Bike Repair Woman

You might remember a few weeks ago when I was so proud of fixing Kimberly's bike tire. Well, she was having more issues with the other bike tire yesterday, so I told her to wait for her dad to get home. Guess what he said? "Well, you did such a good job fixing the last tire, why don't you go ahead and do this one?"

He got my womanly glare in return.

He started fixing the tire himself this morning, but it needed a completely new tube. Since he needed to attack the war zone (see next posting) with the tiller, I felt bad and offered to go buy a new tube. While I was at it, I bought a new tube for Kimberly's old bike so Alicia could start riding it.

I came home, pulled off the bike tires, put in the new tubes, put the tires back on (this of course involves wrenches and grease on my beautiful womanly hands), blew up the tires and wa-la! I did another manly project on my own. I have learned though that it comes around to bite me in the butt afterwords since John now thinks I am a pro bike repair woman.

I am never learning how to do those types of chores again. I will leave it in manly territory from now on.

Our War Zone

John has put the bedroom/bathroom remodel project on hold so he could redo the backyard - sprinkler system and grass. We all went out to help him tonight after dinner. The girls were really helpful digging loose dirt out of ditches, and even helped John cut some pipe. What Fun!!

Tomorrow he will till all of the dead grass (does it look dead enough? I think so), then Tuesday the new drought tolerant sod arrives. We'll have a new looking backyard in a week. Yay!

Camping in the Rain

For Memorial weekend, we went camping with several of our friends. We planned this out months ago and were thrilled when we saw at the beginning of last week that the holiday weather would be sun, sun, and more sun. Our excitement turned to depression when Thursday arrived with the dismal news that the weekend weather would be rain, rain, and more rain.

We decided we were going to make the best of it and went anyway prepared with two canopies, umbrellas, and extra clothes. We were off to a good start on Saturday and had the usual fun - sitting around the fire laughing our heads off, keeping the kids away from the river, cooking smores, and of course yummy dutch oven dinner and dessert.

The weather held up fine even through Saturday night, so we were of course thrilled. Sunday morning we introduced our friends to chocolate chip pancakes, and in return, they made Dr. Pepper pancakes for us. John said they tasted great, but I had to pass as I didn't want a caffeine buzz that early in the morning. Afterwords, we started roasting Starburst, another camping adventure I'd never even heard of. While tasting the delicacies, the rain began. Just a light drizzle, nothing we couldn't handle with the kids set up under one canopy with a craft, and us adults under another canopy near the fire.

Camping resumed as normal, until an hour later when it began pouring. We all hibernated in our tents, only coming out for lunch, and then back to the tents for nap time to see if the rain would go away soon. By 2:30 after 5 hours of non-stop rain, we had a pow pow and decided enough was enough, so we packed up all of our stuff...in the rain. Our tent is still set up in the backyard drying out.

Despite the rain, we had a wonderful time and finished up the camping trip by still doing the camp dinner back at one of the neighbors houses, and pancakes for breakfast at another neighbor's house Monday morning. Now I just need to finish the camfire smelling laundry that is piled up in my laundry room!

Playing games in the tent waiting for the rain to pass.

No Professional Portraits Anytime Soon

So, I'm thinking Natalie is just prone to accidents because she has had several major falls in the last week, as evidenced by her lovely face. One of the incidents involved trying to ride her bike down the porch stairs. She quickly learned that if you try that, you will more than likely do a flip and land on your face. Ouch. At least she has her bear she lovingly calls baby to help her get through the tough times.

She is still stinkin' cute though, but I am having to postpone the professional portraits I had planned for the girls after school lets out in a week. I'm not hopeful we will be getting to them anytime soon as she keeps falling and getting hurt. My mother in law says its because she only knows how to run - walking doesn't seem to be in her vocabulary. I tend to agree with her.

Pure Bliss

My idea of pure bliss...lying in my hammock yesterday afternoon for a nap while feeling the sun bake my skin. I know it's not good, but I just love that feeling, so I have to indulge every once in awhile. I thought about putting on sun screen, but by that point, I was fully basking in the sun's delights, so I decided to risk any and all pinkness. I did have a hint of pink afterwards, but nothing a little aloe couldn't handle.

Another blissful pleasure this last week has been my daily hot dog for lunch. Ugh...I hate even admitting this, but it is the only thing that sounds good right now! Trust me - I have tried everything! So for now, hot dogs it is until this weird pregnancy fetish subsides.

Finally, another byproduct of the sunny weather means BBQ Bliss! We got to enjoy two barbecues with friends this weekend. Sigh...I love warm weather. Even though my Northwest family thinks I am crazy to love the desert, I don't know how they can stand the rain 90 percent of the time. Living in the desert for this Seattlite transplant is pure bliss.

I love My 2-year-old, I love her not

Reasons I am getting frustrated with my two-year-old:

This morning alone, my cute Natalie,

- Took off her pjs and diaper thinking she was cute. Luckily it was just a wet diaper.
- Dumped almost an entire Sam's Club canister of Oregano onto my counter top.
- Spit milk all over the carpet in her room and her lovey bear. She's not going to be happy when I wash it.
- Unrolled a new roll of toilet paper into the garbage while I was taking a shower.
- Enjoyed dancing in the shower after I was done and got her pants and shirt all wet.
- Decided to rub her hands in the melted butter/sugar mess I had yet to clean up on the counter top after we made cinnamon rolls (This was of course after she kept snatching snippets of dough while I was trying to roll it out!)
- And is making a huge mess of yogurt while I type this. Not looking forward to cleaning that up, but at least I have a pan of cinnamon rolls cooking in the oven to enjoy when I'm done!

Reasons why I absolutely Love my two-year-old:

Just this morning Natalie,

- has cuddled up to me several times
- smiled her oh-so-cute smile that makes me melt every time I see her
- checked my heart with her stethoscope saying, "beep-beep, beep-beep"
- daintily fed her baby bear with a spoon and cup
- and best of all, said "tant-to" without any mommy prompting when I gave her some chocolate chips.

This of course makes up for all the frustrations from the morning.

It Sucks - Finally!

The very old beast

When John and I got married 12 years ago, we needed a vacuum. My parents had recently purchased a new vacuum to replace the old Kirby they bought when they first got married, so they told me I was welcome to their old one. I was thrilled because a) it worked b) it came with cool attachments and c) we didn't have any other options.

We loaded it up in our car with the rest of my junk from Seattle and headed down to Utah after the wedding - with a lovely detour down the Oregon Coast for our honeymoon. The vacuum has been at my side every Saturday on cleaning day and has endured the messes of three little girls. We have taken it in for repair work, continued buying the antique bags and replaced many, many rubber thingies around the front circle do-dad. (I'm sure there's a nice technical term for this, but as I don't speak vacuumeeze, well...this is what you get)

As you have seen in some of my earlier posts, we are doing some major remodeling in our master bedroom and bathroom. This of course consists of mucho demolition pieces strewn about the room and massive amounts of sanding dust coating the carpet. The first few days we pulled out our tried and true 35-year-old Kirby, which meant running over every portion of the carpet about 4 or 5 times to get up every white speck. John gave up and hauled his shop vac from the garage into the room and excitedly showed me how he could get everything cleaned up in one swipe!

We both agreed it was time for a new vacuum. Of course, I worried about how my parents would react since they had entrusted us with their beloved vacuum. I needn't have worried as my dad's first reaction was, "It's about time!"

You'd be impressed with us - rather than researching every possible vacuum out there, checking numerous consumer reports for weeks and weeks to make sure we made the best possible decision, we happened to walk past a row of Dyson's for a good price at Sam's Club, took one glance at each other, and plopped the thing into our cart next to the bread and milk without a second thought. We got home, John set it up, and I promptly put it away without even trying it. Buying a vacuum is not really a fun purchasing item for me, and I figured it had to be better than our old one, so I wasn't even curious how well it worked.

Well, Saturday cleaning day arrived, and I pulled the new beast out, started vacuuming and about hit the floor at my shock of how well it vacuumed and how clean my floor looked. I hadn't seen my carpet look so clean since the carpet cleaner came. John wasn't home, so I wasn't able to share my excitement, but when he came home and took one look at the carpet, he was doubled over in shock as well! Finally - we have a vacuum that actually sucks!!

Happy Mother's Day

I am having a wonderful mother's day with my children. As I type, the girls are busy helping John make dinner for me - clean up included. They made pancakes in the shape of I Love You this morning, I had a wonderful foot massage from Alicia when I got home from church, and several cute craft projects from Kimberly. I love Mother's Day and am so grateful to have three wonderful girls to share it with.

I can't help thinking about another mother two doors down from me who does not have the opportunity of sharing this mother's day with her two year old because she passed away yesterday due to the complications of a tumor in her brain.

I am deeply saddened for her young husband and toddler and spent a restless night thinking about them (and crying at 5 in the morning trying unsuccessfully to keep from waking John). They moved into the ward only 6 months ago, but there is such a wonderful group of ladies on my street that welcomed her right in. We got to know her a little, but she mostly kept to herself because she didn't want to burden the rest of us with her diagnosis she received some time ago. However, in recent months she could keep it hidden no longer, at which point she probably felt comfortable enough in the neighborhood and ward to share her condition.

I guess I am an eternal optimist and felt like she would recover fully. I never imagined that things might end up on such a sad note. The doctors thought her tumor was gone after a successful surgery some time ago. However, a few weeks ago, she started declining very rapidly and on Friday night, was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Saturday morning she learned that her tumor was back and it was causing tremendous pressure in her brain. Before they could operate, they tried to reduce the pressure, but she passed away in the early evening.

I am deeply saddened and of course am playing the "I wish" game. I saw her on Friday night when I took dinner over to her, but I could tell she didn't recognize me - I wish I had visited with her more not knowing she would be gone the very next day. Last week I had to take Natalie to her 2-year-old checkup, and we were running late. As I was putting her in the car, this particular neighbor strolled by with her 2-year-old daughter. I said hello, and could tell she wanted to visit, but I was already running late. I wish I had taken the time to visit. The doctor would still be there, and now unfortunately my friend isn't.

I can't even begin to imagine what her husband or two-year-old must be feeling. Often I catch myself tearing up as I think about what Natalie would do if I were gone. She has a hard time when I leave just to run errands. I also can't imagine the sorrow and grief her young husband must be experiencing. My only comfort is knowing that our loving Heavenly Father loves them more than I can even imagine and wouldn't for a moment leave them comfortless. I have heard some who have experienced this intimately say that even though they were tremendously sad, they felt like they were literally in a special bubble, surrounded and protected by their Heavenly Father's love helping them cope.

Growing up, I had no idea how much ones parents are affected by their child's life. Now that I have children of my own, I see how much my heart hurts for them when they are hurting. I know that our Heavenly Father, who loves us more than we know, will never leave us alone when we are hurting, and probably hurts just as much as we do. I also know that our Savior has experienced every possible emotion we experience. My simple knowledge of this helps comfort me when I think of my young neighbor and his little daughter. I also know that our ward is a tremendous support and the family will feel all of the prayers, fasts, and love being sent their way.

This weekend I caught a glimmer of how real life is. It can end at any moment, and leaves those left in its wake playing the I wish game. This week I will start by taking simple steps and reminding myself how precious these moments are with my family - I cherished my I love you pancakes this morning as we all ate together as a family and now I'm looking forward to a nice evening of dutch oven dinner served with love.

Saying Goodbye to Reflections

I have just finished packing up all of my reflections stuff to deliver to the PTA president for next year. After four years of being the Reflections chair for our school, I felt like someone else needed the wonderful opportunity to enjoy the arts of the kids, blah, blah, blah...

The REAL reason is -

I have pulled my hair out for 4 years dealing with endless flyers to all the students at the school, copies, copies, and more copies, kick-off assemblies, angry parents who don't like the judges results, art projects coming out of the wazu throughout the house while trying to keep young children out of them, trying to convince judges to please come judge my stuff, and the list goes on and on and frankly, I'm pooped. I don't want to do it anymore, so I have no regrets handing all my stuff over!

However, I don't know what I am going to do with myself now. Literally, for the last 4 years my life has been consumed with taking care of my girls and John, Reflections, and writing for the Salt Lake Tribune. I no longer have the latter two things so I'm wondering what to do with myself now.

I encountered some stumbling blocks with the writing for magazines, so now I'm just in a slump while I figure out what to do, and sadly, I'm still mourning the loss of my fabuloso writing job and miss it terribly.

In the meantime, I have not had too much time to be bored, what with being sick during the first part of my pregnancy, dealing with Natalie's temper tantrums, and taking care of all the end of the school year stuff with my older two girls. I definitely have things to do, so that's not an issue. I just need to reinvent myself now to see what I will be doing to fill my time in the next 4 years. Probably keeping my hands full with four kids, that's what :)

I'm on a Roll

Who would have ever thunk it, but I actually patched a hole in Kimberly's bike yesterday. No cheating either with slime stuff - I used an actual patch kit.

Not Technologically Challenged

I got a new MP3 player for my birthday and have enjoyed some walks and bike rides with it listening to the radio because I hadn't yet figured out how to rip cds onto the dang thing. Yes, I had tried, but no success.

Yesterday rolled around and I had to make a cd using Windows Media Player for our primary activity on Saturday. In the process, I noticed a button that said Rip. I thought - aha! I wonder if this is how you rip cds onto the computer, then I can transfer them onto my mp3 player.

I hit the royal payday!! I did it and now I have 10 cds on my player now, with room for more. I think I'll save space for some books so I have something to listen to while I'm driving up to Portland next month.

I just had to share my exciting technological experience and tell you that I can actually figure something out on the computer without John's help. Sigh, such a nice feeling.

Pot Pie at 10 p.m.

John and I went to the Symphony last Saturday night with friends and then we decided to go out for dessert afterwords. Coldstone was too crowded, so we decided to have pie at Marie Callendar's. By the time we got there, it was 10 p.m. and both John and I had a light dinner, so I was famished by this time. Pie just wasn't going to cut it! I ordered one of their dinner platters, complete with pot pie, and two absolutely yummy salads. I was in 7th heavan gulping away at my food while everyone else at the table daintily ate the soup they ordered to go with their pie. I blame this on the baby influencing my food choices these days!

It reminded me of another late night dinner we had a couple months ago. John received a letter saying he would be receiving the District Award of Merit for Cub Scouts, which is actually a very prestigous scouting award (I get the right to brag a little bit about my spouse, right?). Anyway, the letter said come attend the banquet where he would be recieving the award - and actually, we'd been to this banquet one time before for another award John received and it was a very nice dinner, so of course we assumed the same thing. I mean, doesn't banquet mean food?

We arrived and sat down next to some of our cub scout friends and they told us they had just found out there would be no dinner served...WHAT!!! All of us had come hungry - and prepared to be served dinner! So, instead, we got to sit through two hours of scouting drudgery - other than John's 5 minutes of glory, of course with only the thought of how yummy food would taste. When it was over at 9 p.m. we were served dreary ice cream sundaes, which of course does not cure hunger pains. We all decided to go out to eat, making it over to Chili's by 9:30 or so, and dinner served at 10 p.m. What is it with our late night dinners these days?