Best and worst holiday moments!

It has been a great Holiday so far! Rhett's surprise for the kids was amazing. Everyone was very surprised, and thrilled to have him home. We all needed the time together!

Most suspenseful moment:

Making everyone wait at the top of the stairs while Rhett spends 10 minutes in the bathroom, Melecia turns on the tree lights, puts on music, lets the dog out, and finally announces "oh my gosh, Santa came! MOMMMMM!

Best Christmas food traditions: Christmas brunch with flanksteak, eggs, and sweetrolls. Best all around: Christmas Eve Nativity and reading Christmas books.

New for this year: Madison attends Christmas midnight mass with Patrick's family. She enjoyed learning about it, and said "I am so thankful for our church that is so alive." We had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner with friends.

Best Invention and funniest moment: Rhett invents the foam "doggie collar" that adds two inches in each direction to Ralphie's neck, and keeps him from getting out of the fence. It should be patented!

Worst moment with dad being home: "I hate this dog. He is the bane of my existance."

Best moment with dad: Every other moment. Breakfast at Cracker Barrel, shopping, seeing "National Treasure 2", snuggling, singing loud for all to hear.

Favorite gifts:

Madison - a soft robe that says "angel" in Rhinestones on the back. Also a plaid coat from pac sun.

Garrett: Ipod nano

Livi: Webkins or art kit

Becca: Tea set, tent, and jewelry set

Cecily: Candy canes off the tree and any candy laying around from the stockings.

Rhett: being home

Melecia: having Rhett home ---gold earrings and the brass Saudi shot glasses from Riyadh. (I'm not sure if the second one is shot glasses or little tiny coffee cups.) I also loved the gifts from mom and dad. Dad's personal history is wonderful, and I had the best time at Kohl's spending my gift card.

We love all of you! Have a wonderful holiday

Potluck

I We have a "potluck" of informtion to blog today - kind of like or ward Christmas party see above. Madion was Santa's helper this year - she just dressed up and did it on her own - nobody asked her! Livi had a piano recital on Sunday - she's on her fifth year and did a great job! Her teacher is standing in the back. We named the puppie "Ralphie" from the Christmas story - it was a long democratic process with lots of shouting, votes, and revotes, even lobbying, until we agreed on the name. Ralphie is doing better today than yesterday. I can see all those wise dog owners nodding wisely or smugly smiling. When i put Ralphie in his crate at night, he whimpered and howled all night long. I put on my slippers and bathrobe on and shuffled him out to his "spot" in the yard where we are training him to go wee. I felt like a tired old redneck with a flashlight - hunting for doggie doo. This would be a perfect spot for a cigarette hanging out the side of my mouth or nursing a hot cup of coffee if I smoked and drank coffee. I thought "I'm such an idiot... than Who out of my friends will take this puppy off my hands, then what the _ell am I doing?" Morning came and Livi and I dressed for Livi's trip to the Kennedy Center. I took Ralphie out one last time and put him in his crate - I didn't know it at the time, but he shredded my pantyhose in the balk of my calf where I didn't see the holes until I was going to the bathroom during the concert intermission! It was wonderful going with Livi's 5th grade to hear the National Symphony Orchestra do a special afternoon program for fifth graders. The music teacher had an extra ticket and asked if I would like to go too. A tender mercy for sure! I sat in a boxed seat holding Livi's hand while segments from Gershwin, Beethoven, Wagner, Joplin, Copeland, and finally John Williams playing "Harry Potter" send chills up and down my spine as they did a program on American music. We were mesmerized, and the concert hall full of fifth graders were a rapt and courteous audience. The Kennedy Center is so close, and so vast and beautiful. I took a program for the year, vowing to come back soon for a concert with the kids. They have a free Messiah sing in , and the "Nutcracker" ballet , also "My Fair Lady" and "Sleeping Beauty" coming soon! I talked to two mothers there who where dog experts, and I felt a lot better after talking with them. Last night thanks to their advice, I filled a hot water bottle and a blanket with our smell and put it in his crate. He curled up next to the water bottle and whining was a minimum! Today I am staying home to get him used to our schedule, and setting the timer ever thirty minutes to take him out. We are confining him to the family room, where he has weed a few times every day, so we are scrubbing a lot! It's worth it though when the kids come in the door calling "Ralphie!" and play with him until bedtime with big smiles on their faces.

Help name the puppy!

Today we are the proud owners of a Shish-chon - have Shish-tzu, half Bichon. This pup is very

playful, sturday, and overwhelmed right now with love from all the children. He is our "big" Christmas present to the kids, and the breeders did a really great job of raising him so far! Rhett gave his blessing, and we are enjoying the new little guy very much!

I might need to have my head examined - potty training a puppy and a two year old, but

I think the fun of having a cute little lovable dog with outweigh the problems. The names we have thought of so far are Rascal, Jack (Sparrow), Nacho (Libre), Oreo, and the original name of

the dog, which is Tyler. Since we have two relatives named Tyler, it seems better to leave that name to the humans. We are having trouble agreeing on a name. We'd love some more ideas!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLEN!

I found these photos from a few years ago - every one of Glen found him with a child on his lap. I think that's a sign that he is a kid magnet. Happy birthday to a great brother!

We are grateful for family!

It was so great to have Dad, Susan, Eric and Hannah over for the Thanksgiving Holiday!

The annual ward turkey bowl was held behind our home, and Madison had to get in and injure her eye - this makes the third shiner on that same eye this year - all sports related, thank goodness! Madison wanted to get back in the game until I came out and threatned her with her life. Eric, Garrett, and Hannah also played while the rest of us cooked, ate the cheese ball, and watched the Macy's parade!

Eric turned sweet 16 while he was here. We went to "Joe's Crab Shack" for lunch, and Susan made Eric's favorite for dinner - Crepes with the works! It was a great idea and one that we will try for our kids. We watched "Nacho Libre", and had lots of laughs. Eric is a great young man, and has grown so much - he's really tall now!

Hannah is also a lovely teenager now, and she & Livi raided the dress-up box.

As a tradition with the kids, everyone slept together in the basement. We've been

doing this since everyone could walk. It's pretty cool that the buddies are all teenagers now.

Having family for the holiday made everything feel warm and loving. We braved the black friday rush and found a few screaming deals, and saw the Disney movie "Enchanted".

Great Visit!

Since dad has always volunteered to watch kids instead of going to see Mt. Vernon, which he has been wanting to see for years, we surprised everyone by taking everyone up to George and Martha's home for the day! The leaves are late in turning, so the trees are still in full, brilliant color! The day was sunny and warm, and we had a great time. We also brought our bikes up and took turns riding up the trail along the Potomac river.

This is George and Martha's back porch. Something like 8 million people come through each

year!

Some of us chilled on the grass instead of tourning the home. The daughers of Mt. Vernon organization bought all the land across the Potomac river to preserve the view as it would be

in the 1700's.

Garrett keeps Cecily from tumbling down the hill.

Rhett hears about everythng via web cam! We love him!

Filling Y'all In

Election day and parent teacher conference day all rolled into one! In our neck of the woods, that means you see a lot of well dressed retired people heading to the polls, then you follow them as they drive slowly down the road, follow them again to the grocery store, and stand in line behind them as we all wait for our prescriptions to be filled at the pharmacy. Maybe I'm not following them...maybe I AM one of them!
Rhett has safely arrived "in country", and his luggage finally made it a few days later. He is adjusting to the time change, his new home, and "inprocessing" to his new work. We saw him yesterday on the webcam. Our words took several seconds to get to him, so he was laughing at something we said about five seconds after we said it, and visa versa. It was great to see him! He and another guy were out in the courtyard talking to their families on their laptops. He found the times for the LDS church meetings, but only the Chaplain, Rhett, and another woman from Utah showed up to the meeting. The Chaplain is not LDS, but she explained that there had once been a group of LDS that met regularly, but they had lost momentum and had stopped. There are over 400 military enlisted members who are security personnel and can never leave the compound. Rhett has the Stake President's number, and is going to try and get something started again on the base. He is sure that out of those 400 military, there have to be some members of the church! So it's good to see that our go-getter Rhett already has a goal and a purpose where the church is concerned. He said that the church on the compound has a guitar and drums - no keyboard and no piano. He asked the chaplain if she could order one. I think I'll send him one from the distribution center. I'll E-mail you his new address and phone number.
His phone goes through a switchboard at an Air Force base in Ohio, and costs the same as a domestic call - that's exciting! Rhett is not hurting for food, but the commissary sells out of fresh produce very soon after it arrives, and their grocery shipments are sporadic. He'll be online next week as his temporary housemate is leaving next week, and is plugged into the internet.
We tied him a fleece blanket last night, and made him some cards. Livi suggested we sign the back, so we did! Week one has gone pretty well! Madison's team goes the State Championships this week, and I think we're going down to Virginia Beach Thursday and Friday to see them!
I tried a new exercize class this week - called "Zumba" - Latin American aerobics to latin music is a BLAST! Try it if you dare! You'll be shaking things you didn't know your ango-saxton heritage would allow you to shake!

Head over Heels

"The Year" has begun today. We took Rhett to the airport last night and held him tight - pressing our faces against his face, and feeling his skin. What do you do when the love of your life and joy of your days goes away? You cry, you smile, you know that they have your heart in their hands, and that they will return to you again - your love stronger. My heart is full and feels squeezed and twisted this morning! As sat in the car and watched for a while as he walked into the busy terminal and soon we could just see the back of his head far away as he walked. It was good to sit and have a good cry - Garrett, Cecily, and I. Madison had a ton of homework at home, and Cecily and Livi were at the Smiths - having fun playing. I was in kind of a daze on the way home, and I took the wrong turn and got stuck on Highway 66 going East in heavy traffic. Eventually we found our way to 495 and the beltway and made our way home. As I was thinking about Rhett and I turned on the radio station, I couldn't believe it! The first song that came on was "Something Happens and I'm Head over Heels", a song that was one of "our" songs when we were dating. I felt chills up and down my spine, and all those amazing dating memories came flooding back - the snow in Boulder, Colorado. Floating home in a cloud back and forth on the Diagonal after a date with Rhett, or seeing him again. Though we married young, I don't regret one minute of it - not one!
I'm trying to write down all the things Rhett used to do that I am now going to do - I won't bore you with all of them, but when I came home, Garrett and I took the trash and the recycling in, I locked the doors and activated the alarm system, wrote a note to remind myself to set the clocks back, set the alarm, and woke up the older kids this morning at 5:15 - all things that Rhett does and has always done, as a kindness to me. This morning when I logged in, a message came on that said "Please remember to change the air filters". Rhett put all these reminders in the computer so I can remember them. I am also going to try and remember and write down all the "tender mercies" and ways that God shows his hand in our daily lives. I know that he is with us! Last night- the thing that got me is turning down the covers and seeing Rhett's pillow that he left, and the indentation in the sheets made by his sleeping body! I touched the indentation and felt it, imaginating that it was him and what he would feel like. I guess I will know now a little more how people feel who sleep alone, and have a little more empathy for the lonely. Becca remedied that by getting up in the middle of the night and crawling into Rhett's side of the bed. I know this blog is kind-of personal today, but it is really good to write and let the tears come. Don't worry about us! We are going to be just fine. I also know that Rhett will be fine too, and that we will grow together as a family. We love you all!

Nauvoo and the stinky cheese van

Cousins at the pumpkin patch! Trent & Sandy have five children, we have our five, and cousin
Lukas (front row right) is Samantha's son.

Watching the Nauvoo Halloween Parade. It lasted exactly five minutes!

The Willard Richards Inn. This is the original home of the apostle, and the location where Joseph and Hyrum's bodies were cleaned and prepared after their deaths. It was also the

place where the twelve held meetings. The original wine cellar in the basement (build after

the Saints left Nauvoo) has an original piece of the sunstone from the Nauvoo temple.

This is an exciting and beautiful temple to visit. It is exciting because it was built to exactness

like the original. It towers over the small town of Nauvoo and is a beacon over the Mississippi river.

This past weekend we drove 15 hours each way for a 24 hour family reunion in Nauvoo! Since the last reunion ended up with a family member in prison, we had low expectations coming into it. Our kids crammed into the van and I realized that Garrett is a very large person with long legs and huge feet that like to reach up from the back seat and tickle the people in the front seat!

We were saved by the laptop with movies. We drove through five states to get to Illinois. Becca said "Are we in Illannoyed yet?" Yep - that about summed it up for all of us! Madison drove for a while while Rhett yelled up corrections on her driving from the far back seat until Madison was in tears, and I was yelling at Rhett. On the way home, everyone had gas as a result of the chili cookoff we had eaten the day before. At first it was "Okay...that was just nasty...who did that.... WHO was that?... somebody better own up...." then after several hours, when a "fluff" would go off, we opened the windows in unison and quietly waited for the chilly wind to fumigate the van, not saying a word.

On a higher plane of thought, the Willard Richard's Inn, that Rhett's brother Trent owned until a few weeks ago, was beautiful, and we had the entire Inn rented to our family for the weekend. We could come and go as we wanted, and the families with children stayed at a nearby home that allowed children. Rhett's three sisters, two of his brothers, his mother, dad and his dad's wife Betty stayed at the Inn. It was really good to sit and talk, to tour beautiful Nauvoo, and to take the cousins to the pumpkin patch. I can't think of anyplace in the United States where you can learn so much about life in the 1840s where kind senior missionaries bring that era and it's history to life. Our kids were really thrilled with the whole "hands-on pioneer experience. Rhett and his mother went through the temple together, and she enjoyed having some time with him before his deployment. I joked with Rhett's sisters from California, who came dressed to the nines in their winter designer clothes, shoes, and sunglasses. They looked beautiful, but were WAY overdressed for Nauvoo. I think that no matter how fragmented a family becomes, in this case because of divorce, there is still so much love and common ground to be found.

Homecoming & Field Hockey

The field hockey team is finally playing their best game and won their regional final last night
5 - 0! Tomorrow night they play at home, and if they win, they will go to state next week! Madison was able to play in each game, and did really well. This team has had a rough year meshing and getting along with the coach, but things hopefully will turn around for them!

Madison and Patrick spent a lot of time discussing what color green they were both going to wear so they would match. I think they looked really nice! The couples went to Red Lobster

and said that dinner was much more fun than then the dance. I guess the music was pretty lame, the lights were on, and teachers moved around the dance floor cutting off wrist bands if anyone danced with too much whatever! Madison's favorite teacher kept making threatning scissor gestures to various couples, and had everyone laughing. Mika and Madison have best friends since we moved here five years ago!

Mika and Madison doing the foot pop

Patrick looked at one camera that the others were facing the other on a few of the pictures. Pretty cute!

Okay, enough already!

Happy Birthday Dad!

One of the fun things that dad does when he comes to see us is play a concert! We love it! Noboday can play the piano like dad. Dad - The Virginia Family loves you and wishes you
a very happy "40th" birthday. We are VERY excited to see you on Thanksgiving, and hear
more tinkling of the ivories. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Rhett's Farewell Lunch

Though Rhett's not leaving for a few weeks, his farewell lunch was held today. Cecily and I drove up! The office set up a delicious potluck Thanksgiving buffet in our honor. Cecily was well

behaved and was the center of attention - except for Rhett. Rhett showed us around his office - really in need of a decorator.

Dr. Godfrey honored Rhett with a plaque and we got some gifts. While Rhett was thanking everyone and giving a speech, I began to cry, then Rhett cried. Finally I was able to turn off the faucet when someone told a joke to lighten the mood - thank you!

The lunch was packed, and people came up to me afterwards to tell me they were here if I needed anything at all. They also had the most wonderful things to say about Rhett as a person and as a worker. In a fairly short time, he was able to touch a lot of lives! Rhett craves peanut M&M's and Carmelita, and older woman across the way give him a huge bag of M&M's "for the journey". She said the carpet is worn between her office and Rhett where he came to visit her and get M&M's. I was really glad to be there to "feel the love" in the office, and to meet Rhett's coworkers and friends. We'll be using this blog a lot more now that Rhett is leaving, and I think he'll get one too.

I'm thinking about this phase we are in life right now - how much fun it is, and that maybe we're a little older than we feel. Rhett, Cecily, and I went to the Pentagon yesterday for a briefing called "Hearts Apart", where we met with a counselor who helps the deployed military member and the spouse during the time apart. He was a kind, humorous man with a bald head (Do we know any other counselors like this?) . He asked me questions that I hadn't thought about before, and we went through a check list of things Rhett and I need to talk about and do before he leaves. We've been doing some preparation, but obviously not near enough. Gary (the counselor) will call/e-mail once a month to check on me, and let me know about all of the services avaiable through the military - like 30 minutes a week in free phone calls, free oil changes on base, free childcare, etc. He said "Do you know where your husband wants to be buried in case something happens to him? Have you updated your wills? Do you have all your husband's computer passwords? Do you know how to winterize your home? Do you know where all the shut-off valves are in your home? Who does the finanaces? Are you going to have separate accounts during your separation? Do you have power of attorney?" These questions were over the two hour period we talked. He offered lots of help and suggestions. So now all of a sudden, I have been snapped out of "la la" land and into the land of "Oh my gosh - we have like three weeks! Teach me everything you know!" I brought home a stack of books about ideas to keep your love alive during deployments and ways to help the kids. I laughed out loud during the book of ideas - Like "Eat together over the phone once a week... Watch the clouds together and talk about what you are seeing... decide you are going to meet in your dreams tonight - whether on the beach, wherever... Wear the same outfit on the sameday .Make a color copy of your face for your husband's pillow case." I thnk a Mormon wrote it - the same one who wrote the book about how to ask for /answer dates at BYU. Anyway, there were some good ideas too - do you have any?
I'm also totally in teen land. I have become one of those mothers who shop at Costco and Sams, who buys six gallons of milk for the fridge in the garage and hopes it will last the week, who packs two of everything in my son's lunch - and he's still hungry. I hear a lot "I hate my life" or
"I'm so tired". I also hear a lot of funny stories. Madison made some new friends in her drama class - one a large white rapper named "Stack Money". He likes Madison, so he wrote a rap about her, and ricknamed her "baby M". Now a group of black rappers see her in the hall and say "Yo Baby M, what's up with our boy Stack Money? You gonna give him your number or what? " She is not interested, which I'm happy about, but every night around the dinner table we hear about different people, and Becca calmly says, "So... how is Stack Money today?"
Rhett and I joke, so if things don't work out with Patrick, Stack Money is always around.
On the totally opposite side of "teen land" are the "three littles" . I need to remember that it's all new to Cecily, who loves to go to the library, watch Caillou, and have mom enjoy these activities as if it were my first time seeing them too! It is all mostly humorous.
I took a break from cleaning to write this, and I am also going through a phase about needing to listen to country music while I'm cleaning. Something about being a down home girl from a small country town wants me to scrub the bathrub harder, I guess. I just think I'm really wierd. I'll send more pictures of France soon!

Paris is so Cool!

One of the many fountains in Paris. I think this one is like the one Gene Kelly danced around
in "American in Paris"


We would really like to get a "smart" car for our next car. It would be practical for our family, and would stand up well against all the SUV's, I think.... no?

Oops - sorry - turn your head to the left - These are the gardens outside the Louvre

Okay - this this is us looking like American tourists, but not taking off our tennis shoes for anyone! We walked forever that day.

Thank you mom for your incredible gift of watching the children, loving them, and helping them get to know what an amazing grandmother you are! They are still talking about you! Now Becca listens because she said "Gramster said she is going to live with me forever, so I had better listen to her!" She also brushes her teeth for more than 2 seconds. Also the ladies at the grocery store said, "Where's the other lady who was with this baby? She was so much fun!" They remembered you after one meeting!

We are recovering from a really wonderful trip to France. It was really fun just being alone/together - whether we were getting lost in the hot, crowded subways, gasping as we saw the famous landmarks for the first time, discovering the sights and sounds of a new culture, and trying out the language - it was all fun. Rhett fooled everyone into thinking he was really French because of his good accent, and they would start conversing with him fluently, and he would laugh because his vocabulary consisted of "bon jour" and a few other sentences. We visited three museums - the Louvre for one whole day, the Musee de Orsay with Impressionist art - saw lots of naked statues and paintings, fountains, and gardens and the Toulouse Le Trec museum in Toulouse. We visited about ten churches/cathedrals, lots of little shops, and lots of train travel. The world Rugby championships were going on in Paris and around France, so we met lots of fans from all over the world. The French people we met in Paris and Toulouse generally went against the stereotype you hear about them - being snooty and hating Americans - on the contrary, we found just the opposite was true. I guess wars are started for less, right?

An Oasis Five Minutes Away!

I know it's been a while since I've blogged - But we're getting back in the "saddle" here. Garrett's friend helped him get a Saturday job at a Morgan horse stable. I know the pictures don't capture it fully, but it was a beautiful, peaceful place. Garrett isn't crazy about shoveling out the stalls, but he's working hard and earning 6$ an hour. The horse shots are for you, mama~ I'll blog more later - it's getting late!

VBS and ramblings from a heat wave

I think we are getting the same heat wave that sat over the western U.S. for a week. Ever since Madison and Garrett were children, vacation bible school (VBS) has been a part of our summer. Nearby churches open their doors to all denominations for fun songs, crafts, mission projects, and all for free. The songs are so catchy - the girls sing them all year. My friend Michelle and I wrote "LDS" on the line where they asked for what church we attend, and they are just like "cool" (Lutherans are generally cool with that). I was just thinking we should all be "cool" with other religions too - just like those women at bible school. The chapel was bursting with shouting/singing of children singing "Lift me up with Jesus" - As I picked up Becca and Livi, a few people came up and told us a "Becca-ism" - The song leader was passing the microphone during the singing, saying "Who do you follow?" answer "I follow Jesus!" then: "Who do you follow?" "I follow the Lord", etc. It came to Becca, who was sitting near her friend Kelsey, the song leader held up the mike to Becca and said "Who do you follow" Becca said um... um...."I follow Kelsey!" To really get some free babysitting during the summer, a really smart mom would go from one VBS to another all summer long!
Madison made varsity field hockey last week! It's a big deal because they are state champions. Madison even got a black eye practicing for tryouts. She and Patrick were outside practicing field hockey with the kids while I talked out front with the Sister missionaries, and when I came inside, Patrick was holding an ice pack to Madison's eye, and holding Cecily in the other arm. He looked very flustered and was like "Mrs. Jefferies... help!" The hard part was that Madison's friend didn't make the team, and she left her stick in our van. I want to give it back to her, but want to do it with the stick wrapped in candy or flowers or something. It was really sad. One of the new sister missionaries is from SLC, and is very shy - has always worked with the handicapped and never been outside her home state. She just arrived from the MTC last week, and she has really been adjusting. Every time I see her, she is crying. The mission president for our mission made a new rule that the missionaries can only go to members homes if an investigator/non-member is there for dinner an they are able to teach. We can bring food to their home, but no more meals. On Saturday, they came to our home because they hadn't eaten anything all day, and had no members with investigators. We fed them of course, and the new missionary was starving. I felt really bad about this new rule, and thought,"what if this was my daughter?" I might write to the mission president and kindly tell him what I think of this new rule. I know we need to do better finding people to teach and strenthen our faith, but we also need to get to know the sisters before we turn them over to our friends. I guess I would cry too if I were that sister!
Poor Livi melted in the heat wave on Saturday - It was our Swimming finals, and I thought she was drinking enough, but she collapsed with heat exhaustion. It was really scarey. The officials closed the meet and cleared the pool deck for about an hour. Our team won by seven points!
Lots of sports going on! I realize that if you have high school kids, you basically can't go anywhere the month of August- because team sports start. It's all good though - I think we're going away for Labor Day, and then Rhett and I to Paris - yes!!!!!

Twilight time of day

Dinner is over - it's about an hour before the first shift gets to bed - it's my favorite time of day - twilight. The sun's glare lowers into long shadows, and we are all home tonight to relax together.

Garrett came home from Philmont eight pounds lighter and with pneumonia in his lungs. He is on the mend now, but is still needing to take meds & rest, and and watching a lot of the "Price is Right".

Madison finished field hockey camp and dove right into the new "Harry Potter". The team camp was at University of Maryland, the "terps".

Rhett has a late meeting and comes home a little late today. Cecily wants to be like her field hockey wielding sisters.

That's our day. We saw "Hairspray" all together. It was really happy and cute. I forgot to bring the diaper bag, and of course Cecily dumped a big load! We went in the back so the whole theatre wouldn't smell like diapers! John Travolta & the whole cast rocked!