Our Little Corner of the World

My to-do list was sitting on the table and one of the items said something like,

“Do such-and-such, etc.”

Soren saw it and asked, “Mom, what does e-t-c mean?  Does it mean eat the cookies?”

No Soren, it doesn’t.

But it should.

My brother Rob, a.k.a. HR (Handsome Rob), has been asking when I’m going to start blogging again.  I think of  things I could post rather frequently, but somehow I never manage to sit down and actually post them.  And now it’s been so long that I don’t even know where to start.  So I’ve decided to roast pay tribute to the only person who seems to miss my ramblings — Rob.

Rob is significantly younger than I.  In fact, Rob turned 5 right after I started my first year of college.  I recently came across this note that he sent me at school:

Awww.  Isn’t that so cute?  He must have forgiven me for the haircut I gave him only weeks before school started.  Mom was in the hospital having baby Jeffrey so I thought I’d help her out by cutting Rob’s hair.  I’d never given a haircut before, but how hard could it be with clippers?  Did you know that you are supposed to attach an extension on the clippers before you begin?  Did you know that your subject will be bald if you don’t?  Um, yeah.  Rob was bald.  But hey, that much longer before he needed another haircut, right?  Sadly, I have no photos of that event.  Fortunately, he’s had great hair ever since.

As if great hair wasn’t enough, Rob is very stylish as is demonstrated in this never-before-seen photo:

Is that classy or what?  Even from a young age he has demonstrated an impeccable fashion sense.  Today you’re more likely to see him in a cardigan sweater or a frightening clever t-shirt.

Another great quality is that he loves loved cats.  We had a cat which was the runt of the litter and rather ugly and so we named him Yoda.  Rob loved Yoda!  And from the photo, it looks like feelings were mutual.  This is how they slept pretty much every night:

I’m wondering if Rob’s love for cats ended when Yoda ran away one year on his birthday.

Oh, and Rob is very talented/clever.  That can be aptly demonstrated by this amazing hat he created.  Again, his sense of style leaves me speechless.

Rob is the self-proclaimed “favorite uncle” to my kids.

It’s obvious they love him!

Rob is also an ultimate frisbee pro, killer bunnies champion, and amazing family historian.  It’s no wonder we put up with him love him as much as we do!

Having served a mission in Scotland, and being on the Isle of Lewis during lambing season, I grew to love sheep.  They had the right of way on the roads and it wasn’t uncommon to have to wait for a little lamb to finish eating before Mom and baby would move out of the way.  I remember eating at a member’s home one Sunday after church.  We were having a nice roast, which I assumed was pork, when I announced, “After serving on this island, I will never be able to eat lamb again.”  An uncomfortable silence followed before our host announced that the roast was, you guessed it, lamb.  Oops!

Enjoy the following video of some pretty amazing sheep — or maybe it’s the sheep dogs that are talented and several sheepherders with an awful lot of time on their hands.

Here’s a photo journey of some of the more memorable events that have occurred over the past several weeks in our little corner of the world.  Mouse over the photos to see a brief description of each.

Not pictured:  Jeff replacing the radiator in the van, Spencer reading the entire Harry Potter series in 2 weeks, Savannah’s awesome piano recital, Sam’s entertaining Choir concert, Savannah’s clever choir concert/musical, Soren’s cute kindergarten music program, getting rid of ants in the kitchen, finding and fixing the leak that caused our floorboards to buckle, etc…

Soren came home from school today and announced,

“Mom, if you want to know all about animals, just ask a vegetarian.”

Vegetarian.  Veterinarian.  What’s the difference?  Most animals would probably prefer to hang out with a vegetarian anyway.

Two years ago, when Spencer was in 2nd grade, he learned about tree frogs.  He would come home from school each day and fill us in on the various facts and details surrounding the fascinating life of frogs.  He decided that this would be the ultimate pet and proceeded to save all his money to get one.  Finally, shortly after school ended for the Summer, we made a trek to the pet store and left with a 10-gallon tank, water dish, wood chips, a couple dozen live crickets, and “Hoppy”.

Hoppy was a female tree frog.  Spencer informed us that you could tell gender by the size of the ear spots next to their eyes.  Hoppy’s were large which meant girl.

We quickly settled into a routine of spraying down her tank two or three times a day, feeding her 3 or 4 live crickets each night (tree frogs are nocturnal), and making sure she had water in her dish.  We put in a few live plants which thrived in the terrarium-like conditions.  In the Winter, we put a heater on the side of the tank and eventually got a heat lamp to keep her warm enough.  The crickets were my least favorite part.  We kept them in our old one-gallon fish tank and they required carrots or apples to keep them hydrated and fed.  And Hoppy would only eat them if they were alive.  This got particularly exciting on those occasions when someone accidentally knocked the cricket cage to the floor and we’d still be finding crickets several days later.

Sometimes Spencer would put Hoppy in the tub for a swim.  Or he’d take her outside to play and let her crawl through the grass or he’d just carry her around and let her climb on his hands, quick to grab her when she hopped away.  One day last Summer, the kids found 2 small toads when Jeff was mowing the lawn.  Spencer brought Hoppy out to enjoy some company and the kids had a great time with their amphibious friends.  But since frogs don’t particularly enjoy being handled, Hoppy spent most of her days asleep in her tank.

On Friday, I couldn’t see Hoppy in her tank.  Spencer is great at finding her so I called him down.  He looked for a while and then pointed out that she was crouched behind the flower pot in the back corner where she has hung out before.   But as I looked closer, something was different.  I turned the tank around to get a closer look and she wasn’t suctioned to the glass as she usually was.  I knew there was something wrong when I saw that her neck wasn’t going in and out as it always did.  When the realization that Hoppy was dead sunk in, Spencer melted into tears.  As each of the children were made aware, they also cried and cried.  It was one sad evening in the Stowell home.  Spencer wrote in his journal that he’ll never forget Hoppy and that she was his only true best friend.  (That was the saddest part for me!)

Jeff buried Hoppy in front of our rose bush and Sterling drew this sweet picture for Spencer.

We’ll miss you, Hoppy.  Thanks for being a part of our family.

Fourteen years ago today, in a sealing room in the Manti temple, Jeff proposed.

Still on crutches from his farming accident just 6 months earlier, he got down on his good knee and asked me to marry him.  It dawned on me shortly after I accepted that I actually had a date that night with someone else.  See, Jeff and I had only been dating for 4 weeks.  This might sound alarming to some, but we had actually known each other for 6 1/2 years, having dated some during my first (his 2nd) year of college.  In and out of touch over the next several years, we finally figured out that we really liked being together this time around.  But we never had the “let’s only date each other” discussion.  I figured out pretty quickly that I preferred spending my time with Jeff, but we were only a couple of weeks into our new relationship when my brother’s friend asked me to his community college’s Valentine’s dance.  So when I blurted out, “I have a date tonight!”, Jeff said, “I know.  You can go.”  Yeah, right.  I didn’t go.

My Dad jokes that I finally caught someone because - with his injury - Jeff couldn’t run fast enough.

Whatever the reason, I’m glad Jeff puts up with me.  I think we make a good team.  Love you, babe.

I know this isn’t the best picture of me or the kids, but Jeff looks hot!

(I got the best one.  Wahoo!)