Sleep-overs

Last weekend Blythe and Brynne both went to birthday parties that also happened to be sleep-overs.  Barrett was predictably disappointed that he was not also invited to participate in a sleep-over.  Usually he asks to have a sleep-over with his cousin James.  On Monday my Mom watched Brynne and Barrett for me while I took Blythe to her piano lesson.  I generally take the kids with and we play with the piano teacher's little girl, but Brynne had stayed home from school with a fever and a nasty cold so I made other arrangements.  Barrett is never ready to go home when I come to pick him  up and on the way home he told me he wanted to stay at Grandma's and have a sleep-over or at Jamesie's house (come to think of it).  I explained for about the hundredth time that he has to wait until he's older, probably 5 years old before he can have a sleep-over. Here's the rest of the conversation as far as I can remember.  . .

Barrett: But Blythe and Brynne get to have sleep-overs.

Me:  Yes, because they are older.

Barrett:  But I want to have a sleep-over.

Me:  Do you like to sleep in Mommy's and Daddy's bed?

Barrett:  YES!!

Me:  Kids who still sleep with their Mommy and Daddy aren't old enough to have sleep-overs. Do Blythe and Brynne sleep with Mommy and Daddy?

Barrett:  No

Me:  Right, so they get to go on sleep-overs.

Barrett:  Oh. (Silence)

I finally stumped him.  He couldn't argue with my logic.  Hopefully this means I won't have to hear him begging for a sleep-over for awhile.  

All about Justin

As I mentioned in my last post, the kids get the lion's share of the posts around here and since the last post was mostly about me I figure it's time to turn the spotlight on Justin.  My sister-in-law did a post awhile back about my brother Dan and although she didn't specifically tag me that's where I got the idea.  Here goes  . . .

1. What is his name?  Justin Barrett Petty

2. Who eats more?  This probably a toss up, especially since Justin recently decided to cut back.

3. Who said I love you first?  I honestly don't remember, but I'm going to say Justin.

4. Who is taller?  Justin, but not by much.  (Okay by not much I mean about 2".)

5. Who is smarter?  Justin definitely has a head for math, which I do not.  I'm a better writer and got better grades.  Justin is very smart and intelligence was always a big attraction for me.  

6. Who is more sensitive?  Justin, by far.  

7. Who does the laundry?  Me, I don't let him near it.  But he did all his own laundry when he was growing up.  

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?  This question confuses me.  Are we talking about the right side if you are sitting in bed or standing at the foot of the bed?  If it's standing at the foot of the best then Justin is on the right side.

9. Who does the bills?  Justin makes the money and I spend it, including paying all the bills. 

10. Who cooks more?  That would be me hands down.  However, Justin does all the grilling in the summertime.  I have never used the grill and he makes everyone's favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

11. What meals do you cook together?  Justin always helps with big family dinners.  He makes the rolls for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve and he always does the mashed potatoes.  I don't think I've ever mashed potatoes myself.  

12. Who is more stubborn?  This is a hard one because we are both pretty stubborn and then we wonder why our kids are so stubborn.

13. Who is the first to admit they are wrong?  Usually Justin.  Okay, almost always Justin.  This goes back to the stubborn question.  

14. Who wears the pants in the relationship?  We are equal partners.

15. What do you like to do together?  With three kids we don't get to spend lots of time with just the two of us, but we still enjoy traveling together and having the very occasional date night.  I could probably list more things he does that I don't like to do such as backpacking trips, playing golf, playing basketball, mountain biking, running.  We both ski, but not together.

16. Who eats more sweets?  Justin is more of a chocoholic than I am and we both have serious sweet tooths, but I probably indulge more than he does. 

17. Guilty pleasures?  Coke from Mexico made with cane sugar, Banbury Cross doughnuts, Oreos, McDonald's, and reading science fiction and the Twilight series.

18. How did you meet?  We met in London while on the same Theater study abroad program in 1994. 

19. Who asked who out first?  I like to tease Justin that he never asked me out on a date.  We were just together pretty much every day for 7 weeks.  The clincher was probably when our professor passed out play tickets for 5 or so plays in a row and we had seats next to each for all of them.  

20.  Who kissed who first?  It was mutual while on a long walk through the streets of London.

21. Who proposed?  Justin did although it was by no means a surprise.  I flew up to Seattle after Christmas in 1994 and he proposed in a park overlooking the Seattle skyline.  Then we went ring shopping.  

22. What is his greatest quality?  It's impossible to pick just one, but I love how loyal Justin is.  He is also a hard worker and is incredibly handy to have around.  This past week we discovered that a sewer pipe was leaking in the basement because it had a nail through it.  We cannot figure out how a nail ended up through the pipe since the framing should have been finished before the plumbing went it.  It had recently started leaking because the nail had rusted.  Justin was able to cut out the damaged part of the pipe and glue in a new section.  I don't even want to know how much a plumber would have charged us.  Construction Management is a great major and you'd never know Justin didn't get an A in his plumbing class.

I'm not going to specifically tag anyone, but if you've read this and want to embarass your husband consider yourself tagged.

An Epoch in My Life

Ever since I gave birth to my first daughter Blythe, I have been waiting for the day when I would share my love of Anne of Green Gables with her.  When Brynne came along, I was thrilled to have a second daughter who would also share my love of Anne.  Those of you "who are of the race who knows Joseph" or who are possibly even "kindred spirits" will recognize immediately how my first daughter came by her name.  

My Mom first read "Anne of Green Gables" to me when I was fairly young.  I don't remember exactly when, but I do remember that she read to me out of a green hardback copy that had belonged to her as a girl.  I loved the story and eventually read every work of fiction by author Lucy Maud Montgomery that I could get my hands on.  I remember checking her books out of the library with photographs of "Anne" dressed in very '70's looking hair and '70's influenced dresses.  I also remember being very disappointed by the books "Chronicles of Avonlea" and "Further Chronicles of Avonlea."  I have recently learned the reasons why these books were such a let down to me.  However, I loved all the books in the Anne series and then I read the Emily trilogy and loved those just as much.  In 1985, Anne of Green Gables was made into a television movie which was shown on PBS in the U.S. in 1986.  My grandma recorded the movie for me and eventually the sequel Anne of Avonlea, which was made in 1987.  I loved the movies almost as much as the books and watched them over and over.   

Somewhere along the line I made the decision that I was going to choose the name for a child of mine from L.M. Montgomery's books, as a tribute to my love of them.  At first I thought I would use the name Rilla, which is the name of Anne's youngest daughter and a shortened version of Marilla.  By the time I was actually faced with the task of naming my unborn daughter my preference had shifted to Blythe; the last name of Gilbert and eventually Anne.  This name embodied all the romance that the series holds as well as literally meaning "of a happy lighthearted character or disposition."  I also felt that this was a more subtle tribute.  

Justin was initially opposed to using the name Blythe.  He felt it was too unconventional, so we settled on the name Hannah.  However, after 15 hours of labor with no epidural and two hours of pushing our baby girl arrived and Justin decided that I had earned the right to name her whatever I wanted.  I promptly christened her Blythe Kathleen, which I still think has a very nice ring to it with the "th" sounds in both names.   

My collection of books by L.M. Montgomery, including 

my mother's hardback copy and a UK first edition of 

"Anne's House of Dreams" that I purchased in England.

(With my Little House Books to the right and two

rows of antique Nancy Drew's behind them.)

Well a few months ago I decided that the time had come to read "Anne of Green Gables" to my girls.  I started reading a chapter a night to Blythe and Brynne at bedtime and at first I had to talk the book up to them.  Brynne was especially skeptical, but I promised that she would love the book.  The first chapter, "Mrs. Lynde is Surprised" unsurprisingly didn't do much to help my cause, but we persevered.  Before long the girls were begging for two chapters a night and by the end the girls were bringing me the book anytime I had a spare moment.  

About halfway through the book I mentioned that I had the movie of Anne of Green Gables and that we would watch it once we had finished reading the book.  They were very surprised to learn that I had the movie in my possession, yet they had never seen it.  In my infinite wisdom, I had decided years ago that I wouldn't let Blythe and Brynne watch the movie until they had first read the book because I wanted them to experience it the way I had.  So it had been years since I had been able to watch the movies.  We finished the book about mid-December and watched the long movie as soon as we could find the time.  It was as enjoyable as I remembered.  We had fun discussing the small ways in which the movie was different from the book.  

We went ahead and watched Anne of Avonlea soon afterwards and I even let them watch Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story, which came out in 2000.  Surprisingly, most of the original actors returned in this film, with the notable exception of Colleen Dewhurst as Marilla who passed away in 1991.  I don't think much of this film since the plot is a complete departure from anything L.M. Montgomery wrote.  It is also anachronistic because it is set during WWI and has Gilbert going off to war just after he and Anne finally marry, when in the books it is Anne and Gilbert's sons who fight in the Great War.  But I do own it along with the other two Anne movies.  

This dust jacket shows a scene from the very

end of Anne of Avonlea.  I just picked this 

book up at a thrift shop recently.

Even though I've been reading other books to the girls at bedtime, I decided to re-read the entire Anne series.  I'm currently on Rainbow Valley, but haven't been reading them straight through.  First, I delved into my copy of The Annotated Anne of Green Gables that my in-laws gave me for my birthday in 1997.  It has a lot of interesting essays on various aspects of Anne and L.M. Montgomery.  

Then I re-read Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest.  When I was at BYU and majoring in English, I wrote a paper about L.M. Montgomery and her Emily of New Moon trilogy, which are supposedly her most autobiographical works.  In researching this paper I read several volumes of the Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery.  I didn't read all five of them because volumes IV and V hadn't yet been published.  As I've become mildly obsessed with L.M. Montgomery, I thought about purchasing all five volumes for my personal collection.  I found it would be more economical to simply purchase her biography which was written by one of the two women who edited her journals, Mary Rubio.  The biography was published in 2008 and is titled "The Gift of Wings."  I bought it and quickly read all 600 pages.  It was fascinating to read about the difficult life that L.M. Montgomery had and how her writing allowed her to temporarily escape from her troubles.  The contrast between her real life and the lives of the characters in her books is striking.  The biography even indicates that there is strong evidence that she actually took her own life because she was so distraught at the end of her life by her husband, her son Chester and her loss of status as a writer.  

After finishing "The Gift of Wings," I began this book. . .

Before I began it I was wondering if it was going to be worthwhile to read it because I doubted I could learn anything new.  Happily I was proved wrong.  The author, Irene Gammel went to much lengths to research just how Maud Montgomery came to write Anne of Green Gables.  She has unearthed many influences and inspirations that would have helped Maud bring Anne to life.  It was interesting reading for the most part.  Gammel limited herself to discussing Anne and didn't delve into any of L.M. Montgomery's other characters.  So now you know what I've up to for the past couple of months. 

 I came up with the idea for this post in response to a post that I read a few weeks ago on my second cousin Nancy's blog called "Dear Blog."  It was a short post about how she only writes about her children and there isn't much interesting to say about her specifically. I kind of feel the same way most of the time and I had to really think about something I could post about that's about me and not my kids.  So I think I kind of failed because I did mention my girls quite a bit at the beginning.  But that was my attempt and Nancy if you are reading this I want you to know I wish I'd left a comment on your blog telling you that you aren't the only one who feels blah and uninteresting and I do actually read your blog and find it very entertaining, well written and witty.  We really ought to hang out sometime other than at the Peterson Reunion, which by the way is tentatively scheduled for June 2oth this year.  

Happy Birthday, Kathy!

Today is a significant birthday for my mother-in-law Kathleen Petty.  I thought I would help her celebrate online, since I won't get to spend the day with her.  I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful woman as my mother-in-law.  When Justin and I first started dating I was very intimidated by what he told me about his mother.  For starters, not only did she graduate from Stanford University, but she created her own major and she graduated with honors in Humanities and cum laude.  She raised three boys who were all born within 17 months of each other and managed to stay sane.  She is a "Master Gardener" and currently works at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens and has the most fabulous yard you'll ever see.  Our favorite time of year to visit is the summer so we can pick all the raspberries and boysenberries we can eat.  She is a superb and innovative cook.  Who else makes pickled lemons to put in her salads and makes her own delicious currant jelly from currants she grew herself.  She has a talent for making vegetables interesting and don't even get me started on her desserts.  She is an avid backpacker and is the most fit Grandma I know.  She is an excellent Gospel Doctrine or Relief Society teacher (two callings I hope to never have).  To round out her accomplishments she also plays the piano and paints.  At least Kathy used do watercolors because hanging on the walls of her mother's house are several paintings that she created.  Last, but certainly not least, she is a very fun "Gram" to her six (soon to be seven) grandchildren.  How many Grandmas would jump off the deck of the Alta cabin into the snow below or go sledding with the kids?  Fortunately for me, once I met her I quickly got over my intimidation because she is also one of the kindest, unassuming and welcoming women I've come to know.  I have always felt just as at home at her house as I do at my own mother's house.  I look up to her in almost every way, which is why when Blythe was born Justin and I gave her the middle name of Kathleen in the hopes that she will emulate her grandmother.  In honor of her 60th birthday I'm posting some retrospective photos of Kathy for everyone to enjoy, especially all her friends who blog stalk me.  

She was an adorable little girl. . .

And a fashionable college student.

Her gorgeous engagement photo,

which she claims doesn't look like her.

I beg to differ.

This is such a sweet photo of Kathy with baby Justin.

The Petty Family circa 1974.

The original "green" family; who knew a 

family of five could travel via one bike!

Would you guess that this woman is the mother

of three teenage boys?

Chuck, Justin and Kathy in 

Concord, MA last June. 

 

Gram and my girls very early one morning at Kalaloch

Beach on the Olympic Peninsula last summer.

I don't want anyone to think that Kathy is entirely free of faults.  After being a part of her family for almost 14 years I feel qualified to report that she does not enjoy shopping and she is incapable of sleeping in. The only ways in which I even remotely outperform her are at bargain shopping and at doing laundry.  

Happy Birthday Kathy!

We love you!