On Saturday I had Majudara for the first time (because of our O’Falafal Groupon). Imagine my excitement when this month’s issue of Cook’s Illustrated contained the recipe! It was too good to be true. I had to make the dish.
So tonight I made it, and we had the Anderson’s over for dinner because I was so excited to share the joy of this dish. And I had leftover sugared saffron sauce from class and wanted to make panna cotta again. I love it when food turns out well, and tonight I can say, with the exception of the panna cotta (too gelatinous; I should have dialed down the gelatin), everything turned out great! And we love the Andersons, so visiting with them is always fun.
Abe wanted to take a picture of the panna cotta with saffron sauce.
Afterward, Abe and Mike went to help with a move in the ward, and Paige and I took the kids around Temple Square. After Paige left, Abe joined us and we walked around until almost 10pm. The girls had so much fun in the fountains. They kept throwing in pennies to make wishes, and Mary would come up to me and say, “More wishes! More wishes!” It was so cute. She was also enamored with the temple and said “bye-bye” to it about a million times.
Ada and Lydia below the Seagull Monument. Ada brought her pet snail along for the adventure.Watching their pennies sink to the bottom of the fountain.She’s wet from splashing in all the fountains.
When we got home, both girls had a snack before going to bed. I think they were too busy playing during dinner to actually eat, so they were both very hungry.
Mary eating her post-10 pm snack. I have high hopes they will sleep in tomorrow!
Abe is about to go to bed without me, so I have to be fast–it’s cooler out tonight, and I want to cuddle.
I took the girls to the playground and then to Lydia’s swim lesson this morning. Then Isabella babysat while I went to the temple. I have been dying to go to the temple, and even though Abe and I are planning to go this Saturday, I just couldn’t wait that long. I had a great experience, and I honestly think that going to the temple is the only thing that helped me keep my resolve to not yell today. When I got home, Lydia tried my patience to the point where I usually yell, but today I didn’t! I figured it was a temple blessing at work.
I made peanut noodles because they were a great catch-all for the fresh produce we got from Chelsea and Derek yesterday.
After dinner, I headed to church for a two hour meeting. I really like the women I work with, but it is SO hard for me to sit through a meeting and not get through the agenda in a time efficient way. Plus, I feel like whenever I do say something, it’s usually the wrong thing. Maybe this will all get better with time, but I came home two hours later discouraged and depleted.
Luckily, Abe had a wonderful Family Home Evening planned. The girls were so cute in their princess pajamas. They started FHE with a fashion show, and then Abe taught us a lesson about gratitude. We threw the beach ball to each other and said things we were grateful for. Lydia said she was grateful for her beautiful home, her family, her mama, daddy, and sister, the Fourth of July, and her cat. (Mary said she was grateful for whatever we told her to say.)
I had plans to work out this morning, but those dissipated in the face of housework.
Lydia and Mary played in the room while I folded laundry this morning. Lydia loves tucking Mary in, and Mary loves being tucked in. It’s a good situation.
Last week Misty called me and told me she’d signed Sophia up for swim lessons, and that there were still empty spots left. I signed Lydia up immediately, and they had so much fun today at their first lesson.
Then we came home, ate lunch, and headed down to Orem to visit my friend, Chelsea. The last time I saw Chelsea, she gave me the best salsa I’d ever had. When I told her how much I liked it, she said she’d teach me how to make it during her next canning session. She grew everything herself, and so she cans when all the salsa veggies are ripe. They were ripe today!
We had the BEST time. The whole drive down I felt so happy and excited to spend time with Chelsea. Abe and I talked about this on the way home, and there’s just something extra special about seeing a friend you’ve known in your pre-adult life. I don’t have any of those out here in Utah except for Chelsea, and I feel really happy whenever I get to spend time with her (not often enough).
If spending time with Chelsea weren’t enough, my eyes were also opened today about the possibilities of living in Orem. Chelsea lives exactly eight minutes from Abe’s work, so when he was done I picked him up and we went back to Chelsea and Derek’s house and had amazing Thai food for dinner. Chelsea and Derek loaded us up with canned and fresh produce, and we left feeling so happy, grateful, and blessed. I asked Abe how soon he thought we could sell our condo so we could buy a house near Chelsea and Derek…
Canning with Chelsea.Olivia has approximately twenty princess dresses. Lydia changed her dress every ten minutes for the first hour we were there.She finally settled on this number.Mary and Carter.Lydia dismounting.Picking strawberries in Chelsea’s strawberry patch.
London and Olivia. London is an exceptionally well-trained, child friendly dog.Watching London interact with the children.It was cute.Mary on the rocking horse.Eating dinner/chips and salsa for dinner. They loved the salsa!In front of Chelsea’s AMAZING garden. I love Chelsea, I love her garden, I love this visit…basically, I want to move to Orem right away.
Afterward, we headed to the outlets to buy pajamas for Lydia. We’ve spent six months in denial about her pj situation, and it’s finally reached the point where we’ve come to admit: she needs new ones. She spends half the week in her 2T pjs which barely come past her knees. During out outing, we discovered princess pajama dresses. Whoever came up with that must have had Lydia and Mary in mind. I kind of think all the other pj’s we bought might not even get used now that wearing a princess dress to bed is an option. The girls fell asleep before we got home, so I’ll take pictures of the princess pj dress tomorrow.
This morning we picked up Rose, Taina and Sev and headed over to Nordstrom to pick out some $12 sunglasses. I lose approximately two pairs per summer, and Rose offered to help me pick some. She did a great job, and I am so happy to not be squinting now!
Then we came home, ran through the sprinklers, and had a picnic.
Rose engineered our hose so that it could stay put like a sprinkler.
Mary was afraid of the sprinklers. Therefore, she hung on to me for dear life and didn’t appear in any of the sprinkler shots.
Rolling down the hill.
After naps, Isabella came so I could go swimming and grocery shopping. Then we all ate outside before heading to Baskin Robbins to celebrate the start of the weekend.
Isabella– Spiderman 2 flavored ice cream (chocolate and colored vanilla with exploding candy bits); Lydia–Very Berry Strawberry; Abe–Gold Medal; Mary–chocolate chip cookie dough; Lily–Mint Chocolate Chip. I should also not that this Baskin Robbins is where my visiting teachee, Marilyn, had her first date with her husband many decades ago. It’s stood the test of time!
Afterward, we went to Smith’s to pick out a toy for Liv’s birthday party tomorrow. Abe became passionately attached to a farm toy and went to elaborate lengths to convince me it was the perfect toy. I was convinced. We bought it.
Oh! I forgot to write down a funny thing that happened on Wednesday. We had gone down to Provo to hear Sharon’s talk, and we got lost. It took us forever to find the JFSB (one of the Joseph Smith buildings). Everyone kept saying, “It’s the one with the blue windows–you can’t miss it!” …and Abe and I kept missing it. All of the BYU campus buildings seem to have blue windows. Abe noted that they might have well said, “It’s the building with WALLS–you can’t miss it!”
Anyway, once we got to the building, we wandered all over until we finally found the symposium room. Afterward, as we attempted to navigate the maze out, Abe cried, “Oh, look! A street!!” in the same tone that one might use when saying, “Oh, look! We’re there!!”
This might be the place to note that while my sense of direction is far from stellar, Abe sometimes makes me feel like a professional navigator. That was one of those moments. I took his hand and gently led him back to the car (which was in the opposite direction of the street). We laughed the whole way there.
Also, I wish I could post a picture of Abe’s photo for his public transit pass. I haven’t seen him smile like that for a photo since our wedding day. He is definitely very happy to be free of his drive–he actually jumped out of bed at 5:40 am this morning to make his train. Abe is NOT a morning person, so again: More evidence that what he said tonight must be at least partly true. “Honey, without that drive, every second of my life feels enjoyable!!”
Okay, so I got behind in New York. Thankfully, I haven’t taken any pictures for the past two days, so I only have to post from Monday and Tuesday!
Monday
Abe got in late on Sunday night (or early Monday morning…he walked in the apartment around 3 am). We slept in a little in the morning and then took the train down to Central Park to watch a puppet show at the Swedish Cottage. They do old fashioned marionette puppet shows at the cottage, and the show we saw was called Bessie’s Big Shot. It was a cute little plot about a cow named Bessie who wants to join the circus. The plot was mostly an excuse for the show to use a lot of fascinating circus puppets, but we didn’t mind!
Then we ate lunch at a Druze restaurant called Gazala’s. We loved our food.
Mary was tired from the puppet show.
Afterward, we went to the Natural History Museum. Our favorite room was the Hall of Large Mammals. That room is amazing. I could not believe the detail in those dioramas, the girls were fascinated. The room also made me grateful to live in the West because most of those gorgeous scenes took place in the west. All the road trips we need to make flitted through my mind as we walked through that hall.
Lydia’s favorite part of the museum was the skeleton in the evolution room. She demanded to sit in front of the skeleton for a full five minutes and then protested when we said it was time to move on. She has a skeleton app on her iPad, and it has made her very interested in skeletons.
By the time we were done at the museum, we were pooped. We took the train home and I got a pedicure and a lot of long-overdue waxing done while Abe and my Mom watched the girls at home. When my pedicure was done, it was almost time for my high school friend, Lauren Merkley, to come over for dinner. She and her boyfriend joined us for sushi at Clark and Swathi’s apartment, and it was wonderful catching up. My only regret is that we didn’t have more time. I love Lauren.
Tuesday
I got up early on Tuesday to go to Times Square and try to get rush tickets to the musical, Beautiful: The Carol King Musical. My friend from high school, Jessie Mueller, is the star of the show and recently won a Tony award for her work on the show. While in line, I bumped into another high school/elementary school friend. It’s amazing how Jessie’s success brings people together–I’ve felt more connected to my high school class than I ever did in high school because it’s been so fun to watch everyone cheer Jessie on in Facebook. Jessie is such a marvelous person; she was the type of person who was nice to everybody and made everyone feel special. She also was so obviously talented even then.
Abe and I ended up waiting in line for cancellation tickets because I couldn’t get two tickets together in the morning. After a two hour wait, my feet were swollen, but we got tickets!
Seeing Jessie perform was extraordinary. It probably ranks as a life highlight–certainly, it’s my favorite performance of any kind of show I’ve ever attended. I still feel elated in my heart from the experience. Afterward, I got to see Jessie outside. That was a kind of “my cup runneth over” experience.
And it ran over more, because after the show Abe and I got the best gyros I have ever had in my life (and I have had gyros in Greece on multiple occasions) in Times Square. That was a happy night.
Skipping back to Tuesday afternoon, the most memorable thing we did was eat in Dominique Ansel bakery, home of the cronut. They were sold out of cronuts, but our lunch and dessert were amazing.
We did some shopping in Soho and got rained on, so all of the rest of our plans got replaced with a subway home. I had already walked several miles from midtown to the West Village, not to mention all around Soho, so I was fine with going home by that point. The evening ended with the show, so no complaints.
We stepped into the Scholastica store right before the downpour.On the way home.Mary fell asleep on the way home.
Lydia also fell asleep on the way home. Abe set her up like this and she slept for three straight hours. No joke.
Wednesday
The girls watched Frozen for the umpteenth time in the morning.
We ordered one last meal from Seamless, the NYC online take-out service. My yellow curry carried me through our flight until we got home. Tom and Suzanne picked us up, and we ended up getting Subway for dinner and eating outside. The weather was gorgeous, and we were happy to be home. It was a perfect trip and a perfect homecoming.
Thank-you, Clark and Swathi, for a fabulous trip. We love you so much. Thank-you, Mom, for being wonderful. The girls love you and already miss you so much. Thank-you, Grandma, for lending us Mom for the trip. We love you and only wish you could have been there, too!
Thursday
The only thing of note today was that I gave Lydia an Elsa cape I had been saving until Christmas. I’ve decided to use it as a tool to help her share better. She can only wear it when she’s in the mood to share. I even have a motto: “You can wear it if you share it!” We’ll see if this helps. The whole day has been a series of tantrums and screaming fits. I think the girls are tired from the trip. I did go swimming this morning and then took the girls to story time at the library, but it’s been tantrums ever since.
Puerto Rico
Here are Abe’s photos from Puerto Rico!
The church where Liem and Phuong got married is the oldest in Puerto Rico.
Now Abe and I are folding laundry…only I’m blogging instead. Back to the laundry!
Playing chase with Isabella. Lydia refused to wear pants all day. To be honest, getting her to wear undies was a huge battle. She just wanted a naked day, I guess.
Pretending to do ballet before ballet. The minute Mary heard Lydia was going to ballet, she started dancing.
This morning was pretty low-key: cleaning, reading, lounging, playing with kids, feeding kids, etc.
Isabella came over at 2 pm so I could go to yoga. By the time I came home, it was time to make dinner. I tried my new pressure cooker today and it worked! I read the manual yesterday and couldn’t find it today, so I kept hoping I wouldn’t accidentally blow the house up. When I turned the knob to “release pressure,” the sound was so startling that Mary screamed and we all ran out of the kitchen. That might take some getting used to.
Then we met up with our friends, the Skardas, and headed up to a campground in Big Cottonwood Canyon to make s’mores.
I literally ate so many that I still have a stomachache. Carrie had the great idea of sandwiching the marshmallows between chocolate coated cookies. It was delicious.
Once again, the girls were too tired for a proper bed routine. I will tell Lydia to brush her teeth for five straight minutes tomorrow morning…
Kate showed up at 8:30 so I could make it to 9 am yoga this morning. I think I might have pushed it too hard in yoga because for the rest of the day I just dragged. For example, at one point I dumped all the laundry on the floor in the girls room with every intention of sorting and folding…and instead, I just sat there playing with and reading to the girls. I finally got around to the laundry at bedtime. Six hours later.
In the interim, Abe came home and we did errands. We had what felt like social hour at the grocery store. We ran into Abe’s old friend, Abe’s first grade teacher, my visiting teacher, and the mother of some of the kids in Primary who gave talks last Sunday.
Blueberries outside of Sprouts.The girls rode this ancient merry-go-round outside of Rite Aid for a quarter. Might as well have been Disneyland–they loved it.
Then we came home and had s’mores for dinner, much to Abe’s chagrin. But I pointed out the girls had eaten a ton of raw snap peas before our errands, and they’d had a ton of berries and crackers on our outing. I couldn’t picture them eating much more substantial food, plus I couldn’t wait for s’mores. We were supposed to go camping tonight, and when the reservations didn’t work out, the one thing I was sad about was the prospect of missing out on s’mores. The electric coils on our stove top were a fine–superior, even–substitute.
Lydia was our official s’more smusher. She smushed the graham crackers together after I slid the marshmallows in between.
Mary wasn’t interested in s’mores. She got really excited about her ice water, though.
Lydia has had nosebleeds in the middle of the night two nights in a row. Her bed is right over an air conditioning duct, and I wonder if that’s why. At any rate, Abe and I are exhausted and hoping she doesn’t have one tonight. It’s a little hard to drag ourselves out of bed, clean the blood and start a load of laundry at 3 am every night. I’d love it if we could break the habit tonight.
And a fireworks show just started in the valley. It’s so exciting to be able to watch from my desk–time to wrap this up!
Abe and I have a lot to give thanks for today. He had a fantastic day at work and I had a wonderful day at home. Well, actually, I spent a lot of the time at yoga because Abe’s cousin is now on the babysitting market, and she charges the same rate as my gym childcare. Lydia has begged me to let Isabella babysit her, and even though I was initially hesitant because Isabella is slightly on the young side, I finally relented.
When I got home from yoga, not only was Mary peacefully napping, but Lydia and Isabella were happily chatting away in Lydia’s clean room. That’s right. Isabella and Lydia cleaned while I was at yoga. Isabella found her way to my heart strings today. I should have snapped more photos of Lydia hugging Isabella, which she did spontaneously and with great affection multiple times, but I was just too busy trying to do laundry and deep clean the house. Isabella hung out with us for the rest of the day, and when Mary got up, we all went to the pool for a little bit.
Then we came back home and ate dinner. Abe took the girls to buy a present for Sophia’s birthday party tomorrow, and I stayed home and “cleaned.” (I actually spent most of the time eating banana bread.)
We held FHE when Abe and the girls returned. I gave a little lesson on the flag and then we drew pictures of the flag on Sophia’s wrapping paper.
Because we got to bed at such a wonderfully reasonable time last night, I didn’t mind waking up at 5:15 to go running. I ran around the track behind Ensign Elementary School, and from the track there’s a gorgeous view of the entire Salt Lake Valley. While I was running, the sun rose over the mountains, and, well, it was thrilling.
Then I came home and got ready for the day. The girls have been sleeping in lately, which generally is wonderful, except when we have places to go. Today we rushed breakfast so we could make it to story time at the library.
Another reason we are late everywhere. The girls get distracted en route to the car (a thirty second walk).Lydia was really excited that Mary has teeth. Mary has had teeth for a while, but I guess Lydia didn’t notice until today.On the way to the library, Lydia loves to push Mary in the stroller.Story time at the library. Today the kids all got bee hats (today we had an insect theme) and mini kazoos!
On the way to the library, we met an artist headed to the Salt Lake Arts Festival. She makes purses, and her purses were so beautiful that I decided to drive to my school to pick up some free tickets. (I volunteered at a catering event a while back, and all the volunteers got tickets as a thank-you.) Since we were already in Draper, we headed to Ikea for lunch.
Ikea smile.Ikea frozen yogurt. We made a mess on the window…
After Ikea we went to the post office to pick up Abe’s birthday present to me–a replacement iPod for the one we lost over a year ago. Then I did a couple more errands before heading home.While Mary napped, I called all the babysitters we know until Abe’s cousin turned out to be free. I have an unlimited yoga pass this month, so I woke Mary from her nap, dropped the girls off at Abe’s cousin’s house and headed to yoga.
Then we came home and got ready to go to the Arts Festival.
These are the purses that convinced me to add a three hour errand to the day in order to get my free tickets to the arts festival. I just read a talk this morning on materialism, and the phrase “We need to recognize when we have enough” ran through my mind while I was looking at these. I don’t need more than one purse, but if I had unlimited resources AND hadn’t read that talk this morning, I might have gotten one. They were so pretty.The arts festival.
We got to hear Rhapsody in Blue at the festival. Mary squirmed a lot.At the end of the festival. We left just as it was starting to rain again.
All in all, it was another busybusybusy day. I’m hoping for a slower pace tomorrow!
When we got home, both girls had a snack before going to bed. I think they were too busy playing during dinner to actually eat, so they were both very hungry.
