Operation Bachelorhood-Day 3

The real pain and misery began today as I had to go to work. I left about 20 minutes later than normal to give the dogs a little more time to run around and play outside knowing that I wasn't going to be home for 11 hours.

Work went well, but I was rather busy. I left work about 30 minutes later than I wanted and ended up spending some time at home finishing stuff up for a meeting tomorrow. Once I got home I made some measurements of windows and my eaves so that I could go to Home Depot and figure out which project I was going to do. I had hoped to get 20% off my windows but that ended on Saturday. Still I decided to do the windows which means the eaves are going to have to wait until the fall or possible next spring. I will give them a good coat of paint and hope that they survive the winter.

I was almost to upset to blog. After getting home from the store I sat down to watch the Jazz-Rocket game. It was a close game with neither team building much of a lead. The Jazz lead most of the game but surrendered the lead in the fourth quarter and couldn't overcome a 2:30 minute scoring drought. They ended up losing 96-92, but the charge on Derek Fisher at the end was pretty questionable. However, the Jazz had very poor clock management for the last minute of the game. Had they managed the clock better they might of snuck out with a win. As it is, this series is proving how beneficial home court would have been for the Jazz. Had they not blown double digit leads in the fourth quarter of two consecutive games, they would be up 3-2. The Jazz should win on Thursday, but all bets are off for who will win Game 7. If AK and Memo don't show up offensively I'm afraid it will be Houston.

I briefly talked to Michelle today. She made the four hour drive down to Cedar. As if Saturday's plane ride wasn't enough travel. Kids were good until the end. Hopefully they enjoy their time in Cedar. I really like Cedar and have told Michelle that I would retire there.

Time for bed. At least I have the whole bed to myself and I can guarantee that I won't be awakened at 2:30 in the morning.

Operation Bachelorhood-Day 2

Unfortunately for you Michelle has the camera. I could take stills with the camcorder or break out Grace's cheesy little digital camera, but that is so much work. The laptop is great. I can lay on the couch, watch TV, surf the internet, and barely have to move a muscle.

Today I felt the effects of staying up late to watch a great Jazz victory. They have some good momentum and hopefully that will carry over to Monday night's game. I think that the Jazz are the better team, but they have not played well on the road. If Memo can keep up the good defense and score in double digits in Houston I like our chances of wrapping up the series in SLC.

Anyway, after staying up late to watch the game and get Michelle's call at 1:45 that she had landed in SLC I was finally able to sleep. I slept in until 7:30 at which point the dogs had had enough and forced my hand to get up. Breakfast consisted of Fruit Loops and toast (I contemplated this for dinner as well). By 9:30 I was ready for church and off I went. Standard church hours saw me back home at 1:30 and lunch consisted of bow-tie pasta salad that Michelle had made for Harriet's birthday party. I still have about 2 servings of that left so I should be set through tomorrow.

This afternoon I pretended to watch the Red Sox take down the Yankees again (5 wins in 6 games-you have to love that), and the Phoenix-LA game. Of course I really just slept as I didn't get much last night. Around 5:30 I decided I needed to get off the couch and since I didn't have anything else to do, I cooked. I made some tasty stir-fry and then went on a 3 mile walk with the dogs. During the walk, I only saw 2 other people (who were walking 3 dogs) other than that the dogs got to run off-leash and enjoy themselves. While walking I was listening to an October episode of RadioWest. Fabrizio had on author James Reston Jr. talking about his book "Dogs of God". It sounded very interesting. I may have to purchase it. He draws links between the Spanish Inquistion, the explusion of Moors and Jews in Spain to Columbus and the new world. It certainly puts a new spin on Columbus Day and makes me think we should perhaps change the holiday to reflect discoverers in general.

Anyway, a nice walk, a chance to catch up on some podcasts and now a chance to blog. So far, Operation Bachelorhood is proceeding according to plan. Just remember, to call first so that I have time to clean up before you arrive!

Now I just have to wait for the bedtime call and I can sleep and get ready for work tomorrow.

Operation Bachelorhood-Day 1

Michelle and the kids have gone to visit family for the next 2 weeks so that leaves me alone for that time. I really am pretty pathetic and make horrible bachelor. I miss Michelle and the kids and it throughs the whole routine off. The dogs probably suffer more than I do. With no one to let them out during the day they have to suffer to my long work day.

I really appreciate all of the things Michelle does when she is gone. This is probably why she does go so that I stay appreciative and don't take her for granted. The mission for Operation Bachelorhood is to survive and have a reasonable clean house when they get back home.

To emphasize what a poor example of a bachelor I am, I point to day 1. Michelle needed to be at the airport at 3:00. There was no curbside check in with JetBlue so I parked and helped her get the baggage checked and walked them to security. All good things to do. What husband/father wouldn't want to spend as much time as possible with the wife and kids before a 2 week absence? However, now my point, I'm in Boston. There is a lot I could do. But what do I do? I drive to Home Depot and buy some material for a honey-do project I am suppose to get done while Michelle is gone. No sports bar to watch the Yankees-Red Sox. Just Home Depot and home. I get home and eat leftovers (cooking will be saved for another day), and then off to Nashua for Stake Priesthood Meeting.

About the only thing I was able to do with ease thanks to being home alone is watch the Jazz-Rockets game staying up until 1:00 AM without any consequence. Thankfully the Jazz won. I stayed up last to watch Game 1&2 and was sorely disappointed (not to mention tired).

Stay tune for the daily updates. Will I eventually cook real food? Will I sleep normal hours? Will I shower and shave? All good questions and only time will tell.

Happy Birthday Little Hattie

I can't decide if the past year has flown by or if it feels like 10 years. I have never worked harder in my life (well, teaching school was probably almost as hard.) I think a baby's first birthday is as much a celebration and anniversary for the mom as it is for the kid. You feel like you have accomplished something - you've raised a baby and she's still alive and she's turning out pretty darn good!

Well, my little Hattie is one year old today. She is such a new adventure for me and I am so happy about her today. I was dreading celebrating her first birthday without any family around, but today has turned out really well as we have spoken to everyone on the phone, video-chatted with some, and were surrounded by really good friends tonight. (It also helps a lot to know that we're flying to Utah in 2 days to see everyone and have another birthday party.)

David's e-mail letter to Harriet says a lot about what she's doing right now, so I won't duplicate, but she is really turning out to be a fun, fun kid. Her little beaming face is addicting.

So, to tell about the day. It was a pretty basic day getting ready for the party - lots of shopping, cleaning, baking, and cooking. I made Harriet's cake. I decided on butterflies for her "theme." She's not really "into" any one thing that she totally goes nuts over except her dogs. I tried to think of how to make a cute doggy cake, but I decided I wouldn't be able to do a good job, so we switched to butterflies because she had such a good time at the butterfly place and she is such a bright spot in my life that a butterfly just seemed to fit.
We invited our dearest friends over for butterfly birthday cake, Erikson's Dairy ice cream, and presents. Roger, Jeanne, and Elisabeth came over from across the street and Rita came from our barn. The 4 of them have been absolutely like family for us and have been so instrumental in our happiness here that I couldn't imagine celebrating without them.

Harriet loved her birthday cake and her presents too. She got lots of fun new clothes from her aunts and Grandma in Salt Lake and some fun toys from our neighbors and from us. Grace has had a hard time in the concept of an entire day devoted to someone other than herself and is coming to terms with the fact that, yes, that whole pile is for Harriet (well not the WHOLE pile, she was LUCKY to receive gifts from a few people who know her well!) Harriet also received many new books from her other Grandma and also the neighbors. We love to read stories and Harriet is starting to pay attention to the words and the pictures on the page, so the new books were really exciting.The party went much later than Harriet's bed time and then we did more video chatting afterward, so she was a tired party girl by the time she went to bed. I am sad that the day is almost over and another huge milestone has come and gone. But, my little one-year-old Hattie will be up soon enough to start another fun-filled day!

Hattie's first pony ride

(photo by Grace!)

Harriet has come to the barn a bunch of times with me and Grace, but haven't gotten around to getting her to sit on the horse, nor has Grace been much interested in sharing her pony. Monday was a glorious weather day here - mid-80's and beautiful. I took the opportunity to take Grace to the barn for a ride. She really doesn't get to do it much now that I leave both kids home with David when I go to the barn to work.

We made the trek out to the back field to round up Tink and then back to the barn to groom and tack and then out to the arena to ride. Harriet was comfy in my backpack carrier and Grace and Tink, well behaved. Grace rode by herself for a little while (no one leading her) and then decided she was tired and done. I asked if she thought Harriet could ride. She said "well, I AM her big sister, so I guess I should teach her how to ride." So ON went Harriet.

Grace totally took over from there. I barely caught Harriet's leg to keep her in the saddle as Grace grabbed Tink's reins and took off with the both of them. Grace led Harriet around the ring for quite an adventurous ride - around the corners, over poles, a little too fast - almost trotting! Hattie wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but anything to do with sunshine and fresh air and animals is just fine with her. She was thrilled with the ride.

I really can't believe that Grace shared so well, but it's probably mostly to do with the fact that she got to be in charge of the situation. So, now, I have 2 barn rats (brats?) Whatever, as long as they like coming with me and riding, it's great! I never want to force my kids to ride and come to the barn just so I can do it, but it will make things really nice for me if they all do like to do it so that we can go together and all be happy at the same place.

Ride 'em Hattie!

Dear Harriet

Dear Harriet,

I wanted to write you a brief note on your first birthday to let you know how much I love you. You have brought a sweet spirit into our home and in a short year have transformed my life so that I can't imagine life without you anymore.

Our relationship started out a little rocky. Unlike Grace, you didn't take to me right away. You loved your Mother and that was about it, and of course she should be your number one person. She helped you through reflux, constipation, and saw you do a number of "firsts". You dreaded (as did I), those long Saturday afternoons when I had to take care of you while your Mother was working. While those days were difficult and I struggled with my new daughter, my love never wavered. I was (and am) proud to be your father and help and watch you grow.

While it took you a while to get the swing of this strange person that you generally only saw for an hour a day, you now love me and are excited to see me. I cherish the few minutes I get with you in the mornings on occasion before I head off to work. As you hear me coming up the stairs from showering, I hear you get excited with your "da da" and the occasional clap of your hands. It was those few cherished moments that sustained during the several months where during the rest of the day you only wanted mommy. Now, you also want to come to me. I come home from work and you are generally the first person I see now. The immediate beaming smile and recognition and love shown as I walk through the door make me forgot the struggles and hardships of having a rambunctious and curious 1 year old in the house.

You are a very curious child. You love to explore and you especially love to test things in the oral laboratory. With Grace everything was a novelty, and now with you we get to experience that all over again. It is amazing how similar and yet dissimilar you are with your sister. You are your own person and yet I see the longing in your eyes to be just like Grace, to play with her, to mimic her. Stay patient. Your time will come. Grace is already growing up too quickly and I fear you are as well. I love your curiosity and intensity. Whether playing peek-a-boo through the peek-a-boo, or holding you upside down and having you do flips (which you absolutely love) I enjoy the limited time I get to spend with you.

As you get older, I'm sure that I will become an even stronger influence in your life. I can't wait to take you on bike rides, hikes, walks to get ice cream, having you help me with the dogs (sorry but you only get to help with Shadow--Velvet is spoken for), and other fun things we will be able to enjoy together.

While you won't be able to remember any of the events of your first birthday, the rest of will. I know I speak for everyone in the house when I say, "We love you." You are my precious little girl and always will be. I have been so blessed with two beautiful daughters. I don't know what I have done to deserve to be your father, but I am thankful for that opportunity and hope that you feel the same way.

On your first birthday, may you have a great day and may you continue to grow. May your curiosity stay with you and your love of the world around you. As you get to experience so many things for the first time, may you realize how special that is and may you never take for granted all of the wonderful blessings you have been granted.

Love,

Daddy

Diary of a Jazz fan

It has been a long time (almost a decade) since I have felt so hopefully for my hometown team. They started the year off strong and despite a few injuries during the year stayed strong and won more often than they lost. It was a year when I wish I could have watched a few more games. The Jazz were on no one's radar and so I suffered through countless games of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Washington, and Denver to get a only a couple of Utah games.

The season started unraveling in April. Five solid months of good playing now seem wasted by a lackadaisical approach to the games. They Jazz blew home court advantage for the first round in the playoff and the first two games against Houston have been disappointing. You can clearly see the difference of great vs. good. Houston has 2 superstars and a bunch of role players with no bench. Utah has depth and play well as a team but who can dominate and take over a game when needed. Boozer did his best in game 2 and had AK or Memo shown up we might have pulled out the W. As it is the Jazz now face a 0-2 deficit. To add insult to injury, game 3 tonight is on NBATV. Who has NBATV? What a crock. So now I have to follow the game on the internet and hope for best. Let's go get Jazzed!

You call that commuting!

In 2001-2002 while graduate student at the University of Utah, I decided that I wasn't going to buy a parking permit. I was going to stick it to the sharks of the parking lot and go straight to my office. This worked great. I got some nice exercise in, I never had to worry about waiting for a parking spot, but I neglected one thing. Winter in Utah is cold. I toughed it out and biked every day that school year except for snow days. I remember multiple occasions leaving my house with the outside temperature less than 5 degrees. This was also the year of the Olympics in Salt Lake so I would fight the cold, get onto campus and be confronted with soldiers with M-16 patrolling the campus area reserved for the Olympic Village.

Somewhere in the time since I have lost my desire to cycle in the cold. I have been anxiously awaiting moving from my trainer (which I admitedly don't ride as much as I should) to outside on the road biking. It finally cracked the freezing barrier as the low so I started the bike commute to work. For an additional 20-25 minutes of round trip commute time I get in 90 minutes of good exercise. It does come with a cost though. New England roads are narrow, winding, pot-holed and after winter full of sand. This can lead to excitement riding with all of those armored vehicles people drive. I have several friends that had accidents and I count myself lucky that I have never been hit by a car although I have had a few spills. Since moving to New England I have been spill free. That streak is now over. Coming home on Monday I was turning from the main road into my neighborhood. I saw an opening and I took it to get across the road. What I didn't see was some sand. I clipped the edge of the sand pile which torqued my wheel to the left and low and behold I was falling and rolling. I landed on my right shoulder and knee and since I was clipped into my pedals I rolled onto my back with my bike still attached. In the immediate aftermath I was more embarassed than in pain, but the next day I was feeling the bruises. Next time I will have to avoid the sand and if you come across me in the next day or two please don't slap the shoulder!

Spring has finally sprung

As the saying goes around here, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes." This is especially true in the March-May time frame. The weather can be very unpredictable and while on average, the temperature isn't much different from Salt Lake, Spring does always seem to take a while to get going in these parts. We were tempted in January and February with a pretty mild winters. A couple of good snow storms, but for most the winter we were on pace to set a new record for lack of snowfall. After a 70 degree day in January (a very welcome fluke) and a few nice days in a row in March we were all ready for Spring. Unfortunately, Winter was not ready to release his claws and we had to suffer through some cold wet weather.

Finally the end of last week Spring began and looks like it is here to stay. This of course means that the New Englanders come out of hibernation and start socializing, doing yard work, repairing winter damage, and the like. It also means that after 5 months of being cooped inside Grace is ready to get outside and play. We have played soccer, taken the dogs on walks, built a fire and roasted hot dogs. We have also being able to take out the bike trailer and enjoy some nice trails around our house. Of course Grace is getting old enough to want to ride on her own and she says that she is ready to move up from her tricycle to a bicycle. She is going to have to practice and build up her legs though. We went out the other day and she insisted on riding her trike to Crow Island. After just over a 1/2 mile she was done. Her little legs could go no more. She was a trooper though and so I had to reward her with a ride back home. Oh, I love Spring.

Roasting some 'dogs!

This past Saturday we had another first for around here. One of the benefits (or is it a quirk) is that from January-April we can burn debris in our yard. While sure you have to have a burn permit, do they know that I was a scout (doesn't that imply pyromaniac?). Anyway, they were foolish enough to issue me a burn permit, and I was foolish enough to burn on the hottest day of the year so far. So I'm making a bon fire and it is 80 degrees outside. Fire and 80 degree weather just don't go together.

The best part of this (aside from playing with fire of course) was that I was able to get rid of 80% of the tree branches that have fallen over the last two years. Now this was a significant pile since I have a few trees in my yard. The pile has grown over the last couple of years and was becoming an eye sore. The other good thing to come from the fire was roasted hot dogs. When Grace found out we were going to have a fire that was the first thing she wanted to do. She waited patiently for the first two hours helping me break up branches to throw into the fire. She was a great little helper, but it was all just to get to lunch time and have some hot dogs. So that is exactly what we did. We roasted hot dogs over the fire in our yard that we were using to burn yard debris. You got to love living where we do!

Hello, could I have some Lyme with that please?

Oh, and don't forget the double serving of ticks!

On Friday, we got some semi-bad news. Velvet had an annual check-up with the vet and despite vaccines and Front-line she tested positive for Lyme disease. This really is a problem in the northeast. Ticks are so prevalent that it is almost impossible to go outside and not come back with a tick or two. We had been pretty lucky the first 2 years here, but our luck ran out. Now the vet tells us the vaccine is only 85%. They really ought to have that on the box!

Now that we have a Lyme case in the house, I have affectionately changed Velvet's name to Lymey. She doesn't seem to know that I have changed her name. She doesn't come when called by that name and she certainly doesn't seem to care for it. She also doesn't care for the anti-biotics she is on for the next month, but I don't know why she complains. I'm the one having to stick my hand down her throat to get her to swallow the pills.

random things filling up another busy week!

Unfortunately, all visits have to end or they wouldn't be visits! Aunt Christine had to leave on Monday. Grace was extremely sad to see her go and still misses her. When she and Christine are together, they play and play and play for hours on end and it is rare that Grace has play-time like that with anyone else. Since Christine flew into the Providence airport, we got to add another state to our list of states we've been. Grace and Hattie and I drove her back to the airport (and no, Jared, we did NOT get a geocache in Rhode Island!) and I got to experience a long car ride alone with the kids on my way home.

Needless to say, I'm not going to make any road-trips with them any time soon by myself. I use to think that if we could just move somewhere within a day's drive of Utah, I could drive us back and forth to Salt Lake instead of relying on air travel. Now, I'm not so sure that I would make many (if any) drives by myself. My mom use to drive us back and forth from Wyoming by herself, but she must have had a patience gene that she didn't pass along to me. I would still like to live closer to Utah - it would mean shorter, less-expensive flights, and opportunities for other people to drive to our house as well as for us to drive as a family to Salt Lake. Whatever the case, we'll just say that I'm not going to go get myself a nice minivan for the road anytime soon!

Other happenings this week:

Grace enrolled in pre-school for the fall! After inspecting a few, I was shocked at the wide spectrum of programs, curriculum, and physical condition of the schools that you can find! I thought I knew exactly what I wanted for her until I saw the school and we quickly made a different choice and other arrangements. I'm very happy with the school we chose and we spent a long time there on Wednesday morning. You could just see Grace's eyes beaming with curiosity and wonder and excitement about all the things she would get to do and learn. She is one of those kids who is just going to love school. She is so ready for it too. She'll be going to a 3 day a week morning program for next year and then she will start kindergarten in September 2008!

Grace is also a total social butterfly (which could be good and bad for school.) She's become quite good friends with the little girls in dance class. On Wednesday, we went to dinner with all of them after dance at "Old MacDonald's." We weren't prepared for what the girls would do, but we walked in and as the moms were at the counter ordering, the girls were organizing themselves together at one table. They all sat together and asked us to sit "somewhere else" with their siblings. They ate and chatted like miniature college kids. They found out where each other lived, what their houses were like, what they like to do, etc. It was amazing the natural social skills that they all had and how easily they all took turns speaking and listening to each other. By the time we left, they had planned several play dates and times to meet in the future.

Also, of note, this week Harriet has really been trying to do whatever she can to walk. It seems that she is still a long way from really walking, but she wants to so badly. She stands up to anything she can get her hands on and lets go quite a bit to see how long she can stand alone. She can't stand alone more than a second or two, but I can tell that her legs have gotten much stronger and that she is much more ready than Grace was at this age. She will be having her first birthday in less than 2 weeks and it would be so cool if she walked near the time of her birthday!

For her birthday, we do plan to celebrate here with our family, but we are also planning a trip to Utah to celebrate with our extended family. So, we will have lots to write about in the next month. We can't wait to get to SLC and possibly have a little REAL spring-time weather. 60 or 70 degrees please?

Ok, one last thing... I just HAVE to write about this because it was such a fun and rare occurrence. On Friday, we had Rita over for "tea"! The idea was spurred on when she came over for a quick favor the week before last and I said it would be nice if she could just stay for the afternoon and chat. We decided that we should plan a "tea-time" and do just that - chat all afternoon! Who does things like this in real life? I don't know, but we tried it and it was great! When I was in Kenya several years ago, we had "tea" at 11am and 2pm every single day because they still keep up some of the British traditions. Since then, I have thought that taking a break at 11am and 2pm every day was so nice and refreshing (not productive, but nice.) So, at least for one day, we did it. Grace and I made little dainty things to eat with our lemonade and Rita came over and we just ate and chatted and had ourselves a little tea party.

Onto another busy week...

Happy Easter!

(but where's spring????) Even though it was rainy and quite cold, we still had a great Easter week-end. The Easter Bunny was kind enough to visit our house on Saturday so that we didn't have to hurry and do an Easter egg hunt while trying to get ready for church. He left us a really fun indoor egg hunt. He even left a basket for Aunt Christine! Grace had a blast finding all the eggs. Harriet didn't really care much about the hunt or the candy, but she did like her new bunny and an empty plastic egg makes a great toy! Grace was also delighted to find in her Easter basket, the very bunny that she had seen at The Paper Store and has been talking about for weeks hoping that she might have him. His name is now Harvey and she takes care of him like you would take care of a baby doll. At least we know the instinct is there even if she won't play with a doll.
I am also grateful that I did take the girls to get their pictures taken in their Easter dresses BEFORE Easter Sunday, because neither one was too excited or nice about posing for a picture before church. Their dresses were pretty breezy on top, but they did have little matching sweaters and I relented and put white tights and shoes on them rather than sandals. I went to church with bare legs and sandals in protest of the weather. I froze and I'm sure my wintery white legs didn't look so cute, but I refuse to wear black tights and shoes with a winter dress on Easter Sunday!

I wish I could say that I listened to a nice Easter program at church and that I was spiritually filled and uplifted on this religious holiday. However, I spent more than the last half of sacrament walking the halls with Harriet and then running around doing tasks for an under-staffed primary full of kids on sugar highs and well, that was it for me. I am sure that the sacrament program was very nice as well as the primary lesson, I just didn't hear much of any of it...
After church, we made a fancy dinner and ate in the dining room. Although we didn't set a dress code, at least the table looked really nice. (Christine was the only one who didn't wear a sweatshirt to dinner. At least one person showed up looking good!) Grace loves "a candlelight" and so we ate a candle-lit dinner. I hope the boys she dates in the future figure out this part of her personality! (well maybe I don't)

Aunt Christine!

We always love to have visitors and we were lucky to have one over Easter week-end. David's sister, Christine, came to stay with us for 5 days. After some annoying airport/airline situations, she finally got to our house at about 3am on the Thursday morning before Easter.

Since everyone was so tired, we spent most of Thursday just hanging out and playing together. We did dye some Easter eggs though (mostly, we helped Grace make some Easter eggs) and Harriet got to know Christine again. Grace was thrilled to have her Aunt Christine staying at our house and couldn't get enough of her.

On Friday, we met David in Lexington for lunch and then went shopping in Lexington center. It was freezing cold and not much fun to walk from shop to shop. We drove by some of the historical sites on our way home, but didn't stop anywhere (my favorite way to sight-see!) Later that night, Grace and I took Christine to some of our favorite local shops too.

Since David and I are total home-bodies (which is well-served by how difficult it is to get out and do things with our kids) we haven't done much in Boston. So, when someone comes to visit and wants to go somewhere in Boston, we are going for the first time ourselves! We asked Christine if there was one place she'd really like to visit in Boston and she told us "Fanueil Hall" because she learned about it in her humanities classes and knew that it was an important place during the revolution. So, we went!

Fanueil Hall has always been a market place of sorts as well as a public meeting place. It is now in the center of a much bigger market/shopping complex along with Quincy market. More shopping! Great! I don't really buy a lot when I go shopping, but I LOVE to window shop and look at cool things that you wouldn't find in just any old place. I think our favorite store was The Boston Pewter Company. I got some extremely cool Christmas tree ornaments for Hattie and Grace there.

So, check that off of the list of things that there are to do in Boston. I think I've done 3 or 4? Let's see - Red Sox game, duck boat tour, Fanueil Hall, and the aquarium. David and I both agree that we need to get out more. Now that I'm not pregnant or with a newborn fussy baby, we will probably try to go and do more things this summer. (Looking at that picture of us all in our Utah sweatshirts, we really look like tourists! I guess we are!)

long time, no blog!

I really can't believe it's been a month since I did a blog. If you're trying to keep up with our family, you'll get caught up fast today. I wouldn't worry so much with writing about everything, but I have no time to keep up a journal and this is the only record of what happens to our family (a little scary that it's all on the internet!)

I have been super busy with all my little (and big) jobs. My little jobs consist of doing the book-keeping for the barn, answering the barn e-mail, teaching a riding lesson or two each week, tutoring my small handful of students in math, chemistry, and biology, and doing my primary secretary church calling. Of course my biggest and most important job is raising my two darling little girls which I do like many "stay-at-home" moms - while trying to keep up our 1600 square feet of living space, half acre yard (ok that doesn't get done), and making a "tasty" dinner by 6pm every night. A friend of mine told me the other day that she feels successful if she just gets the "clothes" and "food" done each day and if one other thing is accomplished then it is cause for celebration!

I also tend to have a hard time saying no to something that I know will allow me to have a little "me" time, so I go to a monthly book club and also a dinner group with my friends WITHOUT our kids. David is great at picking up the slack and staying home with the kids when I'm doing these things and when I'm out doing riding lessons or tutoring.

So, I guess those are enough excuses to have slacked on my blogging, aren't they?

Out and About...

Grace and Hattie and I have been on our own for the last couple of days. David has been working morning til night and went almost 48 hours without even seeing the kids. I know lots of women who live like that with their kids regularly because of their husbands jobs. I am very grateful that it only happens rarely with David. We have had some fun on our own though.

On Thursday, our "mom's group" held their monthly field trip. This time, we visited "The Butterfly Place." It was a bit of a drive - definitely out of my 15 minute comfort range, but we did find it and we did leave ourselves enough room to arrive on time. If you have ever been to the Hogle Zoo butterfly tent/atrium they have in the summer, this was very similar (except much more expensive than Hogle Zoo's $1 admission charge for the tent!) Both girls, well all of us, were delighted with the vast number and variety of butterflies in the atrium. There were these huge bird sized ones that had blue on the insides of their wings, but brown camoflauge on the outside. These swooped through the atrium, buzzing past the kids heads, and scared and excited them at the same time. Eventually, they got pretty brave and started landing on us too. Grace was grateful that one didn't land on her, but Hattie and I were excited to have a landing. You had to be careful though, because if you were caught with your hand or arm out encouraging a landing, you were thrown out of the atrium. It was hard to keep yourself from doing it.

Not only were the butterflies beautiful, but so were the plants and flowers in the atrium. Butterflies feed on very pretty things and I have half a notion to put some butterfly attracting plants in my yard this year. Lots of people and places around here do that and it seems to work pretty well.

Yesterday, (a Saturday) David again worked a long day. He hadn't planned on being there that long, or I would have made other arrangements for Harriet and Grace while I did my riding lessons. However, his work just got extended one more hour and one more hour until the kids ended up spending the whole day with me at the barn. We got a foot of snow the night before, so Grace spent most of the time digging through the snow in the arena and making snow castles with her beach gear. She did get to ride Tinky too in the snow and that made the afternoon much more fun. Hattie, bless her soul, hung from her carrier on the front of me for about 4 hours. I got this very cool new carrier a couple of months ago. I absolutely love it! It saved me yesterday for sure. I gave her a couple of short breaks, but she was basically there the whole time. She took a couple of naps that way and I fed her little snacks as we went. She was amazingly good - they both were. I was very grateful for that.

Here is a photo of the barn in the snow. Rita, my friend and boss, is riding her horse Tucker in the picture...We all (David included) arrived home after 5pm exhausted, cold, and a bit disgruntled for various reasons, so we quickly freshened up and went out to dinner. Grace chose "The Quarterdeck" restaraunt - a local favorite seafood place of ours. The kids love going out to eat and making friends with others at the restaraunt. Both of our kids are crowd charmers of sorts and like to be friendly to people. For dinner, Grace ordered her favorites: a cup of clam chowder, and a piece of "pink fish" - salmon. They don't even have salmon on the kids menu, but since neither of us was ordering salmon, we asked the server if they could bring Grace a small piece that didn't cost $18. They obliged and she was thrilled. (What 4 year old would pick a seafood restaurant for dinner and order clam choweder and salmon?) She ate a little too much clam chowder and didn't have room to finish her salmon, but we did bring it home. She is way too funny!

Hang on tight, here we go!

Hattie finally has her own set of transportation... her knees! She has been trying to figure out how to crawl for at least a couple of months and has been scooting around on her bum or whatever to go from corner to corner. Last Saturday, March 3rd, she woke up (in my bed) and I put her down on the ground so she wouldn't fall off my bed while I got some clothes. She saw something on the floor and got up on her hands and knees and just crawled right to it. It was like she had always been doing it that way. It was very weird, but I knew she was close to figuring things out. I just didn't think she'd do it straight away without trying something else first thing in the morning.

Now, she's up and away and crawling all over the house. We're back to dirty hands and knees and soon to have worn out pants. We just hope she might start walking before summer so that she doesn't have to crawl on bare knees like Grace did.

Now, she doesn't want to be held much - she just wants to get down and go explore. Her new fast and favorite thing to do is to crawl to the entertainment center and pull out all of the DVD's. She is also figuring out the DVD player buttons and drives Gracie insane when she pushes the buttons and stops the movie or restarts it. She also now crawls over to Grace's train table and pulls herself up to it and ruins all of Grace's train creations and takes her favorite engines. It's still pretty cool to see Harriet start acting like a kid and wanting to do the same things as Grace. She's well on her way to giving her sister a run for her money.
Way to go Hattie!

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Gracie turned 4 years old on Monday. (she doesn't like to have her picture posed and taken, so she's not smiling here...) We were so lucky to have my sisters Melissa and Emily and her cousing Sean still here to celebrate with us. We had a spectacular day together. Grace wanted to ride for her birthday activity, so we took her to the barn for a great time with Tinkerbell. She had to try out her new paddock boots she got for her birthday and her new grooming tools she got when we were in Salt Lake in January. A picture tells a thousand words - here she is on Tink as we brought her in from the pasture. Grace was in heaven. Here's the real smile you just can't pose.

Then, we took her to lunch at Not Your Average Joe's where they treated her to a pretty cool birthday cake for her special day at the request of Aunt Em. When Daddy came home at night, we had some of Grace's favorite things to eat - fettuccini alfredo with asparagus and snickerdoodles for dessert - and then opened the rest of her presents. She was so excited to open more things and got some pretty cool stuff. Everyone was (as always) extremely generous in their gift giving to Grace. Even I can't keep myself from getting her lots of things. She is so easy to buy for and I always find way too many things that I know she would love. Grace and I tried to send thank you e-mails to everyone. We hope we didn't miss any. Hattie gave Grace a puzzle that is a picture of "The 119" train that we saw at the Golden Spike last summer. Grace actually spotted this puzzle in an antique store window from across the street and yelled "mommy, it's the 119!!" I couldn't believe she would know that from so far away, but sure enough, she was right.

Mommy's note: I can't believe my tiny little girl is already 4 years old. In the past year, she has learned to count to 100 and beyond, add and multiply simple numbers, has learned so many new words that she sounds even more articulate than I do half the time, and has begun to read. She really can read and she reads or recognizes words wherever we go. I am always amazed when she points out something and tells me what it says. She is very smart. She can use a computer to check her e-mail, play games, and "surf" the net on her favorite websites, perform any technological function on any piece of equipment you show her, ride her trike WELL, hit a baseball VERY hard with a bat, throw any sort of ball overhand better than her mom (not saying a whole lot there), ride Tink without anyone leading her, and make phone calls by herself (mostly to her Aunt Em.) She also started going to Primary instead of the nursery at church this year. She is in a class of 9 Sunbeams! It is a great little class with 2 very good teachers and she is having a fine time in there. She goes back and forth on being willing to do things like talk on the phone with family, say prayers in front of us, and being nice to her sister. However, I have noticed that she is much more apologetic lately and sincerely says that she is sorry when she has done something wrong or when she has hurt someone. She ALWAYS points out the good things in life. I think about the U2 song, Grace, a lot. It has lyrics that go "Grace finds beauty in everything" and "Grace finds goodness in everything" and "Grace makes beauty out of ugly things." She really does do all of those things on a daily basis. Things to which I wouldn't give a second thought, she says "mommy, isn't that beautiful?" I remember when she was blessed as a baby, part of her blessing talked about how she would love life and live it to the fullest and find beauty in the things of nature and her surroundings. What a cool kid, and I'm so lucky to be her mom. (note to self to read this tomorrow when she's screaming "NO" at me for something!)

Gracie's 4th Birthday Party!

Grace's official birthday is not until tomorrow, but we had her party yesterday. I can't believe my little sweetie is turning 4 years old! It was the first party we've had for her where we invited little party guests of her own age. She always likes to have a theme. This year she chose to have a "horsey party." I made a barn cake with a horse on top, bought horsey plates, wrapped her gift in a horsey bag, etc, etc. We ate horsey afternoon snacks (carrots and apples.) We played horsey games - pin the tail on the pony, horse shoes, and musical chairs (ridden on stick-horse-back.) Her gift from Mommy and Daddy was her first pair of paddock boots that she can wear to ride Tinkerbell and use for horse camp this summer when she goes with her cousin Janie. She also gave out little stuffed horses and horse pens as party favors to her 3 party guests. She invited the two girls in our town, Rindy and Jacki, that she knows and plays with and then her cousin Sean of course. They had quite a good time for the most part. One of the little girls is just about as horse-crazy as Grace so I think she really liked our theme. There was a girl scuffle over sharing and playing with one of the presents. But, what's a birthday party if someone doesn't cry? It was a little dramatic, but Grace recovered from it much more quickly than I did. I'm over it now too though.
Grace's Aunt Lis promised her last year that she would come for her birthday and Grace does not forget promises that are made to her. So, Aunt Lis made good on her promise and brought Sean and Aunt Em along to spend the week-end with Grace. That was a great birthday present - to have so many fun people staying in our house. We are so thankful that they came and are still here to have a couple more days of fun.

We'll blog about Gracie's birthday again I'm sure...we have more activities planned for tomorrow!

Long time no see...

I haven't seen my cousin Abbey since I moved to the East coast. She lives in the mid-west and we haven't crossed paths in Salt Lake in 2 years. She called us up last month to report that she would be in our area on business and wondered if she could spend some time with us. Of Course!!! We are always so happy to have family and company come to stay with us. The more the merrier. Fortunately, she was able to come the same week-end as my sisters and nephew, so we spent one day and night together doing some serious hanging out and catching up. She is SO much fun and so cute. Grace had a ball with her and they played and played and played. We only wish she could have stayed the whole week-end. I had forgotten how much fun I use to have with my Mitchell cousins. We were really close, but adulthood, marriage, and kids have made it more difficult and seemingly less necessary to get together. After seeing Abbey this weekend, it made me realize that I really do miss seeing all of them and I will have to do a better job of keeping in touch with them. I also look at my kids and at their cousins, especially those of similar age, and hope that they will have close relationships and want to spend time together too. It is more difficult when you don't live in the same state as any of your family, but there are so many modern ways to communicate and travel that it shouldn't be impossible. My siblings are so important to me and I would hope that our kids would be important to each other too.

Thanks for coming Abbey. We immensely enjoyed having you at our house and welcome you back anytime. That invitation goes for any of our family and friends!!!