Heissatopia Street

The word of the day is "manipulation." Elmo wants you to say manipulation. If you do not say manipulation Elmo will scream and yell and threaten to disown you. How can you resist such a cute, furry monster? Elmo is only a little monster and cannot know everything, so you should say manipulation with Elmo and then give Elmo a cookie, otherwise Elmo will hate you forever. Say man-ip-u-la-tion. Say it! Say it, now! And then read me a story while I eat the cookie that I conned you into giving me. Or else.

Idaho Sandwich: The bread

We took a quick trip up to Idaho to visit Auntie Em—or as Miriam calls her, Emmy. The drive up was amazing; we didn't stop once and the girls were remarkably well behaved (thanks in large part to the portable DVD player). We drove straight to Emily and Morgan's house where we chilled for a while, until we could check into the hotel. I worked; Rachel watched The Land Before Time; Miriam ran around getting into stuff; everyone else played games. 

Around 3:00 we left for the hotel, leaving Rachel behind to bond with Emily and Morgan. Morgan gave Rachel a lesson on his drum set—I'll have to get the pictures/video from Emily. Rachel had a blast.

We checked into the hotel, got Miriam settled down for a nap, and left Grandma to work while we (Andrew and I) went to the temple. We hadn't gone yet this month and this was kind of our last chance. As happenstance would have it, we were sealed in proxy for a Mathias Heiß and Maria Winter. Andrew has an uncle named Matthew, but this was obviously not him since Mathias Heiß was born 23 September 1852. Still, it was interesting to run into a mysterious Heiss from Germany—neither progeny nor progenitor is listed on the record I found for Mathias. 

Andrew's family is a bit of a mystery, as well. His great-grandfather, Frank Joseph Heiss, was born in Bavaria, Germany 2 October 1904 and immigrated to the United States sometime before 4 February 1928 (I know this because that's when he married Great-grandma Gertrude in Chicago. 

I think Great-grandma Gertrude has kind of a ring to it. She could have gone by GG or GGG but I know she went by Grandma Heiss. She was from Germany, too, but also immigrated to America. She tried her very first banana on the boat ride over. I know this from reading family history; something I should apparently do more of. 

Anyway, Great-grandpa Frank's mother was Therisia Maria Heiss, and her mother was Rosina Heiss, and her father was Joseph Heiss. And that's where it ends. I'm actually a little clueless as to where the mystery begins and why both Therisia and Rosina passed their maiden names onto their children, but there you have it: another family history mystery, rife with scandal and illegitimacy and lies (much like my own family tree). 

Seriously though, who needs soap operas when you have family history?

The temple isn't too far from the hotel we stayed at, but we drove there because it was so cold, windy, and the threat of snow was very real. Too real, as we found out the following day by opening the blinds and being blinded by the early morning sunshine glaring off the snow-covered fields.

Does the hotel have a dishwasher?

We're leaving for a little post-semester/pre-Ghana trip tomorrow, a fact I feel I can broadcast since not everyone in the household will be going (so the house won't be left empty (take that, hypothetical thief-stalkers)).

Rachel didn't want to go to bed (and is actually still wide awake...but in her room and in her bed and relatively quiet, thanks for asking) so I told her that she needed to go to bed, anyway, because we had a big day ahead of us.

"It's not really a very big day," she told me, "Because we're going on a trip so we don't have to do any jobs."

"We still have to do some work, even on vacation," I told her.

"But we won't have to do house work because we won't be at our house."

"But we'll still have to work (ie. do "unpleasant" things), even if we aren't at home."

"Oh," she sighed, obviously saddened by the thought that she might actually not have 100% super-fun the whole time we're gone. "Can you just tell me...? Do you know...? Ummm...?"

"What?"

"Does the hotel have a dishwasher?" she finally blurted out.

This is really only funny if you know that her most detested daily job is...

*drumroll*

...unloading the dishwasher.

SLC Marathon 2011

Would you believe me if I told you that I'm not sore at all? Because I'm not. 

I'm kind of surprised about it, myself, because I was sore for nearly two weeks after the half marathon. I was sore for probably a day and a half after the full marathon. Not too shabby.

It was a fun race; I stuck with Wendy the whole time, and I'm glad I did because there is no way I would have been able to finish without her. The first twenty miles were pretty standard; we were tired by the time we had finished that much but by no means worn out. After mile 21 is really when I started to feel it. We were so close and yet so far. 

A marathon isn't 13.1 miles and then 13.1 miles. It's 20 miles and then 6 miles. And those last six miles are killer.

Andrew met us just after mile 19 to take our sweaters—which we definitely needed in the early hour mornings—and running packs. It felt so good to shed those few pounds before embarking on the final leg of our journey.

Miriam at 18 months

Even though she's not quite 18 months yet I took Miriam in for her 18 month check up on Thursday. She did amazingly well through the whole appointment—opening her mouth when the doctor asked her to, showing off her vocabulary and gross motor skills, etc.—until the nurses jabbed her with a set of needles.

Then things got pretty rocky.

Having Miriam get shots, though, is super easy compared to battling Rachel under the same circumstances.

Miriam started sobbing, "Ow, ow, ow! My knee! My knee! Momma! Noooo!"

But she stayed still on the table while the nurse administered the last shot.

Then I said, "Oooh! They brought you a pretty bracelet!"

And she said, "Me, me, me!" and put the dinky, neon pink bracelet on, and tried to smile through her tears.

She had finished crying by the time we got back out to the waiting room and no one stared at us with bemused expressions as we entered. In fact, I don't think anyone knew she had gotten a shot at all.

That is never how things went/go with Rachel. With Rachel they usually call in a couple of nurses as back up just to hold the child down and then she screams bloody murder for the next half hour. Everyone in the waiting room always knows exactly how she feels about her maltreatment.

Dinner with the Greats II

Yesterday we went up for dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Layton's house. My sister Kelli was there with Olivia and Sabrina and Allen. It's been a long time since Rachel saw the twins and she was very excited about this. We had been talking about her cousin Michael and how he's her second cousin because his dad and her dad are cousins. 

"Are Olivia and Sabrina my second cousins, too?" she asked.

"No," I started answering.

"Are they my last cousins, then?" she interrupted.

"No, they are your first cousins because their mom is my sister," I told her.

She's been mighty confused about first, second, and last cousins ever since. I don't think last cousins even exist...

Friday

There's this song that Andrew loves to hate.

You might have heard of it, unless you're reading this 50 years in the future, in which case you probably haven't. The song is Friday by Rebecca Black. Of course, the song isn't actually by Rebecca Black; she neither wrote the lyrics or the music. However, she did perform the song, which took guts, because it really isn't that great of a song. Unfortunately for her, while several not-so-great songs somehow manage to become hits, anyway, people noticed that Friday wasn't a great song. It's been a huge flop, which in essence makes it a success.

I don't know many people who haven't heard it.

It's been viewed many times at our house. So many times, in fact, that I caught Rachel walking around the house singing, "Partying, partying. Yeah! Partying, partying. Yeah!"

I blame Andrew since he's the one who insists on showing it to every Dick, Tom, and Harry that walks through the door.

Our girls know all about partying since we're still living the "college life."

Actually, it's really because Grandma and Grandpa are living the college life. Their ward has so many parties. We just go for the free food.

Last Saturday they had their closing social for the winter semester and we were officially not invited, which made Rachel quite sad. Instead we went to the library to pick out new books. While she was sulking around, selecting books in a rather unenthusiastic manner, Grandma called to invite us; we were going to campus, anyway, so that I could run on the track (because it snowed again on Saturday). Andrew and the girls may as well join them for lunch.

Andrew quickly broke the news to Rachel.

"Hey, Rachel, do you want to go to the party with the big kids?"

Her little face lit up with excitement. She didn't even have to answer for us to know that she wanted to go, but she still told us, approximately a thousand times, that she did want to go. Then she launched in to asking when we would be leaving the library.

Miriam felt a little left out, I suppose, because she yelled, "Party! Party! Me! Me! Me!"

I think everyone was relieved when we left the library. The girls were being so noisy—they're both little party animals!

Gamelan

Last night we went to see Naanii and Auntie Josie perform with Bintang Wahyu, the BYU Gamelan troupe. Gamelan is a type of musical ensemble from Bali in Indonesia, though in this case it is an ensemble from BYU. Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw founded the group in 2008 after returning from a trip to Bali. Surprisingly, this was his first trip to Bali; he had joined a Balinese Gamelan ensemble at the Eastman School of Music where he was doing graduate coursework years previously, fell in love with it, and studied it for several years in the United States and even purchased some instruments while studying at Denison University. 

Now he purchases his instruments "from carvers in the shop of I Wayan Beratha, Bali's most revered composer and instrument builder."* Since Hindu are so open to other religion, Dr. Grimshaw asked if we could have some Latter-day Saint iconography incorporated into the decorations on the instruments; Beratha obliged his request so if you look closely at the instruments you might be surprised to find the sunstone from the Nauvoo temple or other such images.

Snack picnic

Rachel wanted to go on a picnic today but failed to announce her idea until we were already sitting down, eating lunch. We went on a snack picnic, instead, after Miriam woke up from her nap. 

That poor baby got her hand smashed in the door while she and Rachel were playing a game. She cried for so long that, after nursing, she was ready to sleep it off. She missed lunch, so it's a good thing we went on a snack picnic!

It wasn't anything fancy. I just grabbed a blanket, some bread, and some cucumbers. Ta-da!

The girls had fun playing at the park, though, despite the incoming storm. They even got hot enough from running around that they even took off their sweaters. I, apparently, didn't run around enough because I found the chill factor of the wind was something fierce; I left my sweater on.

There was some equipment left outside the school so we borrowed it. 

Ridiculous!

Can I say, without jinxing anything, that my girls have been sleeping through the night? Both of them.

It's been about a week.

It's also been fabulous.

Despite getting a full night's sleep, some of us are still rather grumpy in the morning. I am going to assume this is because some of us are not "morning people" so regardless of the amount of sleep we get we're still going to have a hard time in the morning. Or it could be that some of us are three.

This morning when I took Miriam into bed with me to have her first-thing-in-the-morning-before-she-dies-of-neglect nursing session, Rachel came, too, which is normal. Rachel also brought along this little toy mermaid and kept insisting that Miriam hold it while she was nursing. Miriam tried to ignore it, she tried pushing it away, she tried growling at Rachel (which I translate to mean, "Leave me alone; I'm eating!") but eventually she gave up and took the silly mermaid.