Mary pics – Page 14 – Darais Days

Emergency doctor’s visit…and we’re off!

This morning Mary woke up so sleepy that I read to her for an hour while she cuddled in my arms by the open window. It felt so luxurious and magical. The breezes smell so sweet this time of year, but since they are still brisk, I wrapped Mary in a blanket and rocked with her while we read.

We read the books on the floor in front of the chair.

Then Mary fell asleep in my arms. Normally I transition her to her crib, but I thought, “This feels so beautiful, and what could be more important?” We rocked for an hour while I day dreamed and looked out the window. Heaven (my version).

Mary woke up and I fed the girls breakfast. When I discovered Mary had fallen asleep again on her high chair, I started to get worried. Yesterday Abe played chase with the girls and Mary ran into a door. Her face got a little black and blue, and I started to wonder if she had a concussion.

I transferred her to the crib and she slept for another three hours. When she woke up lethargic and sleepy, I called the doctor. We are leaving for our Springfield trip in forty minutes, and it felt a little crazy to drop it all and run to the doctor–but Mary seemed really sick.

Turns out she had a temperature of 102, her white blood cell count was really low, and her little heart was racing. She has a nasty virus, and she is currently sleeping (again). We are packing lots of Tylanol for the trip and hoping the hours upon hours in the car give her plenty of time to rest.

I have to go finish cleaning before we leave. Here are some more pictures I took this morning:

We weaned her off of her binky over a month ago (except for naps), but with all of the travel, her teething, and now this virus, she's getting a LOT of binky time. — We weaned her off of her binky over a month ago (except for naps), but with all of the travel, her teething, and now this virus, she’s getting a LOT of binky time.

All of Lydia's leggings get holes in the right knee. I don't know why that knee is more prone than the other, but at any rate, these pants are no exception. — Almost all of Lydia’s leggings get holes in the right knee. I don’t know why that knee is more prone than the other, but at any rate, these pants are no exception.

Planting Seedlings and plans for cheese

This morning, Mary slept-in until 10 AM. It was amazing. Lily took advantage of the time to clean the bathroom, wash, dry, fold and put away laundrey and get a lot of other things done. When sleepy-headed Mary got up, Lily and the girls planted the seedlings that Aria gave us last night (see pictures from yesterday!).

[change in blog authors] Abe is exhausted from allergies, so he stopped blogging and it’s Lily now. I’m just going to throw up the pictures from today:

Waving bye-bye to Abe and Mary before class (Lydia was asleep in the car). It was especially hard to leave Mary today--she was only awake three hours of the entire time I was with her! (And one of those hours we spent driving to school in the car.) — Waving bye-bye to Abe and Mary before class (Lydia was asleep in the car). It was especially hard to leave Mary today–she was only awake three hours of the entire time I was with her! (And one of those hours we spent driving to school in the car.)

I made cheese tonight. This is fromage blanc and mascarpone.

I also formed mozzarella. We didn't make the curd, so I'm hoping we do that sometime in the future. I asked Chef if we could take cheese home, and he agreed. When he saw that I had packed six pounds of cheese, he made me put some back. Sorry, but it was really good!! I had great plans for that six pounds of cheese... — I also formed mozzarella. We didn’t make the curd, so I’m hoping we do that sometime in the future. I asked Chef if we could take cheese home, and he agreed. When he saw that I had packed six pounds of cheese, he made me put some back. Sorry, but it was really good!! I had great plans for that six pounds of cheese…

Picnics and iPad videos

Today we had an inspiring Sunday School, and Abe and I got to pay attention again because Mary stayed in nursery! We are so happy about her transition.

After church, we went to Ensign Park for a picnic with Aria, Clay, Espen, Enna, Paige, Mike, Ada and Liv.

Then we came home and napped. When we finally got up, we took the rest of the evening sloowly. I made strawberry-rhubarb bars, and we ate snacks for dinner while watching some of these videos on the iPad.

Abe and Lydia did the dishes:

Then Abe chased the girls (since Mary napped until 7:15 pm) until they were ready for bed.

Now for our first early bed time all week!

Cupcake competition, etc.

I am so exhausted I can barely function, but guess what? I won second place at the cupcake competition this morning! Since we had to use garlic, I made a garlic/chocolate gingerbread cupcake with cream cheese frosting and a garlic/ginger/walnut brittle on top. In my humble opinion, the cupcake turned out delicious! Actually, everyone did a great job. The winner had been practicing her cupcake for over a month, so I think she deserved to win (although I secretly liked mine better). Here are everyone’s cupcakes:

Mine! I used this recipe. I added blanched, minced garlic and ginger to the cupcake. I can’t find the link I used for the brittle, but basically I found a garlic brittle recipe and added some ginger (both powdered and fresh, blanched and minced).

This is a chocolate garlic cupcake with hibiscus icing and an inside surprise of figs soaked in a port wine reduction.

cornmeal cupcakes with saffron icing and avocado garnish.

an ancho chile chocolate cupcake next to the winner, a basil cupcake soaked in a garlic simple syrup topped with blackberry icing, white chocolate and garlic brittle.

One of the cupcakes wasn't pictured, but it was a garlic chocolate mousse cupcake with a garlicky ganache. It was really garlicky, but very good! — One of the cupcakes wasn’t pictured, but it was a garlic chocolate mousse cupcake with a garlicky ganache. It was really garlicky, but very good!

Abe and the girls showed up at the end, but they didn’t let them in the kitchen. I gave them cupcakes to go outside and eat:

I won a James Beard Award winning cookbook on bread baking (can’t remember the title) and a bunch of things that I actually already own. But it was still so fun!

Here are the other activities of the day:

6 am Bikram Yoga; getting my mom’s car serviced/washed; errands at Target, the gas station, sprouts and Smith’s Garden Center; FHE; planting tomatoes as a family (almost all of the plants I planted earlier died from frost and, um, because I forgot to water them); cooking dinner; eating outside; cleaning the kitchen; bathing the girls; paying bills; tidying various parts of the house.

Here are the accompanying pictures:

Abe took a break from paying bills and played with Lydia. It was one of the happiest parts of his day.

Planting tomatoes. Lydia went really nuts with the hose and basically gave the entire exterior of our house a big shower.

Abe and I have been trying to watch a movie for months. We are both so tired–but we’re determined to finally watch one. I think we might to either Saving Mr. Banks or Lincoln. (Whichever’s shorter??)

Fun Friday (and I’m pooped).

I feel like I’m going to jinx myself by saying this, but today was another in what feels like a string of good days. Lydia and I started off by painting our nails (with me doing all of the painting).

Then I fed the girls and practiced piano. The girls played together.

After that fun, I dropped them off at Sarah’s house for a play date. Sarah volunteered to watch the girls while I slipped out to go to the temple. She lives about a block away, and it felt so great to get to the temple! I had a very meaningful visit, and I can’t thank Sarah enough. Mary didn’t even cry. I think I found myself the perfect swap buddy today!

Then I came home and rested for a bit while the girls had quiet time/nap time. After a while, I realized I had a ton of leftover tamales and other food from class last night, so I called Misty and invited her family over for dinner. It was the perfect ending to a busy week–and a perfect beginning to the weekend.

Hermit day

Today Lydia woke up convinced that today was my birthday and that we needed to bake a green birthday cake. It was a sweet sentiment, but we compromised and just baked these muffins for the second time this week. Lydia got to cover three of the muffins in sprinkles. I should have taken a picture, but they disappeared so fast, there was really hardly a chance.

We were hermits today, so the rest of the day felt kind of blurry. I know we scrubbed the upstairs tub and read some books. I practiced some piano. I ran on the treadmill and watched more of my Mitt Romney documentary while Lydia talked nonstop about making Anna and Elsa cards. Lydia and I made pizza and kale for dinner.

I joined Amazon Prime at the student rate and finally ordered myself some socks. I am always out of them and have been looking forward to getting some more ever since our tax return arrived. (Ha. That makes me sound so restrained. Actually, ever since the tax return arrived, I’ve been so busy ordering stuff that I just now got around to solving my socks problem…)

Speaking of ordering stuff, I finally called some Springfield shops to send my mom and grandma a Mother’s Day gift, but because I was so late, they refused to deliver anything until Monday. Sorry, Mom and Grandma! My love will manifest itself a day late this year.

I found out on Thursday our cooking team is taking tomorrow off, so I am going to have another Saturday at home with my family. I am so excited. I guess I’ll post some pictures and daydream about what to do with my Saturday!

Lydia wore her princess dress on and off all day. It was a little tricky because her nose kept bleeding on and off all day too. The dress stayed clean until the second to last nosebleed...I am afraid that Lydia and I gave higher priority to her dress than to her poor nose. — Lydia wore her princess dress on and off all day. It was a little tricky because her nose kept bleeding on and off all day too. The dress stayed clean until the second to last nosebleed…I am afraid that Lydia and I gave higher priority to her dress than to her poor nose.

For FHE Abe taught a lesson on mothers. His activity was to have the girls take care of me. Lydia used her doctor kit to make me feel better, and Mary made me delicious food. Eventually, being sick looked so fun that Abe fell deathly ill and needed assistance too.

visit and procrastinating packing

We are still last minute packing for our trip tomorrow. We are going to get up at 5:30 am tomorrow, so I am hurrying.

This morning I was supposed to clean the house in preparation for the trip to California tomorrow, but I noticed all the library books I need to return that I haven’t read to the girls. An hour of frantic reading ensued, thus bumping my cleaning plans until…well, actually, they never materialized. The house is still a mess.

But we had a great middle of the day. Jan, George, Chelsea, Olivia, Carter and Camden came over for lunch, and after we all went to the zoo. Jan’s phone took better pictures than mine, so I’m stealing her pics and inserting them here:

Lydia had another tea party with Olivia that involved probably a gallon of water. I was impressed at how carefully they must have carried their little bowls and cups of water to the bedroom because when I discovered them, the vessels were all filled to the brim. George held Lydia’s hand and showed her all the animals at the zoo–and she fell in love! She kept asking me where George was and would go stick up her hand to hold his. It was sweet.

Mary climbed over a railing in front of the snake display and fell on top of her head smack dab on the concrete floor. I may or may not have sworn so loudly that heads turned. We decided shortly thereafter it was probably time to head home.

Seeing Chelsea always makes me wonder why we are not moving to Orem. It is so nice to see someone you’ve known for a long time. I always feel like these visits are more like family reunions than friend meet-ups.

Then I came home and tried to pack, but mostly I lay on various pieces of furniture stressed out about how much I had to do. I heard Charity Lang, the fictional character in Crossing to Safety say to me, “Do something! Don’t just sit around and gawp.” Sorry, Charity. I gawped today. And when Abe came home, I straight out napped. Now we’re paying for it, and as soon as I hit publish it will be back to the packing grindstone.

Oh, and I probably won’t blog while we’re in California. I might if Auntie Geri’s computer is free, but if not, I’ll blog again on Monday.

A play date, great book, boring paper, and a birthday party

This morning I watched Sophia and Max because Misty had a doctor’s appointment. Her kids are so easy that I could have done homework or practiced while they played (well, Max was actually napping), but Lydia and Sophia were beyond adorable playing together. I couldn’t leave! They were saying things such as: “It’s your turn, Sophia!” “Thanks, Lydia. Okay, Lydia, it’s your turn now!” “Thanks, Sophia!” “Sophia, do you want to play Minnie Mouse with me?” “Yes!” [Insert sweet, polite, kind play here.] “Okay, Sophia, do you want to sit next to me?” “Yes! Thanks!”

This is what I had kids for. I was so delighted by how sweet and polite these adorable children were, and I was so happy to hear them play so beautifully that I just couldn’t tear myself away. By the time Misty came back, I was over the moon in love with all of our children.

Then I fed the girls, practiced for an hour while Lydia and Mary played, and put Mary down for her four hour nap. Lydia had quiet time that whole time, so I lay in bed reading Crossing to Safety. In fact, I could have written this blog a whole lot earlier and gotten to bed on time if it weren’t for the fact that those characters are so dear to me that I talked Abe’s ear off about the book for about an hour after the girls went down for bed. I still have a lump in my throat–as I type, hours after finishing the book. I have never read a book where I loved the characters so deeply. Also, I am sad the library is closed. I want to go check out everything Wallace Stegner has ever written and read it all right now. I’m so sad my book is done! I just want more time with the characters, but since it’s done, the next best thing I can do is read all the rest of his works.

After finishing my book, I skipped class so I could get a paper written before we go to California. I still have more homework to do tomorrow, but at least this paper is out of the way. It was on the history of Garde Manger, and even though I finished writing the paper, I still am not sure if the term Garde Manger refers to the actual Garde Manger chef or the craft of Garde Manger. I kind of side-stepped that in my paper…

Abe took the girls to his cousin’s birthday party down the street while I did homework. Lydia LOVES her cousin, Isabella, and when she got home, she said, “Mama, I want a play date with Isabella right now because I loooooooooove her so much!!” You can see she likes her from the pictures.

Abe's cousin, Alexander, turned 17. — Abe’s cousin, Alexander, turned 17. Also, it took a while to cut that cake. Abe said that Lydia waited patiently and then said very quietly, “Can I have a really big piece, please?” Everyone laughed.

Mary found Isabella's stuffed animal and held it close all evening. — Mary found Isabella’s stuffed animal and held it close all evening.

Lydia and Abe's little cousin, Isabella. — Lydia and Abe’s little cousin, Isabella. They played outside and Isabella picked flowers for Lydia. Lydia could not get enough play time with her favorite cousin!

Wonderful Sunday

We had the best Sunday we’ve had in a long time today. It really felt like the perfect Sunday. We got a lot of rest in, we were uplifted at church (Mary stayed in Nursery!!!) and we had a great evening with our friends, the Andersons.

I resolved to take pictures before they came over while the girls were outside playing with Abe, but I got distracted by practicing the piano and the pile of dishes in the sink. I did manage to take a couple while they were here.

Lydia had an accident, so they all took a bath together.

Not much else to say about today, except that we adore the Andersons and enjoyed our evening visiting with them. We’re hoping to get to bed early so as to get a head start on this busy week. We leave for California on Wednesday!!!

looooong day

Long day! I got up at 5:15 to get to yoga, and then after yoga I started to drive to school for my competition team meet when I realized that there was no way I could get everything done today if I went to the meeting. So I turned around and headed home.

We ended up shopping for wedding clothes (Jon and Shirley are getting married next week!) and getting ready for the trip. Then we went to Ikea for dinner, and afterward drove to Provo to meet up with our friends Ben, Candace, Cadence–and their new twins, Aria and Bentley. Aria and Bentley were unbelievably adorable. Equally unbelievable was that we didn’t get pictures of them. Oh well. I accidentally overfed Bentley because I was so absorbed in my conversation with Candace, and the poor thing couldn’t take all the milk I was drowning him in. It ended up on my arm, so at least I have a souvenir.

We met up at Chuckee Cheese’s, a place none of us have visited for over twenty years. It was a lot smaller than we remembered! But the kids loved it, and it was a lot easier to talk and visit with all of that entertainment for the kids. The visit seemed short, but before we realized it, two hours had flown by. We reluctantly said goodbye, and then headed for home.

Except. Except Abe has been raving about the massage chairs at Qualtrics, and he really wanted me to try them. We were only five minutes away, so we headed over to try the chairs. When we got there, the chairs were taken! The whole building was empty, but there were two employees there getting massages in the chairs. Abe was bummed, but he was determined not to make the trip in vain. Since his card wouldn’t give him access to the third floor (where there are more massage chairs), he tried to circumvent the system by taking the elevator. No such luck. Instead, we spent ten minutes stuck in the elevator fearing we would never get out. Finally, we figured out we could exit into the garage, which opened back up onto the street. Phew! After that close call, we headed straight for home.

Now I will post the very poor pictures we took of 1) the girls at Kid to Kid, 2) Dinner at Ikea and 3) the girls at Chuckee Cheese.

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