Geth

I actually consider myself lucky that I've been a mom for 10 years and have never had to do a paper maiche project. That luck ran out last week. Okay, it really wasn't so bad and being the mean mom that I am, I made Gavin do most of the work. It was his school project and he actually had fun with it (I was elbow deep in canning tomatoes and probably would have had more fun doing paper maiche!).
Gavin needed to create a display of a character from his favorite book. Of course, what else would he choose but Leven Thumps. One of his favorite characters from this book is Geth. Gavin talked and I typed about Geth - please forgive the grammar and thought wanderings.

Hi, my name is Geth and I’m a character from Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo. In this book, Leven has to get to Foo so he can destroy the Gateway so Sabine cannot get out. Leven is an offing, who is a person who came into Foo at one time and can see the future and manipulate it. Sabine is a nit who can freeze things and thaw them by his touch. He is one of the evil characters in the book. Winter is a nit, like Sabine. Leven and Winter travel to Germany to the Gateway. Clover, who is a scycophant, helps Winter and Leven through the trials in the book.
I was originally a person. Then Sabine cursed me and turned me into a fantrum seed. I grew into a large tree in Leven’s yard. I am also the last Lithum of The Order of Wonder. Leven’s Dad chopped me down and took to a lumber yard. Then I was made into a toothpick. I was sold to Tina’s diner. It was luck that the man sitting next to Leven picked me out of a jar and used me. When he bit me, it formed an eye. That was when I first saw Leven. Winter stepped on me and that is how Leven found me. I made another eye, a nose, two ears, two arms and two legs for myself.
While Leven was sleeping, Sabine’s shadows were making bizarre dreams in his head telling him he was worthless and couldn’t do anything. Winter came to Leven’s house, put me down on my old stump and I picked up the house with my roots. Winter then froze it and then I dropped it. The house shattered into a dizillion pieces. Then we traveled around trying to get to Germany and to the Gateway to Foo. Leven wanted to go home again, so Clover had to bite him. Scycophants have a vemon which cause people to see good pictures of scycophants. While Leven is sleeping, Winter freezes him in the train and we ride all the way to Maine. While in Maine, we stole a convertible and drove across the water, which Winter has froze, and we drove almost all the way to France, where we ran out of gas. A fishing boat picked us up and took us to France. We caught a ride from a taxi to Germany. I rode in Winter’s pocket this whole time and been encouraging them to keep going and, saying, “Time is of the essence”.

So, Gavin being Gavin, we couldn't just carefully cut arms and legs from an actual toothpick. We had to made him gimourous, out of paper maiche. It really wasn't too bad and Gavin really liked the finished project. He wanted him a lot taller so me could have legs too, but I drew the line at a six-foot toothpick. He had fun making it and I can guarantee it was the only over-sized, paper maiche toothpick in his class!

Crawling Update

I knew it wouldn't take long for Kate to be movin and groovin. She started crawling on her hands and knees on Thursday, Sept 18; one day shy of her 7th month birthday. She really took off, crawling a few feet her first try. She is now everywhere and only a few days after crawling, she is half-way pulling herself up to things. She can roll any which way and go from a sitting position to crawling and back to sitting. She also does this thing where whe gets up on her hands and feet and then walks a few steps. Doesn't work so well though when she is only moving her feet and not her hands. Greg put up our gate last night. She still has a hard time crawling on the hardwood floors, but she can push and scoot herself to the stairs. She is so proud of herself and loves to be mobile. Her brothers are learning just how quick she is and they keep complaining that now they have to clean up their stuff from off the floor. News Flash Guys!! it's only going to get worse!

You can't spell Enoch without "no"!

So, how true is that? You can't spell Enoch without spelling no. Good grief, but he is a stubborn Fowler. (For those of you who know the Fowler's, this is not a surprise. They are all stubborn, headstrong and independent. Even mild-mannered Greg will dig his heels in when pushed in certain situations.) Enoch is probably my most independent and stubborn child (although already Kate is running a close second). I know he is three and these are all characteristics of three-year-olds, but I'm telling you, he is stubborn. Add to that moody and pouty and we have a winning combination at 11pm when he still won't go to bed.
Don't get me wrong, Enoch is also my funniest kid, saying things that completely crack me up and he has the most expressive face. I love my Enoch dearly, but I'm not sure I'm going to survive him. When I ask him to do something he responds with a, "no thank you", because if you say it polietly, it's okay to say no. And anytime I get angry with him he laughs at me and says, "Silly Mom" or "You are a oatmeal head" (aunt Michelle will be happy to learn that she is not the only oatmeal head!) or my favorite, "Silly oatmeal head".
He is also the messiest of all of us. He leaves toys, clothes, food and dirt in his wake and could care less about cleaning up. His idea of cleaning up is to sing the Clean-Up Song while watching Mom clean up. Okay, again, I know he is three (messy, smelly three).
Since Enoch is now learning his letters things have been disappearing from our home. How can that be related? If anything has an 'E' on it, that item automatically belongs to Enoch and he stashes it away in his loft. After missing the TV remote for days we went looking for it and found it in his loft along with about 15 other things that were missing. It took us a few minutes to understand Enoch's logic, but of course, it made perfect sense to him. We can't wait until he learns the letters N, O, C and H. Who knows how much stuff he can fit in that loft.
Right now I'm watching him watch one of his favorite shows, Cyberspace, and can't believe the cute smile he has, the chocolate milk mustache and beard that constantly covers his face and his dirty hands from exploring in the backyard. He is so curious and lives life the way I wish I would let myself. Nothing is off limits to him, nothing is to big or small to tackle, nothing is beyond his notice and nothing can't be made into something fun. What an amazing kid! He is my absolutely joy and inspiration. And while I whole-heartedly mean all it, this will be good to look back on when he is 16!
This past week, I seem to get quite a few views of Enoch's behind. I know he'll kill me for posting these photo later on, but they are so cute. Enoch fell asleep on the couch a few nights ago and slept there all night. I still don't know how kids can sleep like that. Notice the dirty feet. I think they are permanently that color now. A few days later, Greg was digging holes in the backyard and Enoch was helping him. I looked out the window to check on him and saw him almost dissappear. He was climbing down into the hole to dig out more dirt. Again, the dirt.

Every since Enoch could walk and explore, Greg has become an expert sliver-remover. Enoch attracts slivers like no one else. This one was pulled out of Enoch's toe last night. The picture does not do it justice; it was huge. He still has two slivers in his hand, but after the ordeal last night we decided to wait to take those out. Crazy kid!

Are We Crawling Yet?

For the past three weeks, Kate has been doing the rocking on her hands and knees motion. The problem is the head butting the floor that follows the rocking motion. She entirely doesn't enjoy this and subsequently Mom doesn't enjoy the banshee screaming that follows the head butting. Kate is so ready to crawl and is frustrated beyond anything that she can't get anywhere (occasionally she'll go backwards). She has resorted to doing push-ups on her hands and toes just to try to move forward. This does work sometimes, but the head butting is more severe from that angle.

She can roll quite well and she also pivots on her tummy to move around. She is quite mobile that way, but the crawling is just so close and she knows it. I probably shouldn't be encouraging the crawling, but she is frustrated and unhappy and I know she will be her happy self once she can get places. Hopefully the stars will align soon and Kate will be crawling and chasing her brothers.

PS - My mom emailed some baby pictures of me the other day. I can totally see Kate in them. Kate is a bit chubbier than I was, she gets that from Greg. I'm serious; Greg was a complete ball of chubby wubby fat when he was a baby. I still think she looks more like Enoch than anyone.

Neighborhood Garden

In an empty lot a few streets down from us is a thriving, large garden that 20 families in our neighborhood planted, weeded and harvested fresh produce from weekly. This year our family joined the neighborhood garden and it has been wonderful. People keep saying that it has been an off-year for yield, but our family has enjoyed so much food I don't know how we could have eaten more. In late spring, the families gathered for planting. I missed it because Kate was sick, but Greg helped. It was quite a project because the ground was so hard. Greg said it was like pick axing concrete. They finally got everything planted and ready to go. Greg also helped install and update the watering system. Every family was assigned a row to weed and hoe out the watering trenches. Our row included beans, peppers and basil. It didn't require to much work to keep the weeds down. We also watered twice this summer.
The garden produces, corn, red potatoes, beans, peppers, basil, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, pumpkins, cantaloupe and watermelon. WOW! Everything is so delicious. The kids particularly enjoyed the corn on the cob and I loved it all. It has kept me busy canning and freezing all the harvest. I have canned 21 quarts of tomatoes and 14 pints of bread and butter pickles. I also froze 6 dozen ears of corn (cut off the cob), 24 cups of green beans and 3 batches of pesto. I have used zucchini is every way I can think (steamed with various herbs and sauces), raw with ranch, roasted, cheese zucchini, zucchini quiche, zucchini bread and chocolate zucchini cake. I still have two sitting on my counter, so I'm open for any more ideas. Our family had loved the garden, we have learned a lot about gardening and want to give a huge thanks to the Poulsens for organizing it and keeping it going every year. It has been wonderful.

Hello from Greg,

I wanted to write to everyone and let you know about my new hobby. It is called the Popsci Prediction Exchange. It is sort of a stock market for future events. The people at Popular Science create a new stock based on something that may happen in the future and the I get to bet, with fake money, on whether that event will happen. One of the stocks that I own is saying that the space shuttle will launch before November 1st. Since I believe that will happen, I have bought 1000 shares of that stock. Well, the cool thing that has happened to me recently is that I have made it into the top 100 list. I am currently at 84th place out of 28,000. My username is "mystborn" from one of my favorite authors Brandon Sanderson. Go to http://ppx.popsci.com/ and click on the "Leader Board" link and then select the top 100 and look for "mystborn" near the bottom. If things are going good I should be there. If I am not on the list, my predictions have gone horribly wrong.

Weekend Away

Last May my mom offered to watch the kids while Greg and I got away for our anniversary. The morning we were leaving I came down with a bad cold and fever. I was so disappointed we couldn't go! Bless my mom, she stayed and helped with the kids (since I was in bed) and offered to watch them at a later time so we could still get away.
This weekend Greg and I took off for Salt Lake (I know, adventurous!). After grabbing some dinner, we checked in to the Marriott and just relaxed (I wasn't sure we would remember how to relax!). We slept in till 8am, which we haven't done in 10 years (of course, the car alarm at 1am that wouldn't stop woke us up along with the noisy neighbors, sirens and the early morning garbage truck). We ate breakfast at the hotel; a great breakfast buffet that didn't involve any spilled milk, instant oatmeal or pureed peaches on my jeans. I think it was the first breakfast in years that someone wasn't sitting on my lap eating half of my breakfast. It was heavenly.
How do you know your husband truly loves you? He is willing to spend 2 1/2 hours doing something he has no interest in doing during a BYU football game. We spent Saturday afternoon at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts at the University of Utah campus (I know, even harder for Greg to go there during the game!) touring the Monet to Picasso exhibit. It was purely exhilarating to be in the same room with so many masterpieces by artists such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Dali, Rodin, Picasso and many others. I have always loved art, especially Impressionism Art. To see actual paintings by Monet was an awesome experience. I hope Greg knows how much I appreciate his willingness to do that with me. His comments were 1. Did Monet need glasses? 2. Van Gogh is not as bad as I thought he was. 3. I don't like Picasso; too many naked people. Of course, I suppose I can't really tell if they are naked people or not. Thanks for the support, honey! I highly recommend this experience to any one who has a remote interest in art; it is amazing!
A huge thanks to my mom who not only watched the kids while Kate had a runny nose, but who let me come home to a clean house and homemade peach cobbler, which is my absolutely favorite dessert. Mom, it was amazingly yummy! Thanks!

Cabin for Labor Day

Over Labor Day weekend the Randall family was able to visit the Fowler family cabin and we had a wonderful time. We are so thankful for the cabin and it being so near for us to enjoy. Friday after work, we packed up our things (I thought we were only going for a few days, I think we packed enough for a few weeks!), picked up our pizzas at Domino's and headed up to the cabin. Grandma and Grandpa Randall followed us up from our house and Aunt Michelle and Uncle Dave met us at Kohler's in Highland as were picking up groceries and pizza. It worked out great. We ate dinner and then to honor the first game of the BYU Football season being played the next day, we watched the DVD, Spirit, Tradition, Honor. It was very good, although Gavin was anxious to watch Cody Banks and I don't think he fully appreciated the message! After some talking and bribing we finally got the kids in bed. Greg, Kate and I slept in the bedroom. Grandma and Grandpa took the futon in the living room and Dave, Michelle, Gavin and Enoch dealt with the bunk beds in the loft. A special thanks to Uncle Dave who was the nigh light monitor for Enoch!
The next morning, Greg spoiled us with a great breakfast of pancakes and bacon. We also had fruit and juice. It worked out well to have everyone help with food. Uncle Jarom and the Ford's came up for breakfast and stayed the morning. After eating and cleaning up, Grandpa took the boys out for a ride on the 4-wheeler. My boys absolutely loved it. I admit, we forget helmets so I wouldn't let them be too wild, but they still had a good time going slow on the roads. Gavin loved, loved, loved the 4-wheeler and can drive it better than me. After letting him drive it down to the gate he said, "Now I"m a man." Okay, but you are still only 10! Please remember that.
We hooked up the paddle boat to the 4-wheeler and let Gavin tow it down to the reservoir. We had never been on the paddle boat so this was new for us. We had a great time. Aunt Michelle, Grandpa, Aunt Valerie, Carson, Enoch, Gavin and I went out for rides (not all at once!). It was fun and the perfect size to toodle around the lake. Enoch loved it and kept asking all weekend when we could go again.
After paddle boating, we headed back to the cabin only to be surprised with the news that my parents had been holding out on us and really did indeed have their mission call. We had all called them on Wednesday and Thursday to ask if it had arrived and it hadn't, but on Friday the post office called to tell them it was there. We all thought we would have to wait another week. We were so excited! We all took our bets as to where they were going, none of us were right. They are serving in the Kenya, Nairobi mission with the Employment Resource Center. They are to leave on Jan 5 and are thrilled with their call. (I think they would be thrilled going anywhere, but Africa is definitely somewhere new!) It was a wonderful experience to have the entire family there to open their call. We will certainly miss them but are also grateful that they are willing to go and serve where they are needed.
After a lunch of roasted hot dogs, chips and fruit, everyone but the Fowlers packed up and left, heading for home and the BYU football game. We stayed at the cabin, took walks and watched the game. It was so fun to watch the game in such a beautiful setting as the cabin, and we are relieved that we won. After the game, we packed up a few things and drove home so we could shower and be ready for church the next day.
Grandma and Grandpa came to church with us on Sunday and I am so thankful they did. It being a holiday weekend and a fifth Sunday lesson we were short teachers in Primary and so I put my parents to work. Thanks Mom and Dad for being willing to sit with classes and take care of Kate. Grandpa not only held Kate the entire time, but also sat between our Valiant 10 boys. I think he deserved his nap after church!
After a quick change of clothes, we headed back up to the cabin after church (all of us except Greg, who had clerking responsibilities and came up when he was done). We ate lunch and then played Candamir. It was fun and relaxing. That afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa went up to Ogden to visit with my Uncle Alan Price, who was in the hospital suffering with the last stages of cancer. The weather was a bit chilly so we stayed in the cabin, watched a movie and then went to bed. The boys were beyond disappointed that they couldn't ride the 4-wheeler on Sunday. They put on their helmets and sat on the 4-wheeler making engine noises for 1/2 hour!
In the morning, we ate a quick breakfast of cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs and fruit. We played one last game of Ticket to Ride; Greg won, of course. Then we spent 1 1/2 hours cleaning up the cabin. Because it rained the night before there was mud tracked everywhere in the cabin. It took us a bit of time to mop the floors and make sure everything was sparkling clean for the next guests. Kate had fun going on walks with Grandpa, who bundled her up with blankets and two pairs of socks. We had an incredible weekend and are looking forward to visiting the cabin again.