Quick update

Thanks, everyone, for your good wishes from last week! We're pretty excited.

We don't have a lot to report from this week: the weather was extremely warm for a day or two and then cooled off considerably (typical), so we're back to normal spring weather.

It was the last week of classes at the university (hooray!) which means that Dan and I are now gearing up for final exams--and that I have a small mountain of grading to get done before Thursday (when I give my final exam).

We've done some spring cleaning (scoured and rearranged our bedroom; finally got a new vaccuum and cleaned the basement, etc.).

And yesterday I took the kids to a kite festival put on by the local Lion's club. Andrew got a free kite for participating in a school reading program. He was supposed to read 600 minutes over 3 months--in typical Andrew fashion, he took this as a challenge and read over 2000 minutes.

This next week promises to be extremely busy, so for now we're just trying to enjoy the lull before the storm.

A Young Man's Fancy

I can't ever think of that quote, "Spring . . . when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love" without remembering a certain speech our mission president's wife gave us while I was on my my mission. I'm pretty sure she meant us to think of Christlike love--but as soon as she opened with that quote, everyone started laughing--because romantic love is one thing a missionary shouldn't be thinking of!

However, it seems appropriate for this week's post, since Andrew apparently has his first crush. It's kind of sweet, actually. This week he came home and said, "Mom, can I make a bracelet for someone in my class?"

At first, he wouldn't tell me who. He finally confessed it was a young lady named Alyssa (I've volunteered in his class and can vouch that she's a nice girl. In fact, I distinctly remember Alyssa telling Andrew, "I like you, Andrew. You're funny.") Apparently she chases him at recess, and, since this is an exercise that Andrew usually despises, I think it's worth noting that Andrew doesn't seem to mind so much that Alyssa chases him.

I asked him, teasingly, "So does this mean she's your girlfriend?"

Andrew hunched his shoulders. "I don't know."

But he didn't say no! So there you have it. (I'm wondering if it's purely coincidence that Alyssa looks a little like Andrew's cousin Emi--same dark hair, fair skin and freckles. Except Alyssa is a little stockier and sometimes wears glasses).

Of course, he's now making bracelets for his entire class because I convinced him that the other girls might feel sad if they were left out. He made bracelets for all 10 girls, but then when he went to hand them out, the boys wanted them too. I love that kindergartners aren't as concerned yet about gender distinctions--like the fact that most boys don't wear bead bracelets.

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We tried to take pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes last Sunday to make up for our missed Easter pics. This is about as good as it got.



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This past week has been a busy one--mostly for me (in a change from last week, where it was Dan's busy week). I think Thursday night was the only night I didn't have something going on. Tuesday was Young Women's, Wednesday I went to a dinner on campus for Phi Kappa Phi (they're trying to start a branch at the local university, and since I was inducted as an undergrad, I get to be a faculty representative. Or something.) Friday I had my writer's group, and Saturday my book group had dinner at the pastry pub. Needless to say, I didn't get as much work done as I'd hoped! However, this week was a lighter week--next week starts my crazy week as my students turn in final papers and we head into finals weeks.

We had a lovely weekend. Friday morning we got the start of our garden in (we planted some zucchini, summer squash, and carrots). I'm still sore from all the bending over that the pre-planting weeding entailed, though.

Saturday morning we went down to SG and had breakfast at the Golden Corral with Bubby and Poppy. I think this is Andrew's new favorite restaurant, since he can get anything he wants (including gummy bears!) for breakfast. Then Dan and I went to the temple while Bubby and Poppy generously watched the kids. We had a lovely lunch afterward at Capriatti's, Bubby and Poppy's new favorite sandwich joint, and then had to hustle back home so I could attend a baby shower for a friend. (Like I said, a busy week).

The weather has been glorious and spring like, but the heat in SG (it was nearly 90 degrees yesterday) has me wondering how we're (I'm) going to survive the summer.

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Which brings me to the final point of my post.

Some of you already know this, but I think I'm finally ready to make it official: we're expecting baby #3 sometime at the end of August. And in case you were wondering what we're having, well, I think this picture says it all. (Even Andrew could tell what it was).



It's been rough getting here. We had two miscarriages last year. I won't go into all the details here, but if you're interested, you can read some of my reflections on them at Segullah: here, here, and finally, here. (I know, it's weird that I can post something so personal in a large forum like Segullah because I feel relatively anonymous there--but here, where everyone actually knows *me* it's much harder to post really personal things). I'm grateful for all the prayers that have helped us get this far!

In completely unrelated news (then again, maybe it's not so unrelated!), I chopped my hair. Here's a picture, for the few people who haven't already seen it on Facebook:

April (snow) showers?

Welcome to our corner of the world, where Spring is (as Dan tells me) on a Thursday in May . . .

Seriously, this has been the month of schizophrenic weather. We started the week with balmy, lovely weather. Bubby dug up the rosebush and raspberry bushes in the front of the house when she watched the kids on Tuesday, and Dan and I transplanted the raspberry bushes to the backyard after dinner. The only person sorry to see the mess disappear was a neighbor kid, who was very sorry to see Bubby digging up the raspberry bushes, since he liked to snack on them on his way home from school. (I knew and didn't mind--it's the random college and high school students who would circle around the bushes--on my lawn!--eating all our raspberries that inspired the move. That, and the fact that they always block part of the sidewalk). We're still waiting to see if they survived the move--and the snow.

Yes, snow. By Wednesday, the weather was decidedly chillier, and yesterday it snowed all day. (So much for our plan to remove all the branches from the back-yard before the city's yard-waste pick-up tomorrow).

At least the snow meant we got to hang out more with our kids. And that Dan got to feel miserable with his head cold. Poor Dan. Maybe it was something he contracted on Thursday while he was down at Dixie judging the Sterling Scholars program.

In other news for the week: Andrew's been keeping a list of books he's read. In the past month or so, he's read over 100 books. So I rewarded him with, of course, another book. (Just what he needs, right? But I'd rather pay for a book than toys.)

I also finally figured out how to crochet. My friend showed us how at YW a few weeks back and I wanted to get it down. So I found an easy online pattern, watched the attached You Tube demonstration a few times and crocheted while the kids played the Wii. (Or, as it gets called in our house, the W-I-I--clearly a futile move since Andrew has no problem deciphering our spelling.) I wanted to make a baby hat (I'm thinking about making one for a friend whose shower is coming up), but the yarn Andrew helped me pick out was so darn thick that by the time I'd "finished" the instructions for the hat it was clear that it would have to be an enormous baby. I added a few more rows--and now the hat fits Andrew. At least it wasn't totally futile. And I had a lot of fun.

(I think I might have just found a new obsession. The great thing about crocheting is that I can do it and watch TV at the same time. Sort of.)

Last night, Dan and I tried to watch the new Julian Fellowes' series on the Titanic (or, as a friend called it, "Drownton Abbey"). We made it through the first episode and I couldn't watch further. Part of the story involves a young mother who stays on the ship with her toddler daughter to find her baby (not knowing that the nanny already has the baby safely on one of the life boats). Death on film doesn't always bother me--but the death of children is always traumatic for me. Especially when it happens to be a true story. (Plus, there's the not-so-incidental fact that Titanic stories always make me think of Connie Willis' Passage, possibly one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. Right Jeni?)

Our lesson today in Sunday School dealt partly with the importance of keeping personal records. I may not do a great job with my personal record (I've written in my journal like twice in the past year), but at least my family life is reasonably documented. At least, I felt virtuous during the lesson, but looking back at this particular post, I can only think that it's a sort of sorry excuse for documentation! But it's better than nothing. Right?

Leading up to Easter

 So, I finally finished the quilt I started four years ago (before Evelyn was born. Actually, I was at the fabric store buying more fabric for the back when I started having the contractions that would eventually lead to her birth).

It only took four years. I guess it's good that I can be persistent about some things. I am, however, proud of the fact that I did the entire thing myself (including the binding, which was a new thing for me). That might, of course, be why parts of it are sort of wrinkly. Instead of doing the normal thing where you put the quilt on a quilting frame, I pinned the pieces together and then used a small embroidery frame and, working from the inside out, proceeded to hand-stitch designs in every other quilt square. (Um, yes, this would be a big part of the reason why it took me so long. It may not have been my smartest decision every).

 In other news from the week, the kids had Spring Break, so on Wednesday I took them down to SG. We did all the things we don't get to do here: we went to Target, and to the local splash park. After the kids got soaked and cold--it was maybe a little cold for getting that wet--we dried off, changed clothes, and rode the carousel. We had lunch at Red Robin and generally enjoyed ourselves.

The last part of the week was a little crazy. On Thursday, I packed up our mini-van and, as soon as I was done teaching my class, I picked up the kids from Bubby and we drove north to my parents' house. One of my good friends from high school was getting married and I wanted to make her reception. As it turned out, I didn't need to be quite so worried. I guess one of the benefits of getting married in your 30s is that you know *lots* of people. The receiving line was fairly long, so I was in no danger of missing anything.

The woman next to me in line turned out to be pretty talkative, which was nice (to a point) since the line was long. It was also a little odd for me, because I'm pretty reserved and don't often share personal information as freely as did my new acquaintance. In any case, she talked me into staying for refreshments (she didn't want to sit by herself), and I'm glad I did, because it wasn't until I'd finished that a bunch of other friends from high school arrived. It was fun to catch up with all of them--even if it's a little disquieting to realize that we're all staid married women now. Of the four of us, I was definitely on the low side in terms of kids: one friend had six, one had five, and the other had four. (Of course, it helps that they've all been married longer than we have).

Friday afternoon, all my siblings (except, of course, Justin, who's on a different continent), their spouses, and our kids assembled at my parents' house for a dinner. Of sorts. It was originally conceived as a tea party, but it ended up being more of a buffet. In any case, it was fun to see everyone again. While we were waiting for Grandma to get home from work (and for Jeni to arrive), Jared entertained the kids by being a human jungle gym. All of my pictures turned out blurry, but you can see him getting attacked by four kids at once (Joshua's on the left, ready to pounce on him).

 

Saturday morning brought the real reason for the trip: my niece Katie (Sarah's daughter) was baptized in Salt Lake by her dad. It was a nice ceremony, and, of course, Sarah always plans good food (Cafe Rio style salad) for afterwards. The kids had an Easter egg hunt (turns out Andrew and his second cousin Jasper were by far the most aggressive egg hunters--big surprise there). The aftermath of the egg hunt says something about my kids, I think. Evelyn ate all her candy that afternoon. Andrew has been hoarding his--and added to it the candy he got this morning. He spent all weekend jealously guarding his hoard from predatory grandpas.

And, of course, today was Easter. We spent the morning with my parents and then attended sacrament with them. The kids each got a small toy and some candy--but it was from us, since I'm not a big fan of the "Easter Bunny." We also watched a lovely Easter video, "He is Risen" from the church's website. Andrew cried when we watched it. He's such a funny mix of rowdy, aggressive kid and at the same time he can be really sensitive sometimes.

Mostly, though, at week's end I'm grateful for the message of Easter--especially for the hope it brings.

April First

But not April Fools--because I'm not clever enough to come up with believable jokes at the moment!

Besides, I think April is perpetrating her own cruel joke. Snow? Really? We're now worried that our plum tree, which was just starting to bloom, might now freeze. (Good-bye, plums. Good-bye, plum jam!) But then, T. S. Eliot did say that "April is the cruelest month."

We don't have a lot of interesting things to report from this week. School, work, church callings continue on as usual. We enjoyed General Conference this weekend, and our kids are finally getting old enough to play relatively quietly (if by relatively, you mean that Andrew only wanders around every 1.5 minutes and asks questions about his Conference Bingo every thirty seconds). We still managed to listen to most of conference.

Even better, I'm actually getting close to finishing the quilt I started 4 years ago (it was supposed to be Evelyn's baby quilt. Oops. Of course, if  she hadn't come 5 weeks early, I might have finished it then). I have two more sides to hand-stitch the binding on and then I'm done. Better late than never, right?

Friday night, Evelyn, Bubby and I went and saw Peter Pan--a performance by a local children's troupe. They always do a pretty fantastic job. The costumes for the crocodile and Nana (the dog) were particularly impressive--full body costumes! Bubby laughed at the boy who played Hook and Mr. Darling. As Hook, he was quite good, and the bulky coat and hat that the captain wears disguises what his dress shirt and trousers couldn't--he was so spindly he looked about to blow away. (I'm guessing he was 14 or 15). And Evelyn . . . . I think she loved everything. She spent half the time on the end of her seat, bouncing in time to the music or staring, rapt, at the stage. In fact, at intermission, the older couple next to me said that she was almost more entertaining to watch than the show! She was also surprisingly good for a performance that started after her bedtime. (Too bad her 9:30 bedtime that night didn't equal sleeping in the next morning! She was still up around 6 a.m.)

Andrew maintained steadily that he didn't want to go--until, that is, five minutes before we were supposed to leave and he suddenly realized that he was going to bed and Evelyn was going out the door . . . I felt bad telling him no, but Dan reminded me that he needs to learn that he can't change his mind last minute. (And I'm not entirely sure he wouldn't have been bored--pirates or no pirates).

Other news from the week . . . Dan and Poppy went out to eat after the priesthood session on Saturday and Dan brought home some lovely pad Thai leftovers. (Yes, that was a highlight from my week!)

Andrew continues to pester me on an every-other-day basis to go to the library. While I'm glad he loves the library, I'm not sure what we're going to do when he finishes his way through the non-fiction wildlife section . . . he doesn't seem interested in anything else currently!

Anyone have good suggestions for books that a young boy might be interested in? I'd like to get him reading chapter books, but he's no longer interested in Magic Treehouse, and most of the books I know of are too old (content wise) for him. I think he can read around a 3rd grade level, so things that generally appeal to 2nd and 3rd grade boys??