Weekend Forecast: Sunny and in the 70s

This last weekend, I was nearly tricked into thinking spring had come early because of all the rain. It rained so much that by Sunday I was beginning to think the floods were coming. How strange to see rain in January. Even at night. Then, Sunday afternoon, the snow began. And, we were given a nice fresh blanket of white that left the mountains looking like powdered donuts and all of the trees like a scene from an icy fairytale. I've loved that the beauty of this storm has lasted for two full days undisturbed. But, as I type, the wind is bringing the pretty shrouds of snow down from the branches. And, lest I should be fooled into thinking an early spring was upon us, the thermometer reading of 9-degrees this morning brought me right back to the reality of winter.

But, not for long. Thursday morning, Photoguy and I are headed to the land of perpetual sun. My lover surprised me with a four-day trip to San Diego -- the same place we were honeymooners 10-years ago. Can you believe we've been married TEN years? I don't think there is any way to say that without sounding a little bit old. It's nice that we will be able to commemorate this decade anniversary, unlike last year (see entry on 1/31/08) when we were too busy to celebrate. Yes, we are looking forward to four days of sleeping in and pure relaxation after the last 8-weeks of mayhem that have been our lives (read -- Photoguy working non-stop and me covering all parenting shifts without him). It's a bit hard to take the time off at this crucial point with Photoguy's book, but, I think pure exhaustion and burn-out won this time, so we are off to the ocean and sunlight. My list of things to do is looking pretty good too.

flights, hotel, rental car: booked
sunless tanning cream: purchased
toenails: painted
carpool: shuffled
Soph's ice-skating lesson: re-scheduled
E-Man's show and teach presentation for Friday: ready
reading material for the flight: checked out
arrangements for the kids: made

In other news, here are a few accomplishments of my day:

AiAi went happily to pre-school without protest. Big.

I successfully exchanged a pair of Heely's that I purchased on-line (they were too small) at a shoe store in the mall for a new pair of church shoes for the E-Man, plus an in-store credit (we already found used Heely's at Kid-to-Kid for Soph and E-Man and they've been gliding around like pros for weeks now). Huge relief.

Photoguy signed on two more sponsors for his book. That means we are 25% there as far as phase one for financing the publication. At this rate he needs about nine more sponsors and has a few maybes in the wings. Exciting. Wish us luck! He's only got two more weeks to do it!

What About This One?

Photoguy and I came to agreement on a new name yesterday:

Clara

So sad to give up Kate or Katie, because I truly do love those names. But, I think I could possibly let it go for Clara. Clara Layne? Any thoughts?

Please Help! We Need a Name.

This guy is blissfully slumbering upstairs. My other two are still at school. I'm not watching anyone else's kids. I just finished two restaurant write-ups. It's spooky weird to have the house all quiet with no one making requests and nothing pressing on my mind. I'm just going to kick up my feet and write an uninterrupted entry on my blog, yes I am.

In reference to the little guy pictured here, last night he gave us a scare by hiding (his new game since the Halloween day trauma, except the only problem is that he never informs us of the game beforehand). He had Photoguy and I both dashing through the house, searching everywhere and calling out his name repeatedly at 9:30 p.m. After about 15-minutes, Photoguy found him buried in the tub of hats, gloves and scarves by the front door. What possesses this child to torture his parents so? I've learned (after the first incident in which I nearly had a nervous breakdown) to not freak out, because now I realize he does this. But, it is still maddening. I'm worried about my mom because Photoguy and I are leaving out of town next week. If he does this to her (in her giant house with a lot more places to hide no-less), she will probably have a heart attack.

Isn't it strange that in addition to being our most difficult toddler, this beautiful boy also has both of his parents wrapped tightly around his two pinkie fingers? I love that fun-loving blue-eyed boy more than I could ever express in words here on this blog.

Thank you to those of you who commented on my last post about the Ogden Book. Wow, has it ever been a long journey with this thing. When I heard Bill Allred speaking complimentary words on the radio, when that first sponsor wrote out a check, and again last night when we read the clever foreward by Charlie Trentleman (the Wasatch Rambler for those of you familiar with his column), it finally starts to feel like all the sacrifice just might be for something after all. It's been a long-haul having our husband/father devoting so many hours to this venture. It will be one happy day if/when we finally see all of his efforts and our sacrifices come to fruition. He has tentatively set the release party for May 28th and 29th, which is also probably exactly when I will deliver our fourth baby. So . . . that will keep things interesting, eh?

Speaking of this baby, I need some input on names. Soph's name is Sophie Caroline. The middle name is after my mom, Carolyn (and, me, my middle name is Carol). I want this baby to be my mother-in-law's namesake. Her name is Rolayne, and I've always loved the idea of using "Layne" from her name as a middle name. My #1 name is:

Katie Layne

But, the problem is that every time I say it, people say, "Oh, like KD Lang the singer." Ummm . . . no, not like her people. Not that I have anything against PETA/lesbian spokespeople, but, this is suppose to be my mother-in-law's baby namesake. But, I don't know if I should really care so much. It's not like we will call her "Katie Layne." Just Kate, or Katie. Still, here is another option:

Kate Rolayne

Photoguy is not sure he is sold on Kate or Katie. His pick is Megan. I like:

Megan Elayne

But, can't use it because then her initials will spell MEN. If we use Megan I like:

Megan Michelle

But, feel sad to not name the baby after my mother-in-law.

Finally, Soph's pick is:

Kate Sophia

How adorable do I think it is that she wants us to name her sister after her? It does have a very nice ring to it, no? I think it is one of life's greatest ironies that she has gone from not wanting to share anything at the tender age of 1 1/2 when E-Man was born (she could not even share old baby blankets -- nothing -- in fact she tried on several occasions to extinguish him from her world altogether) to wanting to share every last piece of herself including her name.

The Ogden Book

Check out Photoguy's latest and greatest project at: www.ogdenbook.com or www.nicholsonphoto.com (click on "Ogden Book").

Almost exactly one year ago, Photoguy had a wild hair. And, as those of you who know us well are aware, these wild hairs can sometimes lead us down crazy roads (like roads that lead to China for example).

This time, he had a vision to create a book of portraits of people who live in Ogden. Influential people, vagabonds, people with cool tattoos -- a book of portraits of people from all walks of life connected by one simple thing -- the awesome city where we live (really, it is awesome, we even found t-shirts that say "Ogden is Awesome," so there's the proof).

For an entire year, my hubby has been devoting loads of time to this project. Making phone calls, compiling lists, sitting at the Union Station with his backdrop and cameras all set up waiting to snap photo after photo after endless photo. In the end, thousands of portraits were taken of more than 400 people (the book will contain about 350).

There were many, many phone calls to the publisher, even more hours of editing, and, finally, a few weeks ago, we got to see the first hard copy of the project. And, guess what? It is amazing!!! I'm so excited for how it is turning out. Many people who had heard of the project and then saw the sample copy in print admitted afterwards that they hadn't been very excited when they merely "heard" about it, but when they "saw" it, they were astounded. They were impressed. They said they would definitely buy a 12x12 hardbound version for their coffee table and/or permanent book collection.

Bill, from X96's morning show is originally from Ogden. Just before Christmas, Photoguy shot his portrait for the book and showed him the sample copy. Snarky, always-making-fun-of-Ogden Bill got excited about the book and said some complimentary things on the radio.

Part of the reason my blog has been so devoid of photos lately is that my photographer has been MIA this past month. That is because it is crunch time. His goal is to get the book off to the printer by the end of this month. The problem is that self-publishing is extremely pricey. And, it even turned out to be almost twice what he originally thought it would cost. So . . . he's been hitting the pavement looking for sponsors (who will get a nice bio in the front of the book in exchange), and, guess what? He called me just a few minutes ago to share the news -- he got his first sponsor!!! So, I'm super excited that this is lifting off the ground. Go check it out and tell me what you think. You can even e-mail comments to Photoguy directly from the site, and, if you do, it will make his day.

Angels We Have Heard on High

Today, we all slept in. Until 8 anyways. That is sleeping in, right? It's an hour later than I usually have to get up. Ahhhh . . . I am loving sleep right now.

Photoguy dashed off to work, and the kids and I lazily ate our bowls of cereal. E-Man kept listening to the song "Angels We Have Heard on High" by pushing a button on a Christmas ornament his piano teacher gave to him. Suddenly, he jumped up from the table, ran to the piano, and played a pretty flawless one-handed version. I was looking around to see where he had found the music for it and realized he didn't have music.

"E-Man, where did you learn that?" I asked, completely bewildered (remember that I have no musical abilities of my own).

"I was playing it on the table (he's often tapping out tunes with his fingers), and then it sounded right, so I played it on the piano," was his reply.

E-Man, I will never stop being amazed by your wonderful piano abilities.

Magic Hugs and Kisses

Something I am loving right now: Magic Hugs.

First, I tell a story of when Soph was young. She was probably around two-years-old when she started wanting me to kiss her owies better. It was awesome. She would get hurt, start to cry, I would kiss the hurt and ta-dah!!! All better! I don't know what has ever made me feel so awesome as being able to administer magic kisses. My powers even got to be so strong that, eventually, I could blow a kiss across the room and all wrongs would be made right again. I miss the days of those magic kisses. But, now, I have a new superpower, magic hugs.

Lately, whenever AiAi gets hurt he says (in the cutest baby voice imaginable), "I needa hug." As soon as I give him the hug, he is happy again! Sometimes, I hold my arms out to give the hug and almost as soon as I walk toward him, he is healed. Other times, he needs a really long hug. Other times, he suspiciously keeps hurting himself over and over and over every three seconds requiring multiple consecutive hugs. Whatever kind of hugs he needs, I'm loving being the giver of the magic hugs.

School Lunch Wisdom

Every now and then, I like to pop in and meet one of my kids for lunch. I love that it means so much to them and I realize that before long it will be an embarrassment. So, I try to do it while I still can. Last year, after choking down numerous corn dogs, frozen burritos and other unsavory school lunch foods, I had a revelation -- I don't have to eat the lunch. It may seem rather obvious, but, at first I felt that I had to purchase a lunch to sit by my child in the cafeteria. I now realize it's not so much the eating of the lunch as the just being there. My kids don't mind a bit that I sit there with no tray watching them eat and asking them about their day. I love that all the kids in E-Man's Kindergarten class wanted to sit by us when I joined him for lunch today. And, I also loved that I did not feel compelled to pretend to enjoy the chicken and rice or a prepackaged grilled cheese sandwich.

Switching gears, to another story, I was paid a very high honor today. Over the weekend, my friend took her 3-year-old daughter to Build-a-Bear. This is, Izzy, the same 3-year-old darling girl who I frequently babysit while her mom "puts the bad guys in jail" (those are the words of her 6-year-old daughter, my friend is a lawyer and victim's advocate). Apparently, Izzy picked out a moose at the Build-a-Bear, dressed her in angel clothes, and named her after ME! I just found out today and I thought that was about the sweetest thing I've ever heard. I've never ever had a stuffed angel moose named after me before. The best.
Here is that sweet girl blowing out her 3rd birthday candles (with AiAi's help) a few months ago.