Sare Bear

Total phonetic spelling but that's what we call sister Sarah. Or just bear. And it's her birthday! She's not very excited about it but I wanted to wish her a happy day. Of course, she'll read this tomorrow when it's the day after but offically, I posted this on her big day.

Sarah loves to travel and has been to Europe and China. She's at the great wall with Mom.

What a great person to have in your corner. Sarah is a giver and a nurturer. She can't help herself but sacrifice whatever to make whoever a little more comfortable...happy....cared for. If you mention that you really like her round brush...she'll give it to you (I think I've gotten two!). Come to stay with her...her bed is yours. Have a baby/bridal shower, wedding reception, graduation, reunion...she'll easily drive 500-600 miles to be there. She is a friend in every sense of the word. She's a blast to hang out with. She gets the giggles and her eyes start to water (always) which makes me laugh. She'll tickle my forearm if I'm sitting next to her because she knows I love it. She's a tough defender on b-ball with her zealous boxing out. She's a great aunt. My kids love her because she loves them. She'll change their diapers, feed them, give baths and put on pajamas - I love my wife!

Sarah and Henry

Sarah and Owen

I wish I could have my make-up look like hers. I remember the days she'd want me to do hers but those days are long gone. I'm still pretty much doing my make-up the same way I've always one (which is so sad...but I don't know what else to do!) but she's total glam. To quote KT Tunstell, "you can see she's a beautiful girl, she's a beautiful girl."

Maureen, Mom and Sarah

Hope you had a fabulous day!

Love ya!

The Russians are coming!

Perhaps. They were supposed to be here two days ago. For the last several months, our house has not been very safe. We put laminate flooring in our kitchen/dining room which is such an improvement over the vinyl/carpet that predated it. The railing overlooking the living room was severely scratched from the previous owners so we decided with the new floors to put in a new railing as well. It was easier to do the floors at the diagonal by taking out the railing but it's been slower than we anticipated getting the railing put back in. Jay has been too busy to do it and with Henry being as mobile as he is now, I decided to just hire it out. Unfortunately, this is a crazy-busy time for contractors as many, many people seem to have remodel projects. In other words, the wait list for getting a contractor to do my stairs was a couple of months.

Without much hope, I was lamenting to my neighbor when she suggested using a parent of one of her 4th grade students. He was a licenced contractor, but Russian, so he was a bit hard to understand. I called and he planned to come and look at our project the next day. His son came instead who was much easier to understand, although he still had a very thick accent and quirky business skills. We explained what needed to be done, how we had intended to do it and he immediately said, "no, no, no...that is very ugly and out of style." Obviously, his business plan was not to stroke our ego. Our original plan was to put in the exact same railing that we have now, just newer...without the scratches. Instead, he suggested cutting 4 inches out of the floor, putting in a base and putting the rails into it. It will look a lot better, in theory, and I just sincerely hope that I am not being a fool for hiring someone who I'm not 100% certain understands me. Fortunately, Jay was home when he came to do his "bid" because we had to give him a number. He said it just like that..."give me a number" (be sure to add the accent when you imagine this conversation) and I looked at Jay and got a case of the giggles. What country am I in? We protested and said that isn't how we feel comfortable doing it but he insisted and said, "you must give me a number." I was thinking $1000 so when Jay said $300 I sort of blushed but he narrowed his eyes and said, "close." With parts and tax it's going to be $500. I really hope they have a similar creed as physicians with "first, do no harm." But, seriously, if they are not here today, a new type of cold war may begin.

Hopefully, in a few short days, we will be defying death no longer.

He wears his sunglasses at night

Brown-eyed boy

The glasses came. I had a momentary lapse in judgment. Remember, I was a bit traumatized by the whole appointment and Sam's prognosis so when the optical shop started rattling off options I just sort of nodded. They reassured me that my insurance covered everything - there was no out-of-pocket expense to me at all. The time came when they asked about the self-tinting lenses. At first I said "no". Images of elementary classmates whose glasses got dark at recess popped in my mind and it wasn't a happy thought. But then I thought how much Seth loves wearing sunglasses and how Sam wants to be like Seth. I asked if they cleared up quickly and they gave me a demo. It seemed harmless. And so the words, "o.k...go ahead" came out of my mouth. The feeling that I had made a gross error in judgment overwhelmed me on the way home. I told my friends who reassured me that he'd be fine...not nerdy...and if I didn't like them then I would definitely know and not get them next time. Then I told my sisters who balked and started throwing out names of those quirky kids who had those glasses.

Disco Sammy

They came last Monday and Sammy has been a star about wearing them and his patch. They frustrate him at times and we catch him tilting his head back and looking out the bottom of them or peaking above the rims. I think the bifocals confuse him. He says things are blurry and that he can't see. I hope he figures it out. It's tough to seem him struggle. He misses steps sometimes, especially stairs. But...I think he looks darn cute. They do enlarge his eyes so his gigantic brown eyes seem even more gigantic:-) I just don't love the tint. I think it's still extremely nerdy. But I won't tell him that.

And then suddenly...

my baby is big! (did you expect to find the words "last summer" next? Fooled you, you 80's music lover...) When did that happen? I'm not kidding, two weeks ago he was completely different. Then came the two teeth beside his top front teeth. Next, he mastered crawling on his hands and knees (he had the army commando move down for a couple of months). Once on his hands and knees, he had to pull himself up to a stand. And his hair is a lot thicker, more even and lighter. With some major pavlov conditioning from a certain motivated relative, he seems to be able to say "DaDa". He moved up to eating stage 3 foods. Switched to milk formula from soy. Spit up is a rare occurence anymore.

Up on his hands and knees

I remember him being around 1 week old and telling someone that the baby stage goes by so fast so I'm just going to hold him as much as I can because before I know it, he'll be big. I remember saying that. But this big baby is such a surprise to me.

Look what I can do!

Book Review #11 - The Memory Keeper's Daughter

I can see why people like this book. I liked it. But I think because I read it immediately after I finished Drowning Ruth it had less of an impact on me. Both books were about secrets and the cancer they cause in their own lives and the lives of those around them. Both books make dramatic chronological jumps in time to progress the age of the characters. When this book did it, a bit of the intimacy you feel with the charaters dies. The writing is very vivid. The first paragraph about the snow is so descriptive that I felt cold.

The end seems out of place. I've never even attempted to write a story so I don't know how hard it is to finish one but I find endings disappointing more often than not. This book's ending was unfulfilling. I don't really know why. It's like the revelation of the daughter, Phoebe, somehow makes things alright for the mother and twin brother. Both seem ready to "try" to be happy now, something that evaded everyone in this novel. Perhaps that is what would happen. It seems more complicated than that...like other, less altruistic emotions would somehow prevail.

Definitely worth reading. I love looking into the lives of families and marriages. This is an interesting look.

Book Review #10 - Drowning Ruth

This book grabbed my attention in a book store because it was among a group of books under the heading "Our Favorites". I felt a bit uneasy writing the title down due to the Oprah branding but the jacket summary intrigued me. Oprah got this one right. It is a great book! A mystery without real suspense, you know you're going to discover a secret just through the writing. The story unfolds very gently, all the while the reader gets to know the characters intimately. I highly recommend this book and won't say much else in case anyone takes that suggestion.

Book Review #9 - Mormon Enigma - Emma Hale Smith

I feel like such a history buff. I read this at Shelah's suggestion and I'm glad I did. It's true that history changes depending on who wrote it because this book has a very different feel than the Bushman book on Joseph Smith I read a couple of months ago. I think Emma Smith must have been a force to be reckoned with. She was a strong, opinionated, independent woman at a time when those characteristics in a female were much more rare. I would truly love to have a chance to talk with her. From accounts given in this biography, she was a very charitable being, a doting mother and well educated. Someone the prophet loved and needed the good opinion of. What frustrated me when reading this, however, were all of the second hand accounts of her life. She didn't keep a history or journal and the only time her voice is heard is in letters. Her later years, when she fell out of favor with the Utah saints, were tainted by reports of missionaries traveling through Nauvoo with an interest in checking up on her. She had no desire to be checked up on and seemed to make an effort to appear unfriendly and changed from the woman many of them knew and loved.

So much of this book deals with polygamy. I honestly don't know if I would have reacted any differently than Emma if put in her situation. I guess I'm glad I don't have to find out. It's interesting to me to see polygamy come up in the news and entertainment. As church members, we find the practice appalling because it is against the commandments....now. We distance ourselves from the fundamentalists who show up in the news and make comments about how they are NOT mormon. But it was a commandment at one time. Emma couldn't get her heart or brain around it and upon the death of her husband, felt she needed to distance herself from the leadership she knew would continue the practice she found so abhorrent. Others, like her, fell away from the church or were ex-communicated due to misunderstanding or unlawful engagement of the practice. Today, the opposite is true. And it boils down to faith in a prophet. Did Joseph Smith receive a revelation about it? Did Wilford Woodruff? Gordon B. Hinckley? Emma was so close to Joseph she must have saw so much of the man as well as the prophet in him. She was convinced that he was deceived regarding the revelation of polygamy...that it was not from Heavenly Father. But the twelve, most importantly Brigham Young, saw otherwise.

Oh...so much to think about. Thanks for the suggestion, Shelah. I'm sure I wouldn't have read it otherwise.

We're Back!

I have so many posts in my brain! But first a recap of our HOT trip to Phoenix. Our flight down was almost a disaster. We flew on Frontier airlines because they were the cheapest but also because we had vouchers after a flight cancellation nightmare when we were Austin, TX in April. Purchasing the tickets was complicated because no one seemed to know how to proceed using the vouchers and sure enough...when we got to the airport to check-in, our tickets were very messed up. Basically, they had a ticket for me but none for Seth or Sam. After about 40 minutes, a somewhat competant ticket agent figured it out and we had to purchase one ticket. Believe me, Frontier will hear about it! But we were happy to finally be on the plane.

As soon as we hit the tarmac in Phoenix the wall of heat hit us. Wow. Seriously...I don't think I could ever live there. It's the end of September, people, and every day we were there the temperature was over 100 degrees. It made it too hot to do anything involving movement except swim...which we did a lot of. The hotel we stayed at had a giant, waterpark type pool area with a wave pool, lazy river, waterslides, baby pool, and sprinkler park. The boys had a great time but it was hard without Jay. Sammy almost drowned once, which is hardly a surprise, but it kept me on my toes after that. Once Jay came back after his conference, everyone had a great time. The next day, I kept them at the small pool with no frills that was right by our hotel room. That way, I could let Henry take his much needed naps and still keep the other boys entertained. We spent a lot of time with our friends, the Giles, who live in Mesa. We were neighbors in Denver while Cory was in dental school and Jay in med school. But I never got to hang with her when she was a mom as her first son was born after we both moved. Libby and I had a great time letting our boys play and swim and catching up.
Jackson, Sammy, Seth and Jefferson taking a swim

Jay did great on his presentation and received a lot of positive feedback so I'm happy for him. He worked hard and deserves the recognition. I'm still trying to decide if I love the medical conference/family trip combo. How can you complain about a free hotel room and going places we'd never go to otherwise at this point in our lives. Yet, it's hard to be away from home with three kids and not get frustrated when he's at the conference he's supposed to be at. I'm sort of a sleep nazi and my babies just don't sleep well in hotels. But how fun to go places with Jay. In one calendar year, we've been to Washington D.C. (with that trip, Gettysburg and North Carolina too), Austin and Phoenix. And I was planning on going to Milwaukee and Denver for fellowship interviews but didn't due to Henry's ICU stay. I do love to travel and I suppose if this is how it's going to be for the next few years, I'm just going to have to grin and enjoy it...sleepless nights and all.

My tiredness is reflecting in how I'm writing. I really did have a good time. I'm not going to post pictures because that just takes so much effort sometimes and I can't do it tonight.

Potpourri

I have so many things to catch up on and so little time so this blog won't be very fulfilling to me but if I don't get them down then some of my thoughts will be lost forever. Bear with me.

On Wednesday, I went to a discount store that I have heard carries most of the Costco returns. It's a warehouse and not pretty but they do carry mostly Costco things. I found a six-pack of Halloween candle holders for only $4.99. Now, I am not a seasonal decorator. I'm not even a decorator decorator if you really must know. I have lived in this house for 4+ years now and still don't have a single picture on my bedroom walls. I have neither the sense nor inclination to spend that much time putting things up or down every few weeks. But these were such a good deal and I thought, "How hard could it be to display these on the piano or dining room table for a few weeks." Bought. Still in box though.

Thursday, I went grocery shopping and there was a large box full of various squashes. Fancy, unusual kinds. Last year, I picked up a bunch of gourd at a U-pick farm and it made a nice fall display on my table. Thinking on those same lines, I put about 5 different kinds of squashes into my cart. I saw $.69 on the box and thought it to be an affordable, organic decoration. Also...remember....I was fancying myself an interior decorator due to my Halloween decor purchased the previous day. Of course, at the checkout when the large, orange squash got rung up and the price for it was over 8 dollars, I realized that it was $.69/pound and that my new fall decorations were going to be a bit pricey. $20.00...for what I picked up for about $3.00 last year. This is so classic me I had to post about it. But the squash is so much prettier and less deformed than the other stuff. There are also cooking directions on each one so I could always have a squash feast as well.

Aren't they pretty? Just not a bargain!

Thursday night was Chicago. Jay and I went to eat at Linnie's Thai which is always delicious and then on to the show. I have to say I was disappointed in the broadway production. The set was boring and the dancing a bit lackluster. I honestly think the movie was better and how often do you get to say that? I really like the music in Chicago and Roxie Hart did an O.K. job. Lots of flesh and fishnet. It's the kind of show you feel a bit scandalous going to.

Jen and Christopher have season tickets to the shows in Spokane with 2 other couples and so she just came to my house after the show and we drove over to Seattle together on Friday morning. We left shortly after 8:30 am and our first stop was in Bend to shop the outlet stores. We had so much fun there. They have great stores...GAP, GAP Baby and Kids, Eddie Bauer, Osh Kosh, Carters. We realized at 3:30 that we needed to stop shopping and leave for the airport to go pick up Maureen and Sarah. We picked them up and met Jon, Tara and their kids at Claim Jumper Restaurant. I hadn't eaten anything but Shredded Wheat all day so I ate my Lettuce Wraps with gusto! After dinner, Sarah and her friend Jana, Jen and I went to IKEA and shopped some more. After IKEA and realizing how much money I spent, I felt a bit sick to my stomach and told myself that there was to be no more spending money the next day. Sarah and I went and sat in the hot tub at the hotel and then we went to bed.

Saturday, we did T-Tapp in our hotel room and then Sarah and I went and worked out in the hotel's fitness center. After breakfast, we checked out and went to Bellevue Square. It's a very upscale mall with all of the "nice" stores in it so I couldn't buy anything. We had fun wandering through some children's clothing boutiques but I don't think I could ever spend over $50 on a pair of 6-12 month jeans! Even if I could afford it. Well...perhaps then, but I couldn't believe some of those prices. I needed shoes so I hit all of the shoe stores. I went to Nordstroms first and after looking at a few of those prices quickly left the store. I ended up in JC Penneys ( I have no idea how that store hasn't gotten kicked out of the mall yet...it's like the ugly stepsister of the entire mall) and I found a pair of black ankle boots there for a fraction of the cost of some of the other's I'd seen. We ate lunch at Chipotle where I had to forego the tortilla and sour cream and cheese but it was still so yummy! We drove into Seattle and found parking and then waited for everyone else to arrive at the theater.

The musical Wicked is so good. I'd rank it right after Les Miserables as all time favorites. It is far better than the book. So clever and it pretty much makes the same point as the book without all of the religious and political rantings that started to bug me. The music is good, the set and costumes are fun and the story is very, very entertaining. If you have a chance to see it, it is worth the effort and money. Afterwards, we ate at the Cheesecake Factory and Sarah and I shared the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake. Divine! Then I drove home and got to my house at 11:30 pm.

Jay was asleep with Henry in our bed and I put him in his crib. He felt warm and he had an awful night. Jay woke up and told me he and the boys had made a movie for me. It's a 11 minute slide show put to music of their weekend. Jay set an alarm on his watch and took a picture every 10 minutes the entire weekend (well...when the boys were awake). It's priceless. I included a some of my favorites. I wish I could somehow have the whole 11 minutes because the transition from picture to picture and the music he selected is what makes it so good. Fantastic gift.

Sam keeping Henry away from his Candyland game

Sammy riding his bike on the path across the street

Feeding Henry. He won't keep his bib on.

Sammy greeting Seth after he gets off the bus

Light Sabers! An every day occurence.

Notice the time on the microwave....this is my favorite!

Getting thrown up on...

In the bath after throwing-up on Jay

Bedtime for 3 boys


Hugs at a soccer game

Seth reading

Bedtime again

Henry was sick the next day but it was the primary program so we all went to Sacrament meeting and then I took Henry home. Seth did great and it was relaxing to watch the program as a parent and not as the person in charge. I had done the program for 8 years in a row! I got caught up on some of the shows I missed and tidied up a little bit. The house is pretty much a disaster after the weekend which I can totally relate to so I have some work to do today to get ready for our trip.

That's it. I hope to get Sammy's glasses today. Seth is so mad that he has to miss soccer this week but we have a fabulous hotel in Phoenix (Pointe South Mountain) that he is going to have a blast at! It's like another mini summer vacation. So, another hiatus from blogging. I'll be back on Sunday!

Seth in the hood?

Mrs. Harvey during author time.

I volunteered in Seth's classroom yesterday. It is light years away from his sweet kindergarten class. I have realized, with hindsight, that his kindergarten class was abnormally idyllic. The group of kids, while not overly diverse but not completely homogenous, really balanced each other. Their teacher laid the ground rules early on and there was not a lot of the craziness that you'd expect when dealing with 25 five and six year-olds. I chalked it up to the great school and the types of families that live within the school boundaries.

Seth has been coming home with some very interesting stories about his first grade class. It seems there are a number of ruffians in his class who often get in trouble. Last Thursday, a note came home with each student explaining that the classes were too big and that a new class would be added. Six or seven students from each of the three first grade classes would be pulled to form this additional class. All of the unknowns involved with a new teacher and classmates, not to mention our future moves prompted Jay and me to write a letter appealing to the principle's good sense not to move Seth to this new class. We received word Monday that he would not be moving and I went and volunteered yesterday, which happened to be the last day that the original class would all be together.

Who boy! Those couple of rough kids? Way worse than I thought. They aren't just hard because they are hyper or have ADD. They are ghetto rough. I'm not kidding. One was talking about his "blades" and guns and acting like a little ganster and the other had this scary anti-social quality to him and told the class that his uncle told him all teachers secretly bring guns and knives to school. He has previously told them all that there is no heaven and they are all going to hell! And the ganster? His real name was just found out. They had all been calling him something else for 2 weeks! Kind of pathological.

One of the kids is getting moved to the new class so that helps things out a bit. I know that these kids need every possible chance given to them. They are six and they did not learn this behavior on their own. My heart goes out to them and I want to drop kick whoever has influenced their attitudes. But my job, Seth's mom, also wants them to be as far away from my child as possible.

Six desks will be removed which will add a lot more space to this over-crowded classroom.

I miss kindergarten! I'm glad I'm able to go and volunteer and observe Seth in his class. I like his teacher and am SO glad he was not moved. That teacher will not only have to play catch-up the entire year but she will have to figure out a way to avoid giving all of her attention to this certain child who could probably use full-time help.

On a side note, I won't be able to blog for a few days. I'm leaving for Seattle tomorrow morning with my sister, Jennifer, for a "sister's" weekend. Emily won't be there so it's not really complete but we are going to shop and see the musical, "Wicked". I'm really looking forward to a couple of mommy-free days. Tonight, Jay and I are going to see the musical "Chicago"! Beware! I may just break into song during the next week!

Oh, and yeah....that pithy thing? Ixednay!

Pithiness

This entire post will be hard for me to write. I'm trying an experiment while also explaining the reasons for the experiment and the two completely contradict each other.

First, some background knowledge. Jay and I have some competitiveness between us. Nothing harmful or destructive...just some playful endeavors. For instance, we have an electronic Sudoku game that times each puzzle. I held the record for awhile and then he became determined to beat me. He'd work at it and eventually beat my time. The next day, I took the record back by shaving off a few seconds. I actually felt a bit bad because I didn't want him to feel bad while also feeling Sudoku superior. He began a new quest and within a few days beat my time again. This record has held for months. It seemed unbeatable - 2:34. I had sort of given up, but I gave it a whirl the other day and brought my "A" game. 2:17! That time will be near impossible to beat but I'm sure he'll read this...come home and get to work.

Well, our blogs have become a bit competitive. Sister Emily informed of us this website called statcounter.com and you can download it and it will keep track of "hits" on your site. So, we both know how many times our blogs have been accessed. He has always been ahead of me and last night I was wondering aloud, why? It's not like he has this secret stash of readers. The only people who even know about ours are our families and close friends. In fact, I'm sure more people know about mine. Honestly, I don't really care who reads this...I just like to write. But in the evenings when he teases me about what number I'm up to, I assure him he is still king. Back to last night, though....I made the comment about how Jenny had linked one of her blogs to mine and she has tons of internet saavy friends so perhaps my count would rise. He seemed confused about which blog she linked to and I replied, "the dancing one!" But he didn't know what I was talking about because HE HADN'T READ IT! Well....no wonder my count is lower if he's not even going to it! He defended himself that mine are just too wordy for him and so he "skims". So, in an attempt to attract a certain someone over to lifeisaspasmwhoflow.blogspot.com, I'm going to attempt to keep this blog pithy....which....obviously will be difficult for me.

Now the experiment begins. Today I'm watching my next door neighbor's children. It makes things quite a bit harder. Her kindergartner didn't get off the bus so after 15 minutes past the time I was expecting the bus I called the school and she was there. I went to pick her up and got the glares from the office. Would go into more detail but.....

My boys have colds. There is a lot of snot I'm cleaning up....

It's rainy and cold here. Makes my walks a little less appealing...

I don't know if this is going to work for me.

Book Review #8 - A Single Shard

This is a 2002 Newberry Medal Award Winner in Juvenile fiction. It is a story of a 10-year old, homeless orphan named Tree-ear in 12th century Korea. He lives under a bridge with another homeless man, Crane-man, who has taken care of him for years. They struggle to eat and stay warm but this 10-year old has a secret indulgence...he goes and watches a master potter work at his wheel. One day, he finds the potter gone but notices several of his pieces drying on a shelf. He goes in for a closer look and when the potter finds him there, he startles and knocks a valuable piece off the shelf and it breaks.

To pay the debt, he works for the potter but once his debt is paid, asks to stay on and work for him in hopes of one day becoming his apprentice. But in Korea, apprenticeships are passed down father to son and this orphan realizes he'll be left out once more.

This is a wonderful, easy read about love, hard-work, patience and perseverance. It is uplifting literature.

I'm finally a soccer mom.

Finally, my vote will be lusted after because I now have a 6 year-old playing soccer every Saturday. I have avoided signing Seth up any earlier because I just didn't want him to get caught up in that busy, over-achieving, suburbia lifestyle any earlier than necessary. Plus, he never asked to play. I'm sure if I would have asked him he would have jumped up and down and talked non-stop about how excited he is for soccer to start and then continue to talk incessantly about soccer for the rest of the season and beyond until he started something else because that is just the kind of kid he is. He gets into things.

Practice has been great! Seth really enjoys the structure of the drills and seems to have a natural ability. He's pretty quick but not super competitive so he plays hard, enjoys the exercise and has a really good time. His first game was on Saturday and let's just say that it was a bit different than practice.

First of all, it was cold. He had the first game of the day at 8:00 and the van thermometer said only 41 degrees when we got to the parking lot. After five minutes, I realized we needed way more warmth and ran home to get blankets, coats and hats. Skinny Seth gets cold very easily but he did surprisingly well with the chill. His team consists of 6 boys and 3 play at a time. He played the second and fourth quarter and we just bundled him when he wasn't playing. There is one boy on his team, Shamrock, that has played the last two years and has a mom who played soccer. He is definitely the best boy on the team and when he was on the field, the Moran Speedo Lightning Fast Prairie Dogs (what do you expect when you let six-year olds name the team??) were scoring lots of goals.

Corner kick. His coach is giving him instructions on kicking it into play.

Then Seth's threesome played and the scoring stopped. The other team had this semi-pro player

a rare moment when semi-pro didn't have the ball. Seth is behind him.
I don't know where he is going...probably to the goal. He likes defense.

who completely dominated. This boy also played the second and fourth quarters so his team just scored goal after goal. I was surprised how frustrated I felt. I wasn't expecting to be that competitive parent but apparently I'm sort of like that. Seth was having a lot of fun playing, although several times he'd just run off over into in la-la land. It seemed he was determined to get back on "D" - even when his team still had the ball. The second and fourth quarter MSLFPD squad didn't get past the half line into their opponents territory very often. I didn't keep score but am pretty sure that Seth's team got smoked. But he had a great time, which - I know, is the point.

His face makes it all worth it.

An untapped market

As I logged onto my computer, yahoo messenger opened automatically (as it always does) and I always close it right away because all of the bars along the bottom of windows bug me. But I've noticed lately this catchy ad that yahoo uses on their start-up. Perhaps you have seen it too. The company the ad is for is lowermybills.com. Not a site I would be interested in going to but they use silouetted dancers...up on a brick wall with the moonlight in the background. It's just a looped playback - so the dancers just move from one end of the screen to the other. But this guy! Oh, he is fun to watch! He does this gumbiesque move...lots of torso rolling.

I love to dance. It's not something I get to do much in my current role of SAHM but in my heyday, I had many a bad dancing partners. Maybe this Mr. Torso reminds me of some, I don't know. But I get a bit giddy watching him. Now that I'm thinking about it, I receive a lot of joy watching "bad" dancers. And bad dancers are not all created equally. It's no fun watching someone who looks uncomfortable and is clearly not having a good time cutting a rug. But someone who just lets loose, gets the shoulders going, the clapping and snapping...perhaps even some tiptoeing....that is pure enjoyment. It's not me laughing AT them....really. That would be mean. I would describe it more as an appreciation of their expression - their lack of inhibitions.

Lately, there have been all of these programs and competitions that showcase good dancers. Clearly, good dancers are great to watch, too. People doing things that you know your own body is incapable of with the combination of music and energy and interpretion is something I also love to watch. But if there is a niche in business that likes to put smiles on peoples' faces...I would hope they might consider bad dancing. It doesn't necessarily have to be a huge T.V. show on FOX (because you KNOW they would be the station to carry such a show) but simple, smaller things would suffice. Birthday parties...half-time entertainment....situations where you want a light mood. Think of some of the funniest episodes of Seinfeld. Elaine dancing has got to be close to the top of the list. Carlton on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? Best dance scene of all time - Napoleon Dynamite? Oh, the possibilities!

Here's a couple of my favorites. I hope they brings a smile to your face.

Book Review #7 - Happiness Sold Separately

This is not a cheerful book. It's not all out depressing but these are not happy people. The title derives from one of the characters' observations about her neighborhood. She lives in Silicon Valley and among very succesful people. The homes and yards are nice but do not make her happy. That is not an available upgrade. The two main characters are struggling with infertility and then infidelity. Mostly a character driven book, the author attempts to portray a tangled situation without a clear protaganist. Everyone is flawed but also someone you might root for. But their choices! Such poor, poor choices after such bad luck.

This is the author's second novel. Her first, Good Grief, I really enjoyed. This isn't as good. I like the writing but there are definitely better tragedies out there. Save yourself the angst.

Strabismus and Ambloypia

Big words for a crossed eye and loss of vision in that eye. Sammy's opthamology appointment yesterday was hard for me. Obviously, I'm the grown-up and need to be optimistic and encouraging but I admit to crying (silently and with dignity bookgroup people!) in the van on the way home.

Sam has an eye that has been crossing (Strabismus) for a little over 3 weeks. I don't know what was happening with his vision before that but the vision in his bad eye is quite poor now. That is the ambloypia. His brain has turned off the signal from his crossed eye so that it doesn't become confused with the image it receives from the good one. It was so hard to watch him struggle to read the picture chart. He wanted to do well and I could tell he was pleased when he got it right. When his good eye was covered he started to guess and then just started saying, "I don't know." I gave him the thumbs up but I could tell he was disappointed having to say that. In order to improve the vision in his left eye he will need to wear a patch over his good eye for 4 hours a day for an undetermined length of time -- I suppose until they know how his eye responds to this treatment. He will also need to wear glasses to deal with the crossing which they believe is a focusing problem. It crosses more when he is trying to focus on something close to him but his eye muscle overcompensates. A single corrective lens won't fix the problem so he will be in bifocals. She sort of grimaced when she told me that so I imagine they aren't very cute. I guess there is an actual line on the lens so that he doesn't have to work at finding the right lens for what he needs to do. We went to the optical shop after his appointment and ordered his glasses. They will arrive in a week and then the whole patching regimen will begin.

I love his eyes. They are my eyes. I will miss his face as it is now. And I realize that many parents deal with far worse. It's just hard to watch life happen to my children.

His eye when he's watching a movie. Poor kid.

38 years

Today is ma and pa's anniversary. My parents met while they were young and living on farms in Montana. Mother was older and wiser - a senior in high school while my dad was a "dorky" freshman (sorry Dad). But they didn't marry until later on in life. My dad finished law school at the Univerisity of Chicago and moved to Helena and my mother was teaching English in California (I think at UCLA...I really need to get them to write down their story...I'm never 100% sure of the details). He wrote a letter...she invited him down...he came...and two old family friends wed. 9 months later big sister Emily was born. The Maureen 13 months later. Jon came 2 years after that and Jen 18 months later. I followed Jen by 17 months and Sarah wrapped things up 3 years after me.

I have to hand it to my parents. They both had professional, single lives and then 6 years later had 5 kids! Can you imagine? My mother says that she never, ever felt anything other than thankful for all of her children and never resented her new, messier and louder life. My dad was busy starting his law practice while also serving in a bishopric and they just weathered their crazy life through to the peaceful existence that they have now. However, they weren't simply satisfied with their peaceful life and are leaving in two days to serve a mission in Myanmar. They continue to be examples to me, in married life and in living what they believe.

Happy Anniversary!

Feeling friendly

Today was a good day. After Seth got off to school I went on a walk pushing Sam and Henry. First I had to stop and chat with my neighbor Mary. She made that "you're looking good..." comment that always seems like a good thing to say but if people only knew how annoying it was to hear would never say it. Now, feeling slightly more self-conscious in my yoga pants that obviously reveal too much, I start again down the block. I see Rebecca, Seth's friend Hank's mother, and stop to say "hi". I'm using her babysitter immediately after she uses her so we talk logistics and timing a bit and I continue on. As soon as I'm home from my walk, it's time to get Sammy off to preschool. One of the perks of this preschool is you never have to get out of your car. They have this drop off/ pick up system where you just wait in line and pull up to the curb. But when they say never,they mean after the first week. So, I have to take Sammy into the building while I'm still in my revealing yoga pants, free baseball give-away T-Shirt and sporting a sweaty forehead (I'm a head sweater). Two of the other moms I met at last week's openhouse were also coming in at the same time so we stayed and chatted for probably 20 minutes. I even exchanged phone numbers with one, Cindy, which I hardly ever do anymore because I'm leaving in 10 months and why make new friends? That sounds harsh but I've done this finish-here-now-load-up-and-move-somewhere-else thing before and I'm already going to be sad leaving the friends I have now. But she has a boy Sammy's age AND she lives really close by AND she seems quite sweet AND she's new to Spokane so my friendly side beat out my snobby side and we have a plan to get together Friday.

On the drive home, KariAnn calls and asks if I want to meet her at he park. That's always better than vacuuming or folding laundry so I tell her I'll meet her in a half hour. At home, I change out of my revealing yoga pants and into a very camoflouging skirt. No time to shower but I do apply a bit of make-up and powder as my forehead is still quite shiny. When I get to the park, I see Becky from swimming lessons! Becky is the wife of a transitional year resident and she had two friends with her who were also wives of transitional year residents so I'm something of a celebrity to them as I'm married to a fifth year resident. We chat for a while and then I see Cindy -- from preschool! She comes over to say "hi" and I'm really feeling quite famous.

KariAnn and I are at the park for some time because our boys play so well together and the park has this fantastic, paved path that is perfect for bike riding. Around and around they went until naps could be held off no longer. Henry went down for his nap immediately after returning home and I put in a Mickey Mouse video for Sammy. I used that time to wipe down my kitchen because Seth's friend, Caleb, was coming over to play soccer in the backyard after school. Seth came home and he and Sam ate their afterschool cookies while I failed at an attempt get answers to questions about his day (he is so stingy with his information!). Caleb came over and his mom stayed to hang out. She is also new to Spokane AND a wife of a transitional resident AND I knew her at swimming lessons AND has a son in Seth's 1st grade class. But she' s not Becky. Her name is Elisa.

When she leaves, I let Seth start a Star Wars movie because he is very edgy (all-day school is a tricky transition for him) and get a call from Sue, an older lady who used to be in my ward, wanting to come by to borrow some books. She comes by and we talk for awhile and then Andrea calls. She is at the park and wonders if Seth and Sammy can come over and play with her kids. I have a meeting at the church in an hour so I can't go (still haven't showered) but she tells me to send them over anyway and she'll feed them pizza! When I'm ready to go to my meeting, I have to take the boys to Seth's friend's house to do the babysitter exchange so he gets to play with Hank for a few minutes.

After an hour of the stake meeting I excused myself to bookgroup! My friendly day ends with a friendly night. We talked about Freakonomics and Walmart on the South Hill and picture perfect people that really have some hidden struggle. And crying in front of our kids.

I can only have a day like this every so often. I cycle. Which, I suppose, is a good thing because I still have that load of laundry in the dryer I didn't fold.

Well, well, well...

Apparently, you have to BE somebody to get something. I mentioned in my last post that Sammy had a Dr.'s appt. for his eye. His pediatrician referred us to a pediatric opthamologist and I called on Friday. The soonest they could get us in was October 9th. I explained to them what was going on with his eye, how it started wandering rather suddenly and how his condition has rapidly deteriorated. His eye wanders almost all of the time now. Still, the soonest they could see him was a month. Frustrated, I accepted the appointment and put myself on the waitlist for any cancellations. When I mentioned this to Jay he said that he was going to call the opthamologist and request Sammy to be seen sooner. How could that happen? If they could...why wouldn't they just schedule him sooner?

Today Jay called the office. He spoke directly to the opthamologist and now the office seems to be jumping through hoops to get us in this week. We are going in on Wednesday. I'm grateful but I just don't get it. Jay knew he could do this. Professional courtesy or something like that. But this seems to be everywhere in life. If you know someone you get the job. Or into the school. Or on the basketball team. Or the better deal on a car. Yada Yada Yada! Well, I've got no great connections (except now, it seems Jay) and I have always believed that if you are fair, try your hardest, follow the rules, play nice that life rewards you. Little, naive me. I guess I have to scream and holler so that my kids get the best teacher. And I better start abusing the personnel in restaurants if I want to be compensated for bad food/service. Squeaky wheel, connections, quid pro quo - oh my!

Truck Driving

I've been driving the truck around the last two days. It's is quite a bit different than my van. The nice thing is that it's an option now. The other truck could only fit two of the boys not to mention was just awful to drive. No power steering, the window was....tricky, no A/C, radio etc. But our new 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 V-8 Lariat has a bench in back for the boys. They love it so when Jay needed to go to Seattle yesterday for his Written Boards (last written test! next step Orals in June) I told him to take the van to save on gas and to just be more comfortable.

I'm not used to driving such a large vehicle. Yesterday, we drove it to Sammy's preschool open house and I didn't attempt to park it with all of the other cars. There were some spaces to parallel park that were all empty so I just pulled into one of those. When it was time to leave, there was a group conversing outside and I felt very conspicuous loading the 3 boys into the truck. It's just so tall and...big. I felt like a cowgirl!

Today I drove it to Sammy's doctor appointment and didn't even attempt to drive it into the parking garage. Narrow spaces and low ceilings - no thank you. Sammy's appointment was quick -- he has developed a lazy eye over the last 2 weeks (so bizzare but what do you do?) and the pediatrician was like, "yup...he'll need to see an opthamologist. Here's a referal." Which is exactly what I knew he would say but with insurance you just have to go through these steps. Now I have to wait for another month to see that dr. In the meantime I've got this poor boy who has his left eye crossed every so often. I pray it's somewhat easily treatable. He'll probably have to wear a patch for some time.

After that I went grocery shopping. I really shouldn't have chosen to do this with the truck but I was out of baby food so did the whole grocery trip. The bagger loaded them into the back but by the time I got home, the groceries were all spilled out and just rolling around the back of the truck. Ugh.

I'm glad we have the truck. Really. It makes Jay feel all manly and I'm sure it'll be as handy as our last for hauling and moving stuff. More handy because it actually has 4WD and Jay won't be sliding all around like he did in the little pickup. But when I see people just driving them around (and there are a lot of people who drive trucks!) I have to wonder why. Vans are so much more practical. Thankfully, Jay comes home tonight and we can switch back. It will also be nice to have him home and not have him feel like he needs to be studying!