Alyssa's Hairy Donation

Alyssa has only had one real hair cut ever. Her hair has been getting so extremely long. In fact it’s so long that it’s been giving her headaches. It always has pancake syrup in it. We could only wash it once or twice a week because it was such and long (and painful) process to wash, rinse, comb out, brush and style.

A few weeks ago I got on the Locks of Love website to see what a person would have to do to make a hair donation and learn about their cause. I was touched by what I read and I really wanted Alyssa to get her hair cut and donate it to that charity.

I showed Alyssa the site and some of the pictures of little girls and boys who didn’t have any hair and other children who had donated their hair so they could have a wig made. She was deeply upset at the thought of giving up some of her hair. I told her it was up to her and she didn’t have to do it.


Then the other day she woke up first thing in the morning and said she wanted a haircut and she wanted to donate it. I told her she would have to think about it and in a few days if she still wanted to she could donate her hair.

Two days passed and all she talked about was getting her hair cut and donating it. So that’s just what we did.

We went down to our local Cookie Cutters and they gave her a fabulous new style. They also gave us the paperwork and the envelope to send in her hair to the charity.
I worried that she would be upset after the deed was done. I was also worried that I might be upset. That hair represents a great many hours of my life spent washing, combing and styling those locks. It’s time I have rather enjoyed and taken great satisfaction from.


When the time came and the snip came, Alyssa was pretty indifferent. If anything she was glad to have the burden the long hair brought (getting food in it, getting it zipped up in her coat, getting stuck under seatbelt, having her sister pull) taken from her. I was also very happy and relieved.



She looks absolutely adorable and after a few weeks she hasn’t given her long hair a second thought.

I have a van now

Remember the night Herriman nearly burned down. I got a van that weekend. Looking back, I wish we had made that decision any other weekend. We have been considering a van for the last two years but were waiting for a compelling reason to justify the added expense a larger and more expensive vehicle.

I finally found a compelling reason to make the purchase after driving a carpool 4 trips per week. Digging out seatbelts created quite a problem and more often than not I had scraped up and bloodied hands from doing so.

So we shopped around a lot. And by a lot I mean a really lot. We knew what we wanted to pay and finally found a place willing to sell for that price. Forest Motors in Orem.

They are a small lot specializing in Acura MDX’s and Honda Odyssey’s. In fact that had quadruple the inventory that even the Honda dealers had. We found a really nice (although grey in color) van with leather seats for a price we were willing to pay. We drove the van. We loved the van.

While doing our consumer inspection we noticed they had done a rather poor job of detailing the car. There were still crumbs and stuff in the crevasses. We should have paid more attention to that detail looking back.

Anyway…we bought the van. My bother Jason noticed the van had four different brand tires all with different wear levels. Herriman started on fire and burned all day and all night. We evacuated our house (by choice, not force). We drove around and noticed the engine doing some funky things. We worried all night about buying a lemon and our town and home burning down.

We took the car back on Monday and reported the funkiness. They looked into our complaints. Gave us new tires, replaced the front breaks and rotors. They took the car into the Honda Dealer to have the engine problem fixed. Turns out it was a recall and the software was making the engine “jutter.” They also fixed a recall on the breaks. They were really squishy. I also told them the A/C seemed a little weak. I watched as they checked the interior air filter. As they opened the box all of these fall leaves came out. About a laundry basket full. The thing was filthy.

I was happy that they helped us and didn’t charge us a dime. I was left however with a really unfavorable impression of the dealership. They should have done all this before selling us the van.

The next day I left all the lights on in the van and the battery was dead in the morning. So I got a jump. After I got a jump I could no longer get the radio to work due to the anti-theft system. I again called the dealership who gave me the code. Nice enough.

A day or so later we tried to play a CD in our new 6 disc changer that came with the van. It didn’t work at all. It was like it was just a decoration. I took the van back down to them and drove through a terrible rainstorm and learned that the front drivers side windshield wiper was shredded. It didn’t function and created quite the safety hazard for me while I was in route to the dealership again.

Turns out the previous owner had been using the CD player as a piggy bank and it was full of change. They replaced the CD player for me again free of charge. Nice, but a pain.

Another day, we had been up Mill Creek Canyon with Steve’s family, we dropped off his mom and pulled out of the driveway and heard some big scraping sound as we drove. One of their neighbors flagged us down and told us we were dragging something. Don’t worry, it was just the under part of our front bumper. Nothing makes you feel more stupid than driving around a new car with the temporary registration sticker still in the window while dragging your front bumper. We drove back to his folk’s house and duct taped the thing back on. Awesome. Another trip to the dealership. A simple repair really. Again free. That one might have been my fault. Pulling too far forward in a parking stall is not good for your Odyssey’s front bumper. Noted.

Then a few days later I noticed that when I turned the key to the ignition it was a little slow to start. It made me very nervous that at some point it wouldn’t start at all. Then a dash board indicator came on showing a tire pressure related issue. We didn’t worry about it too much until another light came on the dash board indicating a problem with the vehicle stability assistance. The owner’s manual indicated that we should take it to the dealer if this light showed. So we did and learned that the sensor was bad. Unfortunately it was a $700 part. Yes that’s the part, not including labor. They also told me my rear brake pads were completely worn and nearly metal to metal. Nice.

I cried a little there at the dealer and miraculously, Honda agreed to pay for all but $100 dollars of the sensor replacement. We took the van to our regular mechanic who replaced the brake pads for all of $64 dollars.

The ignition was really slow and I really was hesitant to drive it at all, so I took it down the nice fellows at the Auto Zones and found out the batter way almost all dead. So I was lucky enough to buy a new battery too. The Auto Zone guy put it in for me because I have never done that before.

SO now…the only issue my new van has is a “pingy” vibration coming from the steering column. It only occurs about 50 percent of the time and I am going out of my mind trying to figure out what could be causing it. The dealership tells me it would be very expensive to diagnose what is causing the rattle, so next time I have a thousand spare dollars, maybe I’ll have it looked at.

So if you ever want to ask me how I like my new van…consider how much time you have before you ask it. You may be in for a long story.

It did get us both to and from Moab very safely, convieniently and comfortably. We even had a pic-nic in it.
It's very roomy.

It is very nice and very comfortable. I have a hard time trusting it, but over time hope to build a relationship of trust with it and drive it for a good long time. Would I recommend anyone buy from Forest Motors? Probably not.

I hear Karl Malone Toyota is having their Grand Opening sale (after being in business for 2 years) The new Sienna is pretty sweet.

Steve’s post-note: I was convinced to buy a late model, low mileage used car after reading Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. Dave is right, after two months, this car feels as new as a brand new car and we will save a LOT of money—even with all the repairs and trips to various dealerships and mechanics. However, this purchase may have cost Kristin about a year’s worth of life in the stress it has caused.

For the record, I have purchased four cars.
--First one: Used. Lemon. Didn’t have a catalytic converter. When I took it in for its SECOND emissions inspection, the guy looked at me like I was a criminal. I suspect the first inspection was not actually performed, only paid for.
--Second one: New. Perfect.
--Third one: New. Perfect.
--Fourth one: Used. Major problems. Truth be told, it is a very nice car and I’ve gotten to like nearly everything about it—now that most of the parts have been replaced.

A lot to be thankful for

We had a great Thanksgiving again this year. We always seem to have nice ones since both our families are close and they are both so nice.

Getting right to the main event, Jello. This year I again made two Jello bundts. One in a regular pan like last year and one in a rosette shaped pan. I was a little nervous about the rosette pan because it was quite a bit thicker than the regular.

I also tried, and I do mean tried, to make teenie tiny Jello bundts. I did a dry run earlier in the month which turned out okay, not great. I thought I had learned some things about what would work and what wouldn’t, but…

As I feared, the rosette pan gave me some T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Note to self and all others interested…The thinner the pan the easier to get out. Another note…Little Jello bundtlets, not worth your time, although they are very tasty.

So the mechanics of Jello went like this. The kitchen at the Sokol house was so full and so busy that I demoted myself to the basement bathroom to try and platter up my colorful dish, probably not the MOST sanitary of locations, but my mother-in-law keeps an immaculately clean house (unlike mine) so the bathroom is probably just as clean as the kitchen, right?

So I filled the sink in order to submerge the Jello and get it to release. I ended up having to keep the Jello in the water for so long that by the time it slipped out of the pan it was de-solidified on top. It looked like a tie-dyed soupy mess.

The photo makes it look WAY better than it actually looked. I put it back in it's pan, took it upstairs and threw it out in the snow to resolidfy. (we took it home and ate it all weekend. It still tasted good.)

Luckily I had another. The spare came out nicely and it all worked out just as I was hoping, but not before giving me just a little more trouble and causing me to sweat a few bullets.

After I had melted my first Jello and knowing all my eggs were now in this basket, I was terrified to leave it in the water for a second longer than I absolutely had to. Unfortunately it didn’t come out when I was hoping it would. Not wanting to put in in the water again I moved on to another source. Hair dryer.


It was the hairdryer that saved the day for me. I could put the heat exactly where I wanted and needed it instead of heating the entire thing.
That’s what ended up making it release.
When it came out it basically looked perfect. Whew…what a relief. See that look on my face...That's the look of sweet relief.
These people were expecting a beautiful Jello, and I delivered.

As for the little Jello’s, they were tasty, that’s the good news.
People DID enjoy eating them, also good news.
The bad news on this is they just weren’t nearly as pretty as I was hoping. The pan I made them in was thick like the rosette pan, so I had to leave them in the water extra long and they were soupy when they came out. Since it was so freezing outside, I put them on the porch for 20 minutes, so they were edible and delicious, but…I’ve seen better. That’s just like 2 days of my life I am never getting back. Never again tiny Jello’s. Never again.

George Bush, Costo and Me

I guess you heard that George Bush came to our Sandy Costco to promote and sign his new book. As you know I take great interest in photographing myself with famous people. So I knew I had to make this one happen.

I wasn’t willing to stand in line or camp over night to do it, but I figured I could probably see him make his exit or at least see the motorcade.

With that in mind I headed over to the Costco’s with Sunny at about 1:30. Steve stayed home with sick Alyssa who had a headache and a fever. We really did need to buy diapers and wipes.

When I got there I noticed there were people parking all the way out to State Street. I however drove right into the parking lot and found plenty of up close spots. In fact, I think it’s the best spot I have ever had there.

There were about 3000 people standing in line out front where the carts usually are. I saw my Cousin Aly and Shane and there oldest son Bryton. They told me they had been there since 9:30 that morning. They also told me the line of people wrapped all the way around the building. I wished them luck and headed into the store.

They were screening each person who went through the line and into the store.

Inside, it was like any other day, except…there was hardly anyone shopping. I was one of probably only 50 other customers shopping. It was fantastic! There were way more Secret Service and police officers roving the isles than shoppers.


They had half the store sectioned off these big black drapes. On the other side is where he was.
I sweet talked one of the officers to take me right to the back of where he was standing and I actually could hear him talking. Lot’s of “Thank you ma’am’s and how do ya do’s?” I could also hear the country music he had playing. He loves country music, I heard that years ago, but I guess it’s real. I overheard some Costco employees saying they had to go find some country albums for him per his request. He was playing Tim McGraw’s Anywhere Album when I was there.

Here’s me and Sunbun on the backside of where he was. Super exciting. I am sure he could hear Sunnyboo begging me for a drink.

I went to the back of the store and told the secret service I needed salt for my water softener, so they escorted me behind the curtain and kindly loaded a bag onto my cart. When I was behind the curtain I noticed the curtains created a safe entrance and exit. I saw the motorcade cars parked. After that I made my purchase, but not before sampling some delicious breaded chicken which I bought.

We headed out of the building and I spotted Aly and Shane who looked like they just might get in to meet him. Then we loaded up the van and drove it to the west side of the parking lot.

Just in case...

Sunny and I bundled up since it was quite cold and windy and waited.
We were among the first couple of people to stand at the temp-fence, and we could totally see the door he would exit with and the car he would get in.


We waited 20 or minutes and then there started to be some movement.
It looked like the secret service was preparing for his exit. Ten minutes later in a flash out popped W.
He waved to the small crowd that was there and entered an SUV, not the car like I had thought. It lasted all of about 2 seconds, but it was totally worth it.

In case you can’t tell. That’s George Bush right in the middle of the photo with his hand in the air. You really can only see his head and arm and the photo is a little blurry, but it’s the best I could do and I am actually pretty happy with it.


They really do have everything at Costco.

Post Note: Cousin Aly did, repeat did get to meet him in person. No cameras allowed though. They all got to shake his hand. They were one of the last ones in the building entering at 2:58 pm. It was over at 3:00.

Our new housepet

Pretty soon it’s going to be 2011. But that’s not what I am writing about right now.

We bought this Hibiscus plant early this summer after falling head over hills in love with them during our vacation last winter. Someone told me that Lowe’s had them in their garden center so we rushed right down and got us one.

We were so excited about it when we first bought it. The girls were crazy about it too. We intended to make it our pride and joy. We moved it around to give it the best light. When it was too windy we’d bring it in. We were so good to it. It was like our new little kitten.

It blossomed with the most beautiful flowers for several weeks. Then it stopped blooming, the leaves fell off and it turned brown. It died. We did nothing but love and appreciate it. We watered it regularly. We gave it Miracle Grow. But it died on me anyway.

So I intended to take it back to Lowes and get my money back, but I got kinda busy and just forgot about it for about a month and a half. I had this big gorgeous pot on my porch showcasing an awful dead plant which now looked like nothing but a bunch of sticks poking out of the dirt.

Well…low and behold about a month and a half after I had declared it dead and quit watering it, it put out some new leaves and a few teenie tiny blossoms. We were all floored!

As time progressed it has gotten stronger and bigger and better. We’ve found that if we pretend we don’t notice it and let it have its independence it does magnificent things for us in the form of big beautiful blossoms. So basically it’s a big grouchy cat.


Anyway in an effort to trick the big grouchy cat into thinking it’s still in Hawaii we brought it into the house since it’s like five below zero outside now.


We try not to look at it too much, but I couldn’t resist taking these pictures of the new blooms.
Aren’t they amazing.

If you ever come over, be sure to check in on my hibiscus, but don’t let it know you are looking at it or at least pretend not to be impressed by our grouchy new indoor house pet.

New York Day 3, including SCRANTON!

7:00 a.m. came way too early as we showered and headed out. We took the subway one stop to where we could catch the M60 bus to the LaGuardia Airport. We rode the subway and walked up the stairs. As I approached the top of the stairs I smelled something familiar. It smelled like…earth.

The subway let out right on the boarder of Central Park. There were blossoming trees and dirt. I didn’t realize how long it had been since I had seen a measurable amount of dirt and other signs of plant life. It was so refreshing. No wonder everyone in New York has to have their own herb garden.

We were in a neighborhood that resembled the suburbs or a place where families live. I even saw a few kids with parents and strollers. I started to miss my own kids when I saw other kids. I think they were the first kids I saw in the city. I only cried for a minute.

We caught the bus which rode us through Harlem on the way to the airport. It was so interesting to see the city blocks change and the culture and population completely change. New York is so very segmented. While traveling through Harlem, we were the only white people on the bus.

Steve, as always, did a fantastic job getting us exactly where we needed to be the first time. I swear this guy must be related to Magellan. We hopped off the bus and walked 15 feet to our car rental.

We tried out the trusty tom-tom we barrowed from our neighbors. It was a few years old and it was obvious. It didn’t give any street names. It basically just said turn here….NOW! A little nerve racking. It was right 75 percent of the time, but it led us through midtown Manhattan and told me to turn the wrong way on a one way street. We were seriously the only non-taxi in all of mid-town. Only an idiot would try to navigate mid-town. Luckily an officer was directing traffic and stopped traffic at the 5-way intersection while I backed out and turned around. What idiots we were. Stupid Tom-Tom. The thing also led us right up to the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel and then told us to turn around when possible. Right…the tunnel is like 10 miles long, there is no turning around until you get to the other side and there was NO WAY I would go back through mid-town. I’m not that stupid.

Once we got through the tunnel we were out of the mayhem that was new york traffic. On to the New Jersey Turnpike which was very well run, but you had to pay. Every 10 miles we had to stop and throw 50 cents to a lady in a toll booth. We have it so good here in the west. Paying tolls sucks so bad.

We were suddenly in the country.
It happened so fast. We went from Mayhem to Amish Country is no time at all. The contrast was shocking.

We drove all the way to Scranton PA before we stopped. We were pretty excited to be in Scranton, being fans of The Office and all. We took our photo by the electric city sign.
Yep, that's it. I was expecting more too, but hey...its Scranton. Aren't we supposed to be left hoping for a little more? We looked around for Jim and Pam, but we never saw them. We listened to the radio station that Dwight advertises for with his bumper sticker on his desk. Froggy FM. It was a country station.

We ate at a crappy little diner. Just what we expected from Scranton.
We headed back in the car. Steve was surprised by the thickness of the trees. We were passing all these little cities, but you couldn’t even see them because of the tree cover. I remember feeling so suffocated as a missionary and hating all the trees.

I was so excited as we drove into Ithaca. Seriously I was like a kid on Christmas. Ithaca was one of my favorite areas and I knew there were so many YUMMY things to be eaten there.

Not wanting to waste any time, we headed right to Short Stop Deli to get a frozen custard cone. I was so excited for this moment! YUM!
It was just as good as I remembered. I wanted to document this with Steve so I asked the people behind us in line to take our picture. Of course being in Ithaca the people in line behind us was an old lesbian couple walking their massive dog. Ithaca is a very liberal place to live. Lots of let’s say…diverse…people live there. In fact, there are mostly…diverse people living there.

From there we headed over to the William Henry Miller Inn the Bed and Breakfast we had booked.
The inn keeper showed us around and up to our room. It was too quaint.

After getting settled in our room we set out to see the town.
First stop was The Common’s their granola version of an outdoor mall. It’s hard to tell what the best part of Ithaca’s Commons are the best part.

Is it Sammy’s who makes the best pizza anywhere? Is it the hippies hanging out doing all kinds of crazy things? Or is it the crazy stores and the crazy things they sell. You choose.

Here is my favorite store.


We checked out some of the shops, gawked at the crazies and stopped in at Sammy’s for a pre-dinner slice of Pizza.


Next we headed up to 111 Ferris place which is where I used to live.


A member family, the Lyon’s, owns this house built in the 1850’s.
It has three separate residences.
It was my favorite apartment, because it was so…unique. It was the perfect mission apartment. Sister Lyon was home and let us in the apartment.
The sisters had moved out just two weeks earlier.
Apparently they didn’t find the place as charming as I did. I loved that crazy place and the crazy member family that went with it.

We walked just 500 feet down the road to where a 200 yard bridge spanned a massive gorge with 100-200 massive sheer rock cliffs surrounded by a thick forest with a river running through it all. This is the view looking down from the bridge.

It was a shortcut to the other side of the city. Here we found our first of what I assumed would be many intelligent graffiti.
Ithaca is famous for its liberally motivated graffiti with heavy political undertones.

I used this bridge all the time as a missionary. This time we ventured down into the Gorge. I wanted Steve to see what “Ithaca is Gorges” ( That’s their motto) is all about.

The air was so thick you could almost cut it with a knife.
It felt like we were in some sort of parallel world. Very unique.

On the way down we saw some more Ithaca graffiti.
Too much fun.


We got some pics in the gorge.
The gorges are plentiful and beautiful in Ithaca.

We climbed back out of the gorge and headed up to Cornell campus. Steve was more than impressed with the size and the campus of Cornell. The buildings are all quite gothic looking. It looks like Norte Dame.

The campus is built in between the gorges and surrounded by waterfalls.
When I was here all the bridges over the gorges were open and you could take a picture right off the bridge. You still can, but they are all covered in chain link fences with razor wire.


Cornell has a real problem with student suicide. While I was there, there were 7 jumps and deaths off these bridges.
One of the suicides was the gal that lived upstairs in our house. It was one of the most disturbing things that has ever happened to me. We were the ones who let the police into her house. Hopefully the new fences have stopped the problem.

We drove through the Frat and Sorority houses which I used to frequent. Many young member couples are hired to be frat or sorority parents to supervise the crazy college students. We used to eat with them a lot since the food was all free thanks to the rich students.


We caught more amazing photos and had a great time exploring and jogging my mind about my missionary past.

Next (yes this is still the same day) we headed to Watkins Glen. On the way we stopped at Seneca lake to take a quick photo.
This is one of the finger lakes you hear so much about when watching Lawrence Welk. Very beautiful. Worth a vacation in and of itself.

Our real purpose of the 40 minute drive to Watkins Glen was to eat our real dinner at the best Italian restaurant of all time Jerlando’s!
(I'm a foodie) I only ate here 2 times on my mission and once when I returned. The food is so amazing! Especially the garlic knots.
Which are made fresh submerged in butter and baked in a super hot stone oven then sprinkled with cheese and secret spices. This meal did not disappoint. I have been telling Steve about this place for 7 years and I think he liked it more than I did.

The waiter, who was engaged to Jerlando’s daughter, was really excited by our excitement. He told me how they make the knots and was especially nice to us. He has worked there since he was 14.


After our beyond scrumptious dinner we headed back to town disappointed we didn’t have more time to spend in Watkins Glen. It is worth a week’s vacation all by itself, and not just because of Jerlando’s. It has a Nascar Race and a state park and an amazing lake and so much beauty. And garlic knots.

We drove home in the pitch black. The hills were very rolling and so was the road. The road would completely disappear over the horizon and you could not see it until you were up an over the top of the hill. It was fun and terrifying at the same time. I’ve never experienced it before or since. It was very much like being in a car rollercoaster.

We made it back to our Bed and Breakfast very weary partly because of the carb coma we were in and partly because we travelled from New York that morning. In writing about it, I seriously cannot believe we did all this in one day.