evan and lindsay and nina

Meow

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:57:00 +0000

Nina and I spent a while meowing back and forth the other day last week. It's been a daily thing since then. It was the first time she tried it (that I could clearly tell)!! We were looking at a cat postcard we made. After I meowed she looked up at me and tried to form the sound. It wasn't perfect but soooo good! She did it a bunch of times. Then we were reading a book about a rabbit and she meowed at the rabbit. haha I don't know how to explain to her that rabbits don't make noise. She'll figure it out.

That same day I was thinking about what Nina and I could do next with our time. Then I remembered my idea to make postcards together for us to send to her when we're in NY/Boston next month. The idea is that she'll receive one postcard from us for every day that we're gone. So that's 11 postcards. I don't know if she'll automatically remember us when grandma shows it to her but maybe she will! Maybe she'll remember when we made it together, even though her motor skills are lacking and I did most of the work :) The important thing is she was there with me.

Letterpress workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:33:00 +0000

This last weekend was a breath of fresh air and a very welcome change of pace for all of us. We drove down to utah for a letterpress and poster design workshop at the University of Utah in SLC. I wish I had more pieces to show for it. They pushed us to create posters with spontaneity. Try to get a message or agenda to the audience simply and powerfully. Not my forte. My right brain needed a lot of warming up. We used lino blocks, pressure printing, movable type, zinc type, and any other techniques available. It took me way out of my comfort zone and I think it was a creativity milestone for me. The U of U has an incredible letterpress get up – it’s the largest in the country. At least 20 letter presses, all shapes and sizes. Tens of thousands of movable wood and metal type. We were so lucky to play with it all. You can see all the pictures here.

Evan’s cousin Katie was sooooo kind and watched Nina for the whole day. We got a taste of what it will be like to be away from Nina for the ELEVEN days out east while she is with our moms in seattle/tacoma. The day was hard for me in that way. I can only imagine how I’ll feel two or three days into our trip east. By the time we pulled up to Katie’s driveway after the day of letterpress we were both flying out of the car and giddy to see her. She did sooo well for being apart a whole day and acted like we had just been out to the store for a few minutes.

On this trip we got to stay with Katie Spencer and Eva for one night and with Evan’s cousins Jenny and Steve the other night. I really enjoyed getting to know Jenny and Steve better. Evan and I went on walks (doesn’t happen on icy/snowy Rexburg sidewalks – not stroller friendly), we averted a car disaster, went to the mall, and ate Indian at the Bombay house in Provo which brought me back to my mission. Ahhhhhhh What a great weekend. I don't think there are better 15 month old travelers than Nina. Not that I've met at least.

At the workshop we were two of 15 participants, and two awesome teachers including David Wolske. Here is the BYU-I peeps show & tell : *names may be altered for discretion

James

Adam

Serafina

Blake

The place

Making stuff

Clean up action

March made it!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:45:00 +0000

I don’t know if I can really say how happy it makes me that march is here. There are now like 6 inches of GRASS fringing our giant-mass-of-snow-lawn. I can’t remember the last time I saw grass there. Rexburg’s winters are mind numbingly long (my first summer here saw snow on June 14th), but the summers are free and fun. We’re still under a cold sky of winter grey and surrounded by mounds of snow in every direction but it's melting!!! (at least for the moment)

We enjoyed the bit of sun and visited Evan on campus today:

March means we’re only a month away from a trip to ny and boston! We can’t wait to see Suvi and the Niemans and other friends! We can’t wait to explore new places!!

March 2nd (yesterday) was Nina's 15 month birthday!! She said hi and baby. In a much more lucid and natural way than usual. Talking is right around the corner. She's such a funny kid!! It's fun to talk and reason and kind of relate with her. All the things she's been soaking up the last 15 months are taking form in the way she acts and the things she does. One thing I think is interesting is her love of bags, belts, shoes, scarves, hats, bracelets, etc. Most of you know I'm not the girliest accessorizer, so where did Nina learn it? She finds ways to adorn herself on her own. Like those colored ring tower toys that most kids have - those aren't stackable rings, she discovered that they are actually bracelets. Evan's pencil pouch is a purse that she carries around. She does this all on her own. It's an interesting contrast to her less delicate and dainty tendencies. I sort of butchered her hair a week ago while we were skyping with Evan's mom on her birthday- my first attempt at cutting Nina's bangs to get them out of her eyes.

A couple of pictures Evan's cousin Jenny took this weekend. You can see Nina's new bangs and her cyndi lauper hair do.

March also means I’m in my second trimester, and a month closer to meeting the second kid in this family. (for those of you who don't know yet – yes we’re actually expecting!) A month closer to seeing Nina be an older SISTER! Hahaa I can’t wait. The first trimester is over with its relentless cloud of nausea and fatigue. I feel so much better than I did two or three weeks ago.

This baby is due August 1st, a week after Evan graduates on July 23rd - another looong-awaited event that we are a month closer to. Evan just registered for his last semester of classes yesterday!!

$880+$800+90 days in jail = snowshoeing

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:23:00 +0000

As I was uploading these images I thought how it would be fun to leave it to the reader to decide how they fit together and what was the whole story behind them. Or I thought of making a mad lib style post with captions for each picture with fill in the blanks. It could be like this:

Nina was all dressed and ready for a ____ (adj) day of _____ (verb ending in ing). Her mom ____(past tense verb) on the living floor _____(ing verb) the moment.

Her _____ (adj) eyes sparkled with _____(feeling) catching the light ____(verb) into the basement apartment.

When without a warning, something changed! Nina decided she was not _______ (adj) about leaving to go ______(verb ending in ing) after all. Something about the way her ______(pl noun) fit was _____(verb ing) her. Her little clenched ______(pl noun) stuck to her sides and her once sparkling _____(pl nouns) formed narrow ______(pl noun).

You get the idea. haahaaaa Here are the rest of the pictures we took that day.

And here's what actually happened:

10:30 I (Lindsay) rent two pair snowshoes and 1 pair gaters. (hestitant to spend $26, we usually keep our entertainment budget down to like $10 a month, truly. Unless we're traveling somewhere)

11:00 Nina dons the tights. Then we're on the road for a day of snowshoeing!

11:30 Feeling adventerous we decide en route where we'll trek - Harriman State Park, near Mesa Falls, or Big Springs in Island Park. We choose the latter, Melissa having recommended it the day before.

1:00 We take the turn onto what is called "Big Springs Ave" (I've been to big springs many o summer during family reunions at island park), following the sign pointing down that road saying "to Big Springs". We notice the road is not very well plowed, heavy snow and a beautiful sight. Well, is there another road? Probably not.

1:30 The road conditions suddenly worsen as we descend from the tree shadowed road onto a huge open sunny meadow with snowmobiling tracks on either side of the road. 50 yards into the meadow, and just as Lindsay says "Do you think we might get stuck?" the car locks its own tires up and we slide a few feet into deeper soft snow.

2:00 The towels we found in the trunk are not helping us get unstuck. We bundle Nina up, put on our snowshoes and start hiking to find help. A passing snowmobiler tells us we will probably only get out with a cat. A cat! We find a promising construction site.

2:45 Nice construction workers attempt to pull us out with their trusty bobcat (pictured above). Before they can reach us they too are stuck.

3:30 They are unstuck with the help of a huge tractor from said construction site.

4:30 Evan arrives via snowmobile (thank you nice snowmobiler!) two miles down the road at the gas station to call a better-equipped tow truck. A deputy is the first to inform Evan that we have broken the law, driving on snowmobile-only terrain. He lets us go without the $800 fine and 90 days in jail. Turns out we were supposed to have taken the Big Springs LOOP Road (parallel to the one we took, and fully groomed)

5:00 The towing bobcat (bob cat number two) gets stuck in the meadow before it can pull us out. It pulls itself and then us out. I drive with napping Nina to the tow truck guy's place, read Jane Eyre in the car while Evan and other tow truck guy fills in the hazardous holes left in the meadow.

6:00 Evan arrives to the shop and we are charged $880 with a hasty explanation of services. We only have enough to pay half of the amount. Paul the tow truck man takes our video camera AND digital SLR as collateral (apparently the first wasn't enough) threatening mercilessly to impound us if we make him wait any longer. We drive back. Evan misses his 6:00 class.

It kind of felt like we were led into a trap, ya know? No warning signs or ANY signs marking a snowmobile only road. WELL, it wasn't all doom and gloom. Treking in the snow was fun! We stole a few pictures before our camera was stolen from us. It was a BEAUTIFUL and memorable day. As I'm sure my mom would say "The stupids strike again" (any of you familiar with the kids book series The Stupids ? ongoing family joke). The story has a happier ending. I went back to Paul's on yesterday to pay our debt and collect our belongings. Turns out that other people have complained to the city about Paul's iffy tow trucking business practices, just this weekend as well. He has no competition for like 30 miles. (we did find out that about $300 of our bill was completely unjustified) I fought the amount and he shaved off $180 from the total. So that made the total $700. Luckily our insurance is reimbursing us $500 of it. $226 for a 4 hour snowshoeing trip? To think I had been worried about spending $26!!! We're hoping that since the city of Island Park now knows our story that they'll put up signs marking the road as it should be to warn unknowing and less snow-savvy people.

EvanMADE

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:16:00 +0000

Evan is soooooo busy. It can make life tricky. I'm at home with Nina mostly alone for all the blow-outs, new development changes and curve balls (today she learned what the word scratch means, and I was her test dummy), new teeth, meal after meal after meal, clean-up, bathtimes, her pooping in the bathtub times, story time, etc. Evan's also gone for the amazing moments when you realize she understands and has understood what you've been repeating to her day after day, or when she's dancing (like 10 times a day), or when she practices kissing on you, practices words (thank you, doggy, kaysi), or mimics you doing something that you thought was beyond her. There's barely enough time to catch each other up and I've had to learn to be a better communicator. It can be hard having less flexibility in terms of me-time. He's even on campus all day from 7 AM till 9:30 PM two days a week.

But then I stop and think about all that he DOES with his time. he is really productive. Amazingly productive.

There's a lot that Evan makes in his day to day graphic design work/school routine. Probably enough to fill almost two people's lives with work. (he works so hard) But in addition to that he's also a dad and a husband (and a friend, son, cousin, brother, ward member, etc)

Here's what else he has been making these days besides super creative and talented design:

Dutch babies (i'm eating it as I type!!)

Saturday night, he (and I) made letterpress Valentines (in the mail)

He wrote nice notes on a lot of them for our loved ones.

Awesome impressions of eagles and monkeys.

On Sunday Evan made chicken and dumplings. FROM SCRATCH. (he made the chicken stock and everything. He has a weekend cooking ritual. Mandated by me :)

Nina happy. She smiles and gasps, and laughs every time he walks in the door.

Music time on the couch

Great whale conversation. (one of our favorite newer pastimes hahaa )

Really good strawberry gingerade (his own invention. I crave it)

Time for things like reading the scriptures, praying with us, being a boy scout assistant scout master, temple attendance, monday family night time, being a good guy. The fact that he makes time for all these is nothing short of a miracle and blessing from God.

Me HAPPY. I've been reading Guns Germs and Steel and he lets me go on and on about it. It feels super good to be learning something I'm excited about, and to have someone to share it all with who can be excited about it too. He brought me donuts on Monday. On Valentines Day he shocked me with an anthropologie skirt that I LOVE and I'm pretty sure was beyond our gift budget allotment. He encourages my creativity in ways I never knew I had the capacity for. He does yoga with me in our living room some times. He lets me be a youngest child (fetches me a glass of water almost every night, puts lotion on my feet, lets me whine. I ask for waaay more than I should)

Am I bragging too much? Let me continue...

He's been making his boss soo happy. Evan's been blessed with regular steady freelance (is that an oxy moron?) from Orton Design in Utah. His boss is such a great guy, and communicates so well to Evan. I've compiled some exerpts from his boss' emails:

Jan 29th

hey evan,
just wanted you to know how much i appreciate your efforts the last couple of weeks. it has been such a relief to have you consistent and producing really good work. please take your wife out to a movie this weekend on me. see avitar 3-d if you havent yet. just send me the receipt or add it to your invoice.
thx again,
mark

Jan 27

cool. thanks evan. i think this is a solid direction to put in the mix.
thanks so much.

Jan 22

thx for stepping up your game, evan. you have become an asset.
mo

Jan 18

it looks great, evan. i sent it on to the client.
start on the ads in the morning.
thank you for being dependable and solid. what a great thing.
thx
mo

Jan 15

looks great, evan.
thank you for your work on this.

Jan 14

looks great, evan. right on brand. a couple of little things not even worth mentioning at this time.
thank you so much. i feel very comfortable where its going so far.

The encouragement has continued. I just haven't been stalking his email as much :)

Yes, I sometimes feel alone or that things can be lopsided for me. True, I can't WAIT for him to graduate and move on to a new stage (July!) with a different schedule. I admit I get antsy, feel snow-trapped in a basement in rexburg and can be a control freak. I've been waiting for Evan to remove a rag from the shower for a month now, and I feel irritated at myself that his scattered socks irritate me. But, really - I can't complain about changes and challenges I'm facing with momhood. How could I complain when I'm really not doing this alone? We're happy healthy and making the most of everything in the best way we can. It's not perfect, but in a way it is. It's ours.
I love you Evan

(besides, who wouldn't want to be joined at the hip with this munchkin?)

tender gravity

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:00:00 +0000

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

Naomi Shihab Nye
from The Words Under the Words: Selected Poems

I've had this poem sitting in my blog post drafts for over a month. As I watched this video featuring our prophet Thomas Monson I felt like it was time to share it:

I also highly recommend watching The Namesake. I happened to see this movie soon after I found the above poem. What a duo those two make! I haven't seen the unedited version so I don't know what to say of that. But what a beautiful film! What a virtue that is so needed! - kindness.

Cake and cats

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:51:00 +0000

Nina's first birthday. She is one! (and a month and 12 days!!!!) Whether we were ready for it or not, it was upon us. Nina is growing and changing everyday and we’re running to catch up.

The theme was cake and cats. Nina has been trying to say "kitty" since she was like 8 months old at least. The earliest memory we have of her being excited being belief was when she met her first feline at about 4 months old. Cats seem to be a favorite for her and I wanted this party to be for her as much as a one year old is able to grasp. I made little cat masks for all the kids. Kendra pulled through for me and conjured up a friendly cat AND a pug! The pug, dressed in a spandex cheetah print thing with pink lace, turned out to be much more of a Nina pleaser than the cat, who hid under our bed the whole time. It was fun for some of the older kids to run around playing hide and seek with the cat and the pug.

If you can't tell from the picture, our apartment was pretty full and there was some mayhem. Including me being mask nazi, trying to get a picture of all the kids together with their cat mask on at the same time (note to self: masks are good for older kids) But I think Nina enjoyed swimming in a sea of friends and cake. She seems to do really well in big crowds of people with a lot going on all at once. Her friend Alex was super excited to sing happy birthday to "Nani", Jan said he was practicing all day. Lily helped her finish her huge messy birthday cake. There were snacks and cupcakes for everyone else and Lily insisted on pink cake like Nina's. Nina didn't mind sharing. Evan and I's favorite moment of the party was right after Nina tasted the cake, she slowly lowered her face into it. We'll post the video some time soon.

Nina, wondering what's next. Food?

The blessed cake is in sight.

First taste.

A range of reactions to the cat masks:

Nibs

Soren

Alex

Daphne

Henry and Elijah

Vaughncito

"I made them wear these?"

Blurry evidence that a pug was there

Hiking in the cascades

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:29:00 +0000

This was how we spent one of our last days over christmas break.

marchin' along

Whose woods these are I think I know

Nina found some bark

Sarah & Evan Stout!

we realized Nina needed gloves and we hadn't brought any so she wore these!

She was so tiiirred! In her hiking pack!

Here is how I usually am during Rexburg winters -- I bundle myself and Nina up. Holding my breath (so the cold air doesn't enter my body) I scramble from the front door of our apartment to our car. Plus my body tenses up and basically I avoid outdoors at all costs. Cold=pain. I don't even let Evan open the car door for me because I'd rather he use those few seconds to get in the car and get it started heating up. SOOO Here in Washington I got to breath and move easy. I ran around, I jumped around, and it felt so free and nice, to be outside and be comfortable. And it was green and beautiful! You can see a little snow on the ground, but that was just in one area in the mountains. Mostly, nice and mild weather. aahhh

a nice saunter down internet lane

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:47:00 +0000

In other words, too lazy to finish my work notes or get up and finish stuff done around the house!!

Sometimes I really shouldn't visit people's blogs. I don't mean any offense. Many blogs don't really show the whole picture, just the exciting or relevant parts. There's just too much comparison, greener grass on the other side. If they were more accurate portrayals there would would be more type-os and a realistic ratio of awkward pictures. Fortunately we don't have any of those in our family. (haha) But right now I feel happy to have spent the last hour on facebook and visiting some people's blogs. Some people I DON'T EVEN KNOW. Gasp!

Let me give you a slice of what I found:

I found food

Chocolate orange cheesecake

melting... watering mouth... eat

If scrumptulescent were ever not a real word I wouldn't care, I'd still use it!!!

I also found other treasures on Lizzy House's blog like her new line of fabric, castle peeps.

Serious Pie (seattle restaurant I've never been to) which actually made me excited for pizza fresh out of my brother christian's brick oven that he built this summer and I still have not been able to try!! I can't WAIT!

I found a recipe for mexican hot chocolate on this AMAZING blog that is a new favorite. Maybe we can enjoy this alongside the woodfire pizza and chocolate orange cheesecake when we're at home in a few days.

I found one of my dear missionary companions, Lorena Acevez. This was taken during the missionary days in Utah:

So many memories came flooding back. btw she's not that short. Just kind of short. Truly one of the funnest people you could possibly meet in your lifetime.

There were other fun things too. And some less exciting things.

Now i return to the real world. A nicely tailored slice from Thanksgiving day:

Nina turned one!

noreply@blogger.com (Evan) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:44:00 +0000

Today!

Wow. Time goes so fast and one whole year has passed since Nina came to live at our house. Nina is super awesome and growing every day. We can't wait to see what comes next!

Here is a video of a recent bike ride we took with Nina!

Riding Bikes with Nina from Evan and Lindsay MacDonald on Vimeo.

Happy birthday Nina!!

love dad.

I love this girl

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:11:00 +0000

Nina and I were saying goodbye to Evan one morning as he left for class. I asked him to grab the camera and take some pictures since I'm usually commander in chief of photography in our family, and me canso.

Nina had a flu last weekend. Luckily it passed and one upside is she has become more cuddly.

Nina's getting better and better at everything! She loves waving goodbye, sometimes with both hands. She'll practice it in her free time. Her dance moves have not suffered either - still very slow and methodical which is amazingly entertaining to watch. Nina loves to clap and has learned to grab my pinkies and make me clap too. She's also started shaking her head a lot (and she'll watch herself do it in the mirror over and over) which I realized finally today she learned from us telling her no don't do something, as I watched her mimic me say no to her. (Duh.) Lately she's been practicing walking with us leading her by her hands. We can't believe she'll already be a YEAR next wednesday!

Thanksgiving post to come. We're building up a huge supply of little phone videos, maybe we'll be able to post some of those too!

Tererai

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:53:00 +0000

My mom emailed me this article so now I'm passing it on:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/opinion/15kristof.html?_r=1&em

Be amazed, be very amazed.

Gratitude

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:39:00 +0000

Last night, I came home from girls night to find our beloved new megalithic letter press in place on its stand and ready to be used! Evan already had a chance to clean off a few pieces of type from the boxes and boxes we've been given, and he made a copy of this for everyone who helped us move the 450 pound beast. It took a lot of time patience and ingenuity. He made brownies and poured sparkling cider to celebrate.

11x14 wood and metal type print on 100lb Mohawk Superfine off white paper

Evan also printed one especially for Victoria Simpson, byu-idaho book arts faculty and fairy godmother, who met us in our wildest dreams and GAVE the letter press to us.

So speaking of gratitude...

Evan and I were asked to share our thoughts on gratitude in church this coming Sunday. Evan's assignment is to speak about "gratitude to God" and mine is "gratitude to others". I should probably be more grateful than I am to speak in front of everyone.

I noticed that two of my cousins are doing a gratitude log for the month of November. I completely believe that gratitude is a muscle, and that gratitude is like a catalyst for joy, so I'm sure by the end of the month Stacey and Misty will be some the happiest people in existence. (and don't they say that if you do something for 21 days straight it becomes a habit/second nature?) Acknowledging a blessing is maybe the first step in it BEING a blessing to you.

Evan and I have been really trying to show more gratitude because the greatest influence genuine gratitude can have is probably in the home, among the people we interact with the most, are closest to, are irritated by the most, and ultimately love the most.

If anyone has a quote, scripture, or thought or reference of some kind on gratitude, I'd love to hear it! I'm going to need some help. I'd be ever so grateful :)

Manicotti

noreply@blogger.com (Evan) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:51:00 +0000

you know you're in a recession when...
or
you know you're a poor college student when...
or
you know you're thrifty when...
or
you know you're hungry when...

You make and eat pasta from the year 1972

It's kind of funny to think that Christian's vintagey beemer is from the same year as the pasta we ate today for dinner.

1972 - cool year for a bmw, or maybe for wine, but for pasta ?

Before I boiled it I swore it carried the nostalgic smell of my grandma's house which is where we got the pasta from and which smell I love. But pasta doesn't usually have a smell, right? It tasted just fine! So now I know, pasta lasts foreverrrrr

Any other notable 1972 events come to mind?

Daddy-daughter weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Evan) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:51:00 +0000

Nina and I hopped on a plane to head out to Tacoma to be with my family for the weekend of my Grandmother funeral. Nina was a real trooper on the drive from Rexburg to Boise (about 4–5 hours) and the hour and 15 minute flight.

Here is a little video of Nina doing a little expert-traveler-beek-a-boo action.

Peek-a-boo on a Jet Plane from Evan and Lindsay MacDonald on Vimeo.

On the ride home from the airport, she fell asleep while sucking on her bottle (it was a long day). I snapped this photo on my handy little cellular device.

We really miss Lindsay! Nina is doing okay tho since there is enough activity to keep her sidetracked. More to come from this trip, I'm sure!

Cheers!

Flying solo

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:01:00 +0000

Tomorrow Evan and Nina are leaving me until Sunday! He's going so he can be there for his sweet Grandma Doris's funeral.

I have this picture that I just found while archiving pictures to keep me company until he gets back!

Grandma Doris was such a great lady. How do I know this about her? For starts, take her youngest son, Gordy, my father in law (who happens to be Evan's twin. in many many ways). What an amazing guy! Her daughter Amy (evan and I's aunt) said this about her mother in a lovely email she sent out to the family this week. I hope she doesn't mind me sharing this part of her email -- "First, I want to express the great spirit of my mother. I have long thought that she knows far more about the true nature of things, than she has ever voiced. Her abiding spirit is a testament to that. She is humility, simplicity, charity, acceptance, love and faith. I am so grateful that she nurtured and raised me."

Evan and I came across this quote the other day -- "We have reason to have the greatest hope and consolation for our dead; for we have seen them walk worthily in our midst, and seen them sink asleep in the arms of Jesus..." - Joseph Smith Isn't that such beautiful imagery? How inspired. And inspiring.

Kyle who's on his mission and can't make it to the funeral said in his email that one of the first thoughts he had when he found out she had passed away was "she is probably dancing".

I would just say that it must take an incredible person to live from the age of 17 and on with rheumatoid arthritis and NOT have that be your defining characteristic. She is a kind bright and positive person.

My new pool of heroes

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:38:00 +0000

As if there aren't already enough amazing people in my life to look up to! You know when you meet a person or group of people and they just INSPIRE you to be better or make you want to do something good? No, I'm not talking about the Obama administration. :) jk Two weeks ago I had that experience, deeply. So now I am now a proud member of: WOW - The Worldwide Organization for Women.

WOW is one of the many non-profits in Utah (utah seems to have a disproportionately large amount of international non-profits for how non-metropolis it is comparatively) They have a broad mission to advocate women globally - economically, socially, politically. Which is extremely important in our world of decaying morals and rapidly changing cultures, often leaving women the most disadvantaged of any ( for example, of the world's poor 70% are women, for many reasons). This means that women are the least empowered to raise their families and pave a new future for society through their children. WOW has representation at the UN in NY (ahem, Suvi), and at the UN headquarters in Geneva, and they collaborate with a variety of different NGOs who work in one way or another to empower marginalized women. Sounds pretty vague, but believe me, it's not vague to the hundreds of women whose lives are touched by these organizations.

Suvi invited me to meet up with her at their annual conference at the Weber State campus two weekends ago. It was the weekend after General Conference so I just felt all around inspired and edified. The theme of this year's WOW conference was Women's influence for peace worldwide. I was BLOWN AWAY by the variety of speakers and the simple power of their messages. I wish that everyone I know could hear what those ladies had to say.

Please go here and listen a little bit to one of my heroes from the conference who is doing brilliantly courageous things in Somalia. I can't tell you how much hearing Asha Haji Elmi speak in person, touched my heart. This BBC report is a bit outdated but is still relevant :

New Video Blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Evan) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:03:00 +0000

Okay, folks!

I have this fancy new cellular device that happens to take great photos and pretty dern good video. We have a ton of videos to upload that were sort of spur the moment captures of Nina and other good stuff.

The video blog is actually its own blog, so check it out! I just added the following video to that blog and more will come soon.

babies

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:31:00 +0000

For you Nina followers out there. And Daphne fans too!

Check it out

Kirsten is such a good blogger. And such a good mom! And babysitter! Daphne is one lucky chick. And nic too (not a chick, just lucky)

Lately Nina has been:

crawling
cruising
forming sounds that include more of an 'r' sound as of today
saying banana - it started today too, I think!
saying mama and dada - i think! (it's really hard to be sure)
growing wild hair and what I think is a widows peak. One of the hairs nearly reaches her eye
looking at me just to smile at me
smiling hugely when i blow my nose
going on walks to campus to visit Evan with me while we still can before winter
holding onto you like a monkey when you pick her up
learning to cuddle, which is new
responding when i say no (like to eating grass or other nonedibles)
going to sleep so fast and easy
SO CUTE AND SQUISHY

Our last day of summer...

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:22:00 +0000

Was Wednesday the 9th, the day before Evan started his fall semester. We went hiking in the tetons. (happy fall officially, btw the way! Love fall!! Wish it lasted longer here). We realized something we should have realized long ago - the drive to the tetons from here is SHORTER than the drive from Kenmore to Tacoma, which we used to do at least weekly!! So why haven't we been coming here more, we ask ourselves. This is a beautiful place:

We began with a two or three mile attention span. But we just kept going! The hike included a one mile ascent called Devil's Staircase that led vertically until we reached a hanging valley. SO beautiful.

I went ahead while Evan was packing Nina in and hid, surprise shot.

Nina ended up sleeping for about an hour in her hiking 'chariot' so it worked out great with her naps. I kept thinking of the Emperor's New Groove - the chariot thing that the dude carried the wild lady in. And the way he'd prance around with ease. That was like carrying Nina in this pack, such a crazy sweet little baby lady.

Crystal clear, ice cold water. And amazing baby abs.

Once she tasted this pear she wouldn't give it back!

Were there ever cuter feet in all the land?

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:09:00 +0000

Of everything amazing we saw the day we went to yellowstone, these feet were my favorite sight all day.

Years ago, Grandpa and Grandma Johnson bought a time share condo type thing in Island Park to start a family reunion the second week of every August. Some of my earliest memories are at the family reunion at Island Park. Like when I ran straight into the sliding glass door (i must have been 4 years old), and doing snipe hunts, rafting down the river, and seeing amazing lightning storms, and of course the family tradition of playing dirty dog (a canasta card game). Since we now live only about 40 minutes from there in Rexburg, we're able to go up for the weekend and then whatever other days we can dodge work we'll go up for special events. This year included a trip to Yellowstone, an amazing canoe ride, rope swinging into a freezing cold river, foosball, and lots of food and card games.

Here we showcase our adventures in Yellowstone, Evan and Nina's first trip ever! It was 'free fee' day so we didn't have to pay! What made it even more exciting was that President Obama and his family were all there that day visiting! My cousins aren't his biggest fans (to say the least) and there were 3 miles of cars backed up at Old Faithful to see him (I think people were less interested in the geyser than in him) when we arrived, so we opted to see buffalo and other sites instead. It was a fun trip! Even when I got pulled over for speeding without my license. The cop tricked me into thinking I'd get a ticket and then graciously let me go without one, I was so grateful.

How easy it would be pre national parks and warning signs, to be the guy wandering upon this nice little pond who hadn’t been told that it is hot enough to melt your skin and cook you. Yellowstone is dotted with tons and tons of these hot spring pools, most boiling and steaming and obviously hot. This is one of the less conspicuously HOT lakes. Burning hot! This is kind of like nina the other day who crawled straight over to the oven while a cheesecake was baking inside, and rested her sweet wee little hands on the door. Luckily she was protected by the oven’s door but she wouldn’t have known the difference if the door had been open! She doesn’t know what hot is yet for heavens sakes! For some reason this idea blew me away.

Listen closely. Dr Seuss would have a heyday with this. It was so amazing!!!!! It looks deceivingly normal, like the site of a mud fight. Tis not so. This is a… oh confounded, we don’t know! We mostly just know that mud FLOPS out of a certain spot near the middle of the action, flailing through the air like a wobbly pancake, and splats. The mindboggling part about it is that this thing goes and goes and goes and it never stops, not day or night, or any time. So this is not any ordinary mud hole. This is an ever-changing crusty hill of once (and still) boiling mud.

Next attraction - his sister mud hole – this was also amazing but the previous one held us in a trance for much longer. This one SERIOUSLY looked like white/gray paint, boiling. Right on the ground in front of our eyes. Mother nature. She is amazing.

Another cool thing.

Another Dr. Seuss moment (there were a lot). This one was manmade. Your eyes are not deceiving you. This is actually a school bus with not just a fence and back patio, but also an entire Volkswagen BUS welded onto its top for greater travelling comfort. And then painted orange and blue. Evan and I were proud to see Washington license plates.

What would yellowstone be without a huge meadow full of hundreds of living and breathing buffalo? It was a sight. Here's a couple of them.

I'm glad that we made it to yellowstone! A wish granted. Last summer, a few days before our anniversary Evan hinted at our surprise anniversary plans with a stone painted yellow (clever no?). I was pregnant and ill and it ended up snowing on June 2nd, the day we planned to go. So now we finally made it! And better yet, Nina was there with us this time.

The latest and greatest

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:43:00 +0000

Birthday Bouldering at Badger Creek with My Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:31:00 +0000

Hi!

My sweet baby boy (Evan) turned 26. The MacDonald family holiday season of Being The Same Age For 3 Months (Aug - Nov) begins again! For the holiday we both have shirts that say 26 (that we made) and we plan to wear them, A LOT. If anyone can think of other festive things we can do to celebrate a random made-up holiday season, we're game, we want to make this legit. What is a holiday but something someone once made up? (apart from the sacred holidays) We can have our own holiday too!

To surprise Evan and make the day special for him we went bouldering when our friend Joel got off work at 5. The sun played games with the scenery and everything turned different shades of late summer beautiful. We climbed and played and laughed with the tetons right behind us.

I'd really like to spend time editing pictures to make our adventure look as grandiose as it did in person but lately my 'free' time has been spent doing paperwork for my job. Besides I'd prefer being out there it in person - climbing or hiking or whatever - over editing my mediocre pictures of something so beautiful. Some pictures from Evan's birthday are here.

Such a beautiful view... for taking a leak

Good friend Joel Nielson had been there before and went with us.

waking up in the morning. Then I made Evan crepes.

While Mommy was away

noreply@blogger.com (Evan) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:10:00 +0000

Nina and Daddy Singing on Vimeo.

Nina got a little fussy so I grabbed the guitar. She started singing along instantly! So I grabbed my new camera phone thingy and caught a little of it on tape.

the Books

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:40:00 +0000

Hey guys, isn't this cool? Evan made it! Read about it here.

He's doing a lot, seeing a lot, and having a great time. I'm so happy for him. (yes, I admit it though - I'd rather be there with him than here in Rexburg) It's been a great opportunity for him.

And we get to see him on Saturday!!!