Thanksgiving

This was our Thanksgiving turkey breast.  It turned out pretty well, except that the package said a 4 1/2 pound turkey would take 2 1/2 hours, but ours took 4, probably because our oven is so tiny.

This is our little oven slow cooking our turkey like a champ. We started eating before the turkey was done (we had a small ham we warmed up in Rose's even smaller toaster oven), but the turkey was ready in time for seconds.

Ben and Rose with clean plates.

For dessert we had pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Very tasty.

After dinner we played Phase 10, and then some Mario Party on Ben's Wii. It was quite fun and we were all very thankful to have a chance to hang out together and be thankful for all we've been blessed with.


Yesterday, Rose and I tried going to the Museum of American History which just reopened after renovations. It was packed like a can of sardines, so we went to the Natural History Museum instead. It was still full, and we didn't have to wait in line for any of the exhibits (except for the butterfly room, which we saved for another day). We saw an exhibit on Ancient Western Culture, a small exhibit on Korean Americans, reptiles, bones, and insects. The bones exhibit was interesting because they had skeletons there of nearly every kind of living thing - swordfish, bears, turtles, rhinos. One interesting thing we learned is that a rhino's horn doesn't have a bony core but grows from the skin and is basically like a huge fingernail. A rhino's horn also never stops growing and will grow back if cut or broken off. So now you know, and as G.I. Joe taught me, knowing is half the battle.

Dr. Who?

My sister, who is the proud possessor of a nice smile and a nice husband, is also now the proud possessor of a PhD. Isn't that amazing? I'm pretty impressed.

At Least One Good Reason for Text Messaging

It used to be that I made fun of people who seemed to be texting on their cell phones all the time (although for a while the cell phone was my main connection to Jordan and I was definitely texting a lot.) Or very young people with cell phones. And I'm going to say that I still think people can go overboard or over-young, but recently my 12 year old nephew earned a cell phone for getting good grades. And he's been texting me. And I love it. He always sounds very mature. He says things like, "Well, and how are you?" And he calls me "Rosey."

Last night when I was talking to my older sister and Sage texted her, I thought I'd play a joke on him and I texted him asking if he liked me better than my sister. He texted back, "What makes you say that?" And when I admitted that I was talking to her on the phone he responded with the word, "Cheater." This made both my sister and I laugh pretty hard. He's interacting with his aunts and uncles in the way we interact with each other. It's like suddenly he's entered the ranks of "adults" in the family.

And when I called home a couple Sundays ago and his family was visiting my parents for Sunday dinner his voice had changed! He sounds almost like his dad. I feel like in the past few months he's grown up suddenly and I missed it. (How did that happen?) But now because of texting and cell phones I still get to be part of it. So that when I visit home again maybe the only thing that he'll surprise me with will be his height. (He's already taller than I am, though, so how could it be that big of a surprise?)

The Wise and the Foolish, and other tales

Today Jordan and I were called, sustained, and set apart in new callings in our ward. Jordan is now Deacon's adviser. Though we often have boys visiting from another ward, for the most part the whole deacon quorum consists of two boys. One of them doesn't come very often. But we both really like the one that comes every week. He's very funny and from the few conversations I've had with him I'd say he's pretty perceptive. I am now one of the Sunbeam instructors. I'm excited and a little terrified. I don't know how to interact with little kids that aren't related to me. But I guess I'll learn.

Our ward is very small and very diverse. In life experience and in life beliefs. I just wanted to share a few of our stories from today's church meetings. (I've changed the names to protect the innocent

Story #1: Our landlord Kimmy's brother and sister-in-law are in the ward and they have a 3 year old named Eliott. He's very smart for his age. Today, sitting a couple seats away from us on our landlord's lap he announced cheerfully and loudly (the same we he says everything) "I have gas and I have to toot." Then a couple seconds later he announced, "My gas is relieved."

Story #2: I went to primary today for the first time since I graduated from primary so many years ago. The primary president Mary Joe wears trousers to church and talks to the kids like adults instead of children. She doesn't like calling the children "children." Just to give you a taste of what it looks like primary will be like, today we sang "The wise woman built her house upon a rock...the foolish woman built her house upon the sand." (Please see the above illustration I made Jordan quickly conjure up.)

Mary Joe also did an activity with the kids where she would say "When mother calls you..." and they'd say, "Quickly I obey." Or "When Jesus calls you...", "Quickly I obey." She went through Jesus, mother, father, teacher. Then she said, "When sister calls me," and the kids said "Quickly I obey." And Mary Joe said, "Well, now, that depends doesn't it? You have to see what she wants." She seems to be teaching the kids valuable lessons.

Story #3: Today there were four girls in the Sunbeams class. One of them, a little red haired girl who is famous for running up to the stand and playing the piano during someone's talk some months ago, sat by me in sacrament and glared at me through most of the meeting. However, after being introduced to me in Sunbeams she was very friendly. Another one, Krissy, wouldn't talk through most of the class. She'd just look at me with a shy, toothy grin that usually involved her tongue protruding from her mouth. Then at the end of class when her mom and sister came to pick her up, one of the other teachers told Krissy's mom that today we'd learned about telling the truth. Her mom said, "Oh, Krissy doesn't have a problem with that. She tells the truth on her sister. She tells the truth on herself. She's very truthful..." Krissy's grin grew wider and tongue-ier and, as if to prove her mother's point, she announced, "My sister said the word 'boobie.'"

Her mom said this was a word that Krissy had learned from other kids at preschool and that they were trying to teach her she shouldn't say all the words she learned at preschool. Then, while her mother talked to the teacher and another mom, Krissy, grinning at me and swinging on her mother's arm kept repeating gleefully, "Boobie, boobie, boobie, boobie." I'm afraid I might not prove to be the best Sunbeam instructor because I couldn't help but laugh the whole time. Which makes me a very bad influence on someone of her impressionable age.