rate, I actually loved the movie--except for all my favorite parts of the book they left out...

I had a really fun time at the Harry Potter Party I went to. We had English food, including pumpkin juice. My favorite was the french-fry and butter sandwiches, called "Botty sandwiches," (atleast that's how my English friend pronounces it.) What goes better with potatoes fried in grease than butter? I ate 2.

While I was doing that, Seth had a Harry Potter Party at home with the kids. They ate less exotic food. They were also supposed to watch a less exotic rating, but Seth didn't know that. The kids handed him the one they wanted to watch, which was The Goblet of Fire (rated pg-13). They're still talking about it. George brought me a screaming egg the other day, and Len has pet dragons outside he regularly feeds. If only we could get him to feed the dog...
So, who makes the best Harry Potter in our look-alike-contest? Any votes?

Rules To Follow When Painting

My friend assured me painting a room is so easy. I had my doubts, and now I see that in certain circumstances that might be true. But not in our house. Here are some pointers from one who now knows:

1--Make sure you buy enough paint to cover the entire room.

2--Especially if it's from the clearanced mistinted selection of your local Walmart, which despite being a great deal, is very difficult to match if you have to buy more, and may make it so you have to repaint it all.

3--If you do run out of paint, don't waste your time pulling out all your half-filled cans of leftover paints, mixing them together trying to get something close to what you already have on the wall.

4--Then definitely don't waste your time painting your walls with the color you came up with. Especially if you don't have enough (refer to suggestion #1.)

5--When taking a break, don't leave open cans of paint out for your kids to find, especially if they are your half-filled cans of leftover paint. That may also make it necessary to repaint.

6--When you have reached what seems like the end it is the crucial moment to be smart, aware, and learn from past mistakes. You have reason to feel proud, despite turning what should have been a couple hours project into a full days work. You made three different tints of the same color finally work successfully and subtly throughout the room. You managed to get that last bit of that great deal of a paint on a lot of the walls and the entire ceiling, had just enough of your own special concoction to put on the partial ceiling and wall, and then barely got by with that new paint (which you had to pay full price for at Walmart, which ended up being slightly too dark) on corresponding walls so nobody would ever notice they were different colors! Good for you! Now whatever you do, learn from past mistakes--don't leave out open cans of paint, especially paint pans and brushes. With three different tints of the same color all nearly run out, it would be tragic indeed if little creative hands found such devices lying about, and then were let loose in such a volatile room. That would be how you make a two hour project into a two day project.

The Car Hit the George and the George Won

We’re back from Utah. It was nice to see all who we were able to see! And we are sad about those we missed. Seth is sad that he missed everyone. And I am sad he wasn’t able to come with. The kids loved playing with cousins, especially staying at Nathan and Dorene’s house. Eliza told me this morning how awesome it is that Emma gets to walk to church. We agreed—that is pretty awesome.

We were able to go up to Logan the day before we left. I arranged to meet some friends at the park for lunch. As I pulled up I worried for a minute whether we’d be able to find each other. I decided to just park and try to find them near the playground. I picked a nice shady spot, which happened to be across the street from the park. I realized at the time that wasn’t the wisest thing to do, but I rationalized that it would keep the car cooler, and my kids are great kids, they wouldn’t just run across the road, right?

Ha—so I opened the car door, and they bolted. Well, I should say George bolted. I yelled at him to be careful and sent Len after him. I should have freaked out a little more I realize now. As I began to unbuckle Clara, I noticed two things at the same time: George and Len were running back towards us, and a car was coming down the road. I yelled for them to stop, holding out my hands. Len stopped, but not George—he ran faster. I took enough physics classes to understand that George traveling as object A, and the car as object B would collide if they continued in their current directions and velocities. And this knowledge caused me to panic. Which may have saved George’s life, because the woman driving seemed aware that she needed slow down a little and watch. She could have never anticipated George jetting out in front of her though. A large black vehicle parked on the side of the road blocked her view of George, as well as George’s view of her. She slammed on her breaks the moment she saw him, but she still hit George. I screamed. It was the most horrible moment I think I’ve experienced thus far in my very limited and inexperienced life, including natural childbirth. =) George jumped up off the ground as quick as he’d been hit. I ran to him, and amazingly he seemed completely fine. He of course was crying, but he only had scraped up legs from the road. It was truly a great blessing from the Lord.

In the meantime, Len ran to the car crying, and Eliza was still in the car with Clara while all this happened. A woman in a wheelchair was crossing the road in the distance and called 9-1-1. I felt this was unnecessary at the time, but later was grateful because of having it legally documented, and also the paramedics who were then able to check him out more thoroughly. Within minutes we were surrounded by police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance—I needn’t have worried about my friends finding me there. The whole park was aware of us. Only in Utah (and maybe only in Cache Valley) would I have found a more kind, clean-cut group of emergency help. George wouldn't talk to anyone though. He just sat in his car seat and hung his head like he was in trouble.

It’s weird but the experience reminded me of Len and all the things we went through with him in Logan—everyone was amazing, and I felt it was a huge blessing in our life at the time to be there and to have that help. Now, again, I was filled with enormous feelings of gratitude to those who were there helping and the type of people they were, as well as for our Heavenly Father who gives us life. I kept wondering what I’d done to deserve it. I felt that everything good I’d ever done had not amounted to that great blessing of being able to walk away holding my little George alive and unharmed.

I held myself together pretty well through it all, but five minutes after everyone was gone, and I was with my friends I had to go find George who had run off (again) and I just knelt down next to him and held him and cried, “I could have lost you…” He gave me the tightest hug like he understood and gave me one of his slobbery George kisses to say “It’s okay, I’m here, and I’m sorry.” Since then he has held tightly to my hand when we go anywhere, and I’m so happy for that. It took me a solid hour before I felt myself stop shaking. I asked the kids later about their reaction. Eliza said she felt like she couldn’t stand, her legs were so shaky. We talked about the prayer we had that morning in the car as we drove to Logan. I was feeling a little nervous about going up there alone, and felt I needed some Divine help. We discussed how grateful we were for the Lord’s protection. I think it was a humbling experience for all of us, including George, and we all had full hearts for the rest of the trip.

My mom made a comment the next day that maybe George’s number is up, after he almost fell out of the shopping cart. I laughed, but I have been feeling the complete opposite about it. George has a mission on this earth he hasn’t completed yet, that’s why he’s still here. I couldn’t get over it, and still haven’t—everything he did from that moment on felt like such a blessing and was amazing to me—just hearing him laugh, or seeing him jump on the trampoline at our friend’s house, just being with him. I almost felt like I was seeing George for the first time. It seems like we hurry through our days, I hurry through each child, and at the end of the day I think ‘we survived!’ That day I spent a lot more time watching and listening, with a prayer of thanksgiving in my heart. I couldn’t help but imagine what our day could have been like if things had gone differently. How so many other people have had such days, and such vacations. There were even several talks last conference about such cases, which I balled through of course. We are just so grateful that we are home safe and all together.