Return of The Hair

I wish I had the picture of our family from the Chicago Jackson Family Reunion. It was around 1990 and the Decade of the Hair. My sisters, my mother and I all wore our hair like everyone else. Big and curly. We were "blessed" with curls and we made the most of what we had, let me tell you. We were the girls with H.A.I.R. For example, here's a picture from when I was 16. {Lovin' the eyebrows.}

This was taken the morning I went into the MTC. {Think we're related?!}


But after Lucas was born, hormones took over. Crazy, out-of-control little things that have wreaked havoc on my life. I am amazed at how much they govern in the body and little did I know, how much they affect my hair. It became straighter and straighter as the years went on. So I gave in and began my straight hair phase. It still had curl but it was limp and wacko, so I resigned myself to straightening it everyday.

I learned to really like it. Being able to brush it out and look good as new, and having it look nice for more than a day. I embraced the fact I was older and could use a more sophisticated hair style. Shorter, sleek and trendy.

Almost a decade passes and enter another pregnancy and another hormone wack. My hair since Jonah has been getting more and more out of control. I got lazy this summer and stopped straightening (let me tell you, it got to be such a pain) and now it's as curly as it was back in high school. These pictures don't show the full crazy but I think am just gonna have to re-embrace my au natural, not worrying about frizziness or bigness of curls. I am what I am and that means H.A.I.R again.

So to make a long, pointless post end... I'm back, baby!

Tender Mercies

As I mentioned in my last post, there has been a forest fire in Herriman, Utah, right where Aaron's aunt and uncle live. Below is the picture of their home Sunday night as they watched from their children's home down the road. All they could do is watch with binoculars from the window of their children's' house as the fire surrounded their home.

This was the picture Monday morning. There are charred marks on the house and their entire orchard of 130 trees where destroyed but his Aunt Myrna said the house didn't even smell like smoke.
Their neighbor's home and a half a dozen around them burned to the ground.

It just goes to show you never when you will be praying with gratitude for the tender mercies of the Lord or praying for strength to confront the trial that has been allowed for your growth and progress. Either way, hopefully we are learning faith and dependence on our Savior and feeling His love.

Our prayers are with you.

Terrible, Horrible, No-good, Very-bad Day

Poor kid. Lucas had a rough morning and I have to admit I was ready to scoot him out the door for school. It all started out fine but early, as we got a call at 6am regarding a financial detail from the ward clerk and we were all up a running, well not running, but awake by 6:30am. Anyway, Lucas' descent into utter frustration began when it was time for piano. We switched practices from after school to before school and he thought he wouldn't have to practice since it was lesson day. No such luck and he was not happy. Then he found out he had theory work to finish and then not the 2 pages he thought but 6! Then the dog peed (we think Cotton is having kidney problems. Getting him tested right now.) on his favorite project from animation camp and while we were cleaning that mess, Jonah colored all over the cover of the family scrapbook he's been working on all week for school. Then his yo-yo got all tangled and is stuck in knots, he couldn't find his toothbrush since Jonah LOVES toothbrushes and absconds them daily, and we couldn't find matching socks so he had to wear a pair of his father's. There were hugs and assurances that life was going to get better today but I don't know if they were believed.


I don't want to tell him that my morning hasn't gotten much better. I tried making German pancakes for breakfast but something spilled in the oven I guess last time I used it and the house is now filled with smoke. I let Jonah play in the sink to get him out of my hair and I didn't see 2 glasses under a metal bowl which are now in shards. Luckily JB was not cut by either. He just is yelling, "Dude! I wet!" as he soaks the front of his shirt. (He gets the "dude" from me. I can't believe how often that comes out of my mouth, usually as an exclamation to one Jonah mess or another. I have to admit Jonah did inadvertently learn "family jewels" from Aaron last week as he awkwardly rolled over Aaron while we rested on the bed. Of course, he kept saying it because of the reaction he got from all of us.)


Well, I better go. I'm gonna stick Jonah in a warm bath since his lips are blue due to being soaked from head to toe with cold sink water and the back door being open to let out all the smoke. Today is officially laundry day since I haven't been caught up with laundry for 2 weeks. Life as usual.



PS To help Luke keep things in perspective I think I'll show him this picture taken last night of Aaron's Aunt Myrna and Uncle Jim's home in Herriman, Utah. They were/are ravaged with a wildfire this weekend.

Can you believe that they woke up this morning to see their house still standing and unburned? What a miracle and tender mercy from the Lord! Not everyone in their neighborhood was so lucky and our prayers are with them. To see and hear about such tragedies keep the dirty oven and broken glasses where they should be, just a nuisance.

PPS For those of you who were around in the olden days, the above picture is the exact stance our 4-year-old Lucas took for his famous "Only FOOLS bathe 3 times a week!" speech.

Chocolate & Doritos

The sweet and the salty. The yin and the yang that make up Aaron and me. And the only two things Jonah would eat during his swallowing study on Tuesday. He hadn't eaten for 3 hours and literally wouldn't eat anything except chocolate and Doritos. That's my boy!


Most of you know Jonah is picky about his swallowing of food so we've taken him in to get tested, just to be sure there wasn't anything other than stubborness going on. He had an upper GI x ray last week where they strapped him immobile to a board with his elbows at his ears and made him drink barium to see if there's any obstruction. Super fun! Gratefully, everything looked normal.


This time around he got to sit up and have a picnic, eating food and taking x rays to see how his mouth and throat muscles worked together. The trickiest part was he had to eat barium in order to get the x rays. So we tried liquid barium in bottles of all varieties and sippy cups, apple juice and chocolate milk flavored barium, bread and cereal slathered with a dollop of barium and cookies with barium baked into them. It wasn't until we tried a chocolate & barium sandwich that we got him to actually swallow. And then we celebrated more success with the Dorito Barium Surprise. Basically 2 Doritos with chalk frosting smooshed in the between. Yummy.


And the results were that his "chewing is immature" and he has "delayed swallowing." Basically he doesn't chew his food well enough and then when he goes to swallow his throat muscles don't work in sync with his mouth. So the food can sit in his throat and he gets overwhelmed, so he chokes or he chooses just to spit it out before he gags. We still have to go back to the gastrointerologist to get the final say of all the test results but basically it's developmental and we have to move slowly with his diet and textures.

All is all, nothing serious, just delays in his eating development and we just try to stay patient and keep feeding him. Basically what we thought to begin with but its nice to know it's nothing more. I'll be interested to hear the final verdict from the Dr and if there is any "feeding therapy" where you go and have people feed you yummy stuff to practice your chewing. That's my kind of therapy!


Trying to keep the hungry Disaster entertained while we waited to go in to see the doctor. Even the camera couldn't keep his mind off of "bobbies" and daydreams of formula.

Don't Look Too Closely

That is my craft motto. Always has been. I love to create stuff but I tend to not to be a perfectionist (due to inability and inpatience), so I just go with the flow and what comes out, comes out. I am currently re-doing our family room, bit by bit. I am still working on the dining room but I got inspiration for the family room and just got sidetracked. So, I made new pillows. I finally found fabric I liked at a price I liked.

Here's our family room taken a few years ago while I was in my rust and green phase. My taste is much lighter now, whites and blues and neutrals. Thus, the make over.

This I made out of turquoise canvas and got the pattern from Make It & Love It. This gal is a wiz on the sewing machine and I am not, so it took me a little work and persistance. But I LOVE how it turned out! Worth all the sweat. And cost only $5 worth of fabric and thread.

The pillow is sitting on my current project...a white slipcover for our rocking chair. Yes, white. No, I am not crazy. I am loving it! Again, sometimes I amaze even myself because it is turning out better than ever thought it could. With the caveat, "you don't look too closely." My seams aren't straight, I can't figure out how to close the seat cushion in back, etc. Anyway, more on that later...

I recovered three other pillows with one white ruffly one still in construction. I'll show that one later too.

I know. Lighting in my pictures are awful but I am lame and I don't know how to change the exposure and make it look better. Someday maybe I'll learn.

I have more projects I want to post and now that I am getting back into blogging, maybe I'll post about them. I am slow because I don't trust the Disaster very long while he's awake, so I can get my best, focused work done when he's asleep. But there are SO many things I try to get done while he's alseep. We'll see what comes.

Channeling Justin Bieber

Neither Aaron nor Lucas thought this was in any funny or cute. :)

I guess it's time again to cut this mop.

"Gookey, bus, go!"

This is repeated every morning from a tearful Jonah watching at the window as Lucas runs to the bus stop. Our big kid started the 5th grade this last week and loves it so far. He has a fabulous teacher, the teacher he wanted, plus his best friends in the class. It's already starting out a hundred times better than the 4th grade. They started an art study of Jackson Pollack so we've been serenaded every night at dinner with oh-so-interesting facts about the artist's life and interests. Did you know his real name is Paul but went by his middle name Jackson? And that he was killed in a car crash when he was just 44? Of course Luke has already come home splattered in paint from numerous creative sessions.


Also, in the 5th grade they invite the students to join band or orchestra. Lucas was all gung-ho. First wanted to learn the drums but they don't offer that through the school, then wanted to play saxophone but they won't let you start that until 6th grade and then wanted to play the trumpet, but EVERYONE wants to play the trumpet. So he "might settle with the trombone or something." He's already taking piano so I don't know if we'll actually venture into trombone territory. His piano teacher also plays the drums in a band so we thought we'd talk to her about maybe a few lessons tacked onto his piano. We'll see. Life these days is all about choices. Lucas decided not to play soccer this season and has decided to run with Aaron instead, much to the joy of his track/cross country star father. They run twice a week together and hopefully we can find a youth track team this next spring. Aaron is also giving him Spanish lessons. 10 minutes after dinner every night. Que bueno.


Lucas is smart, funny, kind and thoughtful. He is a crazy, wacky 10 year old boy who shows surprising maturity when called for and a love of life. He sat down next to me last night and marveled at how lucky he was. "I am 10 year old boy, so blessed to live where I live, to be healthy, to have the Gospel, to have my wonderful family. What more could I ask for?!"


I agree. What more could I ask for?

Labor Day Picnic in Seattle

After a c.r.a.z.y. busy week of baby showers, work parties, neighborhood bbq's, start of school, 2 PTA activities, Mariner's game, dinner with the missionaries, a sick Jonah and just life, we decided to have a quiet Labor Day to ourselves. I should have guessed just how "to ourselves" we would be for our Labor Day Picnic in Seattle.




Of course it was raining here in Seattle, so we had the whole park just about to ourselves except for another crazy family racing remote cars. We walked the trails, explored Lucas' favorite place in the forest and got really wet.

Personally, I am not ready for The Rain. We got gypped (That's how you spell it. I looked it up.)out of sun this summer and I didn't get my vitamin D quota for the year. I am gearing up for some raging seasonal affective disorder this winter. I'm already counting down the days until our sunny Thanksgiving extravaganza in Arizona.

Love this little family.