the sederbergs

Hello there

2011-02-12T13:21:00.000-08:00

It's been over half a year since our last post. No, we haven't turned insanely busy, been really stressed, or forgotten how to use a computer. We deliberately stopped posting since for a couple of reasons we became hesitant to post a lot about Henry online, and if we weren't going to write about Henry, what else would there be to write about!

We just got done with visiting some relatives and friends, though, who told us that they like to keep up with us on our blog. I'd actually kind of forgotten that we had a blog at that point, so coming back to pen a few words here is a bit nostalgic.

So if we haven't been blogging, what are we doing? Well, we're definitely still spending plenty of time writing about Henry. The way it's played out, I write monthly entries in his baby journal at kidmondo.com, and Tricia writes monthly letters to him describing his development. When we're not writing about him, we love to play with him. He is now walking and even though he's surprisingly small for his age, he's quite coordinated, sociable, and really one of our best friends. (Tricia calls me Henry's biggest fan, and she very may well be right so I'm trying to not gush too much about what lucky parents we are.)

I just turned 30 last week. To be honest I haven't had time to be as reflective as I'd like to be about that milestone, but I feel very blessed. I don't think I would have predicted how my life has played out to this point, but I've been blessed more than I deserve with an amazing family and in-laws, co-workers and associates at my company (we often comment that T-Splines, my little company, really has much more talented employees, consultants, board members and friends than it should logically have), friends, and an amazingly devoted wife yoked up beside me.

Finally, what have our distractions/hobbies been lately? Homemade sourdough bread. Jimmer. Waking up at 5 AM (on purpose). Scripture study. Henry.

Six months

2010-07-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

Henry turned six months old today!

What a great reason to post on the blog again ;).

A few thoughts/observations:

we *love* our son. Henry has quite a bit of energy. Of course, this can be absolutely delightful or a bit tiring, depending on the time of day and how happy he is. At church, people are starting to know me as Henry's dad. Since Tricia plays the organ, we sit towards the front. Henry is doing a better job at not needing to be taken out during church, but he's not the quietest kid around. He loves to pant enthusiastically during songs, growl and bang his toys while he plays with them, and squirm. These are all fun behaviors at home, so I'm sure it doesn't register at all when I "shush" him at church. Last Sunday on our way home, my muscles were tired and it felt like I had just been through a wrestling match.

Words that I would use to describe Henry: engaging, very good communicator about his feelings, absolutely loves the outside (he will stop crying the second we step out the door), curious, loves to splash in the bathtub, intense. It feels like Henry never does anything half-heartedly. When he gets his diaper changed in the morning, he flaps his arms like he's making a snow angel and grunts happily. We call it his "exercises". When he plays with toys, he attacks them. He does have a quieter side, but it's a very purposeful quieter side. He still loves the piano, and now will join in by playing some of his own notes. When I take him on rides in the stroller or Tricia sits with him outside, he can be very still, but his deep enjoyment is almost palpable. Tricia and I both love him intensely. Henry's vibrancy is an welcome addition to our family.

internet homemaker: cleaning chart

2010-06-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

I'm starting a new series on this blog to give insight into how I approach my job as a homemaker. I am amazed at how different--and yet similar!--a homemaking job today is from a generation ago. I believe one BIG difference is computers and the internet. And since I love my computer and use the internet daily, both as resources for my current job, I thought I'd share some heads-ups that I've come across.

Take today. Since Henry's birth, I have slowly (oh-so-slowly) worked on balancing his needs with my needs. One of my needs is to have a clean environment. I'm not talking about having items picked up and put away (although that is important), I mean clean. Dusted. Vacuumed. Disinfected. CLEAN.

I've been working on a cleaning chart of sorts. Before you ask: YES, I do need a cleaning chart for myself. Let me explain by describing my day: my activities rotate around Henry's schedule of eating, playing for 2 to 3 hours, then sleeping for 45 minutes to 3 hours. He's currently pretty unpredictable about his sleeping times, so I'm never quite sure how long I'll have to myself. And when he's awake, I'm never quite sure how long he'll contentedly play by himself. Hence, if I don't have a pointed plan of what I want to get done for the day, nothing gets done. NOTHING. (Well, nothing outside of having a happily fed baby. That's pretty big.)

So I made up a cleaning chart. I was going to make a daily chart, but that seemed I would be assuming too much "free" time any given day. So instead I made a weekly cleaning chart. I started by listing every cleaning responsibility, then marking whether it needed to be completed weekly, bi-weekly (as in every other week), or monthly.

Then I made little lists for each week, with appropriate check-off boxes. (NOTE: Crossing off to-do items--or checking them off--is extremely satisfying. Sometimes I will write in "eat breakfast" or "take a shower" just to be able to cross something off.) I will print these off and put them on my fridge (in approximately 5 minutes).

I'll be trying my new cleaning chart out for the next couple of weeks and let you know how it goes.

henryman = pianoman

2010-05-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

Henryman (for some reason, both Matt and I like to refer to Henry by adding on "man") surprised me today by trying out the piano. I've had him on my lap while I practice before, and I've tried to coax him to play, but he has seemed more awed (confused?) than interested in trying it out.

But today he thought he'd give it a shot:

I think he's pretty good--especially with those intent facial expressions.

water check 2010

2010-05-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

Today our sprinklers were tested for efficiency, accuracy, coverability, uniformity, and other such characteristics. For free. The result? About 10 sprinkler heads should be changed. Not bad. (It was also suggested we gut the entire system and pack in more dirt. Hmmm--probably not going to happen.)

My favorite part? The recommended minutes and cycles for watering each section of our yard. The efficiency! The organization!

And the green grass. Hello, summer!

joy

2010-05-21T15:54:00.001-07:00

Freshly cut tulips + adorable son = happy mom.

mother's day

2010-05-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I set Henry down so I could get gather materials for his diaper bag. When I turned around to pick him up, he had dexterously wrapped his fingers around a toy lying next to him and was lifting the toy in the air. Today, during playtime, Henry took the same toy and moved it slowly then quickly--to see what sounds and motions it would make. He surprised himself a few times, bringing the object close to his face. He was fascinated to discover the properties of his world and his manipulations of that world.

I have been fascinated to watch his progress. As adults, we can't remember the joy of being able to turn over for the first time--especially since we've been able to do it on command for more than a quarter century--but it must have been thrilling to understand our own abilities of control.

I am almost as excited about Henry's developments as he is. I love to watch him learn and grow--all in spite of my efforts. I have tried to do the best I know how, but I couldn't teach his eyes to focus. I didn't know how to tell him to move his body certain ways to build necessary muscles. And how do you describe to a one-month-old the proper mouth position and air movement through the throat to make the sound of a "g"? And yet, Henry is focusing on objects across the room, propping himself up on his elbows when on his tummy, rolling over, and joyfully making sounds that are awfully close to every-day words.

Amazing. Don't you think?

And so, this Mother's Day 2010, I love being a mother because I love watching my son learn. He is a miracle, and I get to participate in that miracle every day.

our conversation this afternoon

2010-04-16T21:19:00.001-07:00

Henry is doing a smash-up job of widening his repertoire of sounds. He started out with "a-goo" and has moved on to the vowels i, e, and o while rounding out his consonants with h, d, and r (of sorts). He does an occasional "mmm," but my bet is that "da-da" will beat out "ma-ma."

knowing

2010-04-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

Henry is asleep on my lap right now (see above picture), after a very good feeding session. He nursed in a straightforward way, and then, letting me know he was done, he pulled off and snuggled up on the pillow. I'm working on helping him take naps in his crib, but I allow for special moments like this, when I get to enjoy his sweetness right next to me. And so we've been like this for nearly an hour.

And I've taken the time to ponder, as I've looked out the windows across a beautiful southern Utah landscape. (Red dirt, green shrubs, low foothills, a white Snow Canyon, and snow-covered Rocky Mountains in the far distance. Beautiful juxtaposition.) My mind has rolled over my short experience as a mother--a mere 10 weeks. Since pregnancy was the prelude to being a mother, I've also thought about the nine months preceding Henry's entry into this world. It is yet to be one year since I became pregnant. And here, on my lap, sits a most angelic little boy whose existence was something I could only dream about last year.

How life changes.

I thought pregnancy was hard; but pregnancy really is not much more than a bit of inconvenience when compared to the result--a beautiful baby boy. And a beautiful baby boy with needs. I struggled to understand why anyone would want to be a mother more than once as I worked through the physical and emotional recovery process. Before Henry's birth, I had planned to take a trip down to St. George a week after Henry's arrival. "No big deal," I thought. In fact, Matt and I thought we wouldn't need too much help once Henry was born, so we didn't even schedule Nana to come and stay.

Henry toppled all of those plans. Nana was needed--as well as aunts and uncles--for a few weeks while I tried to just be able to get up off the bed and walk without pain. And while I struggled physically, food needed to be made, laundry needed to be done, and things needed to be cleaned. And Henry; Henry needed 24-hour attention. Where was some sort of oasis for me to just be able to wrap my mind around what had just happened to our family--and my body?

I never did find that oasis.

But now, as I sit here with Henry, I can hardly remember the pain and chaos of those first days and weeks. And month. Time has silently and subtly changed me. I don't feel pain anymore. I'm not walking around in a tired daze. And I don't look at Henry in a stupefied stare as I try to figure out what he needs.

Instead I delight in the milky smell of his breath and the chubbiness of his cheeks. I thank him for sleeping through the night--for two weeks consistently now. I love to change his diaper, because that happens to be when he is most talkative. I like to read him the scriptures each day. We have been able to get through about 10 verses each time, and we talk about what the words mean and what I want him to understand from them. I adore his smiles; I consider them a sound reward for any sacrifices I might be making.

And I'm so grateful for his patience. I'm still learning how to understand him and respond appropriately. He's still learning how to clearly communicate. But we are getting better, and I know we are both eager to forgive one another for any mishap and move on.

I suppose someone could have sat me down and explained how hard this would be. I would have nodded in agreement, saying how much I knew this upcoming change would be difficult.

But I didn't really know anything; now I know. And you know what? I think I could handle doing it again. Especially if the result is as sweet as Henry is.

my delight

2010-04-02T10:29:00.001-07:00

Don't I have a dashingly handsome young man to spend all my waking hours with?

learning

2010-03-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

The little man--whose formal name is Henry--has done a lot of learning in the last six weeks since coming into this world. His most current learned skill is talking via cooing. Holy shmoly, do I LOVE having conversations with this kiddo.

As we went on a walk today, I realized that I have also done some learning in the last six weeks:

I can function on less than eight hours of consecutive sleep. (Now, the quality of functionality is totally up for debate.)
Parenting is done best by more than one person.
Books have good general information; little people are their own individuals who sometimes don't fit within the confines of a book.
It's good to have a clean house; it's better to feed your soul. Sometimes the two can be synonymous.
Families are a gift from God.
Spit up and milk can be cleaned out of most fabrics, but not so much out of decorative pillows that don't have zip covers.
I can pray for anything I need help with--and get answers.
A clock radio with a "day-of-the-week" function can really be helpful for orienting a sleep-deprived mother at 3:30 a.m.

I wonder what we will learn in the next six weeks. (Mom votes that Henry learns to sleep through the night...)

Progressive dinner

2010-03-05T20:11:00.000-08:00

Tonight our dinner game plan was to be creative with the odds and ends left in the fridge. I was half expecting that it would fall to me to be the creative chef, but all my thoughts of dinner fell by the wayside when I turned into the driveway after work and saw Tricia and Henry sitting on the front steps, waiting for me. We haven't taken Henry outside much yet, and so it was really fun to be greeted by him. Unfortunately, the novelty of it all distracted us for a few minutes, and by the time we entered the house, the dinner Trish had been making had burned on the stovetop.

This left us with a side of new potatoes and broccoli still safely roasting in the oven, but no main dish. Since we couldn't think of anything fast in the cupboard to replace the burned chicken, we decided to make a progressive dinner out of it (tonight was date night, after all). So we thoroughly enjoyed the first course of potatoes and broccoli, then I called in an order and brought home some sushi (Tricia's first sushi since her pregnancy and our first time trying Yamatos--it was very good). Finally, we had our favorite dessert of late--ice cream topped with toffee peanuts and frozen raspberries. Yum!

yes, I am alive

2010-02-17T16:10:00.000-08:00

But no, I haven't showered yet. However, I did make the bed.

Today officially marks 21 days of life for the little man (Henry). He and I are still getting to know each other. This is what I can tell you about him:

He likes music. All kinds. He loves to R and R while Matt plays the piano--and he'll calm down to anything from Debussy to Chopin.
He's a thinker. During his quiet-awake moments, his eyes are big and deep. I can't wait for him to be able to give me some commentary on what is going through his little head.
He is strong. When not in a tired state, he will push against you and try to hold his head up to catch what's going on around him. And he's tried crawling while on his tummy.
He likes to eat. He's averaging half a pound a week. (Plus a bit more.)

Motherhood is an adjustment for me. I have never had a dependent little person have my undivided attention for an entire 24-hour period. For days and weeks in a row. It is oh-so tiring, but at the same time, it is oh-so intimate. We're fast becoming best buddies. And Mom (that's me!) will be an even better buddy once the feeding schedule slows down.

Here's to another three weeks of adventure and discovery!

Dinner and pictures

2010-02-15T19:52:00.000-08:00

Household chores have been reassigned at our home since Henry's birth. While I am a slow learner at doing laundry (I always forget which special buttons to press for darks, whites, or diapers), I've actually had fun taking over head chef duties. In the past week, we've had portobello mushroom quesadillas, broccoflower curry soup, and tonight, grilled chicken sandwiches with spicy avocado sauce and oven fries. Strangely, I picked all these recipes because they seemed "simple," but I've been rather late each time getting dinner on the table. Tonight, as we talked about that, Tricia reminded me that right after we got married, she had excitedly made fancy dinners each night of the week until we both realized how much time food prep was taking and decided to scale back a bit. I think I'll be doing the same now.

Here's a few pictures:

1. Tonight's dinner.

2. Henry's cloth diapers being washed.

3. Grandparents Newman vying for Henry's attention.

4. With Uncle Michael.

5. With Grandparents Sederberg.

6. First walk around the neighborhood with Dad.

Going back to church

2010-02-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

Today I went to our ward's sacrament meeting for the first time since Henry was born. I feel like my reasons for not going the past two weeks were valid (the first week being completely overwhelmed with a newborn just home from the hospital and needing round-the-clock supervision as he was under a bank of lights, and the second week staying home with Henry so Tricia could go to church). However, even though I had good excuses, I still really missed being there.

So during church today, I found myself reading Moroni 6:4-5, which talks about why the ancient Saints met together often: they met both to worship Christ and to show concern for the welfare of each other's souls. As I read that, I understood one reason why regular Sunday worship so valuable: it helps us fulfill the first and second commandments--to love God, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

As I looked around the congregation, I saw kids of all ages and looked forward to being able to bring Henry! We're waiting just a couple more weeks to avoid RSV...

Henry and the piano

2010-02-07T12:45:00.001-08:00

This is our favorite father-son activity right now. When Henry is fussy and doesn’t need to burp, eat or get his diaper changed, he LOVES to hear the piano. We call it our giant music box. I hold him in the crook of one arm and play with my free hand. After about thirty seconds, he will listen mesmerized. Strangely, it never puts him to sleep—he just likes to listen. His favorite music is Beethoven and Chopin, and today we learned that he likes hymns, too!

Home from the hospital

2010-01-31T22:49:00.000-08:00

About 40 hours after Henry was born, the nurse came into our hospital room and told us that the doctor said we were free to go home; both Henry and his mom were looking fine. This news was both exciting and a bit nerve-racking. We still seemed to have so many questions, and it had been so nice to be able to just pop my head out of the door and ask a nurse for advice. But, we were looking forward to the added privacy, space, and meal options at home, so we bravely dressed Henry in his coming-home outfit, strapped him into his car seat (the nurses helped his straps get so snug that it looked like he was in secure enough to be in a spaceship), and took him outside for the very first time to get in the car for the short drive home.

I'd like to say that Henry likes his home and bedroom, but the truth is that at his age he can't really focus his eyes on anything. He does seem to be a pretty calm, peaceful kid, though.

Once he got home, Henry's bilirubin count tested a bit high, so the doctor's office sent out little bright light unit that Henry is to spend as much time as possible in. Gratefully, Henry's Nana (Tricia's mom) offered to stay with us for a few days, so she or I are constantly in the room with him when he's sunbathing. The problem is that when he squirms around, the eye shades shift and no longer shelter his eyes from the bright light, so we need to regularly reposition them. We've discovered that putting a hat on his head helps a lot in keeping them in position.

In any case, my time on Henry duty has given me unexpected waking hours in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, they aren't the most coherent hours, but it's nice to have time to read, post blog articles, and just spend time watching our little son and admiring his functioning body. I have always looked forward to being a dad, but it's something else to actually be given the chance to be one. I've been surprised that changing diapers really isn't as bad as I had feared--it's Tricia's job to feed him, and my job to change his diapers. I'm always thrilled when I check his diaper and it needs to be changed, since that means his body is working correctly. Also, hearing Henry cry is not upsetting to me. At this point of his life, crying shows good communication skills, and it's a (sometimes challenging) detective game to figure out which response (change diaper, feed, burp, swaddle, cuddle) he'd like.

We are very grateful to our Heavenly Father for sending Henry to our family.

Our new life as parents

2010-01-29T05:49:00.000-08:00

For the past week or so, Tricia and I have enjoyed watching the Australian Open on ESPN360.com. Even though we don't have cable TV, ESPN has been live streaming matches online. Even better, you can switch from one court to another to choose who you watch, so in some ways this is arguably better than TV.

We never tire of watching Roger Federer win, so last night after Henry went to sleep (we're still at the hospital) I told Trish that Federer was playing that night and asked if she wanted to watch. "Sure," she said, out of habit. However, as she thought about it more, she decided that it would probably be better to sleep while Henry did so she could have energy later in the night to get up with him. Strangely, my thoughts had progressed exactly the same way. I pulled out my hospital chair that turns into a skinny hide-a-bed and tried to get some sleep.

Henry continues to be a pretty loved kid. He met both sets of grandparents yesterday as well as more of his aunts and uncles. When his grandparents came to visit, both Tricia and I were a bit tired and wondered if this was the best time to be entertaining. However, the excitement and pride that we felt from all of them buoyed us both up. As they reminded us how much they had all prayed for Henry's safe arrival, we felt the powerful strength that comes from having loving extended family nearby.

Here's a picture of his Grandpa "Papa Newman" and Aunt Christy somewhat excited to be visiting Henry.

And finally, two Henry updates:

#1: He had his first smile yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it, but he has a cute dimple on his right cheek.
#2: He actually slept quite a bit last night. We're a bit worried since that means he didn't eat much, but we're glad that we have more energy to start today.

Henry's here!

2010-01-28T07:37:00.000-08:00

Henry Matthew Sederberg was born on January 27,2010. 8 lbs 7 oz and 19.5 inches long!

Henry was due to be born on the palendromic day of 01/22/10, but decided to stay in the womb a bit longer. Yesterday morning, at our scheduled non-stress test at the hospital, the technician discovered that there was very little amniotic fluid left, so they decided to induce labor immediately. Tricia and I were both kind of hoping for this--we were getting impatient to meet our son.

After Tricia's labor was induced, Henry came quickly--in only 5.5 hours. Tricia only had to push for about 30 minutes.

I was so impressed with Tricia throughout the whole process--labor, delivery, and then trying to feed Henry throughout the night last night. She was quite calm, often expressing gratitude towards our helpful nurses, and has an amazingly deep love and patience for Henry, even in the middle of the night. I was grateful that she'll be his mom.

We are excited to have Henry as part of our family.

simple pleasures

2010-01-14T11:25:00.000-08:00

Pondering about and praying for those in Haiti has helped open my eyes to the simple nuances of our lives. What I have enjoyed today:

mandarin mango handsoap
a magpie on our fence
a clean kitchen
scanning pictures from my courtship with Matt--I love that man!
a healthy, kicking baby in my tummy

These simplicities help my heart feel tender.

God bless those in Haiti to feel peace in the face of such devastation and destruction.

getting closer

2010-01-13T16:35:00.000-08:00

In all the craziness that was the holidays, I continued to get bigger as Henry continued to grow inside of me. We are now 9 days from the official due date, which means I need to finish the nursery, get packed for the hospital, finish decorating projects, clean and clean and clean, and be sure to rest. Well, we'll get there--eventually.

And I kind of have a feeling that Henry will come when he is good and ready. If he comes early, he will have inherited his dad's punctuality; if he comes late, he will have inherited his mom's timetable. Either way, we are very excited to welcome him here.

(Doesn't Matthew look pretty handsome in a beard? He let it grow out over the holidays, but now he shaves consistently every day. Too bad; I kind of like the professor look.)

what we wake up to

2009-12-21T09:08:00.000-08:00

This is the view out our bedroom window. I think it will be even more stunning in about four months when we will see more than just white and gray.

it all started with a right-leaning water flow

2009-12-17T12:31:00.000-08:00

This morning I learned all about water faucets. It was a self-education. It started with our bathroom faucet, which has a right-leaning water flow. I was sure if I just un-did the aerator and cleaned it up a bit with Lime-Away, I would be good to go. So, how did a 15-minute project turn into a two-hour one?

First, the aerator was TERRIBLY caked with sediment and mineral deposits. It took time to soak in Lime-Away, scrub with a toothbrush, rinse, and then soak again. (Repeat about 15 times.) And I didn't pay close enough attention when taking the parts off to see in which order they needed to go back.

A clean aerator.

Second, I decided I might as well do the other two bathroom faucets, which meant trudging up and down stairs. Not much of a problem, but I kept leaving important tools in other bathrooms.

Some of the supplies.

Third, I decided that I might as well do a VERY thorough cleaning job and take off the handle to clean it and around it. That required a new sequence of tools and more juggling of supplies between bathrooms. Oh, and without the handle, you can't turn the water on. Unless you have a wrench (which you remembered to bring with you).

Yucky, dirty.

Oh so clean.

Finally, since I hadn't paid attention to the order for replacing the aerator, I ended up needing to do a search online, which took me a good 20 minutes before finding an image that led me in the right direction.

And now the bathroom faucet's water flow has no leaning whatsoever--it shoots straight down the center. Mission accomplished.

turning a house into a home

2009-12-17T11:27:00.001-08:00

Matt and I closed on our first house on November 7, 2009, two days before Matt had two solid weeks of business travel to Seattle and Europe. Here is what we fell in love with:

Yes, those are cabbages in front by the tree. Pretty cool, huh?

We moved in on Saturday, November 21, two days before my 29th birthday. What a whirlwind. Here is what it looked like the first day we moved in:

We hope to post more about how we are slowly turning our house into a home.

28 weeks

2009-11-10T08:23:00.000-08:00

October 30 marked 28 weeks. (For those of you not used to referring to a pregnancy by weeks, I'll use other terms: six months.) I'm officially in the third trimester.

P.S. We will (eventually) put up pictures of the new home, so stay tuned.

New home

2009-11-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

We bought our first home today. We'll be moving to southwest Orem. I grew up in northeast Orem, and I never envisioned myself sticking around the valley so long, much less buying a home on the Mountain View side of town (I went to Orem High.) We had been looking off and on to buy a home for about a year now. We'd focused our search on Springville, where we currently live, since we really like this town for a number of reasons. However, we couldn't find a place that felt right.

We had been avoiding looking for homes in Orem/Provo, preferring to stay on the outskirts of Utah Valley. Actually, the home we ended up buying was the first home we even looked at in Orem. We saw it listed online one evening, phoned our realtor the next morning, saw the house two hours later, liked nearly everything about it, felt good, made an offer an hour later, and the sellers accepted our offer a few hours after that. It was amazing how quickly it went, after fruitlessly searching for months.

I wanted to make a few comments about the different people we interacted when we bought our home. We didn't know a thing about buying a home before we did it, so this is what I learned.

REALTOR: As a home buyer, it's hard to think of a reason to not use an agent. The seller pays the agent commission (the buyer's agent and the seller's agent split 6% of the price of the home), so you basically get the help of the buyer for free (as I understand it, if the buyer has no agent, the seller's agent gets the full 6% still). Additionally, you need an agent, as far as I can tell, to open up key boxes to look at houses. We used Donna Lee Henderson from Affiliated Realty Group. She is an old family friend that my parents and neighbors have used to buy and sell property. I appreciated her help and would recommend her. We felt bad because I think we must have looked at over 20 homes, but she was very patient with us, and there were a number of times that she was more excited to be looking at homes than we were, since we had started to doubt if we would ever find a house that we would want to move into at a price we would want to pay.

MORTGAGE BROKER: We initially worked with a traditional mortgage broker. However, I had heard ads for Box Home Loans on the radio and was intrigued by their tagline: "Your reward for great credit." We hoped we might qualify, so we checked out this company and realized that we would save about $3,000 in closing costs by going with them. That's really some incredible savings. I initially was a bit worried about using a company whose stated inspiration is In-n-Out Burgers--they want to be as efficient as possible and they only do "easy" loans. However, we found some good recommendations for them, so we went ahead. Honestly, Tricia and I didn't always feel like the loan officer assigned to us was always completely aware of everything, but he did a satisfactory job and it was evident that he always had a supervisor making sure he didn't mess up or forget something. (It seems that they recently made a rash of hires to meet the increased demand, and maybe we got a new guy). I would definitely recommend using Box Home Loans--that extra $3k that we saved will be mighty useful as we get ready to have our baby in January.

The weirdest part of the mortgage was trying to decide when to lock our rate. Box Home Loans lets you check the daily rate online, and it fluctuates every day, so we spent a week or two trying to get the pulse of the market so we could lock in on the very best day. We discovered that it's quite impossible to guess what the interest rate will change to each day (at least for us) so we finally just locked in a rate that we felt good about.

HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE: We discovered that we needed to get homeowners insurance before our loan could go through. Bear River Mutual turned out to have the best rates for us. It was really fun for me to discover as I tried to find an insurance agent that my friend TJ Bowen from college now works at LA Bowen insurance. We made him our insurance agent and it was nice to be able to reconnect with him. I'd always looked up to TJ in college and it was fun to be able to do business with him.

empathy

2009-10-23T12:27:00.001-07:00

WARNING: This post will likely be ponderous--maybe even rambling. You have been warned.

Today on NPR, a scientist reported that studies of animals show many more instances of empathy than of greed. In fact, this scientist was proposing that today's animals have survived evolution because of their empathy, not their greed. Take, for instance, a mother monkey. When her child screams out for attention, she responds--mostly because her child might die if she doesn't.

As an expecting mother, I have thought long and hard about the kind of mother I want to be and the kind of environment I want to create for Henry (the baby's name--I sure hope he looks like a Henry when he comes out). As a human, I have a bit more wiggle room when it comes to responding to my baby's cry. Essentially, I have fewer predators to deal with.

But then again, do I? My main goal as a mother is to teach Henry TRUTH. And I know a lot of un-truth exists in the world. So maybe I won't have to deal with predators who will kill my child physically, but I will be dealing with a lot of predators who could kill my child spiritually (and emotionally). And I wonder what the warning signs will be? Certainly, I can be empathetic to a cry, but what are the signs of Henry latching on to un-truths? And will I see them in time? And how will I respond?

It turns out I don't have all the answers (sorry to disappoint), but I am comforted by the fact that I am armed with the SOURCE of truth. I plan to use that source as my first line of defense (or attack, as necessary) to envelop Henry in truth. Truth that will set him free.

Friday vacation

2009-10-02T21:51:00.000-07:00

Trish and I had been talking all summer about a one-day vacation for just the two of us. We're lucky to live nearby lots of family, so usually when we come up with a fun idea, our next thought is to start calling some parents and siblings to drag along. However, we realized that our days of being able to run off by ourselves are numbered, since our baby boy will be born in January. So we designated this Friday as our vacation day.

We drove out of Springville Thursday afternoon and headed south to Manti, where we spent the night in the Temple View Lodge, right across the street from the temple.

The next morning, we had a neat, spiritually rejuvenating going through the Manti Temple.

For lunch, we enjoyed very tasty donuts and a delicious burger at Miller's Drive Thru. 15 years ago, I had played a tennis match in Manti, and our coach had brought us to this donut place afterwards. I had great memories of it, and I wasn't disappointed when I returned today. Best apple fritter and mushroom burger (on a freshly baked bun) that I've had in a while.

Afterwards, we drove north, meandering through the charming small towns, settled by Mormon pioneers, that dot Sanpete Valley. In Mount Pleasant we stopped for a chocolate shake and strolled along the historic main street. Then, in Fairview, we took a detour. Rather than heading straight home, we took a scenic route. The fall colors are just beginning to turn, so the aspen forests were a very pretty mix of green, red, and yellow. It snowed last night, so the white snow add to the pretty scene.

Our drive took us past Scofield reservoir. I had spent a week here at scout camp as a 12-year-old. One day, our troop paddled the large war canoe out to this island (pictured below) in the middle of the reservoir. A big windstorm came up and we got stranded on the island and had to find shelter. We were excited that we might need to spend the night, but within 30 minutes we were being shuttled back to camp by the camp staff on a powerboat.

What a great day! Thanks Tricia!

why I love my husband

2009-09-21T08:20:00.001-07:00

He makes the bed every morning (unless I am still sleeping in it when he leaves for work). I didn't think he had time this morning, but after he left, I went upstairs and found the bed made. How delightful!

fun project

2009-09-17T11:44:00.001-07:00

Matt's nephew, Ike, turns five years old today! We sent off a (late) letter with a surprise game inside:

We made a memory card game with 20 two-by-two-inch cards on which we drew pictures, letters, and numbers relevant to Ike and his birthday. For instance, he loves cowboy boots. (See my attempt at matching cowboy boots above.) Matt helped include more "educational" cards with the number 5 (for how old Ike turned), the letters M and T (for Ike's siblings), and the number 17 (for Ike's birthday).

Unfortunately, our markers bled through, so this morning I cut up some "Happy Birthday" paper and attached it to the back of the cards. (Ike is definitely smart enough to figure out how to game the system by noticing bleed-through marks.) I'm just hoping the paper is random enough that he doesn't start memorizing patterns that go together.

All in all, it was a very fun project--and made us more excited for the arrival of our own little boy.

growing grass

2009-09-16T15:52:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Sandra, Matt's cousin, we got to grow some grass. As a table-top decoration.

Here are the seeds,

here is the growing grass,

and here is the result.
We did give the grass a trim to keep things tidy. (Although I kind of like the modern-art statement of controlled chaos.)

second anniversary

2009-09-10T12:26:00.001-07:00

Tuesday was our second anniversary (and my grandma's birthday, who celebrated her 85 years by starting a mission in the Family and Church History mission in Salt Lake). Matt bought me this GORGEOUS bouquet of long-stemmed roses to commemorate our two years. The piano was the most fitting furniture for this exquisite decoration.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to celebrate that day because I had my first-ever pinewood derby (in which I lost all my heats).

We did celebrate yesterday by going to the temple, eating out afterwards, and then watching an amazing set of tennis at the U.S. Open in which Soderling gave Federer a run for his money. And we continued the celebration today by finding out that our baby, due on January 22, is a healthy boy.

transition

2009-08-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't made the complete transition to the Mac yet--still working on logistics that may impact my teaching (since I teach my students how to use Word and PowerPoint).

But I'm working on it. I hope that by the end of this week, I will only have one computer to deal with.

solitude

2009-08-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back, we went on a hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon. I would have posted about the hike earlier, but we lost our camera. And then a few days ago, I found it. Hence, this post. The hike was DELIGHTFUL with cool temperatures and overcast skies. (I am a wimp in hot weather.) We found a little lake, but we also discovered a frisbee golf course. Matt played a few holes with my brother before heading down the mountain. I, on the other hand, took the tram down the mountain. (It was free.)

differences

2009-07-21T18:48:00.001-07:00

I have lately been enjoying differences between Matt and me. Here are a few:

Matt starts writing an "s" by starting at the bottom. I start at the top.
Matt faces the water when taking a shower. I turn my back on it.
Matt swears by Macs. I prefer a PC. (Although, I admit that I am one day away from purchasing a Mac. My preferable PCs don't last past three years, while Matt's Mac is going on five. The cost savings are just too darn convincing.)
Matt likes to stretch before doing exercise. I always prefer stretching afterward.
Matt maintains order by throwing away (stuffing in the closet). I indulge in saving and organizing. (Okay, so I indulge in organizing--I do think I save too many things that just aren't that necessary.)
Matt actually likes the crawl space in our house. I pile up stuff outside of it for him to put in it, since I don't necessarily enjoy "crawling" around in our storage room.

Summer 2009

2009-07-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

I graduated from high school 10 years ago! I actually really liked my high school cohort and was looking forward to going to my reunion last weekend, but ended up having to work all Saturday to get ready for a big presentation last week for work.

Yesterday, though, I swore off doing any T-Splines work for the first Saturday in memory and made a nice batch of cinnamon rolls, the kind that takes 5 hours to make, start to finish. This was very relaxing and they tasted divine.

Other things we've been up to lately:

Tricia bakes, too! Here she is making Rainbow Cake.

Before the Lavender Days 5K in Mona, UT, with my brother- and sister-in-law.

My grown-up baby sister's prom. We felt some satisfaction in seeing her dressed up for the date after spending days prom dress shopping with her. Pretty fun.

5K

2009-06-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

We ran the Springville UT Art City Days 5K this morning. I love road races--there's always so much positive energy. This was Tricia's first race ever and she did a great job of sticking to her training regimen to get ready for the race.

We had run the course last Saturday to get a feel for it, then today we stayed together during the race, along with Tricia's sister Christy. I was amazed at how well Trish stuck to pace she had targeted--at a few checkpoints I had observed, we were within 30 seconds of our pace from last week. Then Trish kicked it at the end and beat her targeted time by a minute!

Thanks to Mom Newman for coming down to cheer us on.

Amish country

2009-05-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

My cousin Sandra and her husband Justin were kind enough to take me to visit the Amish country in Pennsylvania over Memorial Day weekend. This is me enjoying how peaceful it was. Since this visit was in the middle of a busy business trip, the serenity of the simple Amish lifestyle was amplified. The unanswered emails in my inbox seemed less pressing, and it was a great place to "unstring the bow". I would love to go live in that community for a summer with Tricia.

Even the Amish country (we were in the city of Intercourse) isn't spared its own tourist trap drag on the main road. You don't have to be Amish to live in this area, though somehow going to an "Amish-style" restaurant that remains open on Sunday didn't strike us as very authentic. There were a few gift shops with typical gift-shop fare. Here was our favorite item: the "Faith Pig" with an apple springing out of its back. I wasn't aware of anyone in my life who needed a faith pig at the moment, so I didn't buy it, but if you have any ideas on the appropriate occasion to give such a gift, please let me know.

thinking half full

2009-05-06T09:48:00.001-07:00

I have my problems, for sure, but they are small--so very, very small. And when I compare them against my opportunities, they are puny. Here are some glass-half-full notes:

I have time and opportunity to create. Cards, essays, poems, food, organized piles. Being able to create is a powerful tool.
I can read. I have books upon books upon books that I have read and piles upon piles that I have yet to read. Besides that, I can read maps, traffic signs, warnings, and care labels. And I can read God's word.
I have music. I can listen to music and create music (with guitar, piano, organ, or voice) to suit (or change) any mood.
I have dirt. I am a better person for having a spot of ground that is my responsibility to care for. The growth of plants is a miracle.
I have an interested mind. Yesterday I heard a new idea that has me thinking. The idea is that adults should be drawing as much as kids are encouraged to do in grade school. Just because you're not good doesn't mean you should stop. (Think adults playing basketball.) Wouldn't it be interesting to have a whole wall be painted in chalkboard paint so you could have an ever-changing mural, contributed to by family and guests alike? Lovely idea.

What are you own half-full notes?

training

2009-04-23T10:47:00.001-07:00

I've never been a runner, but running is the cheapest way to do consistent exercise without needing a group, a ball, and a court. So I run. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

But I've now decided to train. I'm going to run a 5K (I know, I know--it's only 3.1 miles) with the catch that I'll run the whole time. Now, for some of you marathoners, this is not a big deal. But for me, it is a good motivational goal.

You can check on my progress on the sidebar gadget named "Tricia's training." (As a note, a "cycle run" is a run where I alternate walking, jogging, and running.)

Here's to running 3.1 miles straight (and maybe losing some pounds in the process)!

Bessie

2009-04-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

Let me introduce you to Bessie. But first, let me explain a bit about my work situation. As an adjunct professor, I work in my home and my home is a split-level duplex. My office is on the bottom floor, with a big window that looks out over the carport and street (in the picture below).

During the winter months, our carport is empty after Matt leaves for work. And as the days get warmer, our duplex neighbor girls (ages 8, 6, and 4) start playing outside. And they seem to find our carport an especially interesting place for riding bikes, scooters, and such.

Bessie, the youngest (pictured below), rode her scooter in the carport today, and we had various 10-second conversations through the window about babysitters and rain and flowers and coats. Sometimes, when I'm especially busy, I don't welcome these conversations as much. But today I welcomed the child-like simplicity of our thoughts and ideas.

Nothing like being reminded of life's simplicity.

bless BYU

2009-04-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed that I have been missing in action for the last week (or so). I have a good reason: a computer virus. (I will try to not mention that I invited the virus onto my computer by clicking "OK" on a video-install button off a website that was supposed to be helping me understand the front differential of a car.)

Since I am currently working part-time for BYU (well, actually, I teach three classes, so I am working full time), the computer became a paramount problem. The information on my computer, aside from personal worth, was of great professional worth for me to finish off the semester! After the virus maintained signs it was not giving up without a good fight (i.e., its symptoms increased after I'd installed three anti-virus programs), I called BYU to see if their IT people could help me. I wasn't sure they'd be able to since I'm a part-time employee using a personal computer, but they agreed to help me. I left my laptop at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday in the Marriott School's IT Support office and got a call at 4:00 p.m. that said the virus was of the trojan horse variety and was unlike any virus that had been seen by the office: it mutated upon being found by anti-virus software! (Joy, oh joy.)

So, my computer was wiped clean and I was left in doubt as to whether my files would be saved. I will save you the suspense: my files were saved, but each step of the re-install of Windows ran into increasing problems, so I didn't have a computer until Monday afternoon.

I have learned a few lessons from this little experience:

I like BYU, but now I'd like to hug and kiss BYU. Since "BYU" isn't a strictly tangible item that can be hugged and kissed, I will settle for unashamed praising of BYU (and its IT support!).
I will not download stuff from the internet unless I'm ABSOLUTELY sure I trust the source.
I will back up my files responsibly. (Responsibly = once every two weeks)

I hope this new-found wisdom will carry me through the end of the semester--a mere 12 days from today. Wish me luck...

spring!

2009-03-19T09:53:00.001-07:00

I have recently been enjoying a less-than-normal work load. My students are working hard on group projects and presentations, so I am mostly giving them class time to work. What all this means is two things: (1) less material to prepare for each class period and (2) almost no assignments to grade.

I have decided to turn this brief break into a personal spring break. Since I don't have the benefit of a full spring break, I couldn't celebrate by taking off to St. George for a few days. Instead, I celebrated by making spring decorations, of course. This morning I finished work on an idea that has moved through several phases throughout the last few weeks. You can see the necessary mess of the creative process below.

But the mess was worth it, because I really love the resulting pictures that are now representing the "seasonal" section of our living room.

And, lest the front door feel left out of the spring celebration, I made a wreath with small, colorful flowers and dried eucalyptus leaves ("so [our] apartment will smell mossy").

NOTE: Five points goes to the person who can name the movie from which the mossy quote was taken.

remembering chemistry

2009-03-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law pointed out (to my embarrassment) that in my last post, I made a small mistake. CO2 is, by current word and science standards, referred to as carbon dioxide. (You know, the "2" makes it "di.") No, our fire alarm does not have a CO2 monitor. I am sure our plants wouldn't mind a monitor to make sure they're getting enough CO2 to do their photosynthesis thing, but what I was actually referring to was CO, or carbon monoxide.

Ah, chemistry. I have, yet again, been reminded how one oxygen molecule can make such a difference.

beep

2009-03-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

I came in the door today at 2:26 p.m. and heard a small but piercing *beep.* I figured it was an indication that something was unplugged or plugged in for too long. So I went about normal coming-home business (using the bathroom, perusing the mail, getting papers situated), and the beep went off a few more times. So I decided to find it.

It is the fire/CO2 alarm. And it has constantly beeped every 30 seconds for the last two hours. I tried hitting the silence button to no avail. I can't decide if the steady beep is an indication that the monitoring controls are working or if it is an indication there's an overabundance of CO2 in the air. Does the steadiness trump the piercingness? Or the other way around?

Either way, I might just have to take this situation to extremes--and live without CO2 monitoring for a few hours. For the sake of my slowly growing headache.

current thoughts

2009-03-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

C.S. Lewis's description of a "humble man" has provided me with inspiration for how to interact with others:

"Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call 'humble' nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all."

Why Hello, Kitty!

2009-03-02T21:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight a Taiwanese teacher uploaded a bunch of toy models his students made in T-Splines (the design software my company makes) onto our website forum.

I thought these were fun (click to see more images).

Storytime with Trish

2009-03-02T21:19:00.001-08:00

Teaching the neighborhood kids about the virtuous life of St. Francis of Assissi at our ward choir "family home evening."

What a cute wife!

writing instrument choice

2009-02-18T16:06:00.000-08:00

For some reason, I cannot be content with a pen for very long. I fall in love with one and think it will last me a lifetime--until I find another one I just happen to like better. Take, for instance, the pens in the above picture, from left to right:

The red (a favorite color!) gel pen was great--until I didn't like its thick line.
The thinner red uniball pen seemed to be a better option--until I didn't like it bleeding through the pages.
The brown gel pen was fabulous for our wedding, and I still like to use it for various crafts. But it is too wide and "wet."
The TUL pen was something my friend Crystal introduced to me. I have loved it for the last two years, but recently, I don't think the ink line is substantial enough for some writing purposes.
The BYU Romney Institute pen on the far right is a current winner--but only on the big yellow notepad I use for making notes while preparing class lessons. I do NOT like using it to write on anything else.

Now, I may be picky about my pens (and a bit capricious), but I have always loved the wooden pencil. I used a mechanical pencil in high school for math problems, but I simply LOVE the feel and unique writing results of the wooden pencil.

the sun came out

2009-02-18T15:58:00.000-08:00

first signs of spring

2009-02-18T08:54:00.001-08:00

It took my sisters visiting me to point out that flowers were blooming in my front yard. (Yes, I've been a bit busy lately.) As northern travelers found themselves in daunting winter weather, these little yellow crocuses protected themselves by staying staunchly shut through the cold and gloom of yesterday.

What a wonderful surprise in the middle of February! The flowers' bright yellow and diligence in the cold have given me a bit of happy energy to move forward through the next month or so.

And I will be sure to post a shot of them open--when the sun comes out.

variety

2009-01-27T09:31:00.000-08:00

Since January 5, I have been working between 30-50 hours per week to prepare for my students, respond to administrative matters, and teach. I try to start work at 8:00 a.m. and usually finish at about 7:00 or 8:00 at night. And I always have things I need to do on Saturday.

Yesterday I took some time in the afternoon to do more than simply prepare for teaching classes. I took care of other necessary items (e.g., renew car insurance, renew car registration, balance budget), but it helped me. I was a much happier person when Matt came home.

So here's a shout-out to creating variety in our life--and taking time to unwind and relax, even if that means crunching numbers instead of working on grammar.

But that doesn't mean you should procrastinate your work day (as I am doing right now)...

2008 in review

2009-01-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

For Matt and me, 2008 was a year of growth. We grew intellectually (Matt finally finished reading Truman while I taught at BYU for the first time); spiritually (we re-memorized D&C 4 together); culturally (together we visited two continents, swam in four seas, and ascended 4,000 feet in a gondola); and, apparently, physically (after spending most of the year below the picture line, I am now in the full frame).

Here’s to more growth in 2009!

Church basketball is back

2009-01-10T11:11:00.001-08:00

A few thoughts about church basketball after our first game of the season this morning.

-The bad thing about 8 AM games is that no one answers their cell phone when you call them at 7:45 AM on a Saturday to remind them to come.

-I love that our league is giving one point for a win and one point for good sportsmanship (both teams can get that one) to determine who advances to region play. Sports are more fun when everyone is a good sport.

-The best way to use athletic talent (at least in this setting) isn't to try to dominate the game, but to help your team.

-Basketball can be one of the quickest ways for men to bond.

The Anatomy of Peace

2009-01-05T21:00:00.000-08:00

Trish and I are currently listening to the new audiobook The Anatomy of Peace by the Arbinger Institute (Terry Warner) in our evening.

It's hard to stop listening and go to bed (as proof, Trish is asleep by me on the couch after asking for "one more chapter..."). Terry Warner teaches about self-deception, but this isn't a dry philosophical treatise, it's an engaging *story*!

I've really enjoyed Warner's other books, Leadership and Self-Deception and Bonds That Make Us Free, which teach how to discover self-deception in your own life and how to overcome it and make peace with yourself. It looks like this new book teaches how to help others overcome self-deception--we're about halfway done. I'll put a review on this blog or my other blog, mattsederberg.com, when we're done.

Grilled pizza

2009-01-05T20:45:00.000-08:00

I'd heard about grilled pizza but couldn't figure out how to do it. I hoped that if anyone knew how to do it right, Curtis would. Yep! We made pizza on the grill last week. Here's how:

1. Shape your dough. Luckily Tim worked in the Chuck E. Cheese kitchen for four years and is an expert.

2. Cook the dough right on the grill. Once one side is browned, turn it over with a pizza paddle and quickly add pizza sauce, toppings, and cheese. Close the lid and the pizza is done in a few minutes! (Warning--this will expose any hot spots on your grill, so you may need to move the dough around.)

3. With Tim and Curtis ably manning the first two parts of the pizza creation, my main role was to give their work the appreciation it deserved by sampling each variety. Grilled pizza tastes healthier than baked pizza since it's less greasy. This is a spinach pizza I'm eating.

Christmas

2008-12-25T21:06:00.000-08:00

Perhaps our favorite Christmas present that we gave this year was transferring old 8 mm films from Tricia's dad's childhood to a DVD. Trish and I sifted through a few shoeboxes full of these silent films to see what was on them, then brought the keepers to Plastic Trees Studio, where they all easily fit on a single DVD. It was fun to learn how to work the old film projector, and Tricia's dad seemed pretty excited to see the old movies.

Our favorite activity today was doing video Skype with my nephews, whose family just got a webcam. They entertained us for well over an hour, holding their Christmas gifts in front of the camera to show them off, and telling knock-knock jokes to a very friendly crowd. Great fun.

innovation

2008-12-18T13:25:00.001-08:00

This morning I was enticed by an internet ad that said, "Never buy wrapping paper again!" I clicked on the link and watched a five-minute video that detailed how I could take large sheets of brown paper used for padding in sent packages, trim it down to size, iron it out, draw on it, and then wrap my gifts with it.

I was inspired by that idea of innovation and decided to apply some home-cooked innovation to one of my most important tasks of the day: sealing 75 envelopes. I needed to get them done ASAP, but I didn't have an envelope moistener and didn't want to have a dry tongue after 50. I also didn't have time or opportunity to get to the store to exchange 99 cents for one, so I pondered what I could use from home.

The result: a flower aquatube (filled with water) and an old sponge cut to size. And voila! I had a homemade envelope moistener. The picture below details the needed materials for my project, as well as the resulting sealed envelopes.

i remember

2008-12-16T20:11:00.001-08:00

I kept wishing for the snow to come. And now I remember why I was so excited in March to have it gone. I had forgotten how my arm hurts after shoveling it. I had forgotten the slush getting all over my shoes. I'd forgotten the ice that forms at night. I'd forgotten having that sense of not quite being in total control of the car. And I'd forgotten how necessary it is to wear gloves and a scarf.

But I had also forgotten how beautiful it is. Pure. White. Stillness. How could I celebrate Christ's birth--the One whose atonement has made my sins as white as new-fallen snow--without it?

the most beautiful

2008-12-08T11:13:00.001-08:00

For me, lighted Christmas trees during the dark evening hours are the most pleasant, peaceful, and beautiful aesthetic of the holidays. I love seeing little lights peeking out from dark green boughs and casting illuminous shadows on the wall.

"The light which shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not."

May this Christmas season be one of remembering Christ, the Light of the world, and pondering upon His gift of life and love to us.

recent adventures

2008-12-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

In shape
To get fit during the winter months, I've taken up step aerobics inside our home. Here I am working out my own routine in our basement. (Not a lot of space, but enough to do the necessary moves.)

Lights
We put up lights to celebrate Christmas. Matt was very brave to wander up on our roof.

The artist at work
For a recent mass card-producing activity, I pulled out almost all of my mediums and tried various ideas before settling on a white crayon snowflake on red paper, highlighted with lines of silver glitter.

Christmas Devotional
We were inspired and enriched at the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.

thanksgiving

2008-12-08T10:41:00.001-08:00

Matt and I got TWO Thanksgiving meals this year: one with my family (the Sunday before the big day) and one with his family on the big day.

Then we headed down to St. George to work off the turkey by running around with my family. Who has the better frisbee toss?

"the biscuits worked"

2008-12-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

For a few weeks now I have been telling Matt I would make him a special breakfast of biscuits and gravy on the first morning of snowfall. Since it was November, I was sure the snow would come any time. But it didn't. And didn't. And didn't some more.

So I invited it by making biscuits and gravy this morning. And it worked! The snow has come.

what I learned from sewing

2008-11-11T14:18:00.000-08:00

Quite a few months back I bought a great dress at the outlets in Park City. Well, I thought it was a great dress because it was flattering--except that it was just a tad short. It was "modest" as far as exact measurements go, but I always felt just a wee bit uncomfortable with any sort of wind or vigorous walking.

When my mom suggested she thought the same thing about the dress's lack of length, I decided I would take upon myself the opportunity to improve my sewing skills by adding on some material to the bottom of the dress.

First, I needed material. Here is what I learned:

The sheen of black 100% polyester material does not match the sheen of black 95-%-polyester, 5-%-spandex material. (Who would have thought spandex would matter so much?)
Instead of matching black to black, you can add in a band of tan to match the flowers on the dress's material.
And then you can add on a band of black so the tan doesn't make the skin on your legs look sickly pale.

I started my supposed-to-be-only-one-hour project this morning at 9 a.m. I finished it a mere 5.5 hours later at 2:30. Here is what I learned:

Polyester is a very difficult material to sew because it is so supple (and stretches easily).
Think SEVEN times before sewing two pieces together to make sure a seam is matching correctly.
The iron setting needs to be on very high to make sure the polyester behaves accordingly.
Needles work well as thread picks--except be sure to not undo the threads of the material itself.
The seam lines on the bottom of flaring dresses need to also flare. If not, the dress cuts back in and looks awkward.
Don't cut off extra material from the band you've already sewed until you are sure you don't need it to make changes.

In the end, the dress looks pretty good--as long as you don't look too closely at the side seams. And the original mission of modesty is complete with an added 2.5 inches of length.

The dress in its final glory. I like how the added band turned out on the bottom.

And up-close shot of the added band.

And up-close shot of the side seams. (I had to get creative when the the seams hung funny and I had already cut out extra material.)

what I learned from washing the car

2008-10-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

Twenty-five-foot hoses are generally not long enough. Besides, 50-foot hoses only cost $2 more.
When you connect the hose to the faucet, turn on the water, and find pressurized water spraying from everywhere around the connection point, do not immediately look for your warranty card. Simply look around for the plastic washer that might have come out of the hose's connection point with the faucet. Replace the washer and turn on the water. The results should be agreeable.
End-of-season wasps and bees find wet cars in 1:00-p.m. sun fascinating.
Clean cars sure look nice!

"To love another person..."

2008-10-14T06:04:00.001-07:00

The most powerful part to me of my favorite musical, Les Miserables, is the closing scene, when Jean Valjean is at the end of his life. Fantine comes to him as an angel, and sings "Take my hand / I’ll lead you to salvation / Take my love / For love is everlasting / And remember / The truth that once was spoken, / To love another person / Is to see the face of God."

It's hard for me to get through that moment dry-eyed, even when I'm just listening to a CD. Memories from my life--and from that musical--always pour through my mind and I know how unselfishly loving others does bring an undeniable closeness to God.

This morning during my scripture study, I wondered to what Victor Hugo was referring as "the truth that once was spoken." Was he quoting scripture or other literature? I'm still not sure--if someone has insight, please let me know!

However, I did recall Matthew 25:40: "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Bar-th-elona

2008-10-13T06:56:00.000-07:00

In Spain, the c's are spoken like th's. At the airport, we had some trouble finding our luggage so I asked a lady for help. She directed me to Terminal "th." I didn't understand, so she said it a few more times and then said, "'Th' as in casa." Ah. I had forgotten we were in Spain. Now for the adventures:

Our first few days in Spain were spent in the city of Gava, about 30 miles outside of Barcelona. While Matt did his tradeshow thing, I bought sunglasses and soaked in the sun at a beach along the Mediterranean Sea. I read Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, a wonderful book about using positivism to improve your life. I highly recommend it.

Then we went to Barcelona for the next few days. Barcelona is famous for the architect Antonio Gaudi, who used the city as the playing ground for his creative releases. Here is a good shot of some of his architecture in the city from the viewpoint of a park he designed. (I thought the mosaic benches were really cool--I really want to do a mosaic something in our house.)

More Gaudi architecture: the Sagrada Familia. This Catholic church was Gaudi's biggest design project, which he began a little over 100 years ago. He died before it was finished, and it is still under construction. "Sagrada familia" means Sacred Family, which is detailed in the above picture on one of the outside columns of the church. It was beautiful--and a bit avant-garde.

Here I am trying to figure out some of Gaudi's architecture--or maybe trying to make sense of the joke Matt just made. :)

Another church, this time built and finished in the 14th century. It is called Santa Maria del Mar and is hailed as one of the most true-Baroque churches ever built (thanks to its hasty building, which only took 20 years). We happened upon a Catholic wedding while there and enjoyed how delightful a string quartet can sound in the open vaults of a church.

The above pictures detail our ascension to Montserrat, a mountain monastery retreat. I say retreat because the area has been turned into a big tourist attraction with various hotels, restaurants, and shops. Since we went on a Sunday, Matt and I instead enjoyed nature by walking along a trail to a more secluded area. It was breathtaking to be so high up on such a steep mountain.

Our next post will end with London--our last stop.

Europe

2008-10-08T21:17:00.000-07:00

Since Matt and I have been home for a full week--and our jet lag is pretty much worn off--we decided it was time to post about our adventurous European discoveries. Let's start with Paris.

Eiffel tower, shmeiffel tower. While we did take time to take in that most functional of all apparatuses (it is a radio tower), we were perhaps more taken by the extremely expressive art of Rodin. Here is his sculpture of Victor Hugo, listening to his literary muses while pushing out the din of us rather normal (and non-muse) humans.

In the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, each big window has a partner mirror across the way. That's about it--except for all the innate opulence. Oh, and the billions of visitors. Not-so-fun fact: the queens had to give birth in public so that it was verified that the child was the king's. (Not to question it further, but wouldn't it be more appropriate to verify that the child is the king's by witnessing the conception? Not that anyone would want to witness that...)

In the city of wonderful food, Matt and I found this Japanese restaurant that served up some great pot stickers and wonderfully filling miso soups. All for the cheap price of 6 euros a piece. (Believe me, a $10/person meal is pretty cheap in Paris.)

Church in Paris was our most adventurous discovery, by far. I had printed out a map from maps.lds.org for a chapel, but the map took us to a small alley with NO church. We did have the address (which, interestingly enough, didn't match up to the map...), so we used our guidebook, people on the street, and famous landmarks to help us problem solve until we did find the church--only to find it was locked. But then we saw a sign that invited us to come in by pressing a button and walking through the big blue door. We did so, only to find church was not in session. All signs said it was supposed to be sacrament meeting, but no one was there so we figured it was a district conference day.

Tomorrow I'll take you through Barcelona!

Paris

2008-09-14T16:57:00.001-07:00

What to do at night when in Paris with your wife? Well, I'd recommend taking her on foot through the cobblestone streets of the City of Light and enjoying the views on the banks of the Seine.

What to do the next night, at 2 AM when your wife's asleep and you're still fighting that obnoxious jet lag? Well, blog about the night before!

366 days

2008-09-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

One year ago, today, a pretty, spunky, and charming woman chose to become the newest Sederberg in the United States of America.

If Sederbergs were a species, we would certainly have protected status here, as there were only 189 Sederbergs in the whole country in 2000, according to the US census.

Trish, thanks for adding one more to the total, one year ago today. We need all the strength we can get!

And yes, just like we had our reception the day before our wedding, I pushed to eat our frozen wedding cake last night, the day before our anniversary. I couldn't wait--I had been looking forward to eating that delicious chocolate stuff for weeks!

@Curtis--I checked, and yes, there are still four Tupperware containers of reception slush in my parents' freezer.

Pennywise choices for school fundraisers

2008-09-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

My big sister Rebecca just alerted me that an article she wrote is on the front page of The Dollar Stretcher this month. Her piece is about making wise choices with fundraiser participation so you can support the school and still get value yourself. Bec speaks from experience here, and this is great advice!

On a side note, I just realized that with this post, the "Sederbergs" blog I'm writing with Trish now has more posts than my Interested Mind blog that I started in college, which has more of a professional bent and is now not getting much attention from its author.

delightful lunch

2008-08-29T12:24:00.001-07:00

I just had the most delightful--and delicious--lunch, that I'd like to share it with you:

tuna salad (tuna fish, celery, mayo, mustard, grapes, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, toasted almonds)
whole wheat saltine crackers
fresh peach
strawberries
glass of water

To top it all off, I'm going to indulge myself with a Ginger-O (cream between gingersnaps).

m.i.a.

2008-08-27T08:37:00.001-07:00

I wish I could show you how the finally-blooming, velvety purple verbenas look absolutely luscious against the ripening red tomatoes. Or how lovely those plush purple verbenas look against the smooth orange gazanias.

But our camera is missing in action. It is broken and (hopefully) being fixed.

Until then, try to imagine how gorgeous these colors go together:

influence

2008-08-21T18:24:00.001-07:00

It occurred to me the other day that a fundamental practice I have employed for almost 20 years was first introduced to me by someone whose face I can't remember and whose name I never knew. When I was about 10 (and had recently taken an interest in making my teeth feel smooth), a dental hygienist suggested a practice for thorough teeth-cleaning: count to four for each area you're brushing.

Since that day I have mentally divided the teeth portion of my mouth into 18 sections that each get four seconds of teeth-brushing attention at least twice a day. Since that day I have also added a soft-bristled toothbrush, a circular brushing technique with the bristles pointed toward the gums, and the "extend-your-life-by-a-few-years-and-don't-die-of-heart-disease" practice of daily flossing.

The influence of this lady who I don't know and can't remember has been quite impactful. It has made me wonder about other people whose influence is ingrained in my daily routine--but whose face and name I don't know or remember. Can you think of an example in your own life?

one-and-a-half weeks

2008-08-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

I drove into the driveway this morning after being away from home for 1.5 weeks. That really isn't a long time, so I didn't have too many expectations for what I would find--especially since we had arranged for a very helpful helper to water our garden and check our mail.

However, I was a bit surprised to find myself confronting so much "change" in so little time. Here is what I found:

Growing plants! Our tomatoes are almost ready to be picked, the zucchini plant doubled in size, and the roses bloomed. Wow. Our helpful helper weeded; otherwise, I'd be digging out a little jungle.
Decaying food. I cleaned the fridge of the following spoiled items: milk (past due last week), plain yogurt (so much for chicken tikki masala), tomatoe paste, and a few bites of melon. Amazingly, the artichoke hearts swimming in a brine of vinegar and oil have survived the last 7 months.
Disorder. I knew I wasn't leaving the house in perfect order last week, but I found I needed a good hour to just straighten things...let alone clean them (on today's afternoon list).
School starting! Today was the first day of school! Since we don't have kids, this wouldn't necessarily be a noticeable thing; however, since the school is located across the street, I am more than normally aware of the rhythm of elementary school life.

I have spent the morning dealing with these changes; but really, it is just nice to be back home.

hula hoops

2008-08-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun video of Matt and me having a hula-hoop contest at the family reunion (refer to previous post). As a side note, I love the history of the hula hoop, as described by the movie The Hudsucker Proxy.

reunion

2008-08-04T10:46:00.001-07:00

Matt and I went to Blackfoot, Idaho for a reunion with my mom's side of the family this last weekend. We ate a lot of good food, laughed a lot, got caught up, and played a whole lot. We also got to pay special homage to the matriarch of the clan, Grandma Johns. Her strong testimony and rock-solid faith have been the foundation for a blessed family that is growing quickly. Her advice to us all: PRAY. So, enjoy the pictures below--and don't forget to pray.

A few members of the group that were still chatting at 11:00 p.m. on Friday night.

A yummy breakfast: eggs, pancakes, bacon, cereal, fruit, and a variety of juices.

A service activity: tying a quilt. I'm not so good, but you can see me trying hard on the right.

A hat contest! MacKenzie, with her pink hat, was one of the winners.

The whole group, with the matriarch in the middle, second row.

Nebo Loop

2008-07-18T07:49:00.001-07:00

Loops are cool. My parents have a loop on the main floor of their house. Visiting (and resident) kids can chase each other around and around...without ever needing to back up and turn around.

It's fun to go driving in Utah's mountain canyons. Driving on a loop, though, is cool--the scenery is never repeated throughout the whole trip!

Tricia and I drove the Nebo Loop on Saturday. It is longer than the Mt. Timpanogos Alpine Loop, and is also more gentle.

Picnic nearby the Maple Dell scout camp.

Overlooking the south end of Utah Valley

Taking a picture of my wife and myself. I think I need to practice this art.

Mt. Nebo

This was cool: called the Devil's Kitchen; it looked like a bit of Bryce Canyon or Goblin Valley teleported into the Wasatch Mountains.

This was neat: for about 5 miles on the end of the loop, there was just enough ups and downs in the road that I didn't need to step on the gas OR the brake for the whole time--and I stayed between 35-45 MPH! And no, that is not my cute frog floor mat--we took Tricia's car.

It was sunset when we pulled into Nephi. Before turning north and heading for home, we got a very good burger and milkshake at this drive-in.

earrings

2008-07-09T13:03:00.001-07:00

Matt and I have a really fun part of our relationship: because he goes on various business trips, he tries to buy me earrings each time so we can commemorate his travels as well as our relationship in a tangible way.

Here are the earrings and I have (and where they're from) so far:

San Diego (big and dangly--I really like this for a fresh and playful look)

San Diego--Matt couldn't decide between the big ones above or these small ones (I love their texture and wear them when I'm feeling relaxed)
San Francisco--Matt made these with his cousin Sandra (for a fun-siding-on-elegant look) San Francisco--Matt also made these with his cousin Sandra (I haven't figured out the best approach for these so they're a "different" mood)
Yellowstone--I helped Matt pick these out (very small, delightfully cute, and RED)
Kansas City--Matt was assured by the salesman I would love these, and I do (I love wearing these, especially when I'm feeling attractive and cultural)

Las Vegas--Matt found these at an international jewlery tradeshow; they house Mexican miniature roses (definitely for the more sophisticated and mature look)

Park City, on our honeymoon (I love the teal, although I haven't worn them much)

Park City, on our honeymoon (Matt LOVES heart jewelry, and I love to wear these for special occasions or whenever I feel feminine and pretty)

yellowstone continued

2008-07-09T11:51:00.001-07:00

It turns out Matt (owner of Mac) didn't have enough memory on his computer to download all our pictures, but my still-going-strong PC did. (I suppose we should consider that Matt uses his computer for work and has billions of bits of information stored on it.)

Instead of waxing eloquent, I will let you enjoy Yellowstone through our camera's eyes.

Yellowstone

2008-07-06T20:08:00.001-07:00

I think Yellowstone is one of the most underrated national parks. I love it--all the geysers, waterfalls, rock formations, wildlife. The green mountain meadows made me realize that Utah really is a desert.

Even the human-introduced elements of the park are great. I really want to take Trish to Old Faithful Inn for one of our anniversaries. Plus, in two days we saw license plates from 46 of the 50 states. How often do you have that opportunity!?

Here Trish and I are in front of one of the falls on the Firehole River in the park last week.

Mr. Popular

2008-06-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

I just checked Matt's and my profile views to see which one of us is more "popular." Matt's 1,316 views squashed my 358.

I guess I'll just have to go start my own software company to compete.

Here's a photo shout-out to my popular husband--he is singing karaoke on a cruise in Russia.

grammar clarification: puzzling

2008-06-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

I wanted to clarify the grammar rules applied in the "puzzling" post. I, acting as a sort of Shakespeare (who made up hundreds of new words in the English language), made a sort of made-up word out of a very standard word: puzzle.

Puzzle functions as both a noun and a verb in English:

Puzzle (as a noun) means a thing that tests one's ingenuity (such as the puzzle I was making on the floor).

Puzzle (as a verb) means to confuse or complicate (such as "I am puzzled by this puzzle").

In my post, however, I referred to "puzzling" in an alternate noun form of the standard word to refer to the sport of making a puzzle. This makes "puzzling" a noun; however, a few comments have suggested it may be a gerund...which is true!

Even though "puzzling" (the noun I made up) was made from "puzzle" (the noun), I used a sort of hidden step in between. Think of it this way: I first made "puzzle" a verb (as in "I like to puzzle" which means "I like to make puzzles"). Having completed the hidden step of making "puzzle" a verb of my own definition, I attached the -ing to make it a gerund. (A gerund is a verb ending in -ing that acts as a noun.) Hence, I like to participate in puzzling. I could also say, "Puzzling is a great sport."

All of this is not to be confused with "puzzling" being used as an adjective (which is the standard use of the word in current English usage). And so, in appropriate (and standard) fashion, I hope this explanation has not been puzzling (adjective) and has enlightened the readers as to the sport of puzzling (noun--gerund).

Steve Jobs

2008-06-09T21:13:00.001-07:00

I got an email from Apple tonight announcing the new iPhone, with a link to Steve Jobs' keynote address introducing the iPhone 2.0.

Steve Jobs is known for his great powerpoints, so I thought I would take a peak. I started watching, then Tricia who was sitting next to me actually doing something useful with her time, set it aside and snuggled into me to watch Steve's presentation.

After a couple of minutes I realized that presentation was longer than I had anticipated, so I closed the web browser, not without hesitation. Tricia emitted a feeling next to me, which I interpreted as feeling like I was a bit insensitive just to shut it off since she was watching.

We then came to ourselves and laughed a little. Neither one of us owns an iPhone and probably won't for years. Why on earth did we feel like it was hard to pull ourselves from watching what was basically a commercial?

I can think of two reasons. First, we're a little bit nerdy. (I actually would love one of those new iPhones with a GPS). Second, that's the power of a good presentation. If you've never seen Steve Jobs give a keynote, take a look.

Keyless entry?

2008-06-09T21:08:00.001-07:00

We locked ourselves out of the house today for the third time since we were married. After it happened the second time, we even set up a routine to prevent further occurrence: if we wanted the door locked, I went first, if we wanted it unlocked, Tricia went first.

We're not quite sure how it happened tonight that we locked it as we took a nice evening stroll without keys--I think the problem was that I told Tricia a pretty funny joke as we were leaving, and we both kind of stumbled out the door at about the same time.

Thank goodness our landlord lives down the street.

puzzling

2008-06-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

Lest you think I am referring to the adjective "puzzling" (ex: the clues were puzzling), I am actually referring to the noun "puzzling" (ex: I recently participated in puzzling). Last week I finished a 1500-piece puzzle called Noah's Ark.

Here are a few tips for successful puzzling that I decided to jot down from the experience:

Start with the border. It's always the easiest part to put together.
Organize pieces by color and begin on the section with the most color variation. In this case, the people and things on the boat provided the most variation, so it was the easiest part to put together.
Match shapes. Look for variations in the hooking joints (not sure if that's the technical term). Sometimes an arm of a piece will be perfectly round--other times it will have a knob leaning in one direction or a straightened edge.
When you get stuck, start organizing pieces by the grain of the paper. If you let the light reflect just so on a puzzle piece, you can tell the direction of the grain of the paper on which the puzzle was printed. You will then know if the piece fits in hortizontally or vertically.
Don't spend too much time on the puzzle. I always can spend hours on a puzzle because I think, "Just one more piece!" Be sure to manage your life in such a way that you add variation into your daily activities.

a post of a long-ago post

2008-05-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

"Spent the morning on chores--straightening the house, washing, and tending Quey. He is quite unhappy with the cast and with crawling. Ironed in the afternoon, so finished the day with a very tired and aching body."

That is the entry my grandma made on May 29, 1953. She was raising three kids at the time and was five-months pregnant with child number four. (She eventually had eight kids.) I have been reading some of her journals and have been fascinated to compare her daily routine with my current daily life. Her short lines from each day paint a picture of endless work (cleaning, straightening, ironing, washing, doing dishes, baking bread) and various church meetings (Sunday school, primary, MIA, relief society). My days include cleaning, cooking, and doing dishes (since we don't have a dishwasher), but I am more free to do many other activities: post on my blog, write in my journal, finish my mission album, read books, do crafts, garden outside, play the piano and guitar, and make a blanket. Her record makes me grateful for the free time I currently have.

A few more biking pics

2008-05-14T17:42:00.001-07:00

It appears blogger only lets you have five pictures per post...

bike, bike, bike

2008-05-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

Today, neither Tricia nor I drove a car. I biked to work and back, while she walked around town for her errands. It felt a lot nicer passing the $3.59/gallon signs at the gas station on my bike than in my V8 car!

I really enjoy my biking route to work. From our house to my office, there are two main drags: I-15 and Highway 89. Great for drivers, but not welcoming to bikers. Since there's such a narrow wedge of land between the freeway and the mountains, I seriously doubted whether I would be able to find a satisfactory bike route. However, using Google maps, I found a delightful and interesting back-roads way to get to work. In 6 miles, it takes me past houses, duplexes, a trailer park, a railroad, a waste management plant, a farm, cows, goats, an RV park, a business park, and finally I arrive at my office. It makes for a great ride. These pictures are from when Tricia and I drove the route a few weeks ago.

run, run, run!

2008-05-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

I'm not a runner. I don't like running just for running. I know it's an easy way to get exercise, but I sincerely struggle to find joy in it. (NOTE: I absolutely love the cool down and stretching afterward, but the work in the middle is not enjoyable for me.) But I do it--because of the principle of "good health" (and the stretching afterward).

However, since last night, the scales have started tipping in favor of more running.

I played frisbee in the Utah County Frisbee League (I think that's the official title) for the first time last night. It was fun...but intense. Man-to-man defense killed me. I was breathing heavy and hard after two rotations--and that was just barely into the game.

So I decided I need to take this conditioning-by-running thing seriously. And I found a great tool to help me out: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/. At this lovely site you can plug in your own route and see how many miles it is. I was pretty happy to see I was at least covering 1.5 miles on my runs around the neighborhood (yes, that is good for me), but I was also able to see that a few of my longer runs have covered 2.5 miles (again, not a lot compared to some people, but good for me).

Here's to shedding a few fat pounds (while hopefully adding some muscle pounds)--and being able to not pass out on the frisbee field!

daily clock

2008-05-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

I realized just a few moments ago that my day is punctuated by certain events that help me realize what time it is without needing a clock. Here's how a usual day pans out:

6:30 a.m. Either Matt has gotten up, is getting up, or is moving around to get himself up.
9:00 a.m. School starts at the elementary school a half block away. The plethora of cars and chattering kids makes this time very recognizable.
10:00 a.m. Our neighbors take a bath or shower. Since we live in a duplex, I can hear distinctly the water in the pipes.
12:30 p.m. I start to get hungry.
3:00 p.m. School gets out. The same rush of cars and kids makes even more noise.
3:30 p.m. My next-door-neighbor girls play outside.
5:00 p.m. They go inside for dinner and it gets quiet.
6:00 p.m. My husband comes home.
9:30 p.m. I start feeling a bit tired--usually signaled by muddled reasoning.

inspired by spring

2008-05-01T14:38:00.001-07:00

I don't recall ever paying so much attention to the beauties of spring. I have watched with fascination as dead things have come to life: tulips shooting up, trees blossoming, and weeds growing (all too abundantly). My neighbor girls gave me a gift of a bunch of flowers from the tree in our front yard, and it gave me the idea to make a bouquet of the blossoming branches. I love them against the red vase that my husband and I recently purchased at Ace Hardware.

I can't decide if I should cut off the green leaves? I find the white against the red stunning, but the leaves add some playfulness that I kind of like. Let me know what you think.

finished!

2008-05-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

I finished grading yesterday, and here is how I celebrated:

The magazine is Real Simple. It's got fabulous tidbits of information and some interesting recipes I'm excited to try.

Should we feed it?

2008-04-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

Our new backyard friend...

Say, is it "Sehderberg?"

2008-04-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

Tricia and I went to a Seder dinner at BYU to observe the Jewish passover. Victor Ludlow, a Mormon religion professor who hosts these dinners with his wife (they've done it for 30 years), led us through the various parts of the symbolic meal, after which his wife led us in a Jewish song. It was apparent that they really enjoy this--they treat the 100 or so guests as family, and teased each other and told jokes in a natural way that can only come after years of hosting these events.

For instance, when his wife got the mic towards the end of the evening, she said she always gets asked three questions at these dinners. 1) Do you always come to the Seder dinners with him (yes), 2) Do you always eat the bitter herbs? (yes), and 3) WHY? (I don't know.) Then she proceeded to ham it up--and steal the show--while leading everyone in the Jewish folk classic "Who Knows?"

Anyway, my family has always pronounced our surname "SEE-duhr-burg," (though it is invariably mispronounced by others.) However, the original Swedish is pronounced "SYEH-durh-burry." I got to thinking that a "SEH-duhr-burg" (as in Seder ceremony) is actually closer to the Swedish than the vocalization our family has standardized on.

So, what would my great-great-grandpa Olaf Sederberg (the first Sederberg--he had his name changed from Olav Johanson when the patronymics were discontinued in Sweden in the 1800s) think if I broke with recent tradition and disposed of the Americanized pronunciation in an attempt to hearken back to my roots? People change the spelling and pronunciations of their given names all the time, but it seems like last names ("family" names) are more reverenced and not to be touched. Thoughts?

only six to go

2008-04-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

With unopened chocolate Dunford donuts sitting on the kitchen table as encouragement, I have plowed through 16 of the 22 final projects. I am happy to report I have only six left, and I plan on finishing the grading today.

life...recently

2008-04-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

Remember when you were a college student? You worked really hard for a semester, studied mad hours for a few days leading up to finals, and dug into final tests with abandon? Remember the feeling you had after the last final you took--the feeling of walking out of the classroom with nothing floating in your head except ideas about how you would allow your brain cells to relax and enjoy?

Yeah, those were the days.

Now I get to be the professor who works like mad an extra week longer to assign grades. What was I thinking when I assigned third-year graduate students a semester-long writing project to be turned in the final day of class? The students have put in good work--and now I'm putting in my own good work.

Today I've learned about the following topics:

Terrorism
Bonds and stocks
College student success as it relates to extracurricular activities
Continued funding for the Life Sciences Learning Center
The business of ice cream

If I didn't have to assign a grade to all of this, I would be more fully rejoicing in all the learning that is taking place within my OWN head. My students are amazing, and I am proud of their work.

But I better get back to all that grading.

my own way to save the earth

2008-04-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

This morning I slept in a bit late while Matt was busy trying to get to work earlier for a conference call. As such, we missed our opportunity to go on a morning run together--a nice little activity that died down with the onslaught of snow, but which has recently picked up with the warmer weather.

My solution was to run to the grocery store this morning to get a couple of groceries for dinner tonight. It was great! I passed all the kid-o's going to the closely located elementary and junior high schools while enjoying the fresh morning air. I showed up at Ream's (our favorite local grocery store!) a bit out of breath, but happily beaming from the brisk run.

A few minutes later I left with chocolate chips (for the mole tonight), oranges, and yogurt. I did NOT run back with my bag, but while I was walking home I thought of lots of different ways I could be a more conscious citizen of planet earth. Here are just a few of the ideas that came to mind:

Buy a re-usable tote bag for grocery shopping so I don't use and create waste with the plastic bags groceries are normally bagged in.
Start doing around-town errands on my bike. (It turns out my around-town errands are pretty much nil, besides grocery shopping, but in case I need to hop down to the post office...I've got it planned.)
Try to re-use cottage cheese and sour cream containers. I'm finding that saved items very often come in handy at various moments.
Buy more fresh food items. Simply cut down on canned items--they aren't as healthy and they create more non-biodegradable waste.
Start using the herbs in our herb garden! (My next post will be about the herb garden.)
Related to the previous point, make good use of the little garden space we have and the cherry tree and grape vines in our yard so we have our own food supply this year.

I may not be saving the world in one shot, but I am trying to do my own little part in leaning toward a solution--instead of toward the problem.

Scout Oath

2008-04-09T11:40:00.000-07:00

After attending the Springville Republican caucus and hearing various platforms, I started to wonder what documents best describe my personal convictions, outside of religious documents. Upon contemplation, I have realized that the Scout Oath (and Scout Law) do a great job of very succinctly outlining how I try to live my life, and consequently, how I would act if ever elected to public office. (And yes, I am an Eagle Scout.)

Scout Oath
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

Scout Law
A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.

I heart Reams

2008-04-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

I like living half a mile from a grocery store.

This means that in a pinch, I can run to the store for my morning run and run back carrying a jug of milk so I can have cereal for breakfast. That extra 8.6 lbs provides both a good workout and an incentive to keep my weight down.

Last weekend, I had a slightly longer grocery list. To keep things interesting, I brought along our nice, great camera. Going grocery shopping at Reams makes me happy.

1. Here's the outside of the store. Notice the old fashioned ads: Magic Marker on butcher paper announcing a sale on potatoes.

2. Strawberries on sale. Tricia loves strawberries.

3. Produce at Reams is both cheap, good, and plentiful.

4. I was sure I'd meet someone I knew here, and I did. This is my great home teaching companion Craig and his mom and niece.

5. This friendly employee helped me find the chicken broth (of course, in the soup aisle!). He was pretty excited when I told him about my blog and said that the store management would love to talk with me. Maybe I'll interview them later.