2011 Slideshow

For the past few years we've celebrated New Year's Eve by making a slideshow of the year. The slideshow is always one song long and we spend much of the year debating what the slideshow song should be. I lean towards dramatic and sentimental music while Bill prefers understated. Somehow--at the last minute--we always find the perfect song. I usually spend the better part of New Year's Eve gathering photos from different computers, phones and friends' facebook pages. And then I have the job of whittling down the photos to represent a year. Inevitably stuff is left out. Good photos are cut and poor quality photos left in. We had a big year this year and most of the milestones were not photographed. My dad's dad and my mom's mom died. Lizzy started high school, Zoey started middle school and Will started kindergarten. John started piano and chess (not real milestones but I couldn't leave him out.) But even without those events, I think the slideshow captures 2011. Putting it together I watched it nearly 100 times and I'm still not tired of it.

On this day 19 years ago...

I spoke to Bill for the first time and in the course of the conversation I told him I loved him--not seriously but I said those words all the same. His hair was a little longer than it is in his I.D. card above and he was wearing a Grateful Dead T-shirt. Probably because of the long hair and the t-shirt I did not consider him boyfriend material. That all changed when I heard his ACT score a few days later--just kidding (kind of.)

Thinking back to when we first met, despite lots of late night talks bringing each other up to date with our life stories, I didn't really know who Bill was. In many ways I was in love with a Bill I imagined in my head. Over the years, over and over again I've discovered how much more amazing the real Bill is to the mythical Bill I first fell in love with. And now I wonder if some of my first love hyperbole wasn't some sort of second sight, that though at the time I couldn't fully explain or articulate why Bill was the "most wonderful boy ever," something in me recognized his beautiful soul.

I hesitate to say too much about how good my husband is. Praise generally makes Bill uncomfortable. So if I praise him, it's for myself and even though I have a blog I do try to avoid bragging. But it is worth mentioning once in a while and even documenting for my children how proud I am of my husband. Every day he faces death. He is an oncologist who specializes in palliative care. He is called in by doctors from all specialties to help when patients are dying. He has the courage to face some of life's hardest and most painful moments. He has to tell patients and their families that they are not getting better, that they are going to die, sometimes soon. These meetings often go several hours. Bill usually begins with, "Tell me about your life..." or if the patient is incoherent, "Tell me about your father..." And then he watches death--sometimes sudden, sometimes arduous and try his best make those lost weeks, days and hours--comfortable. Most of his patients and their families love him and appreciate his long hours and big heart. But some yell and scream and vent all their frustration and disappointment at him. He works long crazy hours. He comes home with heartbreaking stories--parents losing children, young children losing parents, bodies disintegrating. Generally, he can't stop death, but even in the face of death he helps people heal.

Then he comes home and sweeps the floor and orders groceries on-line and wrestles with his boys. He spends half of his Saturday's doing paperwork and all of his Sunday's doing church work. Every spare moment he gives to us. He truly is a good man.

So hear's to the wisdom of young love and great souls hiding out in Grateful Dead t-shirts. Ruth

Why is Lizzy smiling so?

She is about to see Taylor Swift in concert.



People show their excitement different ways. Lizzy and her friend Jessie definitely fall in the screaming fan girl category. Zoey and Mia are more understated.

Mia and Jessie are also sisters and conveniently I'm good friends with their mom Beth who also came on this adventure. We splurged a bit an stayed at the Marriott right by the Staples center.

You don't just go to a Taylor Swift concert, you prepare. The girls spent three days, making banners and deciding what to wear. This banner is fabric--so it can be sneakily tucked in a purse and double sided. The other side read:

Which for those who don't listen to Taylor Swift everyday (like we do in our house) is a line from the song "Long Live." The girls decided rather than wearing Taylor Swift T-shirts they would go dressed as Taylor Swift. I was surprised when they told me this and thought, "How original." Apparently 10,000 other girls got the memo. I have never seen so many sundresses and cowboy boots, as well as glittery dresses and blond wigs. Lizzy's hair is naturally curly and perfect and she had the supreme compliment from other concertgoers who said, "You know you actually look like Taylor Swift." Like Taylor they all wrote a number 13 on their hands and song lyrics on their arms.


Since one reversible banner was not enough. Zoey and Mia made a shimmery one.


And Lizzy and Jessie made another glittery one. One fortunate thing was our seats were against a wall so we could raise our banners high. This was the first concert where I could sing a long with every song. (As you may have guessed Lizzy often chooses what music we listen to.) The concert was a far cry from the concerts I went to as a teenager--think muddy hillside at Parkwest. It was more like going to a Broadway show, with elaborate sets, costumes and dancers. One of the reasons I've stopped going to concerts (in addition to the exorbitant price of tickets) is that over and over again I have been disenchanted by the performers egos and the inevitable profanity and vulgarity spewed from their mouths. It was so refreshing to go to a concert that was completely family friendly. And Taylor was so lovely and gracious and energetic--I have no idea how she keeps up that enthusiasm. After just one night of singing and dancing you can see the girls were a little tuckered out.


But this is the image that pops in my head whenever Lizzy and Zoey talk about the trip.

Happy Birthday Zoey

Last year every Thursday as I drove Zoey to viola we would listen to Zoey's favorite Taylor Swift song, "Never Grow Up" over and over. Unlike some kids who can't wait to grow up, Zoey revels in childhood. Despite her friends teasing, she wears twirly skirts to school; she spends hours playing with her dolls and some of her closest friends are 8-year-old girls. Still growing up is inevitable, in two weeks she will start middle school--middle school can you believe it? But before then to celebrate her birthday we are taking a girl's trip to LA where we will visit the American Girl doll store and see Taylor Swift in concert. Growing up is inevitable but we are going to make the most of childhood.

Sharks and Butterflies

This week's Phineas and Ferb Friday was based on "Belly of the Beast. " In this episode the brothers make a mechanical shark and Dr. Doofenshmirtz makes lots and lots of saltwater taffy.
We made a papier-mâché shark. Not really to Phineas and Ferb standards--but we try.


Next we visited the lab of a friend from church to see sharks and other sea creatures.

This is a leopard shark. Nick's specialty is Mako sharks. However, they do not adapt well to captivity, so no Mako sharks for us. We did see a lot of other amazing sea creatures, including: abalone, cuttlefish, sting rays, star fish, sea urchins and anemones.


Above, Nick is showing us a brittle starfish. Everyone loves it when Nick is speaking in church. He always finds a way to tell a good shark story. On Friday he had lots of good stories for us. Just last week he was tagging manta rays in Mexico and swimming with whale sharks--whale sharks (for those of you who don't regularly read shark books to their children) are the largest fish on earth up to 30 feet long. Can you even imagine? And he was putting cameras in their mouths.

One of the many things I learned is that if you lick a sea anemone it will make your tongue fizz and pop and then go numb for about an hour. I guess the young men in our ward have all tried it. We all declined.

Check-eth it out, he also took us out on the famous Scripps Pier. (Yeah, "Check-eth it out" is a reference from the Belly and Beast episode. Those of you not familiar with Phineas and Ferb are really missing out. We watch it on NetFlix.)

Phineas and Ferb Fridays are so fun, our group keeps getting bigger and bigger. And this is not even a complete photo--no adults and no Lizzy.

Oh here's Lizzy holding up Emma to see into the tanks. I can't say how much more fun it was to see the animals in a lab versus in an aquarium. It was so good of Nick to take the time to show us around. And he was so patient with our large, often very loud group. Thank You.

Afterward, we thought we might make homemade taffy--ala Doofenshmirtz. But saner minds prevailed and we decided snacking on store bought taffy and hitting a shark piñata would be enough fun.

It was.

Yes, it was.

Now for the butterflies. Several years ago I gave my mom California milkweed seeds for her birthday. Hoping to attract monarch butterflies I had tried growing them in my own yard but without success. My mom had a green thumb and her plants flourished. After she died, we moved a couple milkweed plants from her yard. Each year the we seem to get more and more butterflies. We like to capture a few caterpillars and bring them into the house so we can watch them grow big and fat, form a pale green chrysalis and then come out a new creature.


It so amazing when the butterfly first emerges from the chrysalis. A new monarch is like a newborn who instinctively grasps on to your finger. A newborn butterfly--still drying it's wings-- seems to prefer human companions. One butterfly we nicknamed Leroy stayed in Lizzy's hair for more than 8 hours.


Watching the whole process has filled our home with hope. The caterpillar turning into a butterfly is such a beautiful metaphor. When we didn't know better we mistook one black chrysalis as a failure. All the plants in the jar had wilted and there was some mold growing. Then we noticed the chrysalis was moving. We discovered that the chrysalis turns black just before the butterfly emerges. One more reminder that sometimes what we mistake for the end, is actually a new beginning.

Phineas and Ferb Fridays

OK I know I haven't blogged forever and now we're back with a random video. I think I owe ya'all some explanation. We've had a remarkably busy and fun summer. The kids have been busy doing jobs in the mornings (sometimes well into late afternoon) and then we do something fun. On Fridays this fun activity is based on a Phineas and Ferb episode. We call these Phineas and Ferb Fridays and they have been the highlight of the summer. If you're interested my friend Jordan posted photos of "S'winter" and "Summer Belongs to You." Whether or not you are interested I'm posting the video we made because a few of you have been anxiously awaiting our film debut.



We did this all from costumes, casting and story development to most of the editing in one afternoon. Hard to believe. ;)

A funny clip from the open house

The best part is in the first 15 seconds.