The Continuing Skunk Saga

Family Portrait

These are some recently-taken photos of our little family.
Many thanks to Wendi, my extremely talented sister-in-law, who took the photos.

P.U.!!!

You guessed it... That's a skunk in our window well.
And I was only about 4 feet away.
(Thank goodness for the glass between!)

You can't see him hardly at all on the video,
but you can hear him rattling around.

First Tooth!

Okay, I know Monica is only 9 1/2 months old so it's not like she's behind or anything, but I was REALLY excited to discover her tooth yesterday because it feels like we've been waiting for it forever! You can kind of see it in this picture above... it looks a little like a reflection of the light, but it's really a tooth in there. It's her lower right tooth. And in my attempts to capture her tooth in a photo, I took a whole slew of really cute pictures of her. I mean, can you help but love this girl??

Cal's Treasures

Thank goodness for random objects that unexpectedly keep your kids' attention during a whole day! For example, I picked this little red box up at a yard sale for 50 cents. Guess what! Cal thinks it's the greatest thing ever. He calls it his treasure chest (he's kind of into pirates right now) and he spent all day yesterday carrying it around and stuffing stuff into it. See how hard he's trying to make everything fit?
I thought you might be interested to know what he put in it. It just made me think of being a kid, back when you thought grown-up stuff was so cool. In these pictures he's trying to fit these objects in: a scented candle, an air freshener (what can we say? Our boy likes things to smell good...), a yellow piece from off his bike, a large magnifying glass, a luggage strap, a sippee cup, and an extra change of clothes (a T shirt and pants). The essentials.

The Many Skills of Jeff Foster (a.k.a. Our New Deck)

You all know of my husband as a medical resident.

Most of you know he is also a talented songwriter,
guitar player, and recording engineer.

Still fewer of you know of his pyro-technical expertise.

But only a handful know that along with all of these sweet skills,
he also fixes and refinishes decks. Here he is, hard at work.

When we moved into our house, we were a little concerned that the deck's balusters were too far apart for little kids to play around. Also, the wood was really old and splintery. So Jeff spent a week sanding it down. He removed the old balusters and replaced them with new ones closer together. Then we re-stained it. Here are a few more pictures.

This is the finished product. Way to go, Geoffy!

Happy Birthday, Dale!

Heroes of the Book of Mormon -- Amulek

I just finished re-reading the story of
Alma and Amulek in the Book of Mormon.

I wanted to put up a post about it because it's my favorite part of the Book of Mormon. I've always regarded Amulek as one of my major heroes. The more I read Alma 8-16, the more I respect him. I think it's because unlike many of the Book of Mormon heroes, he wasn't a prophet or a warrior. He was a civilian (like me, except probably with a lot more money), and one who even admitted to having a hard heart at some point. Yet when the call came, he repented and answered, and ultimately wound up sacrificing everything he had for the truth. His story means a lot to me because I hope that when "the call" comes for me, whatever it is, I'll be strong enough to do the same thing. Also it reminds me that if he made that huge sacrifice, surely I can make the little sacrifices I need to to stand for truth and righteousness in today's world.

If you want to comment on this post, feel free to comment on this story or any other story or hero you love from the Book of Mormon.

Movin' Right Along

For those who love a little thrill in their movie-watching, please view the video below. You'll see what I mean.


For those of you who prefer a more warm-fuzzy sort of film, this video is for you. You see? We've got something for everyone at our house.

Exterior House Pictures

Hey everyone. Cal and I wanted to show you the outside of our house,
just because we didn't do it on the other post about our house.

I took these pictures and they sort of reminded me of
my Where's Waldo days...
Here's the front yard,

And here's the back of the house.

We really love having a back yard. It's the greatest thing. We've started calling it the "back yarden," which is what Cal calls it because yard and garden sound to close to necessitate two separate words. And speaking of Cal and back yardens, he figured out how to use the pedals on his bike today, which is awesome. Maybe I can post some video footage of that later.

Do I Like Being a Mom?

This picture says it all!

Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be a "primatologist." For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a scientist of monkeys and apes. My heroes were Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, and I would have given anything to go to an African jungle and study the chimps there for a summer. I would have settled for working at the zoo. Actually, if one little monkey could just have lived at my house, I would have been in heaven.

My dad always used to tease me about that because he knew the truth: the reason I liked monkeys is because they are the most closely related mammals to humans. Monkeys are like little kids. He would say, "You know, you just want to be a mommy." I denied it. I was sure I was going to work for National Geographic some day.

Now when I come home to visit my parents he looks at me with my kiddos and says, "Are you sure you still want a monkey?" Of course he was right all along. Cal and Monica are not only way cuter than any pet monkeys I could have had, I'm sure they learn so much faster and trust me so much more. And they smell a lot better. And somehow they don't seem to mind being with me all day.

This is significant for me right now because up to this point in Jeff's medical education we've been fairly surrounded by "medical school families" who were in the same boat as us. Now, as we enter Residency, we'll be spending more social time with the other residents and their spouses and significant others. I've gotta tell you, it's a little intimidating. They're all exceedingly sharp people, and they've all done really cool things with their lives, and most of them are part of a DINK couple (Dual Income, No Kids). But undaunted I will go on. After all, I think I'm a pretty sharp person, and I've done something REALLY cool with my life. No only do I love what I do but in a way (though I don't exactly work for National Geographic), I'm doing what I drempt of all along.

"The Trouble with 'X'" by C.S. Lewis

My sister-in-law Dana mentioned that she'd read this essay by C.S. Lewis in college and really liked it, so I looked it up. I thought I'd post it for y'all to enjoy. It's really good.

The Trouble With 'X'
From God In the Dock by C S Lewis

I suppose I may assume that seven out of ten of those who read these lines are in some kind of difficulty about some other human being. Either at work or at home, either the people who employ you or those whom you employ, either those who share your house or those whose house you share, either your in-laws or parents or children, your wife or your husband, are making life harder for you than it need be even in these days. It is to be hoped that we do not often mention these difficulties (especially the domestic ones) to outsiders. But sometimes we do. An outside friend asks us why we are looking so glum; and the truth comes out.

On such occasions the outside friend usually says, 'But why don't you tell them? Why don't you go to your wife (or husband, or father, or daughter, or boss, or landlady, or lodger) and have it all out? People are usually reasonable. All you've got to do is to make them see things in the right light. Explain it to them in a reasonable, quiet, friendly way' And we, whatever we say outwardly, think sadly to ourselves, 'He doesn't know "X".' We do. We know how utterly hopeless it is to make 'X' see reason. Either we've tried it over and over again - tried it till we are sick of trying it - or else we've never tried it because we saw from the beginning how useless it would be. We know that if we attempt to 'have it all out with "X" ' there will either be a 'scene', or else 'X' will stare at us in blank amazement and say 'I don't know what on earth you're talking about'; or else (which is perhaps worst of all) 'X will quite agree with us and promise to turn over a new leaf and put everything on a new footing - and then, twenty-four hours later, will be exactly the same as 'X' has always been.

You know, in fact, that any attempt to talk things over with 'X' will shipwreck on the old, fatal flaw in 'X's' character. And you see, looking back, how all the plans you have ever made always have shipwrecked on that fatal flaw - on 'X's' incurable jealousy, or laziness, or touchiness, or muddle-headedness, or bossiness, or ill temper, or changeableness. Up to a certain age you have perhaps had the illusion that some external stroke of good fortune - an improvement in health, a rise of salary, the end of the war - would solve your difficulty. But you know better now. The war is over, and you realize that even if the other things happened, 'X' would still be 'X', and you would still be up against the same old problem. Even if you became a millionaire, your husband would still be a bully, or your wife would still nag or your son would still drink, or you'd still have to have your mother-in-law to live with you.

It is a great step forward to realize that this is so; to face the fact that even if all external things went right, real happiness would still depend on the character of the people you have to live with - and that you can't alter their characters. And now comes the point. When you have seen this you have, for the first time, had a glimpse of what it must be like for God. For, of course, this is (in one way) just what God Himself is up against. He has provided a rich, beautiful world for people to live in. He has given them intelligence to show them how it can be used, and conscience to show them how it ought to be used. He has contrived that the things they need for their biological life (food, drink, rest, sleep, exercise) should be positively delightful to them. And, having done all this, He then sees all His plans spoiled - just as our little plans are spoiled - by the crookedness of the people themselves. All the things He has given them to be happy with they turn into occasions for quarrelling and jealousy, and excess and hoarding, and tomfoolery.

You may say it is very different for God because He could, if He pleased, alter people's characters, and we can't. But this difference doesn't go quite as deep as we may at first think. God has made it a rule for Himself that He won't alter people's character by force. He can and will alter them - but only if the people will let Him. In that way He has really and truly limited His power. Sometimes we wonder why He has done so, or even wish that He hadn't. But apparently He thinks it worth doing. He would rather have a world of free beings, with all its risks, than a world of people who did right like machines because they couldn't do anything else. The more we succeed in imagining what a world of perfect automatic beings would be like, the more, I think, we shall see His wisdom.

I said that when we see how all our plans shipwreck on the characters of the people we have to deal with, we are 'in one way' seeing what it must be like for God. But only in one way. There are two respects in which God's view must be very different from ours. In the first place, He sees (like you) how all the people in your home or your job are in various degrees awkward or difficult; but when He looks into that home or factory or office He sees one more person of the same kind - the one you never do see. I mean, of course, yourself. That is the next great step in wisdom - to realize that you also are just that sort of person. You also have a fatal flaw in your character. All the hopes and plans of others have again and again shipwrecked on your character just as your hopes and plans have shipwrecked on theirs.

It is no good passing this over with some vague, general · admission such as 'Of course, I know I have my faults.' It is important to realize that there is some really fatal flaw in you: something which gives the others just that same feeling of despair which their flaws give you. And it is almost certainly something you don't know about - like what the advertisements call 'halitosis', which everyone notices except the person who has it. But why, you ask, don't the others tell me? Believe me, they have tried to tell you over and over again, and you just couldn't 'take it'. Perhaps a good deal of what you call their 'nagging' or 'bad temper' or 'queerness' are just their attempts to make you see the truth. And even the faults you do know you don't know fully. You say, 'I admit I lost my temper last night'; but the others know that you're always doing it, that you are a bad-tempered person. You say, 'I admit I drank too much last Saturday'; but everyone else knows that you are a habitual drunkard.

That is one way in which God's view must differ from mine. He sees all the characters: I see all except my own. But the second difference is this. He loves the people in spite of their faults. He goes on loving. He does not let go. Don't say, 'It's all very well for Him; He hasn't got to live with them.' He has. He is inside them as well as outside them. He is with them far more intimately and closely and incessantly than we can ever be. Every vile thought within their minds (and ours), every moment of spite, envy, arrogance, greed and self-conceit comes right up against His patient and longing love, and grieves His spirit more than it grieves ours.

The more we can imitate God in both these respects, the more progress we shall make. We must love 'X' more; and we must learn to see ourselves as a person of exactly the same kind. Some people say it is morbid to be always thinking of one's own faults. That would be all very well if most of us could stop thinking of our own without soon beginning to think about those of other people. For unfortunately we enjoy thinking about other people's faults: and in the proper sense of the word 'morbid', that is the most morbid pleasure in the world.

We don't like rationing which is imposed upon us, but I suggest one form of rationing which we ought to impose on ourselves. Abstain from all thinking about other people's faults, unless your duties as a teacher or parent make it necessary to think about them. Whenever the thoughts come unnecessarily into one's mind, why not simply shove them away? And think of one's own faults instead? For there, with God's help, one can do something. Of all the awkward people in your house or job there is only one whom you can improve very much. That is the practical end at which to begin. And really, we'd better. The job has to be tackled some day: and every day we put it off will make it harder to begin.

What, after all, is the alternative? You see clearly enough that nothing, not even God with all His power, can make 'X' really happy as long as 'X' remains envious, self-centred, and spiteful. Be sure there is something inside you which, unless it is altered, will put it out of God's power to prevent your being eternally miserable. While that something remains there can be no Heaven for you, just as there can be no sweet smells for a man with a cold in the nose, and no music for a man who is deaf. It's not a question of God 'sending' us to Hell. In each of us there is something growing up which will of itself be Hell unless it is nipped in the bud. The matter is serious: let us put ourselves in His hands at once - this very day, this hour.

Long Awaited House Pictures

Hello, dear family members. After speaking with many of you on the phone about how you still have no idea what our house looks like, I've decided to stay up late to post some long-awaited pictures of the house we've affectionately come to call "the Yank House," "the Yank-Wanks," or even "The Yankity-Yank Wanks" when being very affectionate. Before I go on with showing you the interior of our house (this post will be mostly interior pictures... stay tuned for the exterior...), I must tell you how awesome it is to be moved in and settling as a family. I find that there is something indescribably wonderful about putting your baby to bed in her own crib...among many other simple joys.

This is not a complete tour. There are a few features missing, and you may not get a perfect sense of how it all fits together. This was done purposefully to further entice you to come visit and get the full effect.

So let's start with the main floor. The captions are below each picture.
Living Room (to the right off the entryway)

Dining Room

Kitchen

Corner of kitchen, looking out into eating area and family room

Family Room

Now for upstairs. I don't have a pic of the master bedroom for this post. I would go take one right now, but Jeff's sleeping and all the lights are off...which just wouldn't give you a very good idea. Anyway, here are the other three rooms.
Cal's Room
(used to be pink and purple...
special thanks to Reed and April Larsen
and Adam and Laura Foster
for the awesome paint job)

Monica's Room

Kids Bathroom
(Thanks again to April Larsen for the featured hoodie towels...)

And in the basement...
"Rec Room" at the bottom of the stairs...and around the corner is...
the Recording Studio/Guest Bedroom.
This is where all you out-of-state visitors will
be staying when you come.
It has a half-bathroom (also not shown).
Also, the couch in the Rec Room is a hide-a-bed so
please bring your kids! We have lots of space to sleep people...

Anyway, we are very happy and extremely blessed. Also, Jeff had his first day of work today at the Swedish Family Medicine Clinic. He did a great job and is still really excited about the next three years. Our two beautiful kids are so much fun, especially when they make each other laugh, which is often. Life is great.

Six Months Old!!

Today little Monica turned six months old, so to celebrate I thought I'd post a video of her cuteness. Enjoy. We sure love our little girly.

Indoor Activities

Hey, my sister Ems and I were brainstorming indoor activities for stir-crazy kids during the winter, and I thought I'd post the list I came up with and ask for any additional ideas. If you want to add anything, please PLEASE post it as a comment. We would welcome any ideas. Here's what I have so far:
Play-doh
Structures out of marshmallows and toothpicks
Blocks
Legos
Dry Eraze markers on fridge
Fingerpainting
Snowball fights w/ sock snow balls
Build a fort
Chase balloons
Jump on Bed
Dance
Imagining games (boxes are great for this)
Make different colors in water jars
Go on a scenic drive
Make dirt cups w/ oreos and gummy worms
Mix different kinds of cereal and have kids sort them by size/shape
Make marble run out of T.P. tubes
Look at photo albums
Caterpillars out of egg cartons
Check out "I Spy" books from the library
Paper folding: boats, hats, planes
Play w/ magnets and metal stuff around the house
Movie quote game (think of quotes from their favorite movies and
ask them to tell you what they're from
Make pinwheels out of paper, pencils and thumbtacks

Happy Birthday Geoffy!

This is a slideshow I composed for Jeff's Birthday which was on Monday. It has a couple kinks, but it was fun to show it to him when we had a few friends over for pizza, cake and presents. Love ya, Geoff!

Belly Laugh

This video is awesome. It's of our sweet little Monica last week, when she started laughing. Since then she smiles and laughs a lot more. She also is holding her head up like a pro.

Highlight Pictures

I finally downloaded the pictures from our memory card onto our computer. Sheesh...there are a lot of good ones! I just picked a few highlight pictures to showcase to the world.

This is from Monica's blessing at the beginning of December. After much deliberations, we decided to do it in our home ward in Denver.

These pictures are from the best birthday ever, thanks to my hubby-hub, our awesome friends Reed and April, and some much appreciated babysitting by Mickey and Maggie.

We had an exciting opening of the Christmas season in Denver. This is us decorating the Christmas tree. Cal sure had fun helping Maggie decorate!

These pictures are of Jeff's sister, Kelly's grave. We went to Omaha for Jeff to interview out there and were able to visit her grave site. That was a very special experience.

Then we drove out to Utah Valley for the rest of the Christmas season. That meant lots of family gatherings and for Cal, getting to know and play with his Richards cousins. These are two of the cutest pictures we got. The above one is Peter (3 years old), who is one of Cal's best friends but lives ever-so-far-away in Maryland, and below Cal is with Carmen (11), who is the third child of my oldest sister Becky's 9 kids.

These pictures are from the infamous medieval feast at my parents' on Christmas Eve. After we got the costume thing figured out, it was a lot of fun. The top pictures has all the sisters and sisters-in-law and my mom.

Christmas morning for the Cal-ster. It was sure a lot more fun as the mom this year, having a two-year-old that actually got 'into' the whole Christmas thing a little more.
I just like this picture. One of greatest Christmas presents of this season has been having my children be able to spend so much time with my parents. This is Monica Jayne with my Dad.

So that's it. There is more to come...I want to say it will come soon, but I can't make any guarantees. One thing's for sure: we've been so blessed to be able to be with so much family throughout this year. We love you all!