Today we had family photos with Sarah Severson, who we love so much. We took the pictures at Tate barn in Midway. Sarah was so good about making the pictures fun for everyone even though it was very cold. Lily and I talked sternly with Ammon and Clarissa afterwords because of how difficult they made the photos. But it all worked out in the end and we went to Lola’s for some delicious food. Lily said the chocolate chip cookie was one of the best she’s ever had. Here are some photos of us waiting for our food.
Today Clarissa had a Tim Tam slam with Lily while I was at work. My Australian Friend from Qualtrics, Annemarie, was in Provo and brought cookies. Clarissa didn’t wake us up last night (which she has been doing because she wants to sleep in our bed or the day bed), so she earned a Tim Tam. I heard she struggled with the slam, but then she sneaked a whole sleeve of Tim Tams.
For more Clarissa cuteness, here she is pretending to read to herself.
In the late afternoon, I took the kids around at the Qualtrics party. It mostly consisted of collecting candy from different bins, guessing how much taffy was in a giant jar, and bumping into work colleagues and their families. We all had a good time.
I have been craving Lily’s cooking lately, and Lily told me she has also been craving her own cooking because we’ve been ordering out a lot lately (especially while I was out of town). Today she made us all very happy by making a jack fruit pot pie which substitutes the chicken with jack fruit. She made so much that she even had enough to give one to our great friends the Kahlers. It was delicious!
Two other noteworthy events from today are that Lily read her mom’s book and loved it and talked to her about it and also Terry Peterson whose leading the charge on proposition 2 returned Lily’s voicemail and talked to her for an hour about why he’s fighting so hard for proposition 2. It was amazing for Lily to have a conversation with him because although we don’t necessarily agree with or believe everything he says, he was certainly kind, cordial and civil. It’s amazing how just talking with someone will help us see the good and humanity in them.
In the evening, Lily and I talked to my childhood neighbor, Scott Williams. He has a medical background and also has been highly involved in the Utah environmental group, HEAL Utah. We asked him a lot of questions we’ve been struggling to get answers to and he answered all of them. Utah has an uphill road ahead to improve air quality, but at least Lily and I now feel that if we take the proper precautions, we feel more comfortable than we did before with the idea of staying in Utah.
Today was a good day for all. I have been very tired from a full work-day while I’m still recovering from jet lag. I puzzled with Lily and Lydia at the end of the day which was a really nice way to wind down. We really enjoyed the many interesting shapes the puzzle pieces were in. We finished the puzzle (Suzanne gave it to us!). It was missing one piece, but Lydia hid it with her thumbs up. 🙂 Speaking of Lydia, she powered through her harp practice today even though she was very tired. She is getting so good, and Lily and I loved listening to her music while we puzzled.
Given that I was awake before 2AM and out of bed around 4, I had a very productive morning. I exercised, meditated, got ready for the day and then made a pancake and egg-scramble breakfast for everyone.
After breakfast, Lily I and I did some cleaning around the house and then we puzzled together. It was so sweet to have Clarissa on my lap, even though it didn’t exactly help my puzzle productivity. 🙂
Ammon was happy making a “potions shop” in his bedroom with various bottles he accumulated from around the house.
Then shortly afternoon, I dropped Lily off for her facial and massage. She has been running the home solo for two weeks, and I could tell she was progressively getting more stressed and worn out as the time went on. She does such a great job parenting, and she deserved a break.
While she was at the spa, I picked up Georgia and she hung out at our place and played Otrio with Lydia while I cleaned. It was really nice to spend time with Georgia.
Then we dropped Georgia off, picked up Lily and went to church. I listened to Brian Wilson in the car because I recently saw a documentary on him that made me very happy and very interested in him.
At church the lesson was on labyrinths, a compelling spiritual practice. We learned about them, and then we walked a labyrinth outside that was painted on the asphalt. It was a very humble labyrinth, but the group had very meaningful experiences. Lily cried, and I felt deep spiritual insight and connection beyond what I often do. It was a very neat experience.
Ammon and Jamie were at church and experienced the labyrinth lesson with us, and then we had them over for dinner. We ordered Cafe Rio because of how busy we have been and had such a good time with them. We really gel well with them (both adults and kids), and we think they are such wonderful people. It was also cute to see their little ones tucked into the daybed and watching a show.
After over 24 hours of traveling, I was relieved to get off the airplane, and I was ecstatic to see my family. Even though my body had no idea what time it was and I felt a bit tired from the jet lag, I was buoyed and excited to see my family.
The first thing we did was go to Wee Witches. It was really important to Lydia for us to all go and walk around Wee Witches as a family. I love how much Lydia values our experiences as a family. And didn’t she do an awesome job on her face paint?
It was FREEZING at Wee Witches. The weather really turned today in Orem. It was windy and rainy, and at night time it snowed in the mountains. We only stayed about 45 minutes because of the weather, but we had a lot of fun with the time that we had. We got the little kid’s faces painted, walked around shops (indoors!) and got donuts for the kids.
They said the wait at Archibald’s restaurant at Wee Witches would be over two hours so we went to Maria Bonitas which only had a 20 minute wait. I gave everyone gifts from Singapore in the care while we waited. I gave Clarissa a pink purse, Ammon a sushi play-doh set, Mary a golden pig figurine, Lydia earrings and Lily a hat. It was so fun to share a bit of my travels with everyone. We also ate haw berry candy and peanut butter candy that I brought from Singapore (which was delicious).
Maria Bonitas was delicious! It was so good to all be together again!
Then I went home and passed out out 7:00PM and woke up at 1:30 AM the next day, lol.
Today I ran a training, spent time with some of the people in the SouthEast Asia region and did a lot of work on my laptop to get caught up. I had a great view while getting my work done!
Right now I am mentoring a new manager in Hong Kong named Jensen. It just happened to work out that he was flying into Singapore today so we got to go to dinner together. We have become friends and it was so nice to see him!
Back at home the family had lots of fun with friends.
I boarded my plan shortly after midnight. I cannot wait to see everyone!
Yesterday I was scolding Ammon for making a mess upstairs and he was trying to be contrite but kept smiling. Finally I asked him why he was smiling. He said it was because they were playing hide and seek and he had just found Clarissa. She was in the laundry basket right next to me and I had no idea!
Mary made this comic for her school project. So proud of her.
I am starting to engage in unhealthy behaviors and I think it is because Abe is gone. Today I spent a lot of time just scrolling online clothes imagining that if I owned said clothes maybe I would actually start getting dressed in the morning.
Here are Abe’s pictures from his time in Singapore.
Abe just loved the friends he made in the Qualtrics office. He loved having dinner with Sunil.They spent the evening in Little India.
On Wednesday Clarissa stayed home sick. We spent the entire morning at the doctor for Mary’s physical and then the hospital where she was going to get blood tests done. She has always been in the 4th percentile for weight but the doctor wants to make sure she doesn’t have celiac’s or something like that. Anyhow I forgot my health insurance card so we waited all that time at the hospital for nothing. We have to go back for that test later next week.
In the evening I went to the basement and logged into a Zoom meeting about the Great Salt Lake. I am so concerned about the lake and think about the effect of its disappearance every day. I wanted to hear from our policy makers and scientists what the health risks of living here are, but they deflected my question. Abe has a friend who founded HEAL Utah so hopefully he will be able to answer my question soon. But in the meantime
I did learn some interesting things in the meeting. It makes me think they will actually fix the problem (in a decade or two), but in the meantime I have to figure out if it is responsible to raise kids here or not.
Abe’s mom sent him this photo of himself today. So cute!!! I miss you, Abe!!!
