We had a rough start to the day because we were up almost all night last night. Mary woke up because of all the commotion in her unairconditioned room (Harley was scared of the air conditioner) and proceeded to spend the rest of the night wide awake in bed with me. She can’t sleep when she’s hot.
This morning I didn’t realize Lydia’s ballet class started at 9:30 and she missed it. That was also sad.
Dancing before we realized my timing error.
We ended up just taking the kids to the park since my house was getting completely destroyed with four kids here. I wish I weren’t so up tight! But it’s honestly so hard for me to watch everything I JUST cleaned get dirty, not to mention furniture get outright abused. I also thought the incessant whining going on would drive me out of my mind, and my only shot at sanity was getting some air. Maybe I was a little edgy because of the sleepless night, too.
Yes, I wore that yesterday and slept in it. I would still be wearing it and might wake up dressed for church tomorrow if I hadn’t gotten chocolate all over it at dinner. Darn. Usually my same-outfit-three/four-days-in-a-row streaks happen in the winter, but I guess they’re starting to occur in other seasons now.
I fervently wish I were a better person. I’ve spent the whole day feeling sure that I’m exactly like Laman and Lemuel. When Abe tried to protest, I pointed out that Laman and Lemuel actually made the journey to the Promised Land, but they murmured and complained the whole way there. I might be executing deeds that seem good, but sometimes my heart and my mouth are sooooo not there. At this point, I wish I were a murmurer–that would be so much better than a LOUD complainer. See? I’m still complaining, and the ordeal ended ten hours ago.
After we dropped the kids off at noon, I came home and called my mom. Mom, you’re the best listener. Thank-you for listening to me vent.
We then proceeded to take a looooooooooong nap. Mary slept four hours, Abe slept three, and I slept almost two.
Lydia did not sleep. She spent the whole time playing pretend by herself. Here she is in her Elsa cape. Ever since I gave her that cape and she realized Elsa’s clothing items are on the market, she has been asking God in her prayers for everything else Elsa wears. For good measure, she’s also repeatedly requested I write Santa a letter with the same request.
I then did a project that’s due today for my online nutrition class. When that was in, we piled into the car to go swimming.
After swimming. Lydia is wearing a skirt of Mary’s because her 3T shorts actually fell off at the playground. Abe turned around and there was Lydia, standing bewildered in her neon green undies. Maybe she’ll fill out and be able to wear them by next summer…but if she can still fit in Mary’s clothes (and Mary is teensy weensy), I’m not holding out much hope.
After swimming, we used a Groupon I had to go get Thai food.
On the way to Thai.
Then we came back home to our destroyed house. After putting the girls down, Abe and I just lay in the rubble for a while contemplating all the work we need to do to clean up. I’m blogging instead of cleaning. Maybe my time has come…
Just one more picture, though. Mary has a cat named Twinkie, but she calls it “Pinky Winky.” Here she is with Twinkie-Pinky-Winky.
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.
Today was my brother’s birthday! Happy birthday, Clark! We’re so excited to celebrate the last year of your twenties with you in New York!
It was also a very busy day here at the Darais household. This morning I took the girls on a walk/run to the park.
The view as I ran. (There was a lot of uphill going on, and I was more than happy to stop and take a picture.)Lydia picked a flower.Mary cooked me food.
After that, I took the girls home for lunch and naps.
Lydia said, “Mommy, take a picture of my tortilla!” …So I did. I think she’s used to me whipping out my camera for any little thing, and in this instance she simply beat me to it. Of course I wanted a picture of her microwaved tortilla–my culinary school skills at work!
Then we went to a fun pool in Bountiful with our friends Rose, Taina and Sev.
I locked my phone in the locker room so it wouldn’t get stolen, but I took one picture before I did that. There was a giant pirate ship in the pool, and here are the girls gearing up to be pirates.
We didn’t even have time to eat dinner by the time we got home. Abe and I simply packed the girls in the jogger, attached it to a bike and took off for the canyon. We got in five miles before the light gave out.
Their “dinner.” I am hoping Lydia doesn’t wake in the middle of the night begging for food because she’s hungry…
Today, of course, we went to church. During Sacrament Lydia got a time out for misbehaving. Abe took this during her time out:
No wonder threatening time out isn’t effective.
Then we came home.
Lydia played on the couch before I headed straight back to church to wait for my temple recommend interview.
Abe and I took turns going back to church to wait an hour each for our recommend interviews. There was a long line today, but Abe and I both came away independently impressed by the cheerful attitude of one young, newlywed couple who were waiting in line with us. Everybody else (including me) was inclined to grumble a little about how long certain interviews were taking (the one that got me going took 45 minutes, and there were six other people in line in front of me), but this one couple was nothing but smiles and cheerfulness. When Abe came home he said, “Honey, I met the coolest couple today!”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Was the wife Columbian? Do they ballroom dance? Did they meet at BYU?”
“How did you know?” he exclaimed.
I explained that they were waiting in line while I was there, too. I spent the whole drive back contemplating how I could be more cheerful like them. I’m grateful for the influence of inspiring, good people.
Then we came home and got home taught. It’s also my mom’s birthday today, so after our home teachers left we called my mom to wish her happy birthday. Happy birthday, Mother Dear!
Abe took the girls on a walk to visit his home teachees, and I stayed home and cooked dinner.
At the Copinga’s house. The girls played on their swing set. They both kept saying, “Higher! Higher!!!”Lydia rested on their bench.
We had Jessica Felix and her daughter, Harley, over for dinner tonight. Speaking of the influence of good people, her example inspired us to no end. She was so cheerful as she told us her story. She’s been through unimaginable hardships, and right now Abe and I gathered that she is the current victim of terrible racial profiling–but she didn’t complain at all. Instead, she just cheerfully talked about her determination to press forward and make life better for her and her kids. She was baptized last Saturday and has this incredible enthusiasm for the gospel. By the time she left, Abe and I were in awe.
After she left, we cleaned, put the girls down, and called my mom again to check up on how her birthday concluded. It was a full, great Sunday.
This morning I hustled the girls through breakfast and out the door so we could pick up Rose, Tainah and Seve. We headed to the Aviary for a quick, early morning bird watch.
Feeding the ducks, a favorite activity of each child involved.
Then we raced to pick up Kate, a babysitter, so I could make it to yoga. We were late, though, so I missed yoga. I consoled myself by swimming at my favorite outdoor pool in Salt Lake. It was glorious. One of my favorite parts was this older gentleman who swam in my lane (it was a larger end lane) with his head out of water and his eyes closed. He swerved all over, and I almost bumped into him a couple of times. He was darling.
I took a fifteen minute break after my swim to lie in the sun and look at the mountains. The pool feels like it’s right under the mountains, and I felt so happy. I prayed a lot, although I kept losing focus because the sunshine and mountains were beautiful and distracting. I ended up with a sunburn.
Then I picked Isabella up and dropped Kate off. I ate a hurried lunch with Mary and left the girls with Isabella so I could go to my first dentist appointment in two years. Affordable babysitting has changed my life.
After the appointment, I raced home again to pick Lydia up. We have been losing so much stuff in the Darais household. So far we’re missing: two sets of house AND car keys, my phone, and Lydia’s ballet clothes. I couldn’t find the clothes anywhere, so with twenty minutes to go before her lesson, we dashed to Target, bought new clothes, arrived at the studio, changed Lydia into her new clothes, and ran to her class–two minutes late.
They make it hard to see the kids so the parents won’t gawk and distract the kids. I gawk anyway (through the blinds). Lydia’s the only one in a black leotard.
Lydia followed directions better this time, but she reminds me so much of myself. I feel like I spend a lot of life feeling like I have no idea what’s going on. That’s basically Lydia in ballet, most of the time. The teacher had to give her special instructions at several points because even though she tries to pay attention, she day dreams and gets distracted. As I watch her, I feel so much empathy. I remember when I was in marching band and the band leader called me out for marching my own routine in the middle of half-time. I guess spacing out runs in the family.
Then we came home, cooked and ate dinner, bought a fridge for our Chicago condo, and went to Gourmandise for treats (I had another Groupon). The total for our treats was $17.77, and the cashier pointed out that this was a very patriotic total! Then we went to the park to play and eat our treats.
Treats.
Mary’s chocolate meringue is bigger than her head. She dropped it in the street at the end of the outing and was quite distressed.
Mary took her cookie everywhere with her–even down the slide.
She was so dizzy afterward. Her eyes kept going back and forth, and she fell down no less than three times. Abe and I about died laughing.
Throwing seed pods.
The house next to the park. This is the childhood home of Richard L. Evans, apostle and founder of Music and the Spoken Word. I loooooooove this house. Every time we play in the park, I peer over the hedges into the side windows–and the side of this house is even more charming than the front, but I haven’t figured out how to photography it with the hedge in the way.
Tomorrow I leave for yoga at 8:30, which means that bedtime should be…now.
Yesterday my Fitbit died in the middle of the day, right before I was about to hit 10,000 steps! I worked so hard at that, and I kept working all day (unaware that my Fitbit had died), so I was very disappointed to learn that none of my effort was recorded.
This morning I decided to try for 10,000 steps again, so I packed the girls in the jogger and walked (with the occasional jog) to Misty’s house. Her house is on the other side of the canyon and at an entirely different elevation, so the walk helped me meet my goal. Hooray!
Before we left, Mary discovered all the flowers Ron and Shirl left in the back. She was delighted.It was overcast in the canyon.
Once we got to Misty’s house, the girls had a fun play date. I always love visiting with Misty, so everyone leaves happy.
Misty has a trampoline. The girls had so much fun.
Mary and Max, my favorite couple.
Lydia and Sophia took turns pushing the car, and Mary stayed on permanently as the driver.Mary was sound asleep by the time we got back.
After I got home, I put Mary down for a nap and read books with Lydia until Ina came over to babysit the girls. She is our family’s angel; not only does she babysit for free, but she honestly loves our girls to pieces, and we know they’re in great hands. I went to yoga and did grocery shopping, and by the time I got back, it was time to make dinner. Ina took the girls to her house to play with her animals while I cooked, and then she returned right before Abe came home.
Ina gave the girls “capes” and they ran around saying, “supergirl!” the whole time. Well, Mary said, “Super gah!”Eating dinner.
Sorry to have been out of commission for so long! Friday was my birthday, and it was so fun-packed that I didn’t have any energy to blog by the end. The girls were so sweet to me all day. Lydia kept wishing me happy birthday and let me sleep in as a birthday present. I asked her if she could entertain herself so I could sleep longer on my birthday–selfish, I know, but she was so sweet! She went potty, brushed her teeth, and played quietly while I slept an extra hour. Mary also kept saying, “Happy! Happy!” to me all day long. That’s how she says “happy birthday.”
Lydia wanted to help Mary get dressed in the morning. Mary appreciated the help.Lydia and I baked this on my birthday.Mary spotted the cake upon awaking from her nap, and she refused to eat anything else.
Abe and I used a groupon to go to Cucina Toscana for dinner, and it was wonderful. Suzanne was an angel and baby-sat for us all evening. We were so grateful!
beef carpaccio.house made gnocchi in a stupendous tomato sauce, and a mind-blowing spinach lemon ravioli and a mornay sauce.a truly terrific Cesear.Sea bass with calms and shrimp.duck with macerated figs and spinach
On Saturday, I got up at 5:30 so I could go to yoga. Then I came home and we all went to the pool for a swim.
We got to the pool and realized it wasn’t free swim time. The lifeguard was so kind and let us put the kids in a swim lesson that was going on –for free! Mary and Lydia both learned to float, jump in, and kick!
Then we met up with Karin and Jay for lunch at Gourmandise. I have been dreaming about their creme brulee oatmeal ever since I got it when I went to breakfast with Aria a while back. Daydreams were fulfilled.
Mary cuddled with Karin for such a long time. We finally had to take her and try to make her eat something, but she looked pretty content here.Jay relaxing at Gourmandise.Lydia picked out this cookie after lunch. That’s a mouse cookie. It’s a chocolate truffle coated with ganache on a lemony cookie base with a bit of raspberry flling.Mary eating her half of the mouse cookie.
Then we went grocery shopping, took a nap, and got ready for our dinner.
Mary “drove the car” with Abe while I grocery shopped.
I made a ton of food, but whenever we have guests I always think we’re going to run out of food. Whenever my parents threw parties growing up, we would eat leftovers for weeks; my dad never wanted to run out of food at a party. I think I inherited my fear of running out of food from him. Anyway, I made Jamaican jerk steak, kasha (threw it out because I did it wrong and replaced it with cous cous), carrot salad, roasted veggies, balsamic blackberry gingered strawberries, corn on the cob, and chimichurri sauce. Candace brought Harmon’s bread and Emily brought a marvelous fruit salad. Unfortunately, I was having so much fun with everyone that I forgot to take pictures. Abe did manage to take a picture of the cake with his phone (Gourmandise had a Groupon for cake!):
Gourmandise had a Groupon for a birthday cake. This was a chocolate truffle raspberry cake. It was to die for.The girls played outside before our party.
We had to set up an extra table for the party since we had seven grown-ups and five kids. While Abe was taking down the table, he sliced off a good portion of the padding on his finger. He cut off the flap with a scissors, and it’s still bleeding (a full twenty-four hours later). He spent most of last night in excruciating pain. I was up until midnight talking with Candace, and I didn’t realize how much pain Abe was in until he called me up because he was struggling so much. I felt so sorry for him! Today it’s not as painful, although we’re going to douse it in hydrogen peroxide soon, and I’m sure that will be torture for him. Say a prayer for Abe.
We got to church half an hour late today because I was prepping for our post-church picnic.
After church we had a picnic today with Ben, Candace, Cadence, Bentley, Aria, Stephen, and Balu.The girls loved playing while we ate.
After our picnic, Candace and Ben drove back to Idaha. I hated to see them go and felt really lonely and sad with the house empty. I wish Candace lived closer.
I treated my sorrow with a nap, and when we woke up, the house still felt empty. We called Mike and Paige at that point and asked if they could come over to help us finish off the million pounds of leftover food in our fridge. They were wonderful and came. We spent hours discussing the disciplinary council of Kate Kelly and John Dehlin. It was really cathartic, and I felt like I learned a lot from the discussion.
Liv ate some pink paint today.Mary somehow got covered in marker while we were getting food out for dinner with the Andersons. Her face matched her dress.
Mike pointed out that Utah twilight lasts hours, and we enjoyed it all evening. It was a perfect night. This June has been so glorious.
Abe blogging here trying to make things a little easier on Lily since she is still very sick. She is so sick that she drove to school tonight before her class to take care of a financial aid appointment and tell her teacher she would have to miss due to illness. Apparently her teacher was not so forgiving during their conversation because she ended up staying for all of class. She definitely has less flexibility because of all the class she missed due to our trip. But, she just got home and I’m happy to report she made it through!
During the day, Lily read book 3 of Fablehaven, ate cupcakes with the girls outside for breakfast (reminding her of a Bill Cosby skit about chocolate cake) and babysat for Sarah (who has the most well-behaved kids in the world). During class she had her knife skills test and she passed!
As far as my day, work is going very well, but the pace is very dizzying. It’s not just my pace, it’s the company’s pace. We are trying to double revenue and staff every year. I started 5 months ago when the company had 400 people and now they have about 500 people. Everyone everywhere is running around working as fast as possible to try to make history at building an extremely successful tech company. Our quotas are aggressive and there is literally no time to come up for air. I absolutely love it, but today I felt the strain of the pace a little more than usual, I think possibly because my allergies were kicking in.
At home I played with the girls. Lily and I have put a lot of thought and prayer into Lydia because she has been such an emotional and behavioral mess lately. She cries all the time and refuses to do anything we ask. The challenge for Lily and I is to know how to respond (and to have the strength to respond the ways we think we should). Well, tonight I didn’t get any major epiphanies about how to help Lydia, but I think I learned what all of her distress centers around. Do you remember a few blog entries ago when Lily mentioned how with Mary’s new rule that she only gets binkies in her crib, she climbs in there multiple times a day sometimes for hours? Well she did that tonight. She climbed in and proceeded to read a book for twently minutes while she joyfully sucked her binky. At that point (with Mary effectively removed from existence, trapped in her crib), Lydia became the most angelic well behaved girl. She’d say please and thank you and oblige any time I told her we had to do something else or that play time was over. I couldn’t believe it! As soon as I retrieved Mary from her crib (she can climb in, but not out) Lydia resumed her screaming, crying and throwing toys.
I think I’m going to try to give Lydia a little Mary-free time each day. I think she needs a little space!
Pictures!!!
Lydia told me that she had a play date with Nathan and he was very nice and she (Lydia) was super sweetHannah talks really well just like Lydia and she’s not even 2 yet!
Lily made the salad towards the front and spent the rest of the time on her knife cuts mid-term
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 someofthesevideos 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.
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.
Lydia had Puss give Mary a kiss!
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.
I then did a project that’s due today for my online nutrition class. When that was in, we piled into the car to go swimming.
