Ghettocation

We decided to take a few days off and go to Delta. Yeah, you read that right. Delta, Utah. Rob had to go down there to work on a project at the salt domes and the kids and I didn’t have anything better to do so we decided to join him for part of the time. I had never been there before and the drive wasn’t very long so why the heck not?

Rob left Tuesday night and we left Wednesday after I picked the kids up from school. The hotel wasn’t too bad. I’ve stayed in much worse. They had free breakfast waffles and hot chocolate which is really the only amenity the kids desire in a hotel. Rob wasn’t quite done working when I checked in and the lady at the front desk was pretty hesitant to give me a key to the room. She said, “I don’t know, there isn’t really any way for me to know you’re not a crazy lady or something.” I was thinking, “Well, that may be true. After all, I’m here in Delta of all places with three little kids. I suppose I could be some stalker ex-wife or something…” Luckily Rob called at that moment and said he’d be there in two minutes, which I told the lady. She said, “Oh, good” like she was happy that now she wouldn’t have to make that judgment of my character, and gave me the key. Haha. Weird.

That night we went to the highest recommended Mexican place in town which was next door. It was fine. Here I am waiting for the kids in the restroom.

Then we watched part of Full House while in bed and went to sleep. Madeleine’s squeaky snore kept the rest of us up laughing for a little while but after Nate nudged her all was quiet.

The next morning the kids and I went to the Great Basin Museum but it was closed for some reason. So instead we watched concrete being poured.

We then went to the local Rock Shop. They man was nice and gave us a deal. Nate got an obsidian arrowhead and the girls chose a handful of pretty colored stones.

Off to the park! It was a beautiful fall day.

 

 

 

 

Madeleine giggled so hard when she put her arms up like this because, “People can see my armpits!”

 

 

Then we decided to drive out of town to the WWII Japanese Internment Camp site. We drove through farmland. And drove. And drove. Finally we came to the site and that’s exactly what it was. A site. Of nothing. Back we drove and drove to town. We ate lunch at McDonald’s and luckily they have a big playland which kept the kids entertained for an hour. Then back to the hotel while I read and the kids watched Tom & Jerry and jumped on the beds.

 

When Rob got off work we decided to go to Gunnison Bend Reservoir. We drove to a tiny beach where I only somewhat jokingly called this our ghettocation. We drove again to find the actual public beach and when we got there it was closed. Again for some unknown reason.

 

Video Link or click the below pic.

We drove back into town and had a nice dinner at The Hubb. Then back to the hotel for more tv and bed-jumping.

The next morning we tried the museum again and it was open this time. They had some interesting things to look at but it was all out in the open at hand-level but was all strictly “No Touching”. I had to carry Cara around the whole time to prevent the docent from giving us a talking-to. At least she gave my kids each a big chunk of obsidian on the way out which made Nate’s day.

After this we drove out of town again to Fort Deseret. It was just half of a mud wall in the middle of nowhere surrounded by weedy fields. I was afraid of ticks and rattlesnakes so we didn’t even get out of the car. Right then we decided there really wasn't anything left for us to do so we drove straight home, calling and telling Rob on the way. He drove home that afternoon.

Yeah, so not our best trip on the books but at least I got a break from cooking and cleaning for 2 days. Overall rating: Not terrible.

Random Times in February

Don’t worry, you are not crazy. That title really says February and it is the last week of October! The first few pictures I want to post just show the kids in their natural environment. These were all take in the loft (great place that loft). Sometimes these photos are up way to close and without much “polish.” I enjoy photos like this. Good fun.

The girls freaking out while riding the swing downstairs!

One of Julie and another one of me (wandering at Home Depot).

Breakfast light saber battles...

Everyone in a while before departing on a trip we have some cooking ingredients that can be considered expendable. That is what happens to them....

Now you know about our random moments back in February. Aren't you privileged now?

A Snowy Garden

Last month was family portrait time! Here’s how it came about: Rob’s parents sat the whole family down and told us they had something important to discuss with us. We sat nervously, wondering what was happening. But then Bob just told us he’d like to get family portraits taken and wanted us to look on our calendars to see when we could make that happen. Phew!

A couple of weeks later we found ourselves in The Secret Garden at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. This little spot is one of my very favorites anywhere to shoot.

For this shot I decided a little foreground material would be perfectly nice. It’s tricky taking portraits when you’re also in the picture, but we managed.

We get asked all the time what the secret is to get a shot with everyone not only looking at the camera, but also looking basically happy while doing it. There are a few tricks that we could get in trouble with other photogs for sharing ;) but I’m just trying to keep it real.

1) Use a timer so the kids watch the blinking light and wait for it to flash; 2) Take a million frames; 3) Let the kids take turns using the remote;
4)Photoshop. I don’t even want to tell you how many heads we have to swap out to get a cohesive group picture… So there you go. Stress less about getting a perfect shot. We never get “the” shot when it comes to large groups. We create it. Most professionals do, unless they have professionals for kids.

Soon after this the kids started breaking down so we didn’t worry about getting individual shots. You can only do what you can do, you know? But we were able to get one of Rob’s brother and sister with their significant other.

 

 

With love,
The Snow Family

 

PS. We received a very sweet message from Bob regarding the portraits. I thought I would save it here.
”Robby and Julie thank you so much for such beautiful pictures. They are all amazing and will be treasured for many years by everyone. Thanks for spending many long hours on the editing. You two have a wonderful gift for bringing out the color and texture of life. You have such great patience with everyone, especially the small children. These memories are now frozen in time and when seen over the years, bright vivid memories will rush to our minds, soft feelings reminding us of a wonderful time in each of our lives. Shared by so many over and over.”

Progress Reports

Nathan:

Nathan’s 2nd grade teacher agrees with his 1st grade teacher…Nate is “gifted”. Just saying that sounds so strange. I always knew he had some special qualities, but to hear the word kind of throws me for a loop. She explained that many kids are smart, but to be gifted means not only more advanced in reading and math, but a variety of other characteristics. Here’s the list. It’s long and Nate possesses every single one of them.

Cognitive

Very Observant

Extremely Curious

Intense interests

Excellent memory

Long attention span

Excellent reasoning skills

Well-developed powers of abstraction, conceptualization, and synthesis

Quickly and easily sees relationships in ideas, objects, or facts

Fluent and flexible thinking

Elaborate and original thinking

Excellent problem solving skills

Learns quickly and with less practice and repetition

Unusual and/or vivid imagination

Social & Emotional

• Interested in philosophical and social issues
• Very sensitive, emotionally and even physically
• Concerned about fairness and injustice
• Perfectionist
• Energetic
• Well-Developed Sense of Humor
• Usually intrinsically motivated
• Relates well to parents, teachers and other adults

Language

• Extensive Vocabulary
• May Read Early
• Reads Rapidly and Widely
• Asks "what if" questions

Additional

• Enjoys learning new things
• Enjoys intellectual activity
• Displays intellectual playfulness
• Prefers books and magazines meant for older children
• Skeptical, critical, and evaluative

 

It’s interesting to me that he didn’t go to preschool and he even struggled a little with reading throughout Kindergarten. Something just clicked over that summer, though, and he took off. The next step is to have Nate take the Advanced Placement test in January. If he is one of the top 30 2nd graders in the district, which his teacher expects he will be, then beginning next year he will be going to school in Highland with his other AP peers. This obviously will present a few challenges such as leaving his friends, more homework, having to carpool instead of walk to school, and a few other things. But the positives are that he makes friends easily, will really enjoy his homework rather than being completely bored with it, and the potential to eventually succeed in whatever he wants to do in terms of his education and career.  Rob and I are both a little nervous and have thought of alternatives but feel that taking him down this path is the right thing to do.

Madeleine:

I was a little nervous to know how Madeleine would progress in Kindergarten. I kept her home instead of sending her to preschool and I was worried about her being behind academically. After working with her for a year, she still couldn’t count to 20 without missing a couple of teens. She had a hard time writing a bunch of letters and numbers. She just didn’t seem interested in pushing herself whatsoever. 

I’m happy to report that after just 6 weeks she can not only count to 20 but to 100 with ease.  She can write all her numbers and letters correctly. She is trying (and succeeding!) to read and write. She has memorized my phone number. She is doing beautifully socially as well. We are so pleased with her quick progression and assume she will just rocket forward from here.

She wishes she could go to school all day!

Caroline:

Before I tell you the results of her evaluation to see if she qualified for speech therapy through the school district, let me just say that we are AMAZED at her progress the last 2 months. She went from not being able to repeat single syllables to now speaking comprehensible complex sentences. Seriously. I figured it would kick in the closer to three she got but it has actually happened. I tear up sometimes just listening to her. She speaks her mind in a mature way. I can tell she has quite the intellect. No wonder she was so frustrated not being able to communicate. Every day she says something new. Every day I’m amazed.

So because of her quick progress, I was expecting better news from the speech pathologist. In articulation, she is still only in the 3rd percentile of girls her age. The district cut off for speech therapy is the 7th percentile so she was well into the “significant speech delay” zone.  But keep in mind that this was a few weeks ago and she has progressed since then. Nevertheless, we will be doing an hour a week of Mommy & Me Talking Time at the school until they reevaluate and deem her above 7%. Even though she is speaking so much better than she was, she has a long way to go so I’m happy that she was accepted into the class. Before, we could understand about 25% of what she was saying when it was in context to what she was doing. Our comprehension went down to about 0% when she tried to tell us anything out of context. Currently, we understand about 75% of what is said in context but still only about 25% out of context. So that’s a huge improvement in such a short time.

She turned 3 last week and it was actually really emotional for me. It’s been a tough three years we’ve had (+9 months if you count a long and painful pregnancy). Her first year we worked through 6 months of harness-wearing for hip dysplasia accompanied by 6 months of colic, a year of severe spit up where nothing stayed down, a trip to the ER and a night in the hospital for RSV.

Her second year was riddled with confusion for her and both her parents. Her behavior didn’t seem normal. It took us the whole year to put all the pieces together and figure out she (and we) needed some help finding out what was off and what needs she wasn’t having met.

This last year was spent on gastro, ent, and audilogy dr appts and followups, many evaluations, 2 months of cognitive therapy, 4 months of behavioral therapy, and 6 months of speech therapy. It’s been time consuming and a lot of work. She probably would’ve progressed fine without it, but her growth and maturation would have taken longer and been much more difficult had we not done anything. Many times we prayed and fasted and had been given specific answers for what we were to do.  Exactly one year after starting this process, Rob and I are so thrilled with the little girl she has become. She still has some difficult moments and days and still has a few lingering behavioral/cognitive quirks but generally she is a happy, funny, amazing person. So, yes, it was a bit emotional to celebrate Caroline.

…But lest I get feeling too positive…next up is potty training. Happy thoughts…happy thoughts…happy thoughts…

 

I’m so grateful for my children and patient and caring husband. They are sincerely the most amazing people I’ve ever known. Many days are hard. Like, really, really hard. This motherhood thing is so much more work than I had ever anticipated but I love you all so much! You are my world!

Ice Cream Time

There are many constants in life. One of those constants at the Snow household is a great love of Ice Cream. Real, pure, uncontaminated ice cream. None of this frozen desert stuff so many of the ice cream companies are selling. We want the real stuff.

The other day we were enjoying some ice cream as a family and I (Rob) finished and decided to take a few photos in the backyard. I’m not sure why but the kids made there way outside with me even though they were not finished eating. Inexplicable! I captured a few photos of the proceedings. Hope you enjoy them. :)

A couple more photos without Ice Cream. So yeah they are interesting but can’t possible be as fun as the ones with ice cream.

Home Decor: Playroom

I tend to use the word “decor” pretty loosely but in this case I use it very loosely. No Pinterest worthy pins here! However, Rob and I worked hard on this project and I like documenting our home and the things in it. They tell a lot about us as a family.

We received a surprise, monetary gift in the mail with the words “Do something fun!” attached. We thought about going on a weekend trip, updating our wardrobes, getting some patio furniture, or a couple of other things but Rob and I settled on creating a playroom in the basement for Nate, Madeleine, Caroline and their friends.

Sure, the size of our house is decent, but the 2 bedrooms that the kids share are small. Very small. Their rooms and our family room were overrun which made it hard for them to play in them.  I’d been annoyed that we were only effectively using 2/3rds of our square footage due to the unfinished basement. We do have plans to finish it but need to finish paying off our student loans first, which is in 3 years. In the meantime, when the kids did go down there to play it was somewhat precarious and absolutely freezing during the long winter months. I also wanted a space that was more removed from the rest of the house in order to cut down on chaotic noise when we have the whole neighborhood over to play.Therefore, we decided the best use of this generous gift was to build an adequate playroom where they can be loud and boisterous and creative, and, you know, kids! For all our sanity’s sake.

 

Before. Obviously. Look how little Madeleine was just a couple of years ago!

I had actually whitewashed the stairway a year ago. It was unfinished wood, drywall, and concrete. It just looked dingy and scary. White was exactly what it needed since there isn’t a light fixture at the top of the stairs, only the bottom. It’s much more inviting this way (except Rob thinks this pic makes it look creepy). I decided on a pale, reflective blue for the playroom wall color. Since it is a dark basement, we needed something that reflected some light around and made it feel less heavy.

 

This shelf belonged to my brother who passed away a few years ago. It had sliding glass fronts but we took those off to make it more kid friendly. We didn’t have any other use for it anyway and it fits really well there. We bought the carpet on KSL. There isn’t a pad, but it feels soft enough anyway.

 

This shelf was our old tv stand years ago. It’s been holding toys in the kids closets and so we moved it downstairs. These are Caroline’s absolute favorite toys. She gathers all her little princesses and plays for long periods of time, imagining.

 

We used the recess under the stairs as the girls’ dress up area. The cords belong to an overhead spotlight on a dimmer that they can control themselves. We inherited it from my parents.

 

 

Dresses, hats, shoes, etc belong in the lower side. We will be adding some more goodies here with Caroline’s birthday coming up. Shhh!

 

Now, for the bonus. Since it’s an unfinished basement and we wanted something a little crazy and super fun for the kids, we decided to build a stage. The girls use it for dancing, plays, performances, among other things. Nate uses it as hard surface for his cars and building toys and eventually wants to use it for a band. Rob wants to set up his drums here. It doesn’t take away from useable floor space since it can be used for all kinds of activities. Rob built it to the standards of an actual floor so it’s extremely sturdy. We covered it with the cheapest-you-can-buy wood-looking vinyl floor tiles. It can be unscrewed and moved without completely destroying the whole thing. There is rough plumbing for a bathroom safely tucked underneath.

 

As you can see, the stage is a good size. Three people can easily spread out and dance without running into each other. The curtains are hung using Ikea’s wire system. I had the brown drapes from our master bedroom when we lived in Layton and the flowered ones came from our family room, before I made new ones. I sewed each pair together and they can easily be pulled open and shut. We covered the fiberglass ceiling with breathable gray fabric that we already had on hand. Rob just stapled it up. There was a bare bulb here and on the landing at the bottom of the stairs. We put up 3-way spotlights from Walmart.  The wall on the right side of the stage and one of the main walls were already framed so Rob just needed to hang drywall. There was unpainted drywall already installed underneath the stairs. The two other walls are concrete that we just painted over. (lovely phone pic)

 

The playroom has an opening to the rest of the unfinished basement. We stapled up a pair of $10 Ikea semi-sheers to close it off a little. We needed something that let some light in but some of the draftiness out. On the other side are a ton more toys, a swing, treadmill, a drum kit, furnace etc, food storage, and all the other stuff a home’s basement tends to have. The kids still play in there on the swing, but it’s a lot less inviting and too cold in the winter. With this room separated like this, it’s much warmer and in the dead of winter we can effectively put a small space heater down there if needed. After studying this picture I remembered that Rob still needs to put a small piece of drywall up in that opening…

 

Some things that are on the kids wish list for Christmas:

Mirrors behind the stage
Music system
Real microphones with a speaker
Colored strobe lights
Disco ball

I think I can safely say that we’ll have the neighborhood’s party basement come January. A HUGE thanks and LOVE to our generous contributors for making this fun project happen. The kids use it every single day, much to my pleasure. Hugs.

q&a: teenage years

I haven’t had too much to blog about lately. Life has just been so normal. No trips. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just every day life. I’m not complaining (except for the no trips part), I’m just going to take the opportunity now to catch up on some random personal history questions. Here goes.

Teenage Years

16th birthday. These are pictures of pictures so they’re a little morphed. My head to arm size ratio isn’t quite this bad in real life :)

What hobbies/activities did you participate in?
I continued my piano lessons until I was 16 or so. I had gotten as far as I could with my current teacher. For the next year or so I took some time off from official lessons but kept up my playing. When I was 18 I decided I wanted to keep progressing so I started searching for a new teacher. I played for 3 or 4 and they all said I was too advanced to take lessons from them. I ended up getting a referral to a lady off of Foothill Blvd. She was very old. I sat down on her bench and confidently played a Sonatina I had mastered. Or so I thought. She pretty much ripped my playing apart. I then realized that although I had always been a great sight reader and a top player with my old teacher, I really hadn’t been taught much actual technique. The new teacher was expensive ($45 per 1/2 hour lesson if I remember correctly) and I was paying for it myself. I quickly became disenchanted and discontinued after only a few lessons.

I tried snowboarding a couple of times but wasn’t very good at it. It was fun but I pretty much did it because I thought it made me seem cool to boys. Mostly I worked, hung out with friends, and snuck underage into clubs to go dancing.

What are some of your first driving experiences?
I had been saving for a car for a couple of years before I turned 16 so I was able to get just a small loan to buy the car of my dreams. Instead, my parents brought home their own version of the car of my dreams, a late 80’s pink Chrysler Caravelle.

This car did end up being sweet. The interior was plush burgundy. The front seat was actually broken and “fixed” so it had some nice rocking and bouncing to make it a very comfortable ride. Also, the owner before me installed a killer cd deck and a huge woofer in the trunk. Awww, Yeeeaah….

After a couple of fender benders and then a more major accident my first car was history. My next car was a sporty Toyota Corolla with a sun roof. I LOVED that car. But one night I let my brother borrow it for a hot date and he totaled it.

Did you have a boyfriend?
I mostly just hung out with boys that were friends and then occasionally went on a date with them. There was this one guy that I saw and went out with regularly on and off for a year or so. He ended up being a jerk so that ended. It made me sad because before he turned out to be a jerk we were friends and had a lot of fun laughing and hanging out together. I didn’t have a real boyfriend until right after my 18th birthday.

What was your first paid job?
One day my dad asked me what I was interested in. Out of nowhere I said travel. There just happened to be a couple in our neighborhood who owned and ran a travel agency. My dad talked to them and got me a very part-time job. I was 13 years old and worked 2 hours a day, a few days a week. I think I was paid $2 an hour and then got a raise to $2.50 an hour. Haha. That makes me sound a million years old! My duties were to copy and put together their tour brochures and itineraries and organize the file room. They had closets and file cabinets full of travel brochures for places all over the globe. I read just about everything I filed. I tudied all the glossy pages advertising beautiful far-off places. I learned the travel lingo. And, yes, I fell in love. Eventually I asked for more responsibilities and another raise, seeing that I had been working for them for 2 years and was now 15 years old, but was told they were going to hire their granddaughter to take my place instead. I was pretty bummed but was then able to get another job making minimum wage ($5.15?), so that was a definite plus.

For a year I worked at Hogi Yogi. I didn’t care for the job too much but I had fun making new friends and goofing off. After a few months of working there, my brother returned from his mission and became the manager of the store. I enjoyed opening the store with him and seeing him take on the responsibilities of management. Everyone loved him as their boss. He was really fun but also knew when to put his foot down. I felt really cool being his sister.

When I turned 16 and could drive myself to work I decided to get out of the fast food business and started selling shoes at ZCMI on Foothill Boulevard. I worked with a strange older lady and didn’t really enjoy the job. Half the time I was there all by myself and got very bored. After a year (or less) I moved to an opening in the shoe department at ZCMI in Cottonwood Mall. The old lady cried when I told her I was leaving.

My time at ZCMI Cottonwood was a game changer. I met so many new friends, many of whom I’m friends with still. I fell in love for the first time. I decided to go back to college. Over the two years I was there I slowly left old, unhealthy friendships and actions behind and came more into my own skin. I gained much needed confidence in who I really was and wanted to be.

 

Well that’s it for now. Hope you enjoyed this little look into my teenage years. It’s surreal thinking back on all these memories and seeing where I am now.