I've been tagged

I have been tagged a few times and they have had a couple of different templates so I am going to combine them.

Four jobs I have had:

1. One man accounting department at Recreation Outlet in Salt Lake City, UT

2. Waitress at Cowboy Grub in Salt Lake City, UT

3. Grounds Crew at BYU

4. Legal Courier at Scalley & Reading in Salt Lake City, UT

Four movies I can always watch:

1. Pride & Prejudice (A&E)

2. Pride & Prejudice (Focus Features)

3. Sense & Sensibility

4. Big Fish

Four places I have lived:

1. Boston, MA

2. Houston, TX

3. Bloomfield Hills, MI (near Detroit)

4. Panyu, Guangdong, China

Four TV shows I enjoy:

I don't watch TV much anymore so I'm going to change this to four shows I used to enjoy:

1. Who's the Boss

2. X-Files

3. Animal Planet

4. Tiny Toons

Four favorite foods:

1. Salmon

2. Death-by-chocolate Torte with fresh raspberries and a glass of milk

3. Pecan and Gorgonzola salad

4. Peaches

Four websites I visit:

1. http://www.lds.org/

2. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (and, so that the little guys are also represented, http://www.booksense.com/)

3. http://www.npr.org/

4. www.google.com/ig

Four places I love to be:

1. At one of the temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with Scott, ideally we would be performing marriage sealings for our ancesters.

2. Outside with Scott and Susanna; but where depends on the season. Autumn: Cascade Pass (in North Cascasdes National Park in Washington). Winter: Scott's Pass (in Big Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake City) wearing cross country skis. Spring: Almost to Seward Park (in Seattle) on road bikes. Summer: Leigh Lake (in Teton National Park in Wyoming) in a canoe.

3. At a good toy store, such as Planet Happy Toys in Seattle or The Tutoring Toy in Salt Lake City, with Susanna.

4. At home with nothing to do and a really good book.

Four things you might not know about me:

1. I took Ballet lessons for about 12 years

2. I have a fantasy of living in Maine in a weathered clapboard house and wearing wellington boots and a fisherman sweater. This fantasy does not involve becoming a lobster fisherwoman.

3. By the end of my sophomore year in high school there were 12 or 13 people on the soccer team. For those of you who do not know, that means that only 1 or 2 people aren't playing. That person was almost always me (and maybe someone else). Then our goalie broke her wrist and they decided to send me out on the field. I had never even thought about playing goalie, but who else was going to do it? I was the only one who was not already playing. From then on I started as keeper.

4. While I was living in China a friend talked me into allowing her to give me a makeover. To the best of my recollection this is the only time I have ever worn make-up.

Two people who I am tagging:

(basically this means you have to fill in the blanks above: tell us four things about yourself for each of the eight 8 categories above as I have done)

1. Cherlyn T.

2. Sarah

Pumpkin Push

Saturday October 27, 2007
Together, Scott, Susanna, and I participated in the Pumpkin Push (a 5K) today at Seward Park. A lot of people were in costume (including Susanna)-- some favorites were Star Wars' Chewbacca-- who gave an acceptance speech for his costume award in the language of the Wookiees, Wilma Fintstone complete with a car (these people ran the 5K in these costumes mind you), and a daddy Pirate pushing a toddler and preschooler pirate in the "Jolly Jogger." Susanna clapped and cheered for all the runners and she panted at all the dogs. We all had a great time and hope to do it again next year.

Congratulations Highland Soccer

Long ago when I was in high school I played soccer for the Highland Rams. We didn't win a single game but I think we may have tied a couple my senior year (we were getting better!). My sister Rachel just finished up a season playing for the same team and they took second in state! (Click here to see an earlier post about this soccer star.) I don't think anybody was expecting them to go that far and no Highland soccer team had gotten close so it is definitely something to be proud of. Because it was such an exciting opportunity and because I was once a Highland Ram my parents flew me to Salt Lake to see the state championship game. Here's a picture of Susanna getting ready to watch a rainy soccer game (we don't have any pictures at the game because keeping Susanna happy kept my hands full). Congrats Rachel and the rest of the Highland soccer team on a great season!

The Newlyweds Visit!

My brother Eric and his wife Kate came to visit us October 6-11 (although for part of that time they went to the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas). Susanna just loved having a bigger audience and her goal for much of the trip was to get them to laugh. See below for some of our adventures with them. If it looks fun, come visit-- we'll do it with you too!

Susanna's First Time Canoeing

We really like canoeing in the arboretum (now right by our home). This time was no exception: turtles and ducks were everywhere, paddling through the tall grass where the arboretum exits to the lake felt as adventurous as ever, and the slough was beautiful. On this particular trip it did not occur to me until right as we were getting in the canoe that hanging on to Susanna would be a full time job. Luckily, I have a super husband who can handle a canoe himself so I was free to do just that. And, as Susanna stayed happy and dry and the newlyweds handled their canoe amazingly well for beginners (can they really claim that canoe camps and rowing clubs don't count?), I'd call this outing a roaring success.

Pumpkin Patch

Thanks to Fall City Farms, Susanna now loves pumpkins. She walks around the house saying "pu-pu" looking for the tiny pumpkin we got for her. We loved the farm too.

Twin Falls in Autumn

Here we are at Twin Falls again (click here to see our last visit). I think it was our first autumn visit and it was beautiful.

Girls Night Out

General Conference Again! Six months ago Susanna and I had our first semi-annual Girls Night Out (see here for details). This time, Susanna and I were lucky enough to have Kate with us. After dropping off the boys at the stake center, the three of us walked around Greenlake, got some Hot Chocolate at Chocolati, and hit the swings. I got to know Kate a little better, and now I like her even more than I did before. It was great fun.

Ballard Locks

Eric and Kate Anderson arrived from Salt Lake City to visit us Saturday afternoon. After the afternoon session of the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which we were watching online, we went to the Ballard Locks-- a place where boats can enter Lakes Union and Washington from the Puget Sound. There are also fish ladders at the locks where fish can enter the freshwater lakes, and you can watch them jumping up the ladders. Susanna loved seeing so many fish and she was constantly "saying" fish (opening and closing her mouth).

Pretend Play

Susanna has been engaging in pretend play for a while now, doing things such as drinking out of empty cups and then saying "mmm," but this week she began putting stuffed animals to bed in an overturned ottoman. This seems like it should represent a great cognitive leap forward but it is at the very least quite cute. After placing them however awkwardly in the "crib" she usually puts some kind of blanket on them and then affectionately pats them and says "bye-bye," which is what she says to us when she goes to bed. It's true, she stacks the animals on top of each other and the blanket ends up who knows where (and she tried to climb in with them herself once) but this care she exhibits for them is absolutely adorable, in my impartial opinion.

Swinging in the Rain

I read somewhere that Seattlites own more sunglasses than residents of other cities. That may sound strange (and who knows if it's true), but I recall when my sister Sarah visited a couple of years ago and I had to borrow hers because the "sunbreaks" (I don't think they have those where she came from) were making my eyes ache. She could easily sacrifice them because the sky looked grey to her. But Seattle's grey sky has long since stopped looking monochromatic to me; its variagate colors are far more interesting than a clear blue sky (though not necessarily more beautiful), and the colors of the earth below are deeper and more rich without the blanching of bright sunlight. I'm sure I will pine for those clear skies of summer long before they arrive, but for now (at the very outsent of it) I am enjoying Seattle's rainy season. And since we've got 8 or 9 months of mostly cloudy forcasts ahead (with scattered showers and sunbreaks), we'll have to keep swinging right on through it all.

5 Years of Hale!

Scott and I were sealed to eachother in the Salt Lake Temple October 1, 2002. Five years ago, can you belive it? To celebrate Scott and I went out to dinner on Friday (a rare treat-- it was fabulous) and then, on the day itself, we had a birthday cake with Susanna to celebrate the birth of our family. Susanna loves singing "Happy Birthday to You" (she just squeals and claps while others sing) and, as you can see from the photrograph, she loved the candles too (although she didn't actually like the cake). She also loves flowers, which she calls "mmm" because that's what she says after she smells them. My fabulous husband got me these roses for our anniversary and Susanna loves having them around so she can smell them and say "mmm" all the time.

I am so grateful to be part of such a wonderful little family! Scott is so sweet, supportive, and good and I am very glad we found eachother. What a wonderful institution marriage is, and what a beautiful way to travel through live-- with a family.

Toddling Around

It is so fun to watch Susanna toddle around the house! She looks like a starfish: her hands and arms are spread out and then she rocks from side to side, slowly moving forward. Crawling is much faster for her right now, and she can't stand up on her own yet, so she still crawls most of the time.

This is such a fun age! Susanna is learning new ways to communicate and to manipulate things and she is becoming more engaging and individual all the time.