Thanksgiving Weekend

Our ward has an annual Turkey Bowl football game in SF on Thanksgiving. Jason went to that while I packed us for the trip to my parent's house. Dinner there was excellent and low key. The kids were well occupied with cousins, new toys and an actual backyard. Brendan and his cousin Canyon are only a few months apart in age and they played the whole time. Canyon told me that Brendan was his "best friend". Cute!! Eva played with everyone, including the dog, (she sure is a social butterfly) but had some memorable times with her cousin, Dane, watching a movie. They had both seen Cars before but screamed with joy at all the good parts. It was funny.

On Saturday we went sledding in downtown San Rafael on the snow they brought in for Winter Wonderland. Eva was too little to go down, though she wanted to, but Bubbs LOVED it!

The kids also rode a train and played on jump toys.

Now, we are resting and recuperating. Holiday weekends are so nice. Only 3 more until Christmas vacation!!

Gingerbread Houses

For playgroup this week our dear friend Amberly (who is also Brendan's beloved Sunbeam teacher) invited the kids over to make gingerbread houses. She made the houses from graham crackers and frosting and the kids would decorate them. Brendan didn't really grasp the concept of these edible goodies. He put approximately 5 pieces of candy on his and announced that he was done. Then he went off to play. The savvy girls loaded their houses up with candy. They realized what Brendan did not - you get to take these houses, AND the candy on them, home with you and snack away. It reminded me of when I was teaching fifth grade. We would do this project every year. I cannot count the number of times the students made them with flat roofs and just dumped bags of candy on top as "shingles" or made "a yard" at the back of the house out of gobs of Skittles, M&Ms, etc. Maybe next year Brendan will get it. Not to worry though. The house that I made (Eva wasn't interested so I nabbed hers) is chock full of tasty things. I get it. :)

Great Influences: Lee Warthen; Scoutmaster extraordinaire

In the Army there are all sorts of things that they want you to say, mottos and creeds and such. But to those who have been through Ranger School, there is only one creed: the Ranger Creed. It is taken seriously, and is something I still recite every now and then. When I was first getting the Ranger Creed down (under the threat of 25 push-ups per gig) I always struggled with one particular portion where it states:

Never shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong and morally straight


This is curiously similar to the Scout Oath which states:

On my honor I will do my best...
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

It would seem that whoever wrote the Ranger Creed lifted a portion of it from the Scout Oath. I wish whoever he was would have kept the same order and saved me a lot of trouble (and push-ups).

This week I am going to write about my experience in the Boy Scouts. I am an Eagle Scout. I loved Scouts, I mean, loved, loved, loved Scouts. I love the great outdoors, and always have. I can still rattle off the Scout Oath, Law, and Motto at the drop of a hat. I know how to tie a square knot, a bowline, a sheepshank, and a timber line hitch. During a portion of my teenage years, the one thing that kept me near the church was Scouts, and in large measure that was due to our awesome Scoutmaster: Lee Warthen.

Lee was a lawyer who worked for the U of U. He had a few kids our age and we all got along. I think he had been the scoutmaster in that ward forever, and was still scoutmaster a couple years after I left the troop. During that time we went camping about every month, which was the highlight of my young life from the ages of 12 to 15 (at which point we moved to another ward). We did summer camps and winter camps, and merit badge roundups. Only now, years later do I realize the time and energy that Lee poured into the scouting program. I am still friends with the kids from that troop.

Lee represents to me the many Young Mens' leaders who took an interest in us individually and as a group. I should name others like Bob Stewart and Mike Thompson, but no on else had quite the impact as Lee.

Man we had some good times. Every year we went to Stansbury Island and played steal the flag until midnight and beyond, then woke up and played football on the beach. My first trip to Zion National Park (my favorite place in the world) was with the Scouts. On my first camp-out I brought a couple blankets instead of a sleeping bag and payed the price. I remember doing Eagle projects where we hacked out trails with axes and shovels and planted trees. We washed windows to pay for summer camp-outs. I spent a miserable frozen night alone in a snow cave with a summer sleeping bag (easily the worst night of my life so far). I just have so many awesome memories spent in the great outdoors because of Scouts. It has left this lingering sense of adventure in me that just wants to go exploring and hiking every so often. It has also left me wanting to live up the Scout Oath and Law.

And I realize that Lee was the one who orchestrated most of this. It cost him nights and weekends and summers for years.

Thanks Lee.

Limantour Beach

The weather here has been so nice on most days that when Saturday rolled around, we just had to enjoy it. We chose a beach we had never been to and set off. Limantour Beach in the Point Reyes seashore had been recommended. It was a long stretch of beach with smooth sand and very little people. The kids enjoyed digging and crawling in the sand.


We were also told that there was a lot of wildlife to be seen there. We did see many small birds, a few sea birds, a deer and Brendan brought a rotting carcass of some other kind of animal over to us.

Sigh. Boys. Don't worry, we thoroughly sanitized him and had a talk about dead things and not touching them EVER.
On the way home we stopped in a tiny town called Olema and ate at the local farmhouse restaurant. Holy cow!! It was some fabulous food. We will be back.

Baby and Bubbs update

I went in for my 28 week ultrasound to check on the placenta and make sure it had moved out of the way, allowing for one less complication in delivery. The good news is that it has! The even better news is that I got to see the baby once again and get some 3D pictures. She is growing beautifully (in the 67% percentile). The fluid level is a bit more than they'd like but not abnormal, just something to keep an eye on. I see my OB on Thursday for more information. The technician did remark that she had long toes. Guess she has my feet and not Jason's. :)



Another exciting moment today was when we picked up Brendan from school. He is a perfectionist and sometimes won't even try things because he knows he can't do them just right. They have been working on writing their names at school for weeks now. He has just been coming home with squiggles or blank paper, even though he can spell his name out loud to me with ease and build it with letter tiles. Anyway, today he came home with this.

I am so proud of him for trying. I think it looks great!

Great Influences: Siblings

I have three older siblings: Fred, Brad, and Eva. Each has had a major impact on my life. Growing up so close in age was sort of problematic. We used to fight all the time. All the time. We had some real knock down and drag outs. The McDaniel boys turned out to be a scrappy lot, and I am not sure that is a good thing. I got sent home from school more than a few times for fighting. The "brotherly love" lasted for a while until we hit high school and since then, we have been really good friends. In the South they say that everyone is nice and everyone carries a gun and that the two are related. I think that describes the friendly truce that lasted for a long time during our teenage years.
In recent years though, my brothers have turned into my best friends. We really don't talk all that much, but I know that if I need anything or if anything big comes up, I can count on them. When we get together as a family, it is always a great time.
Fred is the oldest of the bunch, and the biggest. Brad and I used to mess with Fred a lot. He was usually really cool about it. Sometimes he wasn't and then it was time to clear out. In my eyes, Fred is an artist. The things he drew growing up are amazing. He has always had an eye for aesthetics, which is too bad because I used to always take his clothes. I used to follow Fred around like a puppy dog. Whatever he did, I wanted to do as well. Fred started skateboarding, I started skateboarding. Fred got a Volkswagon Bug, I got a Bug. And on and on. I think he tolerated his dorky little bro because that is the way Fred is. He doesn't speak badly or make fun of people. He has a sense of humor that doesn't come at others expense. He is universally liked and makes lasting friends easily. He just got engaged to a great girl and we can't wait for the wedding.


Brad is the next oldest and easily one of the most complex people I have ever known. Brad is the athlete of the family. We would play schoolyard football and church basketball. He was always the best and we all knew it. Brad played High School football for West High in Salt Lake City as a wide receiver and corner back. I remember watching some game tape of him on a kick off run full speed into two guys and knock them both over. That was Brad. What made Brad such a great athlete and competitor was a certain edginess that can be somewhat off-putting if you didn't know him well, kind of like a funnier version of the dad on that show "The Wonder Years". The years have really mellowed him into a truly special blend of seriousness, kindness, empathy, and understanding.
Brad is also unusually gifted in winning friends. He is easy going and has a wonderful sense of humor, which I admit to copying on occasion (such as the simulated high five with sound effects). He is also a wonderful parent. It is so cool to see him interact with his kids, and I find myself making mental notes to copy aspects of his style. Brad really married well. He has three really cute kids Drew, Bostyn, and Fynn.


Eva's influence has been more theoretical because her accident happened while I was still an infant, but her life has had a profound effect on mine. The only memories I have of her are being quadrapalegic. Towards the end of her life she stayed in our apartment. I will never forget the day before she died the talk we had as a family. I said that I didn't want her there, that she was taking up too much space in our living room. The memory of that conversation has haunted me for years. How can you ask for forgiveness from someone who has died? Of all the lousy things I have done, this was the lousiest. One evening years later the weight of guilt for what I said came crashing down on me. I prayed really hard for forgiveness. I called my parents to apologize. Through this experience was born my conversion to Christ. As I prayed I experienced a freshness and peace of conscience that is hard to describe.
Part of my patriarchal blessing, that I received a few months after the experience described earlier, deals with my relationship with Eva and how we will meet in the hereafter, something I look forward to very much.

I have an amazing family. I love my big bros and my big sis on the other side. I hope they know how I love and respect them.

Drake's Beach

We were looking for something to do last Saturday so we wouldn't sit around the house all day. It was such a beautiful day in Marin that we decided to travel up to Drake's Beach by Point Reyes. We hadn't been there since Eva was a few months old. We remembered they had a small wildlife museum and a cafe up there. It was a great family outing. The scenery was gorgeous. I wish my pictures showed just how breathtaking the view was.


The kids loved running around on the sand and the rocks. Eva got very dirty and even ate some sand (more than once).






Jason and I just took picture after picture. Definitely a wonderful time as a family.

The first in a series: Great Influences

Jason here. Something I have been pondering for a while has been whether or not write about the important influences in my life. What tipped me over has been the blog book that we ordered (Christine posted about it earlier). I looked at this book, full of pictures and stories from our lives, and realized that the audience of the McDaniel family chronicles extends beyond the here and now. I can see our kids and (hopefully) grandkids perusing them in years to come and I want them to know about me and the people and things that have shaped who I am.

For the first post in this series, I would like to talk about my folks. My parents met in college and dated for years before my dad finally asked my mom to marry him. My dad, Jerry, is the youngest of a large Idaho farming family. He served a mission in the Ohio mission and was in the Air Force for a while. He has done odd jobs in care facilities for as long as I can remember and is just a steady, hard worker. My mom, Nancy, is the middle child of California intellectuals (my grandfather was a superintendent of a school district in the LA area). Mom is gabby and light most of the time, but is one of the most intelligent people I know. Ask her about minor details in a story she read (she was always reading) ten years ago, and she will tell you. My mom joined the church in college against the wishes of her parents, something the parents never really got over.

My mom is, without a doubt, the gabbiest person I have ever met, and I mean that in a good way. She gets along well with just about everyone. My father happens to be one of the quietest, meekest men I have known. They are an interesting mix, and they do pretty well together.

It wasn't always that way though. My parents had four children in five years right off the bat. One day my older sister, Eva, got away from the apartment we where living and fell into a drainage ditch. She almost drowned and suffered brain damage from which she would eventually die ten years later. I would rather not get into the nitty gritty of this particular story, but the effect it had on our family in general has had ramifications that live on.

My parents were devastated understandably. There was a rough patch that culminated in us kids being put in foster care for a while and my parents separated and divorced. They eventually married each other again about four years later. As of now, they are both struggling with health problems, but in good spirits.

From my dad I learned humility and faithfulness. Dad is a spiritual giant. From mom I inherited her love of reading. She also showed us how fun it is to give anonymous service (she calls dropping off a bag of groceries and running "Gremlin Strikes"). Mom's generosity is legendary, almost to a fault. To this day I still have to be careful about saying I like things because I know she will offer to buy it for me, whether she has the money or not. I also learned good cheer from my mom, and I when I think of all the virtues that my mom has, this one easily eclipses them all. From her absentee parents, losing a child, divorce, a myriad of health problems too numerous to get into, and semi-wayward kids, she has managed a level of good humor and chipperness that borders on the amazing.

They are good people and I am proud of them.

Update

A few things of note that have happened lately:
1. Jason has taken part 2 of the National Dental Board Exam. We will find out if he passed in about 2 weeks but he feels good about it. One more major hurdle out of the way! And on the way home from the test he stopped at a thrift store and found some awesome polyester ties. He was in heaven (almost more excited about the ties than the test being over).

2. Eva now says her name. It sounds like "Eh-wah". Also, when we change her diaper, she wrinkles her nose and says, "Yucky poo."
With Daddy's new tie

3. I took the kids to the doctor today and they were given the diagnosis of "really bad colds". Brendan still has a cough but is otherwise back to normal. Eva got her H1N1 vaccine while we were there and I noticed that she had popped in her last incisor. So she is super cranky but on the mend. Yay! I am SO tired of being stuck in the house due to sick kids. I was going stir crazy.

4. I am starting to "lose" my belly button. This belly is getting big. And I am already starting to waddle. I have had heartburn since week 18 or so. My body just seemed to give up early with this pregnancy. :)