Catch a fox, put him in a box

I looked out the window and what did I see? A cute little fox sneaking by the tree.
Krysta and I watched it for a couple of minutes from our back window and then I grabbed my camera and crept quietly out on the balcony. Click! Whoops, I scared him away but I think I got the picture. Nope, that was the power button. Oooo, here he comes again, there really must be something fascinating behind my fence today. (In retrospect, I'm hoping he found a lovely rodent lunch.) I guess I'll give my camera another try. Sorry to scare you away again little fox. But I am pretty thrilled to get your picture.

The puzzling grass mystery

The snow melted at last and this serpentine appeared. About 4 feet long, a couple of inches deep and winding its way down the hill and under the fence, I thought it was erosion from the melt. Another clue came to light when I was digging in my flower beds. At the fence line was a hole in the dirt about an inch in diameter. While consulting Larry Sager's web site for an unrelated bug issue I came across an article about pesky little critters that are not dormant in the winter. They burrow along the ground under the snow and can wreck havoc in your yard by eating the bark around trees, etc. Hum, perhaps my interesting erosion could use further inspection. Facinating...yep, each little branch-off is matted down and kind of bowl shaped. Puts me in the mind of Marshmellow our hamster and his nesting habits. Hum, droppings in each nest area? Yes! The mystery is solved. Our backyard was covertly being used as a Mouse Marriot.

Draper Temple

We went to the Draper Temple Open house this evening. It was such a nice experience. Because we had Tricia's scooter we had instructions to drive right up to the temple and park (rather than taking a shuttle from a nearby ward house). It made it such an easy experience to zip around and take the elevators. I was surprised at its size, it is really small compared to the temples I am used to. It was so beautiful. It is decorated with such beautiful artwork such as works by Simon Dewy and Minerva Tiechert (one of my favorite LDS artists). The sealing rooms had HUGE beautifully framed mirrors in them. There has got to be a story about how they even got them into the rooms and hung them. There is a repeated motif of a sego lily in the wordwork and ceiling that was lovely and a worker at the front door pointed out another repeated pattern of the log cabin quilt block used in all the stained glass windows. The hostess at the end had comment cards where we could write down our feelings. I think this is so key. It isn't an intellectual thing, you know it is good, you know it is right because of how it makes you feel. Recognizing spiritual feelings and having experiences with spiritual things helps you want to feel those feelings all the time. It also makes discerning and choosing the right easier. We were talking in the car on the way home and asked Camille how she felt when she was in the temple. She said she felt "still". I thought that was a great description.

Staci

It was so fun to have Staci home for the holidays. She works right now for BYU catering as a "close-er". I think that means that she is the last one to be done at each banquet. She manages a team of workers to set-up meals, serve and clean up. She is able to sample left overs from the events when she works and has been exposed to very yummy new foods. Over the holidays she made our menus and helped with grocery shopping and cooking meals. She found out during the break that she has been accepted for spring term with BYU study abroad in Japan. She has been taking Japanese since she started college and has been working hard to save enough money to go. She is really excited to leave the country in April.

Katrina

This is Katrina's natural response to having her picture taken and a pretty normal activity to be involved with at home. She is taking on the phone (I think she is even talking to a boy). She got back from BYU-I, mid December and jumped right back into her job as Katrina-the deli girl at Macey's grocery store. She became especially experienced over the holidays at making cheese balls--a nice addition to her potato salad expertise. She will return to school in April. Katrina also jumped right back into social life here with her high school friends and spent alot of time playing with them.

Camille

Camille can often be found at the computer. She likes to work on her blog and watch old sitcoms and Japanese cartoons on You Tube. Santa brought the family a karaoke game that Camille has enjoyed over the break. She has found that she loves to sing and has really enjoyed being a part of her school's concert choir this year. It is fun to watch her perform because she looks so happy and confident (and the soprano section always makes up cute actions to the songs).

Krysta

The best way to describe Krysta is busy. We had gone to our dentist in AF that morning and on the way home we decided to stop in at IKEA because we'd never been there. (Do we know how to have a good time or what?) While we were there the girls found this "containment unit" for Tricia's growing herd of stuffed animal horses. This is how I found Krysta. She had all the equipment she needed out; stud-finder, hooks, hammer, etc. She had filled the unit and was hanging it all by herself.

Tricia

Tricia is playing with the puppet theater we bought at IKEA. She added the hula skirt curtain. On the right of the picture is one of her Taiwanese glove puppets. It is a hand carved rat bride (last year was the year of the rat). When she was staying at Shriner's hospital last year a theater group from Taiwan was in town for a festival. They came up to the hospital one afternoon and performed for the patients. They met with the students that were in the school and taught them to work the puppets. Tricia picked up the techniques very quickly and has a natural affinity for things Asian and she and the puppeteers formed a friendship. When they returned to their country they decided that a highlight of the trip had been Tricia. They made her this red puppet and sent it about a year ago along with a DVD of them performing their 2008 show. This Christmas they sent her two more puppets, a boy and girl rat dressed in white wedding outfits.

Look back and call it good

I heard today that Flying J filed for chapter 11. (What a mean thing to do so close to Christmas!) I felt a whoosh of gratitude pass through me (that Bruce no longer worked there). In September when they let Bruce go I felt over and over again that we were going to look back and feel like it was a good thing and that they had really done us a favor. It was a worrisome time, the stock market kept falling, the economy looked worse every day. He had 6-8 opportunities that were looking good when the company he is working for made him an offer. It would have been nice at the time to be able to wait a week or so and see if some of the other opportunities came through but we both felt good about it so he accepted. Within a couple of days Bruce found that because of the economy most of the other companies that were hiring had retracted the opening. We were so grateful that he had accepted the initial offer. Again today I feel so thankful to be able to look back and see the promise of "all things shall work together for your good" fulfilled in our lives.

Gratitude on Black Friday

Katrina, Krysta and I went out shopping at 4:30am to hit the day after Thanksgiving sales. Katrina thinks it is a tradition and really enjoys it. We made a plan the night before and decided where to go and what to look for. We don't have a high tolerence for long lines or standing in the cold or crowds of people. We also have the rule that we can't care if we get what we want, we're just going for fun. We got to Walmart at about 5:20. We laughed at the men with big grins on their faces loading their big screen TV's into their cars. We got inside and all the checkstands were open and lines from each one stretched back into the middle of the store. We were interested in two things, both electronics. A clerk in that department told us that the first one was gone and for the second thing we would need to get in a line that started at layaway and stretched almost back to the tire store. As we were learning this we became separated from Katrina. I looked around and then my phone rang, it was her. When we joined back up she showed us what she had found. She had both of the electronics on our wish list. She said that as the clerk was telling someone else that all of the one product was gone, she looked on the shelf in front of her and saw one. As she picked it up there was the second thing randomly sitting there also. It was amazing, it felt like gift, and I think it was. Later in the day I was saddened to hear of the shoppers in a very similar situation, where in a Walmart in NewYork the crowds were so pushy they bent doorframes, injured multiple people, and killed a man. What a sad thing that they cared more about a "deal" than the people around them. That they would feel like the only way to get ahead was to push and shove and look out for number one. What a comfort to know that we are not alone, the Lord is on our side. He blesses us in abundance with the things we need most and He also blesses us with occasional random gifts as he shows His love for us.