aunt janice

Mumsy called this afternoon to let me know Aunt Janice passed away this morning. Here she is in 1942 with her brother (my grandfather) Ernest, father and mother. Isn't she beautiful?

I have great memories of being in Aunt Janice's home in Salt Lake. First and foremost, it was CLEAN and smelled great (like clean and eucalyptus and good food). Despite the prevailing cleanliness I don't remember feeling stifled in her home, as if we couldn't do anything or touch anything. There aren't many homes out there that are clean and comfortable.

Aunt Janice was also VERY kind. I remember having the privilege of riding with her in her Cadillac from Salt Lake to Huntsville, up the canyon to the McKay family home. The canyon road is not kind to those of us prone to motion sickness and I got car sick, but was determined to not throw up. I almost made it. I threw up all over her purse just before I got out of the car at our destination - ouch. She didn't say a word (in my memory anyhow, and that's all that counts, right?).

Aunt Janice had a stroke 15-20 years ago and was seriously disabled. She lost speech and many other abilities. I remember her getting sad a frustrated because she wasn't able or allowed to help in the kitchen any more - grrrrrr. I also remember her face totally lighting up whenever I went with my mom to see her. She and my mom were good friends. Mom used to go up to Janice's house in SLC from BYU to escape when life got to be too much. Aunt Janice would feed her good on chocolate cake and stay up late to watch M.A.S.H. She was a gem. She also was happy to see me, which always made me feel very special, since I was only one of lots of great nieces and nephews.

I feel very grateful she has finally been released from a very broken body. She really was a classy, kind, gracious, and wonderful lady and I can't wait to meet her again, whole and beautiful with a chocolate cake!

there and back again, a mommy's tale

Wowee-wow, wow! We love Junie B. Jones books on CD, we laughed and laughed, and also, we chuckled, and it made me look real joyful! Plus, also, our grandma, Jeanne Boren was really enjoying it too, but Grandpa Nelson Boren was unappreciative. Sometimes, we don't understand that guy! He needs to spend more time with little girls:).

So, we are back from Utah - fun and frivolity and only a little bit of the flu. Mel's play "The Pirates of Penzance" was stellar, charming, and so much fun (an extra thanks to Jess, Brian and G&G for letting me go to the show all by myself on Thursday).

We played all week. We started with a great sledding outing at David and Sherrie's (Nathan and Em are still BFF) followed up with 2 days at Donny and Amanda - wow is Maverick fun and has fun toys. Grammy and Grampy made an appearance and we got to see Nelson relations as well (too many to count). On Monday we sent Ry home and the kids and I headed up to Jess and Brain's for President Day celebrations. Log cabins were constructed (Abe lived in one, you know), festive and patriotic waffles were consumed, and the girls and boy were introduced to the ways of the force.

Aunt Jessica's house was a dream: light sabers, toys, movies, popcorn, hot cocoa, COUSINS, Uncle Brian, a book called Pinkalicious, a delicious baby named Sage, and on and on and on. Wow!

The girls loved Aunt Mel's show (as did I). Isaac was fussy so he and Daddy (who flew back just for the show - what a brother in law) and Uncle Brian and Sage were in the hall for most of it - so sad.

We woke up early on Saturday (exhausted) and caravaned home with Grandma and Grandpa who planned on spending a few days. Those days, of course, were filled with McKay-ness - Colin's homecoming, cousin party at Cam's Sunday afternoon, Chinese food on Monday at Cam's because Jen needed more Aunt Jeanne time, a morning of Aunt Joan on Tuesday and then Uncle Ern's on Tuesday night. I tell you Missy, we are pooped! (More Junie B.)

I will post some choice pictures from all the festivities. Enjoy!

The Chases on Chase Lane in Bountiful


Log cabins


Jedi princess, notice the Cinderella heels


Nora and Katie have a long history of graham crackers


More and more dress-ups


Isaac and the gorgeous Sage


Jedi - wow


Reading with Grandpa


Eric and Miles (Brooke and Daniel's baby)


Clan McKay


All the Aunties


What a fam


Seeing shows makes me want to be in one - whine, whine!


Em and Nora ready for the show


David and Diana


Katie and Nora


Em's new hair-do, she loves her bangs

the cambridge corner

My cousin Emily's handsome hubby was dismayed when a recent post on their family blog featured a photo with an overflowing garbage can in the background (They had just celebrated a b-day, so it was full of paper plates etc). With the unwritten blog rule that all bloggers must be perfect mothers with perfect children and perfectly clean homes, I can understand his frustration, clearly an overflowing garbage can does NOT belong in the blogging world.

I assured Emily that the B.P. (blogging police) would overlook her infraction, just this once! Then I took a good look at my blog and was horrified to note the majority of photos have the "Cambridge Corner" in the background. Explanation: Ryan and I and a 6 week old Diana moved to Cambridge, MA so Ryan could go to MIT. We moved from a 1600 sq ft house that was largely empty to 400 sq ft in a high rise (and yes, our rent was almost as much as our mortgage has been - ah the east coast), but I digress.

It quickly became apparent that we would need to squeeze a desk into our little apt, so, being the nice wife I am, I found one for $20 from some Indian guy who was finishing his MIT stint. The thing weighs a TON and is pretty darn ugly, and unlike the Indian guy, we didn't just sell it to some other grad student when we were done - Oh no, we carted it all the way across the country and here it sits in my kitchen. You know, Brother Brigham did say, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without". Thanks a lot Brigham. The desk is indestructible and will never wear out.

Anyhow, the desk is for art supplies, computer stuff, YM/YW binders, financial documents, Ryan's tax file, and it is surrounded by my recently acquired bean stash (they were on sale and beans have FIBER!). Oh yea, and lets not forget the recycling bucket that lives under the desk when Isaac is asleep and on the desk when he is awake lest the recyclables end up all over the house.

Needless to say, it is a highly functional, but not attractive part of our house. I humbly apologize to the B.P. and all my faithful readers for subjecting the Blogging World to the imperfection.

amazo

I bought this 10 lb box of baking soda right after we got married in '02. I finished it off yesterday. (Yes it expired in '06, but, what the hay!) I love never running out of stuff (I'm now working through a 25 lb bag of salt - bliss.)

call out the cavelry

trip to the moon

Emily really wants to take a trip to the moon and the rocket they made out of a car seat box was not doing the job, so she and Dad went to the hobby shop and bought a model rocket. I guess Ryan was quite the model rocket guy as a kid and teenager, so building it was fun for him, as well as the girls. We will launch in a few weeks, maybe when Grandma and Grandpa are here. It will be exciting.

stock and colin

I killed the first Stock (the sourdough start) and Linda, my supplier, who has AWESOME customer service, mailed me a new one, which I woke up last week. Today is the day I'm trying bread again. Linda will not let me fail, but it is wearing on my nerves to not be successful at this. I made a proofing box out of a cooler, light and my atomic clock with a thermometer on it - hopefully it helps!

Even more exciting, here in AZ. . . .cousin Colin gets home tomorrow! He has been gone a VEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRY long time and we are happy he is returning alllllll the way from southern CA. A lot of water has gone under the bridge in McKay land in 2 years.

p.s. Had a dream last night that I was pregnant with twin boys - is it a warning, a fear or the enchiladas I ate last night?

I have a nice guest room

I know because I slept in there (and was awake in there) last night. Isaac climbed into my lap at 5 pm, when I am usually making dinner, but it was a blessed crock pot night. We rocked and he fell asleep, feeling a little warm. He slept through dinner and woke up at bath time, no longer feeling a little warm - he was full on HOT 103.3 ikk. Needless to say, he had a rough night and because Ryan has a real job I got baby duty (not complaining, I would MUCH rather have baby duty than a real job, no offense to those great 7th graders I taught at DRJH).

Isaac's fever broke around 4 and he has been genki (Japanese for happy) ever since. I am working on my genki as I also work though too many loads of laundry to count. And yes, that is a sock he is snuggling in the picture.

Even more exciting than my laundry obligations: Emily learned, under Diana's expert tutelage, how to pump herself on the swing! Excellent! We made homemade lemonade and toasted her success.

the fated 100

Here it is, post # 100, but never fear, I will not be posting 100 fun facts about
the chocolate covered Chases- I just can't, sorry. However, in celebration of this
momentous milestone in blogging history, I will share the pictures I cleaned off
the camera yesterday with exciting, witty, and insightful comments, by me.

Nora's 80's inspired hair-do. Not really, she actually fell off something she should not have been on in the backyard while I was giving a voice lesson and split the back of her head. I super glued it and then she had to wear this scarf to keep the gauze on it. She is fine.


Isaac loves the washing machine, dishwasher, drawers, fridge, etc. . . . I have locks on everything, except the washing machine since I have to keep it open so it doesn't smell musty. Sometimes I feel like a really bad parent for not taking the time to truly teach Isaac not to open things (the whole "No" and then re-direct attention tactic), but he is just plain busy and locks help. I don't want a broken dishwasher from him climbing in it.


Emily's amazing Meg dance at pre-school. It wasn't as free and expressive as her practices, but whatever.


Maddix (yep - a cute little girl named Maddix, not my favorite name, oh well), Emily, and Isobel as the three little pigs.


Our zoo has a Little People themed play ground that the kids enjoyed.




One of our family goals this year was to actually use the sleeping bags received for Christmas (the Cinderella ones). So Dad and the girls had a great camp-out on the back lawn. The girls did great and LOVED the tent, the bags, etc. Ryan is enjoying having bigger kids. He bought a prism and they have had fun making rainbows. It's becoming a Saturday tradition for Dad and the kids to look at Dad's space books, and they are going to build and launch a model rocket soon (Emily is especially excited for that one). He has also started doing Diana's reading with her at night. He is a much better teacher than I am (so much for that education degree) and she loves the Daddy time. I love watching him enjoying his kids and them enjoying time together.


On a random note: It's 9:30 am and Diana just woke up. We have had a few busy days in a row and I guess she was tuckered and just really needed those 14 hours of sleep! WOW!