All right, we still live at the same place, but we moved our BLOG to Blogger. Bookmark thetorgs.info, and you’ll always be able to find your way to the TorgerZoo.
Our old posts will be on wordpress, but all our photos will stay on flickr.
Avalanche!!! October 26, 2008
I finally got these off my email, Tom sent them to me to illustrate just how high in the air he was- (50 feet? I don’t remember now) when he got scared spitless for a few minutes. About a month ago Tom was in Redmond doing a survey of a salt pile (We’re talking the Redmond Real Salt) with his dad and he had to climb up to the top for a shot. Well, he was climbing, or standing there- he should really be the one telling this story- when the whole hill started to move under him. He was stuck there, trying not to fall on his face and get buried under a pile of salt, with his dad watching closely from the ground so he’d know where to dig him out if it came to that. Luckily it didn’t. Tom just rode it down a ways, ended in salt up to his knees or there-abouts. After that I think he decided to go up the back of the pile and get the data a different way, rather than up the face. He was fine, just a little….shaken? I think it came close to the time he was almost struck by lightening while surveying as far as scare-factor goes. The pics are cool though, and he looks pretty good if I do say so myself… 😉
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- Salt Surfing
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- Salt Surfing
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- Salt Surfing
Vaht a Veek! October 25, 2008
Okay, it’s late, I’m tired, but Tom’s doing his Navy duty this weekend so I don’t really want to go to bed. Besides, all the kids are asleep, so this is a perfect time to do this. 🙂 Anyway, I plead insanity as my excuse for that awful accent up there. 
Honestly though, it’s been quite a week! Tom’s sister Cindy came to visit from OR with her husband Dan- yay!!!! We had tons of fun with them, and I don’t know if the kids wore Dan out, or Dan wore the kids out… they were all sorts of wild, when they weren’t busy reading anyway; Dan and Cindy both were super nice about that!
And then Sam and Elena were invited to a birthday party on Thursday, and got to wear their costumes-
They had a blast and came home with small pumpkins they decorated. Then Sam went to another party this morning- a SURPRISE party- what fun!
Lily did something really funny today- she’s really growing up! She’s talking more and more- I realized something tonight- we’ve been surprised that she doesn’t say dad, or even dada (Well, Cami comes out kinda like dada, but different, slightly.) and tonight she was talking to Tom and she was calling him ‘Papa!’ isn’t that cute! And I realized later, she calls me Momma a lot too- it’s actually a great big long thing, like “momma-mom-mamma…” but she called me just plain Momma several times. Funny girl. Anyway, so the specific funny thing I had in mind; she took a bath this afternoon, and after about 20 minutes when I went in (again) to see if she was ready to get out, she had a present in the tub for me. Yup. For some reason, in spite of doing so well, (she’s doing amazing I think!) with potty-training herself she….didn’t this time. so she finished on the toilet while I cleaned the tub, then we got her back in again to get clean. She was in at least another 20 minutes. When she came out she was holding her hands out in front of herself and looking worried, “momma-mom-mom-mom”-ing me, and over the next half hour or so she kept looking back at them confused and worried. 
I realized it was because her hands were all wrinkly from being in the tub so long! Funny Girl!!!
And that’s just some of what’s been going on- Cubmaster Tom had to do Pack meeting thursday night, and he left tonight for the weekend. I’m trying to get my songs in order for Sunday…Oh wait. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that…I’m the Primary chorister now. This’ll be my 3rd week, and and adventure since I’ll be at church without Tom and thus will have Cami with me. Hm, it’s just primary though, right? I’m enjoying it so far though, I was called the week after the program, so I didn’t have to worry about that. Phew! So far we’ve just been getting to know each other- trying to have fun and figure it all out. Anyway, now its way way way past my bedtime- ttfn!
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and other tales of intrigue… October 22, 2008
OK, I don’t know the best way to do this, individual posts for each story, or one long post…. I guess we’ll see what unfolds. That’s just what I get for not doing them promptly! First, tomatoes; ours were INSANE this year! I kid you not, we had tomatoes ALL OVER our garden. I didn’t even fertilize them and we still had 6 foot vines on them, seriously reaching from one end of the garden to the other, growing in the corn, cucumbers, cilantro, the other corn, zucchini, just everywhere. I tried to get a pic so you could see the vastness of the tomato leaf jungle, but it doesn’t do it justice. 
Here’s the lowdown though, I picked a whole bunch of tomatoes about 2 weeks ago, on a Tuesday or Wednesday I think; picking everything that was remotely close to wanting to be ripe. (Here’s a question for you I’ve been trying to figure out all summer: Do the tomatoes start out white, then go green before orange/red? Or vice-versa?) Reds, oranges, and orange shades of green. I went back out on Friday and picked about half the vines that were left, literally the vines. I just pulled up the whole plant and picked it clean. We were going out of town and it was supposed to freeze that weekend anyway. So, here’s what I pulled out of the garden that day- the bowl and pans were what I got the first day, and everything else I got that Friday. 
Needless to say we have a lot of tomatoes, and could have had a bunch more…life is just too crazy. Next year though, I’m only doing one roma or cherry or grape, and the rest will be LARGE tomatoes, for easier salsa making. This year I have a bunch and it’s a bit of a pain, although picking them is a bit like picking grapes, whole bunches at once.
You know Sam’s in kindergarten, and loving it, but I had to show off for him a bit. He’s really loving reading, he’s been bringing home little ‘predecodable’ books from school that teach him sight words, but he’s been reading some from the library, like the Bob books, and he’s really taking off! In fact he was reading scriptures the other night; funny thing though, one of his last books from school was questions, he started reading it to me, and I said “is that how you’d ask a question?” Well, he started over, and up went the voice, and up when the shoulder, and over went the head, it was pretty cute/funny! when I figure out how to get the video on here I will.
Oh, and I’ve finally got a picture of the wall quilt that Tom did this summer- 
This is a Tom original, and while he did decide against using broken glass, You can see the barbed wire running through it and making the handle. The title is “Escape from Paradise” which makes Tom wonder what message we’re sending our kids, hanging it over the front door….
Tag- You’re it!
Alright, I’ve seen a few of these ‘tag’ things going around, but this was too fun and easy to pass up. Here’s how it works: If you’re reading this, you’re tagged. Now you go to your 4th folder/file of pics, and post the 4th picture. See? Easy as pie! fun too! Now, let’s see what I find….
Alright, I think I’m going to do a couple- this one is just the 4th picture in my pictures folder- it’s from January right before my brother Will (bottom middle) left on his mission. It’s my 8 brothers and Tom and Sam. Fun!
Now, what’s next?
Ok, so I’ve learned that my pictures need to be organized- what a jumble! This is from 2 years ago, Thanksgiving, Tom is giving his classic “you’re taking my picture” pose. Isn’t he han’some? Too bad- he’s mine! 🙂
Bleghck…. Hurray! September 25, 2008
Alright, I’m going to have to add a picture of my big girl later, but I just had to share this. While Lily was taking her second bath of the morning (she likes water- a lot) I was in the kitchen cooking some eggs for her and Elena. After a couple minutes Lily came up, trying to hold a towel around herself, along with a wet washcloth, and a toy or two. She was telling me she was cold “Ho- hhhooo!” and shaking to show me. She came to stand by me while I finished, then all of a sudden she goes “bleghck! Yeck! bleghghgh.” I look down, and sure enough, she’s left a little…something on the floor. I said something like “yeah that is yucky! That’s why we do that on the potty, let’s run in the bathroom, hurry!” We ran in the bathroom, and I couldn’t find all of her potty- (the most important part was missing-the bowl) So I just grabbed the seat and stuck it on the toilet She sat down and much to my surprise, when I got back a minute later from cleaning the floor- she had finished her job in the toilet! Hurrah!!!! So I made a big deal of her doing poo-poos on the toilet and gave her a little cup of marshmallows. She was VERY proud of herself, even if she didn’t comletely understand it. I know it was mostly luck and timing, but she did know enough to stop and hold it until she got on the toilet. Yay for Lily!!! Hurrah!
Catch-up… August 25, 2008
Okay, so I’ve been looking at some of my friends’ blogs and I’ve been shamed into action. I’m going to do a quick update here, and post some pictures for you to get an idea of what we’ve been doing for the last….long while. Right now … I should be asleep, I start my career as mother of a school-child in the morning, Sam starts kindergarten! He is VERY excited! He is still crazy about cars, and anything else with wheels, and loves superheroes too. He loves being the oldest kid in the house, and holding Cami and talking to her. He’s also a pro at putting away the kid dishes from the dishwasher, and loves to arrange them ‘just-so’ in the cupboard. He’s a bit of a perfectionist (unless he’s in a hurry). What can I say, he comes from a line of Engineers!
Lily is turning 2 in just over a week, and she’s hit the terrible twos stage with a vengance! She’s actually improving the last couple days. She’s hated going to bed for a while now, a big change from being our little angel at bedtime. I finally went and got her a toddler bed the other day, and I think maybe it’s helped. No, she hasn’t actually fallen asleep in it yet, but she is sleeping longer at night and waking up happier, hurrah!
As for Elena, she if having lots of fun being a big sister. Sometimes we have to remind her that she is the BIG sister, but she’s a big help when she wants to be, and she LOVEs her little sisters, and adores her big brother!
Tom’s having loads of fun working for his dad, he’s a self-appointed office manager and I think he gets a kick out of turning accepted systems topsy-turvy just to make things difficult for the other employees (all 2 of them). He’s also very excited about his new calling, he’s been waiting 6 years for it and it’s finally here- CUBMASTER!!!! Really though, he’s already diving in, he’ll be great, whether he believes it yet or not! Also, he’s embarking on another new journey. Sam played T-ball in the spring, and that was just naturally “my-department” well, On Tuesday he starts soccer. Tom will officially be a soccer dad. I’ve told him HE is the one that’s going to have to step in here, because I know NOTHING about soccer. Go Team!
Me, well, I’ve been fighting a bad cold this weekend, so that’s my most recent excuse for neglecting things, but I’m keeping busy with the kids. Right after we moved I did a quilt for a local quilt challenge (in which Tom won 1st place in the wall hanging category), and other than that I haven’t done any sewing projects I had in mind, I will though, I have a sewing room! I still manage to read a lot, but only because I read fast. I’m getting to know the other ladies around and making friends and still waiting for a calling so I can get to know them even more. I have so many things I’d love to do- keep my house spotless being one of them, but sometimes the stress of trying to make it so seems more than the stress of dealing with it and fixing it later, when the kids are asleep! One of the biggest things thats happened to me lately is on Aug 3rd Tom and I went to SLC to the Anniversary Inn, our first time there. We’ve had it planned for months now, one of those “free night’s stay if you listen to our presentation” things. I’m sure even Tom will admit that the presentation was worth a night alone, without the kids. It was fun, we were in the Italian Gondola room and we watched movies and lounged in the gigantic hot tub. I had some anxiety after we left the kids, Cami included, at my mom’s in Mapleton, I couldn’t believe I was leaving my baby for 24 hours without me! It turned out ok though, I was probably more traumatized by it all than she was! I think maybe we’ll have tomake it a yearly thing, get away for a night without the kids…. just not having to put them to bed is a break! 🙂 And I miss them so much while we’re gone that I treasure them even more when we’re back. It’s good for us all! Anyway, here’s some pics, and I’ll post some more soon! Now that I think I’ve figured out how to do this, I won’t wait for Tom anymore.
Cowboy Tom August 19, 2008
We had fun riding horses at the Page reunion, they were roughly 30 minute rides around the mountain, on very sedate horses that always stayed in a certain order… parked themselves at the hitching post when we got back, and occasionally needed a kick to get them going faster. They were supposed to walk head to tail practically and if ever we got a whole horselength (or heaven forbid, 2) of space between us they guides would shout out “Kick ‘Tarzan'” or whatever horse you were on, until you caught back up. It was fun, made me want a horse, just so I could ride a little more, do some more trotting maybe… and not have to wear a life-jacket (no joke folks!) and riding helmet just to walk! Funny thing though, when you go to ride, they do “orientation” tell you the rules etc. then say “pick a horse and wait for a guide to mount up! Well, they never say NOT to ride any certain horses, so Tom just assumed, nobody’s going for a certain horse he can ride it, right? He decided to climb on one of the smallest horses, thinking that’d be safest… he just mounts right up, unhooks her lead from the fence and is sitting there waiting to start. All of a sudden the girl guide goes “GET off of Rosie! Hook her back up! Quick! ” She’s quietly panicking … ” So Tom hurries and gets down, then the guides all laugh at him and tell him she’s a mustang and he’d have quite the ride if he stayed on her! They couldn’t believe how calm she was while he was on her. One of them rode her on the trail and was showing Tom the whole time the things she likes to do, spin in circles, balk… spin some more. It was funny- mighta been funnier to see him try to ride her though….. 🙂 In this pic he’s riding behind his uncle Henry. Like our gettup?
Pony Ride
We just went to a family reunion at Reid Ranch up past Strawberry Res. One of the perks was horse and pony rides- the kids loved the ponies and were very cute in the helmets- especially Lily!
Photos on Flickr March 31, 2008
We’ve got a bunch of photos on flickr now. Check them out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomdi
Let me know if that doesn’t work. Also, how can I get the photos to display on the sidebar? Anyone?
Tom & Di & Co. 
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