Thankful For...

I was reading my sister Meta's blog today and noticed how for Thanksgiving she made a list of things for which she was thankful. I haven't yet expressed much gratitude this Thanksgiving season, and want to. In fact, I have a real belief in the healing power of being grateful. Six years ago I had the good habit of keeping a "Gratitude Journal" -- it was a simple way for me to journal, without having to be long-winded, and yet it kept me looking for the positive side to experiences, and it helped me recognize what I felt was God's hand in my life. In our past General Conference, I was especially touched by President Henry Eyring's talk (as I described earlier), which spoke of his own experience noting each day how his life had been blessed. For years now I've wanted to start up my gratitude journal again, but I've just not had the self-discipline to do so.

In any case, here are things I am grateful for at this time:

• A husband who loves me and is a full partner in parenting
• David, our miracle. I especially am grateful for his beautiful smile and his wild kicking legs! I'm so grateful his birth parents trusted us with him. Already I just love the person that he is and will become.
  
• The Halverson Family Reunion over Thanksgiving. I married into such a good family!
  
• Blake's excitement over David
• Nephews and nieces who hug me and take such interest in David
• the Halverson sense of humor
• The anticipation of seeing many of my family members in Oregon over Christmas (and I do love Oregon, so I'm excited to be there)
• Parents who gave me such love and such examples.
• Sibling time. Sara just visited Anna out in DC, and hearing their accounts of having time with each other made me feel so lucky for my siblings. Now they need to visit me!
  
• Bobby working so hard on his mission in the Dominican Republic. I'm glad he's been healthy and challenged in his work.
• Grandma Rampton. She's 99 years old, and her health is failing. I am so lucky I have such long-lived and incredible grandparents. She's my last living one; I don't want her to go!
  
• The knowledge that I, like each person in this world, am a child of God.
• The Church. I'm especially excited for the Creche Exhibit which begins on Saturday. And though it's a lot of time and planning right now, I'm also looking forward to the Ward Christmas Party and am grateful for a good committee which is helping me plan it.
  
• Health. Sometimes I get mad at my body's shortcomings (like infertility). But on the other hand I am strong and active and able to accomplish the things I want and need to. I'm blessed!
  
• Warm California weather. Fall colors.
• Friends. Jenn Rawlinson's and Sally Baird's surprise visits.
  
• Free housing this year, and the wonderful people we've met while house-sitting
• Currently, we have a deck which overlooks a lagoon. Though we actually aren't out there all that much, when we are it is beautiful.
• Literature (I just finished Ender's Game on book-on-tape). Book clubs (we just discussed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). Harry Potter books-on-tape (so well-performed). Teaching Macbeth. Advanced Comm kids who are excited to start another book project.

OK. I'm not grateful for grading but I must get to that now. I'm will surely have more things to add as I reflect more.

And I'm grateful for a holiday which encourages me to think about this!

David's Smiles: 3 Months

Just wanted to post some recent pictures of David. I don't like the lighting when I use the flash, but the photos are always a bit fuzzy without it, especially when I'm trying to snap fast in order to catch a smile. Still, you get the picture!





He's moving into the 3 month sized clothes. I think I would have kept him in many of his 0-3 months clothes longer (even though some of them I'm now realizing ARE too small) except that Taylor's mom Kathy bought him some 6 months clothes, and we put him in some of those while in Minnesota. He was swimming a bit in those, but it made me realize I could pull out the 3-6 months clothes. And they do fit him well.

He does this birdy-mouth when he's hungry
(though here he had already eaten). Very endearing!

Sunny San Diego & Wintery Minnesota

The weekend before Thanksgiving Taylor picked me up at work with David already in the car. We headed down to San Diego for the annual conference of the Society of Biblical Literature. The Thatcher family, in-laws of Taylor's friend Jason Combs, were generous enough to put us -- and several other conference attendees -- up in their home, despite the fact that they were also throwing a big party on Saturday for their oldest grandson's baptism (which we went to).


Taylor presented twice during the Conference. One of his speeches used Weber's philosophy of charismatic, traditional, and bureaucratic leadership to understand the fall of the Israelite Kingdom more than 100 years before the fall of the Kingdom of Judah. His second presentation, for a section entitled LDS and the Bible, asked why historically Abraham, and not Adam, has received the title "Father of Monotheism." He claimed that LDS theology "rescues Adam from the trash heap of theological history." He was on a panel with about 5 other people, some who had been his professors at one time or another. It felt, he said, like an important step to sit with them as a peer. The session was well attended, with standing room only. David didn't fuss too much, so I was able to listen to Taylor's whole speech and much of the other speeches as well.

It was fun for Taylor to see old friends there, and for us both to see Lynne Wilson (a member of our ward here, whose husband is bishop of the Stanford 2nd ward, who is getting her PhD in Religions and who, like us, teaches Institute in the Stanford program).

We took a break in the proceedings of the weekend to go to the top of the Marriott hotel and look over the city of San Diego. The sky was quite brown, with fog, smog and smoke from the fires of Southern California. While up there, Taylor decided to give David a new 'do.

Like my mohawk? Was my dad a punker in the '80s?

On Monday after Taylor's presentation we headed back to the Bay Area, getting home super late. We both worked on Tuesday, and I had Wednesday off. Good thing, since the morning was busy getting ready to catch a flight to Minnesota. We arrived in St. Paul about 9 pm, and were picked up by Richard and Kathy. The whole Halverson clan was home for a family reunion (and most of them had been playing for several days, having arrived Saturday the 17th).



Blake of course was so excited to see and hold David. He asked me about a million times if I was David's mom, and if my parents were now grandparents once again (9 times -- he knows how many nieces and nephews I have better than I do!). He loves family connections and so it's fun for him to meet his youngest nephew.

David did get a fever our first night there, and had his worst night of sleeping ever. Poor Taylor was up most of the night, though I did wake (because he bought David into the bed) and help twice during the night. One of my sisters-in-law asked if I truly don't hear David's crying, or if I'm kind of ignoring it. I'm not! I truly just don't hear him. If Taylor were to be out of town, I'd have to sleep with the monitor on its highest volume (or David right next to me) and my hearing aids in; then I might hear him. People told me that my "motherly instinct would kick in" and cause me to hear. Nuh-uh. A hearing loss is not miraculously healed by babies, I've found!

The adults of the family had a beautiful session in the St. Paul Temple together on Saturday morning. We did sealings of deceased ancestors, and such a feeling of love filled the room. When Taylor and I acted as proxies for sealings of deceased couples, I couldn't stop smiling at him. One thing I love about the temple is that it allows you to so vividly remember your own marriage, since the words of the vow are the same, as you act as a proxy for others. When couples develop their own ceremonies and vows, the uniqueness can be wonderfully personal and creative. However, there is something powerful in feeling that your vow is like unto the vows of millions of other couples as they are sealed for eternity. And my heart just overflows as I hear the same words with which Taylor and I were married, as we stand in place of those who died without their own sealing.

Here are some photos of the whole family, and then of the adults.





We got home at 1:30 am from Minnesota. I've not yet been able to get a long night of sleep (lots of school work, and preparation for the Ward Christmas Party). The friend who watched the cats had a nice time with them, and they with her -- in fact, the cat who is still fairly timid around us warmed up to her, even jumping on her lap! That made us feel good that they liked having her here.

The Quintuplets

My mom and dad have 5 new grandkids born this year: Eliza was born to Marcus & Rebecca in January; Jasper to Sara & Rob, and Johnny to Anna & James, both in March (5 days apart); Catherine Alice to Meta & Todd in June; and David to us in August. So my mom has mailed each new grandbaby a "Baby's 1st Christmas" bib; she wants us to take a photo of the baby in the bib, and then email her the shots. She hopes to PhotoShop them together into one photo.

Here are some from my first attempt; in all the light wasn't right and so they're not crystal clear. Still, David looks very excited for Christmas and to be one of the Quintuplets!



For some of the photos, I went outside, and a gentle breeze was blowing. David got so excited! His legs were pumping a hundred kicks a minute! I didn't think to video tape anything till he was starting to settle down (10 or more minutes later!); I can't figure out how to upload the video anyway! Oh well.

Bowl of Rice, Bowl of Words

Check out this site: http://www.freerice.com. For every word you get right, they will donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to fighting world hunger. And it doesn't make you enter an email or name or whatever.

I need to be lesson-planning, but so far have donated 460 grains of rice (with a vocab level of 42 -- out of what I'm not sure, but I'm not getting all the words right!). Do you know the term for Irish moss? Ha! Thanks to FreeRice I now now that it is carrageen!

Enjoy. It must take a lot of grains to fill a bowl, though!

Adoption Article in the NYT

I just read an article in the New York Times written by an adult adoptee. Her father was dishonest about her background, and it has led to numerous identity questions for her, as well as a lack of trust in her father. If you're interested, here is the link.

I actually added a comment to the blog following the article. I just hope that the NYT will not only feature the challenges of adoption, but also the beauties of it. A few days ago I spoke with one of LDS-Family Services adoption counselors, who himself was adopted as a baby along with his twin brother, and he mentioned how adoption is usually negatively portrayed in the media. That sure doesn't help encourage adoption.


Nonetheless, the article brought up some important issues. I appreciate the way we are encouraged to be open in the adoption process these days, as I think that also encourages honesty. As I sing and babble to David, I tell him that we love him, and I tell him that his birth mommy and birth daddy love him. I hope this makes conversations about adoption natural as he grows older.



When I wrote David's birth parents our weekly letter last night, I realized I hadn't taken many photos of him in the past week. The yellow bib are from this morning; the cooing ones are from last week.

Babbling with David

Dear David

I haven't posted much recently because my computer was in the shop. My work laptop would not recognize the USB from the digital camera, for some reason, so to do anything with photos took a lot of extra steps. We actually went ahead and purchased a new computer for me, with a lot more memory and such. It's nice to be able to play around with Photoshop without having each step take forever.




In any case, here are some new photos of David. He has such a pleasant disposition (unless his mom is trying to do too many errands when it's his nap- or feeding-time). He also loves to observe the world; he doesn't like to be held facing towards my body, but wants to face outward and watch the world. Yesterday as Taylor and I taught an Institute class, he wouldn't settle down for a while because he could hear his dad's voice and wanted to watch him as he taught.

We finally caught his gigantic smile on camera (below), which he does when his daddy plays with him, and when I talk to him.


The shot below seems boring, but just a few seconds beforehand he was laughing and laughing at the cupboard and the outlet. I'm not sure why! Babies his age like contrasts of white and black, so perhaps he liked the white of these things!

Oh My Goodness! Bloomington Surprise #2!

Saturday night, Taylor told me he would run to the grocery store while Jenn and I stayed at home. I had to finish off sub notes, so left Jenn reading on the couch. By the time I checked on her, she had fallen asleep on the couch, so I went on to write the blog about her visit.

Taylor got home about 11 pm and asked that I help unload groceries. I followed him out, and he pointed to the trunk. I opened it ... and there was a person inside! I screamed, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" It being late, I'm not sure the neighbors were happy with me. The person was in red, like Jenn -- yet I had just left Jenn sleeping on the couch (or so I thought; she had actually gotten up and followed me out). So for a moment I thought Jenn was somehow in the trunk.

Sally's surprise reenacted

But then I saw the curly red hair and realized Sally Baird had surprised me too! Sally and Jenn are two of my dearest friends. In Bloomington we "visit taught" each other in our church. We loved that extra excuse to get together and talk, and our friendship deepened even further. Our husbands are close too, and Taylor and I have missed Joey and Sally and Nate and Jenn immensely since we came out here.

Sally and Jenn explained that once they heard about David, they wanted to see him. They've been planning this visit for 2 months! I've been completely clueless. They had meant to fly in together but Sally had to change her ticket. So Jenn arrived and left a day earlier.

Sally with David

So we went to SF on Sunday morning after a pancake breakfast (thanks to Taylor) on the deck overlooking the lagoon. Taylor took the Ralston route so we could stop at an overlook and snap photos.

Overlook in Belmont hills

We didn't have much time in SF, but saw the ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street, and a bit of the wharf. The day was beautiful. Then we headed to church. Afterwards I had a planning meeting for the upcoming Ward Christmas Party, but Jenn, Sally and Taylor went home where Taylor had dinner waiting by the time I got home.



Jenn had to leave Monday, but I did show them Gunn H.S., and then we drove the Portola Valley Loop (that was especially for Jenn, who loves horses), and went to Stanford (where we went to the top of Hoover Tower, walked through the Quad and saw Mem Chu, visited the Bookstore, and had lunch at Tressider). By that time it was nearly time to start heading down to the San Jose airport for Jenn's flight. I took them past the glitz of University Avenue and over the 101, so they could see East Palo Alto (the contrast of that 1/2 mile is so stark!). Jenn had to leave way too soon!

Sally & Jenn near Hoover Tower

Today Sally and I have had a lazier day. She watched David while I went jogging, and then we went into Menlo Park for lunch. Sally is so good at asking interesting questions, such as "How are you different now than you were in high school?" "What are your views on immigration?" and "How has having David changed your relationship with Taylor?" It's been so nice to get to talk with her and with Jenn.

Now they're both gone and I miss them already! What amazing friends. I haven't had such a surprise in years and years, and their display of loyalty and friendship is overwhelming! They have reminded me of how important it is to nurture friendships and by doing so, nurture one's own heart.

National Infertility Awareness Week

To learn more, see this link from the RESOLVE website.

Surprise from Bloomington!

Taylor informed me a few weeks ago that I needed to take Monday and Tuesday of this coming week off because he was planning a surprise. He knows I like to KNOW what's coming up, so I can anticipate it, but this time he wanted to keep his secret; I could tell. So I didn't push. I had no idea what it might be -- it's hard for us to get away since we're cat-sitting. I thought perhaps my dad was coming into town since he's said he wants to. But I really had no clue what to expect.

Friday he said we'd be having dinner in San Jose and picking up a package. As we were on the road, he made a call and spoke with someone who told him the package was ready. At one point he mentioned the package was at the airport. That was fishy, but there are FedEx buildings next to airports, so I assumed it was something there. Strange that we couldn't get it at a FedEx closer, though.

I started getting a little more suspicious as we got closer, and then especially as we headed to the arrivals area, but the FedEx buildings. He told me to go in and a man named Mike in a yellow jacket would give me the package.

So I'm looking around, and then a voice says, "Are you looking for a package?" I turn and...it's Jenn Rawlinson! One of my best friends from Bloomington, Indiana, and someone I've missed dearly since our move.

So Jenn is here until Tuesday afternoon! (She's asleep on the couch right now, as I had to send off sub notes and it took me too long to finish them up!) We went jogging and walking today, talked a lot, and then with Taylor drove out to Half Moon Bay in time for sunset (yet again hitting bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way). Monday we'll see Stanford and Palo Alto and walk the Dish; Tuesday we'll head up to San Francisco for the morning and early afternoon.





It is so good to see her! And these two were SO sneaky, that even when I thought Taylor was up to something fishy, I never once suspected this! I haven't been so surprised in a long time, and it's great!

I know these beach shots are a bit dark and grainy
(Taylor was taking them from the cliff, where he stayed with David
as Jenn & I played in the water and talked near the waves).

Rampton Halloween

My mom just sent us her report of Halloween at the Rampton Residence on Chipmunk Place. Halloween always seemed like my parents' favorite holiday in some ways (lots of fun, but much less stress than Christmas), and we loved it as kids. We were proud that our house made little kids cry. I thought I'd share her photos and email about the night:


"We had about 80 trick or treaters last night. Down from the days of over 150. Sometimes we would run out of candy and I would ask our own kids to 'donate' some of their candy which they didn't want to the trickortreater bowl so we wouldn't have to turn kids away.

"Part of the reason we get so many is because of Mark's love for decorating for Halloween. Here are some shots from last night. The fox guy is on a string to our window and goes up and down as the kids walk by. We love it when the teenagers yell. We don't jiggle the string much for the wee ones. (You can see Mark pulling the string in one of the photos.)





"Rebecca [Marcus's wife] gave me the idea to use a drill to make holes in the pumpkin that are perfectly round. Go Rebecca 'Stewart'!





"The cemetery is full of tombstones with engravings like 'Mabel Smith and her pet boa died in a fond embrace'.


"We hear that no one gets trick or treaters out where we will be moving on Crescent Valley Drive so the hey day of Halloween on Chipmunk Place is coming to a close, but I think my fondness for putting decorations away on November 1 is waning, too, so it's probably about time.

"Our inheritance may include Halloween Decorations for our kids! You lucky dogs!..."