On Tuesday we went out with the Kahlers to the Melissa Inouye launch of her new book, Crossings: A Bald Asian American Latter-Day Saint’s Adventures through Life, Death, Cancer, and Motherhood (not necessarily in that order). We also met up with my friend Alainna Beus there.
Adam Miller and Neylan McBaine were on the panel presenting, and we were so excited to be sitting in the second row. We are all Adam Miller groupies, so it was kind of a thrill. My friend Emily went up to him afterward and got a picture with him:
I was really tired before this outing and spent most of the day feeling kind of sick. I am on steroids because of my foot and I think those helped the bug from turning into a full blown illness.
Abe is almost sick from stress, but this outing really helped him get out of work mode for a bit.
I spent a lot of the day making chicken tikka masala for 20 people. In total it was more than 10 pounds of chicken tikka masala and who knows how many pounds of eggplant curry. So probably it was for more than 20 people. One of our neighbors is pregnant and has a TON of people in her family, so we gave them dinner and then ended up having so much left over that I did not have to cook for the rest of the week.
After dinner Abe and I went to cross-fit and then Abe took the girls roller skating until 10pm. He played “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” in the car and they just loved it.
I arranged for Mary to have a play date with her friend, Bailey. They were ADORABLE. After my workout I picked up some simple crafts and they just had a blast making dragon eggs out of air clay and coloring some textured pages.
Abe was also really happy to be home with his baby again:
On Thursday it was really rainy and I was tired, so I spent a lot of the day just reading my fantasy escape novel. Eli came over and played with the kids, who dressed him up:
I also stayed up late emailing, despite my best intentions to get to bed early. Abe got in around 1am from his flight. I was so relieved and happy to see him. It was thundering and lightning off and on throughout the day, and I just got really scared he would die on the plane or in a car crash.
On Wednesday Lydia sent the cutest email to Abe, who was out of town:” dear daddy, Have THE BEST trip to Phillawhatevery. See you later alligator!”
Isn’t she adorable?!
In the evening I went out to dinner with Brittany and Emily. We ate at Pizzeria 712 and I had their goat cheese, beet and asparagus pizza. It was SO delicious. Also, I love Emily and Brittany and had so much fun talking with them. We talked a loooooong time.
On Tuesday the kids played a lot with friends. Lydia and Eli had fun playing Harry Potter together. Also, Lydia made waffles for everyone. She has been baking up a storm lately!
On Monday my mom gave away the foxglove, much to Lydia’s joy.
In the evening I drove to Lehi to meet up with my friend, Michaelann Bradley. She is going through a lot of things, and we have mostly been online friends for the past several years. But with all of her transitions and mine, we decided to meet up and talk. I loved spending time with her and learned SO much.
Michaelann is the president of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. Transhumanists believe that technology develops at exponential rates and that at some point we will change from homo sapiens to homo deus–human gods–because of our technology. Mormon transhumanists try to impose an LDS ethic on transhumanism, which is interesting. It was also great to hear her take on Joseph Smith because she has been married to Don Bradley, the number on historical researcher in the Church. They believe Joseph Smith was a kind of alchemist who took very normal things and turned them into things legitimately more precious. For example, they believe he probably made the BOM plates himself but through either the occult, translation or something else created the Book of Mormon, which is legitimately precious scripture. This was very interesting for me to hear. I also just loved talking with her and getting to know her personal story. She is such a brilliant woman and I have admired her on FB for so long–it felt like a treat to have an in person conversation!
We talked until the restaurant was past closing time and agreed to keep in touch so we can get together again more frequently. When I left for dinner Abe said, “Make a friend!” –and I did! 🙂
I went to my meditation today and learned to be content with being content. While we were in Sundance, I felt frustrated that I wasn’t completely cracked open to joy. Today in my meditation I learned that being happy and content is more than enough. I realized while meditating that I was alive, that I was content, and that I did not need anything more than that. And then I realized that being discontent because I am only content is ironic and counterproductive. Also, I love my Sunday meditation group practice.
When the kids came home, I helped Lydia bake brownies and then helped her make some summer excel spreadsheets for harp practice and baking and then helped her start her own Goodreads account. When I signed on to Goodreads tonight, I about died of cuteness overload reading the little reviews she typed up for the books she’s rated.
In the afternoon we headed to Salt Lake to the Miners for their fun May and June birthdays celebrations. The weather was beautiful and Clarissa loves their swing.
Clarissa got mad that Abe was talking to me and ignoring her. He took a million photos of her while attempting to make peace.
Lydia is such a sweet soul. Abe was showing my mom a picture of the foxglove Clarissa got at the nursery yesterday, and my mom exclaimed that foxglove is poisonous to children. Lydia started crying and wouldn’t stop until we promised to move the foxglove to the front where Clarissa can never touch it without an adult near to stop her. Lydia was just unable to handle her fear of Clarissa eating the foxglove. (Then later my mom convinced us to just give the plant away, so we’re going that route instead. This should make Lydia very happy.)
From the bottom of my heart, I wish I were more at peace with my body right now. I am so frustrated because I exercise so hard and so frequently, but I just can’t seem to get a handle on my bad eating habits. And so despite all of the physical pain I put myself through, I am gaining weight. I know there are so many ACTUAL problems in the world, but in my personal world, this is a deep source of frustration right now.
On Saturday my foot hurt so I basically took it as easy as possible. I did go to yoga and then in the evening we went to the greenhouse to pick out more plants for our garden, but other than that I was pretty much nursing my foot in bed all day.
Lydia baked blueberry muffins all by herself. She accidentally doubled the butter, which made the batter really watery but the muffins were…so rich and delicious. I am thinking that’s a mistake worth repeating.
On Friday Abe and I slept in until 8:46 am. I know the exact minute because when I looked at the clock I was in shock. I literally can not remember the last time we slept in that late! But we were up until 3am binging on Game of Thrones, so I guess we needed it.
We took pictures of the cabin before heading to lunch at The Foundry.
I am wearing a necklace Abe gave me that he had made in Israel for me. It is a kite necklace to match the poem he wrote for our anniversary.On the ski liftA view from the ski lift.From the top of the second lift.This view is a 20 minute drive and 2 ski lifts away from our home. We were so amazed to realize that.
After the glorious ski lift (which might have been my favorite part of the day because we were right next to the birds and birdsong and sitting in the sunshine for hours), we hiked Stewart Falls.
When we got home we were so tired but so thrilled to see everyone. Tom and Suzanne and my mom did an amazing job with the kids, who were all so happy. Thank you, Tom and Suzanne and Mom! We could not have had this beautiful day without you!! We love you.
