May Update

 Atticus made me a birdhouse for Mothers' Day. We hung it up in the back yard. He's pretty proud of it.

 He insisted on helping James replace the parking stops. James appreciated the help, I'm sure.

 Preschool "graduation." He gets shy in front of crowds. Each child was invited to say something nice to his or her parents. Atticus said he liked it when I co-opped. His best buddy, Austin (with glasses), had both sets of grandparents and an older sister there, and he chose to say something nice to Atticus instead. He said that Atticus was his best friend, and he liked how Atticus made a book about him. Atticus and Austin are always the heroes in Atticus's books, and they're always playing Super Hero Squad.

 We have LOVED his teacher, Miss Stephanie, and are very sad to lose her. She is the rare combination of being excellent with the kids and with the parents. 

 Atticus finished his first round of swimming lessons today. He's come a long way in just a few weeks, from refusing to put his face in the water to floating/kicking on his stomach under water by himself. The goggles made a huge difference. Once he could open his eyes under water, he was unstoppable.

I love this kid.

In other news, James has finished his serious teaching for this school year. Next week he's showing a movie, and the week after that it's just cleaning out lockers and signing yearbooks, so even though he has to be there, he doesn't have to coerce students into caring about anything. Then he's FREE for two months. Yea!

Our only big plan for the summer is our family reunion in July. We're really looking forward to that, especially since all the out-of-towners will be here. James's mom will be in town for a few days in June, and it will be nice to see her and Grandpa Clarence. Other than that, we plan to visit lots of local parks and pools and spend time with friends. Maybe James will finally make it to the zoo. We do plan to hike, but we probably won't spend as much time in the big canyons. We're still a little freaked out by canyon driving. I also plan to pick up more hours at work if I can. We're planning to buy a house within the next year, and every little bit counts.

Here's to summer. :)

What my summer blog posts were supposed to look like

Here are some fun things we did this month and had planned to do frequently.

Grilling!

Laughing together outside!

Let Atticus get soaked to the skin in the sprinklers

Visit local destinations like the Kennecott copper mine 

Hike the beautiful trails just minutes from our door

Ward campout and music with friends 

Climb lots of rocks

Enjoy beautiful mountain lakes

And then last Wednesday a lot of that changed. We were on our way up Big Cottonwood Canyon to venture out on another beautiful hike to another beautiful lake (Twin Lakes by Brighton). About a mile up the canyon, we started around a corner and saw a large truck in our lane. Less than a second later, the scene looked much like this:

My first thoughts were inventory: James is talking and moving; no apparent injury. Atticus is freaking out and breathing; no apparent injury. How are we still all alive? How are we this ok? I am breathing and talking, but there's a gaping wound on my ankle and my foot is hanging funny. My leg is broken.

I smell chemical smoke from the airbags, now sagging uselessly. The engine block is hissing, people are yelling. James has taken Atticus to the side of the road. He tells me they're ok and checks out my leg. I call 911. Why is it taking so long to connect? Oh, I forgot to hit "send." Now it's ringing. I tell them what happened. They want an address. An address? We're on the road in Big Cottonwood. Where the hell is there an address? Having reached the limits of my usefulness, I pass the phone to a witness who knows exactly where we are. The other driver comes by several times, freaked out and apologetic. 

Soon paramedics arrive and the next stage of our surreal adventure begins. More on that tomorrow.

Mothers' Day Outing

I celebrated Mothers' Day with my mom on Saturday. My sister Erin and I took her out to lunch and to see the Avengers. Good times... So Sunday was celebrated just with us Bennetts.

Our church schedule moved to the afternoon, so after sleeping in and breakfast and some gospel study/VeggieTales time, we still had three hours to kill before we needed to be at church. I didn't have the heart to put on another video or read another conference talk, so I suggested we go for a drive up to the Temple Quarry. 

The weather was gorgeous, and with most other Mormons in morning church, we were practically the only ones there. I love this picture of Atticus. I was trying to get a sweet father-son-walking photo, but Atticus had to pose. 

 He was really excited to climb on the rocks.

It was a good start to Mothers' Day. Church wasn't overly sappy, and the men provided ice cream sundaes as our gift. The Primary sang songs I'd never heard, but Atticus looked cute doing it. A friend took a picture to prove to his friend how small our Primary is, and if he ever sends me a copy, I'll post it.

[Completely unrelated note: Our building is being renovated, so we are temporarily using the historic 10th ward chapel, built in 1853. It's a gorgeous Scandinavian-style chapel with intricate woodwork and stained glass and a pipe organ. President Hinckley attended church here as a boy. Our chorister is a 75-year-old black woman from Chicago who likes to wear Indian-style outfits. I told her after the meeting that watching her leading the music in that pioneer chapel wearing a bright yellow kurti and pants, I was struck by the fact that she is also a pioneer, a new kind of pioneer. Everything comes full circle, and it was totally awesome (for lack of a better word) to witness.]

After church James grilled pork chops (with his signature soy-garlic marinade), which we ate with artichokes and salad, both with a lemon-mustard vinaigrette. SO YUMMY! I also made my favorite super-rich brownies, which we ate while watching the latest Sherlock.

A very good day.

Going whole hog

Or really just half a hog. The FFA students at James's school raised a fancy breed of pig for slaughter, and they raffled off half the meat as a fund raiser. James spent $15 on raffle tickets, and yep, we won! He won NINETY POUNDS of pork, which will come in the form of ham, bacon, sausage (Italian and breakfast), and chops. And hopefully a couple roasts and ribs.

One of his coworkers offered to give us an old upright freezer to store it all in. We also plan to share. Needless to say, I'm up for hosting Easter this year, or at least donating the ham.

Any requests?

Massive Summer Update

Yeah, ok, so I'm a blogging slacker. I'm going to say I was too busy making memories to record them, but really, I'm just lazy. Oh well. Now that school is back in session, here's my report on What We Did on Our Summer Vacation.

In June I spent a week in North and South Carolina with my mom and two of my sisters, Lara and Susan. We were big fans of the chocolate lounge. So. Many. Options.

Our real purpose there was family history. My mom's mother's parents grew up on opposite sides of the North/South Carolina border. Susan is researching the North line, and I'm working on the South. We met some cousins and looked at old records and visited lots of cemeteries. This one was my favorite, the Pickens Chapel Cemetery in Pickens, SC. The church is long abandoned, and the cemetery is overgrown. I felt like a real researcher battling huge ants and running through torrential rain (not pictured--we came back later) to get a rubbing of my great-great-grandmother's headstone.

In July we visited James's family in Mesa, Arizona. It was hot, but I was surprised at how comfortable I was most of the time. Then I found out what my in-laws pay for air conditioning. Yikes! But we had a good time. We even got most of the family together for a photo by the temple:

Atticus loved playing with his cousins Tanis and Jessie. And feeding Buster, the dog. He still talks about his cousins, and every time he plays "airplane," he's flying to Nana's house.

In August we went on a hike to Albion Basin/Cecret Lake with the ward's moms' group. Atticus hung out with his best buddy Cardon. He loved climbing over the rocks and acting like a mountain goat. He ran the whole way up and the whole way down. That kid is unstoppable.

Also in August was our first ever family reunion. My dad's an only child and my mom has lost contact with her only brother, so we didn't grow up with any extended family. But there are 9 kids in my family, and I think my parents now have 20 grandkids, so it was time. We missed my brothers who were working in California, but my Texas and Illinois sisters were able to come with their families. Again Atticus had a lot of fun with cousins. Henry (in the middle) is only three months younger. He still asks about Sam, who is 11. He wants to grow "big like Sam."

We camped at Mutual Dell in AF canyon, which comes with cool amenities like a zip line and canoes. Atticus wouldn't go down the zip line with us, but we both took a turn.

Atty wasn't a huge fan of the canoes, but he had a great time getting soaked in the lake.

So there's our summer in a nutshell. Lots of travel, lots of family. Good times. In a couple weeks I'll get to tell you about our first day of preschool, and then about his first soccer game. In the words of my son, "I so excited!!"

New Calling

Picture is unrelated. These are from our trip to the Temple Quarry a few weeks ago.

James was released from the bishopric yesterday, and we were both called as service missionaries in a new branch in our stake. We will be starting up a tutoring program, primarily for a family of French-speaking teenagers who recently immigrated from Guinea. We also have one woman studying for her GED, and we expect it to expand. We're a bit daunted by the magnitude and the logistics, but we already have volunteer tutors who are excited to help. We met everyone this week, and our first tutoring session is Thursday. We'll see how it goes.

We'll also be teaching a French-language Sunday School class in the new branch. The African family are recent converts, and only the mom speaks much English. I'm most excited about this part. I'm comfortable teaching, and James is really good at it, and it will be nice to interact one-on-one.

I'm sad to be leaving our regular ward, and I'm nervous about the new branch. It's an interesting branch. The stake took what was arguably the most struggling ward in the stake and split it into a ward and two branches. This ward had a huge amount of welfare needs, and the bishop was just overwhelmed. Now there are three priesthood leaders covering those needs, and all three units are growing. Our branch covers the area right around the grocery store where James used to work, so he knows a lot of the people from the store. He could point out all the members he used to sell beer and cigarettes to during the week. But in this branch that just doesn't matter. We're just happy they're coming to church. So the branch president decided that as long as they don't smoke or drink on the premises, they can hold a calling.

And everyone is automatically enscripted into the choir. Choir practice is 6 minutes long, immediately after sacrament meeting. I haven't seen a performance yet, so I'm not sure how it works. I'm looking forward to the Christmas program. We've already been assigned to sing a French carol with the African family.

The biggest downside, though, is that the branch meets from 1-4, right when Atticus normally takes a nap. Sacrament meeting is last, so I may spend most of the meetings in the mothers' room, rocking a sleeping child. And Atticus is one of only a few toddlers (or babies, for that matter), so when he makes noise, everyone hears it. Yesterday he got excited every time they said "thy Son" in the sacrament prayers. He loves to point out the sun and the moon and the stars whenever he sees them, so every time they said "thy Son," Atty yelled, "da sun!" Never done that before. Also I never noticed how many times they use those words. It's a lot.

James has a couple new toys, thanks to your tax dollars. Kearns High School applied for and received a grant (from a part of the stimulus bill that allowed for technology in schools) to buy every student and teacher an iPod Touch for use in the classroom. As a bonus, every teacher gets an iPad. James is pretty stoked, and one or the other has been in his hands pretty much nonstop. Atty thinks they're pretty cool too, especially the app that lets him draw with his fingers.

His iPod is also a still and video camera, which is a handy bonus. We caught a few pics of Atticus the other day, and this is my favorite. I love his laugh. Notice how the photo is iPod shaped. Kinda funny.


And here's a video, which is also iPod shaped. I hope it works right. James is pretty proud of that pumpkin, as well he should be. It's gorgeous. The colors are beautiful--it almost glows. Atty thinks it's pretty fun to sit on.

Not much else is new this week. We made grape juice at my parents' house on Saturday, and it really felt like fall. Beautiful. And I've picked up more work with my old job at Exhibits, which is a nice change of pace but a good reminder that I really don't want to go back to work full time right now.

And that's what's going on in our lives at the moment.

Oh my cuteness

This is my very favorite picture of James. I hope Atticus looks like this in a few years. We'll have to make sure he wears a Superman shirt for his kindergarten photo.

Oh, and James really does have blue eyes. They just look brown in this photo.

Bourdain!

James and I had a great time Saturday night when we went to see Anthony Bourdain speak. If you don't know who he is, you should look him up. He has a great show on the Travel channel called "No Reservations." James interviewed him for SLUG magazine (you can read his interview here), and as a bonus we got free tickets to the show. Ninth row center. Pretty darn good. And even better, we happened to be sitting next to the editor of SLUG, Angela, and her boyfriend, Fletcher.

Bourdain's press agent promised us tickets for the VIP meet-and-greet afterward, but apparently that didn't happen. I was digging the email from the agent out of my purse, though, when a nice couple gave us their VIP tickets. And because we'd been haggling with the usher, we ended up first in line. Bonus! And by strange coincidence we knew both of the women selling his books in the signing room. And afterward we were able to pass off our tickets to friends from the ward so they could get their book signed.

The only potential downer was when I lost my knitting when the ball of yarn rolled under the seats ahead of me, then dragged away the sweater I was working on as it moved toward the stage. It only got three or four rows up, and I did get it all back in one piece. James says he can't take me anywhere, but I say all's well that ends well, right?

This was also the first time we left Atticus with a real babysitter. As in teenage girls. He likes to hang out with Carly, an 11-year-old girl in our ward, but she's a bit young to babysit alone, so her older sister Cassidy came along. He got a little nervous when we were leaving, but when I told him they would give him candy (one gummy vitamin) after we left, it was like, "what, you're still here? go already!" It cost us a little extra to have two babysitters, but it was worth it. Atty had a great time, and we had a lovely time without him.

Memorial Day, part 2

[Does anyone know how to rotate video in Blogger?]

That evening our friends Larry and Sharon Nielson invited us over to help them eat leftovers from Sharon's daughter's wedding. How could we say no to gyoza and chocolate strawberries?? We brought a cooler of bottled soda. Atty thought the luggage cart was the best thing ever. On the way home, they kept getting grounded on the grass, so James dumped the ice and carried the cooler so Atty could control the cart. He's such a sweet dad.

James M. Bennett, BA, MA, MAT

James graduated from Westminster on Saturday with a master of teaching degree. I am proud of his hard work and talent. Congratulations, Sweetie.

He Speaks!

Other favorite words are "baby," "uh-oh," "no no," and "bah-pu," which means light or clock or "hey, there's something over there!" Oh, and he said "keys" the other day.

"Yeah" is his favorite response to questions, though he will say no when he means no. A couple weeks ago the nursery leaders told James that Atty was the only one who would answer any of their questions, always with an enthusiastic "yeah!" Do you like coming to church? Yeah! Do you like nursery? Yeah!

I just love this boy.

Quote of the Day

"If you ever leave me this much time, I will drop dead and haunt you."

James, after the first speaker and the intermediate hymn were done with 35 minutes left in sacrament meeting

Mothers Day

We were pleased to have Atty's Nana (James's mom) in town with us for Mothers Day. This was the first time she'd been able to see Atty in person, and she gave him lots of love. She also gave him our new favorite nickname for him: "Mr. Fussbucket." He's a sweet boy with a gentle disposition, but when he's uncomfortable or unhappy he has no problem letting you know. He rarely cries outright, but he fusses and grunts like a pro.


Three generations of Bennetts

Atty loved his Nana. We hope he gets to spend more time with her soon.

We don't spend ALL our time at the hospital...

Last night James and I went to the ballet. It was a collection of four short performances, each with a very different flavor. Kind of like a ballet sampler. The first was "Serenade" (pictured above) by George Balanchine. I'm not super familiar with ballet, but this was the one and only Balanchine piece I've heard of, and it was absolutely lovely. Classic, elegant, and with a little drama. It made me want to get one of those skirts and leap around my living room.

Next was a dramatic pas de deux, Hamlet and Ophelia. Then there was an all-male piece that was supposed to be very masculine, but in my humble opinion, it wasn't. I've seen some very powerful, masculine dance, and this just wasn't it. The costumes didn't help: puffy peach shirts and tights don't scream manliness to me. But it was still well done.

The headlining piece was "Nine Sinatra Songs" by Twyla Tharp. (James pointed out that it should really be called "Eight Sinatra Songs," since they used "My Way" twice. Sure, they were different versions, but still....) The choreography and costumes were much more modern, though still definitely ballet. It was interesting to recognize it as ballet even though it was more ballroom-style.

I'm not a huge Sinatra fan, but I really liked this piece. My only complaint is that we were sitting a little too close to a speaker, so those final notes of "My Way" were a bit intense. I shouldn't complain, though, because our seats were great--3rd row orchestra.

This isn't the kind of thing I'd normally search out, but James got free tickets through SLUG, so we went. I'm really glad we did. I miss going to things like this. Susan and I had season tickets to the opera for two years, and I don't think I've been to the opera since. I haven't been to the symphony since Margaret moved to Boston, and I haven't seen a play for a couple years. Maybe I need to look into upcoming events more closely.

Speaking of which, James and I are really excited for an art exhibit opening at the UMFA next month: Monet to Picasso, from the Cleveland Museum of Art. All you Utah people should come check it out. There will be pieces from some of our favorite artists, including Van Gogh and Modigliani. We're thinking of becoming museum members so we can get invited to the preview social and get free tickets. Yes, it would be cheaper to just buy two tickets after it opens, but this way we'll stay informed about upcoming events. I've missed a few that I really wanted to see just because I wasn't paying enough attention. (I shudder to think of how much of life I've missed simply because I wasn't paying attention.)

Art: It does a body good.

Atticus Has Arrived

Just over two weeks ago our sweet little Atticus James came into this world. He came 10 weeks earlier than expected; my body just couldn't hold on to him anymore. Despite his early arrival, however, he is healthy and strong. My dear BFF Wendy has more of the details of these first two weeks on her blog here and here, so I won't repeat it all.

Atty gave us a scare last week. On Thursday his nurse noticed that he just wasn't doing as well as he had been before, and when he didn't seem to be digesting his formula and showing signs of gas, they jumped into hyper-cautious mode and started treating him for an infection. They stopped feeding him formula and put him back on IVs and antibiotics, and poor little guy got poked and prodded and x-rayed for several days. They never found the infection, but based on how he was acting and the marginal results of some of the tests, they're pretty convinced he had one somewhere. He's been a lot spunkier since Saturday night, so we feel he's on the mend. If all goes well, they'll start him back on formula today.

It's still an emotional roller coaster. This possible infection really scared us both, but we talked to another mother in the same NICU room as us, and she helped put things into perspective. Her baby has been there for four months so far--she was born at 23 weeks and weighed just over 1 lb. We told her about the infection, and she said they'd been through the same thing three times. "The first time is the hardest," she said. But her baby continues to grow and get stronger, and so will Atty. I have to say, though, it's one thing to hear the high recovery rates and know that a baby has the best chances of coming home and leading a healthy life, and it's another thing entirely when it's your baby.


These pictures were taken last night (30 March). They're kind of dark because the room was dim and James didn't want to startle Atty with the flash. He was sleeping peacefully, and we hate to disturb him too much when he gets the chance to rest. But he had fewer tubes and wires attached to him than we've seen in a week, so we had to take some pictures. One of these days we'll catch him with his eyes open. He'd been more alert during a couple visits last week before he got sick, but we didn't have the camera with us. I think I'll keep it with me all the time now, just in case.

He's such a beautiful little boy, and we are so grateful for him. We love him dearly and miss not being with him. We are so grateful for all the love and support we've received from friends and family and even relative strangers. We truly could not make it through this without you.

Assorted Photos

Ok, so we bought the digital camera a while ago, thinking it would be easier to share photos that way. But we still aren't great at transferring photos OFF the camera onto the computer in a fairly regular manner. So here are some of my favorite photos from the past year, working backwards chronologically.

Rocker Alice
She had the right outfit and the glazed-over "duuuuuuuuude" expression, but she didn't seem to know what to do with the guitar. She does seem more interested in drums, so maybe we need to encourage her in that direction. Or maybe not. Maybe Susan and Bobby like the relative quiet without a one-girl garage band in their home. We'll see....

Halloween

















Here we are at trunk-or-treat. To the left is James with our other favorite head-banger, Charlie Lewis. To the right you have Eggs and Italian Bacon (pancetta). The mustache makes it Italian for some reason. Costume design by James, of course.

Atlanta
In September we went to Atlanta, Georgia, to see the artist-poet-musician Wild Billy Childish at the Decatur Book Festival. Well, Billy got a kidney infection and skipped out on us, but we still had a good time. Here are a few highlights:

The Margaret Mitchell Museum. The real museum is the apartment where she wrote Gone with the Wind, but across the street is this museum devoted to the movie.









Abdullah the Butcher's House of Ribs and Chinese Food. The name says it all. Abdullah was a professional wrestler who went into the restaurant business. This restaurant isn't far from a Nation of Islam mosque, so when we went in we were the only white folks there with a bunch of men in immaculate suits and women in long headscarves. They were having Chinese food (unfortunately pork ribs aren't halal), and we had the ribs. They weren't that great, and James almost died choking on cornbread, but it makes a fun story regardless.

Bun E. Carlos, James's new favorite dog. He's an Australian labradoodle. Anyway, he was a spaz and had a thing for chewing on my arm. And he liked chasing after sticks but wasn't so keen on bringing them back.

Bun E. is owned by Henry, the man behind Chunklet magazine. Henry is very involved in the Atlanta music scene, and James had had some contact with him online but never in person. So it was good to finally meet him. And his dog.

Stone Mountain. It's this big granite hill outside of Atlanta, and they've carved a memorial to Confederate generals on the side. There are nightly light shows and a theme park of sorts built up around it. We just wanted to get the view, so we rode the sky tram up to the top. It was lovely and peaceful and I loved looking out at all that green.

And don't worry, Moms, James's perch isn't nearly as precarious as it looks. He was perfectly safe. This is my favorite photo from the entire trip.


James's Hair


If any of you have wondered what James's hair would look like all picked out, here you go.

Crater Goddess
Last March we spent my birthday weekend at the Homestead in Midway, Utah. One of the great features of this resort is the "crater," a natural hot spring enclosed in this dome. When it was first discovered, you could access it from the hole in the top. The water level has since dropped considerably, but it's still warm and womb-like. I floated around in the warm water and mist, loving every minute.

It was even mistier inside when we went back the next day for pictures, giving this photo an ethereal effect. James has dubbed it the "crater goddess." I kind of like that.


So those are our recent photos and adventures. I hope you enjoyed them as much as we did. :)