Baby News

The phone lines are on fire between members of the Reed clan! For those of you who aren't on the phone tree, we have late-breaking news. Sarah (who is expecting in October) found out today that she and Sean are having a boy. Yayyyyy! We love boys and don't have enough of them! Ashton is still pushing for twins, and will tell you that that's what they're having if you ask. Don't believe him.

Carl and Heather broke their own big story today. Yessssss......they're also expecting!!!!! Hooray! It looks like the baby will be here in January. Aubrey and Spencer are very anxious to find out which of them will be getting a new roommate.

The next big news will be when we find out if Emily and Eric are going to keep with their trend and have another girl when their baby is born in November. They already have an empty room just waiting to be painted either pink or blue, so no arguments between Abby and Livvy over who gets to share. Here is a little challenge for my readers--can you identify each of the babies below?

A Memorable Day

We celebrated Memorial Day by heading to the mountains for fresh air and cooler temps. Carl was kind enough to point out some trees for us.

Some of us rode four-wheelers.

Some of us did fancy tricks on our four-wheelers and are still recovering.

Some of us got really dirty...

...and enjoyed it!

And some of us were content to just sit in the shade of towering pines (or were they firs, Carl?) and let Aubrey beat us at cards.

Yo Ho Hum

Allow me to be the first to ruin your holiday weekend movie-going plans. Sadly, the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" installment is a disappointing mess. The only way you will walk out of the theater feeling like it was worth your time is if someone is paying you by the hour to watch it. (It's three hours long.) Much of the movie feels familiar--I swear it was cobbled together from the cutting-room floor sweepings after the first two "Pirates." The plot makes absolutely no sense. In fact, if anyone does see it, and can explain it so that it does makes sense, I'll give them a box of Fiddle Faddle. We've already seen Davey Jones and the "fish" people, so even those bits of movie magic fail to surprise and delight this time around. The only new element is a running joke where Capt. Jack hallucinates (and interacts with) multiples of himself. It's kind of funny, at first, but mostly just weird. The film is rated PG-13 for a reason. I would not take young kids to it. The strange blend of campy humor and cartoonish violence tends to dilute the impact of the violence, and not in a good way. The movie opens with the hanging of a young child and gets frequently more graphic and gross. That said, it's not the worst movie I've ever seen--it has a few good moments-- and I did manage to get a little misty-eyed in the next-to-the last scene. Lest we forget, though, this is a movie franchise based on a theme park ride and I'm just not sure there were enough stories to go around between the original film and two sequels. Disney needs to keep that in mind if they decide to do "It's a Small World, The Movie."

Whose Face is That?

Several of us have commented on the remarkable likenesses in the White family. When you look at the old photo on Emily's blog of Eric's mom, Ann White, with him and his brother Clint, we all think it looks just like Livvy and Abby. I have discovered my own "separated at birth" twosome. Tell me what you think:

Can you identify the subject in each photo?

Something to Ponder

For awhile now, I have had trouble getting to sleep at night. I can't turn off my "restless mind," and my thoughts sometime take me in interesting directions. So, the other night I was laying in bed, hot, sweaty and unable to sleep (this is God's way of keeping middle-aged women in check) and I started thinking about psychics. I sometimes watch "Psychic Detectives" on Court TV in the afternoon while I am sewing. The psychics that are featured seem to be very normal, respectable people who volunteer their talents to police departments all around the country. In many cases, they are remarkably successful at providing useful clues to the police. They are definitely more "Allison DuBois" than "Madame Zelma."

Obviously, in the world of psychics, there are a lot of frauds; "I see someone around you with an "R" in their name..." And there are a lot of unfortunate (and now broke) people who get duped into thinking that through psychics they can find answers to life's questions. But what about the psychics, or mediums, who appear to posses a genuine ability, and who don't seem to be exploiting, but rather helping the public?

How do we explain their abilities? Most, if not all, of us have experienced a premonition or a warning. We explain such occurrences as examples of the Holy Ghost operating in our lives to protect us and those we love. Is it possible that the Holy Ghost is also functioning in the lives of legitimate psychics who use their skills to help others? Perhaps their "gift" is to know how to call upon and discipline spiritual insights. The alternative explanations are either that they are very lucky guessers or perhaps there is a less benevolent force at work.

I have read and pondered D&C 46:8-26 many times. These verses hold out the promise that we are all entitled to specific gifts of the spirit, in order to help us to help others. I have identified the specific spiritual gifts with which I have been blessed and for which I am very grateful. Is it possible that some people have been given the gift of psychic awareness?

I know this all sounds a little nutty. It's something to think about, though. What do you think?

Dia de Madre

Last night the La Rosa Branch celebrated motherhood with assorted grilled meats and volleyball. We played and ate into the night, without incident or injury. The award for best line of the night goes to young Johnathon Orozco who, after biting into his tasty street-style taco, yelled "Hey! This chicken tastes like goat!"

The branch presidency--

Hermano Magana, Hermano Martinez and El Presidente:

Say Cheese!

For Mother's Day I treated myself to a new digital camera. I love my new camera. I would rescue it in a house fire (after rescuing Dad, Newton and Oso, of course). I already love all the great pictures I'm going to take with it because I will delete all the bad pictures. In the old days, we had to pay to process our photos, even the ones with glowing red eyes and cut-off heads. And, since we paid good money for them, we saved them in shoe boxes until we died and then our family had to figure out what to do with them. I love pictures. My walls are covered with photos and in my purse I carry an album of photos that I show to virtual strangers. I love looking through my digital photo files. Every picture tells a story. Some of them make me smile. Some of them make me a little misty. Some of them make me laugh out loud and some of them make me say "ahhhhh...." These are some of the pictures that make me smile. Enjoy!

Mothers and Grandmothers

Not long ago Bill/Dad and I had dinner with our friends, Dr./Bishop Brad Davis and his wife, Ruth. While the men talked church stuff, I asked Ruth how their kids were, and especially their new little granddaughter, Grace. Ruth leaned into me and in that intense way that she has, said, "I would crawl across broken glass for that child, Linda. I would rather spend time with her than with friends I have known for decades. How does that happen? How does that bond form so instantly between a grandchild and a grandparent?" I had no answer for her, but I knew what she was talking about.

Parenthood is (by necessity and design) a daily exercise in "good cop/bad cop." Often, parenthood is enjoyed more in theory than in practice. A lot of the gratification is delayed until the future time when you can laugh at the horrible things your kids do. With parenthood, there are small pay-offs along the way, but the really big payday comes when you can breathe that sigh of relief and say to yourself, "My work is done. My child has become a fabulous adult."

Ruth and I decided that what makes being a grandmother different from being a mother is that the daily work, responsibility and anxiety over "doing a good job" all drains away and you are left with just the joy. We can laugh at the naughty things our grandchildren do because we know that we aren't managing the character-development department anymore. We can handle little crisis with a bit more patience because we understand how fast time flies and how little time it will be before they have outgrown this stage and moved on to another.

Being a mother is the hardest job in the world. Being a good mother is the most consequential thing you will ever do. Being the grandmother of nine (soon to be eleven) children who are being raised by good mothers is the most joyous blessing there is.

A couple of Saturdays ago, Bill and I were having lunch at MacDonald's with Aubrey and Spencer. When it was time to go, we realized that Aubrey's retainer was missing. Since she has an unfortunate habit of wrapping it up in a napkin while eating, we assumed it had been tossed out with the trash. As I rummaged through the garbage can, full to the top with half-eaten ice cream cones, ketchup packets and other nasty stuff, I flashed on the numerous times I had done this in the past. But there was a huge difference! This time, I felt calm. I wasn't glowering at anyone or making wild threats about what they would have to do to pay for a replacement. We had a quiet prayer, found the retainer (on the floor under the table) and walked out of MacDonald's in good spirits.

I guess the moral of the story is that I have grown up, along with my kids. And the other point of the story is that ALL kids do stuff that makes you crazy. All kids will do their own version of dropping your keys inside a hole in the wall, cutting school and taking the bus to the beach, bouncing a golf ball off a glass table to see what will happen, self-righteous tattling, or losing their retainer in a crowded movie theater. Cherish the good times and let them fuel the times when you just have to roll with the punches. It gets better and it's so worth it!

Happy Mother's Day to Heather, Liza, Emily and Sarah. Thank you for making me a grandmother.

Three Things I Bet You Don't Know About Me

I am officially taking on the "Amanda Challenge." (See Emily and Liza's blogs--links below)

Three Things I’m Afraid Of:
1. The Grand Canyon
2. Car accidents
3. Not being in control

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
1. Liza (ask her about the tie incident)
2. Misbehaving grandchildren and their frustrated parents
3. Garrison Keillor

Three Things I Love:
1. Completing a hard job
2. Prayer
3. When my children are happy

Three Things I Hate:
1. Onions
2. Snails
3. Being late

Three Things I Don’t Understand:
1. Spanish
2. Tattoos
3. Former Mormons

Three Things On My Desk:
1. Today's "to-do" list
2. Aubrey's birthday gift
3. Holly Forsyth's bridal shower gift

Three Things I’m Doing Right Now:
1. Sewing the last of nine matching shirts for the kids to wear to Disneyland
2. Helping Clare get her art gallery ready for Open House at Del Rio School
3. Reading a new book, "What the Dead Know," by Laura Lippman

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
1. See all of my children married in the temple
2. Go to England
3. Serve a mission with Bill

Three Things I Can Do:
1. Sew
2. De-clutter
3. Solve problems

Three Things I Can’t Do:
1. Read maps
2. Change lanes on the freeway
3. Speak Spanish

Three Things I Think You Should Listen To:
1. The still, small voice
2. The words to the hymns
3. "500 Miles," by The Proclaimers

Three Things You Should Never Listen To:
1. Al Gore
2. Telemarketers
3. Time share sales people

Three Things I’d Like To Learn:
1. How to sell stuff on E-Bay
2. How to tat
3. What all the settings on my digital camera mean

Three Favorite Foods:
1. Crispy shrimp with honeydew from P.F. Changs
2. Chicken flautas from El Sombrero
3. Scallops and shrimp almondine from Uricchios

Three Shows I Watched As A Kid:
1. The Twilight Zone
2. Laugh-In
3. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Three Things I Regret:
1. Quitting piano lessons (Mom was right)
2. Losing contact with old friends
3. Not being athletic

On Being Bored

At church on Sunday, Brother Magana, the first counselor in our branch presidency, was going over Bill/Dad's travel plans for this week. It's a pretty typical week. He left for Pleasanton Sunday evening and will return to Bakersfield on Wednesday evening. Brother Magana turned to me and said, "You like to be alone so much?" I explained to him that I don't like to be alone, but I enjoy having time to work on my various projects. I told him that "I am sometimes lonely, but rarely bored." Since that conversation, I have been thinking about what I told him. All of us feel lonely at times. We can feel lonely even when there are other people around. As a young mother of five, I was surrounded by "people" but I was often lonely. I think that loneliness is simply the state of having no one to spontaneously share our thoughts with. Loneliness doesn't automatically equate to sadness, though. Sometimes we are sad and lonely, but I believe that that is because we are bored. I go to great lengths to avoid becoming bored. It is key to my personal satisfaction with life. I read a great quote this week in the Reader's Digest. "Always be in the middle of a great book and you'll never be in a bad or bored mood."

I am currently in the middle of two good books; "A Heart Like His," by Virginia Hinckley Pearce and "Withering Heights," by Dorothy Cannell. The first is my Sunday read. It is a short book and a very thought-provoking read. It is based on the experience of a group of women planning a stake Relief Society conference. They wanted to help the sisters in the stake feel God's love more profoundly in their lives. They wanted to help them do that without introducing a new program or more things to "do." They devised a simple experiment to try within their group before they brought it before the sisters in the stake. Each chapter chronicles what happened, with a paragraph at the end for discussion and pondering where you are in the challenge. It is a perfect book for two or more sisters to read together and discuss. It would make a great mid-week activity, for example. Virginia Pearce has served on the general Primary and YW boards and is the daughter of President Hinckley. She wrote a couple of books about her mother, Marjorie Pay Hinckley.

My other current read is a mystery (of course) by Dorothy Cannell, who has written ten books in her Ellie Haskell series. Her new book comes after a five-year break in which she set aside writing to spend more time with her grandchildren. Her books are English "cozies," with a twist. They are contemporary and filled with hilarious characters. They are extremely witty and highly enjoyable. These are not dark, psychologically-driven works (which I also enjoy). If you want to start the series, you have to begin at the beginning with "The Thin Woman," so that you can understand Ellie and why it is so easy to relate to her.

So, this is my salute to reading. I highly recommend it as a defense against boredom and bad moods.