No, there is too much, let me sum up

Since last I left you, life has been a whirlwind. From Aspen Grove we went to San Francisco, where Uchenna had a conference and I bummed around; then our friends, with their two boys (ages 5 and 2), came for a week; then we started the process of preparing our house to sell; then we started house hunting; and then . . . . (deeeep breath). Shwew!

But first, San Francisco.

(in front of Golden Gate Bridge--with our very necessary warm sweatshirts)

We were sure glad we'd bought sweatshirts in Utah, because California was even colder than the mountains had been--in a wet, misty sort of way. That, along with the terrible cough I picked up in Utah, kept me from doing as much as I wanted. But I'm sure I went out more than maybe I should have.

(the view out our window--with Pier One, and the Bay Bridge on the right)

The hotel--the Hyatt Regency--was pretty fabulous, with monumental architecture right behind Pier One. Also, I loved the little street-car train. We took it up to Fisherman's Wharf area almost every day.

(the inside of the hotel, rising 17 stories)

One time I tried going in the other direction, out to Golden Gate Park, but I accidentally got on a bus instead and ended up in a place I don't think I was supposed to be. It was okay--I had a transfer, so I got off and took the next bus back. But I never did get out to Golden Gate Park.

(looking down on the green street-car train we often took; I don't know the point of the owl)

We ate in China Town and at Pier 39, with the week's menu full of fish. Even at the big banquet, which was my part of the Conference, we chose the salmon. The banquet was multiple courses and pretty amazing, and who knew a bunch of chemical engineers could be so funny. We also bought chocolate at Ghirardelli Square, supposedly as gifts for friends back in Ponca City. But I ate most of it, so there was only enough left to give as a thank-you to the family that mowed our lawn while we were away.

Of course we rode the cable car--although Uchenna wasn't quite as taken with the iconic experience as I thought he should be.

(Uchenna after our ride in the cable car)

And we took pictures in front of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. So I think we got the SanFran experience. Next time we're out there, we'll actually go across the bridge and we'll take the boat to The Rock.

(A blustery day at the beach, with Alcatraz behind us, just before the wind blew off my hat)

The big trip, part 1 (Aspen Grove)

I wish I'd taken more pictures! One, now I need to rely on all you photo hounds to post your shots so I can unabashadly steal them (thanks to those of you who have started).

And two, I don't have shots of all the friends we met up with in Provo and Orem. We really worked to squeeze them all in--from my UVSC colleagues and Uchenna's BYU research group that we saw on Wednesday, to former roommates and our Country Springs Branch family that we saw Saturday and Sunday. Plus we stayed with our good friend, Eugene, before and after the reunion.

You can't help but feel warm and fuzzy about people who seem so glad to see you, and I wish I had pictures to capture the moment. Ah well, I was too busy enjoying the moment to whip out the camera.

Anyway, we started our trip by leaving our car at the Mistubishi dealership in Tulsa. We had to get new tires and some other maintenance, and they said we could leave the car there rather than paying to park it at the airport. They shuttled us to the airport and back. Pretty handy. Okay, maybe the cost of airport parking would've been a lot less than the $700 we spent on maintenance, but we had to get the stuff done, regardless.

Once we got to Utah, we got to work visiting people, as I mentioned. Actually, it was a good thing we spent a little time at BYU Wednesday afternoon, because Utah was surprisingly chilly. We had packed for the weather in Oklahoma, which has been HOT. It is summer, after all. But when Provo was fairly cool, we knew we'd be in trouble up in the mountains. So at BYU I bought school sweatshirts. As Jason said, that's why we looked so school-spirited.

By the way, here's a grateful shout-out to all those who gave us rides. Hilary and Kojo Davis took us from the airport to Provo; Eugene shuttled us around town; Aaron Nakkos drove us up to Aspen Grove and back to the airport. You guys are all lifesavers! And an extra-special thank you to the incredibly kind people in our Ponca City ward--Steve and Barbara Wood--who mowed our lawn while we were gone. You know how this Oklahoma grass can go crazy.

Of course Aspen Grove was a highlight of the year. Since you were there, I don't think I need to recap everything. I'll just say that while I didn't get much better at bad minton, I think I did improve my ping pong skills.

We loved meeting the new kids on our family block. I felt like I knew Anna, since she's the star of the De Marco blog, but turns out you can't just know someone from their pictures and anecdotes. Plus, I know this is a cliche, but I can't believe how all the kids are growing up. Time really marches on--which is basically its job, I guess.

And we really enjoyed seeing everyone in person. The phone is great for chatting, but there's no real substitute to being able to see and hug the people you care about, and talk and laugh all together in a large group, and converse casually over meals or while waiting for the ropes course. Ahh, family reunions--and we didn't even have to do the dishes.

Thanks to Grandpa, for bringing us all together, and to Mom for doing the leg work, and to all who worked behind the scenes. Thank you, thank you.

Coming attractions: Part 2 of the Big Trip--San Francisco!

How Mother's Day should be

This year Uchenna wanted to make Mother's Day special for me, so he seriously went all out: spa treatment, Baby!

Yes, he signed me up for an afternoon at our local day spa.

First, the massage. When I was in Provo, I went a couple of times to the massage therapy school in Lindon. The advanced students there conduct a clinic on Saturdays. It's nice, if little discount and, well, clinical.

This massage was a completely different experience. I don't know what the room looked like, since it was dark except for a couple of dim table lamps, but I got a sense of plants, chairs and side tables, other hinted-at decor. And gosh the lotion she used smelled good. Of course soft music. The place is called "All That Jazz," so Uchenna figured they'd be playing smooth jazz the whole time, but it was mostly Enya.

As much as I loved the massage itself, the best part was afterwards. The girl said, "Just relax, take your time, and come out when you're ready." If you get a massage, prepare yourself for the after-effects; post-massage zoning out is complete zen.

From there I went to the pedicure-manicure room, which was bright and sunny, with more plants and more Enya. And lots of towels. I think they went through an entire wash-load of towels just on me. They had a little feet-sized jet tub, exfoliating scrub, hot parafin, and more foot- and hand-massaging. And they painted my fingernails and toenails. Why have I never thought to paint my toe nails bright red before?

Then there was the facial. I had something over my eyes--no, not cucumber slices, just mini sunglasses--so I couldn't see what was going on. But after a 10-minute facial mask that made my skin tingle (I couldn't see my watch, but the lady said, "I'll be back in 10 minutes"), I felt another odd sensation. I thought, "Is she vacuuming my face?" I am not making this up. The lady ran a little suction wand all over my face. I don't know the point of that, but I'm sure it was beautifying.

Finally I got a hair cut. Uchenna said, "Well, I thought I'd better get the full package because I knew you needed a haircut." And I said, Okay! We explored their web site afterwards and found all kinds of funky things they do--sauna and hot rocks and what-not--but I didn't feel I needed any of that. This was about as much pampering as I could absorb. Ahhhh!

Note: Uchenna suggested I take pictures to post on this blog. Of course, pictures were only feasible during the pedicure, and while I didn't bring my camera, I did have my cell phone. Anyway, as soon as I can figure out how to get them from my phone to the computer, you can see the blurry cell-phone pictures of some happy feet.

Food Storage--it's about time

(Our official food storage cupboard at the end of the hall--it's a start)

We figure we have no excuse to put off food storage any longer. We can't blame it on a little apartment with no space, for instance. In fact we have built-in shelves and cabinets that are half empty. Imagine.

Then, in the March Ensign we read the article, "Family Home Storage: A New Message." We like their approach--skip all the plastic barrels of wheat and instead build up a store of what you always eat anyway, first a month's worth, then three months, and so on. As Uchenna said, food storage has now become like the Word of Wisdom, "adapted to the weak and the weakest of Saints." That's us.

A couple of weeks ago when we had a doctor's appointment in Oklahoma City, we also scheduled a trip to Sam's Club to start our food storage officially. I've tried buying extra food from time to time, but we always end up eating it. This time, though, we made a list. Actually, we went to the Sam's Club website and made a huge master list of all the store-able food we wanted, which would have cost huge amounts. But then we remembered we were doing this in easy stages, so we pared it way back.

Then I forgot the list.

There's a reason for that. The weather forecast was scary, and we wondered if we should make the trip at all. We hate being caught on the road with big wind and rain and possibly hail and tornadoes. But these appointments can take months to get, so we figured we'd run down and run back as quickly as possible. No stop-offs. That's why I didn't bring the list.

Once we were done with the doctor, though, the forecasted storm had been pushed back. As we stopped for lunch, we called a couple of friends from our ward and asked them to check the radar on weather.com, one of our most visited sites. They said we probably had a couple of hours, so we dashed around Sam's Club grabbing the things we thought were on our list. We ended up spending more than we'd intended after all our careful planning, but it's all good. And less than an hour after we got home, places along our road--like Marlan and Perry--got hit with tornado warnings and hail. Shwew!

The next weekend we labled and organized. We put little stickers on all our food items with the date that we bought it. We also added to our list (which we still had, right where I had left it) important information like quantities on hand and expiration dates. I'm glad we took note of that, because some expirations come up pretty quickly; besides building up our small store of food, we're going to have to do some rapid rotating.

And finally, today we received our order of wheat from the cannery. Yes, really--wheat. Just six #10 cans, but hey, it's a start.

A lovely quiet Easter

Uchenna says that back home, the whole country gets off for both Good Friday and Easter Monday, which makes for a great holiday. So he felt a little gipped this year only getting off Good Friday. I was surprised they even got that one day off. I never have, not from work.

We figured we didn't want to spend three days hanging around the house, so we jumped in the car and headed to Oklahoma City. Our main purpose was to go to the temple, which seemed appropriate for Easter. Apparently half the temple district had the same thought; I've never seen that little parking lot so packed.

Anyway, we went down Friday night, did a session, and stayed at a hotel. The next morning we took our time waking up, went to the temple again, then went for lunch, found some things we just had to buy, and headed home. We didn't even have to race the weather and try to get home before a storm let loose. Easy-peasy.

We've decided we like staying over, rather than trying to cram the temple and all that driving into one day. Also, with a hotel, you have a kind of home base or staging area, so you don't have to show up to the temple all tired out already and you have a place to rest afterwards. It makes for a much more pleasant, relaxed experience.

Of course it can start to add up if you try to do that every month. Because besides paying for a hotel, we also feel like we need to eat at a nice-ish place, a restaurant we don't have here in town. And when we go to a town with real stores, we feel a great need to buy something that we can't find here. So you gotta watch out for that.

On Sunday, our friends, the Meldrums, invited us and another family over for dinner, so that was festive. They had chicken and salmon. I think since ham isn't an option for us, salmon should become our traditional Easter feast. We quite like fish and don't have it all the time. Ta-duh--holiday meal tradition right there.

Here's to the water diggers

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit Josh and Megan's family. Besides being fun, I think it was good for me to spend time with a lively, energetic family. I need that reality check once in a while. Kids look so cute from afar. Actually, they're darned cute upclose, too, but idealizing is not healthy.

You know how sometimes you think, I swear I just mopped the kitchen floor/vacuumed the car/organized the bills (fill in dreaded or repetitive task of your choice) only last week/last month/this morning. It's like trying to dig a hole in the water.

Well, if I feel like that in my quiet house, mothers must feel like they're digging in a rushing river.

And they're doing it on sleep deprivation. I sometimes forget that even after kids sleep through the night, they don't really. They get sick, or have bad dreams, or just get too hot. Then they call 9-1-1, or in other words cry until you come take care of them.

You know how there's opposition in all things? I think one of the main forces of that opposition is entropy, woven right into the fabric of the universe. Normally, of course, it's a passive force. Things just drift towards disorder. But as Troy says, kids are entropy incarnate. I'd say they're active agents of the disordering force. They rush the world towards disorder.

I guess moms (and dads) adjust to this demanding, revved up life. After all, as Mom says, generally kids come one at a time. And remember another scripture: out of small things (kids are small, and making dinner or changing diapers are small things), great things come to pass.

I knew all these things before, but I needed the reminder. So here's a big, encouraging shout-out to all the water diggers. I think you're doing a great work.

P.S. As a newsy side note, the visit was one day shorter than we had planned. A huge, late-winter storm blew through the D.C. area on Monday.

Uchenna was looking out for me, though, and paid attention to the weather reports. When it looked scary he prodded me to call the airline and see what the options were. They moved my ticket to the next day, under the "weather waiver," so it didn't cost extra to change it. Pretty neat, huh? Though, like I said, I did have to give up one day of visiting.

Another example of Uchenna looking out for me: he had a very welcoming dinner prepared when I got home. He knew I'd be tired after a day of flying and two hours of driving. It's good to be loved.

The trouble with surges

That nice big surge protector we got for the fridge is resting on the floor behind the fridge, and I'm wondering if I should mount it on the wall.

I can almost hear you saying: The what for the huh?

That's what we said, too, originally. We ordered the fridge when we were still in Utah, staying with our friends, the Andersons. Sis. Anderson said to be sure to get a surge protector. Umm, okay, we said, but then we didn't.

But remember the oven ordeal? It had a fried control board, which is what caused the trouble.

Then, exactly one week after we got the oven fixed, the heater stopped heating. Brrrr! The temperature fluctuates wildly around these parts, and that happened to be a cold week, in the 20s. Fortunately the repair guys came just a couple of hours after I called them, and scouted around.

Turned out, the trouble was a fried control board. Really, it had this one scorched spot, just like the oven's control board. Hmmm, I see a pattern developing here.

In fact, the oven repair guy had mentioned that the city had recently (within the past couple of years) worked on the electrical lines up at this end of town because they'd had trouble with power failures, power surges, and other power issues. Great. But if the city fixed the problem, why are things breaking down now? And, what else in the house has a control board with potential for frying?

So we remembered our friend's advice and put in some protection for the fridge, anyway. Can you get a surge protector for the whole house?