Jacob Turns One!

Jacob had his birthday on Saturday. I decided that birthday parties at this age are more for parents and other guests than for the baby, but he sure had fun even if it tuckered him out a little. :) We had my parents here for the weekend so it was fun for them to be able to celebrate with us & Jacob.

It is hard to believe that a year has passed in so many respects, but our little guy sure has changed a lot over the last several months, so it was really fun to celebrate and remember the excitement of his arrival on Thursday 20 September 2007. Quite an amazing day...

Saturday morning I finished making monkey cupcakes and a jungley-looking cake to go with the monkeys. It was fun to put my leaf and vine-making skills to work again as it's been a while since I took the Wilton I class. Here is the end result:

That afternoon we took a trip downtown to the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. It was a lot of fun and I'm excited to go back with the year pass my parents helped us get. They even have a 4 and under Preschoolers Exhibit so that looks like it will be a fun place to hang out, particularly in the winter months, I am told. Jacob enjoyed several different parts of the museum and it will be great to see him discover more when we go back.

We got home from the museum, fed Jacob some dinner and then he began the festivities in an excellent way: by making a mess! I think he ate a little bit but most of it ended up on the table and his high chair and on his appendages!

He was not so interested in all the presents at first but did like the box that some shirts came in. He has certainly warmed up to the new toys and books since we opened them, though, and loves to scoot around and cruise while holding his new things.

Books

It has been a couple months since I posted what books I have been listening to by means of books. So, here are a few I have listened to lately.

D-day – Stephen Ambrose

This lengthy book all about D-Day was AMAZING. It was very interesting because it was long, but it was only about one single day, so allowed for a great deal of detail related to D-Day. It was amazing how much planning went into the greatest land invasion ever. I had never thought about it, but there were large groups of people just in charge of directing traffic on the beaches, identifying and recording who died, and thousands of people dedicated to just feeding the landing troops. Amazing.

Citizen Soldiers – Stephen Ambrose

Another amazing book by Ambrose. He wrote these three books based on thousands of interviews with military people from all sides of WWII, and writes well. Citizen Soldiers is about WWII in general, and is very, very good and interesting.

Band of Brothers – Stephen Ambrose

This book, which was made into an HBO series, is also very good. It highlights one particular group of paratroopers throughout WWII, from their training the in the US, to their D-Day exploits, to their taking over of Hitler’s mansion after the war ended. It was amazing, and made me think of a lot of things I never thought of before. Listening to these three Ambrose books really makes me wonder what my generation would do if faced with a problem like WWII. I simply do not think we could do it. We are too lazy, too spoiled and we have no concept of sacrifice. I really enjoy books about WWII, and am currently watching a 16 hour documentary on it with Stacey. More about that later.

The Measure of a Man – Sidney Poitier

An interesting book about the life of Sidney Poitier. He is pretty liberal, and has some ideas that I think are ridiculous, but it is interesting to hear how a very popular older actor who was very famous in his time thinks about the world. He talks a lot about being black in America, and that is also very interesting.

A Song Flung up to Heaven – Maya Angelou

By the same person who wrote “I know why the caged bird sings”, this was an interesting book, written by a lady who has had a very interesting life. She basically talks about a part of her life. She moved from Africa to the US to help Malcom X on a project, he got killed before it started, so she did some other stuff until Martin Luther King asked for her help. Then, before that started, King was killed. She has some interesting insights, and talks mostly about being black in America. Like “The Measure of a Man”, it interests me to understand these types of authors—people whose view of the world is very different than mine. In fact, Angelou spoke at the Ross School of Business (where I now go to school) last year, and the article I read about it emphasized how different she is than the normal business type person.

The No Spin Zone – Bill O’Reilly

In this book, O’Rielly basically talks about an issue, talks about a few lines from an interview with someone he did on the issue on his show, and then talks more about the issue. It was interesting to hear what many famous people have said to him on his show, and interesting to hear what he thinks. On many issues, I agree. On some, I think he is a logic deprived idiot. You win some, you lose some.

Perelandra – CS Lewis

An amazing book, and perhaps my favorite of the more than a dozen I have read by Lewis. It is the second in the Space Trilogy, and is very good. A guy travels to Venus, where the Fall has yet to happen. He does logical, spiritual, and ultimately physical battle with Satan in order to try to preserve the innocence of the Eve figure. It is very, very interesting in making you think about the Fall. It discusses a interspatial kingdom ruled by God. Since the Fall already happened on earth, one did not need to happen on Venus, and so it needed to be avoided. Anyways, it was a very interesting book from a philosophical and religious point of view, and makes you think about the fall, humanity, and existence. Since I was listening to it as I unpacked, I didn’t get all I could have out of it, but what I did get was amazing. Like all of Lewis’ stuff, his doctrine is not always necessarily true, but it is well reasoned and interesting.

Wisdom of our Fathers – Tim Russert

This was a great book. Apparently, Russert wrote a book about his dad, and had such a great reaction, had to come up with something else about fathers. He solicited peoples stories about their dads, and this book was the result. It is just a whole bunch of stories about people’s dads. They are all very well written (he picked a couple dozen from tens of thousands of submissions), and some were very touching, and some very funny.

Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams- Lynne Withey

A book about Abigale Adams. I listened to John Adams by McCulluagh a while ago, and it was much better. Nevertheless, Abigail was an amazing woman, and the book was interesting.

The Logic of Life – Tim Harford

The book starts out being like a watered down version of Freakonomics (which is an amazing book), and ends up being like The World is Flat (not that great of a book). It essentially talks about rational choice theory, which suggests that everything everyone does is for a rational reason. It was very interesting, and it was good. The beginning is a little racy, talking about the rationality of teen sex and other such issues, but, it was good.

A Noisy Addition to our Home

Question: What has four wheels, a short pedal and a sustaining pedal, little hammers, and is covered in fancy black and white fashions?

Answer:

Our Freecycle piano! Yep, it was free. It is in great shape, not too out of tune, and looks so lovely in our dining room/living room area. We are finally on the path to adulthood.

We're all becoming quite adept at playing, but since I am able to reach the keys when standing (unlike Jacob) and I am home (more than Jeff), I am a piano hog. And I love it. :)

Kevin & Tess's Wedding

In honor of Kevin & Tess having been married for a month and 2 days, I thought I would post a few pictures from the big day: 8/8/08! We were so glad to be there with them and the whole family before we made our trip east to move to Michigan.

The nephews were all wearing a lavender color while the nieces sported pretty plum dresses. Here is Jacob mingling with some lovely flowers on the Denver Temple grounds:

Colorado was a pretty state; I'd only been to the Denver airport previously, and that hardly counts for visiting a state, so it was great to spend several days there. Here is the temple: This one shows many emotions in the Hoopes cousins. Ryan and Willy became good friends on the trip, Josh wanted his mom right then, Jacob was a little bit upset, Dallin was waving his hands around, the girls were trying to hold still, with Benjamin smiling a big smile, Taylor and Peter looking on at everyone, and all in all it is just a fun picture. Tess sure looks happy!! And she should be, she married into an amazing family. :)

Secret Conversation as Shown in Picture Below

Jacob: Uncle Kevin!!

Kevin: Yes, Jacob?

Jacob: You are married to Aunt Tess now! That is great! You must be hot in your tux. It is pretty warm out here.

Kevin: It is pretty toasty. Jacob?

Jacob: Yes, Uncle Kevin?

Kevin: Thanks for not spitting up on us on our big day.

Jacob: No problem. I got my mom instead, just for you.

(I do love this picture)

Congratulations! We miss you guys.

Michigan Fruit Outings

Michigan has an excellent climate for growing things. But, apparently people don't have enough hired help to pick all that they grow (I'm sure you've heard about the one-state recession thing). So, joy of joys, they rely on the general public to harvest for them! :)

We were happy to help out on a couple ocassions in the past few weeks. And by "help out" I mean, pick or look cute, depending on which member of the family you are.

At the entrance to Dexter Blueberry Farm on a fairly humid, overcast day.

Doesn't he look thrilled?!

The blueberry bushes are very pretty but blueberry picking is pretty slow since you have to hunt for the ripe ones. The biggest and probably best-tasting ones were usually hiding underneath leaves and other branches. I spent a lot of time thinking about how this could be a parallel for people in our lives that maybe we are still getting to know or that we haven't even met yet. Ask me about the Parable of the Blueberry sometime.

He isn't quite old enough to help, but he did help by being very well behaved in his stroller.

2 hours and 4.35 lbs of blueberries later, I had plenty to make these tasty blueberry cornmeal pancakes later that weekend, some blueberry ice cream, and freeze the rest for later consumption.

On September 2 we went to another U-Pick place...this time it was a little closer and the fruit of choice was red raspberries!

My boys, hard at work in the fields.

I think Jeff and I looked pretty stylin' in our milk jug sashes. It is easier when you can pick with both hands.

Jacob was very good again on this outing, and was often found with his monkey in his mouth. That is where most things end up these days, but it is very funny when it is something big and he tries to move around with it, like a stuffed lion or penguin.

Jeff with our bountiful harvest that has also been frozen for the most part to be enjoyed in the future!

Monday I went back to get another quart of berries and then Tuesday I bottled a batch of raspberry jam. Add this to what we did on Saturday with our farmer's market purchase of probably 20 lb of apricots: three batches of apricot jam, 4 quarts of apricots and some dried apricots. I don't think we'll need to buy any jam for the rest of the year! YUM.

Next item to pick: apples for eating and applesauce canning!

Realizations

So, we are in Ann Arbor. It has been very fun. For the last two weeks, I have been going to “math camp”, which has been not very fun. Unfortunately, I am not very smart as far as math goes, and I am very unprepared as far as the courses I have taken. Hopefully, it will be alright. However, while in the course, I have been able to meet many very interesting and intelligent people.

In meeting all these people, I have come to a realization that I never really thought of. I feel ashamed for not really thinking about it more. It sounds silly to say, but, I will say it. I never really thought about the fact that different countries have different parts. In the cubes around mine, there is someone from North China, and someone from South China, and they not only look slightly different, but they sound and act different. In asking, some of the difference is due to where they are from. China, interestingly, has been a unified country with one language for many, many years (thousands, I think).

Indians are even more different. It has only been recently that India was one country, and they still do not have one language that everyone speaks. (I asked one of my Indian friends what language he would speak to someone from India he saw to know they would understand, and he said “English.” There is a guy from India in my program I was talking to about this, and he said he speaks 3 languages, but right now, speaks English better than any of them.)

This recent unification means that people who are from different parts of India are even more different. I can already tell the different between someone from Northern India and someone from Southern India. It is very interesting to me.Like I said, I am kind of ashamed for not thinking about this earlier. In the US, we really don’t think much about other countries, and it is a little sad. Coming from the richest and most powerful country has the effect of making one not think about other, extremely important and larger (population-wise) countries. Being here and interacting with people from literally dozens of countries on a daily basis has helped me in that. Anyways, that is that.

Trip To Ann Arbor

So, we have been somewhat deficient in posting to our blog lately. It is not as if we had a lack of things to post about. Indeed, in the last month, we have had the biggest change in our family ever (with the exception of Jacob being born). We moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and have not really said a whole lot about it. So, I guess this post will fill you in on a few details. Our move started out by packing up our house and putting it all on a truck. It was kind of a busy couple days. I took the last section of the CPA on a Friday, we had a nephew get baptized on Saturday, Stacey defended her master's thesis on Monday, and we loaded the truck on Monday. In any event, here I am on the truck, with all our stuff. After sending the truck on its merry way, we had to say goodbye to another truck. I have driven this black Nissan for the past 9 years, and will miss it dearly. We have become one, but, because of reasons outside of my control (and because the truck was never mine, only loaned to me), the truck and I had to part ways. It will be forever missed. So, after the important goodbye to the black truck, we drove to Denver for my brothers wedding. Before the wedding, we spent a few days camping with my family, which was really fun. All of my sibling and all of their children were there (23 folks in all), which was really fun. My family is really starting to become more of an empire than just a few people who are realated. It was very nice to have everyone there, something that has never happened before, and so it was a very good time. Jacob especially enjoyed it. Not only do the out-of-doors provide plenty of grass for him to eat, but he also enjoyed eating dirt, sand, and other things he found on the ground. After camping, we went to Denver and stayed in a house all together. Then, Kevin got married. It was very weird to see him get married. But, he did it, so all weirdness aside, it is done. I feel like he must have been very deceptive in tricking Tess into marrying him, as he definatly married above himself. Hopefully she does not figure this out too soon. Anyways, here is my family in front of the temple, and then Keving and Tess (holding their favorite nephew). Then, we drove to Michigan. It took us two days from Denver, and was kind of a blur. I got reservations for a hotel in Iowa, and miscalculated how long it would take us to get there, and we ended up rolling into our hotel at about 1:30 in the morning. That was no fun. Then, after going to church in East Moline, IL (home of John Deere headquarters), we were back on our way to Ann Arbor. We passed through several states on the way to Michigan. We finnally got to Michigan, and then to Ann Arbor at about 6:30 on Sunday evening. Amazingly, Jacob was very, very well behaved the whole way. We would just give him a bottle and feed him, change him when we needed to stop anyway, and for the most part, he created no problems. His biggest ordeal was when he decided to cry for about ten minutes, but, he got over it and became happy. He also did a lot of talking to himself and telling himself stories. They are apparently pretty funny, because he laughed a lot at them. I never thought they were terribly entertaining. Here is a picture of Jacob hanging out in the back seat, like he did very well for some 24 hours.

Video added

I put the other laughing video under the first one in the previous post. Enjoy!!

11 months old!

Jacob is 11 months today, and we did a few things today to mark the occasion (some by coincidence, others planned). He got to take a dip in a pool today with some friends from the ward, and he tried a new food for dinner that I whipped up for him: zucchini and carrot fritters. He loved them! And, as always, I took the necessary picture of him with the fuzzy little bear that has continued to shrink.

I just love this kid - he is great and makes us so happy. He will make you happy, too, with his performance in the videos accompanying this post. He laughed harder today than I'd ever heard him laugh, and I'm so glad I caught some of it on camera. Who knew lame firework sound impressions could be such a riot to a baby?

And yes, he did sneeze immediately after this picture:

Nice and Smart

So, I am here at the University of Michigan, and I have started what is dubbed “Math Camp.” While the name may conjure up images of happy time with numbers, this is not the case. It is a lot of math, and so far of the 8 hours of instruction I have had so far, much of it has already been way over my head, in the kind of way that I am not sure there is any way I could retrieve it. However, that is not the point of this post. Yesterday I met with a group to go over the first homework assignment, and was very pleasantly surprised with how very nice everyone was. In fact, thinking about it, everyone I have met has been very, very pleasant and nice. Not only are all the people I have met in my class and on campus nice, they are also very smart. But, not just very smart. Very, very smart. But not just very, very smart, very, very, very smart. They do math problems in their head in minutes that I sit and stare at for two hours and don’t even know where to begin (and which they can’t explain to me).

They are from a huge variety of places, from the eastern US, to the western US, to China, Japan and Korea, to Eastern Europe. They have come straight from an impressive set of school, or have worked at fancy impressive places doing high level consulting or pricing corporate bonds. They age from 25 or so to 40 or so. They vary hugely in their ability to speak English or in their ability to communicate effectively despite being native English speakers. However, so far I have not met anyone that is not nice. All my group mates (out of whom I knew by far the least math) were all very, very willing to explain things and help. Some of them had completed the problem set with no problems, but just showed up to help out. So, that is that. I am among very, very smart, and nice people. Hopefully they continue to be nice.

Update and a Beach Party

Well, we made it to Michigan earlier this week and have busied ourselves with unpacking, adjusting to the eastern time zone, hanging things on the walls, attending events here and there, and for Jeff: school. I'll write about the first couple of weeks of August a little later but wanted to share some cute pictures I took this afternoon. And I had to take the token first day of school picture of Jeff on Thursday...right before he went to catch the bus to central campus. Our complex had a beach party this afternoon, and since Jeff was off hitting the books, Jacob and I decided to venture out on our own. The complex is huge, lots of houses, parking lots, etc., so I'm glad we found the party. I decided Jacob would have enjoyed it even more if he were 5 or 6 but he still had fun crawling around on the grass, handling waterarms for the first time, and as always he made attempts at eating grass (a favorite pastime). He also shared a popsicle with me but we opted not to participate in the water balloon toss or limbo game.

Things left undone in Provo

So, we are on the road headed to Ann Arbor. This means that we have left Provo, not to return for a long time. I spent 5 years as a student in Provo, and they were very good years. I am very pleased with what I did there, from finding a wife and having a child, to preparing for a mission and getting a college degree. However, there are several things that I did not do while in Provo that I wish I would have. Some I am ashamed to have not done, others merely regretful. Hopefully those of you who still live around there might take the opportunity to do a couple of these things, to live my unfulfilled dream. Here they are:

1. Hike Mt. Timpanogos. From the time I started at BYU, I have hiked the highest peaks in four states, ID, AZ, CO and UT. I hiked the Grand Canyon from North to South Rim, and hiked many other things. However, the most hiked mountain in Utah, the peak that anyone in Provo who has any inclination to being willing to exert effort to climb up a mountain has hiked, I never hiked. I had several opportunities, had several plans with several different people to do it, but never did it. Sigh.

2. Go to the Manti Temple. I went to many of the other temples in Utah, but, despite making three serious attempts at the temple (two it was closed when we arrived, and one I got lost on the way and ended up in Price.) So, that will have to be done at some later date.

3. Drive the Nebo Scenic Route in the fall. Apparently, the colors are supposed to be spectacular, and the drive very pleasant. I have driven half of it a couple times, but never in the fall, and never all of it (at least, in daylight).

4. Mountain Bike off the lifts up at Sundance. I am not a bike Mt. Biker, but I think I would have enjoyed this.

5. Go on the Green River rafting trip that Outdoors Unlimited offers in the summer. It sound fun, and is a good deal.

6. Hiked Mt. Nebo with Outdoors Unlimited in the winter. I hiked it twice in the summer, but would really like to do it in the winter with all the winter gear and such.

7. Visited my Uncle who lives in Heber. He moved there a year ago. I biked up to his house and saw him once when he was in the process of building his house, but I never went back and saw him again.

8. Kayak down the Provo River. I brought a Kayak from Soda Springs to use, but never did it.

9. Volunteer at the MTC. I went there once to try, and they said that they had too many volunteers that day, but to please come back. Since, they have called several times, and they have e-mailed once a week, but I never went again.

10. Tour the Kennecott Copper Mine. I lived for 7 years in Globe, AZ, a copper mining town, and toured the open pit mines there. It is cool. I wish I would have seen the ones just north of point of the mountain.

11. Hike many more of the little peaks. There are dozens of cool hikes to do just around Utah Valley, and while I did a few, there are far more left undone than I did.

12. Go to the Salt Lake. I went once when I was little, and faintly remember it. I wish I would have gone again and checked it out.

13. Camp on Antelope Island State Park. I never went, and I wish I would have. So, there are a few of the things I wish I would have done. I will visit Provo again, and may do a few of them, but, I sure wish I would have done them whilst a resident.

Fear

I remember well back when I lived in Globe, AZ and was in the Junior High. I played both football and wrestling – two sports that require a great deal of physical endurance. Given the physical rigors of the sports, the practices are often very physically difficult. For example, I remember football practice where we would scrimmage hard, we would do tackling practice, we would run sprints, laps, do bear craws and up downs, push-ups and sit-ups, and all other forms of physical training. I remember dreading these practices every day. I would get a sick feeling in my stomach, a feeling of dread and wondering if I would be able to survive the practice. I enjoyed football, and played for 6 years, starting on whatever squad I was on each year, but always dreaded practice. Up through my senior year of football, I would feel a little sick at the end of each school day, knowing that after class, practice would come and I would be worked hard.

I am, at heart, a very scared person. Anyone who knows me well knows that I often get very anxious about things, especially difficult things that I will be required to do. Regardless of my knowledge of how I will do these things, or my past experience with them, I often get scared. This fear extended even to non-physical things, and before every semester at BYU I would be scared, wondering if this would be the semester that I was found out and failed all my classes. This fear drove me to act irrationally, dropping several classes and changing teachers at the last minute.

I am currently in the car headed for Michigan, where I will be going to school. From all accounts, it is a very difficult thing to do. And, as with everything else, I am very scared. My stomach feels a little bit uneasy. I know of my problem, but despite my rational ability to understand what happens to me, I cannot overcome my irrational fear. And, that is that.

Our House

So, we are moving out of our house. We have liked it. Here it is, one year ago:

Things that are good

• We have a house to move into in Michigan, and it is my friend and her family's old house. She promised flowers in the springtime since the bulbs are still there. So exciting!
• Jacob is very cute and he has tolerated a lot of time in the playpen so I could work on things at home for school & packing these last couple of weeks
• We hiked Ensign Peak on Monday night with some friends and the view of Salt Lake City was amazing. Jeff said, "This is the result of urban planning." And he's right, and I would probably add "inspired" in there somewhere. :)
• Happy Pioneer Day!
• I still like my hair cut
• My sister took me to see Little Women the musical last night for an early birthday present. IT WAS SO GOOD. One of my favorite pair of lines:

Marmee: "Oh, Jo! You look so...alluring!" Jo: "I think the word is ALARMING."

And best of all, today I submitted my final draft of my thesis to my committee members. That is a VERY good thing. I'll defend at least once next week and then just have silly things to sort out after the move.