MaeLyn's Musings

Several years ago, I was talking to someone and he asked why Steven and I talk differently. "We talk differently?" I asked him. "Well, yeah. You don't pronounce things the same way most people around here do." "Could it be that we're from California? Maybe we have a Californian accent instead of a Coloradan accent." "Maybe." He didn't seem convinced. I wondered if it was a product of education, or having lived in other countries as missionaries. Did we pick up a foreign accent somewhere along the way? I don't know. Another time a lady was sure I was from England because she thought I had an accent. My ancestors may have come from England centuries ago, and I enjoy British TV shows like "Doctor Who" but no, I'm not from England. More recently, Hannah has begun mocking the way that I say certain words. For some reason, when I say the word "about" it sounds like I'm Canadian and it sounds like

I love how creative my children are. We didn't build gingerbread houses over the Christmas holidays, but the kids still wanted to do it, so we made them on Martin Luther King Jr Day since the kids didn't have school. I made one big gingerbread house out of actual gingerbread, and then had extra graham crackers so each of the kids could make their own individual one if they wanted to. Hannah and John worked together to decorate the big house, while Peter concentrated on building his own. Josh was busy with something else at the time, but he built his own small graham cracker house later. Hannah's gummy bear flower and skittle flowers John made the chimney from a rolled up airhead. John made this swing for the back yard Hannah came up with the marshmallow (frosting) roasting over a campfire. John made the window, and Hannah decorated the roof. Peter concentrating on his house Peter's house. I love the pretzel chimney!

The last week of December, I received an email to say that there was a lady on my street who was moving out of her home, who needed some help with the move. Thinking that might be a great way to alleviate some end of the holiday break boredom, I gathered up the kids and we headed up the street. The lady is a psychological hoarder. Her house is huge - at least six bedrooms, (she used it as an assisted living home) and it was FULL of stuff. I started with the entryway closet, pulling out the dozens of coats and other clothing that were hanging there and taking it out to her pickup truck. Next came the top shelves with their literally hundreds and hundreds of  vacuum bags. When I asked what she wanted done with the vacuum bags, she told me to put them in a box to donate; her vacuum is a Dyson that doesn't use bags! That was just the beginning. The lady collects dolls and clocks and pets (she had two or three dogs, about five cats, a parakeet and a bunch of fish). She had a sewing ro

New Year's Day, much too early for having stayed up the night before, we climbed in the car and set off on a trip to Utah to attend my youngest sister (Heidi)'s wedding. Hannah drove for five hours of the trip to Utah. Peter Josh got car sick on the way there. That wasn't fun for any of us in the car.  In Utah, we stayed at my parent's home in Utah. It was crowded with several of my siblings and their families, but a lot of fun. I was still playing with my new camera... Heidi Kristy's son Jared Kristy and Jared John Peter John again Jessica and Peter Marie Heidi and her fiancé, Ammon Heidi and Ammon after opening our wedding gift (and yes, they were acting surprised just for the sake of the photo...) Tayson (aka Jarom) Amber's son Seth My dad Some of the cousins crowded around an iPad. Jared again. On Monday (the 4th), we dropped Hannah off at BYU with her cousin Jessica and she go

We had a super Christmas.       We got up, we opened gifts.            We ate breakfast,                 we played with gifts.                      We relaxed,                           we played games.                               We had a delicious dinner. What more could anyone ask? I got a DSLR camera for Christmas. It is a Nikon 3300 and I'm still figuring it out, but I've had lots of fun playing with it! Hannah had the honor of being the very first person I took a picture of Christmas morning...  John received five Rubiks cubes for Christmas, one of which was a dodecahedron! Peter... Steven and Josh worked on putting together a model engine Josh received. Our table for Christmas dinner. One of MANY pictures I took, just playing with the settings on my camera.

This is what we did Christmas Eve: (Click here to see the entire article by FOX31)