DC in Election Season

At the FDR Memorial.

Kimberly and her friends are working hard for the cause

Eating chowder at the "Tackle Box" in Georgetown

This is taken from the FDR memorial. Loved the fall colors there.

This is Kimberly's street, Q Street, right in front of her house.

Last weekend I went to visit one of my oldest friends, well she's not old-- in fact she is 10 days younger than me, something she is now very proud of. But our friendship is old. We just turned 37 and we have been friends for at least 23 years. I think having lived apart for many years now, we are still very surprised that we ever became friends, back in Jr. High & High school. Some things were easier then. We just took Ferris days from school & drove around everywhere in her 69 cream VW beetle. Kim knew a lot about the world and good music and good food and good times. I knew a lot about the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we shared what we knew & both ended up the wiser I think. Now Kimberly lives in DC and she knows everything about the world and the government & politics. I'm still just a country girl, living in Gilbert and I am only an expert on a couple things, like changing diapers and Cub scouting. It might be harder to share what we know now. We still go together about as well as oil and water, Obama & McCain.... or should I say gasoline and matches. As usual, we didn't see eye to eye on everything, in fact, maybe only 3 or 4 things, but I am still glad to see the world through the lense of my "most ethnic" friend.

We had a fun bike ride on the Mount Vernon trail, but it was cut short by the rain, and perhaps partly by my inexperience :) We really got poured on several times on Saturday. We did some driving/walking tours, and some shopping. We ate at Potbelly's-- which I have dearly missed since our chicago days. I loved going to her ward on Sunday and meeting some of her friends. What an amazing place to live. I also loved seeing Kimberly's new fabulous house! She has done a terrific job & has a great garden in back as well. She also introduced me to my favorite new breakfast-- plain yogurt, grape nuts, frozen berries & maple syrup-- delish! Thanks again Kimberly.

Sedona Trip

The kids have fall break this week.  We talked Curtis into taking Columbus Day off  for our 2nd annual hike up the West Fork Trail of Oak Creek Canyon in Sedona.  This is one of my favorite hikes ever.  It was a beautiful fall day & we really had a wonderful time.  Isaac spent most of the time in the pack on Curt's back, but he was fearless when we turned him loose.   We are a hiking family!  

We crossed Oak Creek about 15 times on the trail.  

My 10 Rules

Do Mom's have rules? Unstructured people like me (unlike people like Clark Kent) sometimes try to make rules for themselves, in some kind of desperate attempt to obtain more order in their lives. (Thinking, if it's a RULE then maybe I will actually DO it?)

I was just trying to clean off my desk & wading through my mounds of paperwork. (And if you know me, you already know how much I HATE PAPERWORK and therefore you can see how I would jump at the chance to blog my way out of this job.) (By the way we DO have a rule in our house that we never say we HATE anything, but I DO HATE paperwork, so there goes that rule-- out the window.)

Anyway, as I was throwing away papers, I found a list of Rules (that I made for myself) that I had scribled on the back cardboard part of my trusty yellow legal pad which contains all my to-do lists--(thank you Ward). I know I was thinking that the cardboard part was a "safe" place to put these rules. :)

RULES

1) Exercise 3x's a week (I am doing ok on this right now, but I must have made this a rule because of my tendency at times to take a short break from exercise-- like 6 months off)

2) Do jobs on the right day before 3pm
This means that Monday is laundry, Tues is house cleaning, Wed. is shopping & Thursday is paperwork & Friday is catch up. Now I confess, I'm not sure if those are the right days, because

a. I can't find the notebook that tells me what day is what and

b. I change them everyweek anyway, and

c. no matter what I never, ever seem to fit in the day for paperwork. I have actually managed to skip it for like a month now. (The before 3pm is because after my kids get home from school nothing gets done, since I am just in "putting out fires" & "driving my taxi" mode.)

3) Prepare dinner (or as much as I can) in the morning. I like this rule & try to keep to it if possible. But a new rule, or maybe a byline of this is "Just eat leftovers as often as we can" which also makes me eat less because I don't really care about leftovers.

4) Read Ensign or scriptures every day.

5) Clean Kitchen and Family Room before going to bed, so I can start fresh tomorrow. (This one comes from my wonderful mother who was always so good at this. I am improving in this area, but still need work.)

6) Bathe my children (at least) on Tues. Thurs & Sat. nights. Noel taught me this. Thanks Noel! That way, I don't fall into that confusion over "How long has it been since you last had a bath?" and the kids are at least pretty clean for church on Sunday. (By the way, in the summer, a late afternoon swim counts as a bath! Bonus!)

7) Monthly Food Calendar-- (I confess I don't even know what this is? What was I thinking? Let's just change it to weekly menu, shall we? That is even a stretch, but more doable.)

8) Paperwork and Budget Report every Tuesday-- Oh! I guess Tuesday was supposed to be my paperwork day-- but I had to change that all around so I would go to aerobics. At any rate, I AM trying to do this, but like I said, that is what I am supposed to be doing right at this moment.... so I guess this still needs improvement.

9) Fast Sunday-- make it a day of rest, prayer, reading & journal writing. This is my excuse for not having anyone to dinner on that one Sunday a month, which Curtis, being born of goodly parents, would like us to do at least 4 nights a week.

10) Read with Eliza every day. (I had to make that a rule, because unlike with Ian & Josh, I just keep letting it slip through the cracks & she needs to catch up. I was relieved when I found out that her teacher requires her to read 10 minutes for homework every night so we are doing just fine now.)

I think I might have to add one more: No blogging until my paperwork is done!

Do you have any good rules to share? :)

I'm 7 years older than G & K...

These tide pools are full of fun anemones & sea life.

Shopping in London.... oops, I mean Laguna

Going to the firm's big banquet dinner at the resort

The view from our room's balcony

The Montage

This beach here is so cool. I love this natural arch.

Gallagher & Kennedy turned 30 & they took us all to Laguna Beach to celebrate at the 5 star resort "Montage." It was Spectacular! We almost didn't go because Clark Kent (CK) thought he was too busy at work & also wanted to go camping with Ian's scout troop (on my birthday!-- what?) So I cancelled the tickets, but then his mom called him up and helped him see the light! Hooray for Carol! We had a wonderful time walking the town, combing the tide pools, eating FAB food, swimming & enjoying our luxurious room complete with plush robes, slippers & 17 different bath potions. CK works witht the coolest people & I love their wives! One night we ate at Cafe Zoolu which boasts the best swordfish on the planet (says Zagat) and the worst waitress (says us). We called her the Swordfish Nazi, but dinner was worth it.

(Note to self--who has the worst memory I know--) Things I want to remember: sharing Nacho's & reading Goose Girl while Superman works, seeing Kevin & Karsen Cranney & their beautiful girls for a few hours of beach & swimming, eating lunch at the Greek Aegean Cafe, the lemongrass lotion in our room, meeting Dana Reynolds at dinner & talking religion (she's Jewish & married to a Catholic), the fresh granola, yogurt & berries for breakfast, and flying home with Beth Broadfoot who has airplane fears combined with a healthy sense of superstition and has worn the same exact outfit (including underwear) each & every time she has flown for the past 18 years. (Lucky for her I think those stirrup pants are coming back in style!) Best of all, getting 2 full days & nights with the best husband in the world!

My Favorite Chicken Farmers

One day while Ali was here, we were getting ready to go somewhere, but we couldn't find Isaac & JoJo so we all went looking.  Here is where we finally found them! . . .  If you can't tell from the picture, they are inside the chicken coop.