the more the merrier

This coming weekend is a special time for Mormons everywhere - Conference Weekend. Which means watching church on t.v., or online from Salt Lake City. For Hillary, however, it means more than that. It means hosting TONS of friends and family as they converge on her apartment to be near the "action" in Salt Lake City. There is definately a special spirit and excitement and fun being on Temple Square during conference. In the past Hillary and friends have had picnics on the grass near the temple, listening as conference is being sent through the speakers. Other times they've been in the conference center, which holds about 2000 people. Other times they have been part of the hymn-singing going on in front of the conference center, to peacefully combat the protestors who are marching outside temple square.

Again, this means lots of friends and family that visit Hillary. I think she said there will be about 14 girls sleeping in her apartment this weekend. (She has assured me that the boys will be sleeping somewhere else!)

And I love facebook, that I can steal some of her photos. She is really getting the most out of her college experience. (Except maybe sleep)

drawbacks to halloween decorations

You know halloween is coming when you are washing your hands at the bathroom sink, looking at a huge spider, and it takes you a few seconds to realize that it is not a decoration, but really a huge spider! Yuck!

you've got mail

Tonight Luke and I were looking for Halloween decorations in boxes in the garage. He pulled out a bag that had a pumpkin on it, and out spilled a bunch of old letters. I of course had a great time looking at them. Even though Reggie and I lived around the corner from each other, by our junior year we were going to different high schools. Not seeing each other every single day meant we of course had to write letters. Stella was our mailman. I would give her a letter at seminary which she would take to Reggie at their school, and the next day she would deliver one to me from Reggie. What a nice, patient friend. But the letter that intrigued me the most tonight was not from either one of us but to us. It was an invitation from our friend in the ward, Gary Galten, to a birthday party/dance at his house. He advertised how big the stereo speakers were going to be, and told us to bring our records - yes, records. I remember the party; it was alot of fun. And we all did dance. I also remember specifically why I kept the invitation. It was addressed to "Reggie and Nancy Hanaike". I remember looking at that for the first time - "Nancy Hanaike". I was so excited! I was hoping so much that some day my name really would be "Nancy Hanaike".

And so, almost 30 years later, I sign that name to the bills each month; I explain how to pronounce that name to people on the phone or at the grocery store. Life is full of all the practical, hard things that we make ourselves do everyday. Being a grown up is certainly alot harder than we imagined back then, but I'm still so happy and excited to be going through life as "Nancy Hanaike". And I'm so happy that I saved those letters.

I did call Mariah to come and look at that paper, as proof that Reggie and I were teenagers once, and told her why I saved it. She just laughed that it said "records".

pumpkin time

This picture is the cover of one of my all-time favorite books. The woman has too many pumpkins accidentally growing in her yard and so she bakes and bakes and bakes them into pies, bread, cookies, etc. When I was a school librarian I would read this book to the kids and then show them the inside of a pumpkin and let them smell different spices. I miss that job so much! But thats okay. We still read this book together at home, and bake and bake and bake. I love pumpkin time! (You know what? Maybe I will bring this book to my junior high and read it to the kids who are in the detention room. Would they roll their eyes or would they end up enjoying detention too much?)

old/new memories

When Reggie and I were teenagers (before we had our driver's licenses) we would meet half -way between my house and his and go for a walk down by the cliffs. I never dreamed back then that our daughter and her husband would be taking wedding pictures in that same spot. Life is amazing.

world geography

Samantha had a very cool experience in school a couple of weeks ago. She was sitting in her World Geography class and all of a sudden she heard music that was very familiar to her - it was her Grandpa Hanaike singing. He died before any of the grandchildren were born, but while he was alive he made an album of Hawaiian music that we all treasure. This was the music that was playing. Her teacher then said aloud "Samantha, do you know what music this is?" Of course she did. He explained to the class that this was Samantha's grandfather's music. Turns out he had one of Samantha's cousins in his class last year, and she let him copy some music off of her ipod, including grandpa's album. Then the teacher talked about heritage/ancestors, etc. which was a perfect introduction to the project they've been assigned. They have to make a poster about their ancestors; where they've come from. Samantha's post is going to be pretty cool - pictures of hula dancers and ukuleles next to pioneers and temples. I'm pretty excited.

Mariah wants to be me

Luckily, she hardly never looks at the blog; she would never admit it, but she really wants to be just like me. The thing that made me come to this conclusion is leg-warmers. In my teen years and early college days, in the 80s, I kept up with the latest fashion, which included leg warmers. I had several different pairs, and wore them over my skinny jeans. I noticed Mariah wearing leg warmers over her skinny jeans today. She is also always stealing my DVDs - Pride and Prejudice, Northern Exposure, etc. She really wants to be me.

" Oh, I'll just use my food processor"

Well, the newlyweds are doing great. I hear from Julia almost every day, mostly because she calls for recipes. They have become quite the entertainers - having people over for dinner alot, and they have enjoyed going to other people's houses. There's no place like BYU for a young married couple to find lots of other young married couples to socialize with.

Today, when I told Julia to start out the recipe for chicken strips by smashing up the croutons she said "oh, I'll just use my food processor". I responded with "oh, what, are you bragging?" Everyone was so generous to them and she is LOVING putting to good use all of their wedding presents.

the cheese touch

Anybody seen the movie "Diary of a Wimpy Kid"? My kids love it. They've loved the books for years. We rented the movie, and as I was watching it with the kids, at one point Samantha begged me to go out of the room. She knows me well, and knows that I don't like gross humor. Maybe she was trying to protect my senses, but I think more likely she was worried that I wouldn't let them watch the movie anymore if I saw certain parts. Well, I didn't go out of the room. The gross parts weren't indecent - they were just, well, gross. Samantha was especially worried that I wouldn't like "the cheese touch". In the moive there is a piece of cheese on the ground at the school that has been there for years. If anybody touches it they are labeled as one who has "the cheese touch" and no one will have anything to do with them the rest of their lives.

I won't tell you what happens with the cheese - who is forced to touch it, eat it, etc. (Yes, I think I must throw up now.) But the other day the thought of this made me laugh a little bit. I was monitoring the kids on the yard at my school and I saw a piece of string cheese, half wrapped, on the ground, getting all hot and melted. As I went to pick it up to put it in the garbage, I worried for half a second that some kids would see me and start pointing and yelling "the cheese touch! She's got the cheese touch!" Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! It gave me a good laugh.

the "green" party

When Mariah realized that her older sisters have had parties with Luke while she was at camp, she decided to have a party with Luke and Samantha while Julia and Hillary are away at school. They decided the theme would be green. They decorated Mariah's room, made green refreshments, played games and watched "George of the Jungle". It was pretty great.

this house

Can a house be a member of the family? I feel like this one is. For over 40 years it has taken care of a lot of people.

My parents bought it in the 60s, before it was built. They rented a house 5 miles away and came over here every so often to check on it's progress. At that time they had 3 kids, and didn't know that 3 more would be coming. My Dad did a great job at putting all available space to good use.

I love to look at the old pictures - slides actually - and see how the decor has changed from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and so on. I go to put laundry away in Luke's room and remember when it was my room - when I had a trundle bed and when I was too little to hang up my own clothes. The family room walls are faded where my sister's flower stickers used to be during the 70s. When I go down the stairs to the basement I remember when I wore my skates at the top and tumbled all the way down. There is one piece of furniture that has stayed through all of the decades: the piano. Every room, every wall has a memory.

I'm sure my parents never dreamed that they would own it this long and that this house would be home to so many people. The other day some mail came for Lester. Julia told me that they would be putting this down as their home address, and they would be back at Christmas. Seeing his name with this address below made me stop and think about how many people have lived here and had this as their home address over the years:

Sam, Ruth, David, Lloyd, Lynette, Marianne, Tom, Nancy, Grandpa Stowell, Suzanne, Chandler, Celeste, Sergio, Jared, Rocio, Tzuri, Evani, Jacob, Joshua, Reggie, Julia, Lester, Hillary, Mariah, Samantha, Luke, Steve, Kathy, Krista, Jordan and Kyle.

And many more family members will always remember visiting Grandma and Grandpa here. So many friends have joined in on parties, game nights, holiday dinners, day care days, etc. etc.

I just love this house. I hope my parents know how it/how they have touched so many lives. I'm sure the day will come that someone else will own it. Thats hard to grasp. But for now, and always in our memories, we will treasure this house; this member of our family.

houses

We've been watching the news about the San Bruno fire. They mentioned that so many of the houses that burned were built in the 60s, and had still been occupied by the original owners. It got me thinking about the special houses in my life. Every summer when I was a child we would go and visit my grandparents in Pocatello Idaho. I absolutely loved their house. Upstairs they had 2 bedrooms that still had beautiful wallpaper from the 50s. In the morning I would wake to the sound of a train whistle, which I think is one of the best sounds in the world. There was a climb-in game closet, and a bathroom with a laundry chute that went all the way down to the basement. The main floor had the living room with a piano and small organ and brand-new console t.v. that we weren't allowed to touch. The dining room was just big enough for the table and chairs. Even if the meal wasn't going to be very fancy, my grandma would spruce it up, like pouring the milk out of the carton and into a pitcher. One of the walls held the graduation pictures of each of the 7 kids that grew there. These were black and white pictures from the 40s and were absolutely beautiful. The kitchen looked onto the backyard where we played croquet and picked raspberries. The basement was always cooler than the rest of the house. Since 3 bedrooms was not enough for a family of 9 my grandpa put a couple of beds and a shower in the basement for the boys. It was great for grandchildren as well. Several years after my grandmother had passed away and my grandfather was living in the house alone, in the 1990s, he decided to sell it. It went to a nice family, which is exactly what he wanted. I always wished that someone in his family had bought it so that we could still go there. I absolutely loved that house.

good memories

Tonight my childhood friend Tammy came over; she is visiting her parents from Texas. It was fun to sit around and talk about how our kids are doing, how we are doing etc. But it was especially fun to reminisce about our teenage years: riding around in the back of Brother Shipp's truck, before there were seatbelt laws; playing volleyball at 2 in the morning up at the church on New Years Eve/Day; all the sleepovers; having parties/dances at various friend's houses, including ours. Mariah was listening and couldn't believe it - that we had dances at our house, and more specifically that I danced at at all. (Did she not see me at the wedding? I danced up a storm!) It was so much fun remembering all of this again. I wish she didn't live so far away; I wish you didn't live so far away either, Sheryl. But, at least computers have made it easier to keep in touch and share pictures of each other's lives. What would the world be like without friends.

a day with friends

Thanks Mae & Nua for all the fun!

a little brother's story

(Will I ever stop blogging about the wedding?)

Luke had a range of emotions during our wedding season. Happiness, sadness, nervousness and joy:

At first he wasn't so sure about this tuxedo business. He eventually decided that he liked it.




He had fun killing time, playing around at the temple




When Julia and Lester came out of the temple, officially married, Luke got a bit emotional and tried to hide his tears.

But there was lots of family and friends around to bring his spirits up again.




He got very tired of picture taking at one point, and poor Samantha got the brunt of it.



He livened up again and practiced his dance moves at the top of the temple. (He also apologized to Samantha.)




We didn't get any pictures of him at the reception. He actually fell asleep in his chair during dinner, but woke up in time to put his dance moves to good use.

All in all it was a fun summer for Luke. Julia was sensitive to his emotions, and made sure she spent some quality time with him before the wedding: watching Lord of the Rings and she and Lester took him out for breakfast.

Now life for Luke is all about going to bed on time, getting up on time, doing his homework, etc. Life is full of changes and Luke is learning to cope with them.

I love my Samantha

Riding off into the sunset

So Julia and Lester left yesterday to start their new life together. They are going back to the same college that they were at last year, but now to married housing. They are pretty excited to get all set up. They drove all night, which scared me to death, but got there safe and sound.

We love them and miss them, but are so happy for them.