The Greatest Safety Features

My mother in law desperately wants me to get a new car. One with the latest safety features; however, what is difficult for her to see beyond the pealing paint, tape deck radio, and sun damaged interior is that my car links me to my past. I feel safe in it. It reminds me of home, my mom, and many other fond memories.

I remember the day my mom first pulled it into the drive way. This was her first car. She didn't have to share it, it was not an ugly station wagon, and it was the newest car she had ever owned. For Christmas everyone pitched in and bought her a custom license plate TCwriter. She proudly drove this car for several years and I was lucky enough to borrow it when I went to college.

While in college it reminded me of the kindness of strangers as I was stranded on the road with a blown out tire. This was before I had a cell phone and I was left at the mercy of people that passed by, luckily a nice elderly couple helped me put on a spare tire, which at the time I didn't even know where it was located. I drove to the nearest fix it shop and I was quickly back on the road.

At Utah State University it drove me to my first teaching job in the bitter Logan weather. Every morning I woke up to a car frozen in ice. I scraped the snow off the window in -10 degrees. While inside it took several minutes for the car to warm up. It was so cold my CD player was even frozen. I would hold it up to the heater until it was warm enough to play music and then celebrated by eating my breakfast bar.

This student teaching job soon turned into a real teaching job in Salt Lake City. I remember the note I found placed under my wiper blades by my boyfriend as I left from work one day. This was the first of many kind acts and our friendship soon became an eternal commitment. This same car decorated with oreo cookies, white paint, and the words "Just Married" drove us home as Mr. and Mrs. Erickson. The car became ours as a Wedding gift.

I watched as my car was chained to the back of a moving van headed to California. My husband was headed off to graduate school and I took a teaching job in a low income area. There it continued to accumulate miles to and from work, the grocery store, and now the beach.

Soon the car held my most precious possession a new baby placed carefully into a car seat in the back. Trips now include visits to the doctor, park day, and the zoo.

So, my reply to my mother in law about a new car, "I am just going to have to drive this car until it dies which I'm sure will be a sad day, then maybe we can talk about something new."

Birthday

I enjoyed celebrating my 29th birthday.  Some of the highlights included a trip to visit David at Stanford, Chinese take out, and a rum cake for dessert.  My favorite part was  a love letter from David.  I ask for one every year and so far he has delivered

Going to the Store

Taking Aspen to the store is one of my favorite parts of the week.  She is so happy looking at all the people and riding in the cart.  I thought I would snap a picture.

Newborn Video

I finally started my video editing.  I love this video and the funny thing is that Aspen loves it to.

Baby Olympics

Another solid victory for team Erickson at the first annual Baby Olympic Event on Sunday March 6.  The contenders met at the Flore's Field  to celebrate the upcoming birth of baby Dalton by participating in a series of baby themed Olympic games.

During the first game, Measuring the Belly, each player took a piece of ribbon and tried to guess the circumference of Darcy's belly.  The event was close with a show down between Diahanna and Debbie; however Debbie's string was spot on and Diahanna's was off by a few centimeters.  Victory point one for team Erickson.

The guest then enjoyed three rounds of baby charades.Everyone at the event wrote down three words or phrases about a  baby and placed their responses in a jar.  The players in the room were divided into two teams. Team two Ericksons, Daltons, Katie, Tia, and Terry,  and Team One everyone else. 

The first round each player tried to get their team member to guess the word on the card by using other words to describe it.    The team had one minute to guess as many words as they could from the jar.  The jar was passed from team to team until all the cards were guessed.  The team with the most slips of paper at the end won.  Round 1:  Team two, thanks mainly to the Ericksons.

Round 2:  The teams had to guess the words on the same slips of papers by only using two words. Surprisingly, team one took this round, but team two was prepared to take the final round.  This was their strength acting out the words.   After an intense round.  Team 2 was victorious.  Victory point two for Ericksons.

The final game was the a relay race including blowing up a balloon and putting it under maternity clothes, sucking water out of a bottle, eating a jar of baby food, changing a baby doll's clothes, and swaddling them in a blanket.  The race was close between the two teams.  The most challenging part was drinking from the bottle and Flores used the squeeze the bottle and suck technique  and Espinoza could not get the latching right and threw in the towel..  It was not even close.  Team Erickson/Dalton/Flores won.

There was still speculation that team Erickson cheated, but team captain, Debbie, believes , "It is just because everyone else is a sore loser and can't handle the fact that we are  winners and have the skills to back up."

Cowboy Poetry

On the news yesterday, I was sad to hear that the yearly Cowboy Poetry Festival in Elko, Nevada was going to be canceled due to budget cuts. I was so bummed because I will have to wait another year to submit my poem. I tried to feel my cowboy roots when writing this one. I'm half cowboy on my mom's side. The poem sounds especially good with Garth Brooks in the background.

There’s a thousand years of history and a hundred more at least.
All gathered in the stories about taming this wild beast.
And back behind its silly grin and spit that’s oozing out.
Is the ghost of every parent that is trying not to shout.

Every wrap in its small blanket’s been swaddled a million times.
And the mystery of this creature still puzzles ancient minds.
It’s evolution hasn’t changed the way this critter cries.
I’ve lassoed in its spirit now prepare for the reprise

Oh, the milk vein is a bulgin’ every time I hear it yelp
It’s mighty quiet, in this here home there’s no one here to help.
Mommy is the only one who makes the daily grub.
It cries and cries both day and night It’s hard to feel the love.

Star light in the dark of night like a shiny horse’s spur.
Is when this animal’s bedside corral soon begins to stir.
I feel so tuckered out from the endless day of work
But this is the time when the possum’s awake to take its nightly slurp

Jiggle, Jiggle, pat, and burp, jiggle, pat, then burb
Tickle, Tickle, kiss, and squeeze, slobber, poopy, slurp.
But just when I thought I’ve had enough and I’m ready to give in
This puppy cuddles up to me and gives me quite a grin

 

I found this old picture of my Grandpa.  I thought it was fitting for this poem. 

Mom

I keep thinking about writing this blog.  I think about my mom all the time.Now that I am a mother. I am so grateful for everything she did for me. Note: In this picture I'm the baby.

I miss my mom everyday,
and not because she's far away
I miss the stories we shared each night
The soft glow of my small night light

I miss the homemade bread
smothered end to end with butter
and opening my  sack lunch each day
a sandwich with creamy peanut butter.


I miss building snowmen in the yard.
Sledding down the hill together,
Sipping hot chocolate slowly
after playing  in  cold weather.

Dancing in the costumes
She sewed on her machine
speghetti, stir fry, chicken
and her famous taco beans.

I miss the music that we played
on our piano side by side
the way our fingers touched
the keys and sometimes would collide

I watch my daughter sleeping
and pray that I will be
half of the  mother to her
that my mother was to me.

to be continued.. .  .