i came from a box in the sky, and i can pour orange juice from my finger...

Nate's brother and sister-in-law are potentially leaving Snowflake soon, so we went up to see them this weekend. We took the telescope because the moon has been so big and bright lately, but the clouds were too many and the wind not enough. We ended up looking at Moroni on top of the temple. I made a bad joke about not seeing stars but seeing an angel instead, and everyone laughed anyway. Nice of them. Aaron and Jasmine took us out to shoot their bows which was much less intimidating than shooting guns. I prefer not having kickback or loud pops.



Nate's grandparents took us all out to a Mexican restaurant yesterday in Show Low where we got some Hongos al Ajo. It was so yummy we made our own version with our roast beef dinner after church today. Mushrooms sauteed with minced garlic and olive oil. I'm always shocked at how the simplest ingredients together can taste so good.

While dinner was a-cooking, I went out the kitchen back door to sit on the porch swing. I closed my eyes for a bit, and something about swinging with the sun on my face, the wind chimes clinging above my head, and the smell of home-cooking started me thinking about all the times we'd eat dinner over at Great Grandma and Grandpa Kline's house in Polk, PA. I'd sit on their front porch in the gliding chair sometimes with the sun on my face, the wind chimes clinging above my head, and the smell of home-cooking...

It was really nice being around Grandma and Grandpa Brimhall this weekend. My Grandma Martin gave me her pearls to wear at my wedding, and I wore them on my wrist as a bracelet. Nate's other set of Grandparents, Max and Katie, sent us home after our last visit with little things she'd set aside for us... my favorite being a music box that played "O Christmas Tree" (I'd mentioned how I liked music boxes once). I have all these lovely little memories with grandparents, but I don't have many with my mom's parents. In fact, Nate hasn't even met them yet. That's one of our goals for 2011 - visit Grandma and Grandpa Peterson.

On our trip home, we came up with two more names for our future kids. We now have 3 girls' and 3 boys' names picked out. And I've been thinking lately about having had a miscarriage... how we kinda tiptoed around it not knowing what else to do and kept on walking. I don't know if it was shock or what, but I didn't have much negative reaction when it happened. But lately I've been feeling the loss every now and again. We have all these names to give out and nobody yet to claim them... or one. In a way, it was just a minor setback, or so we hope. Next time will work, we tell ourselves. We have no reason to believe otherwise. I think of friends who have tried for years and finally understand a small portion of what they must be feeling. There is a sense of failure that is unfair and illogical, but it's there. This was only round one and so isolated in its occurrence, so I can't imagine experiencing this over and over and over again like it's the norm.

Some day we'll have 6 kids and their kids will be calling us "Grandma and Grandpa."

Until then, we'll enjoy being the kids with the grandparents. We have good ones.

(Oh, and if anyone knows what the title of this post is referring to - Wow!)