Thursday, September 18, 2008

{update}

Mike is doing extremely well! He reads all of your well wishes, and checks in for comments to lift his spirits. The planning is going well, and I'm feeling quite helpless being here, but there have been things to keep me busy that have to do with the funeral. Mike's sister is taking this the hardest, and I totally understand, I can't even think about losing my dad. Seriously, not even THINK about it. Anyway, the kids and I are making the trip on Friday, and we won't be back until Weds or Thurs. Thanks for your support, lovely comments and friendships, it means a lot to us, and even those friends of mine out there who have shown your love to Mike even if you haven't met him, I want you to know you're appreciated more than anything. We are blessed.

And now, to lighten things up, I wanted to remind you that tomorrow is the great day I've celebrated this day since it began 6 years ago, and have watched it grow to massive proportions!

Prepare yourself, use the translator and remember to TALK LIKE A PIRATE! As one great man once said "Arrrrgh, the blood of it!" - Eric Nelson circa 1980.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

{simplicity}

I got this from The Simple Woman. I thought I'd share since I'm heading in this direction in my life...


For Today...


Outside my Window...a 100 foot blue spruce that reminds me of the smell of my summers spent visiting my grandparents here in Salt Lake

I am thinking..."Have I forgotten anything I can sell?"

From the learning rooms...Jonah doing an autobiography of a dime. Don't ask.

I am thankful for...the lady from the neighborhood who stopped by today to introduce herself and bring me fresh tomatoes from her garden.

From the kitchen...grilled cheese sandwiches with swiss cheese and extra thick bakery sourdough, dipped in homemade tomato bisque. {recipe here}

I am wearing...blue pajama pants and a black tshirt

I am reading..."Duma Key"

I am hoping...for peace and quiet and a restful sleep for my sister-in-law

I am creating...a recipe in my mind that will use the huge amounts of wild spearmint growing in my backyard

I am hearing...Harper asking me to read him a story

Around the house...a bit of tidying, atleast 2 loads of laundry, dishes are done, kids are winding down

One of my favorite things...is the night time, when I can relax with Mike.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...Sell some things, fill my car with children and gas, bury my Father-in-law...

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...rocky road ice cream, fresh strawberries from the sidewalk stand down the street, whipped cream the lazy way (from a can!) and homemade pound cake. Enjoy something like this every once in a while, that's an order.

And He Lost His Dad Tonight.

At 7:30 pm, Mike's sister called to tell us that their mom came home from work and found his dad. He had passed away unexpectedly, at some point during the day. He was only 56, actually, Tuesday (tomorrow) is his birthday. Anyway, Mike didn't speak for about 2 hours after the call. I layed down next to him, and took this picture.



I love his hands.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

SWF, Lives With 6 Roomates, Cute, Loves Walks On The Beach, Is Old Enough To Go To Church Dances


Happy Birthday sweet Mackenzie
(click)


I Decided To Watch This And Not Cry...

...so perfectly determined to hold it together, I pushed play. Now, just watch this, and report back:



...aaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm a loser. Stupid lions.

(oh and incidentally, Sony Pictures is currently in negotations to buy the rights to the dudes' 1972 book "A Lion Called Christian." I saw this on The Today Show, so it's real. Isn't it so rad?)

Also if you want to see what I saw on the Today Show, go HERE and if you want to see the original piece and the entire "reunion" go HERE. (only 6 minutes long, but still amazing)

This weekend we didn't end up going to Park City, but we did go downtown to the theater that shows independent films ( we love that darn place! woot! ) and saw an english subtitled french film called Ne le dis a personne (Tell No One) . It was pheeeeeeeenomenal. I wish all movies in the US were like it, what happened to the film industry here? Seriously though. Anyway, our anniversary isn't til Wednesday, so we just hung out here with a sick baby and celebrated Mackenzie's bday! I'll do her Birthday Post later!

the end.

Friday, September 5, 2008

OMGROFLMAOBFF!

Mike and I are going to Park City tomorrow night for our anniversary!  Well, it's a free stay at a resort...we just need to listen to the 90 minute "tour", which I call the "Pressure Cooker".  All I do at the end of those presentations is stand up, pull my empty jeans pockets inside out and say "Sorry Mister, I ain't got no dollaz, all I gots is toothpicks n'lint"

...this usually works.

Ok so anyway, our anniversary isn't until next Wednesday, but we've had so many birthdays and stuff lately, we just decided to do it this weekend.  

OH AND MACKENZIE'S BIRTHDAY IS SUNDAY!

also, Kathryn and Rachel and I adore THIS BLOG.  It will make you laugh til you cry.  I hope you have time to read all of the posts, and don't worry they only go back to June. 

LYLAS!


Tuesday, September 2, 2008

First Day Back To Work

Today I started working at a law firm. I hate leaving Harper (who saw me dressed to leave this morning and tried to take off my shoes so I wouldn't leave) but I know we need for me to work right now. We need to get ahead here for a while.

Also, I'm hoping this will help to remedy the Bad Reputation I seem to have with the Oblads up here. (interesting news to me...WHO KNEW?!?)

Monday, September 1, 2008

September First

Last night an expected storm rolled across the valley, and since we live high up on the East Bench, we were privy to it's every move. The lightning and thunder started first, all the kids who normally habitate the basement, tore upstairs to inform us of The LIGHTNING! and The THUNDER!!! as if we'd somehow missed it in our bedroom full of echo-ey wood floors and single paned windows.

It rained all night, and it's hailing as I type this. I love this kind of weather. It's so fitting for the mood I've been in lately. Not broody or depressed, but moreso introspective. I've been doing a personal overhaul, one I have kept private except for a couple of squeaks to my sister or cousins, although Mike is fully, and probably painfully, aware. He's sat up nights til 3 am when we both have to be up in the morning by 6, listening to me, laughing when I laugh at myself, crying when I cry at myself. There have been nights that I can't sleep until he will come over to the bed from the computer he's working at and rub my back as he tells me stories about anything. "Just talk..." That's what I say to him. And he does...about anything, everything, nothing. It works, and I can sleep again.

I'm not particularly beautiful, I'm not exceptionally talented on the violin like my sister, I'm no world traveling dancer like my other sister, I'm no lawyer like my brother, I'm not an eternally patient mother like my sister in law, I don't own a beautiful home like my sibs and cousins, I'm not the cleanest person in the world, I'm not a scriptorian like my mother, I don't complete every goal I set like my father, but here are a few things I am:

  • I'm a hopeless romantic, often thinking during the day about the second the lights are out and Mike and I can snuggle in our bed watching tv
  • I do enjoy a good laugh
  • I talk to myself often, sometimes cracking myself up
  • I invent recipes nearly every night, and then forget to write them down
  • I ignore my neighbors at the store, for some strange heartless reason
  • I rarely answer the phone during the day
  • I drive my kids to school and sports sometimes with no shoes on
  • I make my kids go into the store for me for this very reason
  • I do breathing excercises, meditate and eat ice instead of taking medication for anxiety and depression
  • My favorite bedtime treat is a huge cup of ice and my 2 favorite down pillows
  • I sometimes panic when I lose a little bit of weight because I don't have the money to buy new "skinny" clothes
  • I am so good at putting on a good face/sounding peppy on the phone to others, that it's frustrating quite often because I don't know how to tell people how I really feel
  • Mike and I talk about moving to another country/to the South/East Coast all the time
  • I was always willing to be in front of a crowd/outgoing as a child and a teenager, but now I have to force myself to go to places where there will be lots of people.
  • I love the smell of coffee
  • I sometimes love the smell of cigarettes
  • I wish I could bottle the smell of Mike's skin
  • My bedroom is our "family room". In the last 3 years, our kids have found comfort in being able to always come in our room, and it's stuck. We don't really use our family rooms, we all just gather in our bedroom.
  • I love that.
  • Until it's midnight and they won't leave.
  • I have a horrible double chin, no matter how thin I get.
  • I prefer cloudy days over sunny ones
  • I get chills when I walk into a bookstore or a cool antique shop
  • I have a fear of sleeping outside that only has surfaced over the last 3-4 years
  • I get anxious if I am awake so late that I see the sun rising
  • I adore dew on flowers
  • I like white twinkly christmas lights up somewhere in my house, at any time of year, most often in my bedroom (when we moved in here, there were already some here! that were for my Grandmother when she was still living here. She's extraordinarily old, and still very alert, so they put up some lights for her to admire. My cousin Kjersten said to take them down with an "ew!" face...but I love them secretly and would have put some up anyway if they hadn't been here)