Mary runny nose – Page 6

Sleep and steps on Saturday

Abe and I both slept in while Lydia watched the iPad this morning. By the time we got moving and fed the girls breakfast, it was almost 10am. But boy, did we get moving! I put my Fitbit on at 10am, and in the ensuing two hours got in 10,000 steps. We walked by Anique’s house and visited with Andrew and Fleur, and while we were visiting, our neighbor Ruth Ann joined us. She joined us on our walk up the canyon, and we got to know her story a bit more.

She is a remarkable woman. After starting a business with President Henry B. Eyring, she moved on to become one of the very first female managers AT&T ever hired, and the only one of the first female hires to last more than two months. She worked with them for 26 years, moving all around the country in a variety of roles until she took early retirement. After taking early retirement, she worked for the Church in its Philanthropy department. Recently she served a PR mission in Hong Kong and is about to embark on another mission in September.

I loved chatting with her so much that I kept talking and walking long after I realized I had a female emergency and needed to go back home. Finally, I admitted I had a problem, and Abe, the girls and I turned back and ran home. It was a great morning, aside from that. We look forward to walking more with Ruth Ann in the future.

After that, we ate lunch and took a two-hour nap.

Moqueca (Brazilian Fish Stew) I made in class. We ate the leftovers today for lunch. This is my new favorite dish.

When we finally got going again after that, we fed the girls and went to the library. At the library we ran into our friends Fallon, Audrey, and Eli. I got distracted talking to Fallon long after Abe had to take Mary back to the car (she was pulling all the books off the shelves). I felt bad for taking so long, but Abe used that time to work on the lesson he’s teaching tomorrow, and just as I reached the car, who should appear but Ed and Isabella (Abe’s uncle and cousin).

Lydia loooooooves Isabella, and they played together a bit.

Then we went on our errands: approximately one million grocery stores and Barnes & Noble. By the time we finished at Smith’s, Lydia was fast asleep in the car.

But the good news is, tomorrow is Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to the best mother and grandmother I know! Mom and Grandma, I couldn’t imagine better mothers and better examples than both of you. You are my heroes. I love you!!

Hermit day

Today Lydia woke up convinced that today was my birthday and that we needed to bake a green birthday cake. It was a sweet sentiment, but we compromised and just baked these muffins for the second time this week. Lydia got to cover three of the muffins in sprinkles. I should have taken a picture, but they disappeared so fast, there was really hardly a chance.

We were hermits today, so the rest of the day felt kind of blurry. I know we scrubbed the upstairs tub and read some books. I practiced some piano. I ran on the treadmill and watched more of my Mitt Romney documentary while Lydia talked nonstop about making Anna and Elsa cards. Lydia and I made pizza and kale for dinner.

I joined Amazon Prime at the student rate and finally ordered myself some socks. I am always out of them and have been looking forward to getting some more ever since our tax return arrived. (Ha. That makes me sound so restrained. Actually, ever since the tax return arrived, I’ve been so busy ordering stuff that I just now got around to solving my socks problem…)

Speaking of ordering stuff, I finally called some Springfield shops to send my mom and grandma a Mother’s Day gift, but because I was so late, they refused to deliver anything until Monday. Sorry, Mom and Grandma! My love will manifest itself a day late this year.

I found out on Thursday our cooking team is taking tomorrow off, so I am going to have another Saturday at home with my family. I am so excited. I guess I’ll post some pictures and daydream about what to do with my Saturday!

Lydia wore her princess dress on and off all day. It was a little tricky because her nose kept bleeding on and off all day too. The dress stayed clean until the second to last nosebleed...I am afraid that Lydia and I gave higher priority to her dress than to her poor nose. — Lydia wore her princess dress on and off all day. It was a little tricky because her nose kept bleeding on and off all day too. The dress stayed clean until the second to last nosebleed…I am afraid that Lydia and I gave higher priority to her dress than to her poor nose.

For FHE Abe taught a lesson on mothers. His activity was to have the girls take care of me. Lydia used her doctor kit to make me feel better, and Mary made me delicious food. Eventually, being sick looked so fun that Abe fell deathly ill and needed assistance too.

Wonderful Sunday

We had the best Sunday we’ve had in a long time today. It really felt like the perfect Sunday. We got a lot of rest in, we were uplifted at church (Mary stayed in Nursery!!!) and we had a great evening with our friends, the Andersons.

I resolved to take pictures before they came over while the girls were outside playing with Abe, but I got distracted by practicing the piano and the pile of dishes in the sink. I did manage to take a couple while they were here.

Lydia had an accident, so they all took a bath together.

Not much else to say about today, except that we adore the Andersons and enjoyed our evening visiting with them. We’re hoping to get to bed early so as to get a head start on this busy week. We leave for California on Wednesday!!!

looooong day

Long day! I got up at 5:15 to get to yoga, and then after yoga I started to drive to school for my competition team meet when I realized that there was no way I could get everything done today if I went to the meeting. So I turned around and headed home.

We ended up shopping for wedding clothes (Jon and Shirley are getting married next week!) and getting ready for the trip. Then we went to Ikea for dinner, and afterward drove to Provo to meet up with our friends Ben, Candace, Cadence–and their new twins, Aria and Bentley. Aria and Bentley were unbelievably adorable. Equally unbelievable was that we didn’t get pictures of them. Oh well. I accidentally overfed Bentley because I was so absorbed in my conversation with Candace, and the poor thing couldn’t take all the milk I was drowning him in. It ended up on my arm, so at least I have a souvenir.

We met up at Chuckee Cheese’s, a place none of us have visited for over twenty years. It was a lot smaller than we remembered! But the kids loved it, and it was a lot easier to talk and visit with all of that entertainment for the kids. The visit seemed short, but before we realized it, two hours had flown by. We reluctantly said goodbye, and then headed for home.

Except. Except Abe has been raving about the massage chairs at Qualtrics, and he really wanted me to try them. We were only five minutes away, so we headed over to try the chairs. When we got there, the chairs were taken! The whole building was empty, but there were two employees there getting massages in the chairs. Abe was bummed, but he was determined not to make the trip in vain. Since his card wouldn’t give him access to the third floor (where there are more massage chairs), he tried to circumvent the system by taking the elevator. No such luck. Instead, we spent ten minutes stuck in the elevator fearing we would never get out. Finally, we figured out we could exit into the garage, which opened back up onto the street. Phew! After that close call, we headed straight for home.

Now I will post the very poor pictures we took of 1) the girls at Kid to Kid, 2) Dinner at Ikea and 3) the girls at Chuckee Cheese.

They were playing Frozen at Ikea. Eventually, we had to go feed Lydia because she was too caught up in the movie to eat.

Easy day

I forgot to take pictures today. The morning was consumed with a doctor’s appointment for the girls. Lydia weighs 31 pounds, and Mary weighs 20. They’re both in the 3rd percentile for BMI, but the doctor said they look healthy, so that’s good. Lydia’s 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight. Mary is 60th percentile for height and 50th for weight. I don’t know how that works out to both being in the 3rd percentile for Body Mass Index, but if I had better math skills, maybe it would make perfect sense.

Lydia was so good at the doctor’s. She even tried to make Mary feel better when Mary started crying during her part of the check-up. The doctor even asked me if she’s been watching a show called Doc McStuffins, which I guess is some show about an animal doctor that makes kids like doctors. No, but she’s watched a million episodes of Daniel Tiger goes to the doctor, and I’m sure that helped. I guess excessive iPad use has some pay-off…

The rest of the day was pretty peaceful at home. Lydia and I practiced adding and subtracting with her Easter jelly beans. Mary took her usual four hour nap. I read more in my book and started a collection of short stories by Chekhov. I made a sweet potato bisque from my favorite cookbook of the moment, Love Soup. I made too many grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches. The girls ate too much candy. We played “Minnie Mouse Mall” and Legos. I bathed the girls while Abe cleaned the kitchen, and afterwards I chased them so much that Mary spit up part of her dinner. Oops.

I also bought some stuff on Zulily, which means I am ending this blog to go check out the site again. I have free shipping until midnight, and today is the last day of their “Kindergarten” sale (educational primers and toys, etc).

Blabbing about home schooling

This morning I raced around the house doing and folding loads upon loads of laundry, cleaning up and putting away Easter/Spring decorations, painting Lydia’s nails, feeding the girls, and reading to the girls. When Mary went down for her nap, I read to Lydia, practiced piano, and read more of The Well-Trained Mind. I have an action plan, I think.

Next year I’ll send Lydia to Challenger as planned. I am still going to be in school, and even though I’m going to buy some supplementary material and start coaching her from home, I feel a little too stretched to make a disciplined home-school commitment. The year after, though, I am going to experiment with home-school. I’ll start Lydia on a reading and math schedule and see if I can be disciplined enough to hack that kind of schedule at home.

All that to say, the book, The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide for Classical Education has completely changed my paradigm. I used to think homeschooling was strange and produced social misfits. However, two things: 1) I was not home schooled and yet still managed to come out a social misfit with massive social anxiety 2) Jessie Wise, the author, poses this question: Socialization to what purpose? To fit in? To dumb down? To navigate an entirely artificial environment where all your peers are the same age–an environment not replicated in real life ever again? She argues that the family should be the primary unit of socialization because the end goal is for the child to become a high-functioning adult that understands what it takes to create a peaceful home and to contribute to society.

Before, every time the thought of homeschooling crossed my mind, I immediately dismissed the thought because I was so scared my children would end up strange and neurotic. But hey, my favorite people are people who are themselves and don’t try too hard to fit in. What’s wrong with raising children like that? The more I think about it, the more sense it seems to make.

At the end of the day, I still don’t know if I’ll home school, but I know I love this book’s educational philosophy, and my connotation for the term “home school” is permanently changed.

There’s Abe. He finished working out. He barely slept last night, so I better stop blabbing on the blog and go to bed.

Here’s a picture of the girls playing with the laundry basket while I folded piles of laundry. Lydia thought it was hilarious to put the basket over Mary, and Mary thought it was hilarious too…until she stopped thinking it was hilarious, and then she cried. Then I put Lydia in her room because she wouldn’t stop the game, and Lydia cried too. That was the only crying of the day, though!! (Oops. Except when I left for school and Mary saw her babysitter–she cried a lot then, too.) Anyway, I can’t seem to stop typing! The picture already:

Field trip

Misty scheduled a tour of the fire department today for our preschool group (the one I dropped out of). We joined in for the fun and then had a picnic in the park with everyone afterward. The firemen were so nice and let the kids sit in the fire truck, tour the fire house, and taught them about fighting fires. Lydia now wants to be a fireman when she grows up.

Then I went to school and made: vada pav (an Indian sandwich), a Southwestern turkey wrap, lamb pita, blackberry yogurt soup, chilled tomato soup, and fried veggie chips. There were a lot of dishes to wash…

The other fantastic thing that happened today centered around the new book I’m reading. It’s entitled, The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education. It’s basically the Bible for many homeschoolers, and everything I read made me want to home school. I just don’t know if I have the energy to do a good job of it. Also, I worry my kids won’t have friends. On the other hand, school can be a vicious place, and I still feel like I’m dealing with the aftermath of social trauma that happened at school. Maybe sparing my children the pains of that wouldn’t be a terrible thing. I’ll have to think a lot more about this, but this is the very first time I’ve ever remotely considered home school. There’s a lot to think about!

Happy Easter!

I have a ton of cute pictures from Easter, so we’ll just get to the good stuff right away:

Then after church and naps, we headed to the Miners’ for dinner and their Easter egg hunt. That was egg hunt #5 of the season for the girls.

The girls posed with a bunny and had a little scuffle about who got to hold the bunny.... — The girls posed with a bunny and had a little scuffle about who got to hold the bunny….

...Mary won that fight. — …Mary won that fight.

I made rolls again to bring to the dinner. (This was the small pan.)

Egg hunt:

Frankie, the dog, wasn’t interested in the eraser Mary repeatedly offered. But he didn’t mind being petted. That was great, since Mary spent a lot of time chasing him down to pet. Lydia prefers to keep a very healthy distance from dogs.

Then we came home, Skyped with Clark and Swathi, talked with my mom, picked up the house, and now will hopefully get a jump start on early bed time for the week. Happy Easter!

Take your family to work day (Egg hunt #3)

Mary locked herself in my mom’s room this morning for several hours. It was very scary, but I was grateful for the assurance of the Spirit. I kept getting the feeling that it would be okay, and it did turn out okay. Our landlord came over and explained that he used to get locked in rooms all the time as a child, and his mom would pop the lock with a crochet needle. I had been trying to pop the lock with all sorts of things, but we tried a key (imagine that!) and it worked great. Mary was contentedly playing with a doll when we got her, and I was SO happy to pick her up and hug her.

Right after that, I loaded the girls in the car and we drove to Abe’s work for their Bring Your Family to Work Day. They had amazing food, a quick presentation, and an Easter egg hunt for the girls. The girls are getting to be pros at finding Easter eggs by now, and even Mary has the drill down.

Abe and the girls in the parking lot. I wish I'd gotten a closer shot because they looked so cute. Lydia talked the whole way down about how she was going to give her daddy a big hug and kiss because she missed him. After we left, she talked about how happy she was to see her daddy during the day. It was sweet. — Abe and the girls in the parking lot. I wish I’d gotten a closer shot because they looked so cute. Lydia talked the whole way down about how she was going to give her daddy a big hug and kiss because she missed him. After we left, she talked about how happy she was to see her daddy during the day. It was sweet.

I practically fell asleep driving back home, and I guess the girls were as tired as I was. When we got home, all three of us slept for three hours. Okay, okay–I woke up after an hour and a half, but then I lay on the couch reading food blogs until the girls woke up. They woke up right when Abe got home.

After Abe got home, we went on a run in the canyon. It was a lovely Spring evening, and my favorite trees are in bloom. They smell soooooooo good. When we got back, Abe ate dinner outside while the girls and I (who had already eaten) ran around the yard hunting down flowers to smell, mint to pick, and robins to watch.

I even got some practice in when we went back inside, although today I decided that I am not doing my competition. Maybe I will do one next year, but I really want to prioritize the time I have with my grandma, and there’s no way to know if I’ll be done with my round in time to make it to the reunion dinner. Also, I don’t want to pay $175 just to withdraw after the first round, so I think it makes more sense to postpone competing. When I practiced tonight, I enjoyed it so much; I was bored with my competition pieces, and so now I’m giving myself a chance to play other stuff.

Yay for a great start to the weekend!

The ups and the downs

Today was a good day for both Lily, Lydia, Mary and myself and I believe we all experience a relatively full range of emotions. Lily and I both got 8 hours of sleep last night which we were so happy about. My day started off perfect as I kept pace with my daily goals and even scheduled a meeting with a prospect. When I called Lily to check in, we didn’t really get to talk because of all the screaming and crying in the background so I knew my day had started a little more smoothly than hers. Lydia has been struggling a bit lately and I guess Lily was having to deal with a lot of her behavior issues. My day continued to go really well until towards the end of the day when I had two meetings that drastically changed my mood.

First, I had a presentation from Finance that explained our compensation structure, and promotion schedule and it hit me that I need to be a lot more special than I previously thought in order to promote as fast as I would like to.

Then I had a training that got on my nerves a little. A lot of the training was truly great, but the personality of the trainer was a little extreme. He says he will only hang out with successful people because he is not willing to let other people’s lack of ambition bring him down. He said that when his wife wants to hang out with him and another couple, he ensures that couples they are hanging out with are appropriately successful (and push their childrend to be successful) so that he is benefiting from the association. He took it a step further when he said that at work, he only goes to lunch with people who have hit their quota and he will never in his life go to lunch with anyone who ever uses the Qualtrics Ping Pong Table, because (I infer) those people are clearly slackers.

If it weren’t for the fact that some of the other parts of his training were really quite good, I would have just felt irritated. I can’t pick out what rubs me wrong about that kind of talk, but I think it has to do with valuing people only by their level of ambition, and viewing life merely as a vehicle for career acheivement and material success. On the other hand, I do want to succeed, just like anyone else. I guess that’s what I should expect from a sales-training. The thing that was scariest was thinking about how much I may have to step things up in order to really excel. I don’t feel like I need to be the number one salesman. I do have a goal, however, to keep my family moving in the right direction, and even that will take some pretty hard-core dedication. During the car ride home I felt great assurance from God about two things. 1) I am on track for success and 2) Succeeding will not require me to have the type of extreme personality as the trainer. I felt calm and assured that God will bring me success if I work hard and look to Him for my support and direction.

By the time my day got tougher, Lily’s had gotten better. When I called later in the day to check in, she was perky and happy and said things were going better. I later met her for school, picked up the girls and went home. At home, both girls cried like crazy for a long time. Then we all danced in the kitchen, endured more crying by Lydia, had a great bath session, endured more crying by Lydia, and then we all had tons of giggles about Lydia and Mary taking their arms out of their pajamas (see below). I then put them to bed. In Lydia’s defense about all the crying, she did wake up from a late nap today.

Pictures!

When Lydia woke up this morning, she stumbled into our bedroom and lay on the floor like a zombie for ten minutes. Lily took a picture, and Lydia didn't even blink. — When Lydia woke up this morning, she stumbled into our bedroom and lay on the floor like a zombie for ten minutes. Lily took a picture, and Lydia didn’t even blink.

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