I love my house. I really do. I loved my old house too. I always appreciated the stained glass windows and the original maple hardwood floors. I loved my spice cabinet and my neighbors and most of all, I enjoyed the front porch. But, that little house was very crowded by the time we welcomed our sixth family member and when that baby was two-and-a-half it was a relief to move on.
We needed something a little bigger. We had just under 2000 square feet (and half of that was in a basement with 6' ceilings). I figured somewhere around 2500-2700 square feet and taller basement ceilings would do the trick. I never imagined having a huge house, but we needed a little more space as the kids got older. Especially because I was in the business of daycare so there were usually 10+ people in our house all day.
The house we got is nearly two and a half times as big as the house we left. Yet it cost us less than a 2700 square foot house would have. It was an amazing find and we feel blessed beyond belief to have bought it. Even after five years of living here, I still look around and think, "I never would have imagined myself living in a house like this." There is so much space for our kids and all of their friends to spread out and play. The yard is a magical land for Katie, Isaac and all the boys on the block to play in. And the view. I can see the sun setting behind the mountains past the Great Salt Lake every evening through my windows. Before I lived here I never knew what a difference having an amazing view could make in your life.
I love this house. It has great bones. I like the neighborhood. It is quiet and safe. I love living steps away from the trails. It is a great place to raise our family and although every single thing is not perfect, I don't really have anyplace else in mind where I would rather be.
The dilemma begins with the fact that this house was such an amazing deal for a reason. It needs a lot of work. We have sunk thousands into it (thanks to the sale of a van that was paid for, tax return money and most of all the sale of our other house). We have spent a ton of money, yet it feels like a drop in the bucket compared to what still needs to be done! I feel that if someone gave me $50K tomorrow -- they won't, but even if that somehow happened -- it would be gone in an instant in home improvements and I still don't know if the most basic projects would be finished.
We have done so much work to our yard. We have installed the sprinkler system, sod, landscaping rocks and a new patio and put so many hours into working on it. Yet it's only about 70% done. And, some days the wild, weedy, terrible looking 30% is all I can see. It is overwhelming to think about what it will take to complete it.
Brian replaced all of the plumbing and he is in the process of re-wiring the whole house. That is three major home improvement projects -- yard, plumbing, wiring. The basement has also been a huge investment of time and money, yet the majority of the space down there has been sitting dormant as a messy construction zone for almost two years. We need to somehow conjure up a lump sum of $10K to get that going again. And that is just for materials with us doing all the labor.
The carpet was new when we moved in, but it turns out it was the cheapest carpet available, so it already needs to be replaced. The giant custom patio doors are broken ($4K to replace), the gorgeous windows that I love are all single pane (another $13K if we ever want to replace), the cedar roof must be oiled every few years ($1K each time) and if we ever need to replace it, we are probably looking at $30-$40K just to get less expensive asphalt shingles. I feel panicked every time Brian talks about re-doing the kitchen as if it is happening right away. Our kitchen is fine (although the floor needs to be replaced), but it's not a really awesome kitchen. It is begging to be remodeled. The formal dining room next to it and the den off of that are screaming to be combined into one awesome kitchen/dining area (with a fireplace that already exists in the den and would be so awesome as part of the dining area!). I can live with it the way it is, but I am not sure that Brian can.
I feel overwhelmed when I think about all the things that we want to do to this house. And, some of it could legitimately be called "needs" too. For example, we live in a nice neighborhood and having your yard only 70% complete after 5-years is definitely a social faux pas. And, why shouldn't we finish our flower beds and landscaping to contribute to the common good of neighborhood beautification?
Also, this house, for all its square footage, only has one fully functional bathroom. Yes, we have a master bathroom and it is great for having an extra toilet and a sink. But, Brian is the only one who uses the tiny shower in there and let's be honest, how much good is a bathroom that has no cabinets, no counter space and no outlets to someone besides my bald husband? (Yes you read correctly, the bathroom has no outlets. Our living room also has no lights. What were people thinking in 1949?). I guess you could argue that five people sharing one bathroom is a lot, especially in the next few years when we grow up a little more and we have five teenagers/adults sharing one bathroom to get ready every morning. Another bathroom is part of the basement remodel . . .
I think after fully remodeling a 100-year-old house for 12-years and diving right into remodeling a 65-year-old house has left me kind of worn out. Plus the cost of materials to remodel has gone up dramatically in the past 17-years. Add that to the fact that the cost to remodel a giant house is also dramatically more expensive than our little 2000 square foot house on a postage stamp size piece of land.
I'm not trying to sound ungrateful. I am so in love with this house and it has brought me a lot of joy to live here for five years. But, sometimes when I look at our actual bank account plus the cost of raising four kids plus the long road of home improvement that lies ahead, a part of me just wants to load everyone up and head on a family vacation (which we also can't afford because -- constant home remodel). Sometimes when I consider all those facts, I start to wonder if this was meant to be our forever house or just a really fun stop in the journey to our real forever house? I never imagined living in a house like this and part of the reason for that is that I never wanted to maintain a house this size.
Now comes the dilemma. The market for houses on the east bench has shot up a lot. It is very hot right now with houses selling in weeks or often only days for $100-$115 per square foot. If we wanted to, we could probably take out a loan to quickly finish the basement and cash out on this place. Even without remodeling the dated kitchen. We got such a great deal on it to begin with that we could use the equity to build a brand new 2700 or even 3000 square foot house with a very low mortgage. And the house would be done!!! No more saving up for giant remodel projects!!! You know, so we can focus on saving up for two more sets of braces and car insurance with teenage drivers -- haha! But, seriously, what a relief that would be to shed the weight of the never ending journey through major home improvement projects. What would we do with all our free time?
Some days, I am ready to put that for sale sign in the yard and never look back. But, I will also be sad to lose this view. I am enjoying it right now as I type. And sad/happy to lose this yard. Mostly I will be sad that my kids won't get to grow up in this amazing space. So maybe it would be better to execute this plan in 10-years? Back and forth I go. Moving seems like the responsible choice. But, I will sure miss this house if we do. Is randomly winning huge sums of money an option?
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
St. Louis 2016
Last week I traveled to St. Louis for my job. The nice thing about my job is that I don't have to go to every meeting, which would mean traveling 10+ times/year. Patti goes to all of the meetings so I don't have to. The other nice thing about my job is that I sometimes get to go to the meetings, which is mostly nice and a little bit not.
It's always fun to go somewhere new. I am using the term "fun" loosely here since these trips are packed with work related activities so it's not like I go sightseeing. But, sometimes we stay in really nice hotels (once it was the four seasons, this time a Hilton), we always eat delicious food, I get a break from cooking and housecleaning and I get lots of uninterrupted time to work (work=get paid!). It's nice to go to some meetings so I can see my boss who lives in Chicago in person once in awhile and meet the members of our organization so they are more than just names on lists that I am endlessly working through. It's kind of nice to have an excuse to dress professionally for three days in a row. If it wasn't for these meetings every 6 or so months, I would probably forget to buy myself something new (this time it was just new lipstick, but still, it's nice to indulge every now and then).
It's not nice because of how hard it is to organize everyone's schedules while I am gone. That part actually wasn't bad this time. I sent Katie to stay at my mom's the whole time and the other three kids are getting old enough to take care of themselves. Plus, Brian didn't have a crazy schedule while I was gone.
Going to these meetings is anxiety producing. I always vow to lose 10-pounds before the meeting (which almost always results in me gaining 5). It is way outside of my comfort zone to be in a room full of powerful CEOs and other higher ups of healthcare systems, pretending to fit in. I am way more comfortable in a house full of crazy kids. Since Patti and I are there as the meeting planners, everything falls to us if something goes wrong. It could be a problem with the A/V equipment, the temperature in the room, a coffee dispenser malfunction, any one of 100 little things really. Plus, my boss is really a stickler for professionalism and he likes attention to the tiniest details. For example, if there are twelve people in the meeting and someone has to duck out early, I need to make sure to remove the extra chair from the room pronto.
In addition to wearing spanx, nylons, high heels, jewelry and lipstick to look like a professional, and tending to every minor detail to keep things running smoothly, I also need to be super friendly and extroverted. I need to remember everyone's names and be really good at making polite small talk with them. It turns out I am actually really good at having conversations with a room full of strangers. Who knew that was a skill that could come in handy? But, there is always an underlying anxiety about opening my mouth and saying something stupid because that is very easy to do.
Last Tuesday, I arrived at our hotel in St. Louis just as my boss (Roger), my colleague (Patti) and the new tech guy (Andrew) were walking to a nearby Italian place for dinner (my flight arrived later than everyone else). I spent a few minutes freshening up and then hustled over to meet them. I sat through dinner acting all casual even though meeting with Roger face-to-face still makes me nervous even after working together (almost exclusively from afar) for a year and a half. I felt like dinner went well and by 9pm I was in my hotel room making all of my last minute preparations for the next day when I had an overwhelming feeling of "What am I doing here?"
Then I remembered a quote or a meme or something I had read recently that said something to the effect that we should do something that scares us every day (or week, or month? It probably said every day, but that would be too much in my opinion). I calmed down and thought, "It's O.K. to feel scared to do this. It means I am going to learn something new."
The meeting went well the next day. There were 23 attendees plus the 4 of us. Thanks to Patti's awesome meeting planning skills (she has been doing this a long time) and Roger's outstanding leadership skills (he has also been doing this a long time) things went off without a hitch. One of the really clever parts about these meetings is that we meet all day the first day and then we go to dinner that night. After everyone has been having serious discussions all day, the dinner is a time for the attendees to relax and get to know each other on a more personal level. I told Roger I thought it was an ingenious model and he revealed that in the early days, he tried to stick to a strict agenda even during dinner thinking it would maximize everyone's time. But, then he realized the magic of the unstructured dinner.
We had quite the diverse group of people sitting at my table. One guy worked for United for so many years that he has lifetime flying privileges. He lives in an upscale neighborhood outside of Chicago and flies to Seattle every Monday morning to work at a healthcare system and flies back home every Friday. By the way, this new group deals in cybersecurity -- it's kind of a new issue for healthcare systems in the past 5 years or so. So, almost everyone has a different background from before they came into Catholic healthcare.
The guy to my left retired from the military after spending 11 out of his 20 years with them deployed at sea. He and the airline guy have visited more than 50 countries each! I found that very interesting. Retired military guy lives on Whidbey Island -- an enchanted place that Patti and I visited together several years ago. He only has to go into his office two days a week, but it is a two hour drive each way!
Anyways, the evening was filled with interesting conversations about these things, and a lot of tech speak in between that honestly didn't make any sense to me so I just smiled and nodded at those parts.
By the time dinner was over, Tuesday and Wednesday had gone well. Thursday was a breeze. The second day of the meeting usually is. The meeting ends at noon so the time passes quickly. We all had late flights out, so Patti, Roger, Andrew and I decided to grab lunch at P.F. Chang's before heading to the airport. I really do feel blessed to have this job even if it scares me sometimes.
Probably the most awkward moment of the trip was when I changed out of my spanx and nylons and high heels in the airport bathroom with the auto toilet flushing 100x so I could wear something more comfortable on the long flight home.
I forgot to mention that when I got to the SLC airport at the start of the trip, I stopped in the restroom (I had taken the frontrunner to the airport which was awesome!) and there was a young girl who looked about 20 who was on her phone, pressing her face against the wall sobbing. I asked her if I could help her, because my own teenagers aren't so far from 20 and I would hate to think of them sobbing in an airport bathroom alone. She assured me she was fine. And, sure enough, a few minutes later I saw her going through security looking radiant like she had never been crying at all. It reminded me that we are all fighting a battle even if things look fine on the outside and it is important to be kind to each other (isn't that a meme also?).
My mom gave me a book to read on the trip called 600 Hours of Edward about a man in his late 30s who has mild autism and OCD. It is written from his perspective which was entertaining and enlightening. It is so interesting to think of the world from someone else's perspective like that. Sometimes, when Edward was so baffled by a human interaction (because he took everything literally) or so thrown off when every routine in his life didn't go as planned, I got a little lump in my throat thinking of my own guy who reacts to the world that way.
The travel time (with transfers -- it's hard to find non-stop flights between SLC and St. Louis) was so long that I finished the book and I had to read some humorous writings by Tina Fey on the way home.
I got home late on Thursday and woke up Friday to take Katie on a field trip to one of those farms that transforms into a place for family fun at this time of year with giant slides and corn mazes. We took a hayride out to a field where we selected the most perfect pumpkins and accidentally disturbed a nest of baby mice (Katie's favorite part!). We had a great time and picked up Sophie from school (she gets out early on Fridays) then we all went to lunch at a little Mexican place called "Rosas."
Brian left Friday night to take the boys (with a brother-in-law and boy cousins) mountain biking in Moab for the weekend. Katie and I ran errands Saturday morning while Sophie rehearsed for A Fairly Potter Christmas Carol. That night, I took both girls to see Sophie's friend perform at DaVinci in Sleepy Hollow. The performance was well done and spooky and even Katie really liked it. All of us (two of Sophie's friends too) went out to ice-cream afterward and I felt like a real mom of teenagers. It is a fun mom stage to be in and I am sure it passes quickly just like the rest.
Now, it is a new week and I feel like I am still catching up from being absent from my life last week. I haven't worked out in six weeks because things became crazy busy the moment school was back in session and I haven't made the time or established a new routine or something. When I see people post hiking photos on social media I feel so jealous and it is silly because I have two great trailheads just a stone's throw in either direction from my front door. So, yesterday at 6pm when I felt like lying down and watching Netflix to calm down for a few minutes, I took Katie's hand instead and we had a delightful walk in the mountains. It started with me huffing and puffing feeling barely able to walk up 27th Street to the trailhead and ended with me feeling awesome and even doing some light voluntary jogging (downhill mind you). It is a wonderful time of year and I hope we do it again before the cold weather comes.
It's always fun to go somewhere new. I am using the term "fun" loosely here since these trips are packed with work related activities so it's not like I go sightseeing. But, sometimes we stay in really nice hotels (once it was the four seasons, this time a Hilton), we always eat delicious food, I get a break from cooking and housecleaning and I get lots of uninterrupted time to work (work=get paid!). It's nice to go to some meetings so I can see my boss who lives in Chicago in person once in awhile and meet the members of our organization so they are more than just names on lists that I am endlessly working through. It's kind of nice to have an excuse to dress professionally for three days in a row. If it wasn't for these meetings every 6 or so months, I would probably forget to buy myself something new (this time it was just new lipstick, but still, it's nice to indulge every now and then).
It's not nice because of how hard it is to organize everyone's schedules while I am gone. That part actually wasn't bad this time. I sent Katie to stay at my mom's the whole time and the other three kids are getting old enough to take care of themselves. Plus, Brian didn't have a crazy schedule while I was gone.
Going to these meetings is anxiety producing. I always vow to lose 10-pounds before the meeting (which almost always results in me gaining 5). It is way outside of my comfort zone to be in a room full of powerful CEOs and other higher ups of healthcare systems, pretending to fit in. I am way more comfortable in a house full of crazy kids. Since Patti and I are there as the meeting planners, everything falls to us if something goes wrong. It could be a problem with the A/V equipment, the temperature in the room, a coffee dispenser malfunction, any one of 100 little things really. Plus, my boss is really a stickler for professionalism and he likes attention to the tiniest details. For example, if there are twelve people in the meeting and someone has to duck out early, I need to make sure to remove the extra chair from the room pronto.
In addition to wearing spanx, nylons, high heels, jewelry and lipstick to look like a professional, and tending to every minor detail to keep things running smoothly, I also need to be super friendly and extroverted. I need to remember everyone's names and be really good at making polite small talk with them. It turns out I am actually really good at having conversations with a room full of strangers. Who knew that was a skill that could come in handy? But, there is always an underlying anxiety about opening my mouth and saying something stupid because that is very easy to do.
Last Tuesday, I arrived at our hotel in St. Louis just as my boss (Roger), my colleague (Patti) and the new tech guy (Andrew) were walking to a nearby Italian place for dinner (my flight arrived later than everyone else). I spent a few minutes freshening up and then hustled over to meet them. I sat through dinner acting all casual even though meeting with Roger face-to-face still makes me nervous even after working together (almost exclusively from afar) for a year and a half. I felt like dinner went well and by 9pm I was in my hotel room making all of my last minute preparations for the next day when I had an overwhelming feeling of "What am I doing here?"
Then I remembered a quote or a meme or something I had read recently that said something to the effect that we should do something that scares us every day (or week, or month? It probably said every day, but that would be too much in my opinion). I calmed down and thought, "It's O.K. to feel scared to do this. It means I am going to learn something new."
The meeting went well the next day. There were 23 attendees plus the 4 of us. Thanks to Patti's awesome meeting planning skills (she has been doing this a long time) and Roger's outstanding leadership skills (he has also been doing this a long time) things went off without a hitch. One of the really clever parts about these meetings is that we meet all day the first day and then we go to dinner that night. After everyone has been having serious discussions all day, the dinner is a time for the attendees to relax and get to know each other on a more personal level. I told Roger I thought it was an ingenious model and he revealed that in the early days, he tried to stick to a strict agenda even during dinner thinking it would maximize everyone's time. But, then he realized the magic of the unstructured dinner.
We had quite the diverse group of people sitting at my table. One guy worked for United for so many years that he has lifetime flying privileges. He lives in an upscale neighborhood outside of Chicago and flies to Seattle every Monday morning to work at a healthcare system and flies back home every Friday. By the way, this new group deals in cybersecurity -- it's kind of a new issue for healthcare systems in the past 5 years or so. So, almost everyone has a different background from before they came into Catholic healthcare.
The guy to my left retired from the military after spending 11 out of his 20 years with them deployed at sea. He and the airline guy have visited more than 50 countries each! I found that very interesting. Retired military guy lives on Whidbey Island -- an enchanted place that Patti and I visited together several years ago. He only has to go into his office two days a week, but it is a two hour drive each way!
Anyways, the evening was filled with interesting conversations about these things, and a lot of tech speak in between that honestly didn't make any sense to me so I just smiled and nodded at those parts.
By the time dinner was over, Tuesday and Wednesday had gone well. Thursday was a breeze. The second day of the meeting usually is. The meeting ends at noon so the time passes quickly. We all had late flights out, so Patti, Roger, Andrew and I decided to grab lunch at P.F. Chang's before heading to the airport. I really do feel blessed to have this job even if it scares me sometimes.
Probably the most awkward moment of the trip was when I changed out of my spanx and nylons and high heels in the airport bathroom with the auto toilet flushing 100x so I could wear something more comfortable on the long flight home.
I forgot to mention that when I got to the SLC airport at the start of the trip, I stopped in the restroom (I had taken the frontrunner to the airport which was awesome!) and there was a young girl who looked about 20 who was on her phone, pressing her face against the wall sobbing. I asked her if I could help her, because my own teenagers aren't so far from 20 and I would hate to think of them sobbing in an airport bathroom alone. She assured me she was fine. And, sure enough, a few minutes later I saw her going through security looking radiant like she had never been crying at all. It reminded me that we are all fighting a battle even if things look fine on the outside and it is important to be kind to each other (isn't that a meme also?).
My mom gave me a book to read on the trip called 600 Hours of Edward about a man in his late 30s who has mild autism and OCD. It is written from his perspective which was entertaining and enlightening. It is so interesting to think of the world from someone else's perspective like that. Sometimes, when Edward was so baffled by a human interaction (because he took everything literally) or so thrown off when every routine in his life didn't go as planned, I got a little lump in my throat thinking of my own guy who reacts to the world that way.
The travel time (with transfers -- it's hard to find non-stop flights between SLC and St. Louis) was so long that I finished the book and I had to read some humorous writings by Tina Fey on the way home.
I got home late on Thursday and woke up Friday to take Katie on a field trip to one of those farms that transforms into a place for family fun at this time of year with giant slides and corn mazes. We took a hayride out to a field where we selected the most perfect pumpkins and accidentally disturbed a nest of baby mice (Katie's favorite part!). We had a great time and picked up Sophie from school (she gets out early on Fridays) then we all went to lunch at a little Mexican place called "Rosas."
Brian left Friday night to take the boys (with a brother-in-law and boy cousins) mountain biking in Moab for the weekend. Katie and I ran errands Saturday morning while Sophie rehearsed for A Fairly Potter Christmas Carol. That night, I took both girls to see Sophie's friend perform at DaVinci in Sleepy Hollow. The performance was well done and spooky and even Katie really liked it. All of us (two of Sophie's friends too) went out to ice-cream afterward and I felt like a real mom of teenagers. It is a fun mom stage to be in and I am sure it passes quickly just like the rest.
Now, it is a new week and I feel like I am still catching up from being absent from my life last week. I haven't worked out in six weeks because things became crazy busy the moment school was back in session and I haven't made the time or established a new routine or something. When I see people post hiking photos on social media I feel so jealous and it is silly because I have two great trailheads just a stone's throw in either direction from my front door. So, yesterday at 6pm when I felt like lying down and watching Netflix to calm down for a few minutes, I took Katie's hand instead and we had a delightful walk in the mountains. It started with me huffing and puffing feeling barely able to walk up 27th Street to the trailhead and ended with me feeling awesome and even doing some light voluntary jogging (downhill mind you). It is a wonderful time of year and I hope we do it again before the cold weather comes.
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Anxiety's Name is Bob
When Katie was three, I signed her up for preschool taught by a magical lady, Miss Jill, who goes to the same church as we do. Katie L-O-V-E-D Miss Jill and they always worked on the cutest songs and art projects in class. Every preschool day was a good day.
Until two months before the second year of preschool ended (also two months before Katie turned five). One day I drove her to school and when we got there she wouldn't get out of the car saying she just didn't feel like going. It was odd, but I figured if my daughter wanted an extra day with me it was perfectly reasonable.
After that day, she never wanted to go to preschool. In fact, first thing every morning she would ask if it was a school day and if I said "yes" she instantly became uneasy. Then she started asking at bedtime if tomorrow was a school day and if I said "yes" the apprehension began.
I didn't know we were starting down a confusing path of anxiety. I didn't know that the adorable stutter she developed was one of the signs. Or, the way she so sweetly crawled in bed with me in the middle of the night. Or, the loud teeth grinding sessions that I heard as she slumbered next to me. I didn't know that this beautiful sweet daughter of mine who had been the most independent of all four of my kids from the time she turned one until almost her fifth birthday was now facing a struggle that would become clinical and cast a shadow over her innocent childhood.
The struggle to go to school followed her to Kindergarten and spilled over to her ability to attend her primary class on Sundays. After awhile she no longer wanted to go play at friends' houses or go to the dance class she had loved. When first grade started, Brian and I both felt our hearts breaking as we left her wailing and trembling day after day with her soft-spoken teacher who lovingly gave her a stuffed animal to cuddle each morning in an attempt to help her calm down.
One night, I was leaving to take Sophie to Salt Lake and Katie didn't want me to go. After I left her with Brian, she started throwing up every half hour, more than twenty times, all through the night until I called the doctor the next morning and he prescribed something to help her stop.
One morning, she woke up shaking because she was so nervous to go to school. After an hour of terror and tears I took her to class but when we got there her face had started to break out in hives so I took her back home. By the next morning, her entire face was so swollen, blotchy, red and disfigured that the doctor prescribed steroids.
That is when I started to think seriously about anxiety.
I read all I could and talked to her about the part of her brain that helps her sense danger -- we named it Bob -- and how Bob was sensing danger when there wasn't any real danger and making her feel scared when she didn't need to be scared. She was stoic and valiantly tried to overcome her fear, but in January of her first grade year we started seeing a professional therapist.
The therapist talked to her more about Bob and gave her some mental tools to help her calm down when she is anxious. We have come a long way when it comes to heading off the panic attacks before they start. But, now we have to figure out how to deal with the counterpart that sometimes slips into anxiety's place -- depression. When she is working so hard to stave off the fright, she fades into sadness and despondence like a delicate flower.
This morning, the anxiety reared its head when I woke her up to get ready for her 1/2-day of fun classes. On Tuesdays she gets to do an hour of dance and hour of art and an hour of animal encounters where the teacher brings interesting animals like lizards and tarantulas and they study and talk about them. She loves these classes. And today was extra special because we bought dance shoes. But, none of that matters when Bob shows up. In her effort to stay calm, she became so sad, detached and distant. On the plus side, she didn't freak out and cry or break out in hives. But, she just sat there with no light in her saying, "I just don't feel like dancing today."
This child who skips and turns cartwheels everywhere we go! This girl with so much zest and curiosity for life. This little one who loves every one of her stuffed animals and lays out tea parties for her friends. How can such grown up things as anxiety and depression be part of her world?
This morning we rubbed her favorite essential oils on her feet and did grounding exercises and prayed together. I will keep hoping that someday these challenges can be turned into strengths.
UPDATED: When I picked her up from school she was bubbling over with excitement about the new dance she learned, the picture she created from paint and oil pastels and the giant snake she held (that covered four kids!). Sometimes when I am reassuring her that everything will be O.K., I need to stop and remind myself too that everything will indeed be O.K.
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Beautiful Storm
When August started, I began to feel sad. Really sad. With each passing day of August, I felt more sad.
I would miss our carefree days of summer without the stress of getting everyone to bed on time and waking up early every day and have our lives ruled by a relentless schedule. I would miss weekdays when going to yoga and taking the kids for a leisurely swim at the outdoor pool were a reality.
The start of a new school year also meant my kids were older -- advanced to the next grade. Only three more school years before I have a graduating senior . . . It was weighing on me.
One thing I looked forward to was an end to the string of sweltering days where the high temperatures remained in the near 100-degree range for at least two weeks. I want to say four weeks, but it was probably more like three. It felt like a long time. I must really be an old lady because hot weather has really started to get to me.
After about one week of sad, I gave it up because it was pointless. Summer would end. Being sad wouldn't change it. Even though I didn't want to bid summer break farewell and send the kids back to school I was excited for a few things and one of those things was the change of weather to fall. So, I started reveling in the little things.
Late in August the rain came to cool the heatwave down. Isaac and Katie and all the little boys that live on our street ran outside to play in the river that formed in the gutter. Brian got pictures of them using their bodies to make a human dam when he came home from work. Summer storms are warm and beautiful. The sky, like the leaves, has such spectacular hues in fall. So many nights we have stayed up late watching lightning flash across the sky.
Yesterday, the mother of rainstorms came. All afternoon the sky was hauntingly beautiful, bursting with low hanging gray clouds. At 4pm crazy strong wind gusts stirred around us, followed instantly by a fantastic downpour of rain that soon turned to enormous hailstones the size of marbles. It all came so quickly and the weatherman said we got 1-2 inches of rain in moments.
When it was over, I found out that three tornadoes swept the state, two of them just a few miles from me. Granted -- in the world of tornadoes, they were tiny, but they still lifted roofs off of houses and flattened backyard sheds and made a mess with big trees. Brian was in Riverdale when the storm hit and he photographed people running to their cars in a parking lot that had instantly filled knee deep with water.
The violent part of the storm passed and then it rained all night and all day today. I drove to Salt Lake and back in the grey non-stop rain to take Katie on a field trip to the Gateway Children's Museum. I had the most wonderful time getting to spend the day with my youngest child watching her use her imagination.
It has finally stopped raining but the sky is still grey. I found out all of the soccer games are cancelled tomorrow. So, there is that. It's funny -- I sign the boys up for soccer because I want them to get to play. But, it somehow feels like a gift when the games are (once in a great while) rained out because -- yay, a free Saturday!
Bear Lake, summer storms and field trips. Back to school hasn't been bad!
I would miss our carefree days of summer without the stress of getting everyone to bed on time and waking up early every day and have our lives ruled by a relentless schedule. I would miss weekdays when going to yoga and taking the kids for a leisurely swim at the outdoor pool were a reality.
The start of a new school year also meant my kids were older -- advanced to the next grade. Only three more school years before I have a graduating senior . . . It was weighing on me.
One thing I looked forward to was an end to the string of sweltering days where the high temperatures remained in the near 100-degree range for at least two weeks. I want to say four weeks, but it was probably more like three. It felt like a long time. I must really be an old lady because hot weather has really started to get to me.
After about one week of sad, I gave it up because it was pointless. Summer would end. Being sad wouldn't change it. Even though I didn't want to bid summer break farewell and send the kids back to school I was excited for a few things and one of those things was the change of weather to fall. So, I started reveling in the little things.
Late in August the rain came to cool the heatwave down. Isaac and Katie and all the little boys that live on our street ran outside to play in the river that formed in the gutter. Brian got pictures of them using their bodies to make a human dam when he came home from work. Summer storms are warm and beautiful. The sky, like the leaves, has such spectacular hues in fall. So many nights we have stayed up late watching lightning flash across the sky.
Yesterday, the mother of rainstorms came. All afternoon the sky was hauntingly beautiful, bursting with low hanging gray clouds. At 4pm crazy strong wind gusts stirred around us, followed instantly by a fantastic downpour of rain that soon turned to enormous hailstones the size of marbles. It all came so quickly and the weatherman said we got 1-2 inches of rain in moments.
When it was over, I found out that three tornadoes swept the state, two of them just a few miles from me. Granted -- in the world of tornadoes, they were tiny, but they still lifted roofs off of houses and flattened backyard sheds and made a mess with big trees. Brian was in Riverdale when the storm hit and he photographed people running to their cars in a parking lot that had instantly filled knee deep with water.
The violent part of the storm passed and then it rained all night and all day today. I drove to Salt Lake and back in the grey non-stop rain to take Katie on a field trip to the Gateway Children's Museum. I had the most wonderful time getting to spend the day with my youngest child watching her use her imagination.
It has finally stopped raining but the sky is still grey. I found out all of the soccer games are cancelled tomorrow. So, there is that. It's funny -- I sign the boys up for soccer because I want them to get to play. But, it somehow feels like a gift when the games are (once in a great while) rained out because -- yay, a free Saturday!
Bear Lake, summer storms and field trips. Back to school hasn't been bad!
Friday, September 23, 2016
The Office
We moved everything out of our cute office on Historic 25th Street in Downtown Ogden right over the Pig in a Jelly Jar restaurant and the historic neon dragon sign.
An awesome thing happened to me 1.5 years ago. A friend called me up and offered me a consulting gig. I could work from my home. The pay was really good and it would only take five hours per week. It grew to 15-20 hours per week and the nice thing about that was that I was able to replace all of my writing income and all of my in-home daycare income and focus my attention on this one opportunity.
I really loved the prospect of working from my home. Even though my life can be chaotic and noisy, I have adjusted over the years and I can manage my way through a lot of distractions and interruptions (most days). It has become one of my finest skills. I have had to write a lot of stories on deadline while keeping a houseful of little kids and babies safe, fed and happy. Not even just my own little ones. It is a juggling act that I have gotten pretty good at.
My kids are growing up and I only watch other kids after school and for a few hours during the day on Mondays. So, compared to the last fourteen years, my life is pretty mellow even if I am homeschooling my seven-year-old, welcoming a gaggle of kids into our home in the afternoons and endlessly shuttling kids to lessons, activities and orthodontist appointments. There are many more quiet moments in my day to get my office work done than ever before.
But, my friend and colleague felt that we urgently needed an office to inspire our creativity, promote productivity and give us the perfect space to collaborate and synergize and make the world an overall better place. Very soon after I accepted this work from home gig, she found a place for us.
I admit that if I had to go to an office, this was the perfect one. It was newly remodeled, trendy, on the second floor of a building that is about 100 years old with walls of crumbling exposed brick and beautiful hardwood floors. The ceilings were high and my window had a great view. Historic 25th Street is a darling place that is often used as the backdrop for films. It is close to my home--literally a lovely 5 minute drive. There are fantastic restaurants (like the tasty and healthy Good Life Cafe). I enjoyed the space and I definitely appreciated the time with my colleague who is one of my favorite people in the world.
But, going to the office was almost always stressful. I love to work from home where I can take a break to throw in a load of laundry, wash some dishes, get a head start on dinner or be available to my children when they are home if they need me. I love to wash my hair, get an hour of work done while it air dries, and take a break from sitting at my desk to finish getting ready for the day without having to rush through my morning.
I didn't love packing up my computer, my planner, my water bottle, power cord and all the things I might need for the day to haul it to the office and haul it all back home at the end of the day.
Sometimes the parking situation wasn't great and that could be a headache.
Overall, it made me feel more stressed than it made me feel inspired. So, when my colleague told me in July that we were breaking our lease, that was good news to me. At first she wanted to find another space for us, but I convinced her that the space we really needed could be found in our own homes. Home sweet home! I love being blessed to work from my home. Especially now that I have a new freedom to come and go as I please.
Babysitting will always have a special place in my heart and I am grateful for the experiences I had and the children I will always love dearly because I saw them grow up. But, there is no break in the day when you watch other peoples' children. There is no babysitter for the babysitter. And, that can be hard because sometimes you need to run to the grocery store or the dentist or a host of other places, which can be tricky to do with your entourage of little people always at your side. Even trickier than finishing a story for a newspaper while keeping the whole circus in check.
Tonight Brian and I went to the office and moved all the furniture out. It is a little sad. The end of an era. More than anything else, I loved to tell people that I had an office on 25th Street over the Pig in a Jelly Jar restaurant and the historic neon dragon sign. A home office doesn't sound nearly as cool. But, it is.
An awesome thing happened to me 1.5 years ago. A friend called me up and offered me a consulting gig. I could work from my home. The pay was really good and it would only take five hours per week. It grew to 15-20 hours per week and the nice thing about that was that I was able to replace all of my writing income and all of my in-home daycare income and focus my attention on this one opportunity.
I really loved the prospect of working from my home. Even though my life can be chaotic and noisy, I have adjusted over the years and I can manage my way through a lot of distractions and interruptions (most days). It has become one of my finest skills. I have had to write a lot of stories on deadline while keeping a houseful of little kids and babies safe, fed and happy. Not even just my own little ones. It is a juggling act that I have gotten pretty good at.
My kids are growing up and I only watch other kids after school and for a few hours during the day on Mondays. So, compared to the last fourteen years, my life is pretty mellow even if I am homeschooling my seven-year-old, welcoming a gaggle of kids into our home in the afternoons and endlessly shuttling kids to lessons, activities and orthodontist appointments. There are many more quiet moments in my day to get my office work done than ever before.
But, my friend and colleague felt that we urgently needed an office to inspire our creativity, promote productivity and give us the perfect space to collaborate and synergize and make the world an overall better place. Very soon after I accepted this work from home gig, she found a place for us.
I admit that if I had to go to an office, this was the perfect one. It was newly remodeled, trendy, on the second floor of a building that is about 100 years old with walls of crumbling exposed brick and beautiful hardwood floors. The ceilings were high and my window had a great view. Historic 25th Street is a darling place that is often used as the backdrop for films. It is close to my home--literally a lovely 5 minute drive. There are fantastic restaurants (like the tasty and healthy Good Life Cafe). I enjoyed the space and I definitely appreciated the time with my colleague who is one of my favorite people in the world.
But, going to the office was almost always stressful. I love to work from home where I can take a break to throw in a load of laundry, wash some dishes, get a head start on dinner or be available to my children when they are home if they need me. I love to wash my hair, get an hour of work done while it air dries, and take a break from sitting at my desk to finish getting ready for the day without having to rush through my morning.
I didn't love packing up my computer, my planner, my water bottle, power cord and all the things I might need for the day to haul it to the office and haul it all back home at the end of the day.
Sometimes the parking situation wasn't great and that could be a headache.
Overall, it made me feel more stressed than it made me feel inspired. So, when my colleague told me in July that we were breaking our lease, that was good news to me. At first she wanted to find another space for us, but I convinced her that the space we really needed could be found in our own homes. Home sweet home! I love being blessed to work from my home. Especially now that I have a new freedom to come and go as I please.
Babysitting will always have a special place in my heart and I am grateful for the experiences I had and the children I will always love dearly because I saw them grow up. But, there is no break in the day when you watch other peoples' children. There is no babysitter for the babysitter. And, that can be hard because sometimes you need to run to the grocery store or the dentist or a host of other places, which can be tricky to do with your entourage of little people always at your side. Even trickier than finishing a story for a newspaper while keeping the whole circus in check.
Tonight Brian and I went to the office and moved all the furniture out. It is a little sad. The end of an era. More than anything else, I loved to tell people that I had an office on 25th Street over the Pig in a Jelly Jar restaurant and the historic neon dragon sign. A home office doesn't sound nearly as cool. But, it is.
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Summer Season Winding Down 2016
I have been wanting to blog for quite some time and now I have a lot of things to say. Sophie started school the Wednesday following Isaac's Monday night birthday extravaganza. A few days later, she and my mom took off on an airplane to Disneyland. While she was gone, the other three started school and life has been one wild and crazy ride ever since.
I am so proud of Sophie for working this summer. I think for the most part, she enjoyed it. It's rough to keep working the weekends now that school has started. Because that is true and so many kids quit at the end of the summer, Lagoon offers a nice bonus to those who finish out the season, so she is doing her best to hang in there until the end of October.
Sophie has not been a natural saver. She loves to spend money the minute it hits her hand. At the beginning of the summer, I encouraged her to save her paychecks for something big. So, she did. She saved every penny until it added up to $900 and then she invited my mom to go with her to Disneyland. Of course my mom was delighted. They are both Disney diehards through and through. They wanted to go before the Diamond celebration was over (it ended on Labor Day). Sophie went to the first three days of school (August 17-19) and then they went to 4-consecutive-days at the park. Sophie insisted that they arrive at opening (8 or 9 a.m.) every day and stay until the park closed (except on the 4th day when they left to catch an evening flight) and my mom DID IT! It's a good thing it was her . . . I don't think I could have had that much stamina. They had a wonderful time and I'm so happy for them.
At the beginning of summer break, my kids made a list of all the things they wanted to do and we DID THEM ALL. We checked many of them off the list several times. Except for two things that remained: Curiosity Museum and Bear Lake. On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, we got a text from our friends inviting them to join them at a Bear Lake cabin that day. We had to be super spontaneous because 1) we got the text at 10 a.m. 2) we had church at 12:30 p.m. and every person in the family needed to take a shower 3) plus, I couldn't talk to Brian about any planning because 10 a.m. is also when he started preparing his lesson for the day and, 4) we had to make do with whatever groceries and clean clothes we already had in the house since there was no time to shop or do laundry.
We arrived home from church at 3:30 and Brian had to go straight to a Raptor's game to take photos while I started packing suitcases and stuffing sleeping bags and camp chairs into the van like a mad lady. Somehow, we made it up to the cabin, also known as paradise, that evening with only one glitch -- that we left Ian's suitcase at home. Funny! It wasn't a big deal since we were just staying over one night.
Monday was absolute perfection. The high was only 63-degrees, but it felt surprisingly warm. The lake was gorgeous. We canoed and paddle boarded and Katie and Isaac built a sand city for hours. When our friends said that they had the cabin for the whole week, but didn't intend to use it because of school and work, I couldn't stop myself from staying one extra night with Katie and Isaac while everyone else packed up and went home Monday night.
It was so amazingly peaceful being up there just the three of us. We laid out under the millions of stars together. It was about the most perfect moment in my entire life. I was soaking in every second. Tuesday we laid on a blanket in the grass of the huge yard and played in the water and the sand and swung on the rope swing that hangs from a tree. I was so nostalgic. It was like my whole beautiful life was flashing before my eyes. I drove home Tuesday night with a fierce determination that we needed a little more Bear Lake. We did not leave without a stop at the Chocolate Bear candy shop for chocolate dipped raspberries and a stop at La Beau's for shakes, rootbeer floats and hamburgers.
Our friends were not able to get back up to the cabin until late Saturday night and graciously said we could keep using it while it was unoccupied. On Thursday after school I gathered Ian, Isaac and Katie and we made the gorgeous drive back up Logan Canyon to the lake. This time I was much better prepared with all the clothes and food we would need. But, it was also fun to be spontaneous. Sophie couldn't miss any more school and Brian had work commitments until 9 p.m. on Friday, so they joined us late Friday night.
We had another magical time. Friday was clear and windy. I think the wind stirring up the water made it so you could see it's mystical aquamarine color even better than usual from the shore. It always looks that way when you can get out on the water in a boat. We enjoyed the beautiful view and spent time outdoors, but we also gave ourselves permission to watch four movies. FOUR movies in one day. We were in peak relaxation mode.
When I was preparing to return to the lake, I wanted Ian to skip school Friday and come with us, but I was also worried that he would get bored, because he is a very active teenager and I wasn't sure there would be enough things to entertain him at this point in his life (unlike Katie and Isaac who spend the entire day building sand city and it makes them the happiest kids on the planet). He assured me that he would not be bored and he said, "I like going to Bear Lake because it is the only place I can go to just completely chill." That is exactly the way I feel. At home, I can try to relax and meditate or watch a movie or whatever, but my mind is constantly going. At Bear Lake, there is not one care in the world or one worry in my mind at all. I can sit and stare at the lake or the sky full of stars endlessly and I am content.
Katie and Isaac caught a snake that they played with all day. We also watched a frog swim through the water and, of course, we stayed up late to stare at the stars.
The whole family was there Saturday. The weather was good. I actually got in the lake and went for a swim with all of the kids. The water was freezing! But, it wasn't so bad because I went numb after about 5 seconds. So, we played around in the water for a half hour or so thinking it wasn't that bad. Then, all of the sudden we realized we were super cold and we ran back to the cabin on our numb feet for a warm shower.
Poor Brian was probably working on photos on his computer all day and poor Sophie has had so much homework ever since school started (she spent the better part of the Monday and Saturday that she had at the lake finishing projects for school). But, the rest of us had some pure relaxation. And, even Brian got to take in the BYU vs. U of U game on the big screen Saturday night before he and Sophie headed home. The other kids and I enjoyed one last night, more raspberry shakes, burgers and s'mores over a fire that Ian started in about 2-minutes (amazing!) before driving home Sunday.
Oh--Bear Lake how I LOVE YOU!!! I am so spoiled by this cabin we have been going to for 13-years that I can't imagine how I will ever find another place that compares. We have been so blessed that our friends have given us this gift of inviting us year after year.
Now Bear Lake is checked off the list and I told the kids not to worry. We will make it to the Curiosity Museum before the weather gets too cold to enjoy the outdoor exhibits.
I love that all four of my kids, even my teenagers still want to spend time with me and do dorky things with me like going to kid museums. I LOVE it!
Going to the lake was a wonderful way to begin to wind down the summer. We came back to a busy week and I thought it was busy because I had the carpets cleaned and we were trying to get back on top of things after taking time off. But, now this week is just as busy because it's already parent teacher conference time and Brian and I are neck deep in making the final preparations for the 3rd annual Ram Run 5K to raise money for Ian's junior high. This is our busy life for now so I'm embracing it.
More highlights.
I am absolutely in love with homeschooling Katie and she is having a great time going to school one day a week for core classes and 1/2 day a week for dance, art and animal encounters (where they get to learn about creepy crawly things close up -- today she told me she held a giant lizard!).
Today for math we worked on Roman numerals, which was perfect because we just read about the ancient Roman empire and how some parts of their culture still exist today. She was translating Roman numerals into regular numbers and I remembered learning how to do that myself and how I thought it was so cool -- like a code -- when I was her age. Math is her favorite subject. Except we both really love the history lessons too. I read to her while she colors pictures that have to do with what I am reading to her. It is a win for both of us.
Like every second grader she is eager to learn cursive and always trying to write everything in cursive. I know that in regular school they really discourage the kids from using cursive until 3rd grade. I'm going to ask our education specialist about it at our monthly meeting tomorrow because I think she would be crazy about doing a cursive handwriting unit.
Isaac had a difficult adjustment this year. He and his best friend have been in the same class every year except this one. I am really happy with his teacher. But, he is disappointed to be in a different class from his friend. Disappointed is an understatement. To say that he staged a sit-in and demanded that I sue the school for not putting them in the same class is more accurate. But, we've worked through it and so far (for the most part) so good!
Ian joined the cross country team and has been running every day after school. Today, he competed in his 3rd meet. I am so proud of him for jumping in and doing that! He is enjoying being in two band classes. He plays bass guitar in one and drums in the other. He just got assigned a solo on the drum set and he is stoked. He and Isaac also started fall soccer.
Ian and Katie are taking piano. Isaac tried piano over the summer, but it was not his thing. Sophie started piano over the summer too. I am so proud of her for embracing it! She took piano in Kindergarten, first grade and part of second grade but then soundly rejected it and she has maintained for all these years that she would never return to playing piano or any musical instrument. But, she is doing really well in voice lessons and finally concluded that piano lessons would help her take singing to the next level. She has been doing awesome! But, now she has to quit . . . because . . .
Big surprise! She is going to be in a Christmas production at a local community theater. Two years ago, we went to the theater to see an original production of "Fairly Potter" a musical parody of "Harry Potter" that included new lyrics to more than a dozen favorite broadway tunes. We loved it!
One year ago, the same theater produced "A Fairly Potter Christmas Carol," a clever musical combining the classic Christmas tale with Harry Potter characters and heart warming music. Sophie tried out for the play but didn't make it in. She ushered for a half dozen performances so she could watch it over and over for free.
Ever since we saw the first production two years ago, she has been dreaming about being in a "Fairly Potter" production. So we were both ecstatic to get the news on Saturday that she is in the ensemble. Hooray!!! I am so happy for her. This theater really draws talented casts so I am very humbled that she would get this opportunity at 15-years-old.
This daughter of mine has had quite the transition this year, being in 10th grade. The homework load is unbelievable! She has one AP class (AP European History) and I was trying to warn her that it would include a lot of homework. What I wasn't expecting is that all of her other classes would include a fair amount of homework too. It has really added up! She comes home from school and starts on her homework and doesn't finish (granted she takes some breaks but still--) until 10 p.m. or sometimes later. Then, she is back up at 5:30 a.m. for early morning seminary. Oh my. This is my first experience as a mom seeing this happen first hand even though I've heard other parents talk about it. I hope it starts to even out soon. It has to because now she will have a demanding rehearsal and performance schedule. Piano lessons are the casualty. We will see if they come back around.
Katie has been taking gymnastics and I think she is doing well for a seven-year-old. She does beautiful cartwheels, one handed cartwheels, round-offs and she can stand on her head forever. She is strong and has great balance, but she told me today that she wants to stop taking them for now. I think she would continue to improve so it's kind of hard to take her out, but it is also FINE WITH ME to have one less thing to drive to and pay for every week. Whew! I cannot believe the way it adds up with four kids. Just getting them to and from their four different schools every day is quite enough to wear me out and it is only the beginning.
Last Saturday, Sophie worked at Lagoon and she wanted me to give her a ride home so she could come home (faster than waiting for the shuttle and riding front runner home) and get ready for Homecoming. Once again, she is on the committee to plan and host the dances so she gets to enjoy them even though she isn't technically old enough to date. Katie and I arrived a few hours before her shift ended. She is now brave enough to ride the wooden roller coaster and the wild mouse and she loves them! It is so fun because she giggles the whole time. When we got home, Sophie showered and got ready for the dance, then my dad came over to stay with Katie and Isaac and I took Sophie and Ian to a PG-13 movie they have been wanting to see -- Suicide Squad. It was pretty good and fun to spend an evening out with my teenagers.
Katie's school has fun field trip opportunities on Fridays and our first one this year was a trip to the Natural History Museum by the U of U. How have I never been to this museum before? It is amazing. Even the architecture of the building is impressive. It is almost so amazing that I felt too overwhelmed. But, I am excited to go back and experience even more of what it has to offer, with my other kids too. I guess we will add that to the list along with the Curiosity Museum. I sure do love our adventures.
I am so proud of Sophie for working this summer. I think for the most part, she enjoyed it. It's rough to keep working the weekends now that school has started. Because that is true and so many kids quit at the end of the summer, Lagoon offers a nice bonus to those who finish out the season, so she is doing her best to hang in there until the end of October.
Sophie has not been a natural saver. She loves to spend money the minute it hits her hand. At the beginning of the summer, I encouraged her to save her paychecks for something big. So, she did. She saved every penny until it added up to $900 and then she invited my mom to go with her to Disneyland. Of course my mom was delighted. They are both Disney diehards through and through. They wanted to go before the Diamond celebration was over (it ended on Labor Day). Sophie went to the first three days of school (August 17-19) and then they went to 4-consecutive-days at the park. Sophie insisted that they arrive at opening (8 or 9 a.m.) every day and stay until the park closed (except on the 4th day when they left to catch an evening flight) and my mom DID IT! It's a good thing it was her . . . I don't think I could have had that much stamina. They had a wonderful time and I'm so happy for them.
At the beginning of summer break, my kids made a list of all the things they wanted to do and we DID THEM ALL. We checked many of them off the list several times. Except for two things that remained: Curiosity Museum and Bear Lake. On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, we got a text from our friends inviting them to join them at a Bear Lake cabin that day. We had to be super spontaneous because 1) we got the text at 10 a.m. 2) we had church at 12:30 p.m. and every person in the family needed to take a shower 3) plus, I couldn't talk to Brian about any planning because 10 a.m. is also when he started preparing his lesson for the day and, 4) we had to make do with whatever groceries and clean clothes we already had in the house since there was no time to shop or do laundry.
We arrived home from church at 3:30 and Brian had to go straight to a Raptor's game to take photos while I started packing suitcases and stuffing sleeping bags and camp chairs into the van like a mad lady. Somehow, we made it up to the cabin, also known as paradise, that evening with only one glitch -- that we left Ian's suitcase at home. Funny! It wasn't a big deal since we were just staying over one night.
Monday was absolute perfection. The high was only 63-degrees, but it felt surprisingly warm. The lake was gorgeous. We canoed and paddle boarded and Katie and Isaac built a sand city for hours. When our friends said that they had the cabin for the whole week, but didn't intend to use it because of school and work, I couldn't stop myself from staying one extra night with Katie and Isaac while everyone else packed up and went home Monday night.
It was so amazingly peaceful being up there just the three of us. We laid out under the millions of stars together. It was about the most perfect moment in my entire life. I was soaking in every second. Tuesday we laid on a blanket in the grass of the huge yard and played in the water and the sand and swung on the rope swing that hangs from a tree. I was so nostalgic. It was like my whole beautiful life was flashing before my eyes. I drove home Tuesday night with a fierce determination that we needed a little more Bear Lake. We did not leave without a stop at the Chocolate Bear candy shop for chocolate dipped raspberries and a stop at La Beau's for shakes, rootbeer floats and hamburgers.
Our friends were not able to get back up to the cabin until late Saturday night and graciously said we could keep using it while it was unoccupied. On Thursday after school I gathered Ian, Isaac and Katie and we made the gorgeous drive back up Logan Canyon to the lake. This time I was much better prepared with all the clothes and food we would need. But, it was also fun to be spontaneous. Sophie couldn't miss any more school and Brian had work commitments until 9 p.m. on Friday, so they joined us late Friday night.
We had another magical time. Friday was clear and windy. I think the wind stirring up the water made it so you could see it's mystical aquamarine color even better than usual from the shore. It always looks that way when you can get out on the water in a boat. We enjoyed the beautiful view and spent time outdoors, but we also gave ourselves permission to watch four movies. FOUR movies in one day. We were in peak relaxation mode.
When I was preparing to return to the lake, I wanted Ian to skip school Friday and come with us, but I was also worried that he would get bored, because he is a very active teenager and I wasn't sure there would be enough things to entertain him at this point in his life (unlike Katie and Isaac who spend the entire day building sand city and it makes them the happiest kids on the planet). He assured me that he would not be bored and he said, "I like going to Bear Lake because it is the only place I can go to just completely chill." That is exactly the way I feel. At home, I can try to relax and meditate or watch a movie or whatever, but my mind is constantly going. At Bear Lake, there is not one care in the world or one worry in my mind at all. I can sit and stare at the lake or the sky full of stars endlessly and I am content.
Katie and Isaac caught a snake that they played with all day. We also watched a frog swim through the water and, of course, we stayed up late to stare at the stars.
The whole family was there Saturday. The weather was good. I actually got in the lake and went for a swim with all of the kids. The water was freezing! But, it wasn't so bad because I went numb after about 5 seconds. So, we played around in the water for a half hour or so thinking it wasn't that bad. Then, all of the sudden we realized we were super cold and we ran back to the cabin on our numb feet for a warm shower.
Poor Brian was probably working on photos on his computer all day and poor Sophie has had so much homework ever since school started (she spent the better part of the Monday and Saturday that she had at the lake finishing projects for school). But, the rest of us had some pure relaxation. And, even Brian got to take in the BYU vs. U of U game on the big screen Saturday night before he and Sophie headed home. The other kids and I enjoyed one last night, more raspberry shakes, burgers and s'mores over a fire that Ian started in about 2-minutes (amazing!) before driving home Sunday.
Oh--Bear Lake how I LOVE YOU!!! I am so spoiled by this cabin we have been going to for 13-years that I can't imagine how I will ever find another place that compares. We have been so blessed that our friends have given us this gift of inviting us year after year.
Now Bear Lake is checked off the list and I told the kids not to worry. We will make it to the Curiosity Museum before the weather gets too cold to enjoy the outdoor exhibits.
I love that all four of my kids, even my teenagers still want to spend time with me and do dorky things with me like going to kid museums. I LOVE it!
Going to the lake was a wonderful way to begin to wind down the summer. We came back to a busy week and I thought it was busy because I had the carpets cleaned and we were trying to get back on top of things after taking time off. But, now this week is just as busy because it's already parent teacher conference time and Brian and I are neck deep in making the final preparations for the 3rd annual Ram Run 5K to raise money for Ian's junior high. This is our busy life for now so I'm embracing it.
More highlights.
I am absolutely in love with homeschooling Katie and she is having a great time going to school one day a week for core classes and 1/2 day a week for dance, art and animal encounters (where they get to learn about creepy crawly things close up -- today she told me she held a giant lizard!).
Today for math we worked on Roman numerals, which was perfect because we just read about the ancient Roman empire and how some parts of their culture still exist today. She was translating Roman numerals into regular numbers and I remembered learning how to do that myself and how I thought it was so cool -- like a code -- when I was her age. Math is her favorite subject. Except we both really love the history lessons too. I read to her while she colors pictures that have to do with what I am reading to her. It is a win for both of us.
Like every second grader she is eager to learn cursive and always trying to write everything in cursive. I know that in regular school they really discourage the kids from using cursive until 3rd grade. I'm going to ask our education specialist about it at our monthly meeting tomorrow because I think she would be crazy about doing a cursive handwriting unit.
Isaac had a difficult adjustment this year. He and his best friend have been in the same class every year except this one. I am really happy with his teacher. But, he is disappointed to be in a different class from his friend. Disappointed is an understatement. To say that he staged a sit-in and demanded that I sue the school for not putting them in the same class is more accurate. But, we've worked through it and so far (for the most part) so good!
Ian joined the cross country team and has been running every day after school. Today, he competed in his 3rd meet. I am so proud of him for jumping in and doing that! He is enjoying being in two band classes. He plays bass guitar in one and drums in the other. He just got assigned a solo on the drum set and he is stoked. He and Isaac also started fall soccer.
Ian and Katie are taking piano. Isaac tried piano over the summer, but it was not his thing. Sophie started piano over the summer too. I am so proud of her for embracing it! She took piano in Kindergarten, first grade and part of second grade but then soundly rejected it and she has maintained for all these years that she would never return to playing piano or any musical instrument. But, she is doing really well in voice lessons and finally concluded that piano lessons would help her take singing to the next level. She has been doing awesome! But, now she has to quit . . . because . . .
Big surprise! She is going to be in a Christmas production at a local community theater. Two years ago, we went to the theater to see an original production of "Fairly Potter" a musical parody of "Harry Potter" that included new lyrics to more than a dozen favorite broadway tunes. We loved it!
One year ago, the same theater produced "A Fairly Potter Christmas Carol," a clever musical combining the classic Christmas tale with Harry Potter characters and heart warming music. Sophie tried out for the play but didn't make it in. She ushered for a half dozen performances so she could watch it over and over for free.
Ever since we saw the first production two years ago, she has been dreaming about being in a "Fairly Potter" production. So we were both ecstatic to get the news on Saturday that she is in the ensemble. Hooray!!! I am so happy for her. This theater really draws talented casts so I am very humbled that she would get this opportunity at 15-years-old.
This daughter of mine has had quite the transition this year, being in 10th grade. The homework load is unbelievable! She has one AP class (AP European History) and I was trying to warn her that it would include a lot of homework. What I wasn't expecting is that all of her other classes would include a fair amount of homework too. It has really added up! She comes home from school and starts on her homework and doesn't finish (granted she takes some breaks but still--) until 10 p.m. or sometimes later. Then, she is back up at 5:30 a.m. for early morning seminary. Oh my. This is my first experience as a mom seeing this happen first hand even though I've heard other parents talk about it. I hope it starts to even out soon. It has to because now she will have a demanding rehearsal and performance schedule. Piano lessons are the casualty. We will see if they come back around.
Katie has been taking gymnastics and I think she is doing well for a seven-year-old. She does beautiful cartwheels, one handed cartwheels, round-offs and she can stand on her head forever. She is strong and has great balance, but she told me today that she wants to stop taking them for now. I think she would continue to improve so it's kind of hard to take her out, but it is also FINE WITH ME to have one less thing to drive to and pay for every week. Whew! I cannot believe the way it adds up with four kids. Just getting them to and from their four different schools every day is quite enough to wear me out and it is only the beginning.
Last Saturday, Sophie worked at Lagoon and she wanted me to give her a ride home so she could come home (faster than waiting for the shuttle and riding front runner home) and get ready for Homecoming. Once again, she is on the committee to plan and host the dances so she gets to enjoy them even though she isn't technically old enough to date. Katie and I arrived a few hours before her shift ended. She is now brave enough to ride the wooden roller coaster and the wild mouse and she loves them! It is so fun because she giggles the whole time. When we got home, Sophie showered and got ready for the dance, then my dad came over to stay with Katie and Isaac and I took Sophie and Ian to a PG-13 movie they have been wanting to see -- Suicide Squad. It was pretty good and fun to spend an evening out with my teenagers.
Katie's school has fun field trip opportunities on Fridays and our first one this year was a trip to the Natural History Museum by the U of U. How have I never been to this museum before? It is amazing. Even the architecture of the building is impressive. It is almost so amazing that I felt too overwhelmed. But, I am excited to go back and experience even more of what it has to offer, with my other kids too. I guess we will add that to the list along with the Curiosity Museum. I sure do love our adventures.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Isaac Turned 11 in a Big Way
Isaac turned 11 and since his actual birthday was on Sunday, my mom decided to make a special dinner for him. Usually when she makes a birthday dinner for someone, she takes requests or surprises them with their favorite foods.
Isaac is so picky that about the only foods he will eat are: chips with cheese, macaroni and cheese and cheese quesadillas (Brian and I are endlessly trying to explain to him why these are all basically the same food). Once in awhile he will accept a taco, hot dog, cheeseburger or green smoothie. I know the last one seems out of place on this list, but it's true.
My mom is so fabulous that she hatched a plan to serve Isaac chips and cheese for his birthday dinner. She just included a bunch of other amazing toppings (like sweet pork and homemade guacamole) for the rest of us. At last, Isaac could be served a big plate of his favorite food at Sunday dinner instead of having to sit at the table staring at a plate of food he hates for 1/2 hour before someone gives in and makes him a plate of chips and cheese like usual.
He is really into Legos and wanted one of those giant $100 Lego sets. I say giant, but in reality, all Lego sets are tiny when you take out the bricks and build what is pictured. He has one million Legos already and he has to keep them spread over his entire bedroom floor. Every once in awhile, I ruin his life by cleaning them up so I can vacuum. It ruins his life because he has to be able to see all of them all the time, so he quickly scatters them all over the floor again. It takes me over an hour to clean them up (it would take him months because when he cleans them up he has to build a tiny Lego digger that scoops them up one at a time and drives them to the "dump") so--it was a little hard to buy him more Legos. My parents and Brian and I went in together on the big police station set for him because we knew it would make him so happy and there are only so many years of life when you can make your kids that happy by buying them a toy. The Lego madness continues!
On Sunday, he got the giant Lego set and chips and cheese for dinner and cheesecake with candles for dessert. Also, Sunday morning he woke up to a giant stuffed Mario. You know the really giant ones that you can win at amusement parks? Sophie went to an after hours games party at Lagoon where she works and won one and she is so sweet she wanted to give it to Isaac. Lately, he has been asking me to buy him a stuffed Mario and Luigi. It was a very good surprise when he woke up on his birthday to find giant Mario sitting at the table waiting for him. Now whenever someone rings the doorbell, Isaac grabs Mario and hides behind the door while Mario "opens it" and greets whoever is there.
We decided to throw a giant shindig for Isaac's birthday party. In my mind, there were twelve party guests. We made a list of about 9-10 boys from school who he wanted to invite. Somehow the list grew from there and without even realizing it, we must have invited 35 people and they ALL showed up!
I think I meant to put on the invite that the party was from 7:30pm-10pm, but instead I put 7pm-10:30pm -- A 3 1/2 hour party!? With 35 wild and crazy 10-year-old guests?
We survived. It was memorable. Isaac got lots more Legos.
Brian made some awesome Lego City invitations. We rented a colorful bounce house and inflatable slide. I bought everything lego that I could find from Oriental Trading including awesome lego wallets and lego bracelets for the party favor bags. There were 24-bags which I thought would be way too many. The favors came in twelves and I considered buying one set (because in my mind there were 12 people at the party). I decided to buy two sets in the end because what if there were 13? Hahahahaha.
I also had 24 plates and cups and only 24 cupcakes since I accidentally dumped a pan of 12 of the 36 I was baking and when it happened I thought, "Oh well, 24 will be plenty." After everyone arrived, it was clear I was going to be short. Brian said, "Do you want me to run to the store?" I said, "Please don't leave me." Because having that many crazy kids running through your yard going from trampoline to bounce house to night games that encompass the backyard and the front yard and sometimes the street after dark is a very overwhelming responsibility. Luckily, my mom was able to go to the store for more food, cupcakes and supplies -- most importantly cups -- and bring them to us. You do not want to run short on cups with a big crowd of thirsty kids on a hot August night.
In the end the party was saved and even though it felt like a long 3.5 hours at the time (it was a long 3.5 hours because the bounce house was at my house all day and there were lots of kids playing on it in a loud and rambunctious way long before the very long party ever began) -- despite it being a pretty big undertaking -- I couldn't stop thinking how nice it was that 35 people showed up to Isaac's party. Having friends is pretty much the best.
Isaac is so picky that about the only foods he will eat are: chips with cheese, macaroni and cheese and cheese quesadillas (Brian and I are endlessly trying to explain to him why these are all basically the same food). Once in awhile he will accept a taco, hot dog, cheeseburger or green smoothie. I know the last one seems out of place on this list, but it's true.
My mom is so fabulous that she hatched a plan to serve Isaac chips and cheese for his birthday dinner. She just included a bunch of other amazing toppings (like sweet pork and homemade guacamole) for the rest of us. At last, Isaac could be served a big plate of his favorite food at Sunday dinner instead of having to sit at the table staring at a plate of food he hates for 1/2 hour before someone gives in and makes him a plate of chips and cheese like usual.
He is really into Legos and wanted one of those giant $100 Lego sets. I say giant, but in reality, all Lego sets are tiny when you take out the bricks and build what is pictured. He has one million Legos already and he has to keep them spread over his entire bedroom floor. Every once in awhile, I ruin his life by cleaning them up so I can vacuum. It ruins his life because he has to be able to see all of them all the time, so he quickly scatters them all over the floor again. It takes me over an hour to clean them up (it would take him months because when he cleans them up he has to build a tiny Lego digger that scoops them up one at a time and drives them to the "dump") so--it was a little hard to buy him more Legos. My parents and Brian and I went in together on the big police station set for him because we knew it would make him so happy and there are only so many years of life when you can make your kids that happy by buying them a toy. The Lego madness continues!
On Sunday, he got the giant Lego set and chips and cheese for dinner and cheesecake with candles for dessert. Also, Sunday morning he woke up to a giant stuffed Mario. You know the really giant ones that you can win at amusement parks? Sophie went to an after hours games party at Lagoon where she works and won one and she is so sweet she wanted to give it to Isaac. Lately, he has been asking me to buy him a stuffed Mario and Luigi. It was a very good surprise when he woke up on his birthday to find giant Mario sitting at the table waiting for him. Now whenever someone rings the doorbell, Isaac grabs Mario and hides behind the door while Mario "opens it" and greets whoever is there.
We decided to throw a giant shindig for Isaac's birthday party. In my mind, there were twelve party guests. We made a list of about 9-10 boys from school who he wanted to invite. Somehow the list grew from there and without even realizing it, we must have invited 35 people and they ALL showed up!
I think I meant to put on the invite that the party was from 7:30pm-10pm, but instead I put 7pm-10:30pm -- A 3 1/2 hour party!? With 35 wild and crazy 10-year-old guests?
We survived. It was memorable. Isaac got lots more Legos.
Brian made some awesome Lego City invitations. We rented a colorful bounce house and inflatable slide. I bought everything lego that I could find from Oriental Trading including awesome lego wallets and lego bracelets for the party favor bags. There were 24-bags which I thought would be way too many. The favors came in twelves and I considered buying one set (because in my mind there were 12 people at the party). I decided to buy two sets in the end because what if there were 13? Hahahahaha.
I also had 24 plates and cups and only 24 cupcakes since I accidentally dumped a pan of 12 of the 36 I was baking and when it happened I thought, "Oh well, 24 will be plenty." After everyone arrived, it was clear I was going to be short. Brian said, "Do you want me to run to the store?" I said, "Please don't leave me." Because having that many crazy kids running through your yard going from trampoline to bounce house to night games that encompass the backyard and the front yard and sometimes the street after dark is a very overwhelming responsibility. Luckily, my mom was able to go to the store for more food, cupcakes and supplies -- most importantly cups -- and bring them to us. You do not want to run short on cups with a big crowd of thirsty kids on a hot August night.
In the end the party was saved and even though it felt like a long 3.5 hours at the time (it was a long 3.5 hours because the bounce house was at my house all day and there were lots of kids playing on it in a loud and rambunctious way long before the very long party ever began) -- despite it being a pretty big undertaking -- I couldn't stop thinking how nice it was that 35 people showed up to Isaac's party. Having friends is pretty much the best.
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