reading for fun – Page 6

Post-midnight post

First things first: Grandma Darais’ surgery went extremely well today, and she is doing much better. We are very thankful. Abe has resolved to spend at least one lunch break a week with her in the event that she returns home, and I am trying to figure out how we can make it down to Provo more often to see her. We are very happy she is doing so well.

I think Abe had a great day at work, but we saw each other for a grand total of less than five minutes today. I did get one phone call in after my final, but I think we talked a lot about our various physical ailments (Abe’s now sure he has a virus, and I think I might have a virus/sinus infection combo).

On the school front, I aced my final exams in my lab class and that made me feel really happy. I sometimes wonder if it’s okay that I’m spending so much time away from my children, and getting some validation that I’m making progress in acquiring a much-desired skill felt great. I think after this is all done, I will appreciate being home with my children SO much more, and I will love not having so many competing interests. But for now, I love being at school when I’m there.

Before school, we had a fun morning with the Pe’a’s. Jen offered to teach me how to craft cute decorative blocks, and it was so fun crafting with her! I wish I had a picture of my blocks, but the day just slipped away and now they feel sooooo far away (even though they’re just downstairs…but it’s past midnight, and that feels like a trek). Anyway, I wasn’t the only one having fun. Lydia was in heaven playing with Natalie because Natalie not only has a ton of princess attire, but she is an excellent sharer.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of Mary at home reading a book about Babies:

Prayers for Grandma Darais

Today we got the scary news that Abe’s Grandma Darais was doing poorly and the family was notified to come say good-bye. I drove the girls down to Provo and picked up Abe at work.

We drove to the hospital, and while we were there, her heart started responding! Not only that, but she elected to have a surgery that might help her condition. We will know more tomorrow, but for now, things are looking as good as they possibly can. We love her so much, and it was so meaningful to have a chance to tell her that. I wish I could have said more, but it was so emotional seeing her in such a hard condition that all I could really say was “I love you.” I guess that is what matters most, but I would love to one day tell her how much I love visiting with her, hearing her stories, and listening to her testimony. I also appreciate how good of a grandma she’s been to Abe. I hope we can still have that chance.

That’s really the most important news of the day. We are praying for her and hoping that she makes it through the night and tomorrow’s surgery successfully.

Here are some pictures from this morning and the hospital.

Abe was trying to entertain the kids in the waiting room. — Abe was entertaining Mary. (She and Suzanne took this picture on Suzanne’s iPad.)

It’s sunny again

This morning over breakfast, Lydia turned to me and said, “Mama, what is it when I want something that Mary has?” I answered by telling her the word jealousy and explaining the concept a little bit. Lydia paused and then told me that Mary is a good sharer (which, for all of her hair-pulling antics, she really is). I agreed and then suggested Lydia could try to share more with Mary.

We ended the day full circle with Lydia screaming and crying on the ground because she wanted the pencils Mary had during our FHE craft. After a long post-tantrum cuddle, I asked Lydia what she was feeling, and she told me she was jealous. At least she knows, right?

The only eventful thing we did today that I don’t have pictures for is institute. We attended institute for approximately twenty minutes, at which point Lydia announced she was hungry and wanted to go home. I didn’t protest because the presenter was basically just summarizing Mark chapter by chapter. I was hoping for a little more commentary and a little less straight summary.

So I came home, fed the girls, and got a two hour nap in. Afterward, Lydia wanted to have a play date with Ada. I thought it was a long shot since it was already 3 pm, but it turned out that Paige was free! So we had a fun play date:

Then we had dinner and FHE, wherein we talked about gratitude and wrote a thank-you note for the Valentine chocolates our neighbor gave us all the way back in February…

And then it was peek-a-boo before bed:

Lots of eating [out]

We had so much fun with David, Karin and Jay at dinner that we accidentally stayed until 11 pm. We were the last ones at the restaurant, and now it’s almost midnight. In light of our desperate need to go to bed, I really just want to throw up pictures with captions and then go to bed.

Except! Except that I forgot to take pictures of my lunch with Misty, and that was a huge highlight of the day. Abe took a long lunch from work and took the girls to nearby IKEA for free food (kids eat free on Tuesdays) while Misty and I had our lunch date.

Misty and I went to my school’s restaurant, and the theme today was “Spring.” I forgot to take pictures of the food or the menu, but it was all very yummy. The starter was ahi tuna with rhubarb salsa…except that we couldn’t discern where the rhubarb was, even though we searched, searched, and searched some more. The second dish was a salad with bagna cauda (again, couldn’t quite figure out where that was) with a salad and bread stick. It looked pretty fancy. We ordered different entrees, and then had molten chocolate cakes with white mocha ice cream for dessert. The menu was set, and I am now really looking forward to my restaurant class where we get to put together these menus, plate them, and serve them to actual people. In my present class, we throw out most of the food we make because there’s never enough time to wrap it up to take home.

Strangely, the rest of the day felt fun and productive too, although I’m not sure how that happened because I’m still sick, queasy, and easily tired. I think the girls were just more self-sufficient than usual, so I got to get more done with less effort. Plus, Mary napped from 2 pm until 6 pm, and Lydia napped from 2 pm until almost 4 pm. That probably helped.

Then Abe came home and I frantically folded laundry until the last minute, when we picked up David and headed up Mill Creek Canyon to meet Karin and Jay at Log Haven. There’s a gorgeous waterfall right across from the restaurant, and the ambiance of the restaurant felt really…nice. The best part was just the conversation, but the food was amazing too. I should have taken a picture of my entree, but alas, I started eating before that could happen. We did, however, take a shot of Abe’s beet soup starter.

Happy (belated) birthday, David!

sick Sunday

Abe and I both woke up sick again. Boooo. But even though Abe was up all night coughing, he somehow still had energy to take both girls to church. For my part, I was feeling queasy and exhausted, so I stayed home. Apparently, at the end of church Lydia called her cat on the phone and continued to chat with him for the next twenty minutes:

“Hi cat! Oh, yeah? Uh-huh. Okaaay, because we’re cwossing the street now. Oh-oh-oh-oh!! Yep! Talk to you later!” (etc.)

Abe then went back to church to get trained on the new teaching style the church is promoting. He came home sooooo excited. Teachers are now only supposed to talk eight minutes or less, so the classes will be driven by questions and discussion. Our only regret is that we love listening to our Sunday School teacher, Larry Perkins. He asks a lot of questions, but he also tells wonderful stories that illustrate doctrine so beautifully. We could listen to well more than eight minutes of him. In almost every other case, though, we’re excited for the change.

I stayed home and read some commentary on the New Testament and then switched over to watching a ton of interviews surrounding Elizabeth Smart. I checked out her memoir yesterday and could not put it down–I finished it at 11pm last night, and all morning I could not get her story out of my head. She is such a beautiful, resilient person, and I admire her strength, courage, and example in making a difference for others. I would now count her among my top heroes, and I could not tear myself away from all of the interviews on Youtube.

The vindictive part of me also enjoyed watching Brian David Mitchell get interrogated by a Salt Lake City Police Detective and an FBI officer. I didn’t watch the whole thing, but the Salt Lake detective was obviously LDS and knew his scriptures; when Mitchell tried to pull his pseudo-religious crap out, the detective called him on it in a way that made me want to stand up and applaud. I’ve always had trouble with the idea that some people are evil through and through, but after reading about Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee (who fed her children their pet rabbit for dinner and smiled while they ate it), I have finally decided that there are people who are completely shut off to anything good.

Back to the events of today. Abe played with the girls all day. He crafted with them, took them to the park, fed them, and played chase-and-throw-the-babies. He told me that today he felt like a kid again, and that he never anticipated how fun being a parent would be. I think it’s fun because he makes it so fun. He’s such a terrific dad. And husband. And person. I’m a fan.

Even though I basically lay in bed all day, I still feel sick and tired, so I will wrap up. I didn’t take any pictures today, and I don’t think Abe did either. I also can’t remember the last time I showered, so I’m going to go take care of that now…

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!

Ants and the Rohirrim

The girls went down for naps and quiet time super early today, and instead of doing homework like I should have done, I read a couple hours into The Return of the King. It turned out to be an apt read; while I was feeding the girls an after-nap meal, I killed about a dozen ants in my kitchen. I couldn’t help but think about Tolkein’s description of the Rohirrim in battle–specifically, I thought about how they sang as they fought. I didn’t feel like singing while I was killing ants, but the glimmer of satisfaction I felt helped me understand that initially bewildering passage a little better.

After the girls were fed, I took them outside to play:

Then I took them to the library, grocery shopping, the gas station, and back home. Abe arrived shortly after we did, and after dinner he bathed and chased the girls while I cleaned the downstairs and practiced. I was supposed to go to school tonight, but I’m feeling kind of icky and a brand new cold has introduced itself at our house. I am trying to avoid getting sick yet again.

Oh! I forgot to mention that while I was at school yesterday, Abe cleaned the whole house. I came home and fell in love with my husband all over again. It was soooooo nice, especially since I never feel like I have time or energy to clean these days. I hate the messes that accumulate, and having them gone has felt like THE greatest luxury. I’m going to try to be better at staying on top of the messes since today I enjoyed my mess-free life so much more than my regular mess-filled life.

The Daily Grind

Quick blog today. Lily is still on her way home from school and it is almost midnight. Yikes! I’m sure the reason she is late is because she has a big heart and she is giving rides to her classmates in need. She is so wonderful.

My day was a bit of a roller-coaster, but overall very good. My department is having a competition to see who can perform the best and I am pretty squarely in the middle of the pack. I sometimes get discouraged about my mediocrity, but it helps to remember how amazing everyone around me is at Qualtrics. They truly hire the best and I am so fortunate to be surrounded by such wonderful people.

I don’t know too much about Lily’s day. When we talked on the phone, she spent most of the time listening to my frustrations and giving me a pep-talk. She is seriously so supportive and perfect….o-k, I’ll stop gushing. I’m just so blessed to have someone who is always willing and capable of being my cheering squad when I need it. I truly love her.

But this is what I do know. She had a piano lesson with Lydia. Mary completely refused her eye-drops today. Lydia napped. Lily just got home and told me she absolutely loved cooking class today.

Pictures!

Crying while Lily does her homework

Lily's plate from tonight. Isn't it great! She says her secret is to copy the photo the teacher provides exactly. — Lily’s plate from tonight. Isn’t it great! She says her secret is to copy the photo the teacher provides exactly.

Another amazing plating job by Lily. This is from last week, but we just now got it to load.

temple and tricky water

Abe and I finally made it to the temple tonight! Hooray! We really needed it. I couldn’t sleep last night because I was so worried about losing my temper at Lydia, and I tried sooooo hard to be better today. I still got mad, but I think I did slightly better than yesterday.

One thing that’s problematic is Lydia’s piano lesson. It always, always ends in tears. I sit down determined to have a happy, relaxed session with Lydia, and then my resolve dissolves as she refuses to even try to play Twinkle. I’m not even asking her to play the whole piece; just the first two notes would make me happy!! I demonstrate over and over and over how to play, and then I position her fingers and even push them down for her so she can feel the motion. We clap the rhythm and I let her put her hands on my hands so she can feel me play. After all that, she still cries whenever I start to ask her to do it by herself, and then she tells me it’s too hard.

I tell myself that she’s just barely three and it’s okay, but then I get upset because I KNOW she can play it if she would just. try. (For example, I took a picture last week of her pushing down a note. That’s almost the only time she’s ever done that independently, but it showed me she could do it.)

On the other hand, we actually have a good time when I’m not seeing red. Lydia never protests when I tell her it’s time for piano. That makes me think that she enjoys the time–up until we commence our “Try, Lydia, TRY!!!” battle.

On the Mary front, I officially can not administer those eye drops by myself. Good thing the medicine we squeeze in when Abe’s home must be working because, I’ll tell you what, she’s one determined little girl. Also, she’s dramatic whenever she sees her babysitter. She takes one look at Aylah and screams. Last time she dropped back in a chair and screamed until we popped in a pacifier. After that, she stared listlessly at the ceiling in the same position for the next twenty minutes (so Aylah told us) and refused to be roused. Tonight she wasn’t quite that bad, but the initial fury was still there.

Lydia, on the other hand, behaves so much better for other people than for me. I’m actually glad for that, but sometimes I wish she’d behave that way for me! At any rate, she spent the evening talking Aylah’s ear off about her cat.

I DID take pictures today, but they aren’t sending. I took pictures of the girls covered in beets (I made borscht today), and for some reason there’s a disconnect between my iPad and my inbox. Sorry, Grandma and Mom! I’ll try to take some with my actual camera tomorrow.

A better day

I neglected to take any pictures today, but basically we stayed home all day and recovered from life. I cleaned some stuff, gave Lydia a piano lesson, cooked with Lydia, spent a ton of time just playing with the girls and read another ton of books to them. We had FHE on the priesthood and talked about priesthood blessings (since we have all been so sick), and we ended by watching songs from Mary Poppins on Youtube.

In some ways, it was a delightful day because I got to spend so much time with the girls. On the other hand, I had the hardest time controlling my temper at Lydia, which makes me so, so sad. I hope she doesn’t grow up confused; one minute I will be hyperventilating trying not to yell (or I’ll just go ahead and yell) and the next I’ll be cuddling her, saying sorry, and asking her if she knows how much I love her. Sometimes I wonder if I’m just crazy or if parenting toddlers always feels this schizophrenic. I’m leaning toward the former, although I really don’t recall experiencing such fast and dramatic emotional swings before parenting. Maybe it was all suppressed before.

She did say some really cute things today which I can’t remember now. Yesterday when Abe came home he ran up the stairs and asked if all of his princesses were there. Lydia responded: “Yes, Daddy, you have lots of princesses here! There’s Mary, Mama, me, Puss and Tabitha (her two cats). We’re all your princesses.”

Mary said “bear” today after she brought me a teddy bear and we played “going on a bear hunt” for the next twenty minutes. Maybe we just need to make games out of everything to get her to talk. She was also in one of her “don’t put me down or pay attention to anything but me” modes for quite a bit of the day. Oh! And she slept in until 11 am this morning!!! I couldn’t believe it. I had to check a couple times to make sure she was alive, as that had never happened before. Usually the girls are up between 7 and 8. Between her cut lip, pink-eyed eyes, and out-of-the-blue-nighttime-wake, she must have been exhausted.

Anyway, I also started The Return of the King today, so I’m going to stop blogging now and go read that.

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