Another Month Flown By...

It's officially Christmas time! Actually, it's been Christmas at our house since...well, last Christmas, pretty much. Yup, we're Christmas freaks. The decorations have been up for several weeks now, and I'm not ashamed to admit that at any given point during the year -- be it Valentine's Day, Memorial Day or Labor Day -- Christmas carols can be heard ringing throughout the Toone home. More than once I've been interruped during a phone conversation to have the other party say, "Is that...? Is someone playing...Silent Night?" You bet they are!

Well, let's review some of the highlights of the month. Amanda is increasingly interested in sounding things out and piecing together her own words and phrases using the letter magnets on our fridge. Here is one of her recent compositions:

For those of you who are illiterate, this plainly reads "Boy kiss girl" (Amanda-style, of course). Amanda had colored the picture in the background and informed me that the prince and the princess were getting married -- hence the need for a kiss. Wouldn't it be interesting if everything were, in fact, spelled phonetically? And does it strike anyone else as odd that the word "phonetic" would be pronounced "pee-hun-ett-ick" if it were pronounced phonetically? These are the sorts of things I think about before falling asleep at night...

Anyway, moving on. I was lucky enough to receive a visit from my former college roommate Mikkel and her little boy Trajen. I hadn't seen Mikkel in over four years, and I had never seen Trajen in person, so it was GREAT to catch up! I hope that Logan and I will have the opportunity to visit Mikkel and her husband sometime in the not-too-distant future (Logan, if you are reading this, that is a very subtle HINT).



Ahhhh. Just looking at this quaint little cottage nestled among the trees in Midway reminds me of what fun it was to have a little getaway with Logan at the Homestead! Logan was recently elected to a position on the Utah Council for Teachers of Mathematics board, and they had a retreat at the Homestead that spouses were invited to attend. My parents were very kind to watch the kids for a night so we could go together. There's hardly anything better than a free vacation (well, it was a vacation for me; Logan had to go to meetings and stuff).




Logan and me in our room. Hey look; I got new glasses! Do I look smart or what? Big thanks to my little sis Krista, who got me a steal of a deal on these babies (she works at an optical shop in Logan). My contact lens has really been irritating my eye lately, so it's been a big relief to have a good pair of glasses I can use.



Why a picture of this old Toyota Corolla, you ask? Well, we sold both our Camry and our Corolla this month. It's just occurred to me that I can't remember if I mentioned that I am officially a minivan mom. We got a van the last week of September, and the month of October was spent trying to sell our two other cars so we could pay off the car loan. Unfortunately, we didn't get the job done until a day or two after we had to make our first (and only, in the entirety of our lives) car payment. Boo. Anyway, the van is now paid off, and all's well that ends well. I just had to show a picture of this Corolla because it holds such sentimental value! I'm sure my sisters will think it strange to hear me say this (because they think I'm dead inside), but it was rather bittersweet for me to sell this car. I can remember when my Dad came home with it in 1995. Though it was pre-owned, it had that "new car" smell. It was the car I learned to drive in; it was the car I raced home in from friends' houses, trying to make curfew; it was the car I drove home from college in, pondering my future with Logan; it was our wedding gift from my parents; it drove me to my bachelor's degree from Weber State, through my pregnancy with Amanda -- and its arrival in our driveway was the signal that my honey had made it home safely for another day. When Logan's brother got married, we gave it to him and his wife with the understanding that they would return it to us when they didn't need it anymore. It came back a little worse for the wear (it was in an accident), but still running like a dream. With 245,000 miles on the odometer, it still acted like it would give us anything we asked of it. And in the end, it did just that. What we asked of it was $1,600 to put toward a minivan, and once again, it willingly obliged. We made arrangements to sell it to a guy the day we returned from the Homestead. We had left the van with my parents in case they wanted to go anywhere with the kids, so we had one last road trip in the old Corolla before bidding it farewell. As I loaded it up in the parking lot outside our room, I suddenly realized that it would be for the last time. I know cars don't have feelings -- I realize that they are just machines, just hunks of metal -- but for some reason I felt like I was about to take a devoted old dog to the pound because I'd gotten a new puppy. I took a moment to get my camera out and take one last photo. When I shut the trunk of the car after removing our belongings back at my parents' house, I felt like I was shutting a chapter of my life. The chapter where we were newlyweds, struggling students, getting our first "real" jobs -- the chapter where our whole family could fit into that tiny car. That phase of our life is over now, and it's never coming back. So I guess it's silly to have so many emotions wrapped up in a sky blue Toyota, but I think it played a big part in driving us to where we find ourselves now -- and at 34 mpg, no less! I know I'll always have a soft spot for it.

Next we have the Blessed Dinner. The Blessed Dinner has been going on since 1999, when I was a senior in high school. Back then, my friends and I determined that we needed to have a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner (later christened "The Blessed Dinner) because our friend Russell was (and still is) allergic to poultry. So he couldn't have turkey, stuffing cooked inside a turkey, gravy made from turkey...you get the idea. We had a roast beef dinner the day before Thanksgiving, and every year since then, on the day before Thanksgiving, we get together again to share a dinner (ironically enough, Russell has opted not to come the last few times). It was so good to see everyone who came! As you can see, there are quite a few second generation members of the group now. :)

And now for a little humor. Over the Thanksgiving break, Logan and I worked on getting our crawlspace ready to store our long-term food storage. This involved reorganizing, and in the process of doing so, we created a little play area in there for the kids. We wanted a fairly large piece of carpet to put on the floor where they could play with the toy kitchen, workbench, Little People house, etc. So we loaded everyone into the van and headed to Home Depot. If you've never purchased the in-stock carpet from Home Depot, it works like this: there are several rolls of carpet to choose from. Each one is 12 feet long, and you choose how many linear feet you want. Then they wheel over this big machine that cuts the carpet, they roll it up, give you a receipt for it, and you pay for it up at the front of the store. As this process was taking place, Logan and the kids were standing off to the side, and after a moment, I could see that Lily was telling something to Logan -- and that Logan was very amused by it. As the Home Depot guy was calculating our total, Logan quietly told me what Lily had been saying. It's not uncommon for her to ask a string of questions before you can answer one of them, but the line of questioning she had directed at Logan was a little different this time: "What Jesus doing? Jesus roll the carpet? Jesus cut the carpet? Jesus make my bed? (Don't really know where this one came from)." The fact that the guy who was helping us had a beard was enough to convince Lily that he was Jesus. Her questions continued (quietly) as he thanked us for our business and directed us to the front of the store. As we pushed our cart away, however, her gratitude overwhelmed her and she sang out (not quietly), "THANK YOU, JESUS!" -- while waving vigorously. Jesus, a guy named Lou in an orange apron -- apparently, it's all the same to Lily. Anyway, here's a photo of the play area (not nearly as interesting as the story behind the carpet).