Maturation

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Dear goodreads friends I met at Borders/new girl at church/facebook friend/neighbor/parent at kids school/Paris,

I am no longer the friendly person that I once was.  I used to love to invite people over for dinner and in fact have had epic arguments with my husband about how much time to spend with people who aren't my closest friends. I have always enjoyed spending time with people and for some reason I have always gained energy from being with others--the more the merrier.

Now, I am totally saturated with keeping my kids entertained/working with their school/fixing our computer for them/cleaning my home/moving/national school reform/facebook/staying on top of my finances/maintaining a relationship with those who do care enough to call or email me periodically/playing angry birds with my son/helping make valentines .

As my kids get older they are more fun to be around/want to talk more/more interested in learning/more needy/more angry and I find that they are taking over my social life/fun time/vacation interests/movie choices and I actually LIKE it.

What has happened to me that my favorite people to hang out with are my children?  When did I get to the point that the people who give me the most energy are the fruit of my loins?

I finally understand my bff/favorite former freighbor/visiting teachee/friends, who never seemed worried about needing new friends, and why they love their families soo much.

Does this mean I am aging?  Have I outgrown the days of wanting to travel abroad/spend time with friends so much that I was willing to leave my children behind?  Is this a happy/unhappy side effect of the travel that I do for work?

I apologize that when we talk the only thing I have to say is about schools or my children.  But for me, what else is there?

I am wondering if this is a phase or if I am going to be sad and lonely in 4 years when my son gets his driver's license (which, incidentally is not going to be treated like a thing he has to earn, he is getting that sucker on his 16th birthday and he is going to drive everyone everywhere) and will look around and see I don't have any friends left?  

I am not happy about this.  I want to go to Europe/throw parties/have you over for Sunday dinner/make new friends/keep the old/have a girls night out weekly.  But instead I find myself browsing redbox to see what movie my kids would like/planning fancy breakfast treats for fun/volunteering to teach in their classes/making entire family decisions based on their happiness.

I remember this quote from Thomas S. Monson (quoting Ann Campbell) about a mother's view of her children:

You are the trip I did not take;

You are the pearls I cannot buy;

You are my blue Italian lake;

You are my piece of foreign sky. 



When I first heard this quote I always thought that it was a sense of sacrifice--that I raised children instead of the travel and luxury of life so they should be thankful.

Now I see that this poem is really about the fact that being with my children is what give me the deepest satisfaction.

But when I do need you again, when I find myself in a phase where I am not utterly consumed by motherhood, will you be there for me? Will I forget how to make new friends?  Will I recognize myself when I only want to see my existing friends?

Until then, just know that I fantasize about being my old self, about the kinds of foods I would serve you, the conversations we might have and the books we would talk about.  It isn't you, it's me.

Sincerely,

Overbooked

*I am writing this post so that when I find myself friendless and alone in Utah, I will remember that there was a time that I felt that my family was enough.

You Impress Me

There are a lot of impressive things that people do.  People like you, people that I know and people that inspire me to be better at the things that I do.

Yet I won't be replicating your actions because it is beyond my capacity.  But I want you to know that I really, really admire the things you do and in parallel universe I would do them too.  But I won't for obvious reasons-- that I am not motivated to do them.  But I wish I were.

So here are the things you do of which I am in awe yet will not be copying:

1.  Run marathons (even a half marathon blows me away)
2.  Show up on time to church every single Sunday
3.  Throw themed and fancy birthday parties
4.  Maintain a religious, 5 day weekly exercise routine
5.  Amazing photography (if you own a zoom lens you probably qualify)
6.  Professional cake decoration
7.  Eat small portion sizes on a daily basis
8.  Mop your kitchen floor nightly
9.  Have kids participating on sports teams (the one that I am actually motivated to do but have no idea on how to get accomplished)
10.  Artful decorating of your home

Most of you do more than one of these things which is even more impressive.  Thanks for being a source of inspiration to me and all those you know.

Losing Loved Ones

As I get older I know these kinds of things will happen more and more... but I woke up this morning to some truly tragic news about Megan Smith, a girl that I babysat when I was in high school.  She passed away after a four month battle with Leukemia that was discovered hours before giving birth to her first little baby who was taken away from her to begin immediate treatment. The story of Megan is particularly tragic because of her youth but also because she has always been a joyful soul.  Her siblings are unique and tremendous people, her older brother Nathan being a wonderful friend to me when we were both in the youth program.

Her mom, Pam, has been special to me since the moment I met her.  When I was 15 and went to church for the first time, Pam was there giving a lesson on the importance of journals.  Something about her, the way she talked, the way she laughed, the way she explained things just made me fall in love with her.  I eventually started babysitting her kids, more than anything as an opportunity to just hang out with her family.  Each time I go home to Sonora I get a chance to visit with her and we have developed a special relationship over the years.  I can't tell you enough how much she means to me.

I could also say a lot about her husband Doug --  He is a judge and it suits him perfectly.  He is wise and balanced, kind and loving, and believes in fairness.  Doug would sometimes send me cassette tapes on my mission chatting about this and that-- in Spanish--to encourage me on my mission.  He also wrote me a letter of recommendation that helped me get some scholarships and acceptance into BYU.  He has taken to baking a particular kind of cookies for our family each time we visit Sonora and I will always enjoy his clever thinking and sense of humor. I hope to see them at Thanksgiving.

I love Doug and Pam tremendously and I hope they feel love and peace as they fight the sadness this inevitably brings to them.  They were so proud of their special daughter and truly this will be an lasting pain for them.  My prayer is that their sorrow will be quieted by a hope of a world to come that is without physical pain or sadness.

Home Again

Before I fill you in on the details of the rager that was Steve's grandma's 90th, let me tell you about my dreamy return home after 10 weeks.

You know how you walk in the door after a long vacation and your house is sorta clean but not really?   And how you have no food in it?  And how it is the day before school but you have no snacks for them?  And how you have ants *because you live in family housing?  And how it is Sunday so you want to keep the sabbath but also eat so you have to eat rice and refried beans assuming you have some in the pantry?  Maybe some cereal with powdered milk (okay gross I would never do that but I hear some people do.)

Well my friends, let me tell you about my neighbor Clarice.  Her husband is from New Zealand and since we were out of town for the summer, his parents came and stayed in our apartment for a couple of weeks.  As "repayment" to us (since it had absolutely no negative affect on us whatsoever considering the apartment was just sitting here unused) we came home to the following:

1) A brand new refrigerator.  The sealing strip has been busted for four years but we just shut it twice every time, never bothering to report it--Clarice called right away and next thing you know, boom, new fridge.  And someone cleaned behind it which is even more magical and tragic.  Tragical.

2)  A clean house.  I know that I have an amazing husband and I mean this in no way to be offensive to him, but he was here without me when they left.   He packed and took the circus on the road with four kids by himself.  I KNOW that the house was not this clean when he left.  I just know.  All towels were folded and put under the bathroom sink, the floors were vacuumed and swept, and all sheets were clean.  Additionally, she cleaned off the bottom bunkbed and organized all items into a grocery bag.  The kids room was especially marvelous.

3)  This one is going to blow you away.  Ready?  A house full of food.  Picture walking in the door and seeing your kitchen table stocked with enough snacks for kids' lunches for two weeks.  Snacks galore.  Imagine opening your fridge and seeing it full to the brim with fresh fruits, cheese, eggs, milk, yogurt (organic!) and a variety of other goodies.  In the freezer?  Salmon and chicken.  Frozen gogurts for the kids--four boxes.  No lie people.

4)  A new vase and an envelope full of cash.  It is probably tacky to list the amount here but let's just say it is the equivalent of a week's worth of groceries for our family of 6 people.  Since they already provided us with two weeks worth of food, the extra cash seems, well, frankly amazing.

I have never done anything this generous for anyone and you can be sure that I am going to add this to the list of tricks that I would like to pull off at least once in my lifetime.  Isn't it awesome?  I just really am amazed that a woman with five kids of her own, a full blown time consuming job working for housing, and a husband working on a Ph.D took the time to do all of this for us.  If you know Clarice I supposed you are probably not surprised, but wow, awesome, no?

This is on the same day as I received some pretty special hospitality from a friend of mine, Vegas style.  I will share that story next but first I would like to collect a few stories from others--what is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

*Seriously, even if you don't live in FSH, I find that ants are a major pain but if you go with the Terro, you won't regret it.

Birthday Celebrations

A Pirate theme...

Sound like a fun idea.  This ^^^ is the party I attended exactly two hours before the party we threw for our kids.  Needless to say, do not go a party the day you are hosting one because it just sets the bar unbelievably high.  Unless it is a moving themed party.

I asked my own kids what theme they wanted and the response was: Food.

So we had a food themed party, which I can't really say is radically different than any other party we throw.  Here are the shots of our food:

Behind the fruit salad was the bruschetta so here is the much requested recipe for y'all.  The bread, fyi, was a combo of the Trader Joes' Multigrain, the Albertson's French and a loaf of sourdough from Our Daily Bread. Did you know that the Goleta weird Albertson's (over by TJs) sells bread from Our Daily Bread?  So good. 

The Graham Crackers were actually Fruit S'mores which I really liked for kids treats.  Super easy, cream cheese and brown sugar spread on the crackers, then fruit--we did a slice of strawberry, a half blackberry and two halves of raspberries.  

Then the cardinal sin of kitchens, I actually used a jar product to appease my children and I still regret it.  I wanted to make my own nacho cheese sauce but they insisted I buy this stuff.  AND they didn't even like it ("this cheese is yucky"--duh!)

Gross.  But we did have some other stuff for the nacho bar:

Each of the kids also got their own cake.  Bonus points to those who know which character is featured on the cupcakes.  Doesn't count if you came to the party.

And party cake numero dos:

It was my first time ever making roses so no mocking.

And the last one that took the most amount of time and really looks the least appetizing:

Yes I am a short-order baker one time a year.  This is my attempt to show love via baking--which kinds of the ways of showing love is that? Time?

We always do a treasure hunt, also related to the food theme because they got a lot of chocolate.  Steve created 44 clues, 4 treasure hunts, and a very complex party experience.  A few parents were concerned that we lost the five year old group but they all appeared eventually, none the worse for the wear.  Safety in numbers, remember that.

Some of the treasure seekers:

Remember this kid in white ^^^

If this were Friday, it would my favorite foto.  The kid in white I told you to remember?  He is hilarious.  His older brother is too, they are the same ages as my 2 and 3 and in their respective classes as school.  So the kid brings a gift in a bag with the following note:

Translation:  do you like the Dodgers?  If you like the Dodgers then open this.

So in spite of not having any intention of becoming a *fan, she did indeed open the bag which yielded a stained and well-used jersey from the kid.  He, btw, is 5,and he gave the gift to my daughter turning 8. His mother suggested he give it to Gillian instead, but he insisted that he wanted Bridget to have it.  I thought this was the best gift of the day and provided a great memory for everyone in the family who got a kick out of it.  A gift lasts a few days but a hilarious memory lasts a lifetime.  

Thanks to everyone who came, especially those who gave us these GREAT games that we have been loving for hours:

Blokus

Set

I have no idea who the giver was of these gifts but Set is seriously THE best game.  Too bad my family members cannot seem to beat me.  Katie another reason that I need you to stick around and provide me with some competition.

*A joke I once heard from this guy:

A guy was heading down to watch a Dodgers game and realized halfway to the stadium he forgot his tickets in his car on the dashboard.  He walked back to his car and saw that someone had broken into his car windshield... and placed two more Dodger's tickets on the dash.

This and That

I have been doing a lot of stuff so I have had to neglect a few invites to charadium which I am unfortunately just not mastering. However, I turned on the autocorrect and let's see if that helps.



Here is a quick update:


1. Disneyland. We are trying to make good use of those passes we bought so we have gone now 7 times. I like to dress us all in the same color so I can find everyone quickly but unfortunately this last time I selected brown and everyone just blends it. Red works WAY better. Oh well lesson learned.

2. I have taken a lot of years to discover how much I like this place but there is no other FF place I would rather be than this one (aside from Chick-Fil-A which we don't have here).  I wish this discovery had not come at the beginning of a serious calorie reduction program (which is working great for me, thanks for asking) but I did discover that you can get a "protein style" burger with lettuce instead of a bun that only has 280 calories.  The problem is I love the buns so it kind of loses its fun. 

3. Kinder graduation. Nothing special and it might be a bit of an overly blown ceremony but I still found a joy in watching this little cute girl limp down the aisle.  She is holding our end of the year teacher treats in her hands.

 

I spent most of the ceremony chasing this child:

Gillian was sad that we didn't bring balloons like a lot of the other parents but we told her she had a lot more to go before we would fork out any cash for her.  But still, major milestone!

4.  Katie's birthday bash.  Gooood times at Chilis outdoor exile patio.  We were the only ones out there so we could be loud, and not worry about talking over everyone which is good considering there were 17 adoring fans in attendance.

5.  A songbird flew into our house.  For some reason it was enthralling and scary.  Mary Poppins and Cinderella mainly communicated through windows with them, right?  Here are three of ten shots I took:

6. Cream is yummy. We celebrated Katie's Dessert Contest win by buying a half gallon of cream to make a chocolate trifle. No pics evidently but believe me, it was scrumptious.

MWF seeking new local BFF

So as you may know my favorite friend Katie is moving all the way across the country.  In fact, there are only a few other places she could move domestically that would be further away (maybe Maine or St. Augustine)

Today we went to the beach.  I hope she posts a pic of either the dead non-singing bass we saw or the seaweed grass skirts (since you don't have an iphone you can mms it to me and I can post it) to show how much fun it was.

I soo heart this friend of mine and she had me at "yeah it was a little crazy" when I questioned her about a event in which we had both participated and were afraid to acknowledge its craziness in public.

Actually even prior to that time I remember that at the first playgroup I attended when moving to SB, she used her mad newsreporter skillz to discover everything about me in a short conversation.  It was only about an hour later when I realized that I didn't know anything about her.

See that is Katie's magic.  She asks the most detailed and interesting questions that make your own life seem infinitely more interesting than it actually is.  Some people talk so much you can hardly get a word in edgewise.  With Katie, you continually fall into a trap of being that guy--she asks so many questions that I always walk away wondering how anyone could listen to me talk for that long and still manage to appear interested.

Most amazing is that Katie isn't using this strategy to deflect from her own lack of interestingness.  She has more creativity in her small toe than most people do in their entire beings yet it takes you at least a year to even scratch the surface.   She takes brilliant pictures, she makes the most carefully crafted boutiquey bows worn by children all over, she has a wild sense of humor that you must listen carefully to catch (or read) and btw, her birthday parties are legendary.  If you are a regular reader, you know that she was our FIRST place baker in our dessert contest.  Her recipes are posted over here if you want some scrumptiousness.  There are so many other things to say about her but I don't want to reveal in ten minutes what it took me four years to learn.  Four years and what feels like a lifetime of friendship.

My one consolation is that Katie and I are friends online already--we read and comment on each other's blogs, facebook updates, and email each other links to funny/inappropriate/political shockery.

My other comfort is that she is moving to such a fun place I will be able to hold out for a periodic family vacation visit.

I won't say I am sad for her, only for me and the gigantic hole she is leaving behind.

Anything I forgot about her?

Choices

May 22.  It seemed like it was going to be a wonderful day.

But now I have too many choices and all of them will have a negative impact on someone else.

Help me vote on this issue so I can have a clean conscious.

1.  Graduation party. 

One of my former students who is graduating from Berkeley and going on to Med School. She is having a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme party.



2.  NYC

I have my last visit to the school I work with in Albany. The teachers have invited me to stay an extra day or two and they will take me to see the local sites.  Since a few of them are actually from the city it would be the tour from locals.  And last time I can use a work trip as a junket there.


3.  Craft Day

Ward craft day, I have been waiting all year for this splendiforous occasion.

4.  And then I got a wedding announcement in the mail from this lovely girl who I used to babysit.

So now I will have guilt no matter what I do.

If you can share what you might do, it might help me.  Muchas thanks.

American Idol Polls

I don't win stuff very often so please forgive me for this self-indulgent post.

But check this out:

This if from a website called funofficepools and in my "virtual office" we have this little competition.

So look who is on top.  In blue!!!

I hope I didn't commit to spending money on this pool because I will inevitably lose. I just want to thank Paige for being so clearly in the bottom that it was safe to stick all 20 of my points squarely on her shoulders.

I also am technically in first place over here but for some reason the fuzzy math right-winger running the site gave someone a freebie point so I am in second even though I predicted correctly the bottom three and the one who was voted out.  Weird.

Anyway, this is one time event so thanks for letting me share.

Christmas Card Review

Ode to Markie

Oh the woes of holidays....

Let me break this down for you if I can:

Many couples fight about money and... other things.  Not us, folks, we fight over friends.  When we travel we are constantly at odds over who we will see and for how long.  We have long ago learned that we run out of time when we go to Utah to try to see friends from Christmas past, present, and future and we miss someone that we care about so we have had to come to terms with the fact that either we fight or we plan out in advance who we are going to see.  I have the philosophy that we should see a lot of people, one time.  Steve has the philosophy that we see a few people for longer.  Both arguments have merit.

So we compromise and we do this by me seeing people alone that are the shorter visits--so I usually go see the at-home moms during the day and then at night we do our longer visits.  I don't like it and neither does he but it keeps the flame alive.

This last trip we saw the following people for longer:

Mark and Angela
Family

We saw the following during daytime short visits

Chellese
Wendy
Helen
One night out with my mission friends
Sunday evening visit with my family

We have known all of these people for 5 years or more and there are about ten other people we did not see, some of them people we have known for almost 10 years.

So while it seems like we are always in Utah, the truth is, we rarely get to see new people or even all the people we love and care about.  To add anyone else simply complicates matters--I had two people who I really wanted to see over Christmas who I missed just because of time and it broke my heart that it never worked out.  Not to mention my beloved Katie who although she lives here will be moving soon and who knows when I will get to hang out with her again.  Hopefully tomorrow.

To be fair, I did have every intention of stopping by the Crabtree during the summer but our plans got messed up when I had to do an emergency work trip out to Napa (which also stole three days out of the landerson-fleming family trip and swiped New Mexico clean off our slate in which we had three friends who we didn't get to see either).

I hope that my little plea explains the sad reasons why I neglect to see my favorite WD supporter and if you are ever in SB, by all means, come by the house and we will cook you up a meal you will never forget.  Or you can snub us and I will understand the justification.

And if you are wondering about why Jespy got a visit, she has gone one major advantage: location, location, location.  And the truth is, we have some friends we usually stay with in Vegas who were busy with relatives during this last trip so my kids were asking how we can see both the old friends and the new friends next time.  I know, I know.

Happy October

Why I love October:

1) Travel slows down for me (only gone for one week this month!)

2) I love, love, love the cool breeze coming through my bedroom window at night. Not too cold, but the nice feeling of warm blankets combined with the fall crispy air.

3) I get excited about work projects that have been on the back burner for several months.

4) I facilitate a "Meeting of the Minds" which is when groups of teachers in the same subject area get together to discuss teaching. That is one of my favorite meetings of the year and I get to see all my teachers from different schools together in one place. I am super passionate about curriculum design and I get to work with that full-time. I know, I am a geek.

5) I like orange.

My friend and former freighbor Katie has her new bows up on her site especially for Halloween in case you need some Halloweeny bows or are looking for gifts for friends with girls. Her bows, btw, have been prominently featured on this blog for the last year on all pictures Meghan as well as the beautiful white boy she made especially for Bridget for her baptism. I like them because they are well designed and durable, and they stay on babies so well. Anywho, she is a very talented individual but I should stop talking about it and just post a pic for you to see for your self. Her website can be found here and her blog, which is one of my top ten favoritist sites of all time on the internets, can be found here. Sneak preview of her specialty october collection:






















Does she look familiar? She has been a model on this blog before, here, and also here, and most particularly here.

In Appreciation

I received a phone call from a good friend of mine with whom I used to work in Sacramento a few nights ago asking if I would participate in a quick survey for her grad school work.

Her class is about gender issues and she wanted to know how I felt about being a woman. I think I was the white, married, kids, college degree demographic. She asked me 4 questions and because I enjoyed sharing with her and want to capture it somewhere, I am going to share here and I invite anyone to post a comment adding their own thoughts.

1. What does it mean to you to be a woman?
At various phases in my life it has meant different things but right now it is inseparable from the word mother. I am not just talking about my children but I am talking about the motherly duties I perform in my job, my community, and in my home. I multitask and pay attention to details to help my co-workers, I problem-solve to help my schools, I give warnings to my teachers and parents about a potentially dangerous pathway, and I have a natural inclination to be nurturing towards those children around me who are not my own in addition to the four cute ones floating around my household.

2. What should all girls be taught about being a woman?
This might sound cheesy, but I think it is to trust their inner voice. I look at my 8 year old and her confidence and total matter-of-factness and I know that one day she will question that. I think that she needs to know that when the going gets tough, the tough stand tall and know that ultimately the decisions that they make are good and sound in spite of what others might tell you.

3. What is the worst thing that has happened to you specifically because you are a woman?
Fortunately I cannot point to any terrible things that have happened to me in my life specifically because of my gender. I will say that the worst things that have happened in that arena have been centered around negative body image. I still fight that issue today but since I value many other things about myself I have tried to let that one go. I wish I would have found other value in myself at a younger age to avoid some irrational decisions.

4. What is the best thing that has happened to you due to your gender?
My immediate thought was children, but my husband loves my kids and he didn't give birth to them. I am not going to lie and say that pregnancy was the greatest thing that happened to me or that I love giving birth, so making the assumption that dads love children as much as the mom, I am going to go with something else: female friendships. I just don't see that men are able to make bonds with other men in the way that I am with my friends. I feel that the level of intimacy that women reach with each other is simply not available to most men and I just cannot imagine my life without the friendships that I have.

After this little interview, this was reiterated at playgroup yesterday. I saw some women that I just really love and it reiterated that my friendships with women truly are a great gift and blessing. To all my women friends, thank you for enriching my life and making it possible for me to enjoy the shared challenges we all have.

Transitions

With Freighbor and some other Neighbors gone, I have to make new friends.

I don't want to do this, I really don't. But my hand was forced.

Today at the complex park there were three women that I had to befriend and it looks promising. I was thinking how lucky I am to live in a place where I can just think "I need a new friend" and one will magically appear. When making new friends it is a challenge for me because I always replay all the stupido stuff I say and wonder if anyone will like me. I forget I need to turn the filter on when meeting new people and not say stuff like this:

"I read mainly adolescent fiction. You know, it is safe. There is nothing that annoys me more than sitting on an airplane and I turn the page to find a paragraph that contains a sentence about a 'sliding hand."

What prompted me to say this? I don't need to use this as an introductory pick-up line for new friends. What if one of them likes this kind of stuff? Or what if one of them is offended by my reference?

They kind of laughed, but it might have been out of embarrassment. Next time I see one of them I hope they forget what I said and only remember that I was the one who introduced them to HG/CF.

Freighbor come back.

Thanks Chellese!

It is hard to describe, really, the variety of talent that is in this woman's repertoire.

• She has a Master's degree in French and when she speaks the language it sounds like butter but smoother.
  
• She also speaks Spanish fluently but she is so modest she might not even mention it. We met from living in the foreign language housing at BYU.
• She has run several marathons including the New York Marathon (she used to belong to the NY Road Runners) and she is soon headed to Australia to participate in some major marathon there.
• She also has an incredible eye for art and her home is decorated so tastefully, originally, artistically.
• I don't know how to quantify this particular talent: her children are endlessly entertaining. The sound bites they produce are really and truly incredible. Not surprisingly, a recent post on her blog pointed to a favorite ice cream flavor of her children; daquirui.
  

It should not wow me, though it does, that her photography matches her quiet and tasteful style.

Her photography blog (CBCG) contains some amazing pics so you can get a sense of her style and quality.


In my basket of friends, she is one my shiniest eggs. Thanks Chellese! I love you so much.

All this to say that she took some pictures of my children that I absolutely adore. I cannot put them all here due to time and space but I can show you a quick sampling. My biggest challenge to date is determining how to best display these around the house.

Ideas?

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I am thinking of starting a series on my wall called "The Dancing Fam"...

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I am considering this as my new profile pic:

Utah Party Life

Sorry, Markie did not accompany us on the bowling trip, he just recommended it. It would have been fun though! Markie did not volunteer up his services as our guide but he was there in spirit.

We have been having fun due to the cool factor of the people that we know here. Interestingly, today we spent most of our day with people from Santa Barbara.

First up, the Allens, some of our favorite people who moved from SB to Albuquerque. Funny that we see them in Utah, I know, but that is one great thing about this place, so many of our friends mecca here regularly enough that there is always someone fun in town.

Here is a pic with my great friend Amanda who just had her fourth. Though unlike me, she actually has her act together and enjoys having an amplified family:






















This evening we went to a baptism and then crashed a family party for the Dornys, our good friends who live in SB. Here is our friend Alexis with her son who is the same age as Bridgers:



























Isn't she adorable? She has five kids, and this is her number 4. He is such a cute kid. Her oldest son who is 17, played the guitar and sang for his grandpa's 64th birthday (When I'm 64 by the Beatles) and Gillian was totally into his guitar playing. She cried when we left because I didn't agree to buy her own little guitar though I did say we would check into it.


























See the little skirt she is wearing? Wrap skirt from Kenya, c. 1978. Steve's oldest sister wore it when they lived in Nairobi. She and Bridge wore matching ones to church today, so cute.

Thursday we will see more SB friends but we hope to get our Utah friends in there somehow. See you soon!

On Memzy, A Moment of my Time for you

This happens every year. June is a busy month of travel, or wrapping up the school year, or any number of events and I miss the birthday of a special friend. I am almost always late on wishing her well but I am hoping that she knows how much I love her anyway, it is just the poor timing of her birthday that prevents me from being able to wish her well in more than just word.

What can I say about her?

Ten Things I HEART about Memzy on her 30somethingth year:

1. She is always upfront. You can ask her any question and if she tries to lie, I am guessing you could see right through it. She just says "uh, well, you know..." in a very sweet voice and you know she bound to tell the truth.

2. She is very organized. I have never stopped by her house and seen it anything but in tip top organizational shape.

3. She has three amazing kids. I LOVE hanging out at her house and I don't even mind if I don't have my children with me because her kids are so cool that you could just hang with them and chit chat. Specially Brains. The routines she has in place have made them particularly easy to deal with in the kid department (where I am personally suffering these days.) Wait can I throw in here that I love her parents too? If I were a jealous person it would be of her family (and of course now I have to add that includes her husband's cousinage.)

4. She has a great sense of humor. Anyone who has read her blog or her her famous podcasts on the ilandee show knows that she can throw down.

5. She keeps it real. I get stressed about my kids or some other life experience and she is always there with me. I feel like I can be totally honest with her about my frustrations in life and she will say something to make me feel better every time.

6. Something about her home makes me feel like relaxing. It might be her big soft couch or her large screen tv, or the clean environment, or her top-notch hostess skillz but I walk into the door of her place and I feel like I am going to leave a more relaxed person.

7. She always makes fun of my eating habits. Normally you would not list this as a characteristic you like about someone BUT in this case I feel like it reaffirms my dedication to whole grain. If she didn't make fun of me I would have no reason to keep up those habits.

8. Music. No lie, my last four favorite CDs were from her. She has such exact taste--that matches mine--so that anything from her is guaranteed to be a hit. I am waiting for the technology that allows me to know what she is listening to at any given time in my day.

9. Consistency. I can't remember a time (since 1993 when we met!) in which she didn't have a refreshing beverage in front of her. Additionally, I feel like she is the single most consistent person I know in all areas--it probably explains her ability to be organized, a super mom and keep up the bejillion activities she is doing without being crazy.

10. Her laugh. There is nothing more contagious or welcoming to me than the sound of Emily laughing. When I recreate her laugh it brings a smile to my face.

I hope this year that you are treated well (as you always are) by your wonderful husband and amazing children. And, of course, by the Visors. Thanks for sticking with me and being the kind of friend worthy of my one worthwhile post in the last several months.

Doctor is In

The doc told me today that my reflux has improved--she did not use a tube but instead a long mirror she poked down my numbed throat. It wasn't nearly as bad as the previous visit and she reassured me that I was fine. She did say, however, that I need to decrease the stress in my life to help with the acidic environment in my system.

Since I think my posts lately have been about high stress situations (transitions, delinquent renters, etc.) I think I need to focus on all the amazing and positive things that happen to me and see if that works some magic.

Latest cool things:

1. My son. This guy makes my life easier. I don't blog much as much about him because he is my strong and steady. He loves his mama and he dislikes kids who cuss at school. I have no idea how that happened but I love him to pieces. Here he is absolutely loving the rodeo:




























You might not be able to tell but he LOVED it. My uncle let him borrow that Jeep cap so he could fit in at the rodeo.

2. Me and kids at the parade together. I love traveling with these guys (in fact I would rather drive several thousand miles alone in the car with them than go to church for one measly hour.) See Meg's little roly poly leggies? She is yummy.





















3. My alma mater, the beloved Sonora High School. Casey and Bridget stayed behind and Meg was in her chair in case you think I was playing favorites here.



































































I took another fifty hundred so if you want to see more of this and SHS scenery please email me.

The last one I took for effect because really, how many people went to a high school with a beautiful stream running through it? It was amazing.

4. Freighbor Katie. I watched AI at her place in preparation for our end of the season finale party tomorrow night and I ended up talking to her forever about my mum (sniff) and other things. It feels good to have a friend so close by and I will be really and truly sad when she leaves. Thank goodness for her blog.