Food

I am so in love with the grocery stores here. Most of them carry mostly whole, natural foods; plus, in the last few weeks I have gotten the following foods for the following prices:

watermelon: 10 cents/lb (is there a cents sign on the computer?)
raspberries: 77 cents/package
peaches and grapes: 39 cents/lb
strawberries: 88 cents/lb
green peppers: 3 for $1

One of these stores also has a great bulk section, so I no longer have to make monthly trips to Costco. I can get whole wheat flour for about 89 cents/lb, brown rice for 69 cents/lb, etc. I LOVE it!

Plus, we can always get milk for $1.89 a gallon. And people think San Diego's too expensive! (Okay, so rent's not cheap, but some things are worth paying for!)

Diseased

Yessiree. Picture this...

...all over my body. I think I have six patches just on my neck. I will now share the information from the handout I got from the dermatologist. Info in parentheses is my own addition.

Pityriasis Rosea

The most important thing about this benign skin disease is to understand the following things:

1. There is no common name for it.

2. Cause is unkown. It acts like a virus in some ways but is not contagious as most viruses are. Two cases in the same family are practically never seen. (And I'm the lucky one!)

3. It is more common in the spring and fall, but it is seen the year round.

4. Usually there is a Herald or Mother Patch which looks like a "ringworm". (See above photo.) It heralds the oncoming generalized eruption of small "ringworms" by hours to weeks. The usual distribution is neck to knees. (Not true. I have at least five patches on my calves.) It is rare on the face in adults (let's hope that's true) but relatively common in children.

5. It runs a natural course of 6 weeks (unlikely) to 3 months (more likely). (BTW, the doctor guesses I'm at just under two weeks right now.)

6. It leaes no marks or scars. (Praise be!)

7. It is extremely rare to have it the second time. (I repeat...praise be!)

8. It may or may not itch. (It may. Especially on my legs.)

9. Soap aggravates. Hot water aggravates. (Sweat aggravates. Scratching aggravates. Clothing aggravates.)

10. Sunlight helps. (I'm supposed to expose the spots, unprotected, as long as I can each day wthout getting sunburned. I'm told this gets tricky as the spots dot your "unexposable" areas. But my neck at least will be really wrinkly by the time this clears up!)

So if you see me coming down the street, please do not turn and run away. I know I look scary, but I am not leprous, and you do not need to scrub yourself down with sanitizing wipes if you walk past me. Just be thankful it's me and not you!

Here we are.

I was really enjoying my break from the computer. I hate being on the computer and even though I usually enjoy blogs and seeing my friends' families and where their lives are taking them, I have to admit I really enjoyed almost not touching the computer at all this past month. But we've had so much going on I will have to update with photos later, because it is really late.

So for right now I will just tell you a story called "Only a Mormon Kid..." This is from a conversation with Hannah yesterday.
Hannah: Did you know a mean guy came and tried to kill met last night?
Me: Really? What happened?
H: The mean guy came in and killed me and I was dead!
Me: Wow. Then what?
H: I got resurrected! It was Jesus.
Me: Oh, Jesus resurrected you?
H: Yes, and the Nephites. And I came down from heaven and they blocked their eyes and I was so bright!

(Later, watching Joshua run around in circles in the living room):
H: Samuel's chasing him!
Me: Who's Samuel?
H: The guy on the wall in the scripture picture. He jumped out of the scripture picture and now he's chasing Joshie!

Hannah has quite the imagination. This is the kid who often talks about the giant roly-poly doing the hokey pokey in the living room. ??? Who knows where she gets it? But I'm glad she's got it!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Mine in particular.

I've been kind of lazy about exercising since I got back from my trip to Boise. But Hannah's comment to me this morning whipped me right into shape:

"Mommy, your bum looks like dough!"

Punk. So while the kids ate breakfast, I did Pilates, and when Hannah asked me why I was exercising, I said "So I don't feel like dough!" Halfway through Hannah came to join me (she loves doing Pilates). After a couple of minutes she says, "I don't feel like dough anymore!" Then she came to stand behind me and coach me through the rest of my workout.

Later on she was telling me how she's almost 22 like Aunt Tiffy. "But Aunt Tiffy's almost 23...(sigh)...what rotten luck!"

She also calls an elephant a "pacagerm".

Joshua is mostly just cute. He's too little to be consciously sassy, he's just funny. If you ask him what a farmer says:

"Come here, Mrs. Piggy!"

And all the way home from Boise, on the airplane, he was yelling "I is nosepicker!"

He has also learned to be very demanding. He'll come running into the kitchen and say, "Mommy, give me water right now!" (This is only funny because he is so little and has such a little baby voice that shouldn't be able to construct these major sentences he uses.)

I always thought it was fun that my kids learned to talk so well so early. But now that I have two of them going nonstop -- and saying things like this!-- I can see how it might have been nice to have them quiet a little longer!

3 Weeks in Boise, Part II

So, the main reason we stayed in Boise for as long as we did is because my baby brother, R.J., is going on his mission! In the LDS church, 19-year-old boys are expected to have lived worthily and prepared themselves to serve a Church mission for two years. During those two years, they don't do any work, schooling, visiting with family, or anything else concerning their personal lives. They spend the first part of their mission in the MTC (missionary training center) learning how to teach the gospel full-time, and then they go out into the mission field.

R.J. is the first and only missionary in our family, so it's a pretty exciting time for us! Hannah, Joshua and I were able to be there to hear him speak in Sacrament meeting, and we had a wonderful time visiting with all of the family members who came to support him that day. Because he is serving in Tempe, Arizona we also had a Mexican-themed family party for him.

The kdis had a blast with the pinata!
Hannah loves having another 4-year-old in the family, her cousin Lance.The next time we take this picture, Hannah will be 6 and Joshua will be four! (and Seth will be over 30!)

R.J. (Elder Crandall now, since he was set apart tonight) goes into the MTC this Wednesday. We are sure proud of him but I will sure miss him! I've never not seen someone in my family for two years! We are so thankful we had the opportunity to take this trip. Thanks for all the fun and the good care you still take of me, Mom and Dad! and R.J., it's probably too late for you to see this, but we love you!

3 Weeks in Boise

...the condensed version. After the wedding we drove up to Boise and had a small, surprise-early- 40th Anniversary party for my parents at my brother Aaron's house.

Poor Joshie was tired.
During the first week, the kids took a tumbling class at Aunt Tiffany's gym, which they loved,

and then we had a fun, quick weekend trip to McCall. I didn't get any pictures from that, unfortunately. Then Daddy had to go back home, and Hannah got sick, and then Joshua got sick, and then Hannah got sick again! And I was so tired my brains were curdling, but even so we managed to have a good time during the last two weeks. We played games (which is my number one favorite thing to do with my family), Hannah helped Grandpa Buzz plant the garden...

...while Joshua played with the hose,
they read with Grandma,

ate ice cream from the ice cream (wo)man,

and just generally enjoyed themselves.we even had a couple of outings, on to the temple, where they love to see the fountain,

and one to visit my good friend/chiropractor, Afshin. Hannah did great at her first chiro visit (a follow-up to the awful fall she had last year).

And now I feel like this post is getting awfully long so I'm going to save the most important part of the trip for the next post!

The Wedding

Sorry about the long break! We have done a lot over the past few weeks, so it will have to be condensed and broken up. First, we were privileged to be able to attend Seth's brother Ben's wedding in Salt Lake at the end of April. We were so happy to finally meet Allyson, who is a beautiful girl and a wonderful addition to the family. Congratulations, you two!

Hannah LOVED dancing at the wedding reception. She danced with any boy she could get her hands on.

Seth (and kids) with his parents and Grandpa Wright

Megan and me. It was so fun to see her after almost two years!

Joshua laughing at the paper cranes swinging from the ceiling