Great Birthday

Ken and I were in Ohio for my birthday this year. We went because Bob was getting his Master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering. It just happened that my birthday was the day before his graduation. Everyone treated me royally all day long. Bob is a runner, but he walked with me for my exercise. They treated me to a total body massage at the gym on base that felt great. And Bob made a terrific dinner that evening. He made smothered chicken (at my request), fried and boiled yucca (Bob's idea), carrots, and a wonderful dessert made of a homemade puff pastry in a wonderful custard.

It was wonderful to see O and the grandkids again too. I am proud of them all for their accomplishments.

Adventures with 5-year olds

I had the rare opportunity to spend a day with J and N on Friday. If I was to sum it up, I can truly say it was a great day. We got up early so we could go to breakfast with C&P. I thought 5-year olds automatically woke up fairly early, like 6 or 7 a.m. However, I had to wake them up to go to breakfast. N woke up pretty readily, but I think J would have preferred to roll over and go back to sleep. During the day I had a chance to notice differences and similarities in kids. At breakfast (and at all other meals through the day for that matter), I noticed that J eats SLOWLY, and N eats fast. We may have rushed J to end breakfast before she was done, because as soon as we started out for SLC she announced that she was hungry. I’m not sure if she was actually hungry or if she just knew that we had packed a lunch for later on. However, when I told her she couldn’t possibly be hungry yet, she assured me she was. Since I was driving at the time though, she had to wait.

We had originally planned to meet Mountain in SLC because she had a membership for the Children’s Museum and we could go as her guests, but when we tried to call her she didn’t hear her phone ring so we never quite met up. However, after having lunch (so that J wouldn’t starve) we did go to the Planetarium. The kids claim they enjoyed it. Then I decided it would be best to go to the Treehouse Children’s Museum in Ogden so that we would be closer to home and not have to battle the evening rush hour traffic later on. I let the kids eat the fish crackers on the way to Ogden and they both thanked me because their mom NEVER lets them eat in the car (sorry Timber).

It was at the Children’s museum that I started really noticing the two darlings. When we got to the museum, N had to bring his notebook in and write in it before he wanted to play with anything in the museum. He let me read some of what he wrote and he is really quite amazing for 5-year old. Sometimes it takes a minute to decipher what he has written, because he has some creative spelling, but he writes really well. Like I say, I am really impressed!

I noticed that 5-year-olds have a strong sense of right and wrong as far as the other person is concerned. One of the activities at the museum was an art project that kids could do. They color in some pictures of the Three Pigs story, cut them out, and then tape the pictures to sticks to make puppets. They got to the art room before me and J came running back to tell me that there were scissors there and N cannot use scissors. (Sorry again Timber but since I was there to supervise, I let him use scissors). In art projects, N colors very precisely within the lines and has specific color schemes. Then he cuts out very precisely on the lines. J, on the other hand, scribbles the colors in the general area, not worrying about staying in lines, and cuts out the same way. She just wants to do it fast! J tends to go quickly from one activity to the next very quickly, but she likes to do things with other kids who are playing. N tends to not go too far from me and likes to make sure I don’t go away for very long before he comes looking.

On the way home I asked if they wanted hamburgers for dinner and they announced they wanted Pizza. So we went to Papa Murphy’s. They also got to watch Ice Age when we got home.

As good as they were throughout the day, I was very tired at the end. Oh yes, having children is for the young.

2011

It is a New Year and time to evaluate the accomplishments of the past year, and then set some goals for the coming year. I vacillate between wanting to write something in detail (which means taking forever to do it and putting it off again and again), or just writing something real quick (and skipping a lot of the stuff). Decisions, Decisions.

I think I’ll start with a brief outline of things I did during this past year. Hopefully I will get to more detail later.

Master gardener class and 60+ volunteer hours
Voice lessons
Singing in Master Chorale for Christmas concert
Work at ORMC
Teach classes at WSU
Teach RS lessons
CERT training
Visit D&O and N&T

My Christmas Letter

Dear Family,
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and whatever other greeting you like.
What a great time to be alive! We feel so lucky to have been associated with each of you. When we reach the end of a year we always look back at the highlights of that year and we notice the good times are with family and friends.
At times we feel sorry that all of our children live such long distances from us. Then we rejoice that they have job and schooling opportunities that help to support and build better lives for them.
At times we are irritated that we can’t go everywhere we want when we want to. Then we rejoice that we have jobs that help us support ourselves and live in a nice (paid for) house, drive good (paid for) cars and can plan trips to see our children in their various places of abode.
We enjoyed doing things with C and P the first part of the year until they moved to Kirksville Missouri for P to attend medical school. P says studying takes all the time he has. C feels lucky she got a job working in a pharmacy there. They still have their cats Allta and Diego, but no grandkids yet.
Lynne was able to go to Nashville and drive back to Utah with A when she got her dream job in Rexberg Idaho. She also got to go up to Idaho Falls and spend Thanksgiving with A (Ken had to work). A has been down this way for various reasons quite often the past couple of months, but hopes to not have to travel the icy roads that much after the new year.
The first week in December we were blessed to be able to go to El Paso to see J baptized and our newest grandchild, W, blessed. It was great to see how well they are all doing in El Paso.
In April we were able to visit D and O’s family in Dayton to see T baptized. We felt so loved and accepted and we loved every minute of it.
Our Soderborg family parties and sibling dinners are things that we always look forward to.
Thanks so much for being such a great family.

Thirty Six Years

Ken and I have been married for 36 years today! It is rather interesting to think about all that has happened in that time. Four wonderful children and 3 wonderful in-laws and 6 wonderful grandchildren are the best part of our years together. I couldn't ask for a better pal and partner than Ken. He has a goal to make sure he tells me he loves me every single day and I do believe he has. He doesn't criticize me or try to belittle me--ever. He tells people how wonderful he thinks I am and makes me feel like a queen. I love him with all my heart and I am so glad we have been able to face our trials together. I hope we have many more years together.

Black Friday

Have you ever had a time when you look at yourself in a situation and you say to yourself--"Why am I here?" or "What made me decide this was a good idea?"
Well, this morning was just such a day for me. I got up at 2:40 a.m. to get ready to get in line in sub-zero temps outside of Target because I wanted a GPS and "A" wanted a Wii and a camera. The store opened at 4 a.m. so of course people started lining up before 3 a.m. I wore my PJ bottoms under my levi's, a shirt then a sweatshirt, then my coat, a scarf, 2 pair of gloves, 3 pair of sox inside boots plus leg warmers, ear pops and the hood on my coat. Then I heated my bag of flax seed that I use to warm my feet at night and held it to help keep my hands ward. My toes had the hardest time. But we got everything we went for. Of course the line to get out of the store was even longer than the line to get in, but at least it was warm inside the building.

"A" and I tested out the GPS today around Idaho. Maybe I'll be set to get around El Paso when we rent a car down there.

Cold Idaho

I drove to Idaho yesterday to be with A on Thanksgiving. I knew it would be at least a 3 hour drive and that it had snowed the day before, so that there might be slick spots along the way. Well, I pretty well sailed through from Clinton to about Pocatello. Then the traffic started to slow somewhat and then it slowed a LOT and eventually stopped and then crawled from Blackfoot to Idaho Falls. The roads were icy, but I don't think they were icy enough to go that slow. It me about 2.5 or so hours to go what should have taken 1 hour or less. I REALLY hope the roads clear up or that I miss the traffic on the way back!

And speaking of Idaho Falls, it is BITTER COLD. I don't thing N & T would like it at all! I realize that it was predicted that all through Idaho and Utah would be bitter cold this weekend, but I think I will always think of Idaho as bitter cold now. I'll have to come and visit during better weather sometime so I can see it differently.

Two-year-olds

Ive been watching a movie about a family whose 2-year-old wandered off. They have hundreds of people searching for him. I haven't seen the end yet, but it makes me remember when Nathan wandered off from the house when he was about that age. We were searching everywhere close to the house and starting to fan out, but someone from our ward found him on a road that leads out to nowhere. It is a very long road and he was sure that he was headed home. If the people had not recognized him, there is no telling how far he could have gotten and whether we would have even found him. He and we sure were blessed to have found him safe and sound. It makes me so thankful. I love my kids and the thoughts of losing one of them just makes me sick.