Time flies...when you're pregnant

You know what's crazy? I'll be leaving for England in 6 days (Friday), and when I return, I'll be getting the comprehensive ultrasound where you can tell the sex of the baby and if everything is going well, which means I'll be half-way done with this pregnancy! I already have the date set for the ultrasound! It feels like it was just a few days ago that I found out I was pregnant! Where does time go?! I'm still stunned that I'm over 14 weeks along already. The crazy thing is, I'm getting so huge, so fast! I haven't gained any weight since my first appointment, but my stomach has gotten so much bigger! I don't understand how some people don't start showing until they're about 5 months along, because at 3 1/2 months, I look well beyond 5 months...even ask Angi! I can't suck it in, and it's very obvious. I would swear I had twins inside if my doctor hadn't assured me there's only one. I know I started with a pretty good pooch since I didn't get a chance to loose all my Kiersa weight before I got pregnant again, but this is ridiculous! I can feel my uterus now when I push on my stomach and when I lay on my stomach, it feels like a hard lump under me. I hope this isn't a 10 pound baby!

Curl envy

Talea has really straight hair, and it's very fine. Poor thing inherited my hair. Ever since she was a baby, her hair has ratted up in the back when she sleeps or sits in a car seat and turns her head. I thought it might get better as she gets older, but it hasn't.



All of the little girls her age around here have curls, as well as her little friends who live far away. She always wishes she had curls (and she wishes she still had a pretty Mommy with curly hair...my hair is straightening as I get older or have more kids). For church the other Sunday, I took my flat iron and gave her curls. She was thrilled and looked so adorable! I wish I'd taken a picture of it just after I did it, but I didn't remember to until after church, and I only got one goofy picture that didn't even really show her curls before the battery died on my little camera, and my big camera was out in our camping trailer, farther than I was in the mood to walk to. So here's what her curls looked like...sort of.

Laughing at the dentist??

Last Monday, Hyrum and Talea had follow-up appointments at the dentist so Hyrum took Talea, and Hyatt tagged along just for fun. Our dentist is married to a pediatric dentist (she only works once a week so we opted for the husband as our dentist for the kids), so he's really good with the kids. There are stuffed animals all over and on the walls there's grass and butterflies and such. There's a TV for the patients to watch during the procedures to keep their mind off of everything. The dentist told Talea that her tooth was thirsty and needed a drink when she was getting a shot to numb her tooth, and he called the drill Mr. Whistle. He was great with our kids, and with Hyrum too. Hyrum took some pictures of Talea in the chair with her bib, watching TV. They gave her nitrous oxide (laughing gas) before it all. She only had a tiny cavity that required a small filling, but I wanted to take care of it before it became something bigger, more expensive and painful.



My kids don't go to bed until about 10 pm, like us, so they sleep in until 8:30 or later every morning, which made it awkward for them to go to a dentist appointment at 8:00 in the morning. Do you like Hyatt's bed-head?

Where are you from? Oregon, I tell you!!!!

I may look crazy, but do I sound crazy too?

I'd be interested in meeting Henry Higgins (from My Fair Lady) because I'd like to see if he could guess where I'm from just from listening to me talk. I must have been asked at least 100 times in my life: "Where are you from?", meaning which country am I from. I must have an accent to most people's ears because I've been asked if I'm from Australia, Eastern Europe, Austria, New England, and a few other places. The funniest thing about it all is that probably 75% of the people who ask me about my "accent" are Oregonians (uh...people from Oregon for those of you who are scratching your heads right now), and maybe 10% of those people are in Ashland, my hometown. I was born AND raised in Ashland, Oregon.

When people ask "Where are you from?", I reply with "Oregon" if I'm out of state at the time, or I say "The Rogue Valley" or "Ashland" if I'm in Oregon. Every time, the people say "No, where are you ORIGINALLY from?". I then say I was born and raised in Ashland, Oregon, and they're amazed. Some refuse to believe that I'm telling them the truth. They're sure I'm from some exotic or far away place. Today while I was at the hospital filling out paperwork so I'm ready to have my baby at a moment's notice, the nurse (who happens to be from Ireland), looked at me and asked those all too familiar words "Where are you from?", and when she had only started with "Where are", I knew what she was asking and a smile crossed my lips as I glanced at Hyrum, who has heard people ask me this many times. I told her my usual response, and she of course asked me where I was from originally, so I again told her, and she was amazed. She was sure I was from Australia. Hmmm. So I'm wondering how many others think I sound as though I have a foreign, or New England accent. I wonder if I'll pick up an English accent after our visit to London, and then have everyone asking me if I'm from England. Do you think I have an accent?

Disaster (the Cluff curse) strikes again.

We were all at the hospital today getting the paperwork filled out for this upcoming delivery when we found out my brother-in-law, in England, had called Hyrum's office. Now, that was really suspicious and a bit unsettling because why would he be calling Hy's work unless something tragic or important had occurred. Last time we got a call from Edward on our cell phone, he was giving us an update on Daisha's condition after she had almost died of complications when delivering her baby. Out of two evils, I hoped it was something important regarding our forthcoming vacation to their house outside of London rather than imagining something had happened to the family. Sure enough, we discovered that the Cluff traveling curse had yet again made us its target. In the message Edward told us that (after years of saving money for our London vacation, countless times of promising we'd be out in a few months only to have to retract the promise, and after spending roughly $3,500 on tickets for the family) our airline (Zoom...stinking UK-Canada airline) had declared bankruptcy and wasn't giving refunds. I was shocked, stunned, amazed, disappointed, furious and incredulous all in one instant. Hyrum's comment was "Well, there's $3,500 down the drain", then he ran out of the room and started making calls.

I had saved cash and deposited it in the bank, then Hyrum had paid for the tickets with a credit card and paid off the card with our bank debit card. Thank goodness for that because since we'd paid with a credit card, that company reimbursed our money. I was terrified the money would be lost and by the time we could raise the money again, we'd have too many kids to make the trip possible or bearable. Thankfully we got our money and when we got home, Hyrum researched tickets and bought us new ones with a different airline. Thank goodness the tickets weren't a massive difference in price.

We had chosen Zoom because the kids' tickets were free (aside from taxes and such), but Zoom is reputedly terrible...about the equivalent of having to stick your arms out the window and help flap the plane's way to England. Hyrum picked the best deal he could and it ended up being $500 more than our Zoom tickets, but the airline is way better (we're flying British Airways) and we can fly comfortably. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. We'll be flying out a week early now and staying about 3 weeks (Sept. 7- Sept. 26). I CAN NOT WAIT!!! I've never been out of the US before, and have never had a desire to do so, but I'm really excited to go to London since Daisha and Edward live there and they can be our guides and hotel. I only get to see Daisha every couple of years, so I'm anxious to catch up on years of neglected sisterly, face-to-face contact (although I did see her a couple of weeks ago for a day and a half during her US vacation, which was only a tease). Plus, I'll get to visit my cousin Angi again when we go down to San Fransisco to fly out, though she doesn't know it yet.

I did mention the Cluff curse before, and after this last incident, I'd have to say I'm more convinced of its existence than I am the existence of strange phenomena in the Oregon Vortex (if you read that post).

Silly Tilly, Milly and Hyatt

I already mentioned before how Talea likes to find shapes in her food. Well, this time she found some indecency in her pistachio pudding. "Look! I found a butt!" was her shocked exclamation. I was about to reprimand her crudity, until I looked at it and realized that it looked exactly like that, and with how shockingly realistic it looked, there was no other way to exclaim such a finding. I know it's hard to see it in this picture, but if you click on it and squint, you can maybe see it, but it doesn't do it justice.

Talea made a bed on our floor the other day with blankets and pillows, but Hyatt didn't want to join her in testing it out, so I volunteered Kiersa. The two girls together looked so cute grinning ear to ear at each other. Talea tells me she can't wait for Kiersa to grow up and play with her.


As soon as Hyatt saw all the sister bonding, he didn't lose a second in crawling under the covers with them.



On Sundays, Hyrum makes breakfast food for dinner since he's a master of his special french toast recipe, and though Hyatt was dead tired, he didn't want to miss out on it. His poor little eyes just couldn't stay open while he was chewing, but of course when Hyrum grabbed the camera, he saw it and just got shy and silly and the moment wasn't captured. Oh well.


By the way, if you're not familiar with the Johnson method of cutting kids' food (french toast, waffles, pancakes...well, anything that needs to be cut in bite size pieces), a pizza cutter is the best tool to have in the house. It's fast, efficient, accurate and non-lethal. I'm a convert to this method, and LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!

Dental details

I finally took my kids to the dentist for the first time on Monday...well, Hyrum took them with me. Hyrum broke one of his molars while chewing gum way back when we took Talea to the track to ride her bike with no training wheels, so we finally got him an appointment to get it fixed. Hyrum and I went in for appointments at 8 am while Weston watched the kids, then we brought the kids in at 3 pm. At that appointment, Hyrum got his teeth cleaned and Tilly and Hyatt got an exam and cleaning. I've been trying to get the kids excited for going to the dentist, and sure enough, my efforts paid off. Talea was thrilled about everything from the waiting room toys to the movie she got to watch while in the chair. She watched Hyrum get his teeth cleaned and even got to run "Mr. Thirsty" (the spit sucker wand thing). She did very well in her appointment, although having a movie going makes for a major distraction so she wouldn't hear the dentist ask her to open her mouth or move her head from side to side.

While Talea was getting her exam, I took Hyatt over a couple rooms to get his teeth cleaned. Typical of his nature, he was afraid at first. The hygenist asked him if he wanted to get in the chair, to which he replied "No!", so I put him in the chair and sat next to him holding his hand. He did so well though that after a few minutes he let go of my hand and relaxed. I ran Mr. Thirsty for her this time. The most shocking of all is that she said Hyatt is the best, most cooperative 2 year-old she's ever had in her chair! I found that amazing considering how apprehensive he'd been about it all. I then took him over to the dentist for his check up, but he was DONE with the whole business. He refused to wear the bib or sit in the chair without the threat of tears, so the dentist had me hold him in my lap on the side chair and did the exam there. Hyatt was fine with that arrangement and did well again.

While we're on the subject of teeth, I have a confession. I have a tooth fettish. Teeth are the first thing I notice on people. I don't have gorgeous teeth, but I have dreams of them being beautiful and white. Hyrum has always had a thing for red-heads his whole life, and I've always had a thing for straight, white teeth. When I talk about teeth, Hyrum always says "I don't know how in the world I managed to get you." His teeth aren't bad, but I admit I would change a couple things if he'd let me. I tried to get him to use Crest white strips once, but after a few uses, he cursed the things and refused to put another one in. He has had whiter top teeth than bottom teeth ever since. Now, I did try to give him something to fantasize about by become a red-head twice, but it just doesn't look good on me. White teeth look good on everybody! I want whiter teeth, but I think it would look ridiculous if my teeth were much whiter than Hyrum's. I've seen people's family pictures where the wife has much whiter teeth, and I feel bad for the hubby.

I think I developed this fettish because I was always self-conscious about my teeth. I had a huge overbite, crooked teeth, and a bad repair job for about 13 years on my broken front teeth until I got crowns, which darkened my gums. I had braces as a youth, but was never given a proper retainer, so I need them again. If I had a bunch of "Tiana" money to burn, I'd get my teeth whitened, better crowns put on my front teeth (I broke them on a waterslide when I was 11), and get my teeth straightened again. Maybe that's what I'll be asking Hyrum for when he asks me what I want for a Christmas/birthday/anniversary present. It's just hard to ask for those things when they all cost so much money and they're only good for flattering my vanity. They don't do the family any good.

In summary, Hyrum needs two crowns, Talea has a tiny cavity starting that she'll get fixed next week, Hyatt's all good, I have a couple of tiny cavities that I'll get filled after the baby arrives and I'm dreaming of calling the cosmetic dentist in Coquille to see how he can help me.

The Cowley Campout

After a whirlwind visit from Daisha and her family, we headed back home and prepped for our camping trip with my cousin, Angi, and her family. The Cowleys arrived on Thursday and the kids immediately began reacquainting themselves. Kimmy was enthralled with Kiersa, so she sat in the playpen with her and commenced an eye-poking session with Kiersa's eyes, but Kiersa didn't seem to mind too much, and the kisses were cute enough to make it all better.

Since I don't cook for company if I can help it, we took them to dinner, and then we returned to give them the tour of our house. It was a bigger remodeling shock than they anticipated, which seems to be the general consensus of all who see our project, and as we were touring, their kids were enjoying getting covered in dirt in our grassless yard. Not only is it dirt, it's dirt that's been pulverized to a fine dust by machinery, so it gets everywhere and in every crevice. We bathed the kids, went to bed, and took off the next morning for Laverne Park to do some river camping. It was lots of fun.
On our way to the swimming hole, we stopped off at the playground. Angi spent her time slathering sunblock on everyone, Hyrum took on the odious job of blowing up the huge raft, I took pictures, and Jared played with the kids.




The river was a little chilly at first, but it was still fun, and Hyrum had a great time torturing the kids (his sisters will know what I mean all too well).






The Cowley canoe

After the water fun, we went back to camp and had dinner. The kids walked, or should I say tortured, the dogs and each other, then we started on dinner.

We had some foil dinner catastrophes (uh, word of advice, triple wrap your dinners in foil, especially if it's a small kid portion), but Johnson-style smores made up for it. (Smores are less messy and super simple if you sandwich your marshmallow with 2 fudge-striped cookies instead of graham crackers and chocolate bars. I'm a happy convert to this method.)
Though it appears to be autumn by the amount of leaves on the ground in these pictures, it indeed is still summer here. The famous myrtle trees of this area are evergreen, but like all evergreens, shed their old leaves after the new ones have grown, hence the summer shed.

In the morning we absolutely gorged on pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs and peaches. Blame it on the pregnant mom needing to feed her ravenous internal peanut.

I have pictures of Tilly and Dana together almost every time they've seen each other, so I couldn't resist getting a couple shot this time. They even wore a matching hair style. Dana was due one day before Talea, but since Talea was taken early, Dana ended up being 5 days younger.
4 years old

2 years old

1 year old

2 months old

Heil Hyatt

Though Hyatt is sometimes found wearing high heels or dresses, he is a boyish boy. With a big sister so close to your age, a session or two of dress up can't be avoided. His masculine side is conquering overall now because he has decided he only likes to watch "boy" movies, like "Cars" which he calls " My Race Tars!" (exclamation and all). He won't pick a princess or unicorn movie, though he will watch it if it's on. He prefers rough and tumble shows like "The Incredibles."

Even with all his newly professed "boyishness", he does have to live with the consequences of having a sister around. When Talea was stung by a wasp 3 times in the WalMart parking lot, barbie band-aids were the thing to make her feel better, so when Hyatt needed some medical intervention the other day, that's the first band-aid I saw. Hyrum scratched Hyatt in the lip on accident the other day, and then Hyatt picked at the scab, so Hyatt spent the day looking like Hitler with a band-aid mustache. He loves band-aids and wore it the whole evening until the next day.

A visit from Hussein

You would think that little old Myrtle Point, Oregon, with a population of approximately 2,500 people would be a blink in the eye of anyone passing through, but apparently we're cool enough for foreign royalty to pay us a visit. I forgot to post about this, and it happened a long time ago, but since I just remembered it, I thought I would post it now.
On Wednesday morning, July 16, Hyrum took the kids and me with him to go pick up countertops in Winston. On our way back into town, we noticed that the local restaurant was packed with motorcycles and a cop car. We couldn't figure out what was going on at the "Kozy Kitchen". We learned the next day that the king of Jordan, King Hussein, was vacationing in the Pacific Northwest on a motorcycle and stopped at the Kozy Kitchen for lunch. It was kept hush hush beforehand, so it was a surprise when they arrived. I guess he's been visiting the 7 wonders of the world, so he had just been to Crater Lake and was on his way to the coast. Anyway, if you're as cool as royalty, come check out our Kozy Kitchen! It actually has amazing milkshakes.
TheWorld
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Domestic Devil

I have visions of greatness when it comes to hosting guests. I imagine guests finding themselves lured to our spotless house; there is no sign of construction; children play on a lush green lawn and playground; flowers bloom in a weed-free garden; the delicious aroma of cookies or zucchini bread baking fills the air; my hair, makeup and clothes are all adorable; my children are clean and polite; my conversation is humorous and engaging; my bathrooms are fresh and clean; my appliances function properly and efficiently...
I rarely get many guests, and if I do, they rarely stay for more than a day. Maybe it's because of the following facts:
I'm not a fabulous hostess like my sisters. They bake cookies, cook scrumptious meals, and give guided tours. I have cluttered counters, order out for dinner and am not likely to give any tours since this area doesn't really offer anything spectacular other than the ocean.
My homes are always in a state of remodel.
My poor guests don't ever get a decent place to sleep. We're usually juggling beds or people have to tent it or find floor space.
I don't bake cookies. I'll eat a dozen in one sitting, so I avoid them.
I rarely get a moment to apply makeup or fix my hair. It's the least of my priorities.
I wear "comfortable" clothes , which means they're worn out to a cozy ragedness, or they're just knit loungy pants and a T-shirt that unfortunately does NOT flatter my muffin-top.
I don't make delicious meals, because I fail more often than succeed.
I don't clean my house to a spit shine. I'm lucky to get the floor swept, the sink cleaned and the bathroom wiped down.
I don't have a yard for kids to play in, unless they want to play in powdered dirt, which all parents hate when out visiting.

Maybe when I have grass, a fenced yard, a finished home, and learn to be more domestic in the kitchen, I'll be able to lure some of you readers to my home, and maybe for more than one day. If I build this dream, will you come?

Little sneaky

Tilly got a hold of my small camera the other day, and these are some of the interesting shots I found that she'd taken.

The Lanyons arrived!!!

My sister, Daisha, and her family (Edward, Dakota and Tabitha) had a whirlwind visit across the US for one of their holidays this year. My sister lives just outside of London, and has been in the UK for 8 years now, I think. She married a British chap 4 years ago and has happily settled in a small village close to London. When they vacation, he wants to go to the US and she wants to go to Europe. He grew up vacationing in Europe, and she in the US, so they compromise and do both. This time they flew in to NY and visited her friend, June, then visited Mel and family in NC, then drove across the US, meeting up with route 66 and visited lots of places Edward has been wanting to see. They finally arrived in Ashland on Monday, and since their schedule was pressed, we went down there to see them. I haven't seen Daisha since Dec. 2006, so I was anxious to catch up with her! We chatted until late into the night and then on Tuesday we went to the House of Mystery at the Oregon Vortex. It's in Gold Hill, and though I've lived within 60 miles of this place most of my life (I even lived in Gold Hill while pregnant with Talea), I've never been there. It was interesting, but I was wondering how much was optical illusion and how much was real. Edward was a huge sceptic, much to the chagrin of our tour guide, and still thinks it's a bunch of bologna, but it was still worth going to at least once to say we've been there. I did find some things hard to explain away, and I'll show you some of the pictures to see what you think.

Here we are starting the tour. I don't know how to get rid of the shadows sometimes, so bear with my lame-o pictures.


The vortex is a half-acre radius of unexplained phenomena. According to the tour guide, there are no animals there, other than bugs, lizards and the occasional bird that hops around, but doesn't fly above. It was feared by the Indians and later a mining shack was built there, which slid off it's foundation years later and has become the House of Mystery. Your perception of things is way off when you're there, and so for unexplained reasons, people appear to get taller or shorter when they're on level ground (proved with actual levels that you set down on the ground), bottles and balls appear to roll uphill, a broom stands on end, etc. Edward was doubtful, and a lot of it I think is just optical illusion, but it is definitely strange how someone can appear almost the same height as someone, then way taller just by trading places. See for yourself.

During a demonstration, a bug crawled by and Talea, of course, had to catch it.

Because of Edward's scepticism, the guide had Edward and Daisha perform one of the demonstrations. Okay, Edward, explain to me why the bar looks only slightly off level in one picture, but has an obviously greater slope in the next. Hmmm.


Next they tried the one where you touch the shoulder next to you and it's supposed to feel different when you change positions. They didn't notice a change.


And here Talea only looks slightly taller than Tabitha, but in the next picture it looks like she's grown much taller. Hmmm.


Daisha and Edward tried it and Hyrum and I tried it, and I have to say I can tell a difference.


I look shrimpy here (and 6 months pregnant, though I'm only 3 months...dang the not losing Kiersa's baby weight thing)...

but not quite so shrimpy here.

The overall verdict: Worth going to once while the kids are free admission, but the phenomena isn't as impressive as anticipated.


The get-together was way too short, especially because we had to spend part of our time shopping for things we can't get in our area and have been needing for a while, but we played a fun game of Apples to Apples that night, and then had lunch with several siblings the next day before we left (Dane and Shira joined us). Good thing we're going to England next month or else I'd be crying for how short the visit was. It's always a fun time when Daisha and Edward visit.

Oh, I almost forgot! My mom and I showered Daisha's family with American flag paraphenalia for next year's Lanyon 4th of July celebration, since you can't find much US flag stuff in the UK. We got them red, white and blue curly and mullet wigs, tattoos, shirts, plates, napkins, bowls, 2 large flags and I surprised Daisha with one of those cheesy airbrushed trucker hats you make at the fair. We had one made for Edward last year, so we had to get Daish one this year. Edward's says "Daisher 'n Ed" and Daisha's says "Eddie's #1 Fan", and if those words confuse you instead of making you burst out in laughter, you don't know the inside jokes to go along with them. We enjoy bringing white trash into Edward's life since he had very little, if any, experience with it before the Cluff family. Edward had never been on a horse, shot a gun, rode in a semi, or wore a mullet wig until meeting Hyrum and I. We feel proud to have exposed him to the trashy side of life. It's hilarious, and he plays along so well, even if he didn't warm to horseback riding and won't go in public with his trucker hat!