Are you poor or rich?

I have gotten myself involved in YouthLinc again. Someday, I will have to do some posting about my previous experiences in the organization which resulted in accompanying some of my high school students to Kenya in 2001. This was before the blog and I've never posted about it.

Now, I have formed a satellite program of YouthLinc in Massachusetts. I have 3 students from nearby towns. My students are volunteering in the local community to earn a partial sponsorship to do another international service expedition. They are also busy fundraising the rest of the cost of their own trips. They have chosen to go to the YouthLinc site in Peru! I'm not going with them this time, but I'm mentoring them through the experience. It is such a long story and I don't have time to tell it, but I came across a piece of paper this afternoon that reminded me why I'm investing my time in this program again. This is what it says:
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Who are the poor of the world?

* the poor are the 3 billion people on this planet who will go to bed hungry tonight
* 2 billion of them are chronically malnourished
* over 1 billion of them are starving
* 40 million will die this year
* nearly 30,000 children will die today
* those who survive will grow into adults handicapped physically and/or mentally
* over 3 billion people live in mud huts and sleep on dirt floors
* 1.5 billion people cannot read and write
* 1.3 billion people live on less than $300 per year
Of these:
* 80% do food preparation and cooking on the ground
* 86% report no tooth brushing or washing
* 65% report they don't wear shoes
* 70% have neither hot water nor soap to wash dishes
* 97% report not having access to latrine facilities

Who are the poor of America?

The US Census Bureau in 1997 declared any family of 4 making less than $16,000 per year to be below the poverty level. That $16,000 would not include income from "safety net" services such as public housing subsidies and government health care subsidies.
Of these "poor":

*41% owned their own homes, the average includes 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths and a garage. The most severe housing problems reported by poor Americans were repeated breakdown of heating and having to share a bathroom with an unrelated person or family (2%)
* only 7.5% of the housing facilities would be considered "overcrowded" --having 1.5 persons per room. Nearly 60% had 2 or more rooms per person.
* the average "poor" American has 1.3 more living space than the average income Japanese and 4 times as much living space as the average income Russian.
* 70% of "poor" households own a car. 27% own 2 or more cars
* 97% of "poor" households have a TV. Nearly 50% own 2 or more TV's
* 75% of "poor" households have a VCR
* 66% have air conditioning
* As a group, American poor are not malnourished. In fact, poor Americans are more likely to be overweight than are middle-class persons. 84% report their families have "enough" to eat. 13% state they"sometimes" do not have enough to eat and 3% say they "often" do not have enough to eat.

Who are the rich?

* If you have a floor in your house, you belong to the upper half of the world's most prosperous people
* If you can read this and you have more than 1 pair of shoes, a change of underwear, and can choose from 2 or more foods for your next meal, you belong in the top 10% of the world's richest people
* If you have all of the following: a car, a computer, a microwave, a refrigerator, and a VCR, you are among the wealthiest people the world has ever known throughout its entire history.
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Are you rich? I am sure I am, in more ways than these too. If you are interested in donating to this cause, please let me know with a comment and I can tell you what you need to do. I am actively seeking sponsors for my students.

the small things make all the difference

These are some small, but significant things I am grateful for this morning:

* Harriet did not wake up when David and the dogs tromped down the stairs like she usually does.
* because of the above, 30 extra minutes of sleep
* carnation instant breakfast and the money to buy it (that stuff is SO expensive and it's the ONLY thing my kids will eat/drink for breakfast)
* a daughter who loves PE - the exact opposite of me
* a school bus that comes within 20 feet of my mud-room door to pick up Grace so that we can wait for it inside the house
* no rain this morning after 3 straight days of it
* fresh exciting e-mail from a good friend on the computer when I woke up (instead of things to do from work or church)
* my clean dining room and kitchen (how long will it last? this is day 3!)
* our old, beautiful, silly dogs - Velvet and Shadow always wake up with energy to play even though they are 10 and 8 years old. They are ETERNALLY patient with our kids and completely loyal and sweet. (this one isn't so small, but extremely significant)

(poor Velvet...yes, she has a balloon tied to her collar...ask Grace)

My Big Girl

Hattie is a big girl now. She has moved into Grace's room which is now the big girl room. She has a new bed and we re-did the whole room to make it into "theirs." We just need to find a quilt for Hattie's bed to finish it.

I think Grace likes having Hattie in the room, but sometimes she is a little miffed to have to share her perfect room she loves so much. She didn't like that we had to rearrange the furniture.

Hattie is really excited, but still loves the nursery room too. She still takes her naps in there on the tiny bed. It actually works out well because the nursery is much quieter and Grace can still use her room and get her things during Hattie's naptime.

Yay for big girls!

Manly Adventure 2008 (aka Man Trip)

A couple of weeks ago I embarked on another annual trip with some of the guys in my ward. This has become an annual tradition that has been going on for the last six years and I have participated the last two. Last year we went to Maine and did some white water rafting and hiked Mount Katahdin (see my post).

This year I was privileged enough to go again, but I also had to plan the trip. Early in the year we threw out some ideas and people wanted to do some canoeing and hiking. I spent several weeks investigating possible trips. In the end I choose Lake Placid, New York. This was mostly due to a co-worker who has told me for three years I need to go to Lake Placid, and because none of us had ever done anything in the Adirondacks.

So with some planning and preparation, we decided that we would drive 250 miles with 3 canoes, canoe across Lake Placid, spend the night at a lean-to on the trail, hike Whiteface Mountain, and then spend a day touring the Olympic Village. The trip really came together nicely.

We left early Thursday and made the drive to Lake Placid. This included a ferry ride across Lake Champlain near Fort Ticonderoga that was rather interesting. We were lucky enough to all fit in one car (although we must have been a site with a canoe on the roof and towing 2 canoes behind us). We had a lot of fun chatting about the trip, backpacking gear, and next years adventure. We got to Lake Placid around lunch time and I have to say that I was quite impressed with the town and the lake. It reminded me a lot of Park City, UT. It had a small town feel but with that touch of yuppie. Not so much as to be offensive, but just enough to have some nice shops and eateries.

The canoe across the lake was a lot of fun. It was just over 3 miles across the lake to the trail head up Whiteface and we had originally planned to hike in about a mile and spend the night at a shelter on the trail. However, the map I had showed two Adirondacks on a island on the north part of Lake Placid that we decided to check out. In the end, lake front property won out (even though we did hike in and check out the trail shelter) and we spent the night on Lake Placid. This was definitely the right decision. Lake Placid is beautiful and we were able to enjoy some boating, swimming, and our dinners by the lake.

Canoeing across Lake Placid

Lake Front Property!

The next day we got an early start and canoed the 3/4 of mile to the landing and locked up our boats and headed up the trail. Whiteface is the fifth highest peak in New York and is referred to as the sacrificial lamb of the Adirondacks. It is similar to Mount Washington in that it has a road going to the summit with a weather observatory, restaurant, and loads of tourists in high heels. The hike up the Whiteface landing trail was fun. The first mile is pretty flat, but then it quickly becomes quite steep. You are in the trees until near the top, but for the last half mile you have nice view looking out over Lake Placid. It is also interesting to come to the summit and round the bend and come upon people who have driven up. They looked shocked that someone would actually hike when you can drive.

I promise that we didn't take the elevator the first time we summitted.

The views were very nice and although the hike wasn't as memorable as Katahdin, it was still very enjoyable. We ate lunch at the summit and then decided to attempt another of the 46ers, Esther Mountain, but in the end had to turn around less than a mile from the summit due to injury. One of the guys I was with had slipped and banged his leg against a rock leaving a 3"x4" hematoma on his leg. We had to hike back to Whiteface and luckily we arranged for the staff there to drive him down the mountain and leave him at the restaurant we were going to eat at that night. Jeff's time at the Wilderness Inn is another story in and of itself. Sufficeth to say, he charmed the crowd and had them all thinking we were horrible friends who had abandoned him by the time we showed up.

The intrepid group at the summit.

Looking back at Lake Placid (a little hazy that day).

Knowing the Jeff was going to be down well before us, we hussled down in about 90 minutes to our canoes. Unfortunately we had 3 miles of canoeing to do into 35 mph headwinds. I don't know how many of you have canoed in that kind of wind, but it is not easy. We had 2' high waves and I think that we went back 1 stroke for every 2 forward. It took us twice the amount of time to canoe back as it had the day before. By the time we got back to the marina we were all exhausted. It was nice to enjoy a nice dinner and a state campground with hot showers that night.

Saturday was our fun day. We had scheduled to go down the bobsled track in Lake Placid and we also were doing a ropes course in the trees in Bolton Landing, New York. The bobsled was great fun and it was interesting to see how the technology changed between the 1932 and 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid to the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. The g-forces going around the curves were intense and we all want to go back and do it on the ice in the winter.

2012 Olympic bobsled team?

The final piece of the trip turned out to be the most memorable. Adirondack Extreme opened up a couple of years ago and have done a very nice job incorporating zip lines and obstacles course through the trees. They have four courses that progressively get harder and higher up. This was a blast and the only regret is that it is 4.5 hrs away. We had a great time alternatively encouraging and sabotaging each other's attempts across the obstacles. In the end, only 2 of the 5 of us made it through all 4 course (I had to be "rescued" half way through the final course), but we all had fun. It culminated with a long zip line where we raced against each other. I should have come in first, but was aced out by 1/100 of second due to my lower mass.

How do I get up there?

Anyway, it was great fun and it is too bad that I have to wait a whole year for another adventure. Here's to man trips!

Fantasy Sports

For the last several years I have been participating with the same guys in Fantasy Sports. It is pretty laid back. We don't bet or have a pool of money for the winners. We just play for the fun and bragging rights. When I first got talked into it by my friend Jared I was pretty dubious. I'm certainly no sports nuts and it shows in my overall performance. The main reason that I participate is to keep an association with the guys I play with. It is a small thing and yet it really does a good job in keeping me involved with people that I associated with in SLC. I feel bad that a couple of other friends of mine (read Bryan and Jeff) don't partake of the fantasy fun.

Over the course the year we have a football, basketball, and baseball. This keeps me checking box scores through the course of a year. When I first started playing, I would rationalize my drafting of players on teams I despise. I would find myself routing for my real team, but hoping that the opposing player would have a great game. This lasted for several years until this year I finally said enough. It was time to cheer for my team and to not care about fantasy players. It seems to have worked in baseball. My best finish was a couple of years ago when I came in sixth during the regular season, but I rode a hot streak and finished third in the playoffs. This year I finished first and sailed through the regular season. Currently we have 1 week left and I am up 13-6 in the championship game. The best part is that I was 3-0 against Jared.

I thought my new strategy was going to work in football as I was in first with a 2-0 record. Or at least I thought I was. I woke up this morning for the start of week 3 and found out that they corrected some scores and I lost by a measly 0.1 point. Not such a big deal until Pittsburgh did nothing on offense today and it looks like I am going from 2-0 to 1-2. Another long season awaits. But in the end, it doesn't matter. The fact that it helps me stay in touch with friends is what really matters.

Of course winning doesn't hurt!

reading

I have a new addiction. Reading. I don't know if it's the constant fighting between Grace and Hattie or what, but apparently, it appeals to me to escape into another life during the day by reading a book. I used to watch TV for such needs, but the two little stinkers I'm raising won't allow a channel to be on that doesn't project animated programming.

I have always loved reading, but didn't really have time to do it recreationally as a student or during my career as a teacher. Not that I really have time now, but I can adjust my schedule a bit to include it. (or ignore a chore, or a child, or an errand.) I have belonged to a couple of book clubs, but rarely would I attend having finished the book being discussed. Not so anymore (unless the book is a non-fiction book longer than 200 pages - like I said - ESCAPE is the motivator, not LEARNING!)

Well, I don't know why I feel the need to share, but I just finished Stephenie Meyer's latest vampire novel, Breaking Dawn. If you're not a fan, its the 4th and I think final in a series that has been compared with the Harry Potters. On the surface, her books are pretty standard melodramatic teen romance novels. I felt silly starting the series, my friends in book club all roll their eyes at me, but my MOM got me into it! (I felt the same way when David and I started reading the way-too-popular-for-our-tastes Harry Potter.) But, I was hooked from the first page of "Twilight" - the first of the vampire stories. I think the first appeal for me was how Meyer described a girl who had to move from sunny, arid Arizona to dark, rainy, claustrophobic Washington State. It was all too real to my experience moving from Utah to Massachusetts. I had to keep reading.

Then, there's the romance. It was annoyingly dripping with way too much lovey-dovey stuff at first for me, I could only relate having recently been a high school teacher. But once I really got into it I started thinking of her writing in a different way. You have to look past all the grammar errors, spelling mistakes (who is her EDITOR!), and 600 page-long run-on sentences, but in the end, those things probably make me like her writing more than if she wrote like an English Professor.

I'm just blown away by 1- her imagination, 2- her ability to write these things while staying at home with 3 little kids, 3- the really great underlying messages in her stories, 4- the endless ability to write something that demands to be read until the story is over. Part of it is the 600 page run-on sentence problem - you can't put it down until you finish a sentence!
These are things I've learned (or been reminded of) from reading about "vegetarian" vampires in love:

1- the gift to choose your actions is the greatest gift you will recieve
2- you are responsible for all choices you make
3- you do not HAVE to do anything just because your biology or your history or someone else tells you to do it. you can choose otherwise.
4- love beats all
5- family is way important
6- love and family are eternal
7- there are many lives to live
8- everyone has a gift, some are more useful than others, but every gift should be used for good and they are often more powerful when used that way
9- the power of self-control will save you and those you love from otherwise dire outcomes
10- no matter how different another creature may be from you, you have more in common with it than you don't

I have also just finished reading "The Enchantress of Florence" by Salman Rushdie. (a book for my book club) He is supposed to be one of the world's "most important living authors." After finishing this novel fraught with seriously seriously disturbing scenes, nearly rated X descriptions, sad and depressing views of love, war, and religion, convoluted story lines, and really not much of a point in the end, I really wonder which of the two is the more important living author. The esteemed Salman Rushdie, or the stay-at-home mom vampire novelist, Stephenie Meyer.

Ok - all you PhD English major people can shred me in the comments section. But, have you read the vampire books yet? Let's just say that there is NO WAY I would read 750 pages of anything else in less than 4 days.

I know, I know - I should be reading the scriptures! don't judge...

conversation with Hattie

mommy: what's your name?
hattie: two (spoken tuuoo)
mommy: how old are you?
hattie: two
mommy: what are your doggie's names?
hattie: two
mommy: are they shadow and velvet?
hattie: sure, shadow and velvet
mommy: how many doggies do you have?
hattie: two
(hattie picks up her Elmo phone and says hello)
mommy: who are you talking to?
hattie: Santa
mommy: what do you want Santa to bring you?
hattie: presents (spoken pesents)
mommy: what kind of presents do you want?
hattie: purple ones and a blue one (spoken pople ones an a bue one)

the school bus

I've said this many times, but Grace has wanted to get on the school bus that comes to our neighbor's house every single morning since we moved in. This morning, that bus came for Grace. I'm still in shock.Grace was nervous and worried and kept saying she was scared and held onto me while we were waiting. But, when it pulled up in front of our house, she hopped on and didn't even look back or wave to me from the window.
Hattie moaned "I want go school bus a Gace." I cried. She's gone to school.

a last day of summer

Wednesday, Grace didn't have school because of the kindergarten orientation schedule. We took advantage of our new found health, beautiful weather and day off to get out.

I took the girls to Drumlin Farm. It's usually the same old, same old, but it is always a fun place to go and at least a change of scenery. We got lucky this time though. The baby piglets were just born last week, so we got to see them before they got too big. They get really big and not so cute, really fast. We went on our standard hay ride and made the rounds of the farm. It was totally great. Then, we had a lunch out at McDonald's. I hate McDonald's, but the kids love it and they had lots of fun. We also ran a bunch of errands for daddy. He left this morning on a manly adventure to row across Lake Placid, do an overnight backpack trip, and bobsled at the Olympic park. Hopefully, he will blog about that.

Then, to finish up our outing, we went to the town library to claim our summer reading prizes. The kids did great and listened to over 50 books this summer, including several big chapter books. We're reading The Trumpet of the Swan right now. It has been very exciting because we have 2 swan who come to visit in the spring and fall and they are back. They were out on the river right in front of our house a couple nights ago.Bye Bye summer...

First Day of Kindergarten

It has come. My first child's first day of school. I have completely ignored that it was coming all summer. I didn't do much to prepare. I did buy the required school supplies, and I did order the cutest collection of school clothes that Grace would let me buy (all blue and tan - many horsey shirts - and some blue suede mary jane shoes with horses on them), but other than that, I have put it out of my mind. It felt natural, something that I knew was coming for a long time, and it's just school, right?

Well, Sunday night in bed, I had a panic attack. It sunk in. I'm sending my gorgeous little girl off to a place where I won't see her, to be in the care of a government institution, letting her travel on a bus with a driver I don't know, (I have yet to let her ride in a car with any non-family member) and it's really the beginning of something that is going to continue until she moves out of my house and isn't mine anymore. I really freaked out that I had let it build up without thinking it through. I didn't do much to prepare her either. Well, of course, we talk about it all the time and she's totally excited and we went to orientation in the spring. I guess that's all you really can do. It seems like I should have done more though - to prepare for such a huge day?

Well, even up until bed-time last night, I didn't do anything! We were out on errands and had a late dinner and went to get ice cream at Erikson's. We came home and had a speed bath and started to bed. I realized I hadn't asked Grace to do her name tag that came in the mail (weeks ago) that she was supposed to decorate for the first day. I didn't have her snack and backpack ready, and we really didn't know what she was even going to wear. How unprepared am I??? I was really in denial. I know I put it off on purpose subconsciously.Well, all went well this morning. Luckily, school started an hour late this morning and no bus, so Grace got to sleep late one more time. We packed her backpack, she did do her name tag before bed, we didn't fight too much over what she would wear after I promised she could wear anything she wants to school every Friday. I didn't do her hair. I still want to be able to control her clothes a bit, but I've completely given up the hair. She even ate her breakfast this morning which is something she either does not do, or doesn't do until about 11am.

Then, David told her that he wanted to give her a blessing. This is something totally foreign to me. My dad couldn't do those kinds of blessings, so growing up, we never had them. My friends always talked about their "back-to-school blessings." I'm glad my kids can have them. I think David kind of procrastinated his freaking out too. He got pretty choked up giving her the blessing. Plus, school is a really big deal for him. (not that it isn't for me... but...) He has lived most of his life so far in school and is extremely devoted to education and higher learning. I think he was pretty proud to be sending his little girl off to her first day.

So, the actual first day of kindergarten here was a little weird. Parents were required to come and stay for the whole time. David has been so great to earnestly try to be part of our kids' lives. He always takes time off work to go to things at school or whatever they are doing. This morning, he stayed home with us and took Grace to school with me. Hattie came too (we weren't supposed to bring her, but really didn't have another option of leaving her somewhere.) We pulled up and walked up to the front of the school to wait for the teachers to come out. Mrs. Keough came out with a big butterfly for the kids to follow. They followed her into the classroom, hung up their backpacks, and sat on the floor for the morning meeting. Grace's nerves and natural desire to be the center of attention got the best of her. She raised her hand often even if she had nothing to say. She blurted out answers, interjected comments, and looked like she was so excited to make sure everyone knew she was there that she might explode. We just sat in the back with snide, knowing smiles and a few chuckles.

Mrs. Keough read a story about first day jitters that ended up being about a TEACHER who was sick to her stomach about the first day of school. It was a book after my own heart. I got nauseous every time the school calendar rolled around both as a teacher and a student. It has continued as a parent.

Then, we were excused for a parent's meeting and the kids had the rest of their first day. When we picked up Grace at 11:30, she looked a little unsure and weepy. She wasn't terribly happy on her way home and all through lunch. I stared to think that she didn't have such a good time. Finally, it came out, that she was terribly sad that she didn't get to stay for the whole day. WHEW!

Thursday will be our first REAL BIG DAY of school. She actually doesn't have school tomorrow because the other half of kindergarten is doing their "first day thing." On Thursday, the bus will pick her up in front of our house at 8am. (I think I will be sick then too.) She has wanted to ride the school bus since she could say so, and probably before. So, I hope that it is just the absolute best day for her.

catching up on horse camp

Now that we are mostly better from this horrible sickness, I can catch up on the blog post I really wanted to make last week.
The week BEFORE getting croup, the girls and I spent a week at our barn, Hybid Farm. Grace enrolled at camp and Harriet "helped" me teach lessons and manage things around the barn. I know I spent more time managing Harriet than I did horses and kids, but that's how it goes.
Spending a week at horse camp is something Grace looks forward to every single year. She is actually finally old enough to enroll as a real camper this year, but she's been going since she was 2 years old! Our barn is such an idyllic place for kids to ride and be with horses. We do not have one mean-spirited or unsafe horse. It is really incredible. (well, we do get rid of them if one crosses the line, so that helps.) And, they aren't "broken down" like so many horses you find at places where safety is essential. They are still spirited and have personalities and live extremely happy lives. In fact, we call our barn, the horse "spa" because they are treated so very well. The ponies are seriously the most adorable ponies and the kindest creatures. Our favorite is and will always be Tinkerbell, but Grace has branched out and tried riding some others. This summer she fell in love with Mac and even got to like Lilly (who she still thinks is a bossy pony.)
The days did get a bit long for all of us. We had to be at the barn at 8:30am every single morning all ready to go with complete riding gear and 3 lunches. By the time we got home and got Hattie down for a nap and I got a shower it was 4pm and we had to start making dinner. It got pretty tiring. The crazy thing is that when Grace was exactly Hattie's age, I did it for the entire summer and she went to the Ponies Rule! class for the whole summer as a 2 year old and I taught lessons all day long. I was so organized - I would make dinner at 7 in the morning so it would be ready to throw in the oven or on the grill when we got home. There is NO WAY I could do that with Hattie. I was lucky to teach one lesson a day and she was in constant need of attention.
Hattie did like going to ponies rule a little though. By the end of the week she would say "I want go ponieses rules pease." Grace has SUCH a good time. On Friday, the last day, I could NOT get her in the car to leave. We tried to leave at least 8 times. After finally getting in the car 2 hours later, she SOBBED all the way home. Sometimes, I'm not quite sure if she is really passionate about horses like I am. Maybe she just thinks that it is fun. I don't really care either way, but it would be great for me if she was totally into it. On days like that last Friday, I get a glimmer that she really really likes it and it isn't just a fun thing to do. Yay for horsies, ponies, ney's, whatever... we love them all!

diary of the croup

We have spent our last glorious days of perfect summer weather inside playing video games and watching tv. No, we're not crazy, we're SICK!

I would have thought we have had the croup before. Sounds like something that goes around all the time. But, I'm QUITE sure that we've never had this! I'm quite sure we never want it back. We'll wish it on our worst enemies though. Well, then again, maybe not.

LAST Saturday: Grace and Mommy came down with bad coughs.

Sunday 3am: Grace woke up barely breathing, horrible sounds as she breathed, coughing sounded like a half-dead seal. Daddy brought her downstairs to try to steam her in the shower.
Sunday 5am: Mommy picked up Grace and drove her to the emergency room. Grace was given a steroid to open up her airways and let her breathe again. ER docs advised to not go ANYWHERE this week because this is so contagious - even to stay out of our doctor's office if possible.

Monday: a blur can't remember. stayed home all day listening to Grace cough, oh yeah, and mommy's sinuses hurt so bad she thought her eye was going to pop out.

Tuesday 11am: took Grace to the doctor despite ER advice. Grace treated for secondary sinus infection.

Tuesday 2pm: mommy went to the doctor despite ER advice. mommy treated for secondary sinus infection.

Tuesday night: took 2 hours to get Hattie to bed. mommy freaking out - tired and sick. 30 minutes later, Hattie starts coughing. WHY?!

Wednesday: all stayed home and coughed and coughed and coughed. Hattie coughed so hard she threw up all over the bathroom.

Wednesday night: still no sleeping for anyone.

Thursday 5pm : Hattie gets way worse. too many disgusting symptoms to count. took Hattie to urgent care. Hattie treated for junk in her lungs and other various assortments of things. mommy gave up relief society activity she's been planning all summer.

Friday: stayed home all day. played more video games. Grace and mommy perfecting their horse-opoly game. Hattie mean mean mean, sad sad sad, scream scream scream. Sold our tickets for Day out with Thomas tomorrow. Daddy turned down a Red-Sox game and gave up his tickets for tonight too.
Mommy's sweet visiting teacher brought us chicken noodle soup and chocolate chip cookies for dinner. THANK YOU!

Friday night: Daddy went to bed with a sore throat and stuffy nose. This is not a good sign. He is supposed to go on his yearly "manly" adventure next week and we are hoping he will be well.

Friday 1am: Hattie up, coughing until she can't breathe. Mommy brings her down for a steam bath. It works, thankfully, no trip to the ER. This part of it is so scary.

I think the worst part of this bug is that it rears it's ugliest head in the middle of the night. We have not slept for an entire week, literally.
We will probably stay home for 3 more days in high hopes of having perfect health on Tuesday. Tuesday is THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!!!

This week would have been so perfect to go on all the little outings we've been thinking about. We had absolutely nothing planned except for Thomas on Saturday. I guess it is a blessing, though, that we did not have anything important to do because we sure as heck didn't do it!

What are you doing for Labor Day?

We've been married 11 years

Yep, that's right folks, more than a decade. I've been married more than a third of my life. I've been married longer than I went to any school, had any job, and lived in any house. Weird. But, I guess not so weird when I can't remember much what it was like to not have David.

Yesterday was actually our 11th anniversary. Let's see, we woke up in the morning separated by both of our kids in bed having only slept a couple of hours. This is how life changes. We scarcely remember the days when we might stay in bed as long as we wanted without having to get up to help someone go potty, get someone else "apple juice please" or even to let dogs out. We've had dogs almost since the second year of being married. Velvet, our senior dog, still asks us "why did we get a dog," and "don't you think we have enough kids?" I know she misses our undivided attention.

Even though we can hardly remember the times of just being together, alone, we wouldn't trade our life for anything. We did have 6 years together before having kids and I am grateful for that. We sorted out a lot of differences in those years and I think we went into parenthood much more united and ready for being unselfish.

If you watch the TV sitcom " 'til Death" like we do, you know that in every relationship there is a gardener and a flower. Actually we love that episode because we can't ever figure out which of us is the gardener and which is the flower. We both work pretty hard and we're both pretty independent. We finally decided that we are indigenous species who don't need gardeners. We bloom on our own and put our work to other uses. Much more productive that way and for 2 type A, scientific personalities like we are, then, this is the best policy. This isn't to say that we don't look after each other, but it isn't one sided and if we have to, we can make do on our own.

I think we both really appreciate that about each other - that the other is ok and we don't have the added stress or pressure of catering to the other person. We do it when we want to and because we want to, not because we have to. For me, I am so appreciative of the things David does to help me. It's the little things that score big points. Like, he will get up, get ready for work, and do the dishes and clean the kitchen before he leaves. I'm still in bed - sleeping at least an hour later than he does because I've stayed up late working or been up all night with kids. But, he knows that my day will be so much better if I come down the stairs and don't see the dirty kitchen staring at me to start the day, so he does it just to be nice. He will stay home all day on Saturday or at night during the week to watch the kids so that I can do what I want and need to do. All the while, he is turning down other fun things, or not doing what he really needs to do.

I love that we are so real with each other. A couple of weeks ago, he asked me "so what kind of gifts are we doing for our anniversary, so that we're on the same page?" I said, well, I was kind of thinking.... nothing? He laughed and said "great! that's the best!" Actually, though, I came up with one small gift, more of a joke than anything, that I had to give him. I gave him a new toaster. We did not get a toaster in our giant pile of wedding gifts 11 years ago. When my grandma found out, she dug what was then a 20 year old toaster out of her basement and gave it to us. We were sure we'd get our own soon, but it would do in the mean-time. Well, 11 years later, and we still have grandma's 30 year old toaster on our counter. It still "works" which is to say it gets hot, but it has seen it's day. So, I gave him a brand new slick looking toaster. He was totally excited! Really, it doesn't take much to make us happy.

David wrote me a letter. A really really nice letter. I would put it here, but I think it's just for me. Just know that this guy can really do some sweet talking and make you feel like you are his whole world. I guess I am. Lucky me. Lucky us.
Happy Anniversary Babe.

2008-A mid-year review

While I am late for a mid-year review that is pretty much the story of my 2008. It has been packed with adventures, work, and miscellaneous other items that have kept me really busy. I have been meaning to blog about several things and this will be my transition to blog about these items over the next week (even after 8 months!).

This year has been a little crazy. I can't believe that summer is almost over, Grace is about to start kindergarten, and I now have to go back to the grind after lots of vacation this summer. So to get me back into the habit of blogging, I am going to write a brief, one paragraph summary of everything I need to blog about.

After not taking much vacation last year, it seems that I have more than made up for it in 2008. It started in January with a week to Smuggler's Notch in Vermont for some skiing. This was the first time I had skied in a decade and it was great fun to get back on the slopes. I even made it to Alta, Utah for a day of skiing in February. Grace went to ski school and despite missing a couple of days because of the flu, was pretty decent by the end of the week. Too bad she is still a little on the timid side.

Later in the year I got to visit with the soon to be world famous Dr. Bryan Warnick. Bryan was in town for a conference and we were able to spend a day together exploring sites, eating dinner, and catching up. It is always good to catch up with old friends.

Hattie is now a terrible two. She has gotten to be such a joy. She can be very trying at times, but she really is cute. She has progressed so much this year and I still need to post my birthday letter to her.

A trip to Utah. This included a family reunion (first time in 10 years everyone was together and over three years since most of us were together). A long bike ride with Brian and Wendy to (almost) Manti. A visit with Jared and long lost David B. And another trip to Buffalo Point with Brian and Wendy for some beautiful sunsets.

And finally a trip to Cape Cod with our friends here in Stow. A beach house, a train ride, a pirate adventure, what more can I ask for.2008 is more than half-way done but it already feels like we have done more than a year's worth of activities. Now if only I would blog about all of this.

Sand Castles and Sunshine

Sounds like my kind of vacation. I still miss my spring break beach trips to San Diego with my friends. David still says that he liked our Smuggler's Notch ski trip better, but I was cold and the kids had the flu, so I'm going to say that the beach beats it all (edit by David-I actually didn't say I liked Smuggler's Notch better. I said that I would prefer a ski trip to a beach trip. I completely agree that this trip was the best family vacation we have done. The Dotys were great to hang out with and the house was nice, the beach was fun). Plus it was only 2 hours away and the kids slept most of the way there and back. Utter paradise!
Actually, I think that this was the best trip we've ever taken as a family. Our trips to Salt Lake have elements of vacation in them - time away, fun things to do, etc, but I don't really consider them a "vacation." It is a necessary part of life to stay in touch with family. Plus, David rarely comes with us, so they don't really count as a family vacation anyway.Our friends, the Doty family, rented a beach town-house for 2 weeks in Hyannis. They graciously and generously offered to let us come down for a week to share the house which was more than plenty big enough for all of us with 6 levels of rooms. The very best part of the house was that you stepped out the back door and your feet hit the sand of the beach. My personal heaven. Hyannis was surprisingly bug free too and it only rained the first day we were there. It was 70-80 degrees every day. Not too hot, but just hot enough to enjoy the ocean and the pool.This trip was so great. I almost wished that we wouldn't have had internet access. I'm too addicted to e-mail to avoid checking it and David is too addicted to the computer to avoid taking a laptop with us. But, I spent very minimal time checking e-mail.
We did go on a 2 hour train ride to Sandwich. The kids slept 3/4 of the trip, so we called it the nap train, and then on our last day, we went on a pirate adventure ship in the harbor which was an extremely fun outing, but other than that, we simply played on the beach or at the pool with the kids. We didn't go out to eat except for lunch at a clam shack after the pirate cruise. We cooked 3 (totally divine, might I add - Linda is AMAZING) meals a day and stayed at the beach house. I loved every second of it.
The Dotys have 2 little boys. Benjamin is 3 years old. He and Grace have identical alpha personalities, so they had a lot of clashes over toys. Hattie and their little boy Jack (one year old) were totally delightful most of the time. It helps that they both still take naps!

My favorite memories are:

Watching Grace gather seashells. She never met a shell she didn't like. It didn't matter the size, color, or condition. Every one was something to take home.

Watching Hattie play in the surf and look at the sea creatures. The harbor was full of jelly fish, little tiny fish, crabs, and sea weed and kelp. It made swimming a little tricky and ominous, but wading along the tide was excellent.

Taking long walks down the beach with the girls to see what we could see and find.

Looking out at the harbor at night at all the lights on the sailboats and ships.

Smelling the sea breeze in the morning.

Going out on the beach as many times a day as wanted or needed.

Shopping on main street in Hyannis with Linda. We found lots of treasures.

Watching the Olympics on TV at night with Grace. She is so into all of the events!

Putting the kids to bed in their huge bedroom with blue and white twin beds and fish pillows and reading "Good Night Cape Cod" to them every night.

Driving there and back with the kids asleep in the car and getting to talk to David uninterrupted, while seeing the bridges over the Cape Cod canal.

Grace's imaginary friends

I want to write about this before I forget about it. This summer, Grace has had many imaginary friends come to live at our house. Their names change. Her current imaginary friends are "Wakefield" and "Arrow."

The name "Wakefield" comes from a Weezer song "My Name is Jonas." This is Grace's current favorite song to play on guitar hero and listen to on Daddy's ipod. Grace will be asking Santa for an ipod for Christmas (really??!!, she's ONLY FIVE YEARS OLD!!!) Anyway, she's named one of her imaginary visitors after a line in the song. She says that Wakefield is a horse.

Arrow is also a horse. There is a real horse at our barn named Arrow. He is a grey half-arab horse. He is always very social with Grace. She has never ridden him, but she loves to chat with him in his stall as she comes in or find him in the pasture. One day, she was desperate to pet him and he was way out in the middle of a muddy pasture. I wouldn't walk out to see him. She called to him and he RAN to the gate to let her pet his nose. It was seriously the sweetest thing. I don't know if imaginary Arrow is related to real Arrow, but she seems to like both of them quite a lot.

Sorry, we don't have any photos to post of our imaginary friends. Grace says she has about 10 imaginary friends in all including herself.

ps - David just reminded me - Grace calls her imaginary friends her "air buddies." Playing guitar hero, she has mastered the art of playing air guitar, so anything pretend is "air."

Birds visiting our feeders

This list was fun to build as we fed the birds around our house. Unfortunately, we've run out of new birds to add to the list (either that, or we need to switch what we're feeding to attract some new ones... our neighbors just put up orange slices to attract the Orioles.) Anyway, we'll take the list from the side and put it in the "vault" for our journal. These are the birds who visit us each day:

• red-breasted nuthatch
• rose breasted grosbeak pair
• cardinal
• tufted titmouse
• house finch
• house wren
• black-capped chickadee
• goldfinch pair

Hattie's Words

While I'm waiting to load the pictures from our Cape Cod trip onto the computer, I thought I'd clean up the blog page a bit. Hattie's word list has gotten very long and she is becoming an expert at communicating. I want to save all of her little words in a post so that I can delete the list on the side. I also need to add a few new phrases. These are Hattie's current favorite phrases:

"ana sound???" which means "what's that sound?" She says it at least 10 times an hour. The tiniest creak of the house, the neighbor's tool in the garage, an airplane flying overhead, a dish clanking in the kitchen, really, anything will draw it out from her. She wants to know exactly what is making every sound she hears and it's not good enough to say "I don't know", or "it's just Daddy" or something. You have to be specific in your description. It has gotten tiring, but it is very cute.

"di dis come from???" which means, "where did this come from?" Anything that isn't immediately familiar to her, or something significant that might be out of place in the house draws out this question.

"sim" or "simming" for Swimming. Hattie likes "a sim in a ocean" and " a sim in a pool"

"bye bye ocean" this is what she said as we were heading back to the beach house after putting our toes in the ocean for the final time on our trip.

"nigh nigh tape tod" this is what she said every night as she went to bed on our trip. Brought on by reading the book "Good Night Cape Cod" which was given to us by our friends the day we arrived at their beach house.

"ana go Sean's house, moon bOUnce" cousin Sean in Salt Lake has a moon bounce. Hattie wishes she lived at Sean's house in the moon bounce.

Ok, here's the rest of the list; Hattie's words from early to mid 2008:

• ana heeere (and here)
• another one
• huv (hug and a love)
• more apple juice please
• didn't get to play
• bowei (brownie)
• good girl
• sure
• bus
• Gacie (Gracie)
  
• shower
• flush
• moweeee (more)
• Sharow (shadow)
• Seaaannnnnn
• boyee (boy)
• buh (book)
• tie
• nigh nigh
• mine!
• puppy!
• showwwwww (to watch Shrek)
• ball
• beeebeee (for blanky)
• babeee (for baby doll)
• GOOOOO! (as in let's go!)
• mak (milk)
• yeah yeah yeah
• oweeeee
• fry! (as in French)
• purple
• ana heeere (and here)
• another one
• huv (hug and a love)
• more apple juice please
• didn't get to play

SLC in July - The Mitchells

Ok, I have to wrap up posting about this Utah trip before we go on another one! We're going local this time - to Cape Cod and the islands nearby. I'm sure no one out there is still interested in our travel log, but again, it's for me!

It was interesting to stay at my parents' house with David. It just occurred to me, he has never stayed with me at their house before, ever. Kind of weird in (almost) 11 years of being married. Our deal is that since I get to go back so much more than he does, that we stay with his family when he comes. This time though, the Chapman house was a tad too crowded to add us when the Mitchell basement was free and clear with our own bathroom just a couple miles away, so we all bunked up with Lyle and Debbie. My baby sis, Jessica, just moved to Houston a couple months ago to start a business. This makes life even harder! I used to be able to go to Utah and see all of my family, but now one is gone. She made a huge effort though and flew in for less than 24 hours so that she could see me and come to my mom's birthday party. She did all of our hair too! I counted at least 7 of us who got a cut or color or both. I love how she does my hair. I will go months without getting it done so that she is the only one who touches it.

After the reunion, I took off to Cedar City with my mom and my girls for 2 days to see my grandparents there. Let's just say the ride in the car could be done without! I VOW to never drive cross country with the likes of Hattie in the car. I thought my mom and I were going to need psychiatric and/or medical help by the time we got to FILLMORE. No, actually, I think we pulled off in Santaquin first. 'nough driving for me. Kudos to y'all who drove to the reunion. But, you did not have Hattie with you!
My grandparents in Cedar are beloved by all of us. Staying at their house is so great. We always joke that we go to Grandma Primmer's house so that we can take a nap. But that's exactly what we do! We get in the door, eat her perfect lunch, and sit on her comfy couch and seriously snooze all afternoon while Grandpa does the same in his big chair. It is so nice to relax there. Also, we LOVE to go shopping in Cedar City! I know - New York, Milan, Paris, Cedar City! It's true. There's a store down there that has the best kids' shoe selection I've ever seen. They also have great little main street shoppes where you can find anything and everything you ever and never wanted. What can I say - I live near Boston, near what should be some of the best shopping in the world, but I always save half a suitcase to shop in Utah. It's more fun and easier to shop with my mom and sisters anyway.Other things... well, the Mitchell clan is pretty predictable, but we like it that way. Don't surprise us or make us be spontaneous, we'll have a heart-attack! We hung out at Aunt Lis' house, played with Sean, played in the yard with Aunt Em, stayed up late talking to 'mo Deb, and stayed up real late to get a glimpse of Grandpa Lyle coming home or early to see him going. Once in a while, you can catch him fixing sprinklers on his morning off or on a Sunday afternoon. We always go see my other grandparents too who live 1/2 mile from my parents. Picking raspberries in Grandma Pearlie and Grandpa Hal's garden is a summer must.The other thing that we did; one of the best things about our trip; is David and I got to go places by ourselves! Lots of family, lots of free, instant, and trustworthy babysitting. Every little errand we could think of to go and do without the kids, we did. We even went on a date. This is becoming more common than before, but it is still a rare occurrence, especially since moving to MA. We went to eat at the Red Iguana. I can seriously still taste the mole I had. It was SO good. We spent the rest of the night walking around the Gateway and talking, uninterrupted. We were going to catch a movie, but then decided to wait and do an old-school lazer U2 at the planetarium. I loved every second of it! They've jazzed it up a bit and, of course, added new songs, but it felt like the good ol' days when a lazer show at the planetarium was a common thing to do at night.

Well, good-bye Utah for now. This time, I didn't really cry when we left. Usually, I tear up for a couple of days when I know I have to leave. This time, I was ok...until we got home. When we started driving home from the Providence airport in the heavy, wet, sticky air with the claustrophobic forest of thick green trees on all sides, I started to lose it. When we pulled up to our house and saw that the yard had grown into a jungle that looked like we hadn't lived there for 6 months, I did lose it. I cried on and off for 2 days. I'm good now. I can't complain too much. There are many places that I would rather not live than here and my life is actually pretty great here. It's just hard to make the transition when you've just spent 12 days in absolute sunshine, and clear open spaces with light until 9:30 at night, where the kids played with their cousins and got to know their grandparents, and where I got to see my sisters and best friends...
no worries - I'll be back! I have to see what pops out of Lissie's belly in October! She made me swear not to put a picture of her belly on the blog.
Oh, I almost forgot... this is a picture of us in the cockpit of our plane home! As I was sulking onto the plane, the captain grabbed us and said, do your girls want to sit in the pilot seats?! I was dumbfounded, but anxiously said Yes! So, in they went. The pilots left so we could have the whole space. Then, they asked if I had a camera. I only had my phone on me. But, David (already back in his seat) had the big camera with him. They paged him to come up front and then they offered to take a pic of the whole family in the cockpit. I didn't think they did things like this anymore after 9-11, but apparently, we got lucky. It was pretty dang cool! By the way- Northwest airlines has the NICEST people out of any of the airlines I've ever flown. They always make things nicer and easier with my kids.