Month: June 2018

Today Abe and I were daunted by all we had to do, but we made it through! We decluttered the house and gave away about three giant garbage bags of toys to the neighborhood kids. (I did make them clear it with their parents, first.) Then we gave the rest to DI.

Abe and I also planted a lot of flowers and Abe worked on the garden. Then we grocery shopped and threw a BBQ chicken cobb salad together for dinner. It was actually so much prettier before the picture! There are at least three layers hidden under the visible layers because I couldn’t fit all of the stripes in the small frame of the bowl. But Abe insisted on a picture anyway:

After dinner we put the kids down and Abe helped clean while I cooked for the week. Probably the kids won’t eat any of it anyway so the effort will be wasted…but I tried this week. (Last week I didn’t cook on Saturday and we ate a LOT of chick Fil-A.)

Friday morning Ammon learned how to rip his baby-proof door handle off of his door. I spent the next six hours in my “bitch on wheels” mode–as my therapist calls it. I was in a very bad mood and life seemed bleak without the prospect of Ammon’s daily nap time in it.

By 2:30 I was out of control screaming at the kids like I haven’t screamed in a long time, so I packed everyone up and drove us to the zoo. It was kind of late for a trip to Salt Lake, and I spent the first ten minutes of the drive yelling at the girls about various things. After I finally calmed down, the day got so much better.

We all had a great time at the zoo, thanks to my forgiving, sweet children.

When we got home, my mom had cleaned the house and Abe was decluttering. We meant to put the kids straight to bed, but Abe, Lydia and I got distracted by Ammon. We were all trying to put him down, but he worked himself up into a singing frenzy! He danced around his room for the better part of an hour singing “Coconuck, Coconuck!!!” We watched in delighted amusement as he jumped up and down like a pogo stick, singing joyfully at the top of his lungs about every random subject you could think of. It was an evening to remember.

On Thursday I got out the paint, ribbon, scissors, glitter, and paper plates and we made paper plate jellyfish. My mom took this picture as we were starting out with the first round of neighborhood kids:

A couple hours later we were still going strong. In fact, we started this craft before 11am, and it only ended around 3pm. At that point, the girls thought they day was over and so they climbed into the bath and then changed into pj’s!

I had to get them back in regular clothes because Mary had a piano lesson in the evening. I handed Mary completely over to Abe about a month or two ago in terms of practice. I gave up. He has been doing a great job with her, though, and she nailed her lesson.

After her lesson, we went to Orem’s Summerfest and met up with the Kehlers. The lines were really long for all of the rides, and on the last ride Eli and Lydia climbed into a teacup, and Eli took the wheel. He spun and spun and spun until Lydia got sick. As soon as the ride stopped, I saw Lydia’s ashen face and yelled to Abe to grab her because she was about to throw up. He brought her to me and we walked away from the crowd to a place where she could puke.

I was so sad that Lydia felt sick, but my favorite part of the evening was sitting on the grass with Lydia and Mary waiting for Abe to get the car and pick us up. Lydia was such a prim and proper little puker! She kneeled on the grass with her hands neatly folded speaking softly about her life’s history with carnival rides and nausea. (Apparently, the nausea has worsened each year of her little life!) Every so often she would interrupt the narrative and turn around to gag. It was sad but, in my opinion, so cute. In the meantime, Mary was cuddling with me. Then Lydia came and cuddled, and Mary objected to the puke smell and so had to figure out how to attach herself to me but somehow keep her nose as far away from Lydia as possible. She was admirably contorted by the time Abe picked us up.

It was a full evening!

I have started giving Ammon a bath in the morning. His poops are just too big, and even after using twenty wipes, I still can’t get him to smell fresh. Considering we have been going swimming in the evenings and then take baths afterward, this boy is getting two baths a day this summer.

Our highlight yesterday was going swimming after Abe got home from work. He took the kids on the big, twisty waterslide and figured out the secret to going fast: Lie down and arch your back. Abe was so excited to discover this trick!

All of the neighborhood kids wanted to know who we were taking swimming with us since we took Eli and Chloe swimming on Tuesday. I always feel guilty saying “no” to the neighbor kids all the time, but honestly, there are so many.  Plus, I just prefer having kids in my home that I know well. This is hard because the only way to get to know kids is to spend time with them, but there are so many I am just sticking with the ones I know for now. But I do want to do nice things for the other kids (which potentially sounds charitable, but this desire actually stems from a wish to assuage the constant guilt I feel at always saying, “no,”) so we are planning on doing crafts Thursday with them.

Anamae came over and gave Lydia a harp lesson at home, which was so sweet of her because we totally forgot Lydia’s new lesson time on Tuesday. We were at the pool with Eli and Chloe instead. I love Anamae and feel so, so grateful for her. She is an incredible teacher and an inspiring woman.

Today was another glorious summer day. This is my first summer after a true school year, with Lydia in school all day and Mary in school half a day. I looooooove having the girls home!!! It is amazing to have our own family schedule and to create beautiful, fun days for the kids every single day. It’s glorious. It’s a luxury. I feel so lucky, grateful, and happy.

Tonight as I tucked Lydia in, she turned to me and said, “Thank you.”

“For what?” I asked, surprised.

“For this summer,” she said, smiling.

That touched my heart so much. I cuddled her and told her I wanted her to have a magical summer filled with fun and beauty every day. I told her I wanted it to be the best summer of her life. She responded, “I think it already is.”

Today I let the kids play with the neighbors during Clarissa’s morning nap, and I visited with my neighbor, Emily, while the kids played. I love Emily. I feel so bad that things didn’t seem to start on the right foot for whatever reason, but I love her now. And also: When I first met Emily, the Spirit whispered to me three times that I had just met my best friend. We are not best friends–yet?–but I can say knowing Emily better has really helped me love her.

Also–in the morning, Abe came home!!! He spent an hour here showering and recuperating before heading to work after two nights of red-eye travel. In the past two days he has spent two hours in a real bed. We are so happy to have him home.

Anyway, after visiting with Emily, I packed Eli and the kids in the car and headed to the park. It was the middle of the day and so hot that I honestly thought Ammon was going to get heat stroke. He turns bright red from head to toe when he is hot, and by the end of our play time at the park he was starting to act slightly disoriented. We got him quickly to the car, let him drink water, turned up the AC, and drove to Chick Fil-A.

We went into Chick Fil-A and I got the kids dinner, after which I took them to ice cream. Then we came home, changed quickly into swimsuits, and headed to Scera pool–with Abe!!! We also took Eli and Chloe with us.

Then we came home, put the kids down, and got absorbed in sorting our shirts. Both Abe and I got rid of a bunch of clothes. And now–Abe will FINALLY get to bed!!!

On Monday I spent a couple hours with the girls working on the skirts we are making for all of the neighborhood girls. Unfortunately, there is something wrong with my sewing machine. It is sewing  in knots. 🙁

I also went to therapy, which was good. Mary Lou, my therapist, is really great at helping me prioritize things in my life.

Then both Ammon and Clarissa napped, miracle of miracles! Since the kids were up so late the night before and then woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning, I took a nap too.

After naps we ate dinner and went to the pool. I was a little worried about taking all four kids at the same time, but the girls promised to stick with Ammon so I only had to look in one direction the whole time. Most of the time Clarissa let me stay with Ammon, so it was actually a breeze. I took them out for shaved ice afterward.

I had no way of taking pictures of the kids at the pool, but I got one of Clarissa in her adorable swimsuit right before we left the house.

On Sunday Abe had to leave for meetings in Michigan. It was a bit of a fiasco because when he got to the airport, he realized American Express had cancelled his flight. His boss had been out of town when Abe booked the tickets and didn’t approve the transaction, so American Express cancelled the ticket–but somehow still put the travel plans on Abe’s google calendar. Abe ended up having to rebook a flight on the spot. His new flight plans meant he had to travel all night long and arrive in Michigan right before his meeting. We feel so bad for him!

Meanwhile, I had a lovely Sunday at home. Both Ammon and Clarissa napped a long time, so after they woke up I took the kids on a long walk. Upon waking, Ammon decided that he was about to see Santa Claus and spent the rest of the evening yelling at the sky for Santa to come back.

Mary blew his mind by changing into her Santa suit.

The walk had some crazy moments. At one point, Mary felt left out by Lydia and Eli, who came with us. She threw herself onto the front lawn of the Reynolds’ house and refused to budge. Instead of moving, she screamed into their grass. In the meantime, Ammon was trying to run in the street and Clarissa was whining because the stroller had stopped moving. Eventually, we bribed Mary into getting up and going home with Nana for ice cream. It was hardly an appropriate consequence for a tantrum, but there are moments we just gotta do what we gotta do.

After our walk, we came home and played Junior Monopoly for FHE with Nana. Then we all went outside again and played until after 9pm. I put the kids to bed in high hopes they would sleep in on Monday–but no such luck! Maybe their long naps made up for the late bedtime.

Whenever our kids go through the stage where they have just learned how to pull themselves up to stand, sleep training regresses. Clarissa, who recently learned how to pull herself up, is so enamored with this new skill that she pulls herself up to stand by the edge of her crib instead of drifting off to sleep. It is now 10pm and the poor child is exhausted and in tears because she hasn’t gone to sleep but is too excited about standing to drift off. Sometimes life is so hard.

We had a packed and happy Saturday today. In the morning I planned our meals and craft projects for the week, while Abe made waffles with the kids and brought me breakfast in bed.  Then I briefly attended a baby shower before we all left on errands to Joann’s, Michael’s, Deseret Book, and Smith’s.

After we finished our errands, we came home and I made Sloppy Joe’s. Today is my Grandma Clarissa Cullen’s 100th birthday! She used to make Sloppy Joe’s, so this was an appropriate dinner. I actually forgot this was my grandma’s birthday, but in fact I spent a lot of the morning meditating on my grandma. I love her so much. She is a guiding star for me.

This Spring (now getting into Summer) has reminded me how much I love Utah weather. It has been between 60 and 80 degrees almost every single day for the past month or more. It has been so wonderful! Now I know what people in Southern California coast feel like every day of the year!

As for me, work was a bit tough on Friday. I didn’t sleep a lot Wednesday or Thursday night, and I had worked out a lot (to help with stress and because I love exercise) so my body felt very depleted.  On top of that, I was just feeling worn out from the demands of my player/coach role, that is, leading a team of 7 people, but still being responsible for a separate full-time job, which is fulfilling my own quota of $100,000 each quarter. One more promotion and my personal quota drops. I can’t wait for that! Anyway, I was feeling worn out Friday, but it was still a good day. Most of my focus was around an onsite presentation to a CMO, CTO and 5 VPs that I have on Monday with two teammates.  I hope it goes well!

Lily has been doing a lot of thinking about the paper she is working on to present at the Mormon symposium. She’s super overwhelmed, and starting to think it’s not worth it to jam it into her life right now, when there is such a beautiful summer to be enjoyed with the family without additional strains. At the same time, her writing feels very compelling to her.  I’ve enjoyed talking with her as she thinks through how she wants to spend her time.  She is beautiful!

When I got home, I spent time outside with the family, and gorged myself on three huge pieces of amazing pizza that Lily made. She hand-made a delicious whole-wheat oatmeal crust. I caught this darling picture of Lily with the two girls enjoying the good weather:

We got the children ready for bed after dinner.  As I was trying to coax Lydia into getting in the bath, she was excitedly showing me her new mask. She crafted it (with Georgia’s help) from instructions that came in her Rainbow Magic craft book that Lily bought for her.

Lydia is OBSESSED with Rainbow Magic books. I’m guessing that she averages reading about 3 per day. I couldn’t help myself so I staged this photo of her reading while sitting on top of a stack of 25 Rainbow Magic books (most of which I think she’s already read) and they are only a couple of weeks old!

Then we put the children down, except for Clarissa, who had a late nap.  I took her outside, and put her in the football hold with one arm while I watered the garden with my other. I couldn’t believe that our corn sprouted!  The garden is really looking good so far this year! Our strawberries are also doing very well.