A Harris Musical 'Round Here

Gretchen has found her voice and has been experimenting with it a bit. She can star in her own musical on a moments notice. I decided to video tape her from around the corner to catch her flare and pizazz.



Micah too, is singing out. She likes to listen to our church's primary CD and sing at the top of her lungs in the car. I caught this one in the Aldi parking lot.




As far as Becket goes, the sillier the better. It's the first grade way!

Neighbor Swan Song

My neighbors and I had a little parting dinner before everything gets crazy in May. I really believe we were all planted on the same block because the Lord knew that we had something to learn from each other. We are all so different, come from entirely different backgrounds, but relate. I mean, really relate.



Cynthia's (in the middle) due any day to have her baby. She grew up in South Africa then moved to the states. Her mother is from Iran, hence my Persian food obsession, father's from US. She went to boarding school spent summers at summer camps.

Soo (in the back) is from South Korea. She can chop toppings for a salad perfectly! Her husband is doing research at the hospital. All of her family is back in South Korea so she is often solo. She too is expecting a surprise baby in August and I'm sad I won't be able to be able to see the baby.
Jess (other side of Cynthia) helped plan the shower with us for Cynthia. Very easy going and a great decorator. I have yet to see her creative house.

Anna (sitting by me) is moving in a four weeks to Toronto. Blak! I can feel tears. She's been a great friend I will miss her so much. She has a gentle soul and very thoughtful. She is from Poland. We have kids the same ages, we walk in the mornings, and often drop in for a quick chat.

Me (well you know who I am) I grew up in US, out west to be more specific. An entirely different way of life and culture as well. And, I'm a complete, happy mess.

So, I'm already planning when we can meet up again. It always makes goodbyes a little easier for me. "Until We Meet Again" is an often used saying back home in Utah. "Until we meet again, girls"

Flakes From Life

Ten years ago I was teaching 4th grade at Enoch Elementary. Don't remind me that it has been ten years. One day, I had my students write letters to themselves for the future. I promised that I would send them ten years later and that later is today.

I have remembered most of them and my little orange index cards I used to take notes on refreshed the memory a bit too.

It makes me wonder what they're doing. Are they living up to their potential? I'm hoping my letters will make it back to most of them. I hope to hear from some if not all of them. I know where life has taken me since then, I wonder where life has taken them.

Becket's Changing the Earth One Drawing at a Time

Becket recently came downstairs pretty upset. When he's upset, he sticks one hand over his right brow to cover his stress and tears. Then, he can barely speak. His mouth gets all contorted because he is so sad about sharing the news that his mouth doesn't work right. (He takes after his mother). What could he possibly be so upset at? Oh, that would be the little creatures on the earth, ants, bees, flies....they are all getting killed for no reason.

Becket: " Dad, I just don't know why people kill bugs. It's not like they were doing anything! They were just looking for food, they didn't know it wasn't THEIR food. The food was just there so they ate it. Why can't people just feed them a little crumb and set them outside. That's all they really want. And Wesam..." again, hand goes to the brow, mouth contortions start wavering again "he just stomps on the ants at the playground at school." His hand is now pleading. " That's their home! They weren't doing anything wrong."

Mat: "....?"

The way Becket deals with issues is to immediately pick up a pencil and start drawing. Here's what our little activist came up with:

5 years ago, I mean 6 yrs ago

6 yrs ago Mat was experimenting with double exposure. Here I am kicking my other 6mth pregnant self during an impromptu to camping trip.



Here's Mat decking Mat.


I also came across this picture from his med school graduation. It was nice to have his family come support us.


Later that day, we took another family picture on our.....


....coffee table. Complete randomness. I believe it was Mat's experiment as well. Ahh, memories. It's nice to think he just finished his thesis last night for his fellowship and we can get serious about a career, well not that serious!

What is it with MY Water Cup?

It seems that any time I pour myself a little H2O, my kids are magnets for knocking it over even when they've been told where it is. Nope. Impossible. I can't believe how it happens every time. It's laughable, really.

Rainy Days=Museum

Friday was a saturated day of wetness, so I trucked the kids up to the discovery museum in Pittsburgh. We listened to Lemony Snicket. I love the explanation of vocab in these books. They are rather dark, but that's what has us hooked. I'm thinking these books will help my kids appreciate the parents they have!

The Museum has a Mr. Rodger's exhibit, since he's from the area. The kids can't appreciate this as much as we can, but at least they faked it (sorta).





The museum was very enjoyable, minus the gravity room. The room is steeply slanted and with the tiled floors it plays tricks on your mind. It played it so well on mine that I quickly became nauseous and had to get out of there quick, despite the fact that Becket wanted to show me a few more tricks. I'm starting to get queasy right now looking at it.



The rest of the weekend was great too. I'm sure I took some heartwarming Easter pictures of the kids, but I failed to put the memory card in the camera. Der! Why don't expensive cameras tell the blond operators that there is not a card in the slot?

They had fun finding their baskets, we watched an Easter movie about Christ, had an Easter supper and whole lot of Easter candy.

Weekend in Columbus

We met up at the Dawes Arboretum with Mat's parents and his brother's family. The reunion was joyous seeing how we have three children born in the same years. I invited Jocelyn to putt around in my car so we could catch up. (They too are embarking on a new job, so we have a lot in common) When she got in, she started laughing at the two footprints I allow myself while riding in the car. The rest of the space is used for bags, goods, and devices. She too can relate and Tom seconded it.

The rest of the time was spent having some


Cousin Time

Some Ruby Time

Manly time

Some Daughter-in-law time

B & A Time

 Boys and their stick time

Minute to Win It Time

Some Venezuelan Restaurant Time, !muy beuno!

She-ra time and more bronze statue time (see DC post)

Santa Maria replica boat time with tour guide somewhat equivalent to Don our tour guide for the caves in Bear Lake (summer of 2010)

Death to the bunny time.

This annoying bunny has been passed back and forth between our two families consecutively for a year now. We always hide it somewhere so that we can ride home with the possessed thing saying "Happy Easter! Boing! Boing!" As we pulled out of their driveway, Jocelyn mouthed me the sick words "Happy Easter" with a more than usual happy look.  This was the picture we sent her after we found it in our suitcase.  Just you wait 'Enry Higgins! It's a comin' straight back to you!

Dropping in for a Visit

Mist-thur (what Micah was calling him) Grandpa and Grandma dropped in for a visit. They drove the southern beltway from Utah and stopped in while making their way back. It's always nice to see them and it got me even more excited to be in SLC.

It was raining most of the time for their visit. I think we've had rain everyday since the first day of spring, I really am feeling like a north westerner, rather than a , a,... what is West Virginia? A southerner, a middle-er, east- but west Virginianer? West Virginia is a beautiful outdoor state, but alas it can not be enjoyed without the sun. I think the parents needed the rest anyway. Probably nice to be in one place for more than 24hrs.

So instead, we had some of our favorite people over, the Manwarings.





especially their new baby, Lincoln Shane



We learned Grandpa's weak spot when he keeps tickling you (Note to self, cousins!)



We baked a pandan chiffon cake

We managed to go to the Golden Finch and sit on the ever famous hand chairs





Next, off to Tom and Jocelyn's in Columbus, OH.

Conclusion to DC Trip

After we got Micah cleaned up after our subway experience, see previous post, I heard the exciting news from Mat.

He was eventually assigned to lobby for Utah ophthalmologists and was able to meet with the representatives from Utah. He met with Orin Hatch's and Jason Chaffetz's aids and he was able to meet Jim Matheson in person. What's neat about meeting congressman Matheson is that Mat (Matheson being Mat's full name) is named after the Matheson clan. They are 2nd cousins once removed (whatever that means). When congressman Matheson saw Matheson's name tag, he knew immediately who he was! He pointed directly at him and said, "You're Daniel Harris's son, aren't you?" Mat was the only doctor he said a word to and then he had to get right down to business because he had to go vote (it was hectic in DC that weekend with the budget not balancing, remember). Mat sat in his office and noticed an old Parowan High champion flag hanging, which made him smile. He also noticed that he had a line of old cowboy boots. When Congressman Matheson's cowboy boots wear out, he sets them down next to the last old pair and begins wearing the new ones. I thought that was a cute story.



I met up with my dear friend from North Carolina. Bad picture, good friend. It was so nice to sit and catch up and eat our traditional cabbage salad that we use to have for our past weekly lunches. She's the kind of friend you bounce ideas off of and the phrase, "Is it me or..." comes up many times in our conversations. You would think we were raised by the same mother because our thinking is very similar.

She even watched the kids so Mat and I could go out to dinner. We've always wanted to try Dim Sum, so that's what we did. We timed it perfectly for happy hour and ordered one of each of the half priced specials. Highly recommended.

The rest of the pictures are just some of us playing as a family around DC (Roosevelt Memorial, Cherry blossoms, Clemyjontri park, and the LEGO store)

Strategically getting as many LEGOs as one can in one cup.  I'm calling it the LEGO challenge.

Brother and sister fun

Running wild amongst the cherry blossoms

The rowing team passed us by. Oh! how I want to be on a rowing team.

Many moments like these with her daddy

Tricky

Tricky

Tricky

A tired little one

Don't know why some pictures are so large, but all the more to see the dead fish skeleton Becket is poking a stick at.

Gretchen did a whole number as if she were on Broadway.  See the mister in the background, that was one of the many men she was performing for, they couldn't help but smile at her confidence.

Washington Monument

Much love to you Holly. You kept returning through my head many times during our stay there.