This morning I took it slow. Other than getting a run in on the treadmill, I basically did nothing all morning (aside from keeping the girls alive).
Things picked up after quiet time, though. Lydia and I shucked corn, and I almost wilted in the heat. Afterward we retreated back into the house for a cooking, cleaning, and laundry marathon.
After Abe came home, we ate dinner and played a vigorous game of chase.
Taking a break from chase.
Then we went to Target to buy this dreamy device:
A carpet and hardwood floor scrubber/steamer! 1000 scrubs per minute! Lightweight! I can’t wait to try it tomorrow!!!!
Abe is downstairs duck taping the bag for our old vacuum. We don’t have replacement bags since it is over two decades old, and in order for my steamer to work, you need to follow up with a vacuum. Buying a new vacuum is next on our list. (Actually, we intended to buy a new vacuum today, but I got seduced by the steamer.)
We have the video link to Jon and Shirley’s wedding (the one where Abe officiated)! It is absolutely GORGEOUS. Here’s the link. Theirs was the most beautiful wedding I have ever attended. I was so happy to see the video, especially because I didn’t get to hear the actual ceremony (I was busy taking the girls on a “princess hunt” in the gardens to make sure they didn’t interrupt anything).
We had a busy morning. I procrastinated buying the gift for Addelyn’s birthday until a half an hour before the party, and then we swung back to pick up another friend for the party.
The party. Apparently there was a parade, dancing, and lots of treats. Lydia came home with a marshmallow tiger tail, a chocolate Minnie Mouse cookie, popcorn, and a balloon. She had a blast.Mary was sad she didn’t get to stay at the party (she was still sick, and I didn’t want the other kids to get sick). She got this popsicle as a consolation prize.
The rest of the day was low-key. I should have used the time to do homework, but instead I just lay around, practiced piano, and prayed a lot.
After naps, we went outside to play in the hose, pick tomatoes, and play until Abe got home.
Mary thought the big tomatoes were apples. She LOVES pictures of apples in books and won’t ever let me turn the page and finish the book if we happen to come across a page with apples. She’d rather just stare at all the apples. Anyway, even though I kept telling her she was consuming a tomato, she kept telling me that she was eating an apple.
Play-doh.Swarming Daddy.Helping a tired Daddy get up.
Then Abe and I went inside and were too tired to even eat dinner. We fed the girls and then lay on the couch while the girls tucked us in and gave us all sorts of toys. I sprained a toe running through the sprinklers today, and so I babied it all evening.
I have hopes of watching Divergent tonight on Abe’s new Apple laptop that he just got from work. I guess the homework can wait until tomorrow…
I didn’t sleep enough last night AND I overdid it on the chocolate mousse, and I think my sugar-compromised immune system couldn’t handle it. I woke up feeling sick, and since my kids have both been battling colds for over a week, I decided to call it a stay-at-home day and skip Lydia’s last swimming lesson.
Reading in the morning. Mary was trying to read the book to herself and was doing a pretty great job, especially considering she specializes in sentences three words long or fewer!After naps, Lydia had fun bedecking Mary in all sorts of silly things.Attempting to get the belt to fit Mary.Some leftover tears are still on her cheek because Lydia wanted a turn with the glasses.Putting on these glasses provided endless entertainment to the girls. I love their sense of humor.
We did a lot of movies, reading, piano playing, song singing…and more movies. At 5 pm Aria and Paige rescued me from an evening of digital entertainment and came over for a play date.
Misting in the hose outside.
Sweet Baby Enna. Aria and her kids just got back from over three weeks in France, and Enna has grown so much since I last saw her!
I had the kids help me bread the eggplant that I turned into eggplant Parmesan for dinner. Abe and I had a wonderful time talking for dinner. We kept mindlessly feeding the girls whatever they wanted so we could talk longer. We don’t get to see each other at all on Wednesdays, so it felt like we had to catch up. Next semester I have class Wednesday and Thursday, so we’ll go those two days without seeing each other at all. So sad.
Anyway, I think I am going to bed early to try to get rid of this bug. We have a birthday party to attend tomorrow, so I can’t have another stay-at-home day. In fact, I’ll have a really rushed morning because I have yet to buy and wrap the gift!!
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!
Mom and Grandma, so sorry for not blogging yesterday! The internet was so slooooooooow last night, and after I finished my homework, it was already late and I was burnt out from dealing with the internet. I’m just going to add categories to today’s blog that apply from yesterday. (Yesterday we went to the mall with Rose, Sev, and Taina, babysat the kids while Rose grocery shopped, and went to Bikram in the afternoon.)
Today I went on a run up City Creek Canyon while Abe took the girls to ballet. Afterward, we went to the library and the market.
Abe waiting patiently with the girls while I ran to pick up some produce and cheese.
Then we used a Groupon at O’Falafel, a Palestinian restaurant in Sugar House. The cousin of the owner came over and ended up chatting with us for a long time, and we loved getting to know him and eating the delicious food.
Then we came home for naps. Mary slept a little in the car, so for much of our nap she was climbing over Abe and me and trying to ride us like horses. (Abe played horsey with the girls at his parents’ house after ballet, and she apparently wanted to revisit the game.)
Abe crafted with the girls for an hour after our naps while I practiced the piano. The girls were so cute–they would run up every couple minutes and bring me gifts that they’d crafted. Sometimes the gifts were just wrinkled papers in an envelope, but it was still sweet. Lydia kept saying, “Mom, I made this for you because I love you.” Mary would give me her gift, blow me a kiss, and run back downstairs to craft some more.
I sang children’s songs with the girls before Isabella came, and when she wasn’t participating, Mary pretended to clean the table. She wipes it down while muttering, “Keen, keen!” (Clean, clean!)
Then Isabella babysat so Abe and I could go to the temple. We picked up some groceries on the way home, and now we may or may not watch a movie.
Today Abe got sustained as the new Elder’s Quorum President. He will be wonderful, I’m sure. It will mean a lot less time home with family and a lot more time out doing visits and giving service, but this is how I feel: God gave me Abe. If God wants me to give some of Abe back to Him, I’m very happy to do that. As long as my husband is alive and healthy, God can have all the Abe he wants and I will just stand by and be grateful to be married to such a faith-filled man.
I had to conduct Primary today. Even though I’m supposedly a trained teacher, getting up in front of people is hard for me. The children were very nice, though. Josh Geiger, my visiting teachee’s son, was very nice and volunteered to say the opening prayer when I realized our scheduled child wasn’t there. He gave me a reassuring wink as he headed up to the stand, and that made me feel happy. I have an ally in Primary!
We were up until 1:30 am last night visiting with Jon and Shirley, and we enjoyed every second of that. It was so hard to stop chatting, but we finally decided to be responsible and say goodnight after two and a half hours flew by without us even realizing it. They stopped by again for a short visit after church and saw the girls. We are so grateful to have such wonderful friends in our lives.
Mary was naughty and ran into the living room while I played the piano. She’s not supposed to leave the kitchen while she’s eating, and she gets a real thrill disobeying that rule.
Abe reading a note from Jon and Shirley after they’d gone. They are the sweetest.
I am still loving the train, but it puts me on a very early schedule so I will be brief.
My day went super well today. It included a lot of productivity and a two and a half hour internal meeting followed by another hour long internal meeting. Yay meetings!
On my way home, Lily said something that made me feel really nostalgic. She was at school and she said she missed seeing me. I always used to meet her at school and pick up the kids on my way home from work. Now that we have babysitters and I take frontrunner, we no longer make the exchange. I miss it too. It was so nice to see her, even if just for five minutes. I realize I will literally go the whole day today without seeing her, sigh.
As far as Lily’s day today, this is what I have been able to piece together:
She thought Mary’s binky was missing, but found it just in the nick of time for her nap. She went to yoga while Isabella babysat. She spent some time working on things for her calling. She did all the usual, cooking, cleaning, feeding, and intervening when Lydia and Mary fight etc. Lily and I have both noticed a huge increase in Mary and Lydia’s engagement with each other. This goes for both positive and negative interaction. They are playing much more together and they really engage with each other. They also fight more and more intensely. Ahh, the life of siblings 🙂
After work I went to Costco with the girls to pick up a flank steak Lily requested. I bought it with a gift card that I redeemed from my Red Lion Hotel points. At Costco, I got a call from my dad who said that Suzanne had some gifts from Disney Land for the girls and he asked the best way for us to meet up. I said I would stop by and so I did.
Lydia got a sleeping beauty music box, which she loves and Mary got a book, a Sophia the first tambourine and a glow wand. They both also got boxes of disney cookies. I was so touched at how they thought specifically to bring things back to the girls. Thanks dad and Suzanne!
Hi, it’s me, Abe. Lily’s new cooking school semester started so she is there tonight. I do miss her when she is gone, but on the bright side, it is only twice per week this semester (if you count Saturday’s competition team), and also I get tons of joy envisioning Lily doing something she loves so much. I also have become a little more of a foodie since she started and I find myself genuinely interested in what she is cooking at what things she is learning. What fun! I didn’t talk to Lily much today, but I know that she went to the gym, had a play date with Misty and did homework…..I wish I knew more!
As far as my day, I was blessed to have one of the best work days I think I have ever had in my entire life. Everything today seemed to turn my way. Today I learned that I will get credit and commission for a deal that another salesman closed, because he quit and left, and the business got passed to me. I also had an amazing meeting that could very well turn into a deal that was passed to me by a friend who was in a different region. I also had another fantastic meeting that seems very promising. I’m now feeling like I’m poised to have a very good quarter. I know God led me to Qualtrics, and today felt like evidence as to why He led me to start my career over at an entry level position at Qualtrics. It was amazing and fun.
But that isn’t all. During work, one of my friends informed me that for all residents living in Salt Lake proper (not Sandy, West Valley, North Salt Lake etc) there is a HUGE discount for the Frontrunner train to Orem and Provo. I’ve thought about taking the train many times, but I just haven’t had quite the incentive to switch. Well, with this new discount, I will save about $2000 per year in gas money. Also, we wont need to save up to buy a new car soon since the commute was wearing our cars down so fast. Also, the train has wireless internet, so I can be productive. I was so excited. After meeting Lily at school and picking up the girls, I went straight to the Sorenson Unity Center and bought my pass. Hooray!
Which reminds me….the train does take longer, meaning my new wake time is 5:30 AM. It’s 10:30 now. I better sleep!
Mom and Grandma, I’m sorry that this is so short and doesn’t include the pictures we talked about on the phone today. We are babysitting some children who haven’t seen their mom since Wednesday, and it has been a little crazy. The poor little girl basically moaned “I want my mommy” over and over again until she finally fell asleep at midnight. Abe and I tried to comfort her, but to no avail. Lydia is currently awake because they’re all sleeping in the same room. I’m contemplating how I can sneak their window open since the air conditioner scared Harley (the little girl), so I had to turn it off.
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!
After Abe came home, we ate dinner and played a vigorous game of chase.
