So Close and Yet So Far (an update)

The fascination with Avatar continues:

Miciah drew these lines on Elijah. You probably can't tell completely, but there is an arrow on his forehead, and then an arrow on both hands and both feet. The lines on his legs go up past his knees. The lines on his arms go past his elbows. And the lines on his head go THROUGH HIS HAIR and down his neck. Pretty sweet.

She also drew lines on herself for Katara. Katara doesn't have any lines on her body in the show, but Miciah thought it would be more dramatic to draw the lines anyway. There are circles on her cheeks and then spirally lines on both arms and both legs. ... Needless to say, people were noticing and talking about those lines for a while. Miciah washed hers off before going in public, but Elijah left his on. Some people recognized who he was: Aang. Someone mentioned something about water bending to him. He just scowled at her (he's anti-stranger, remember).

Elijah will also do this windmill motion with his arm and say that's his air bending. Pretty cute.

That day, when they drew the lines, C came over to watch our kids. It must have been, hmm, 2 Thursdays ago. Anyways, she just casually said, "By the way, rubbing alcohol will take off pen." I replied with, "Why would I need to know that?" :) "Oh, you're telling me that so I can store it away until I need that information, like 6 months from now. I get it." We had a good time with that. ... I never did rub them down with alcohol, though. I just let it fade away.

Sadly, the Avatar series has ended. We watched the last 5 or 6 episodes on-line. It's awesome! I can't wait to own the last season on DVD. And then in summer 2010 the first live-action Avatar movie should come out.

I had to show off this picture of Teancom. A rare grumpy face.

Haircuts All Around

We cut the boys' hair, obviously. I didn't want to--it was so cute longer! But it was driving Rob crazy, and it really did need to be cut, I'm sure. It was over their ears. ... Elijah had asked me how long it would take to grow his hair long like mine. I was willing to see how long. Rob would DEFINITELY not have gone for that. :)

I also cut Miciah's hair. She was a little sad about that, saying she looked like a clown. She hadn't even seen her hair yet when she said that. So to help her feel better about it, I let her cut my hair. I told her I just wanted a slight trim, and she did a pretty good job. A few days later I touched up the kids' haircuts, and she insisted on also touching up my hair. She took off another inch or so. But it looks decent, and I get compliments on my haircut. ... The pictures from Mammoth show all of us with our haircuts. Rob got his haircut, too, but I didn't do it. We actually paid for that one.

Olympics

For 2 weeks all we did was watch TV and get on-line updates on the Games. I love the Olympics.

My favorite great moments were: the swimming 4x100 m mens' relay, Micheal Phelps winning by 1/100 of a second for his 7th gold, Nastia having an amazing night to win all-round gold, a man from Togos winning his nation's first Olympic medal in white water, watching May and Walsh win their 2nd straight Olympic gold, Jamaica's 'Lightning' Bolt running away with a new 100 and 200 m world record, an Australian man winning the last platform diving competition with an AMAZING dive to steal away China's 8 for 8 gold, and the American men winning indoor volleyball after what their coach has been through.

And my favorite low moments were: Lolo losing the 110 m hurdles because she biffed it on the 9th hurdle (she would have won by a ton, but instead came in 7th), BOTH 4x100 American relay teams dropping the baton and not qualifying for the finals, wondering if the whole Jamaican sprinting team is doping, watching Nastia come in 2nd in the uneven bars because of a tie-breaker rule, seeing one of the American water polo teams lose by 1 point in the last 30 seconds to the Netherlands even though the US had one last opportunity to score in the last 5 seconds and it hit the post, and following the controversy of the under-age Chinese gymnasts (they are SO underage. Whether or not that's the final "official ruling", they are and everyone knows it).

I would like to believe the Olympics isn't tainted. But I know, deep in my heart, that it is. And it has been for a long time. The fact that China came out so strong with just stupidness this Olympics makes me sad. I don't understand the win-at-all-costs mentality. But, I can hope for a time when people compete fairly and judges judge fairly and no one has sold their vote or score or soul to win.

C's Visit

C also watches soccer highlights for every soccer game in the world that's worth watching. So I enjoyed that a LOT. Rob asked if I was done watching them and I told him, "Look, when C leaves, how many soccer highlights am I likely to watch?" None. That's right. I watched like 100 over the week, and it filled my quota until C comes to visit again.

So not only did we watch the Olympics for the majority of C's visit, we watched good soccer highlights on top of that. Good times with my brother.

We had a lot of downtime, though. I planned that because in the past Miciah has monopolized all his time and forced him to do just about everything with her. And this visit, she almost didn't even notice he was around. I mean, she loved having him here, but it wasn't the same. She spent an entire day playing with her neighbor friends. She almost seemed annoyed at times when I suggested she do something with C. Weird.

We did go to Mammoth Cave, as I've already written about. We spent that night camping on a guy's farm land. It was fun. We were EXHAUSTED by the time we got home on Sunday around 3pm. So we laid low on Sunday evening and all day Monday to recover. C and I also took lots of naps--I don't know how Rob survived the Olympics without taking naps, honestly.

We went swimming one day at the W's house while C was here. They have a heated pool, which is good, cause it hasn't been that warm lately. The week C was here, it was 90 and 95 degrees some days, but the rest of August has been almost cold! That week was the only week all month I've had my AC on. Anyways, it was SO NICE swimming in a pool that was almost as warm as the air around us. If we ever own a pool some day, it will be in-ground and heated.

C and I got to play a soccer game together while he was here. My indoor soccer team. It was fun to have him play with me and get to show him off to my friends. :) They seemed to be a little skeptical at first about his ability to play (not because of him, but because that's what you do when someone says their brother is good), but by the end they were complimenting him almost every moment and asking if he'd be around for any more games. He and I played killer defense together, and that rocked. I also was happy to show off for him. Not that I show off, but I played a really good game that night. I had an assist on the first goal of the game which was on the first PLAY of the game. So our team was up by 1 in the first 20 seconds, and it was on my excellent assist. ... It's nice, actually, to play and feel like I play well. My style of play has changed, and C noted that I'm not as fast on the ball as I used to be. For sure. But I've never been that fast on the ball, really, and I've never been a good dribbler. I've only used my speed and kicked the ball in front of me. In indoor, and against men, it's almost impossible to do that. So I've transitioned my game and I'm now an excellent defender and passer, and I create plays and assists. I used to be the scorer, and I could see that as I play more I will eventually be scoring more, but I am just as happy, in fact happier, being the play-maker. ... One of the guys on my team was looking for people to play on another team he has, just for one game. He said to A, our team leader, "And ask that new girl (referring to me). She's got some skills." :) Soccer is my weekly ego boost and I quite enjoy it.

We also went to the Children's Museum with the kids. Elijah was horribly behaved, but Miciah was mature and understanding and willing to compromise. Not only was I shocked, I was amazed and proud of her. She is a really good kid, even when she drives me crazy.

School Starts on Tuesday

And lately, her driving me crazy seems to be a daily thing!! We're both ready for her to be in school. I kept thinking, "Just a week after C goes home. That's not so bad." Woah. It's been a LONG week. By the end of Monday and Tuesday I was ready to cry. Not only is Miciah fairly whiny and ready to get out of the house, the neighbor kids have been over to play near-non-stop. Which is totally fine, but there are 4 of them. So I'm having to figure out how to parent kids that aren't mine, which is a new thing. And it's amazing how quickly 7 kids can trash the house. :) I keep telling myself, "Just till Tuesday. School starts on Tuesday." So close, and yet so far.

Hanging Out to Dry

For fun we started a clothesline. It's an idea I've had since the start of summer, but only implemented 2 weeks ago. That's about par for ideas I have. :) But it's alright that I waited, cause we used the swingset as the pole instead of having to buy a new pole. We have 2 lines up, and it's fun to do. It's different and it makes me think about things I've never thought about before. Like the significance of "landry day." And why you had to iron so much (it makes EVERYTHING wrinkly!)--not that I intend to iron more, cause I'm lazy. And the phrase about dirty laundry out for everyone to see. Granted, I knew about all these things, but I sure think about them differently now.

We started the clothes line for fun, truly. It takes a little bit more time, but not a lot. Plus, my kids think it's fun to run through the clothes when they're hanging up. And it saves on energy and hence money, which will figure into a good story I'll tell in a minute.

Elijah

I was taking the boys somewhere in the van and Elijah yaked my ear off. He was trying to get me to guess something he was thinking off. I couldn't guess it. Now, normally if we're trying to get our kids to guess something and it's a word we know they know, we will give them the starting sound. You know, like, you want them to think of turtle, so you give them the t sound. This works marvelously for Miciah, and Elijah just looks at us like, "And that's supposed to be helpful?" So Elijah was trying to get me to guess his word, so he gave me the starting sounds for t, p, k, and t again. Then he said, "It's a hippo!" ... It occured to me in that moment that he has NO IDEA what we're giving him the starting sounds for. It cracked me up.

Teancom

Teancom's speech is getting clearer and clearer, which is wonderful. He now says everyone's name, including his own. Miciah is Mi-Tiah. Elijah is E-wi-dah. And Teancom is Tay-come.

Miciah

Miciah is having a hard time with life lately, it seems. While C was in town, we went to a friend's house for FHE. We were on our way over and she was mad at us for not letting her play with a friend instead of going to FHE. She declared, "You're the worst parents ever!" I just looked at Rob and said, "That's not the last time we'll hear that, I'm sure." She said she wanted to go live with the W's and we told her we'd ask them if they also had rules. JW was really good when we got there telling Miciah all about the rules they have, including some of the very same rules we have.

We've been making some financial decisions lately. For instance, we've decided to take down the fish tank (that will happen today or tomorrow) as well as give Cleo away to someone else. We told Miciah that we were going to give our fish back to the pet store and she started crying a lot. She said, through tears, "My life has never been as horrible as this!" We brought her into our room and sat on our bed with her. Rob then told her about the decision to get rid of Cleo. Miciah started bawling hysterically. Rob and I felt kind of bad, but it's a good decision and feels right, so we tried to be as strong as possible. I held Miciah for a good 15 minutes letting her cry and talking to her. I told her that I've been stressed and sad lately, too. I told her that there are decisions we've had to make that were hard decisions. I told her we were also getting rid of one of our cell phones, and that's partly why we were using a clothes line. She said, "Well, the clothes line is fine, but I don't want to get rid of the fish or Cleo or the cell phone." It was interesting watching her sadness and disappointment and seeing how much of it reflected how I've been feeling through these last few stressful months. Granted, I haven't bawled like a baby over the fish tank and my "best friend" Cleo, but I have cried. And it was a good moment.

Well, that's pretty much life here. There are probably stories I meant to tell that I've forgotten about by now, who knows. But that pretty much gets us up-to-date. Pray that we will survive till Tuesday, and that our house will be a happy one.

Tamra

A Mammoth Adventure

My brother C came in town and we took the opportunity to go to Mammoth Cave. I figured having 3 adults for 3 kids was a pretty good ratio, perhaps the best we were going to get. So we went down early-ish last Saturday. We forgot about the time change (it's just barely into the next time zone, and only that because the time zone slashes diagonally across the state of Kentucky), but it gave us time to eat some lunch when we got there.

We had only bought tickets for 1 tour because we wanted to also do the self-tour, and you can't get self-tour tickets on-line or in advance. So we changed our day around a little so we could do the self-tour first. In the future there are a few things I will DEFINITELY do when I go to Mammoth:

#1- Do the self-guided tour second.

#2- NEVER EVER GO TO MAMMOTH DURING PEAK SEASON!

We missed peak season by a few weeks. Not on purpose, mind you, it just happened that way. But in the future it WILL be on purpose. The lines were almost non-existent. It was lovely.

Anyways. We had a little down time while we were deciding on tours, etc. Rob took this picture of the group of us looking really bored. It's a plus and negative for Mammoth, really. You can do a lot of things, and there's as much down time as you want, but figuring out exactly how much down time to plan and how to do it, that's harder. ... Note the older couple sitting next to us. They were super nice and were trying to get Elijah to talk to them. He scowled at them. It was funny. While Miciah will talk to everyone (if you have a pulse, she will talk to you until you're BFF), Elijah will talk to almost no one. It's funny.


Down into the Historic Entrance of the cave. It's awesome! You can feel the cold air from a fourth of a mile away, maybe more. Then as you're walking down into the cave, it's blasting cold air at you. Let me tell you, 53 degrees F feels REALLY NICE in August (even though this has actually been a really pleasant August)! And the entrance is huge. Just huge.

We saw a bat on our way in. Have to take a picture of a bat when you're in a cave, right! Incidentally, the nice older couple from our wait? They're the ones who told us where the bat was. So you CAN benefit from talking to strangers.

We saw people walk into the cave wearing shorts and T-shirts. Don't do that. 53 degrees is colder than you think. Especially when you're in there for a few hours. For instance, one of the rangers we saw inside the cave was wearing a coat and gloves.

Caves are dark. C took this picture before remembering that my camera has a flash. I liked this picture anyways. Kind of hauting. It's me in the middle (the sort-of image blur you almost see) and Miciah on the side.

The first "room" you come to once you're a good ways inside the cave is the Rotunda. Wow. It's amazingly huge. I remember as a kid looking up at that ceiling and thinking, "It's going to crash down on me, I just know it!" It was hard, even as an adult, to NOT think that. :) Really, anyone who goes inside a cave is an idiot. But they're so cool! How can you resist the beauty, scope, and history of a place like Mammoth Cave? You can't. So you become okay with being an idiot and you walk inside the cave.

Inside the Rotunda is lots of history. During the War of 1812 they mined saltpetre for gun powder. Two cool things about that: 1- saltpetre is bat poop. 2- They made these long pipes out of WOOD. All the way from the Rotunda to the mouth of the cave (and possibly up the hill, too? I dunno about that part). Wicked cool. The pipes are still in tact for part of it.

Part of the history of Mammoth Cave is from thousands of years ago. Native Americans came inside the cave, took gypsum from the walls, left artifacts, and at least one even died in the cave. One of the artifacts left behind was a pair of shoes or slippers. They had a pair on display--they were remarkably well-preserved, we thought, so we asked about them. The original pair had been on display in a glass display box. The box was broken and the slippers stolen some time in the 80's. I asked the ranger if they had another pair. Nope. And that's sadness.

This picture is a near-repeat from the picture above it, but I included it so you can see a little bit of the scope I'm talking about. You can just make out the ceiling and far wall. And this isn't the Rotunda. It's just a passageway.

The self-tour isn't long. Like 3/4 mile. Enough for you to want to go further and see more. I liked this picture. The sign says, "Do Not Enter", so of course that's the place my kids wanted to go.

After the self-tour we had to walk all the way back up the huge hill. I remember that hill from when I was a kid. I hated it! :) But it wasn't so bad this time because I was accompaning Teancom who insisted on walking by himself. He didn't just walk by himself, but by himself on the curb. The itty-bitty curb. It was a leisurely walk. ... Any other kid who was walking down the hill on the curb got yelled at by a cute little 2-year-old boy who thought he owned that space. To one kid Teancom said, "Hey! You're in trouble!"

The next tour was the New Entrance Tour, which was previously called the Frozen Niagra Tour. This is one of the COOLEST tours to do because it has pretty darn neat formations in it. Most of Mammoth Cave is cool because it's so, well, mammoth. But it doesn't have many formations. This part of the cave does. It's intimidating, though, starting the tour. You start by going down 250 feet on these wicked-cool stairs. Here's a picture of me on part of the stairs.

These stairs, honestly, are a little scary. You weave through the cave's 14 vertical shafts. There are drop-offs. You can hit your head at almost every turn. Miciah, who was very brave, kept saying, "I can't believe I'm doing this." Some interesting history of the stairs: They took 20 years to build. Usually in caves, she said, you blast the cave to fit the stairs. They didn't want to do that, so it took them a long, long time to build. I would NOT have wanted to be a part of that project. There are 280 stairs and they cost $3,000 PER STAIR--that's $840,000 total (and they were built between 1960 and 1980, so imagine that number with inflation).

It takes quite a while to get down the stairs, so we had some down time waiting for the rest of the group. So we got to take some pictures. Miciah took pictures of rocks. I didn't include those pictures on this blog, sadly. Another sad thing: cave pictures don't turn out well. Bummer, too, cause caves are freakin' awesome! I liked this picture, though:

Miciah and C as we waited. Notice his sweatshirt. He came from Utah and totally forgot to bring a sweatshirt for the cave. So he got to be a Thacker for the day. :) ... The first picture I took, C looked like he was on drugs. To that comment he said, "I am on drugs." I said, "Oh. Well then it turned out perfect." And then I took another picture.

We should have done this tour first if we expected to have decently behaved children. :) But it was not to be. The kids weren't horrid, but they could have been a lot better. It struck me as they all melted down in their own way that if C hadn't been with us, we would have been toast. Elijah started going crazy. I chastized him for it finally and he did his Elijah withdraw thing. Normally there's time to deal with that sort of thing, but not when you're in a cave tour with 113 other people. So Rob took Elijah and I took Teancom, who he'd been carrying.
We went from happy children, like Teancom on Rob's shoulders (picture taken during the self-tour), to children like this:

I love Rob's expression in that picture. Priceless. Honest. By the last half hour of the tour Teancom was asleep in my arms, Elijah was exhausted, and Miciah was uber-whiny. C's job was to carry the camera when I didn't have it. My camera is my other baby. And let me tell you, it's SO NICE to have pictures of me with my family, and pictures of me at angles I've almost never seen before. So THANK YOU, C!

The best part of the New Entrance Tour is Frozen Niagra and the curtain room, I think they call it. We didn't get any decent pictures of it (cause NO ONE does except the professionals), sorry. I didn't go down to see it, though, because Rob and I went to Mammoth two years back, and C hadn't been for years and years. So I held Teancom and didn't walk down the 50 stairs (that's 100 total. With a sleeping baby. No thanks). And that is what Miciah cried about the whole time: I want my mommy! You just can't win.

People passed me holding my sleeping toddler. Most of them chuckled or smiled. One woman, a grandmother going through with her pre-teen granddaughters, said, "Are your arms cramped yet?" I told her they weren't. She said, "I remember those days. I remember my arms cramping! It hurt!" My arms didn't hurt then. They didn't hurt for the rest of the day. And then the NEXT day: Wham! I could hardly use my right arm! :) Good times.

On the way out of the cave we saw these 2 cave crickets. They looked more like spiders, really, with these long spindly legs. ... I like this picture because you have to orient yourself a little. Those crickets are on the ceiling.

So even though we did the tours in the wrong order, it was way fun and totally worth it. I have a love for Mammoth Cave that would be inexplicable if so many other people didn't have it. :) It's just a cave you fall in love with, I think. Well, at least I fall in love with it again every time I go.

Back from Vacation Photo Essay

This is the Back from Vacation Photo Essay Update in the first of two installments. Tune in later (if desired) for the Word Essay Update.

Tamra and family

What Mom's Been Doing with Her Time

Mom has been playing with C non-stop since she's been here. She's watched our kids, even though Elijah is just barely warming up to her. He doesn't know what to think of this stranger who is "grandma" but not C. She's gotten sick, partied with us, and been to bed really late.

Here are 2 pictures. One of Mom and C playing. The other showing off their handiwork. They made mermaids for everyone in the world and enjoyed every minute of it.

We've loved having her here!

Tamra

Stories of Elijah and Mom. When Mom first arrived, I told Elijah to go give Grandma a hug and he walked right past Mom and gave C a hug. He wouldn't let her hold him for the longest time. And one morning she told Elijah good morning and he spit at her!

My present

C's been so excited about getting a present for me. Says it's a birthing present. He gave it to me yesterday and I'm learning how to use it today. Guess what my present is?

Tamra

Miciah turns 2!

Some pictures from Miciah's 2nd Birthday.

My two brothers, J and C. J was in Utah for a few months between HS and his mission. He happened to be in Utah for Miciah's birthday party.

C and J holding Miciah. This would probably be a better photo if J wasn't closing his eyes. :)

Miciah with her cake and ice cream. There's nothing quite like naked babies eating birthday cake. In the picture is also Grandma Thacker.

We sang Happy Birthday to Miciah and the whole time she was clinging to me because she was afraid of the fire on the candles. :) (Teancom just had his 2nd birthday party a few days ago and I told Miciah that when she was 2, she was afraid of the candles. She thought that was pretty silly.)

For Miciah's birthday Aunt B gave her a brown bag full of tomatos! Miciah loves tomatos, so she was thrilled with that gift. She spent most of the night with tomatos in her hand or her mouth, or both.

Our thanks to B & G for letting us use their digital camera for these pictures, as well as hosting the party! Lots of family came and they wouldn't have fit in our tiny apartment. In fact, most times when we wanted to invite family, we had the party at B & G's or at Grandma Thacker's house. Thank you.

Also of note: This was the birthday party where Aunt A gave Miciah the totally annoying Leap Frog airplane. It was a gag gift, and it was mean. We still have it, though it will often be in months-long time-outs (when I can no longer stand the thing). Now that we have a basement play room, though, it stays down there almost all the time, and that's okay with me. So long as I don't have to hear it.

(written 23 July 2008)

Out to Eat

This is a picture of me and C with Miciah at TGIF's in Provo (I think). Pretty sure this was a going away party for some friend of C's.

Either way, it's worth noting a few things:

1 - I am like 3 months pregnant with Elijah in this picture.

2 - Good memories of C and Utah. Rob and I really enjoyed our time we spent in Utah. We have lots of family there and it was a great place to start our marriage out. Plus, being so close to C was heavenly. He's one of my bestest buds in the world. I can't imagine that ever changing.

3 - C was always taking us out to restaraunts and insisting to pay for it. Rob and I got to the point where we didn't even fight it, we just let C pay. C would take just me and Miciah, or all of us. I think by the end of our Utah stay he was taking us out at least once a week. I'm sure it totalled hundreds of dollars. ... For Valentine's Day 2004, some friends of ours offered to watch Miciah so we could go on a date (me and Rob, not me and C). They had Valentine's Day issues because he'd worked at a flower shop before. Anyways. My mother had also given us some money to go watch a movie she wanted us to see: Big Fish (excellent movie, by the way). Except I got free movie tickets all the time through work. So we took the money she gave us and brought C along to a restaraunt we liked (we did clear this with her first. We would have saved the free tickets for another time, probably, but we knew we'd be moving out-of-state in a few months). So, on Valentine's Day, we took my brother with us to a restaraunt and we INSISTED that we pay for it. He let us, since it wasn't our money anyways. It was a nice way to say thank you for his generosity.

4 - C was also inviting me to lots of outings with his friends. We'd play volleyball. We'd got to restaraunts. It was nice to have C as a link to a few more friends (and occasionally a few more babysitters).

(written 23 July 2008)