Halloween 2009

We had a great first Halloween up in our little city. The festivities began with a costume party with some of Joel's partners and their families. I wasn't planning on dressing up this year (too much on my plate), HOWEVER, we had to do it for the party. Joel went as "Joel"ius Caesar, I was his greek goddess wife, JD was a spooky skeleton, Camryn was a cowgirl, Christian was doctor (again!), and Spencer was a ghost. My favorite part of dressing up was putting on big purple false eyelashes - so fun! I want to wear them everyday now.



We enjoyed a ward dinner prior to the annual "trunk-or-treat" at the chruch house. There was a great turn out which was good because that was about the only trick-or-treating my kids did that night. The location of our home isn't ideal for mass trick-or-treating so we ended up getting just a handful of determined candyholics.

A few of our neighbors were handing out full size candy bars! Now I know how they can afford it - nobody shows up! The neighborhood just below us gets bajungloads of kids so we get the best of both worlds man!

Anyway, I was bad this year and forgot to take any good pictures. Here are a few...

Culture finds me in Pokey!

FYI...I took my driver's exam for the 2nd time and....PASSED! Whew - it was close, but I connected with my inner student and got 100%. Take that Idaho!



So when you drive into Pokey there is this absolutely beautiful building that welcomes you into the city. It didn't take me long to discover that it is the Stephens Performing Arts Center. I heard it was built in large part due to private donations. It is such a treat to have this beautiful facility in little Pokey. Joel, Dave (his brother) and I were able to enjoy a great performance there this last weekend. We enjoyed an evening listening to the tight harmonies of the world famous King Singers. I love them!




Through their narrations during the concert, they kept telling us what a world class hall we had. It was like they were surprised or something - hey we've got culture in Pokey! I felt terrible - almost embarrassed that our hall was only 2/3 full for the concert. Poor Pokey. The nice thing was that I was able to shoot the breeze with all 6 members of the group. It was freaking awesome to talk real estate with the bass singer. Being from England, he wanted to know where the cheapest real estate opportunites were. I laughed when a couple of us declared in unison, "Detroit!" Poor Detroit.

Only in a small city can you get up close and personal with a bunch of exceptional artists! This bass told me about his divorce and how the market crashed in England too. Pretty cool. Yes, I did get their autographs. I felt dumb asking for a photograph - should've done it! It was a near perfect evening - except for the part where Lori (Dave's wife) couldn't come and Joel got called into the hospital to do an emergency intubation on a patient right before the concert! Good thing Dave and I have known each other for 20 years, cuz I'm pretty sure that was our first date together! Ha Ha. Joel made it to the concert with no time to spare. Another benefit of living in a smaller city - no traffic. Dave asked me after the concert if he could go home with Joel instead. I told him to forget it, "You came here with me and you're _______." You get the picture. Ha Ha. All in good fun.

We've got some great performers coming this year (like the Peking Acrobats) so I think I'll get a bit of my culture fix up here. Who knew little Pokey would pull through for me. So far so good baby!

I'm Back...

What the heck? 3 Months did NOT just pass me by! Wow, life has been busy. I've been uberly motivated to get back into updating my blog so that I can keep my family journal current. I can't possibly catch up with everything that has happened these last 3 months with one simple entry. I guess I'll just start with the current and update when I get the chance.



First and foremost - I guess I'm not meant to drive in Idaho because I just failed my written exam! What? I went to the DMV today with the confidence of a new teen driver. "What? A driver's test? Please...give me something challenging!" The worker lady told me I was too late to take the test, but since I had been waiting in line, she'd let me take it. "You can do it in 20 minutes can't you," she asked. I smiled and gave a half-hearted laugh, "Uh, yeah I think I can manage." Well, after I got my 5th question wrong, I started to worry (7 wrong = fail). What was really sad was there was a teenager kid next to me and he seemed to do just fine! When the computer screen flashed, Report back to the front desk, you have failed, you are a loser, why did you even waste my time (or something like that), my face turned a nice shade of crimson and I nearly knocked over a chair. Nice.

I can retake the test in 3 days.

The thoughtful worker suggested I take a study manual. It kept me company last night. I learned a few things like cattle have the right of way in Idaho and stopping while a school bus unloads is the law. I mean what ever happened to keeping our kids on their toes? I think I even read that you're supposed to yeild to the driver on the right at a 4-way stop. What? I always thought whoever flashed the best smile got to go first. Anywho, keep your kids buckled up tight 'cuz Heather's still hitting the asphalt baby!



On a much happier note, my Camarondi had her 6th birthday party a couple of days ago. It was so dang cute! She hosted a Chef's Party.



Each guest got to decorate her own apron and head bandana. While their little homemade pizzas were cooking away, the girls made their own fruit drink. While the pizzas were cooling, they got to decorate 2 cupcakes: one to eat after the birthday song and one to take home in a cute little cake box. There were of course fun games and treats to round things off. Camryn's little friends are such cute girls. I've been so impressed with the youth up here. All in all, it was a huge success and I highly recommend this idea for a party. Tons of work, but worth it. I was yet again reminded why we moved closer to family. It was so nice to call up my mom, dad, brother and his family and invite them up for the weekend! Thanks Mom for all of your help! Most of all, I was grateful to have been given the opportunity to celebrate another year with my only little girl! I love you Camarooki!

New School Year...

JD, Camryn and Christian all started school this week. Crazy. I'm always sad to see my babies leave once the summer ends. Camryn was oh so very excited to begin kindergarten. She wanted to ride the bus to her 2nd day of class. We all waited patiently for the bus to arrive. She could hardly stand still long enough for me to take this picture! This was the only time she got to ride the bus to school. The bus was way too unpredictable so I just take her to her afternoon class everyday. She walks home with JD and the neighborhood gang every day. It's kind of a long walk for a little chiquita banana like her. I've requested an additional bus stop be added. We'll see. Her teachers are Ms. May and Ms. Marley. Her best friends in class are: Kimberly, Elise and Sheradan.



Christian started preschool with his best buddy, Charlie. He attends Ms. Kathy's home-based preschool. He seems to be enjoying it, but he likes to think that he gets to stay home and play video games instead. Keep wishing buddy!




Sadly, I don't have any pics of JD's first day of school. How did that happen? His teacher is Ms. Nystrom and his buddy in class is Andrew. He is turning out to be a great reader (thanks to Percy Jackson books!). I help out with math in his class about once-a-week. It's fun for me to connect back to my teaching roots.


It's always difficult to start school in a new city. Luckily my kids had already made some friends prior to school starting. They're all very nice kids, so Mom couldn't be happier!

Summer of Weddings...

A few months ago, Joel's sister announced her engagement and shortly thereafter Joel's brother announced his. The weddings ended up being 2 weeks apart! What? Crazy, but that's how Joel's family rolls. I'm just so grateful that we FINALLY live so close because all of the travel would've been very costly. Anyway, I'm not sure how Joel's mom survived, but somehow these two weddings came together. The great thing is now our great big family has swelled by even more. Saweet.

First came Joel's brother's wedding. It was a simple and beautiful wedding - just perfect for them. Camryn was so happy because she kept getting all of these flower girl dresses to wear!

Spence with Great-Grandma and Grandpa Gardner

And Spence with his Great-Gammy...

Spence and Camryn with Lisa, mother of the bride...

Now just a short 2 weeks later came Joel's sister's wedding. This too was a beautiful wedding and reception - just perfect for them. And again, Camryn was in heaven with all her new dress.

Me and my man. Yo Caitie, we did this whole thing 13 years ago!

Mom and the kiddos...

...and Spence with his Uncle 'Thaniel...

JD with his cousin, Joseph

Camryn and her cousin, Sara - up to no good in the Joseph Smith Memorial Foyer...

Here are all of the Gardner men...

Here are all the Gardner women (in-laws)...

Lisa (below) formed quite a bond with my little Spence. He loved her and she adored him. I think she loved the fact that she didn't have to speak any English while around him. She babysat him in one of the visitor centers at Temple Square while Caitie and Jeff tied the knot. During the whole ceremony I kept thinking, "What am I doing leaving my baby with a non-English speaker that I hardly know?? Crazy. As soon as the ceremony was over, I practically sprinted to retrieve my baby. We couldn't find Lisa at first so I started freaking out a bit. The sister missionaries didn't know where she was either! Luckily, Joel found her in a side room watching a movie. Phew! I'm such a freak.




I feel so lucky to be part of this big Gardner Fam. It's already huge, and it's just getting started! Grow baby, grow!

The Adventures of Happy and Bouncy...

So JD told me last night that I have to write some of my adventure stories down before they're lost forever (not hard to do with my sieve-brain). The "Adventures of Happy and Bouncy" came into being one night when Gammy and Grandpa were visiting and our kids were being especially difficult. Camryn went to bed upset and I felt a bit guilty about how the day had gone, so I went up to snuggle. Camryn begged me to tell her a story. Whenever I tell my kids a bedtime story, I usually let them participate and so she began to describe the main character as "Meany." Hmmm, I wonder what made her say that? Anway, to my motherly relief, she quickly changed the name to "Happy" and the adventure began.

As the story progressed, "Bouncy" joined the fun too. "Happy" is obviously based on Camryn and "Bouncy" is her trusty sidekick, Christian. We made up quite a tall tale that night - we were laughing so hard that she didn't want me to stop.

Camryn LOVES to hear a new adventure at bedtime. JD and Christian get into too, but these stories are especially made for Camryn. We've even had special guest storytellers: Gammy, Grandma, Grandpa and Joel. It's been really fun to see what fun adventures we all come up with. The favorites usually involve some kind of potty talk and complete randomness - I love kids' brains.

Here are a few of the random plots we've come up with...

Last night Camryn wouldn't let me start the adventure because she said her throat hurt. "It feels like there is a pointy ship stuck in my throat," she said. That started Mom off on a story about how "Happy" wanted to visit the land of "Timbuktinytu" where all of the people are tiny and live in tiny houses and eat tiny food and sail on tiny pointy ships that travel down little girls' throats to see what there is to see. She gave her approval and interjected things like what "Happy" and "Bouncy" decided to pack for their long adventure. Mom included things like lollipops and tangerines (think Dragons of Blueland). Camryn had to add, "No, no, no, they brought every lollipop in the whole world." Once "Happy" safely landed her helicopter in the land of "Timbuktinytu," the tiny people promptly shrunk "Happy" and "Bouncy" in order to fit them on the tiny pointy ship. The rest of the story was about their adventure down a little girls throat and digestive system. It ended with them getting (you guessed it) pooped out (the potty talk element) and sailing back through the sewers and ocean to "Timbuktinytu." "Happy" insisted on paying the tiny people some money for their effort, "One big dollar, one tooth fairy money and one giant lollipop." Sounds like a pretty generous tip to me.

Anyway, there are certain things that always have to be included in every tale. "Happy" is the main character that everything centers around. Think G.I. Jane meets Barbie - powerful, pink and smiley all at the same time (sounds like a sister with a bunch of brothers to me). "Bouncy" is in every tall tale. His role is just to follow "Happy" around and bounce all over the place - a super power that comes in handy quite often. Sometimes the tales are totally random and sometimes they are a way for Mom to teach a lesson or make sense of Camryn's world.

We've told stories about...

Strange talking animals in the forest they stumbled upon because "Bouncy" bounded uncontrollably past his boundaries one day. "Happy" had to rescue him - a very creative adventure resulted.

They were going on a motorcycle ride up a mountain (we have a mountain in our new backyard) when "Boucny" bounded out of his passenger seat onto a rainbow. "Happy" had to find a way to get herself up onto the rainbow to save "Bouncy." An elk with giant horns lifted her up onto the rainbow.

It also helped to tell some tales about how "Happy" and "Bouncy" had to move away from all of their friends one day, but made tons of new friends in the process.

Anyway, the stories will continue because we all love them. We've already created dozens of adventures and I'm sure dozens more will come. I asked Camryn to draw a picture of "Happy" and "Bouncy" one day. She drew a rainbow and asked me to draw the rest. My stick figures were masterful, but I guess I forgot to draw a face on "Bouncy." Camryn wanted to know why "Bouncy" didn't have a face. That led to another adventure about how they stumbled upon magic sand that when you smeared your face in it, your face would fall off. She thought that was hiliarious.

I think it would be so fun to make a book with some "Happy" and "Bouncy" favorites. I've just got to wait until Camryn can illustrate because I'm pretty much artistically challenged. Anyway, stay tuned for some more "Adventures of Happy and Bouncy." Soon my blog will be renamed the Chronicles of Happy and Bouncnia.

The 7th Move's the Charm... a.k.a The Longest Post Ever!

Well, Joel and I have been married 13 good years and we just moved for the 7th time. Hopefully 7 will be our lucky number and we'll be able to stick around for a bit . This post is making me a bit sentimental about some of our previous dwellings so here is a quick trip down memory, I mean moving lane...

Apartment #1: The basement of an older lady's home. It was total 70's with orange shag and avocado green appliances (oh how I wish I took pics!). It was our first apartment as a married couple so we thought it was heavenly. All we had for a bed was my old twin mattress from college that we combined with this totally disgusting sectional couch. Talk about massive surface area! The best thing about it was that it was in our living room - the first thing you saw when you entered the apartment. It was here that we inherited numerous pieces of "interesting" furnishings. It was here that I ate my first spoonful of ants (you'll recall this lovely experience if you read my blog last year) and stepped on more than my share of giant garden spiders. Man, good times!

Apartment #2: I graduated and we headed to Kaysville, Utah so I could begin my first teaching job. Joel transferred from Utah State to U of U and made the commute every day. This apartment was ANOTHER basement apartment. It was made for short people. The owner (who lived above us) actually dug it out with a freak'n shovel! Wow. We thought it was great because it had a washer and dryer - no more trips to the laundromat! There was carpet in the kitchen which didn't take too well to my cooking experiments (I dropped a whole pan of lasagna all over it one night). We shared the single-lane driveway with the owners and LOVED playing musical cars each and every morning during the winter months. The best part of the whole deal was the owner's son lived in a portion of the basement and he LOVED to play the same annoying song on his base guitar OVER AND OVER. Good times.

Apartment #3: I know it's a shock, but we got fed up with #2, so we moved to our first townhouse. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! I loved this place! We welcomed our first child here and enjoyed good friendships. My school was just around the corner, so I was privileged to have my students living near me. I remember one night some thoughtful boys decided to leave a bag of poop (all wrapped up with a bow) on my doorstep. How special. Their mothers told me they had a crush on me. Did I mention I taught at a Jr. High?? Funny. It was here that we decided to make the leap into medicine. We lived here 2 years - a record.

Apartment #4: We headed down to Glendale, AZ to begin our medical journey. My dad helped with the move and I thought he was going to have a heart attack moving us in 114 degree weather! Darn those 2nd floors! We had moldy cabinets and an air conditioner that sounded like a jet engine! It was here that I witnessed my first domestic violence fight - not us, some scary couple outside our window. The worst part about the apartment was the obnoxious people that lived above us. We kept a broom handle in our master so we could pound on the ceiling when their parties/music got too loud. Good times. I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my life in this apartment. I decided to quit teaching and take care of my son because of it. Oh, how can I forget another fun part of this apartment...we were in Stephenie Meyer's ward (yes, the author of the Twilight books)! I think it's so cool that we knew her and I served alongside her in our church.

House #1: After surviving just one year there, we moved into our first home. I'm so fond of that little 2 bed 2 bath 1200 sq. ft house! We bought it based on my teacher's salary - such a cool feeling. I painted like a mad women - it was so liberating. Joel built the cover over our first deck. JD marked his territory in the back yard - numerous times. We welcomed Camryn into our lives here. Happy times There was one big issue we had to deal with...we happened to move next door to a guy who set-up his garage for his rock band rehearsals! We were cursed I tell you! It was a great experience though because Joel learned some serious conflict management skills dealing with them. We lived here for 3 years (a record) and made a nice profit when we sold it - such a blessing.



House #2: Once Joel graduated from med school, we headed out to Erie, Pennsylvania for his internship year. We purchased another home and learned a lot about home improvement. We put some serious sweat equity into that thing. It was here that I decided I loved yard work. We had this awesome view of Lake Erie right from our deck. I loved it. We experienced our first "fall" in the eastern U.S. It was magical-especially having lived in dry AZ for 4 years prior! It was here that we welcomed Christian into our family. JD and Camryn discovered what friends were while living here. It was great. We were quite fond of this place and were sad to move from it BACK into an apartment!





Apartment #5: Once Joel graduated from his internship, we had a huge garage sale (no need for yard equipment) and headed out to Ann Arbor, Michigan for a 3 year residency. I've already written so much about this place that all I need to say is we loved Ann Arbor and learned some good lessons from family housing. Enough said.






House #3: Yeah! A house again. We love it here. The view is amazing, the people in our ward are super nice. Our kids are involved in all sorts of lessons and activities because things are so affordable here. The move itself was as smooth as it could have been. Atlas moving company took care of us. I got to just sit on my rear and direct all of the workers where to go. I loved it. My mother-in-law was such a life saver! Joel remained in Michigan to finish his last week of residency so Cristie came to the rescue. She brought tons of presents to open during the flight (a freak'n miracle in my opinion!) and put my whole kitchen together upon arrival. I couldn't have done it without her (at least not with all of my hair intact)! My mom drove up and helped me move in too. I'm so lucky - I mean how many gals are lucky enough to have a great mother-in-law and mother who like each other too?? My mom told me that when she was driving Cristie back to Utah, she got chocolate all over her hands and Cristie had to sit and wipe it all off. That was a cute image for me to always remember my awesome "mothers" with. I'm going to post some more pictures and share some fun moving stories soon...


As I ponder all of our moves, my mind wanders to a great little book called, "Who Moved my Cheese?" It's a parable about change and how willing you are to embrace it. Joel and I have been involved in so much change that I wonder what we're going to do with ourselves once 3 or 4 years have gone by and we haven't moved. Hmmmm, that'll be a new experience and a nice "change" for us.