It's About Time...

Let me just begin by saying (writing?) that if you thought of those commercials for the Church when you read the title of my post, you are not alone (though you, too, may need psychological help). I wasn't thinking that at all, until after I typed it. Immediately after I had the first thought, I couldn't read the title anymore without hearing the ellipsis between "about" and "time" in my head.

I haven't written for a long time... I suppose the justification for that is that I was waiting to be able to announce my new job... which I still don't have yet. I started looking at the end of April, and I think there's a very good chance that I'll finally have one by the end of this week (although, in fairness, I thought that last week, too). So, since I have nothing interesting to report, but I haven't written for a while, I'm ready to write something... less interesting.

AJ is growing up at an alarming rate (as kids that age always seem to do). He will be a year old next week. He walks pretty well, although he learned to walk on carpet and without shoes, so it sort of threw him for a loop when we started putting shoes on him. He doesn't love walking on hardwood floors, concrete, or other non-carpet surfaces, but he's starting to get the hang of it. He's been trying to talk for a while now, but he doesn't really say anything intelligible. He does mimic what we say fairly often. His latest is "hot dog" though it really doesn't sound anything like "hot dog" in English. Maybe in another language, but...

Going back to work (assuming that ever happens) is going to be weird for me. I've been home during the day with AJ virtually every day of his life...

Alexa is healthy and happy, enjoying 3rd grade and has recently developed a love of bowling. Well, maybe love is too strong a word. She started a Saturday morning bowling league last week. We will have to see if it sticks.

I promise to write again when I get a job. Hopefully that means you'll be hearing from me very soon.

More from the Flannerys

If you leave this board

(Yes, those are nails.)

laying on the floor like this

then your husband might step on the board and one of the nails might go into his foot far enough that he has to reach down and pull the board (and the nail) off (out) of his foot (And he might have to go to his ER and get a doctor there to clean it out so that it doesn't get infected and give him a Tetanus shot so he doesn't get lock jaw.) and you might feel really bad and really guilty.

If, however, your husband leaves this board

laying on the floor like this and he steps on it. You'll still feel really bad.

But you'll avoid the guilt.

Let me entertain you

Isaac loves cars. I don't let him play in my car but that requires some work on my part. The car must always be locked. (I'm not a locker by nature, my parents not only don't lock, they leave the keys in the cars. And I was raised with that so the locking thing took some getting used to.) But it doesn't end at locking. Ike, he's 2 remember, can unlock my car. He's perfectly comfortable unlocking either with the key fob thing or the key itself. And he makes sure to lock the door behind him. (I may not be a locker by nature but he is.) He likes to turn on the lights and the blinkers and generally do things that make turning on the car very interesting for me the next time I get in it. He also likes to put the key in the ignition and turn on the radio. And because that's not interesting enough anymore, he starts the car.

Let me tell you how fun it is to stand outside a car that you can't get into because it's locked with the key inside and try to talk your two-year-old into turning off the car and letting you in. Really, really not fun. (Here's a hint, if you show any sign of how mad you are he won't unlock the door.) So we keep the keys on top of the fridge where he can't get them. Yet.

It's not just my car that he likes. He's an equal opportunity car lover. He climbs into my mother's car when we go there, He'll climb right into any car he can find. He doesn't talk a whole lot but he can and will identify the "owner" of any car that he recognizes. He knows which car is Laura's and which is Grandma's. He yells out "Ne har" (Sydney car) every time our neighbor drives by. (As an aside, I'll tell you that he calls our van "mine har" that's mine car. In his mind it's not my car, it's his.)

Ike also climbs the fence of our fully fenced yard. He's been brought back by the neighbors on more than one occasion.

Given the above, why was I at all surprised when the Maggie and Aidan came running in the other day crying because Isaac had locked himself into a car that was left parked (but apparently not locked) on the street? (They were crying because they were afraid he was going to suffocate in the car. There wasn't much danger of that.) Whose car it was, I have no idea, but I feel safe saying that Ike has now taken things to a whole other level.

And I thought raising Aidan was going to be bad.

Love to all, wish me luck- Allison

It just keeps getting better

I love my minivan. I know that’s not the cool thing to say, a minivan is not a “cool” car. Most people put off and dread the day they have to become minivan owners. Me? I was stoked for it! I love my power locks and power windows. I really love my dual rear power sliding doors. And don’t even get me started on the DVD player, I adore it. And for previously mentioned reasons I love that you can not take the car out of park and into gear without a foot firmly depressing the break.

But there’s one thing I do not love.

I do not love that the car must be turned on, with a foot firmly depressing the break in order to get the car out of park.

Let me just give you a hypothetical situation.

If, say, your car was pulled all the way up under your carport and, say, your daughter said she wanted to wash the windows (of the car) then you might say yes, even though you don’t think it’s a very good idea, because you can’t think of a reason to say no fast enough. And if, say, you told her that while she was at it she should clean all the crap out of the car and then you handed her the keys to the car so that she could get in it (because in this hypothetical you had to always keep the car locked and you had to keep the keys on top of the fridge lest your hypothetical two-year-old son try to steal your car) then about a half an hour later you might see your daughter leave the house with a CD in her hand and you might follow her out to the car to see her putting said CD into the car CD player (which means the keys are in the ignition so that the CD player has power) and she has not only a bottle of Windex but a bottle of Clorox Clean-up spray. And if you yelled at her and sent her to her room and grabbed the CD and the Windex and the Clorox Clean-up spray then you might lock the car and not think about it until the next day.

And if you went out to your car the next day at 8:45 after having wrestled four children into church clothes alone because your husband is at work and you’re staring down the barrel of three hours at church with four children, alone then you might find that your car won’t start because your daughter left something on and you’ll just load the baby into the stroller and tell the other kids to get their bikes and you’ll walk to church in your heels and you’ll still manage to only be five minutes late and make it in time for the sacrament (because you are that good).

But the next day when your husband is home with the other car, if the van has to actually be on in order to get it out of park, then you won’t be able to put it in neutral so that you can get it out of the one car carport and into a place where you can reach the battery, so you’ll have to very carefully pull the car into a spot that’s only about 6 inches wider than itself to get it next to the van and you’ll still have to hook two sets of jumper cables together (safety first) because the battery is, of course, on the side of the engine closest to the house and farthest from the open side of the carport.

If all of that happened, then you might wish that the car didn't actually have to be on to get it out of park.

I’m just saying…

Oh and if the above ever happened to you I would recommend that you find out what was left on and turn it off as soon as you realize that the battery’s dead because then there’s a chance that the battery won’t be so dead that jumping it doesn’t work (despite the very safe arrangement of your jumper cables) and it has to be replaced and you’ll take the old battery out and you’ll take it to Checker and you’ll tell the guy there that you need another battery just like it and he’ll ask you for the make and model of your car despite the fact that you know what kind of battery you need because THERE’S ONE SITTING ON THE COUNTER RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU and then he’ll ask you for your name and phone number (?????) and then your credit card will be denied and you’ll use the other one and $85.00 later you’ll carry the sixty pound battery back out to your car yourself while the dude from Checker tells you to have a nice day. Maybe it won’t make any difference since the battery was already so dead that the power locks didn’t work, but it could.

Birthdays I can think of !!

In September we have Jeremiah on the 26th and Jabe on the 29th, then in October we have Debbie on the 11th and Peggy on the 12th. I'm pretty sure there are others I am missing - don't stone me please!! Just put them in so we will all know!!

Anyway, Happy Birthday to all of you, those I can remember and those I can't! Take a drive up one of the canyons and look at the colors - they are getting to be spectacular - I was up American Fork Canyon on Saturday and had a chance to look at the leaves while I was picking up garbage for about 4 hours - we gathered tons of garbage and some of our people built fences for the Forest Service - at one of our locations out west they pulled up about 1 and 1/2 miles of old fence and planted 3500 trees!! I think we had a total of about 250 volunteers and put in about 1300 man hours.

My tomatoes are getting huge and the salsa has been fabulous - I pretty much take it to every party, meeting, picnic and outing we go to and everybody loves it and wants the recipe. I finally sort of invented one but I don't use is and I don't measure so it gets a little tricky!! We were making quesadillas the other night and I had run out of the bottled jalapeno slices so I took a bright red jalapeno from the garden and cut it into rings and put it on my quesadilla. Whew!! I almost had to get out the fire extinguisher - it was seriously warm!! So if you want any jalapenos let me know - I have lots and they are spectacular.

National Public Lands Day

This Saturday (actually tomorrow) September 27th is National Public Lands Day. Many clubs, groups and organizations will be involved in projects all over Utah and the rest of the country to help the Forest Service and other government entities with clean up, fence building and other needed maintenance activities.

I belong to the Lone Peak 4 Wheelers, a 4 wheel drive club and we will be working with the Utah 4 Wheel Drive Club (U4WDA) and other off road clubs working with the Forest Service up American Fork Canyon on a variety of projects. We will be meeting at Tibble Fork Reservoir at 8:30 AM and get to work about 9:00 AM.

Once again we are getting to the end of the month so I hope to see more of you "blogging!!"

Great News!

Nate passed the Bar! We got a letter this week saying that he is a full on lawyer. Next step: getting a permanant job! There is always something to do. Thank you for all the kind thoughts and prayers. We are getting our puppy next weekend so I will post more then.

Time Flies

Thought I would take a minute and report in. We did a trail called Bear Canyon this past weekend with our club - it runs between Moroni and Manti down the mountains on the west side of that valley - we saw some spectacular views of the Manti Temple from up on top. You can go to http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1127614926&k=YYDTYZPXTXYM5ACAPG35S3
and look at the pictures that Julie pasted in her FaceBook thing. We got new gears in the Jeep and I got a front locker from Julie for my birthday so Jeeping is a lot different now. This run was more like a Sunday afternoon drive, just scenery and visiting - no real obstacles - I barely had to put it in 4 wheel drive. We also got a tour of one the mountain top microwave tower areas. One of our club members is about to retire from Utah Power and Light and maintenance on those tower has been his job for years. It was pretty cool to see them close up and get a little explanation of how they work.

I haven't made near enough salsa this year but the days are slipping away and I am doing the best I can. I have Roma tomato plants 6 feet tall and 4 feet across and tomatoes the size of big oranges. Also have lots of peppers of various kinds, colors and sizes and I have been eating them like crazy. We had lots of squash earlier in the season and it was really good.

I talked to Lark L last night and they are doing OK - Mom finished another quilt last week and has 2-3 more in the works - she is now well over 170 quilts. They do keep her busy. Dad says he is thinking of tearing down the Gothic arch - he hasn't been able to work on it since the 4th of July and thinks maybe it should go down instead of up.

Hope you are all well - hope some of you are reading the blog - I'm not seeing much activity here.

Sechrest update

Nate and I have had a super busy month. He started his new job and is loving it. I started school a few weeks ago and it is killing me. I am starting to understand why a lot of people don't go back to school after they leave. I am just not in the student mind set and I am so out of shape. Walking to and from school has made me so sore. But, it's really good to be back in school. I am doing well in my classes and managed to talk my way into a lot of the art and lab classes that I need for my major.

Nate and I are going to go in a few weeks to pick up our little puppy. He is so cute! The breeder named him Alexander but we will be changing that.

Nate's little brother, Daniel, is leaving this week for his mission in the Atlanta Georgia North mission. We went down to Utah last weekend for his farewell. My mom and the girls were in Blanding, so we hung out with Nate's family. It was good to see the extended family (it's amazing how quick you lose touch) and Nate's siblings. Nate's cousin, aunt, uncle, and I had to do a last minute musical number for the farewell because no one was informed that there would be one on the program. I noticed it listed on the program five minutes before sacrament meeting so I grabbed the singers in the family, rehearsed in the parking lot, and I think we pulled it off pretty well. The rest of the weekend went smoothly.

I am hoping things settle down but that is not likely. All is well in Boise. Hope everyone is doing well, too!

Labor Day

We had a great adventure this past weekend - went to Blanding and stayed with Mom and Dad - Steve and Truman were there and Peggy and Shelby were there. We just stayed Friday night then we were off to do the "Hole in the Rock" trail with the Red Rock 4 Wheelers out of Moab. We had 4 other rigs from our club so about 1/4 of the the group were Lone Peak 4 Wheelers. We started at the Cal Black Memorial Airport which is about 10 miles from Hall's Crossing and head south into the desert and the slick rock!!

The idea is to go in 4-5 hours, camp, go to the end of the trail and back the 2nd day, back to the camp and out on the 3rd day. But there are times when Mother Nature just doesn't cooperate. The first night we got lots of rain and wind, but managed to get by. 2nd day started out cloudy but with some blue sky - the trail was brutal and the scenery was spectacular. Right after we went down a place called The Chute we got hit with an unbelievable cloudburst - it just poured and streams went from a inch deep to 4 feet deep in 10-15 minutes. From where our Jeep was I could count 19 places where the water was pouring off the slickrock. So we had lunch and waited - we were still 5-6 miles from the end of the trail but the trail leader said what was left was even more technical and a lot of slick rock to we turned back.

Even though we didn't get to the end of the trail it was a great adventure and a lot of fun. And it means we have to or get to do it again, so that's OK!!

We stopped in Green River on the way down and loaded up on melons for Mom and Dad and then stopped on the way north and really loaded up on melons for us!! Home safe and sound - Jeep very dirty and reddish-brown - the desert turned into lots of mudholes and we managed to hit our share!!

Love to All - J.B.