My new blog is FINALLY up and running...

Check it out at this link:  www.morticiansdaughter.com

You'll be routed to a Welcome Page and then you'll see a link to the Blog at the top of the page.

I also have a photo gallery but I've only uploaded a few photos at this point.  

Sorry about the delay.  We ran into some communication problems with the folks answering the help desk calls over there in INDIA (not the Apple help desk - the site hosting company's help desk).

UNDER CONSTRUCTION - New Blog Site

I'm moving my blog over to www.morticiansdaughter.com so I can use Apple's iWeb software to maintain my blog going forward.  Anyone that works with a blog understands what a struggle it is to upload and arrange photos and since my blog is all about the photos, I'm looking forward to dragging and dropping my pictures from iPhoto into my iWeb blog (yea for me!).  

Per is telling me this is called WYSIWYG editing (What You See Is What You Get editing).  Whatever... it just means I'll spend less time screaming at the stupid computer because the pictures didn't upload right.

It may take a day or two for my new domain name to propagate across the net (that's Per talking again) so please be patient with me.

I posted an update on Dave's recovery along with some photos of his "battle scars" on my new blog so check it out when you can.

See you at www.morticiansdaughter.com

A celebration of LIFE!

Today, I honor my Mother, 

Alice Dahn, 

on her Birthday.

My Mom resides in the great state of Idaho 

but she has been in South Carolina this month 

assisting Dave and his family as he 

recovers from his lung surgery.

(I'll give you an update on him tomorrow)

The following is a picture of my parents 

taken the very moment I came into their lives.

(My parents are on the left and their lawyer is on the right)

And here you see my mother

taking a stranger's baby in her arms...

to care for and love as her own.

  

I believe it takes a special woman

to unconditionally love another's child.

My parents had adopted Chad 

13 months before I came along.  

Here you see Chad lovin' on me,

his new baby sis'...

...Chad was my closest friend as we were growing up.

He protected me and encouraged me.

Eventually, my parents adopted Dave

and then went on to have 5

of their own natural children.

And that's how we became a family of 10!

Words cannot express the gratitude that

I have for my "birth mother"

for making the self-less choice.  

I know she made many sacrifices to 

carry me to term and then give me 

up for adoption.  She gave me life.

(And yes, I feel that I have a voice in the ever controversial 

abortion debate - since I very well could have ended up 

a murdered unborn...shudder)

And then my Mom took over from there,

loving me as her own and doing her best

to teach me and prepare me for my time

in this surreal earthly existence.

And for that, I am eternally grateful. 

I Love You, MOM.

Hope your birthday was FABULOUS!

P.S. your gift shipped late but will be there tomorrow.

Exercising Our First Amendment Rights

I'm proud to say we exercised our 1st amendment right to peaceably assemble by attending the our city's Tax Day Tea Party in the town square tonight.  We were not necessarily protesting the tax code currently in effect, we were protesting the inevitable tax increases that will be required to pay for Mr Obama's unprecedented spending to date (and he's just getting started). 

According to early estimates, we had about 2,000 people turn out for the Tea Party gathering in our little Nashville suburb.  I can attest from direct observation that our gathering of protesters primarily consisted of your average American families, in good spirits (no violence), assembling to voice our concerns regarding the President's current economic policies.  Of course, the media will paint us all as radical, racist, hate-mongers tomorrow.  And it's quite deplorable that the Department of Homeland Security seems to think "rightwing extremists" are more of a threat to our country than radical Islamic terrorists nowadays.  Seriously?  Let me ask again. SERIOUSLY???  Now that's embarrassing shoddy propaganda by the DHS right there, folks. 

Here's a couple of signs we got a kick out of tonight:

I almost made a sign for the kids to hold that read:  

WE CAN'T AFFORD THE STIMULUS PACKAGE

But I've been incredibly busy at work right now with quarter-end

 and so I was late getting home tonight.

Then I saw an even better sign a little girl 

was holding at the rally that said 

"Mr President, Keep your hands off my piggy bank."

Amen Sister!!!

I can't sign-off tonight without recognizing another very important event today ... 

my wonderful father-in-law's birthday!  

He'll be tickled that we were out there giving our kids 

a first-hand civics lesson tonight. 

A mighty fine way to honor him on his B-day.

Happy Birthday, Don.  

We Love You!!!

Some much needed Family Bonding

We were apprehensive to make the trip to Fall Creek Falls on Saturday after mapping our route and realizing that we would be "cooped up" in the car together for a good 2 hours before reaching our destination.  

But Tennessee is especially beautiful this time of year and we figured if the kids had a "melt down" we could pop in a DVD.  What did we do before cars featured DVD players?  Oh yes, I remember now ... my parents threw a foam pad down in the bed of our topper-covered crew cab truck, tossed in a couple of Barbies for the girls and some Matchbox Cars for the boys, AND WE WERE OFF (I believe that was before seat belt laws in Montana - somehow we all survived). 

The falls were AMAZING.  

Well worth the road trip!

Evidently, Fall Creek Falls, at 256 feet, is the highest waterfall in the eastern United States. There were a couple other waterfalls in the park, Piney and Cane Creek Falls and Cane Creek Cascades, that we did not have time to visit.  

You could barely see these folks milling around the mouth of the waterfalls without the aid of the camera's zoom function.

Torby was the assistant photographer on this trip and he asked me to upload some of the fabulous images he captured, so we have a lot of photos to share tonight.

Not surprisingly, my camera was loaded with several of his self portraits - like this (he says he was practicing his smile):

But he also surprised us with some shots like this which he captured while trying to figure out the zoom:

... and shots like this ...

He really liked using Annika and Kyra as his models and he didn't hesitate to chop Per's head off in most photos (ha ha). 

We decided (as in the kids and I decided and then Per reluctantly followed)  to hike to the base of the falls and further explore the area.  The trail down was about a mile of treacherous, slippery, "rock stairs".  

Quite the workout coming back up with a snugly (and muddy) kid on your back.

The snails on the path just reinforce my description of a very slick trail.

We came across some pretty cool caves along the way too but my camera doesn't do them justice (or my photo taking abilities are seriously lacking ... I'll admit it's not necessarily a hardware problem).

Here's the obligatory photo at the base of the falls ... we came away from that shot totally drenched from the over spray.

And then we wrapped it all up with a picnic at the lake which of course included feeding the local wildlife.  Turns out Ducks like Subway sandwiches (shhhhh don't tell the park ranger - I promise we won't do it again).

Actually we still had a 2 hour return trip to Nashville after the picnic but the kids' energy levels were sufficiently depleted so most of them slept the entire way home.  

Oh, Happy Day.  

Easter 2009

Happy Easter!

We are the LEAST photogenic family on the PLANET! 

 This is the best "family" shot I could find

 out of the 300+ photos we took over spring break.

But my friend Andrea is an exceptionally talented photographer 

and later this year, she is going to capture the family photo 

that I have been dreaming of 

since we welcomed our first child

 into our home 12+ years ago.

Fortunately, I finished sewing the girls' Easter dresses on Friday 

and they were a big hit with Annika and Kyra (whew)!

I'll share more about our hike to Falls Creek Falls yesterday, 

our run-in with a tornado in Murfreesboro on Friday, 

and our other Easter activities later in the week. 

Hope your Easter Sunday was GLORIOUS. 

Spring Break 09

You may be wondering if we have escaped to some exotic location to enjoy our spring break this year.  Not likely.  The Williamson County School District very rudely scheduled the break in the middle of month-end close this year.  Typical, no one ever considers all the finance folks that will be stuck in the office slaving away to "close the books" while everyone else is lying on a beach in Destin, Florida!

I did manage to sneak one day off this week and I spent it cleaning my house, running yard clippings to the dump to be recycled, and grocery shopping.  Good times.  Actually, I'm hoping to get ahead on my housework so that when Saturday finally rolls around we'll be able paint our Easter Eggs, bake cinnamon rolls for our Easter brunch, finish sewing our Easter dresses, and hike up to some water falls not far from here.

Kyra came in this morning in her usual attire - a princess dress and a pair of my heels.  I often overhear the girls fighting over who is going to inherit my shoes when I die.  I suppose I should be flattered that they approve of my footwear rather than concerned that they seem to be counting down the days until I'm lying in a cold grave.

It's a wonder I can ever find any shoes when I'm running out the door to work each morning.

Yes,  Kyra is wearing Diego boy's underwear (backwards too) while parading around in my pink heels - priceless.  Some day we may get her fully potty trained (wink).

And then there is Torby ... ever my little comedian - ALSO PRICELESS!

Haven't you missed him here in blogland? I have. 

Wendy's 29th Birthday

This is my lovely sister, Wendy, and her beautiful little family. 

Wendy turned 29 yesterday - no seriously, she really did turn 29.  Of course she doesn't look a day over 25.  I called her this evening to wish her a Very Happy Birthday ... and she sweetly informed me that I'm a day late.  I've said this before and I'll say it again - I can't keep track of my 7 siblings birthdays.  My memory is my worst enemy - just ask my husband.

In keeping with my birthday posts for my brothers Jon, Dave, and Doug, I must share a few facts and stories about this fabulous YOUNG lady.  

When Wendy was born, the nurses brought her into my mother dressed like a little bunny with a surgical mask over her tiny face and whimsical bunny ears propped on her wee head.  She was our perfect Easter baby.  Wendy was always a peacemaker in the home ... and we desperately needed a peacemaker with 8 children under the age of 10!!!

Wendy's young life was not free of challenges but she always handled herself with grace and maturity beyond her years.  Our physician discovered that Wendy had severe scoliosis when she was still a preschooler.  Actually, my brother, Chad, and I like to take credit for the scoliosis diagnosis ... and so I shall digress for a moment.  You see, one day as we were on a lengthy family road trip, Chad and I decided to pass the time by playing school health nurse (an obvious choice) as we bounced along the back roads of Montana in our yellow and white crew cab pick-up truck.  

We had recently been screened for scoliosis at school and felt quite knowledgeable in this regard.  We somehow convinced each of our younger siblings to take turns baring their backsides (from the waist up people - keep it clean!) to us so we could check for unusual curvatures of the spine and misaligned shoulder blades.  As we adeptly (wink) worked through the crowd in the back seat, Chad suddenly said "Mom, I really think Wendy really has scoliosis!  Look at the S shape of her spine, and her shoulder blades don't look right either". (or something along those lines)

A short time later during Wendy's pre-school physical the doctor confirmed our suspicions.  The spine specialists then determined that her scoliosis was so severe that her internal organs were in jeopardy and immediately  had her fitted for a body brace that ran from her neck to her tailbone.  The brace forced her ribs into place, hampering further advancement of the scoliosis.

As you can imagine, the brace was terribly uncomfortable and left bruises and large, painful callouses all over her delicate frame.  But Wendy rarely complained about the pain and discomfort nor did she make a fuss about all the activities from which she was restricted because she needed to wear the brace 24/7.  She would sit quietly on the side-lines at her sisters' gymnastic meets or sit by and watch her siblings jump on the trampoline and ride horses and etc. - but she was rarely allowed to participate in such activities.  She had the patience of a Saint.

When Wendy reached her early teens, the doctors decided they couldn't allow her any more time to grow - they had to operate to avoid the mounting risk of her ribs puncturing her lungs (my mom is much better versed in all the medical complications).  So in short, they sliced her back open, clipped out pieces of her spine, ran a steel rod down the length of her back, and then "glued" (for lack of a better description) the pieces of her spine back into place where possible. The surgery was MUCH MORE COMPLICATED than that but I'm trying to keep this part of the story somewhat succinct. I couldn't be with Wendy on the day of her surgery as my mother had moved to Canada with the younger children and I was attending college in Washington state at the time, but my heart, thoughts, and prayers were consumed with pleas to the Father for her welfare. 

The good news is that she eventually healed perfectly and has since lived a relatively normal and happy life.  She brought 3 gorgeous boys into this world and she is a talented and doting mother.  She and her husband, Jake, live in the beautiful mountains of Idaho where they can enjoy the abundance of snow.  They are snow bunnies (bunny pun intended) and don't appreciate my propensity to worship the sun and the glorious heat of summer!

I am so grateful for my younger sister.  While I may be older in years, I have often felt that her soul is much older and wiser than mine.  She is a great listener and one of my closest friends.

Wendy, I wish I could have been with you to celebrate your special day.  When I hit the big 40, in the not too distant future, we need to plan a sisters-only retreat.  I'm thinking somewhere that includes a nice spa where we can be massaged and pampered to our hearts' content - sans the needy children and spouses!!!  What do you say? 

I LOVE YOU SIS!!!

Pay No Attention to the Bed-Head

We spent the weekend working in the yard and watching General Conference.  Both are therapeutic activities for me - so it was a perfect weekend by my account.

We love eating our breakfast outside whenever weather permits and this morning proved to be a perfect morning to listen to the birds' songs while feasting on bacon, eggs, and pancakes.

Kyra appreciates having her picture taken and since she also loves to sit at the 

computer and scroll through the pictures on my blog, I included the below shot just for her.

Brynn is trying to convince us that we should heat up the pool so she can swim with her friends during spring break this week.  Unfortunately, tomorrow's forecast includes a chance of SNOW!!!

Below, Kyra is pointing to the lower pool (the one that doesn't get cleaned much during the winter months) where Daddy recently found a snake and a couple frogs that had taken up residency over the winter.  Anders was not happy about a snake coming that close to the house. Evidently he is not completely fearless after all (wink)!!!

Unfortunately, the fair skies did not endure.  We're back under a tornado watch this evening and severe thunderstorms passed through about an hour ago.  

 

But we're still in good spirits.  

We're still on a conference HIGH!  

I really like the way Jan over at Crazy Lady on Road 80 describes conference ... I needed a weekend with zero rhetoric!!!

The Flip Side

The beautiful sunset of yesterday has been replaced with torrential rains, lightening, thunder (the kind that could blow out your windows), flooding, and twisters.  (Jolien, you know you miss this time of year here!!!!)

Typical spring weather patterns for Middle Tennessee.  The tornado warning sirens were sounding off much of the afternoon.  We had to go to our "safe place" at work more than once and the children were held at school until the worst of the storms passed (the schools line the kids up in the hallway and have them kneel on the floor with their heads between their knees - GOOD TIMES) so Brynn's bus didn't drop her off at home until 5pm tonight.  A couple twisters touched down in the area but no fatalities.  

Our county is under a tornado watch until 2am - should make for a restless night.  Jolien used to hide under her bed during the storms but Anders, on the other hand, stands outside looking for the tunnel clouds.  I think Norwegians are fearless ... they must get that from their Viking ancestors ;-)

I've been living here for 3 years now but I'm still not acclimated to living in "tornado alley".  On a positive note, at least we have forewarning when a treacherous storm rolls in - I've experienced a few earthquakes when I lived in the Pacific Northwest and often wished there was a way they could forewarn us of the imminent tremors!

P.S. our Red Buds are in bloom this week.  Lars generously included 7 of these lovely trees in our landscape plan - and I heart them ... every single one!!!  But please tell me why they call them Red Bud Trees when they bloom in shades of pink and purple???

A Perfect Spring Sunset Enjoyed from the Back Porch

Brynn's Birthday Celebration - FINALLY!!!

Just when you thought I'd forgotten to post some pics 

of Brynn's fabulous birthday party ....

We had so much fun working on the canvas photo projects with her friends.

Such a creative group of young ladies!!!

We also grazed on a variety of tasty treats

throughout Saturday's birthday event.

And we sent the girls on a 

wild scavenger hunt 

while we were waiting for the Mod Podge 

to dry on their projects.

As they were fishing this clue out of the pool, 

the Tornado sirens sounded off.

The sirens indicate that a tornado watch

had been issued for the area 

and this sent the girls into fits of hysteria.

We checked the news to see if we were in the 

direct path of any funnel clouds 

 and tried to comfort the girls.

Then we heard the start of some hail outside 

- which is usually a sure indicator

that a funnel cloud is impending.

...MORE TEARS AND MELODRAMATIC PERFORMANCES 

BY THE YOUNGER GIRLS... while some of the 

older girls offered up a quiet prayer for our safety.

I was about to attempt to pack all 11 girls 

into our family's designated "safe place" 

when the hail faded and the sirens stopped. 

 

Turns out we were on the outer edge of the storm...

 (whew)!!!

We managed to pull the party back together 

and the girls finished their fabulous photos...

ALL SMILES!!!!

Now that party's not likely to be soon forgotten! 

Dearest Brynn - my eldest daughter,

I love you more than you can begin to comprehend.

I am proud and honored to be your mother.

You have taught me to love more deeply.

I hope this 9th year of your life is perfect.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!!!

The Verdict is In

For those that knew about my jury duty this past week let me just cut to the chase - we did not find him guilty of attempted murder.

For everyone else I will share a few more details.  I've been serving on a jury for a criminal case for the past 3 days.  In consideration of some of my younger readers, let me just say that this was a twisted case involving drugs, S&M, and a woman nearly dying of severe burns to her upper body.  

The day after I returned from helping Dave and Daisy I realized that I had missed a couple days of my jury duty assignment.  I called in Tuesday night and found that I needed to report for jury selection the following morning.  I was the first potential juror they called to the jury box and somehow I ended up as one of the final jurors despite trying to get out of the trial given the fact that I have 2 brothers that work in law enforcement (can't blame a girl for trying).

My heart has been heavy these last couple days.  The trial was mentally and emotionally exhausting.  My mind has been polluted with horrid images, anguishing sounds from 911 tapes, and an education in S&M that I really could have done without in this life.  The jury deliberations that lasted until past 7:00 tonight were stressful and full of confrontations.  I hate confrontation and will usually avoid it but when backed into a corner I will "come out swinging".  I was backed into a corner a time or two in the jury room tonight.  But it was a good thing that we fought it out because at one point we sent some questions to the judge seeking clarification and he brought us back into the courtroom to tell us they found an error in the wording of the charges as a result of our questions.  We were shocked.  We almost selected the incorrect criminal charge for this man based on erroneous verbage in our jury charge papers.  I literally felt sick to my stomach.  Still do in fact.

But this uncomfortable experience is behind me now ... and I hope to sleep well tonight.  

We had to reschedule Brynn's birthday party for tomorrow afternoon since I was afraid the deliberations would run into the evening tonight.  So I need to process the shocking material that has been introduced into my mind the last 3 days and move on.  Time to switch gears back to Mommy mode.  And come Monday morning, I need to GET BACK TO WORK!!!

Tonight I am thankful for my simple, stable, drug-free, SANE life. 

A Jump on SUMMER!

I just love this photo that Per snapped of the kids playing at the lake last week...

 

What were my kids doing playing in a lake in March, you ask?

Well, some members of our church in the Spartanburg area have a cottage on a lake there and they graciously allowed us to stay at their cottage while Dave was hospitalized.  Our church is like that - one big family.  A network of Latter-day Saints always ready to assist someone in need.

So while I shuttled back and forth to the ICU for days on end, Per entertained the children at this charming cottage on the lake.  The temperatures were in the low 70's one day and he let them play in the shallow waters as the sun was setting.  

We brought Dave and Daisy's kids out to the cottage whenever possible too.  Such a blessing to have a temporary home where all the youngsters could find things to do that would take their minds off the trauma at hand.