P-beeb

Here's a recipe for one of Miles' favorite snacks. He helps me measure the ingredients, then tries to snarf big handfuls before I'm finished stirring. "Peanut butter balls" must have been quite a mouthful, so he calls it "P-beeb."

Peanut Butter Play Dough

1/2 c. peanut butter

2-4 T. honey

1/3-1/2 c. powdered milk

1 T. wheat germ or wheat bran (optional)

1 envelope unflavored gelatin (optional)

Stir everything together, adding just enough powdered milk to make a firm (but not dry) dough. Use for edible play dough or roll into balls for convenient snacking. Store in the refrigerator.

This post is in honor Liesel, who is about to turn one, and her peanut butter-loving mom. I guess one is the magical age when peanut butter is suddenly o.k. for infants. Happy birthday, Liesel!

Catching up

It's been an eventful week in Oklahoma:

• huge rainstorm (2 or 3 inches overnight)
• a 5.6 earthquake (Alvin burst in the room after it was over and said, "Did you feel that?! That was probably a 5-point-something!")
• a tornado

Fortunately, the rest of October and November have been pretty mild. In fact, this evening we went for a walk in the dark in our t-shirts. I guess we're still used to Utah's chilly autumn weather.

I didn't really anticipate how much this move would disrupt our lives. Now that we've been here for a few months, I can look back and see some progress. I found a gym with a swimming pool and "Kid's Korner." I'm learning people's names in our ward, which I love. I've met some other young moms who I've really clicked with, and Miles is making friends with their kids. I got a Joy School going with 4 little boys - every Monday morning Miles gets to go to a new house and play with new toys. We've found good parks, a Science Museum with trains, grocery stores besides Walmart, and midwives and hospital to deliver this new baby.

Alvin likes his new job . . . up to eight hours a day. Unfortunately he works much more than that. On the weekends, in the middle of the night, on Sunday mornings. His company Chesapeake has acquired quite the reputation around here. Everyone seems to know that they treat their employees well with benefits and perks, but they also make them work. Geologists especially have a high turnover because they just get burned out. Alvin copes by doing yard work on the weekends. The other Saturday I heard him out in the yard grunting and saying, "HEH! HEH! HEH!" I looked out the window, and I saw this redhead in the forest with his shirt off, hacking at the trees with his machete! Don't get me wrong, I appreciate his hard work, but I really wished he could focus his effort inside our fence. He said, "I'm cleaning up the forest. Doesn't it look so much better?"

We are also working on the inside of our house. I think we go to Lowe's or Home Depot once or twice a week. This is challenging and stressful. I keep wishing my dad was around so I could ask him things like, how do you change out light switches and power outlets? How do you repair stained wood without sanding and refinishing it? Should I buy the entire toilet repair kit or just the flapper? Does carpet go below or next to the base boards? Everywhere I look, I notice things that need to be fixed or updated. Being pregnant makes things worse because it restricts my mobility and energy and puts a deadline on our big projects. Next time we buy a house, it's going to be nice, updated, and ready to live in. I'm thinking now that a nicer house that costs more is definitely better than a cheaper house that needs work.

Here are some pictures we salvaged from our broken camera:

From the roof. Notice the toys our kind neighbor lent to Miles and the trees Alvin trimmed. He did a great job, and he enjoyed spending the day climbing and sawing.
Here's me digging some angel food cake out the pan. It is nice to have a house-sized kitchen instead of an apartment-sized kitchen. There is space in the cupboards for all my appliances and dishes. Alvin hates the back splash, but I don't mind it. I just don't like the cupboards. What do you think?
Alvin wanted me to include this picture of the living room, even though that's not our furniture.

This was from Alvin's birthday. Miles put in the candles and helped light them. Well, he lit one or two before we took over.
Smoke from 33 candles!

Well, if I don't end up blogging for awhile again, here are our plans:

November: finish painting and carpeting our house

December 2-6: fly to Utah for my sister's wedding

December 16: estimated due date for Miles' baby brother. Hopefully he's not born as late as Miles (11 days)!

Settling In

Here are a few pics from our new life in Oklahoma.We found a house, and hopefully it will be ours next week. Crazy. I don't feel old enough to be buying a house and making all the grown-up decisions related to home buying. It will be fun to have our own place, a back yard and trees, and a big project to work on. It was built in 1979, and no one seems to have done any updates, except for granite counter tops in the kitchen, which Alvin the rock man thinks are ugly.

Aside from the counters, Alvin is very pleased with the house. I think he liked it from the get-go because 1) the dining/living room reminds him of his family cabin, and 2) it backs up to some of the only wooded open space in residential Oklahoma City. He has big plans to build a trail from our back yard to the park just beyond the woods.

Here's Miles riding a rhino at the zoo. The zoo is lovely, but of course it is outdoors and Oklahoma had a record-breaking heat streak this summer (temperatures over 110 degrees every day from June to September). We wanted to go to the zoo, so we went a Saturday morning as soon as it opened. It was still pretty hot. The shade and occasional air-conditioned buildings helped.

Miles took this picture of his trains. I think the composition and lighting show promise! Yes, he still loves trains. Visitors to our apartment always remark on the plethora of train illustrations taped to the wall. Miles loves to direct Alvin and me in drawing trains, especially green steam engines. He won't let us stop until we've drawn the cowcatcher, tracks and smoke.

I don't have a great picture of me yet, but for an update, I cut my hair, which apparently was a good move, because lots of Oklahoma women have short hair. (Poor Alvin really prefers long hair, but I feel so liberated that I don't have plans to grow it out in the near future.) I'm buying maternity clothes again to accommodate my six-month belly. I really love our new ward - the moms have done a stellar job at inviting me to events and including me and Miles in play groups. I think a lot of people here don't have many relatives close by, so the ward really becomes your family. We've had dinners and watched football games with new friends here.

Hopefully Alvin will give y'all an update on his new job (which included a Blackberry and many opportunities to use it during the night and on weekends).

For your viewing pleasure

Life is good here in Oklahoma. Laura and Miles are doing well. Work is keeping me plenty busy...lots to learn. I'll have a post with pics soon...but here are some fun videos in the meantime.

Crazy Base Jump/Wing Suit Video (Jeb Corliss Grinding The Crack)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWfph3iNC-k&feature=player_embedded#!

Funny Romney/Mormon Colbert Video

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/394360/august-10-2011/yaweh-or-no-way----mormons---god-s-poll-numbers

Last hurrah in Utah. Destination: Fairview

After packing up our apartment and sending our belongings to Oklahoma in three little U-Haul storage containers, we took a trip to Fairview to hang out at the Anderson cabin and see the demolition derby.

Alvin, according to Laura: The Fairview Demolition Derby is probably the best in the state. Have you ever seen a bunch of old, windowless cars drive around in a dirt arena, crashing into each other, trying to be the last vehicle that can move? If you haven't, then you haven't lived. The hot sun nearly blinds your view, and the deafening revving engines muffle all conversation, but this is the time of your life. Only 5 heats before a winner is declared? Too bad, but the fireworks after the show will be amazing, too.

Laura: The kettle corn is good, but how much longer until I can unplug my ears and go home to bed? I can't believe this thing is sold out. Did you see that booth selling fried pickles, fried cookie dough, and fried Oreos?

Miles: Cars crash de-mo-li-shun der-bee! In dirt! Ta-tees (tractors) come take cars away!

Being at the cabin was lovely - not too hot, fields of summer flowers, and even a little snow left over from winter. Miles' cousins had so much fun entertaining him that I got to finish my book, Born to Run. Great read - I'd never even wanted to run a marathon before, but now I'm convinced I could put "run an ultra" on my list of life goals.

Yeah, we moved to Oklahoma

This is the snippet I wrote for the Anderson family annual newsletter:

Alvin and Laura Anderson Family News

August 2011

This year has brought big changes for our family.

The beginning of the year found us living in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Alvin, the geologist, worked at TerraTek, an oil service company in Salt Lake City. Laura, the mom, hung out with Miles, the train-loving two-year-old, and worked part-time from home as an actuary. Alvin spent several months applying to schools across the county in hopes of returning to academia, obtaining his Ph.D. in geology and becoming a university professor. Alvin visited graduate schools in Pittsburgh, North Carolina, and Indiana, while the real application-filler-outer stayed home with Miles.

Late one night while Alvin was desperately trying to decide which, if any, school to attend, he found and filled out an application for a geologist job in industry. Well, he got the job and decided to take it, and we just arrived in Oklahoma City, where we will be living for the next few years. Alvin’s working at Chesapeake Energy, an oil and natural gas company. Miles and Laura are trying to survive the record heat (it’s been in the 100’s since June) and wishing we had some mountains to escape to.

We’re all looking forward to an exciting Christmas present this year – a baby boy! Any ideas for his name??

Unstable air

So Miles thinks he has a baby in his tummy, too.

This week I was riding the airplane with him to Oklahoma City when we hit some turbulence. After a big drop, Miles grabbed the chair with a surprised look on his face. I said, "That was the airplane going up and down. Did you feel it in your tummy?"

With eyes wide, he nodded and, pointing to his tummy, said, "Baby sad!"