Silly Chilly Beach Trip

We ignored the cold temps and took a spring break trip to Emerald Isle last week with some good friends. It turns out there's a lot of fun to be had in the absence of swimming and frolicking about in the sand. We:

Made use of the putting green at our tricked-out beach house...





Played with measuring cups on the totally cute sofa...





Got a private air show from a very nice helicopter pilot from nearby Camp Lejune...and Marely began to have career aspirations...





Went on a treasure hunt (gotta watch out for those tricky leprechaun pirates!)...






Rode on the golf cart....




And finally got a family picture of our new "expanded" family...



The end...

Today we went to Costco...

...and something great happened. You know how when kids are really little they pass developmental milestones like every few weeks? Rolling over, sitting up, teeth, eating solids, crawling, walking, potty training, etc. And then after a while things start to slow down and you get kind of bored with them. Just kidding, but the "firsts" are fewer and farther between. Well we had one tonight: the first time I left my kids with the shopping cart in front of the store while I went to get the car so I didn't have to load groceries in the rain. Lovely.

It was a long day- both had friends of the 'girl' variety over to play this afternoon. While eating our hotdogs at Costco Eric was telling Brigham that he had to choose between his two supposed 'girlfriends'. I told him he could have as many girlfriends as he wanted- girlfriends are just friends who are girls.

B: Yeah Eric, they're just friends who are girls when you're a kid.

Me: What are they when you're older Brigham?

B: Your wife!

Me: Oh. What's a wife?

B: You know, she's like your mom, only not as old.

Rather profound, I thought. It was so nice to sit there with my boys, eating hotdogs and churros, drinking sprite from a can because the soda fountain was broken and trying to ignore the fact that the baby was getting hungry and I was going to have to breastfeed in the middle of Costco.

And, for Eryn, some pictures of Marley:




And now I should really go pack for the beach, since I'm skipping book club for just that purpose, and I do not skip book club lightly. I'm just not going to think about the fact that it's raining and cold and I definitely will not be getting a tan.

That Day

My hand holds the spoon and shakes.
I've waited for this day
For the leash of time and space which ties us together
Now short and taught,
to slacken
So that I can stretch my arms and legs
a bit,
But my hand shakes
and I remember another day

I realize, as you swallow, that that day
That day that I roared you into life
That day with its blood and tears and soft, new skin
That day is mine.
It belongs to me.
You do not.

You didn't begin on that day
It was not my hand that shaped your spirit,
which I have mostly yet to meet.
It was another hand, on another day and
you belong to Him.
And to yourself.

Memories of Early Morning Seminary

Last year I had a list of very well-thought-out, doable New Year's resolutions. But then two weeks into January I found out I was pregnant and I sort of forgot about them in favor of devoting my energies to growing a person. This year I had one New Year's resolution: to become a morning person. I feel like if I could just go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, that would fix so many other things in my life: staying in my food budget- check. No more 11:00 P.M. snack time. Keeping up with the laundry- check. Laundry folding is the only productive thing I can think of that is quiet enough to do at 6:00 in the morning other than reading. Getting the kids to school on time so as to avoid receiving a nasty letter from the school district- check. Obviously two hours to get ready is better than 25 minutes. You get the picture.

I did great for about a week. Now I'm back to maybe getting to bed by 11:30 on weeknights and waking up at 8. The main problem, aside from the fact that I just have one of those bodies that needs a lot of sleep, is that I hate going to bed. I think I was one of those kids who always fought going to bed because they just knew that their parents ate candy and ice cream and had wild parties every night while they were sleeping. I'd started to think that maybe I'm just never going to be a morning person.

Then this morning I was reading my friend Liz's blog about what a blah month February is. It reminded me that Groundhog Day is in February. Groundhog Day is the anniversary of my first day of early morning seminary*. Which reminded me that starting eleven years ago, for a year-and-a-half, I was a morning person! EVERY weekday. There was not a single day (I'm not hyperbolizing, I swear!) that I wasn't happy to wake up at 5:15 A.M. and go to seminary. I loved every minute of it! One time I stayed up until 4:30 A.M. finishing a school project. I thought I would just doze off for a few minutes and then get up and go to seminary, but I slept through my alarm. I was so upset when I woke up because I'd missed seminary!

We had the most amazing seminary teacher ever (who happens to be Liz's mom). She loved movies and T.V. shows and she illustrated almost every gospel principle with a VHS clip from some movie or show. Which is why I always remember that my first day of seminary was on Groundhog Day- because we watched clips from the movie Groundhog Day. I can't remember what gospel principle we were supposed to have learned, but I do remember that I felt so warm and happy I didn't care how early it was. One time she baked a cake in the shape of the Hill Cumorah and hid little gold plates in it. Another time she invited me over for Sunday dinner and I was totally mystified when she got out a block of cheddar cheese and started grating it for macaroni and cheese. Didn't she know that macaroni and cheese is made with little packets of flourescent orange powder? Silly! That was one of the first things I learned how to make when I got married, and now I know the recipe for homemade mac and cheese by heart. I still think of it as a "special" dinner and it's my boys' favorite thing to eat.

At the end of our senior year everyone in our class got a copy of Jesus the Christ. I get mine out every year or so and read about ten pages before I give up (only 782 more to go!). But I love to read the inscription on the inside cover, which says:

For Katie-
May the Lord bless and keep you as you follow Him, in faith and hope- my dear friend.
Love, Sister Crane
Seminary 1998
You are one of my angels.

I'm pretty sure that I was no angel when I was a teenager. In fact I'm pretty sure I was a little on the obnoxious, self-obsessed side. But Sister Crane found a way to love me anyway, and that has made such a difference in my life. Now if I could just get her to hang out with me during my pre-dawn laundry folding sessions I think I could keep my New Year's Resolution! Maybe if I watched old tapes of Lois and Clark: The Adventures of Superman.....

*For those who don't know, early morning seminary is an hour-long church class that Mormons attend during high school. It's one of the things I love the most about my Church- we believe in the importance of every member studying and pondering the scriptures and the meaning they hold for our lives. We also believe in waking up early to eat cinnamon buns and color with markers:).

Houston, we have rollover

I love this girl.



And these guys...


And the man who made this:



Some days I think I would like 10 kids. Like the other day, I was talking with my friend Cindy while she was packing to go to Hawaii with her husband. I could hear her (six!) kids in the background, and her occasional comments to them: "no, you can't have that right now...well okay, just one", etc. Her life seems so full. Then I have my moments where I think that three kids are going to kill me. Then I look at my darling baby and think, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH I WANT ANOTHER ONE JUST LIKE YOU! But then I think, I love you so much I don't want another baby to take me away from you. Then I remind myself that I have plenty of time to figure it out. I just know that I love my family more than anything and that I'm happy that my job right now is to take care of them. Speaking of which, I should probably go do that.

Amen, amen and AMEN

I have ALWAYS been appalled at the trashiness of the Scholastic book company. Would you believe that when I took my children to a book fair at their school and let them each pick out a book, I then had to turn around and return Eric's book the next day because it was so inappropriate I couldn't even read the first page out loud to him? The explanation given was that it was geared toward 3rd-5th graders- I'm sorry, I don't want my child reading a book that uses the words "idiot" and "moron" multiple times on the first page, 3rd grade or not! Then there was Brigham, who almost had a meltdown because I made a rule that they had to pick out a book and not a toy. Huh? Thought it was a "book" fair did you? Funny, so did I. This company managed to get 15$ of my hard-earned money (of which I'm sure about 5 cents will go to the school) and turn me into a villain at the same time. This was like in October- can you tell how mad I still am about it?! So I felt pretty vindicated when I saw this column in the Washington Post today. I urge you to join the crusade!

Two things that you might like to know:

1. I have eaten WAY too many Girl Scout cookies tonight.

2. I saw a naked lady yesterday. Full front and back. I was running (pushing baby in stroller, dog on leash), and as we rounded a cul-de-sac, this woman came out onto her front porch sans clothing and hung a rug out to dry. Then she turned around in a leisurely manner and went back into her house. I think that's why I love to exercise outside- you just would not see that sort of thing at the gym. Or if you did, it would be disturbing rather than hilarious.

Also, I found out that the beautiful Golden Retriever that Mustang has a crush on is a boy- oops!

And before I collapse into bed, here are a few more of Briggie's photographic works of genius: