Our Last Christmas Gift

Late Saturday night we checked our email and found our last Christmas present. The senior couple in Adam's city sent us an email. It took us to their blog where they had a video of Adam and the three other missionaries in the city of Tomsk. It is the four missionaries singing on Christmas Eve. It was a great surprise for us and if you are interested you can go to the blog and enjoy it too! http://2for24bowdens.blogspot.com

From Adam

Adam sent us the following picture. We all agreed it was worth posting. Warning...it IS from Adam, and it is Adam's view. Here were the questions he asked before we saw the picture...

"A REAL sign in Tallinn, Estonia. Two questions
1. How long did it take them to decide a sign needed to be made?
2. Did they have to special order or is this a regular sign?"

That being said, here is the picture.

The "W" in Christmas

Here is a great Christmas story! I found it in my email, and I thought it was worth sharing!
Each December, I vow to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations - extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending… Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas.. My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a six year old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school’s "Winter Pageant". I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of the production, unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his Teacher, she assured me there'd be a dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then. Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise.So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room I saw several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song. Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as "Christmas," I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer. So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by its bold title.Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, with bright snowcaps upon their heads. Those in the front row- center stage - held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the class would sing "C is for Christmas," a child would hold up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy," and on and on, until child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "C h r i s t m a s L o v e." The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M” upside down - totally unaware her letter "M" appeared as a “W". The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W". Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities. For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:
"C H R I S T W A S L O V E"
And, I believe, He still is. I am amazed in His presence... humbled by His love. HAVE A BLESSED HOLIDAY SEASON!

Blogging Jello!

Blogging has not made it to the top of my to do list for quite awhile! I have had a few minutes to read others, but not to post one of my own. However, I decided to try a layered jello for dinner the other night. Making the jello took longer than making the previous three meals, but it did turn out pretty cool, don't you think?? I figured that something that took that long needed to be admired so where better to share it than on my blog!

O Christmas Tree, MORE Christmas Trees!

No this tree isn't in my house! This was our second year of decorating a tree for the Festival of Trees. The Festival is a fund raiser for Primary Children's Hospital. We donate and decorate the tree and someone buys it and all the money goes to the hospital. We spent all day Monday decorating our tree. It was so fun to be together and work on this project. Since almost all my blog readers were at the festival with me, I am blogging just to be the first one to do it! I Win!! Now I will be late to meet you for tonight, but hey, I wanted to be first! :) Seriously, it is a fun project to all work on together...many hands make light work! Ok, Jessica did most of the work, but hey, she couldn't have done it without us! Thanks for the fun day! Love you guys (girls!)

Even Jocelyn came to help!

Work, Talk, talk, talk, oh yeah, work...

The finished product..."Visions of Sugarplums"

Aisle G-20 if you go to the Festival!

O Christmas Tree, My Christmas Tree

If you want to do any decorating, I have just one word for you...Jessica! She is amazing! This year I wanted a Christmas tree that matched my living room. When I heard that Jessica was "on the market" so to speak, I decided to ask for her help. She came up about 9:30 am. By 10, we were at Interior Elements in Orem. We were excited by the "going out of business 50% off" sign on the door! And we were even more excited because there was still plenty of Christmas decorations. We looked around and chose a set of ornaments to begin with and just started adding decorations. We went to Michael's and Costco to round out our stash and headed home. By 12:30 Jessica had begun. By 3:30, she had created a masterpiece for my living room! It was fun to watch her work and I am really lucky that she took the time to help me! No, she didn't "help", she just did it all and it is perfect! Thanks, Jessica! It was a very fun day! Here are some pictures, but you are just going to have to come visit to really appreciate it! You're all invited anytime!

Our Brewhaha!

So I am a little past Halloween, but I wanted to share our first annual Witches Brewhaha! I saw a news story about a witches tea that was held at the Grand America in Salt Lake in early October. (Apparently, they were real witches.) I thought it would be fun to have a witches tea with the girls. It was a crazy busy week, but I only had a few days until Halloween so they only choice on my calendar was Oct. 30. I gathered up hats, invited some girls and Cheryl and I had a witches tea. We ate hamster and lettuce sandwiches and newt-egg sandwiches, gelatanous jello, scones with chewy bugs, pumpkin gut cookies and rotten carmel apples. We washed it all down with Spider Cider! As with all meals, it took longer to prepare than to consume, but all agreed it was a bewitching time! Next year we will plan farther in advance and invite all our witchy friends!

Pumpkin Head Harvey

It's that time of year again! Here is this year's offering of pumpkin heads. The best part was we have trained them up in the way they should go and they needed very little help! Woo hoo! And for your listening pleasure, one of our favorite Halloween songs, "Pumpkin Head Harvey".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f97_YNqXoTE

New BYU Fight Song

Here is the new version of the BYU Fight Song. Start practicing because I don't think they will run these words on the jumbo-tron at Lavell Edwards Stadium!

Oh rise and shout

The Cougars are out
Of the BCS Top Twenty!
White and Blue
The Horned Frogs whipped you
And we’re embarrassed plenty!
Now we’ll go
To Bo-Diddley bowl
For Alma Mater’s sons got slaughtered!
As we join in song
We still love you
BUT WHAT WENT WRONG??
We’ll raise our voices higher for you
IF YOU’LL BEAT THE U OF U!!!

Darwin, Apes and Evolution

I have been helping Caleb with a report on Charles Darwin the last couple of nights. While doing this I have made a couple of observations.
1. Colleen Down was right when she said in her book It Takes a Mother to Raise a Village, "Whatever our circumstances may be we can creatively find ways to improve our minds and keep ourselves abreast of the ever expanding world in which we live."
2. Charles Darwin was not an atheist who believed that man evolved from apes and
3. Evolution is alive and well in my family.

To help Caleb, we had to read about Darwin's life and experiences that led to his publication of the book "Origin of Species". Not a subject I would have chosen on my own, but oh well. We read anyway (creatively improved my mind!) He was actually a very curious man who came to love natural history and spent 4 years sailing around the world gathering specimans of animals, rocks, shells etc. and making observations about how these things changed over time to adapt to their environment and ensure the preservation of their species. He kept his ideas to himself for years as he wrote and studied many other things. He did not want to be at odds with the church, or be considered an atheist or prove disloyal to his family. In fact, he ended a friendship because he did not want to be associated with someone with radical evolutionary ideas. Eventually he had to courage to share his ideas with a fellow researcher, who was guarded but enthusiastic. He finally went public and published his book which was a best seller. People chose sides and expressed their ideas in heated discussions. As other naturalists took up the ideas, they wrote their own books and it is from them, not Darwin that we get ideas like man evolved from apes and the term "survival of the fittest". There you have the briefest summary of Darwin from my point of view! As I read this and other information about beliefs on evolution today I had a few of my own thoughts...one web site said evolution is fact and theory. Some things do evolve, we know that is a fact. "Natural Selection" or the ability to evolve into a species that can survive in a changing environment is proven by every age of human but especially one in jr. high!! Some things about evolution are still theory and hotly debated in forums every day. One thing Darwin believed was that once a species adapted to its environment, it would maintain those qualities or physical attributes and pass them on to the next generation so they could continue to thrive. I see that all around me. I watch Romney as she takes care of Jocelyn and I think she is much more equipped and adapted than I was when I had her. Even before Jocelyn, I have watched as my children "evolve" into adults and take on adult responsibilities much quicker than I think I did. I watch Heather and am amazed at her "evolution" into motherhood and handling all that life has handed her and Dave and she continues to adapt and get stronger so she can survive and pass those qualities onto her children. Jessica studied and travelled and adventured until she evolved into the amazingly talented person that she has become. I could write about all of us because I have seen us all evolve into the people we are because of the life experiences we have had. Some people do "die off" or fail to thrive because they are unable or refuse to evolve. I have always thought that each generation should be stronger if parents do a good job of passing off those qualities that they have developed so that maybe their children don't have to repeat the mistakes of their parents but rather are free to make some new ones on their own, thus ensuring the continuation of their species!

Blogger's Block

I just want everyone to know, I am sorry! Before I had a blog and I would read yours, I would be so disappointed if there were no new posts. Now, being a budding blogger, I have encountered Blogger's Block! I used to think, "if I had a blog, I would say this..." now I have a blog and I can't think of anything to say! I think I started out too fast...I mean my first blog was about the most beautiful baby ever...how am I supposed to top that! Jordan told me my blog was stupid because he wasn't on it, so I blogged about Jordan. Then I tried to share a little home economics advice and Tim read it and said something like, "Wow Mom, your life stinks (he used a different word, but it might offend some...) if that is all you have to blog about! Maybe I didn't understand the word blog...I think I translated it blahg and I was reporting blah...I'm not sure. Obviously I still don't have anything to say except I am sorry and I will try really hard to experience or create something that I can blog about...until then here is another picture of Jocelyn to make you smile!

"The Mom Song" by Anita Renfrow

I heard this song on the radio this morning and thought you should hear it! We all said we would never say the things our mother said...but it happens! Everything a mother says in 24 hours condensed into 3 minutes. Hope you like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6P2w5GkXmU&feature=related

A Successful Attempt at Going Green

My stepmother, Carol, and might I add, not a wicked one, unless you are using the more modern definition of the word "wicked" which means very cool, had these bags at her house this summer. They are Debbie Meyer Green Bags (As Seen On TV). I bought some when I got home and I just have to say, I am sold! I have kept vegetables and fruit longer than ever before! My tomatoes and bananas always rot before I use them, but not anymore! Just buy a box and follow the directions! I found mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond, I have seen them at Target and I am absolutely positive that Carol bought hers at Walmart...Happy Green Shopping!

Blogging Lacrosse

I told Jordan I had a blog. He said, "Am I on it?" I said, "No." He said, "Stupid blog." So today I sat down to check out his upcoming schedule for lacrosse. I went to the website, www.byulacrosse.com and the headline read, "The 2008-2009 Brigham Young University Mens Lacrosse Team has been selected. Check the "Roster" for a complete team list." So, just because I wanted to see his name in print I went to the "Roster" and there he is! Jordan Gardner on the BYU Lacrosse Team. Of course, I knew he made the team, but I have to admit it is fun to see it in official form. Jordan is a collegiate athlete! Way to go Jordan! And now maybe he will think my blog is cool because he is on it!

Two Tiny Footnotes!

Having finally set up my own blog, I decided the best place to start was with the best news of the week! Jocelyn Kate Summers has arrived! She was born on September 9, 2008 at 3:47 pm. She is just like her mother, practically perfect in every way! Being a grandma is the best! I just had to show up at the hospital about 15 hours into labor and wait a couple more hours...how hard is that! And contrary to some experiences in life, I didn't wish it was me!! Her Mommy and Daddy were very generous and we had her in our arms within a few minutes of her birth. Scott and Romney, thanks for the greatest gift ever! I can get used to this!