AAAAAACK!

I'll leave it at that.

I don't get Vests.

This is completely random, but I have to say, I don't get vests.  I get a lot of catalogs and emails from clothing stores, and they seem full of vests this year.  While they look nice, I can't stand them.  Why does anyone like to have their arms freeze while their upper body boils?  Frequently, I find myself putting on and taking off a sweater over and over again, because my arms are cold, but my body is warm.  A vest doesn't help this situation.

I Got the Part!

Well, I got my first lead with CVFT.  I'll be playing Grace in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."  William got a speaking part, as well.  He'll play David. I'm not sure how many lines he has, but I know he says something about his mother not wanting him to be a shepherd, if you can recall that part. He's never had a speaking part before, so this will suit him very well!

Callbacks Tonight

I haven't even posted that Will and I auditioned for "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" on Monday night, and now I'm posting that we got called back for another audition.  I'm behind!  But, I'm handling all of the stuff I have going on pretty well, I think.  I've had to take a little step back from coupons and rebates, but still do a little clipping (when I remember to pick up the paper).  My schoolwork is going well.  I have hit the right pace, and essays are taking an increasingly shorter time to write.  I'm not sure how I feel about callbacks.  I wasn't thinking I really wanted a big part in this show, as I have classes now, but then I realized that the adult lead is a 35-year-old mom, and it is a non-romantic part.  How perfect is that?  I'm afraid I'll be sad if I don't at least try for the part.  I still auditioned to be a vignette singer (1940's style Christmas pop singer), and I could tell they loved me at that audition, so I might end up doing that, and if so, that's just fine.  I'll try to remember to update the blog tomorrow regarding callbacks.  William did a good job in his audition.  I think he has a good chance at getting a speaking part.

Doing What We're Supposed To Do

Today in Sunday School, we were talking about some of the revelation that we've been given in recent years (meaning the last few decades), and how we've been blessed by it.  Someone mentioned how President Hinckley told us to prepare for hard times ahead.  We were encouraged to get our finances in order, have a reserve, and get our food storage together. It made me think about my own food storage and financial reserve.  I have been good at it.  We have sacrificed to put extra money into savings and to pay down our mortgage.  We have a full year's supply of food.  Have I been blessed by it?  Well, I haven't had to use it, so it could be argued that it hasn't done anything for us.  I wondered; if Aaron is never out of a job, and if we never end up needing to eat any our food storage, would I someday look back on all the money that could have been spent on something else, and all the storage space that could have been used for other things, and regret it?

No.  Not at all.  There are blessings for doing what the Lord wants us to do.  Maybe there are other blessings for obeying this law than having a financial reserve and a food storage to draw upon when we need it.

When Aaron was considering going to MBA school, we felt very strongly that the Lord wanted him to apply.  So strongly, that when the time came to give the University of MN notice of acceptance or denial, we were ready to take a leap of faith, when it was very clear we could not live on our savings plus financial aid, and that we would be ruining our finances for no guarantee that there would be a good ROI.  We knew that the Lord would make it work out if it was supposed to.  But, as much as he wanted to go, Aaron wasn't feeling right about it.

Going to MBA school was something we had prayed about, and it was worth doing if the Lord wanted us to do it, right?  Well, yes.  I let Aaron know that I was willing to go by faith, but that I felt like this one was his decision if he decided not to go (I was not going to tell him not to go and have that hanging over my head).  He prayed about it, and came out with a no.  He said that he had a hard time understanding how a "yes" a year ago could be a "no" now.  But, he had some thoughts.

There were some things we learned during the process.  Aaron pointed out that when he first thought about MBA school, he felt right about taking the GMAT, so he studied for it and took it.  He refreshed some math and logical thinking skills, and had a big confidence boost with his great test score.    

Then, he felt really right about applying to BYU.  After a few weeks, he felt like he also ought to apply to Carlson.  After interviewing at BYU, he learned that he would not be happy in their MBA program.  It wasn't right for him (they agreed, and didn't accept him).  He found out that he would really like the U of MN MBA program.  It had some really fun things he would experience, and he felt he would learn a lot.  But he also had time to find out from other people that his salary is about the same as a lot of people who got an MBA 10 years ago.  If he changed industries, which is the main reason he was going for his MBA, he would probably take a severe salary cut when he got his first job, and not make it up until well after our older children had started college.  He would have lost years of time with our children - really important years for all of them, but especially for the older boys. 

What did we learn from this experience?  We learned that sometimes the Lord blesses us in other ways than the ways we were anticipating.  Aaron wasn't supposed to go to MBA school this year, but we went through the preparation process to gain knowledge we wouldn't have gained otherwise.  We may not even know all of the reasons yet (he does take the FSOT next month, and who knows how his test preparation last year might affect that outcome).  Even if we never need the food storage or the emergency savings account, we will always have the peace of mind that comes because we have it, and whatever other blessings the Lord has in store for us just for being obedient.

Day 7

Church in Chevy Chase, Maryland.  We attended the DC 3rd ward, but yes, there is a Chevy Chase Ward.  I wish I'd taken a picture of their bulletin board with their name prominently displayed on there.  I think if Hugh Hefner ever had a city named for him, and we had a church unit there, the church would probably try to name it anything but the Hugh Hefner ward.  But Chevy Chase Ward is only medium-irreverent, I suppose.

We visited the DC Temple.  When I was a child, this was the only temple east of the Mississippi, so I saw it when my parents were ordinance workers there.  I was impressed by the decorative discs adorning the gates, and I had it in my head a long time that these were the gold plates.  

We also visited the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Vietnam Memorial at night.  Pretty cool, but not as cool as the DC Temple.

Vacation2010Videos! 009.MTS

The worst food ever can be found at the Atrium Cafe at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately, it is coupled with being the most expensive food in D.C.

Day the Fifth

Tours of the Capitol and the Kennedy Center today.  Both excellent.  But the highlight of the day came when the children discovered subway venting fans, which make them all buff. (They don't stink as much here as they do in New York).

On Hotels and Bad Drivers

Hotels can be expensive.  They can be cheap.  They can even be free.  We've had a mixture of the two on this trip.

With a family our size, cheap hotels might not be worth it.  We used miles that Aaron and I had earned with Delta to get our hotels on the way to and from D.C.  My objective was to spend very little on the hotels on the way to and from D.C. and Virginia, so that we could enjoy ourselves while in D.C. and Virginia.  So, I made the miles stretch a bit.  Our first stop was the LaQuinta in Hoffman Estates, IL.  I drove the first leg of the trip.

When I checked in for our first night's stay, I found that they hadn't gotten us adjoining rooms, although our booking had specified that in the notes.  They claim not to have gotten the notes.  I will ask Delta about this, as our second hotel said the same thing.  But more about that later.  The LaQuinta didn't have two double rooms available for us that were adjoining.  They had two options for us.  One was a King room with an adjoining two doubles.  The other was two doubles, but not adjoining.  Aaron and I wanted to be able to supervise our children without splitting up for the night, so we chose the adjoining rooms, after they consented to putting a rollaway in each room.  This sounded like a pretty good deal.

When we arrived in the room, we discovered that their idea of a King bed is something much larger than the double beds, but slightly smaller than a Queen.  The double beds were quite small, as well.  The boys all volunteered to take a rollaway, rather than have to sleep with their siblings.  We gave Tristin and Brandon the rollaways, as they are the largest, and had Will and Ben share a bed.  We tried putting Dallin, Aidan and Katie sideways on the remaining bed, but Aidan and Katie were too wired for that to work.  Katie ended up sleeping with Aaron and me, and Aidan slept in a very small chair.  We aren't sure why he chose to sit upright in a chair to sleep, but that's where we found him in the morning.  Dallin ended up having a double bed to himself.  Aaron and I ended up getting very little sleep.

The nice thing about the LaQuinta was the heated outdoor pool.  We enjoyed it, but as it was only 79 degrees and windy, it was a little cool in the air when wet.  The pool was too deep for Aidan and Katie to stand up in it, so that meant whoever had them had to deal with a little bit of a chill.  Most of the time that person was me.

The breakfast was nice.  They had the standard free continental breakfast with a waffle maker, yogurt, fruit, muffins, cereal, toast, bagels, etc.  After loading up the van at 6:15am, we ate a quick breakfast and were on our way by 6:50am.

The approximately four to six frequently interrupted hours of sleep I got were perhaps slightly inadequate for driving in Chicago rush hour traffic.  It amazes me how people there weave and drive 15mph over the speed limit and somehow there are no accidents on the roads.  However, I made it through the white-knuckle portion of the trip, and had a relatively uneventful drive to Pittsburgh, PA.  Of course, once we reached Pittsburgh, I discovered I liked driving there even less than in Chicago.

Pittsburgh is a winding mess of hilly roads.  They have all been recently renamed, so even though I just updated the TomTom, we had to rely on where we figured the picture on the TomTom was taking us, rather than the road names.  Plus, if you aren't driving 15-20mph over the speed limit at all times, drivers get mad at you - even if you aren't in the left lane!  It is utterly ridiculous.

We made it to the hotel at about 5:30pm, just in time to settle in a little before leaving for the Pirates game.  That was a long day of driving.  I let Aaron drive for the evening.  I had suffered through enough during the long day.

As I mentioned before, we ran into problems again at check-in at the Ramada in Pittsburgh.  As the LaQuinta claimed to have not gotten our notes, I had Aaron call up the Ramada at 10am and confirm the adjoining room notes.  They said they did not have the notes in their system, but added them at that time.  That meant very little, because when we checked in, we were told they had no adjoining rooms available.

The beds were tiny double beds, just like the ones at the LaQuinta.  Unfortunately, we didn't have rollaways this time.  We juggled around who was to be in each room for a while.  I thought that having older boys share beds with younger boys would make a more comfortable night, but in the end we had the older four in one room, and the others with us.  Tristin and Brandon got their own beds, William slept on a cushioned bench, and Ben chose to sleep on the floor.  In our room, Aidan started out on the bench, but moved to the floor.  Dallin and Katie shared one bed, and Aaron and I slept in the other.  Katie really put up a fuss about not sleeping with us, but as this bed barely fit the two of us, we held firm.

We slept in at the Ramada, if you count the time change. Tristin didn't really appreciate my wake-up call at 7:30am ET.  We even had to wake up Aidan and Katie, who normally pop up after we make the slightest noise. I only had about 5 hours to drive to get to D.C., so we weren't in too much of a rush, but we were hoping to arrive at the Hyatt Regency at 3pm.  We ate at the paltry continental breakfast, and headed out at about 9am.  We made plenty of stops on our way.  I have to say, I was extremely glad to get out of Pennsylvania and arrive in Maryland.  The roads were better, and the drivers were more considerate. We almost ran out of cash for tolls at the last toll booth. We tried getting cash at an ATM along the way, but it was out of order.  We had no idea how much they were going to end up charging us, but we managed to scrape by with a couple of dollars remaining.  We had no idea how much tolls would be going into this trip.  It was around $30-$40.

We were extremely ready to get into our nice hotel when we arrived at 3:30pm.  Unfortunately, our nice hotel wasn't ready for us.  I made the reservation on the phone and had a confirmation that said we would be arriving at around 3pm, but our rooms were not clean yet.  So, we piled our stuff onto a bellman's cart, and piled back into the van.  We figured we could park the van at Union Station and take a nice walk back while we waited for our phone call saying our rooms were ready.  We didn't anticipate the heavens to open up and pour rain for the next hour.  We got the call within 20 minutes, but after waiting for the rain to let up enough to walk the 5 blocks back to the hotel without getting too wet, we didn't arrive back at the hotel until about 4:30pm.

All in all, it was worth the wait.  Paying for a nice hotel makes a difference.  We have an executive suite with a second adjoining bedroom.  I found a great family package where we got the second room for half price, so we made the splurge for the king suite.  It has a separate bedroom for us, a living room with a pull-out bed, and an adjoining room with two double beds.  Yes, it appears that a double bed is tiny no matter where you go.  But, there are so many large comfy chairs that we pushed two sets together and got two extra beds for Aidan and Dallin.  Katie slept on the couch cushions on the floor.  Tristin and Brandon got their own beds, and William and Ben slept on the pull-out couch.  It was quite comfortable, and we got a good 8.5 hours of sleep.  I had a great night.

Breakfast here was fabulous.  They have a real buffet, with a made-to-order omelette bar.  It was wonderful. Aaron showed you the picture of us in our own dining room.  The breakfast came as part of the room package.  I guess it wasn't supposed to for more than 4 of our children (plus Katie for free for being under 3), but I remember asking the guy when I made the reservation, and he said it was free for all of us, so the lady at check-in wrote out some extra vouchers for us.  We appreciated this immensely.

We look forward to our next four days here.  We won't even mind moving on to VA, though, as we will be at  Comfort Suites.  They happen to have two double beds in one room, one King bed in one room, plus a sofa bed in each room.  As long as they don't miss the adjoining room request, we should be good.

Day 4:Air & Space, and the Pentagon

One of my favorite memories of a DC trip as a child was visiting the Aaron Space Museum. It was nice of them to name it after me.  (My parents also used to 'run Aarons' fairly often, which meant every thing from grocery shopping to post office trips, until my sister insisted they start 'running Nancys' instead.)  So of course I first had to bring the children to my namesake.  I'm thinking about renaming it the 'William Aaron Space Museum', in order to appropriately pass on the legacy.

We also toured the Pentagon today.  Click here for photos. (Try all day to click if you want, but there's no link.  Its a security thing. Also, they don't allow you to take pictures). My favorite part was the courtyard; there's a little building right in the middle of it, and during the Cold War the Soviets saw so many people coming and going from it in their satellite photos, that they assumed it held nuclear weapons and so they trained most of their own Nuclear Weapons on it.  It was, as it turns out, the most dangerous hot dog stand in the world.

Yesterday we finished our drive to DC and did nothing.  Most pleasant.

Here we are at breakfast this morning. The Hyatt folks were kind enough to give us our own dining room, and the children were kind enough to not dismantle it.

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Day 2: PNC Park

I've told people we drove all the way to Pittsburgh to see a game because it has to be a really bad team in order for my family to afford tickets... of course, the fact that PNC stadium is a really cool outdoor stadium, downtown on the river, with a lot of history, adds to it.  I had a good time.  And the kids got their fill of junk food (pop, peanuts, cracker jack, cotton candy, hot dogs, and pop corn). That kept them busy, and I didn't bother distracting them by pointing out the game because, well, there really wasn't one.  The Pirates showed their true colors, losing 0-6 against the Marlins in an unremarkable show down.  The only people who showed up ready to fight were two girls down front who had a hair-pulling contest and got ejected by security.  

 

I should also mention our excellent dinner in Chicago last night: The family was introduced to Gino's East, one of my favorite pizza places in the whole world. (The other two are Sven & Ole's in Grand Marais, MN, and Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs, Colorado.  Try all three before you die.)

 

It was a hit.

 

 

 

 

We're on our way

Summer vacation -

a rest without real resting - 

begins in green grass.

Stefany has kindly given permission to Aaron to use her blog to journal our trip to our Nation's Capitol.  Here the boys are forming the traditional Pratt Pyramid, crowned by Katherine. This is taken at a rest stop in Wisconsin.  Why? Because no family vacation is officially begun until the words "I have to go to the bathroom" have been uttered.

The first part of the morning in the car was spent working on Music Merit Badge - which is where Dad gets to make the boys listen to 'his' music and his explanations of their meaning.  We started with Classical Opera, a little bit of Italian and German, It included learning some of the words of "La Donna e Mobile", from Verdi's Rigoletto, and "Der Holle Racht" from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.  I'm sure everyone enjoyed it as much as Dad did.

We're in the Paper

Read the article about the melodrama we're in, featuring our family, in the Waconia Patriot.

New Callings

In case you haven't heard, Aaron was sustained as 2nd counselor in the bishopric today.  We will never get to sit together in church now, but we should see him a lot more on Sundays, as he won't be traveling around the west metro all day anymore.  I guess that is an okay compromise.

In other news, I was sustained as the Relief Society chorister last week.  The bishop assures me that he's not putting me out to pasture, but that he will probably be adding to that sometime soon.  I am glad to be serving in the Relief Society.  I have been getting so much out of attending meetings since being released from Primary.  There are so many wonderful women in there to learn from.  I really do feel that I need this right now.

The funny thing about both of the callings is that we guessed them before they were extended.  I told Aaron the night before I was called that I was sure that was it, and with Tim Lanier's travel load increasing, Aaron figured that he was probably headed to replace him.  He is a little disappointed that he won't get to complete his missionary goals on the high council, but I think he'll be glad to be back in the ward.

Aaron and I had what we call "Elijah" parties tonight and last Sunday night.  Currently, our stake president has issued a goal for every youth and adult in the stake to find a relative whose temple work isn't complete, submit their name, and do their temple ordinances by next conference.  Aaron noticed through his assignment on the high council that people who are of pioneer stock typically don't think there is any work for them to do.  As he is of pioneer stock, and I found names for him to do, he knows this isn't the case.  There are also some people who just need a little help with learning the web application in order to do it.  So, we have been inviting families over to work on their family history, getting them registered on http://new.familysearch.org, and helping them find ancestors to do the work for.

Sometimes it is as easy as looking back a few generations until we come to someone whose temple work isn't done, but more often than not it entails coming back down a couple of generations from the direct line ancestors and looking up some information on family members whose information is sparse via http://ancestry.com.  We have found at least one ancestor for each person who has come whose work could be completed.

Well, Brandon and Tristin will be getting up at 2am to get ready to leave for scout camp.  I should go to sleep now so I am not a complete grouch tomorrow after having an interrupted night.

Yay, Katie!

I've been putting Katie on the toilet for the past 6 months or so.  She has never had a problem with sitting on it, but has never actually "gone." But, this morning, she took the initiative of taking off her own diaper and sitting on it without me even prompting her.  She then peed in it!   Yay, Katie!

HELP

Aaron and I just got the script for the preview performance of Love on the Prairie.  We're understudying the leads for the second preview performance, as the leading man can't be there (they are having us do it as a couple, although the lead girl could have been there).

Anyway, the script is an hour long.  My part is not too bad, but Aaron has about double the lines that I have.  He's a bit nervous.  The leads have been working on these lines for a few weeks already, and now we're getting this with less than two weeks to go.  We only have one song to learn, but I'd rather learn songs than lines.  This is going to be an interesting next two weeks.

Birthday Fun and Random Updates

On Saturday, the Kukachka clan came over for our annual "cousins party."  This is where we celebrate all of the kids' birthdays at once, so we don't have to all try to get together for each birthday, as that was getting really complicated, with so many kids.

This year, it was held on Connie's birthday.  She turned 29 again this year. ;-)  She said that Luke (her youngest) wished her a "Happy Father's Day" instead of a "Happy Birthday."  I hope she enjoyed the day.  It occurred to me afterward that we should have sung to her.  We normally sing to everyone when we do cake, but this year we did s'mores instead, and I totally spaced the singing part.

During the party, some of the younger kids noticed a chirping sound coming from the storm sewer in the back of our yard.  They checked it out, and it turned out there was a robin stuck down there.   I laid out some thin pieces of wood for it to climb up on, but they were too steep.  On the third try (and once the robin realized I was trying to help, not poke it), when it got on the wood, I thought to use leverage to slowly lift the bird up to the top of the grate.  When it got to the top, it hopped across the grate, then sang to me for a minute or so before leaving for the next yard.  I felt very well-thanked.  I noticed then that it had a fuzzy head, and wasn't fully grown yet.  It hopped a few feet away, and then a momma bird came out from behind a tree and hopped over to it, gave it a few pecks, and led it back over to the tree.  What a fun experience!

Today, William threw up in church.  I'm hoping it was just a reaction to so much junk food yesterday.  I really can't afford a sick family this week, as it is going to be a busy one.  We have rehearsal Mon., Tues. and Thurs. nights.  Wednesday afternoon I have my advising and registration session at Normandale.  Wednesday night Aaron, Kelly Ammott and I will be rehearsing our song for Sacrament Meeting next Sunday.  After that, the Ammotts are going to help me de-bone 10 rotisserie chickens for the zone conference luncheon I'm putting on for 75 missionaries on Thursday.  I will also be doing most of the shopping for the luncheon tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on whether I get my couponing done early enough to get out tomorrow.  And that's just my schedule.  There's plenty more going on for the kids, too.  I'm in for a busy week, but I'm up for busy this week - provided we don't have a whole wave of stomach flu.

Disturbed

This morning at 2:45am in Eagan, a 3-year-old child was found walking along Highway 55.  At 5:30am, his parents discovered he was missing and called the police.  They said he got out by using an electric garage door opener.  The child is being held by social services for the next 72 hours while they investigate the parents.

This doesn't seem fair to me.  In fact, it outright disturbs me.  I thought that there must be something the article didn't say, like the parents looked like they were stoned or something when they came to get their child.  So, I called Dakota County social services to find out.  They told me that they don't just do this, that the police have to tell them to take the child into custody and do an investigation.  They suggested I talk to the police.  So I called them.  They said that when they can't find the parents, they place the child with social services, and have no control over when the child is released.  "That's funny," I said. "Social services just told me it was the other way around."

This could happen to you or me.  In fact, I am awfully lucky it hasn't happened to me.  I have had three-year-olds escape the house by going into the garage (the door of which they figured out how to open, despite the child safety doorknob), finding a car door unlocked, and opening the garage with the opener on the visor, just as they have seen me do.  I have had a three-year-old sneak out after dusk, when I thought he was asleep, only to have a neighbor call and tell me that my child is two blocks entertaining a crowd of people, including the sheriff.

I told the person at the Eagan police department that I thought that it was unfair to keep a 3-year-old from his parents for three days for escaping home without another reason.  She told me that there are unexpensive things a person can do to keep their child from escaping the house.  I told her that nothing is ever foolproof, and that this just isn't right.  She told me that she had gotten my voice mail, and that she really didn't need to further the conversation.  As I hadn't called her previously, I told her that this was my first call, and this just shows that other people are concerned with this, as well.

I got off the phone feeling like this isn't really the free country we think it is.  I cried.

I am afraid for the day when Katie figures out how to use a child safety doorknob.

William's Arrow of Light

William earned his arrow of light at our last pack meeting. We are so proud of him! He still has the rest of the summer to earn some more compass points, and then he will join the 11-year-old scouts program in September. Congratulations, Will!

New Blog - Need Name Ideas!

I want to start a public blog with coupon and sale specials for the Waconia area.  Does anyone have a great idea for a name?