Category: life in general

Maryland and DC

Last week, Jeff and I did something we’ve never done before. We dropped the kids off with friends and drove out to Maryland to see his parents for a few days. It was our 15th Anniversary on Wednesday and their Anniversary on Thursday.  They have been serving in the Maryland Baltimore mission since last Spring and we finally made it out to see them. Part of the fun was surprising Jeff’s Mom. She had no idea we were coming. After the 11.5 hour drive, we took it easy the evening of our arrival. But the next day Jeff and I took the MARC train into DC and went to everything we could manage in a day. Here are a few highlights (mouse over the pictures for location):
Capitol Building

A beautiful building, for sure.  I was not as impressed by the huge luxury vehicles various politicians were getting out of and their self-important air.  Nor was I impressed by the Presidential motorcade we saw three times, stopping traffic with the multiple police escorts and more large vehicles surrounding their 2 or 3 limousines.  Give me a break!

Lincoln Memorial

We got to DC pretty early, before most museums were open, so we walked from the train all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial.  It was a beautiful, cool morning.  That afternoon when it warmed up, we were glad we’d made the long trek early on.  It was worth it.

Vietnam Memorial & Washington Monument

We didn’t go up into the Washington Monument, but enjoyed the various war memorials in the area surrounding it.

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Night at the Museum, anyone?  We also visited the American History museum, but somehow didn’t end up with any pictures worth posting.  My favorite exhibit there was the actual flag that flew over Ft. McHenry that inspired The Star Spangled Banner.

Real bird in a fake tree

This was in a sculpture garden.  The bird doesn’t seem to mind at all that the tree is made of metal.

National Archives

We saw the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence.  The constitution is huge.  I guess I never realized it was written on such big paper!  And the men had such beautiful handwriting!!  The document is in surprisingly good condition.  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the others.  They are so faded that the names are completely unreadable.

Monet (museum of art)

At the museum of art, we saw several Picasso’s, Monet’s (like this one), Renoir’s, Van Gogh’s, etc.  Many of the pieces were so beautiful.  Others resembled things my kids have brought home from elementary school art class.  What do I know!?

After a long day in the city, we walked back to the train.  We were lucky enough to catch an express and I was even luckier to be sitting next to a man who, in telling me about his son, said, “He’s about your age, 25? 26?”  I laughed and told him I’m 39.  He leaned over later in the ride and said, “You’re not really 39 are you?”  Considering the fact that I felt more like I was 60 after walking all day in flip flops (don’t ask), I was happy to have found a new best friend.  Ha!!

Overall, it was a great day.  We slept great that night, air mattress and all.  More to come.

Say What?

blue eyesLast Sunday Sam volunteered to say the dinner prayer.  Savannah mentioned that Sam had said a lot of prayers already at church and that he was sure to have a pretty wife!  According to one of Savannah’s friends, each time you say a prayer it means your future spouse will be that much better looking.

Listening in, Sterling didn’t miss a beat before saying,

“Wow.  My future wife sure must be saying a lot of prayers.”

What a funny (and handsome) guy.

Talented Sheep

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.
(The video “screen” is too big for the blog. Click on the title “Talented Sheep” to open this post in its own window so you can view it full size.)

In A Nutshell

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.

Jeff's bone grafting/rod replacement surgery

Sterling's legos gather for general conference

sams-surgery

crazy-hair days at school

father-son-outing

University "Celebration!" - an annual family event

more snake handling

even more

A good way to use up 24 lbs. of strawberries

A better way to use up 24 lbs. of strawberries

weeping-cherry-blossoms

spring-blossoms

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…

Hoppy

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.

House Guest

I went down to the storage room today to find an after-school snack for the kids.  Reaching for something on the shelf, I discovered this:

While other tell-tale signs (a.k.a. droppings) are missing, Jeff thinks it’s a mouse.  This is not good news.  We had one other mouse incident several years ago and I’m still traumatized by it.  Jeff said, “I’ll take care of it.”  To that I say, “Be my guest!”  I’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE (2.5 hours later):

Well, that didn’t take long.  Our little brown mouse is in a better place.  Better than my storage room, that’s for sure!

UPDATE (2 days later):

Jeff left another trap out just in case Mr. Brown Mouse had friends.  This morning we learned that he had at least one and they are now reunited in heaven.

Cars

My memoir writing group met today.  Here is my piece, about some of the cars from my early driving days.  Enjoy!

By the time I turned 16 my Junior year of High School, all of my friends already had a Driver’s License. Some of them even had their own cars. I don’t remember specifically deciding not to get my license, I just didn’t have a need for one. It wasn’t until my Senior year that my Mom decided it was time. I never realized it before, but she probably pushed the subject because my older sister had moved to North Carolina to be a nanny for a year and Mom needed someone to run errands. Whatever the reason, I finally got my license in November of 1987, one month after my 17th birthday.

My family never had fancy cars. Quite the contrary. But my parents’ rule was that as long as I was willing to drive their cars, they’d pay for the insurance and gas. If I wanted to buy my own car, I was on my own. I was a pretty smart kid and I knew a good deal when I saw one so I swallowed my pride and drove whatever was available. Well, I sort of swallowed my pride. We did have one vehicle that I never learned how to drive because, well, I didn’t want anyone to see me in it. It was my Dad’s 1961 Ford van. Rather, it was a van from the front, but looked like a truck from the back. But Dad’s uncle Don had built a camper shell onto the back so it still looked more like a van than a truck. Whatever you called it, it was Ugly with a capital Ugh! I remember riding as a front-seat passenger in this beast one afternoon when I saw one of my friends. I immediately ducked so they wouldn’t see me. My Dad actually pulled the van over to the side of the road after my little display, insisting that I’d offended his van. He refused to go until I apologized and kissed the steering wheel. My younger brother did not share my opinion of this van and actually lived in it for an entire Summer.

I remember well the day Dad taught me how to drive a stick shift. We were driving a 1970-something turquoise blue Dodge Colt wagon that my sister dubbed “The Easter Egg”. I didn’t know it at the time, but the clutch on this baby was difficult at best. As I started to get the hang of it, Dad took me to a very steep hill so I could practice how-not-to-roll-backwards from a stop. As luck would have it, another car pulled up right behind us at the stop sign. Dad told me to go but I refused. He tried to tell me I could do this. “Just ease up on the clutch and give it enough gas and you’ll be fine.” No way. “I’ll hit the car behind us,” I insisted. “No you won’t. You’ll be fine.” “I’ll hit them. I’m not going.” Seeing that I was not going to give in, Dad finally got out of the car and asked them to go around us. With the other car out of the way, I was able to move on. My next obstacle was a stop light.

I was the first car at the intersection with a whole line of cars behind me. The light turned green and I slowly moved into the intersection only to kill the engine. Start the car. Kill the engine. By this time the light was red again and I had a lot of angry people behind me. I wish I could say we were still on a hill so I’d have a better excuse, but the road was flat and I was embarrassed. On the next green light, I managed to move, but I’m pretty sure that ended the day’s driving lesson. I don’t remember having any trouble with a stick shift after that. Well, there was that one time I couldn’t get up a hill. I’d get part way up and then the car just wouldn’t go anymore. Finally, on my third attempt, I realized I had the parking brake on!

It wasn’t until college that I really appreciated having learned to drive a stick shift on such a difficult car. Everything I drove after that was cake! I honestly don’t think I’ve ever had to drive a manual transmission that was harder than the Egg.

My favorite car was a pale yellow Honda 600 referred to as “the pee-pee car”, again named by my sister and her friends. It was just a little thing and I’m reminded of it whenever I see a Mini Cooper. It was a gutless wonder, but quite a conversation piece. It had a sunroof that pretty much took up the entire roof of the car. I remember driving it one day to meet a large group of friends. When it was time to go home, I couldn’t find my car. It definitely was not where I had parked it. It turns out, my guy friends had picked it up and moved it to another parking spot. Another time it was the centerpiece at a High School dance. I drove it through the cafeteria doors and it sat in the middle of the commons until the dance was over and I drove it home.

The first car I ever owned was a Subaru. Everyone would ask me what model it was, but I honestly didn’t know. It just said Subaru on the back and that was it. I think I paid $600 and don’t remember ever having trouble with it. I loved that the headlights automatically turned off when I removed the key. Then there was my 1983 Honda Accord. I loved that car! When I got married, I sold it to my parents. My younger siblings got to beat up on it until it died.

There have only been a handful of cars since then. I currently drive either a 1995 12-passenger Ford van or our 1994 Honda Accord. Both run great and I’ve never had a car payment. There’s still 4 years until my oldest gets his driver’s license and then my daughter the year after that. I think I’ll keep these old cars around. If they ever complain about what they have to drive, I’ll just pull over and make them kiss the steering wheel.