Explosion Box

I'm the Young Womens first councilor in my ward and recently we made "explosion boxes". They are boxes that fall apart when you take the lid off and reveal pages that act like a scrapbook. I needed to make one as an example for my young ladies, so I had to decide on a theme to build my box around. After several seconds of hard thinking, I settled on one of my favorite subjects as of late: my nephew Cannon.

After getting all my paper, scissors, glue and do-dads assembled, I went to my sister Mandy's blog and hijacked many pictures of the boy. (technology rocks) When it was all done, I was rather pleased with myself. Here is the finished project.

Here it is in box form.

With the lid off it looks like this:

This is the first level, over on the left it says "always a cutie!"

Half of the second level:

Second half of the second level:

Half of the bottom level:

Second half of the bottom level. In that green envelope is a picture of Cannon sitting on the San Fran 49ers blanket I gave him. You can open it up and take the picture out.

The boxes made by my young women were WAY CUTE! They were all so different but wonderful. It was a very successful mutual night. I have thought of giving this box to Cannon's mom, but I think I'm going to keep it!

Our Flight (Fight) Out

OK, It's been awhile, but here's the end to our getting-to-Utah drama. (But not the end of the drama!)

Anyway, Trevon picked us up at The Barkers at 4 A.M. sharp. We loaded up and the roads were decent so we made it to the airport by 4:45. IT WAS A MAD HOUSE! At this point, we had 1 hour and 35 minutes until our flight leaves. It took 1 hour and 20 minuets to get our luggage checked in. And, because of how busy Southwest was, we had to stand OUTSIDE and check our baggage with the sky cap. It was very cold. We only had 15 minutes until our plane was supposed to take off, and we still had to get through security. The one good thing I can say about the Portland airport is that security is very organized and we got through in just a few minutes. Then we had to sprint to our plane. I got there about 2 minutes before Daniel because his ankle was already killing him, and he had to limp. I advised the gate person that he would be along, just don't close the door. They didn't. We got on the plane just in time. We sat down, sighed and smiled at each other. Then we sat, and sat and sat. It took an hour for our plane to get de-iced. The flight was OK, we got there alive and I was so relieved and happy when I saw my dad, I laughed and then I cried.

After the tears, we went to get our luggage. We had 4 pieces of checked luggage. One came out on the belt, then two, but that was it. My suitcase was missing, as was the suitcase that had the blanket I had made for my new nephew Cannon. I spoke with a lady in the luggage office who informed me that since we checked in late, our luggage didn't have enough time to make the plane. (Let's just review here: I sat on the tarmac for ONE HOUR waiting to take off. I guess that's enough time to get 2 out of 4 cases on the plane, but not enough time to get all 4.)

So, we left and went to Layton with the understanding we would come back after 1 p.m. and my luggage should be there. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. We went back at 7 p.m. and still NO LUGGAGE!!! We asked again and they said it would be on the next airplane from Portland, Fer Sure! Then they told us that they would kindly deliver my luggage to my parent's place, between 1 and 6 A.M. (Sigh.....) Anyway, I left permission for them to leave it on the porch if nobody came to the door. At 8 A.M. we got up and opened our presents and still no luggage. There was a storm coming and we had to be in Evanston that night. So we left. It's over an hour to get to Evanston, but we made it. I called home to let my mom we'd made it safely. She let me know my luggage had arrived about 5 minutes before I called. (sigh again.....)

Other than that, it was a great trip!

Day 3

Tuesday: Once again we sleep in as we really had no reason to get up. Today is dry and warmer but the sky is cloudy. We get dressed and venture outside. We head to Karren and Cameron Wilde's house but they are not home. They are probably visiting someone for the holidays. We go back to the house. We read and watch DVD's (I watched "Much Ado About Nothing" again). We did a load of laundry and cleaned up after ourselves as best we could. We tried to go to bed early as our flight was at 6:20 the next morning and we were leaving for the airport at 4 A.M.

The night hours were excruciating. I could not sleep for anything. All I could do was look at the clock and count the minutes until we were supposed to get up. I got on the computer a couple of times just to make sure the flight wasn't canceled. Finally, we got up, showered, finished packing and waited for Trevon to drive us to the airport. And that's where the adventures really began.

Day 2

Monday: We wake up feeling very mellow the second day, having slept longer than we usually do. We have what's left of the cold pizza for breakfast and decide to venture out into the marshmallow world that is before us. We open the garage door and to our utter amazement even MORE snow has accumulated during the night.  We check again for a shovel but still can't find one. Daniel is confident we can get out, so out we go. We back out of the driveway and get stuck once we hit the street. We can't go forward and we can't go back. One of the Barker's neighbors has a truck with chains on. He tows the car out of the snow bank and we are off.  We head to Joe's to see if they are selling shovels. They are sold out.  We go to WinCo to get some food. I think in times of crisis, survival instincts kick in because we bought too much food.  R&B can eat some corn dogs when they get home. We will leave them in the freezer.  

We get back into the car and discuss trying Fred Meyer's for a shovel.  Then Daniel tells me that the neighbor that towed us had just been to Fred Meyer's and they didn't have any.  Desperate for a shovel, we start driving the neighborhood looking at all our friends houses. Not a one of them had a shoveled driveway, thus giving us little hope they had a shovel.  Finally we come to Trevon and Michelle Jacobson's house and steal the shovel they left on their porch. We left a note.

Finally making it back to R&B's, I get out of the car and open the garage door so Daniel can try to get the car up the driveway.  Again, he gets stuck in the street. This time, a different neighbor helps push the car forward.  It took 3 tries, but we got the car in the garage.  With my absconded shovel, I set to work on the driveway. The snow is in 3 layers: powder on the bottom, a perfectly smooth layer of ice in the middle, and more powder on top. It's like a wintery oreo cookie.  After an hour or so, the driveway is clear. (Daniel felt really bad about me doing the shoveling, but his right ankle is still in an aircast and his shoes have bad traction. I wasn't about to let him fall down and get hurt again!)

I go inside and Daniel is bored. I suggest reading one of the many, many excellent books R&B have. Daniel chooses "Fellowship of the Ring" and dives in.  I take a hot shower. 

We call the Jacobson's to make sure they know we took their shovel. They say that's fine and invite us to dinner.  We get ready to head to Red Robin.  Trevon drove their Montero and we carpooled. There are only 2 word to describe that ride: White Knuckle.  Trevon is also driving us to the airport Wednesday if they don't cancel our flight.  White Knuckle is still better than taking the train at 4 A.M.

Dinner with Trevon and Michelle and their 3 daughters is a hoot. The place is jumping because most of the other restaurants in town have closed due to the bad weather. (just an aside here, if this much snow fell in Utah, NONE of this would be happening. Everything would be open and working. The streets would be clear and the airplanes would be taking off. Oregon just can't handle this because the state government sucks.)  After a dinner of burgers and strawberry lemonade, we go back to their place to watch "Wall-E".  They hadn't seen it before and they loved it. 

We got back to R&B's late but decided to watch one more movie before bed. We watched "Chicken Run".  It made me sad that R&B don't have any chickens anymore.  

Stranded For the Holidays

I don't fly much. In my entire life I've been on a plane maybe 8 or 10 times total. I like how fast you can get to your destination if you fly, but I hate airports, the cost, security requirements, cramped airplanes and how other people get to dictate when and if you will travel. Most of my family knows by now that Daniel and I were supposed to be in Utah last night. But the people at Southwest didn't buy enough de-icing equipment and mother nature sure wasn't helping out so our flight got canceled. It's a good thing we still have friends living in Portland.  

We are staying at Robin and Briton's house. They are in Utah because they DROVE there on Thursday.  I spoke with Robin.  She said the drive was so scary, she was in tears going over the Blue Mountains and it took them 12 hours to get to Boise.  The point here is that they made it. Whereas Daniel and I are stuck here, in their house until Wednesday.  (I believe that we are legally squatting now)

We would have gone back to Lincoln City if not for the fact that highways 26, 6 and 18 are all closed so they only way to get back to LC would be to drive nearly to California, get over to 101 and backtrack.  So we decided to stay put. If all goes well, we should be able to land in Utah at 9 A.M. on Christmas Eve. But in the meantime, here's what we've been doing. Look for subsequent entries on this.

Sunday: After our flight was cancelled we called Southwest trying to get some other flight.  They informed us the first open seats were Wednesday but to keep checking online if we could. It took us 15 minuets to figure out how to turn on Robin and Briton's computer.

Once it started snowing again and the airport stopped ALL outbound flights, we figured we weren't going anywhere.  Daniel and I did puzzles in a crossword book I brought for the flight.  We then turned our attention to R&B's television. They have no reception but plenty of DVD's. We watched "Ice Age".  It seemed appropriate.

By now we were getting really hungry. R&B said we could eat anything we could find, but not wanting to mess up the kitchen we called for pizza.  Papa John's wouldn't pick up the phone. I think they have all frozen to death.  Pizza Hut isn't delivering. They're not that desperate for money.  Finally, as a LAST RESORT we call Dominoes.  They are that desperate.  Once the food arrived we watched "Much Ado About Nothing" followed by U2's "Rattle and Hum".  We were going to watch Pixar's "Monsters INC", but we think R&B took all the Pixar movies with them for the kids to watch in the car.

So that's it. We're here, living for a time at Robin's house like we own the place or something. I'll tell you one thing. If we can get out today, (it's started snowing again!) we are going to buy a snow shovel and make ourselves useful. R&B are earning a lot of brownie points for this!

Here's What We've Been Doing

This is the Humuhumunukunukuapuaa (really!). I took this picture at the Oregon Coast Aquarium back around Thanksgiving. (This one's for you Cody.) And here's Daniel with one of the sea otters. This is a wild fire that started across the lake from our house. It started as a controlled burn by the logging company. It got out of hand but 6 hours later it started to pour rain so it went out. This is a seagull that wouldn't leave us alone the last time we went to the beach. It was COLD! The seagull didn't care.

Our Thanksgiving

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of our Thanksgiving this year, I needed to get fresh batteries for the camera and didn't do it in time.

Notwithstanding, our Thanksgiving was great. It started when Daniel and I woke up and enjoyed the Macy's Parade on TV. (BTW my favorite part of the parade was when Rick Astley turned up and "Rickrolled" the whole of New York City.) While that was going on, I made Thanksgiving breakfast, which consisted of pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage and hot chocolate with whipped cream. After breakfast we watched football, and got ready for dinner.

We were invited to Brandon and Virgina Ford's house. They are a great couple in our ward. In addition to Daniel and I, they had 2 of their kids and their families, plus the retired Baptist Minister and his son from next door. (Sounds like the start of a joke doesn't it?
6 Mormons and a Baptist Minister were having Thanksgiving together......) Needless to say, it was an INTERESTING group! The food was fantastic. We all had a wonderful time. I made Daniel's Favorite Potatoes, or DFP as I've started calling them, so we wouldn't break with our own little tradition. Everyone seemed to enjoy them. We had pumpkin and apple pie and peanut butter brownies for dessert. It really was a wonderful night. THANKS FORDS!!