Razor Clamming

Growing up, I was a very picky eater.  My parents might capitalize and bold the word very.  In fact, now that I have my own picky eater, I empathize with my parents.  Fortunately, I grew out of it.  I have since acquired many tastes and likes for food that I never imagined I would.  Everything from tomatoes to artichokes to peppers I can now eat without gagging.  In fact, I enjoy them.  I used to sit at the dinner table for hours just staring at my food, thinking of ways to hide it without my parents knowing.  Now I sit at the dinner table for hours waiting for my son to eat (life is full of little ironies), but that's a different story, and I digress.

Despite my maturation in food tastes, however, there are still a number of foods I can't stomach.  One in particular brings back memories of my hours at the the dinner table, and I cannot bring myself to eat it.  CLAM CHOWDER!  To be fair, the chowder itself is not gross.  I love other kinds of chowder--salmon chowder, potato chowder, corn chowder, etc.  But clam chowder has an added ingredient which makes the whole thing taste awful.  The clam.  In my opinion, clams taste like little balls of chicken fat.  Their taste is overpowered by their horribly disgusting texture.  And now, to add insult to injury, this weekend I saw those little puppies alive rather than dead in my soup, and clam chowder is officially a thing of the past.  If I thought there was a small chance that I might give them another try, it has now been permanently banished from my mind.

Josh, Eli, and I went razor clamming with his parents yesterday.  Apparently, our little neck of the woods is well known for the sport, and to be honest, it's pretty fun.  It's sort of like digging for treasure, and there is quite an exhilaration when you dig up one of those clams.  You can use a shovel, but I think you have to be really good to use that method.  Most everyone uses a clam gun (pictured below).  Even then, you have to work quickly because they are fast and can burrow themselves deep into the sand.  As it is, they are already in the sand, and you have to have an eye for finding them so you can know where to dig in the first place.  X does not mark the spot, but there are little divots in the sand.  You go around looking for those little divots, and then you push your clam gun down into the sand at the spot.  When you bring the gun back up, you bring sand up with it, and hopefully a clam to boot.  Josh sometimes had to dig his hand into the sand if the gun didn't go deep enough.  I let him do the dirty work.  I kept my hands above the sand, but I did find a number of clams and discovered that maybe I have quite a talent for finding those little divots. :-)

Razor clams are quite large, and not at all what I had pictured clams to look like.  They are definitely not the most attractive things in the world with their wormy tongue-like bodies that protrude from the shell (sorry if I'm making you all dislike clam chowder now).  I let Josh kill and cut them out so that he can make clam chowder for himself to enjoy. :-)  For me, clamming is a case of the means being better than the end.  

The best time to go clamming is at low tide, so we got to see a beautiful sunset.

White Christmas

Christmas this year was a white one for us, much to Eli's delight.  Actually, a week before Christmas it snowed, and Eli was so excited.  He said, "I always dreamed of snow when I was in Houston, and now I guess today is my lucky day."  There was even enough snow for Eli to make his first snowman.

Eli made a graham cracker "gingerbread" house at a friend's house.

We were surprised to see snow again on Christmas morning.  We've been told it doesn't usually snow here, so I guess it was more than Eli's lucky day--more like his lucky week.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas:

Acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve

Eli gets a Christmas story on Christmas Eve.  This was the book he got this year.

Eli's note to Santa

Santa brought Eli a Spiderman bike.

We spent Christmas afternoon and night with Josh's family in Gig Harbor.

A Lot of Stuff that's Happened Since Our Move (a.k.a. Long Post)

I decided to finally make time to write about our move.  If I don't do it now, I may forget the details.  There has just been so much to do lately, which is probably good because there is LOTS of rain outside and it keeps me from thinking about it too much.

First, I will say that we have moved a number of times during our marriage, but this one gave the biggest to-do list, hands down.  There are just so many things you have to put in order when you move across state lines.  Even though we moved to Albuquerque a few summers ago, it was so temporary that we didn't have to make as many changes, though the actually cleaning and moving part was much more difficult.  Since we knew that Josh would be graduating and we would be moving, we kept a lot of things in boxes when we moved back to Houston.  I also downsized and scrubbed and cleaned and did so much when we moved in because of the condition of the place that when we moved out, it was fairly easy.  It also helped that Josh had to fly back to Houston for a week to finish up his work, so while he was there alone, he finished up any cleaning and loose ends that were needed.

I got the flu a week before we moved, so that was complete torture packing when all I wanted to do was go to bed and sleep.  But as happens, I got over it, and we were blessed to find out that we could all ride in the moving truck.  We thought it was illegal to have Eli in the front seat of the truck; plus, when we moved to and from Albuquerque, there were only two seats anyway.  When we picked up the truck this time, we discovered there were three seats, and after talking with some people in our ward and doing some research online, we discovered that we could put Eli in the truck.  It's not the safest and most ideal way to travel, so it is discouraged, but it was legal in all states that we passed through.  We got the truck on Saturday and packed most of it.  On Monday we called to add a tow to the truck so we could tow our car.  We got out of Houston a little later than planned, but I was so grateful that I didn't have to drive the whole way alone with Eli, and Josh was so grateful to have us in the truck with him.  Honestly, with me being so tired from the flu, I don't know how I would have made the drive.  I even had to ride in the middle (Eli wasn't allowed to ride in the middle, and his airbag had to be turned off), so I was cramped and a little sore by the end, but I was still incredibly thankful to be with Josh.

We knew it would be a long drive, but until you do it, you don't realize just how long it is.  Somehow, though, it was made shorter by being together in one vehicle.  The first day we drove from Houston to Ft. Stockton, TX.  The second day we made it to Cortez, CO.  The third day we drove to my brother Nephi's home in Logan, UT.  We got a break on the fourth day because we spent Thanksgiving day with him and his family.  We had a great time and delicious food.  Thank you so much Nephi and Aubrey!  The fifth day we drove from Logan to Kelso, WA.  This day was incredibly long, and I would not recommend it, especially since we ran into a crazy rainstorm through the Columbia River Gorge, and it was dark.  The roads were barely visible, and it made me feel claustrophobic.  I was grateful to get out of there.

On the sixth day we had a short drive to Aberdeen (about an hour and a half or so), and we had help unloading from our new ward members.  Even some neighbors came to help.  It was the quickest move-in we have ever experienced.  Plus, Josh's parents came and helped and brought us lunch.  It was great!

I had to take Josh up to the Sea-Tac Airport a couple days later because he had to go back to Houston to finish up work, so Eli and I were alone here for the first week.  At least I was busy unpacking and putting our home together, but poor Josh was there in Houston in an empty apartment for a week.  To make things worse, he missed his flight out of Houston to come back here and had to sleep overnight at George Bush Airport.  Then when he came back, he had to start a new job, so there was no time for rest. 

But we are settling in now and enjoying the Christmas season.  The house is not completely put together, but there's not much left to do.  Eli insisted I put up Christmas decorations first, so the tree was up before most of the bedrooms were unpacked.  I've had a lot of distractions with it being the holidays (not the best time of year to move), but I've never been one to put a house together in a week anyway.  Since we have a bigger place than we're used to, we lack some furniture.  For example, we have both a living room and a family room, but we only have one couch.  Currently our family room has a TV in it but no couch.  We also have a dining room area as well as a breakfast nook, so we have an empty dining room area since our table is in the breakfast nook.  But we are just enjoying the space.  Having a yard is great, though we also don't have anything to take care of the yard because we've never needed that stuff before.  Fortunately our neighbor let Josh borrow some of his stuff.  He also goes fishing a lot on the many rivers that are here, so he brought us back some salmon.

People weren't joking when they said it rains here a lot.  Fortunately we had done our research and came mentally prepared.  Still, it rains almost everyday.  Sometimes the sun peeks out for a little while, but then it gets cloudy and rainy again.  It gets dark here very early too.  Eli asked me the other day, "Why is it already getting dark, Mom.  Is it nighttime again?" :-)   That has been an adjustment for us all coming from Houston, land of sunshine.  I guess we have summer to look forward to, though.  It doesn't get dark until about 10 PM or so.

I am also adjusting to the shopping.  When I go to the grocery store, my jaw drops at the prices.  I knew things would be more expensive, but it will still take some time to get used to.  Actually, some people in the ward have given me tips on where to shop, which has been helpful.

I have to get used to driving to get to things as well.  We actually live in a community of homes called Central Park.  Since the closest stores are mostly in Aberdeen or some in Montesano, we have a little drive to get to stores.  If we want to go where there is major shopping, we have to drive to Olympia, which is 45 minutes from our house.  Josh is in heaven though because there are all kinds of state parks and outdoor activities around here.

We have enjoyed a few activities already.  The town of Montesano, which is about 10 minutes from our home, has a festival of lights every year.  They put on a parade and have a number of events.  We took Eli to a puppet show that he enjoyed, and he loved the lighted concrete mixer that was in the parade.

We went out to Ocean Shores, which is the town right on the beach.  It's about half an hour from where we live.  The waves were HUGE.  It was also very COLD.  It should be fun to go there in the summer though.

 Eli is now in preschool.  In Houston, the options for preschool were not options I particularly liked.  I either had to pay a lot of money or put him in school all day.  At four years old, I just don't think that's what he needs.  Here I have the option of sending him for two days a week for two and a half hours each day.  I can handle that, and it was something he wanted to do.  He enjoys it and has made some new friends.  Since they don't have playgroup in this ward as they did in Houston, preschool will be good for him.  It was a little difficult for me on his first day, however.  He looked like such a big boy, and I realized I will be sending him to kindergarten in less than a year. 

Here are some pictures:

Eli's first day of preschool

Eli's favorite thing in the parade

Eli helping Josh rake the front yard in the rain

Eli freezing at the beach

Eli wanted me to make a candy wreath for Christmas

Our decorated Christmas tree and mantel.

With Halloween Over, it's the Final Countdown

It should come as no surprise for those who know him that Eli wanted to be a superhero this year for Halloween.  He would have been happy being either Spiderman or Superman, but I convinced him that Superman would be better.  The reason: he already had a Superman shirt, so I figured the rest would be easy and cheap.

Eli told me very loudly and clearly that he would not wear red Superman underwear.  "I don't want people to make fun of me," he said.  That was fine by me.  That meant all I had to do was find some blue pants and probably make a red cape and a yellow belt.  Unfortunately, finding the right color of blue pants was not as easy as I thought it would be.  There were lots of navy blue pants and some other hues of blue, but none were the color I was looking for.  Then I saw one of Josh's old t-shirts that he rarely wears (it was the perfect color), and I thought, how hard could it be to make a pair of pants with an elastic band.  It turns out I was right--they're not that hard.  And they're cheap since I already had the fabric and could make a pattern with an old pair of pants.

The cape and belt were also easy and cheap.  I bought a large red adult t-shirt that was on sale for $2.50 at Joann's and some cheap red and yellow felt.  I made up a pattern for the belt and followed a free pattern online for the cape.  Then I bought some cheap $1.50 red flip-flops.  Fortunately, we can still wear flip-flops on Halloween here in Houston.  In fact, since we're still wearing shorts too, I tried to convince Eli to be a warm-weathered Superman.  He already had a pair of blue shorts, but he wouldn't go for it.  He insisted that Superman must wear pants.

Eli was SO excited for Halloween.  I do not remember getting very excited about Halloween.  Christmas, yes.  Halloween, not so much.  The night before, Eli said, "I'm so glad it's bedtime (something he never says) because when I wake up, it's Halloween."  The next morning he ran out of his bedroom very excitedly and said, "YAY, it's HALLOWEEN!" 

Of course, we went to our annual trunk or treat at the church, but we also did some trick or treating at houses as well.  Something changed significantly in one year.  Last year he hated all the spooky stuff, so trick or treating at houses was much too scary.  This year he loved it and couldn't get enough.  He would have done more, but I was done, and it was getting past his bedtime.  Now we have a ton of candy that I have to figure out how to let him eat without eating too much.  I guess that's what Josh and I are here for. ;-) 

When we carved the pumpkin, this is the face Eli wanted us to carve.

This was the result.  Can you see the semblance? :-)

Even when he's not wearing a Superman costume, Eli likes to stick out his chest and show us how strong he is.

Eli told me he wanted a trick or treat bag with a ghost on it that said boo.  This was the result.

Now that Halloween is over, we're nearing the end of our time here in Houston.  We have less than 3 weeks before we pack everything up and say good-bye to the state of Texas.  It's a sad thought, but we're trying to keep it happy by thinking of the wonderful Washington we'll be going to, right?  I have to convince myself.  Even Josh told me that he has some of that Texas pride that people here in Texas talk about.  We have become Texans, and we will shed some tears (I already have).  It is definitely a relocation.   After all, it's over 2500 miles away, across half a dozen states, in a completely different climate (I will be boxing up my shorts that I'm currently wearing and trying to find my coat), two time zones behind, and it's a blue state, not red. :-)  But we know that the Lord has His hand in it and that we need to go.  So, in trying to think positive, happy thoughts, we are excited to move much, much closer to family.  It's beautiful in Washington, and I will get to enjoy the outdoors during the summer instead of sitting in my air conditioned house.  And we get to move to a home.  We're still renting, but it's a home, and we are excited!  Now, does anyone want to come help me pack and clean?