library – Page 4 – Darais Days

Abe has a great day and Lily fails (or thinks she failed) the ServSafe

I awoke to the sound of Lydia running into my room and chattering about her birthday presents. As I rolled over I heard, “Oh, Mama, I need to go potty…uh, oh, I’m having an accident…”

I wish I could say I was composed in the face of this wake-up call, but I wasn’t. I gave Lydia a shower, and even though she hates showers, the good news is that her hair was wet and easy to braid. For the rest of the day, she didn’t have to deal with hair in her face (and I admired her tight braid).

I was, as usual it seems, low on energy this morning, so the girls spent the first two hours playing by themselves. I walked by their room to hear them jumping on Lydia’s bed and giggling. I grabbed my camera, but I was too late. I did take a couple other pictures, though. Grandma, Abe said you requested pictures after we got lazy and posted some picture-less posts last week. I want you to know that these pictures are for YOU!

After a couple hours, Mary came into my room and cried until I suggested that we go into her room and play blocks. She stopped crying immediately and nodded hard. I spent the next hour playing with the girls and sneaking in some room-organization/cleaning while I was at it.

Then I fed the girls a lunch that ended in too many cupcakes. That got Mary ready for bed, and Lydia played on the iPad while I did homework and studied for my ServSafe exam and other final. I’m pretty sure I failed the ServSafe exam tonight. It was hard! It was hard to study for and hard to take. In order to progress in the program, I need to pass it, and I think I can take it as many times as I need…I just don’t want to have to go through the studying rigamarole again. I had to do sit through fourteen hours of online lessons, not including the practice test, in order to prepare. Mom, can you pray that I passed so I don’t have to do this again? Your prayers always seem to work, and my prayers feel tired and slightly faithless.

I came home before the girls got to bed, and it was so fun to hug and cuddle them. Being away always makes me appreciate time with them so much more. Also, David came over to play video games with Abe, and before they played, the three of us chatted in the kitchen for a loooong time about parenting. David was remarkably engaged as Abe and I bored him with descriptions of our daughters’ personalities and our own parenting dilemmas, and he gave us great advice.

Now I’m trying to work up the motivation to take a much-needed shower before going to bed. Abe and David are downstairs playing an enthusiastic video game before David returns to Boston.

Oh! And Abe had a fantastic day at work!! He came home raving about how great it was. He also had a perfect home-teaching experience on his way home. He caught the family just when they were having some computer problems he helped solve, and then out of the blue the dad (who grew up LDS but no longer practices) gave Abe some money for a fast offering. It was kind of a textbook happy-home-teaching experience, and that on top of his already-great day made this day a winner in Abe’s book. He did struggle to manage Lydia’s continual tantrums throughout the evening, but after a great day at work and a great home-teaching experience, even hours of straight melt-downs don’t seem like such a big deal–or at least Abe didn’t seem to be phased.

My eyelids just drooped. Time for a shower and bed.

Non-Profit, Exam, David

Today was a little bit of a hard day on the home front. When I chatted with Lily at our kid-handoff in front of her cooking school, I learned that today the doorbell woke Mary from her nap, Lily learned Mary could squeeze through the second floor railing, a strange beggar came to the house asking for money (and this is after the Elizabeth Smart book she just read), and she’s feeling sicker than yesterday. My heart definitely went out to Lily to hear about these struggles, especially since things are really starting to go well at work.

Today I received my account list that I will be responsible for to call on. My list is comprised almost all of non-profit organizations, meaning Qualtrics wants me to become expert in selling to that industry. I started working on the list today and found great joy working on my own accounts and not just setting up meetings for other salesmen. Also, during lunch we had a regional meeting and my team lead commended my hard work in front of every body and I was awarded fifty dollars. Sweet!

Lily just got home from cooking school and reported that she feels she did very well on her final (Yay!). That is especially amazing since she was feeling so unwell. While Lily was at cooking school, the following transpired.

I picked up mail from my mom’s office (Lydia asleep in the car) and then drove home (Lydia still asleep in the car). Lydia woke up as we pulled in the driveway and proceded to be an emotional disaster for the next two hours. I do not fault her. She took a late nap, and she was just out of sync. She melted down over a variety of topics such as curry being too spicy (Mary ate it), being tired, being cold (right after her bath), not wanting to comb her hair, wanting the ipad, wanting to sit in my lap……you get the idea. Finally at the end of the day, right before going to bed, she cheered up, partially because she enjoyed watching Mary run around only half-way in her pajamas. I only got half-way putting Mary into pajamas before I had to intervene with another dramatic emotional episode from Lydia. Everything ended on a good note when I put the kids to bed.

Right afterwords, my brother, David, came over. He is in-town from his PHD studies at Harvard. We chatted for a while and then played one hour and thirty minutes of Wayne Gretzky Hockey on Nintendo 64. We had so much fun that we made plans to do it again Monday.

Pictures!

Lydia asked to go to bed while Mary ran around and she was amused at Mary half-way in her pajamas

Lily took the girls to the library today.

Lily made a knockout curry today and included Lydia in the process.

A good day

O-k, so Lily and I both woke up sick, but has actually turned out to be a really good change. I think it was the weather change combined with the work stress that got me. Lily also runs a really heavy schedule so maybe each of our bodies were just saying, “take a day to slow down,” and our bodies decided to communicate that message through soar throats and feeling ill.

But seriously, it was a good day. Lily had her best Saturday competition practice ever. She was trained on cake-making by the best chef at the school, Chef Ramsey, and Lily said her second cake that she made was the best in the class, even better than Chef Ramseys! (Your jaw can drop here) I’m really proud of the great work Lily is doing. Lily also shared an extremely comical moment when she was feeling incredibly tired and had the train of thought, “I wonder what would happen if I cracked an egg onto the middle of the counter.” And so she did. She cracked an egg, and while the raw egg mess was sitting on the counter, Chef Ramsey walked by, looked at it, and said, “um, are you o-k?” I thought was the most hilarious thing I’d heard all day. Lily is definitely having a good time.

I had a great time at home with the girls too. I was pretty whiped out from feeling sick, but we managed some good moments. Here are both Mary and Lydia fingerpainting in the basement.

After fingerpainting, we all ate brunch (becuase with kids there are six meals per day) and Lydia and Mary sat together at the table.

After this meal, I put Mary down to nap while Lydia played on her own. I got a good nap so I was able to play with the kids after Lily got home so she could get her rest in. After Lily rested we left the house to start the day at 4:30 PM.

Lydia was asleep within minutes in the car and Mary was happy just being alive in her car-seat. She used to hate being in her car-seat, but ever since we switched her into the green-grey and black one that Lydia used to use, she has done really well. It’s a very big seat, looks very comfortable and makes me think of a captains chair on a giant spaceship.

First I dropped of Lily at the main library and while she picked out books I got a healight and brake-light fixed at Jiffy-Lube. I really enjoyed watching the guy replace the bulbs and I figured to myself that next time I can probably save a buck and do it on my own. After I picked up Lily we went to subway because I was starving and needed something healthy because yesterday I binged on jelly-beans and buttered-popcorn and I was still feeling gross. After subway we all went to a playground at Liberty Park. We had fun, but didn’t stay too late because it was a little chilly. Then we went to Smith’s, came home, ate, bathed the girls, and put them to bed.

Since that time, I have taken a quick nap and put away all of our clutteriffic winter accessories into the basement, totally clearing out our hall closet. I also just finished the book of Ruth in the Old Testament which means I start Samuel tomorrow. Since being in the car on our errands, Lily has completely absorbed in the Elizabeth Smart autobiography she checked out. She is just finishing it now downstairs. I’m sure she’ll report on it tomorrow, but from what she told me so far, it is horrifying how evil her kidnapper is, but it is also inspiring how pure Elizabeth is and it is also inspiring reading how God comforted her and helped her very explicitly during that horrifying time in her life. Rest!

Happy third birthday, Lydia!!!

Happy birthday, Lydia!! We tried to make this the happiest, most fun day for Lydia we could think of. We started off by watching videos of when she was a baby while we cuddled and I told her how exciting it was to meet her this day three years ago. Abe headed downstairs to make pancakes with pureed strawberry syrup, which both girls had fun dipping their pancakes in.

My mom went to the church to fulfill our cleaning assignment so we could have the morning with Lydia together. She is the most selfless person I know. We are so happy to have her here!

Then Lydia and I baked the other half of Lydia’s cake while Abe played with Mary.

Abe did all the dishes while I read to the girls. Then my mom gave the girls matching dresses to wear for Lydia’s birthday. We took Mary’s off so she wouldn’t get it dirty climbing around the movie theater, but they played at home in their matching outfits (my heart pitter-pattering the whole time).

When Abe and I were both finally dressed and ready to go, all of us (including my mom!) headed to the Gateway where we had Dairy Queens before going to Frozen.

Tom joined us for the movie, and he was a great help when Mary escaped near the end and started climbing the stairs at the movie theater.

After the movie, we played outside in the sunshine for a while and let the girls run around. Lydia loved twirling in one of the new dresses Nana gave her for her birthday.

Then we headed to the library and read Lydia a book about birthdays. The protagonist was not only her favorite thing in the world–a cat–but she was wearing a startlingly similar dress to Lydia’s. Then we checked out some pink books in honor of her birthday and headed to the store to pick up some things before going home.

At home, we made frosting and assembled her yellow and strawberry cake. The strawberry turned gray when Lydia dumped in the sprinkles (THE essential ingredient of her cake, in her opinion).

I basically injected pureed strawberries into a regular buttercream icing, and while the result was tasty, the texture left a LOT to be desired. Basically, it fell off of the cake. But Lydia didn’t care since the cake was pink and full of strawberries, and after dinner she enjoyed the whole song-candle-blowing-cake-and-ice-cream-eating process.

Pinterest fail. Maybe I'll learn how to make a successful, fresh, fruit icing when I take my baking and pastry classes. — Pinterest fail. Maybe I’ll learn how to make a successful, fresh, fruit icing when I take my baking and pastry classes.

Then Abe gave the girls baths and changed them into jammies before we opened presents.

Mary was dying to wear a costume, too, so she got to wear this hand-me-down shirt from a family reunion we had years ago. It made her SO happy.

For the last hour the girls have been playing with Lydia’s new presents, and right now Abe is trying to make sure they sleep in tomorrow by playing vigorous games of chase-and-throw-the-children.

Then Clark, Swathi, and Balu called from New York and wished Lydia a happy birthday. She relived her whole day in their conversation and kept repeating that she had a fun birthday. She especially loved telling them repeatedly about how the game of chase made her laugh and giggle.

I am beyond ready for bed, so I’m blogging early and will be retiring as soon as I hit publish (hopefully). Happy birthday, my sweet and beautiful Lydia!!!

competition win and the atom bomb

I won my cooking competition this morning!!! Well, okay, okay. They announced it was a tie, but when I got home and looked at the scores, I realized that the judges forgot to circle/add up one of my scores, so I technically won by one itsy bitsy little point. But still! I got a ticket for two to our school restaurant and a Ninja chopping machine. Abe and the girls came and cheered me on, and it was so fun to see their smiling faces through the glass.

The surprise ingredients weren’t that hard, really. They told us to use orange roughy and apples on our plate, which had to contain a starch, vegetable, sauce and garnish. Here’s what I did:

I made a blue cheese polenta cake, beet/carrot/apple/poppy seed slaw with raspberry vinegar, baked orange roughy and a candied lemon garnish. The blue cheese was rancid; I thought it was tangy, but I didn't realize it was rancid until the judges absolutely tore me apart for it. — I made a blue cheese polenta cake, beet/carrot/apple/poppy seed slaw with raspberry vinegar, baked orange roughy and a candied lemon garnish. The blue cheese was rancid; I thought it was tangy, but I didn’t realize it was rancid until the judges absolutely tore me apart for it. Also, I plated my fish upside down. Oops! Thankfully, the other two competitors in my division made the same mistake. We’re all learning.

Then we came home and ate lunch. Ironically, I had to throw out my food before eating it all because we were in such a rush to clean the kitchen. Also, Abe had to leave early because he forgot to put a diaper on Mary this morning, and there weren’t any in the car. Oops! Mornings are hard for him.

I spent the girls’ hours of quiet time finishing my most recent book, Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, today. It was a total page turner, and now I am scared that we’re all going to get blown up by the crazy people in power around the world. I sneaked to the library just before they close to get some more books to help calm me down.

My relationship with Mary deteriorates by Saturday afternoon because I’m gone all evening Friday and all morning Saturday. She gets so mad at me that when I finally get back, she screams if I touch her and clings to Abe for dear life. The only way we get back on friendly terms is if I play peek-a-boo with her feet and let her step on my face. I’m not kidding:

Also, Lydia found grown-up socks today and wore them the rest of the evening.

Lydia and I had another piano lesson today. I remember how hard it was to sit still when I was little, and I’m so proud of her for enduring. We made it to thirty minutes today. When I told Abe I want to try for an hour on Monday, he asked me to keep it to thirty minutes because he’s a more fun, compassionate parent than I am. Maybe we’ll compromise at forty-five. Our poetry session was truncated by my need for a nap, but we did read “Tiger, tiger, burning bright” and “The Lamb” by William Blake.

Lydia relates Shakespeare to her cat and a ton of pictures

I have a TON of pictures from today, and since I have to get up early tomorrow, I’m just going to post them with captions.

Rose came by this morning and asked if I wanted to go on a walk. Of course! We had a great walk, and Rose gave the girls stickers.

Then I took the girls to the library. — Then I took the girls to the library (and read down some more fines).

Then we headed home for a play date with Misty, Sophia and Max. I love them all so much. Max is starting to army crawl, and he is just the cutest.

After they left, I put Mary down for a nap and gave Lydia another piano lesson. I set a timer for twenty-five minutes. I think she could do longer sessions than that, but I run out of steam. I’m going to try for at least half an hour next time. When her piano lesson was over, I gave her a cookie and cuddled with her on the couch while we did another poetry session. We read “Heaven-Haven: A Nun takes the Veil” by Gerard Manley Hopkins and talked a lot about Aunt Lydia (a nun) and angels (since that’s what Aunt Lydia is now). I love that poem, but I really wanted to work more on “God’s Grandeur,” which is my favorite. Next time.

Oh! And we read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 (“Let me not to the marriage of true minds”) and talked about it a bunch. Lydia decided (on her own) that Shakespeare was writing about the relationship between her and her cat. Um…..

Lydia brought her stuffed animals into my room while I was doing homework and she was supposed to be having quiet time. From there on out, we had "quiet time" in the same room. — Speaking of her cat, Lydia brought her stuffed animals into my room while I was doing homework and she was supposed to be having quiet time. From there on out, we had “quiet time” in the same room.

Then I went to school and worked on the following:

Beef au jus. The potatoes Anna could have been less gray, the plate needs fewer broccoli pieces, the beef slices need to be larger, and the gravy drizzle more cohesive.

While I was at school, Abe took the girls to the ward party.

Lydia was actually thrilled, but you wouldn't know unless you knew her... — Lydia was actually thrilled, but you wouldn’t know unless you knew her…

Mary rode Chester tonight (much to the dismay of her terrified older sister).

Abe doing his hair for the crazy hair competition at work. He met his goal for the month today, too! Go Abe!

The regular rhythm of Saturday

I spent all morning and the early afternoon at school, turning out French toast for a breakfast with the president of the Utah chapter of the American Culinary Federation (turned out she wasn’t hungry and didn’t eat a thing), washing mountains of dishes, and getting briefed on our team’s strategy for this year’s competition.

Next Saturday is my first black box competition, which is a competition where the judges put out surprise ingredients and you have to turn out a meal in an hour (like the show, Chopped). I am so nervous and am sure I will panic and blank, but it will be good experience. At the library today I checked out a ton of cookbooks on dessert because after the Saturday competition our team will have a pow-wow and decide what dessert we will make at the November ACF competition. It has to be an autumn-appropriate dessert that’s traditional but with some kind of modern twist. I saw a recipe for persimmon tea cake with kumquat glaze and thought that looked promising. We’ll see what my teammates think.

When I came home, I found this:

Abe made me pancakes, and Lydia drew a little picture for me. It was so sweet. Also, Abe makes better pancakes than I do. Mine always burn and come out uneven. — Abe made me pancakes, and Lydia scribbled a post-it note for me. It was so sweet. Also, Abe makes better pancakes than I do. Mine always come out so uneven.

Then we all took naps–except for Lydia, who would occasionally pop in our room announcing hunger or a desire to engage in some kind of activity requiring Abe and me to exert energy we simply didn’t have. I wish I were a super high-energy person; I could be such a better mom! Instead, I end up mumbling directions to Lydia from bed on how to procure herself animal crackers and cookies.

After Mary woke up, Abe and I dragged ourselves out of bed and took the girls to the library and on a round of errands.

When we got home, Lydia burst into tears at the prospect of dinner and begged to go “straight to bed” instead. Since she’d snacked a lot in the car, we obliged. Mary stayed up and ate animatedly with us. She has a new word! When we ask her how her day went, she smiles and says, “guh” for “good.” I am so worried because up until now, her only word has been “bah” for “bye.” Now at least she has a two word repertoire.

Then Abe and I watched the Olympics and I wasted time online. Abe still has to plan his lesson tomorrow, so I’m going to do some homework and then go “straight to bed,” just like Lydia.

Play date, soup and FHE

This morning I sneaked in a trip to the library and grocery store before our fun play date with Paige, Ada, and Liv.

Here are some pictures from the play date:

We did a lot of art: painting, coloring, stamping, and playing with chalk.

Paige brought over some polymer sand that was incredible. It looked and felt like sand, but it cleans up like cotton candy--a no mess kind of sand that just makes you marvel at technology. — Paige brought over some polymer sand that was incredible. It looked and felt like sand, but it cleans up like cotton candy–a no mess kind of sand that just makes you marvel at technology.

Then the girls were so worn out from the fun that they took a three hour nap. Hallelujah. I read a chapter in my book and then proceeded to do the same.

By the time we woke up, I just had time to make some soup, feed the girls dinner, and eat the last piece of last week’s cake before Abe came home.

We finished up with a Family Home Evening lesson on what it means to be children of God. Of course, we ended by playing parachute…

Late nights and early mornings

It’s me, Abe, again! Lily doesn’t know it yet, but I’m blogging for her so when she gets home at 11:30 from cooking school, she can go straight to bed. She also doesn’t know it yet, but I’m staying up for her tonight because we haven’t seen much of each other lately and I miss her. I do wake up at 5:45, but I’m sure somehow that will sort itself out.

Work is going extremely well, thanks to lots training and divine intervention. I ended last week feeling bad at my job, and this week I had a training that gave me knowledge on how to progress. I’ve prayed a lot for help and I’ve worked at applying the training I’ve received and so far I am on pace with my goal of setting one meeting per day for a sales representative. Today ended on a positive and dramatic note when after a whole day of not setting a single meeting, my last phone call of the day turned into a meeting set. Yay!

Lily literally recapped her day for me in two and a half minutes as we met and did the car swap in front of her school. I’ll probably butcher this, but here is what I remember:

She visited Marilyn Brinton, with her new visiting teaching companion, Jen. Lily completely adores both Marilyn and Jen and loved spending time with them. Then, Lily fed the kids and cleaned, went to the Library, fed the kids and cleaned, practiced some piano, fed the kids and cleaned, did some homework, fed the ….you get the idea. Our children eat a lot and I marvel at Lily’s ability to keep the kitchen clean.

After briefly meeting up with Lily I took the kids home and fed them (I cleaned after they went to bed!). After dinner, Clark and Swathi faced timed us which was super fun! No one got a word in except for Lydia who dominated the entire conversation either talking about her cat or talking directly to her cat and expecting us to watch the interaction with rapt attention. Swathi, Clark and I all made solid efforts to exchange complete sentences, but alas we could not compete with dear Lydia’s passion for her cat combined with her love for attention. I think the reality is that we were all quite entertained.

I’m going to crawl into bed and buy a white elephant Christmas gift for one of my friends. We postponed our exchange to February 1, and somehow that still did not give me enough time to be on top of things.

If Lily has the energy, she may add to my post when she gets home.

It appears we didn’t take any pictures with our camera tonight. Ciao!

ramblings

This morning I fed the girls, practiced, and took them to Institute and the library. At Institute, both girls went to nursery. They did fine until Lydia had a little run-in with a friend, and Lydia burst into tears. At the sight of Lydia in tears, Mary became inconsolable, and I could hear her soundtrack an entire floor down. But I got to attend most of Institute before that, and it was awesome. The curator of the BYU museum of art talked to us about the Carl Bloch exhibit, and I am now dying to go.

Our institute is packed, and so parking is hard. I thought I’d found a great spot today, but when I came out, I discovered a ticket! Did you know you can’t park within 20 inches of a crosswalk? I sure didn’t. I wasn’t blocking the crosswalk, but I guess that wasn’t good enough. I guess I know now.

By the time we came home, the girls had gotten a second wind, so I played with them for another hour before putting them down. Then I did my usual climb-into-bed deal for a nap and some reading. I started Good Lord Bird, and even though it is rather humorous, I already know I’m not going to finish it. Besides, it’s due tomorrow.

When the girls woke up, we ate, cooked, colored, played, read, and I sneaked in more practice (while they ate). Then Abe came home and we had a lightning fast FHE.

Since yesterday was the State of the Union, I decided to do a lesson on our president. I remember when I was a little girl, one of my greatest friends and teachers was my next door neighbor, Ruth. She was in her 90’s, and she was a wonderful listener. She also had a way of gently correcting that never felt like a reprimand but still had great sticking power. On one occasion, I remember going over and saying some negative things about Clinton to her. Ruth responded by telling me that she was from a part of Indiana where the people are called “yellow dog Democrats,” meaning if a yellow dog was on the Democratic ticket, they would vote for it. She said that once she remembered saying something bad about the Republican president, and her mother immediately replied that the presidential office is worthy of our respect and support, no matter who holds it.

I haven’t always acted on the principle Ruth taught me that day, but it’s always in the back of my mind during political conversations. Abe and I read the twelfth Article of Faith to the girls (“We believe in being ^asubject to ^bkings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in ^cobeying, honoring, and sustaining the ^dlaw“) in the hopes that they learn to respect our leaders and honoring all efforts to uphold our democratic system. In order to drive the message home, we played parachute. By now, Abe and I joke that we can relate parachute to any gospel principle; this time it was, “We should uphold our leaders just like we will uphold these objects…in the air over the blanket!”

Then I ran off to Bikram with Anique. Thank goodness she drove, because I felt so sick afterward, I don’t know how I would have made it home. The room was packed, and so maybe the extra bodies drove the temperature up. Whatever it was, I did not feel good afterward and am only now starting to feel somewhat normal.

Here are the pictures from the day:

Ever since Santa brought Lydia her cat back, Puss has played and ever more central role in Lydia's life. She has full-blown conversations with him all day long, and he is her favorite thing to discuss with other people. Mary has picked onto this, and when Lydia is feeling sad, Mary has started bringing her her cat. This was after a sad event with a tower Lydia was building, and Mary was cheering her up. — Ever since Santa brought Lydia her cat back, Puss has played and ever more central role in Lydia’s life. She has full-blown conversations with him all day long, and he is her favorite thing to discuss with other people. Mary has picked up on this, and when Lydia is feeling sad, Mary has started bringing her her cat. This was after a sad event with a tower Lydia was building, and Mary was cheering her up.

I snapped this picture and then joined in. That left corner of the blanket needed some help!

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