goodbyes

Well tonight I was getting a few last cuddles from the boys. I started to feel a little weepy. I was kissing Coen and telling him I would miss him. He just said "Mommy you will be back soon." I was still a little teary. So Coen then said "Mommy you sad- go hug Daddy now."

Tomorrow or the next day- a little confused with the time- I will be in Ennis Ireland. The above are little tiny pics of Ennis I found online. Hopefully I will get some great stuff with my camera to share with you when I get home.

Off to Ireland

Well I am frantically packing. Our house looks like a hurricane hit it. And I keep thinking of things that I need that are in one of the three rooms my guys are sleeping in. And I have lost my to do list. Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope I get out of here. With everything I need. I am less worried about packing for the boys- if I forget anything some one can come over to the house and get it.

I got some fabulous bright red patent leather ballet flats. They are so amazingly perfect for me. I will get a picture for you later- because right now they are in the room with the snoring Alma.

I am not going to try to update the blog while gone- but you can see videos of the trip at this website. Go to www.vimeo.com in the search box type The Family-Travelers "Note"work- the videos should pop up. I hope it works. I am so excited. If I can get packed. If I can fit my clothes around the ginormous medical kit I have packed.

Help for Mommy

I had some help tonight with the dishes.

Spring is Here

Little Girl Sweaters on Little Boys

I finally finished the sweaters for Christy's little girls. They turned out wonderful. I hope Christy will take a picture and send it to me. (Christy- I know you are lurking on here and hopefully you will really do this). I am sadly lacking on the girl department in this house so I had to make due with my little boys as models. I know these would be much cuter on little girls wearing pigtails and a little dress- red maybe. So here are the pictures. Alma was horrified at this photo shoot but the boys didn't seem to care.

Lazy Days

I am having one of those days you dream about when you choose to become a lady of leisure. (I had my life so well planned out- but where I ask where is the leisure?) Those days that never seem to happen with out serious reprisal. I am doing nothing. NOTHING. It is heaven. It isn't that there is nothing to do I am choosing to actively ignore it and enjoy myself. My children have survived- barely. I let them take as long a bath as they wanted this morning so I could sit and read my book and in hopes the smell of syrup that has been hanging on Beckett all week would finally go away. Everyone who picks him up to kiss him then looks at me and says wow he really smells like syrup. And I keep washing him and try not to worry about the genetic disease that makes you urine smell like syrup aptly named maple syrup urine disease. I think we are safe as I am unaware of any Amish or Mennonite ancestry in our families, and it makes your urine smell not your face. And as I keep racing over the other symptoms in my head- Beckett has none of them unless I am a hopelessly delusional mother and Beckett is severely mental retarded and I just haven't noticed. I do bathe my children- this one just really smells. And thank goodness when I gave him a big cuddle and kiss at nap time he smelled of baby and no more maple syrup- apparently he needed an hour long bath.

Anyways- back to my lazy delightful day. Just lounging on the couch reading while the boys roll around each other or Coen pretends to rescue the prince. There is a prince in our house who is always in peril of some sort and Coen his savior- but the princesses do just fine. Princess mostly only dance in our house- they are bright enough not to get stuck behind the wood stove 8 times a day unlike the mental challenged princes. When I asked Coen if he wanted to go outside today he looked at me with his sad face and said the snow was broken. When I looked confused he pointed out the window to the sunny spring backyard and said "See snow all gone- It got broken." Some how he still managed to have little fun outside. While this is all going on I was still in my pajamas reading a book- which I just finished. I tell you a dream day. Here are my cute kids.

This is the best I could get out of Coen- Anyone with ideas on how to get a two year old to cooperate with picture taking. Kayli? Your kids always look cute.

I thought this made Beckett look debonair and rakish with the one raised eyebrow. Alma thought he looked like he had a lazy eye. On further inspection Alma may have a point. Maybe he does have MSUD.

Happy St Patricks Day

So I had a wonderful bit of news on my St Patricks Eve. Due to many different circumstances I have the opportunity to travel to Ireland with the NU choir. I am going mainly to provide a companion for Marika in case she has any health problems and also to provide health care for the choir. I am incredibly lucky (I must be Irish!).

I am not thinking about leaving the boys (especially Beckett). So I have two weeks to pack, get the boys ready, wean the baby (or should I bring the breast pump?) and see if I even have enough clothes for the trip. ACCKKKK!!!!

And I have been waiting and waiting to post this video. We love it. What isn't to love- three of my favorite guys singing a moving song.

Basketball Dreams

We spent the afternoon watching our niece and nephew's city league basketball games. Those of you who know me know how I love kids sports games. (except baseball- who likes baseball?) It was great watching the boys teams. David won 50-21. He played great. The teams were evenly matched size and age wise- if not skill level. The other team had one really great player (I love it when the great player is the chubby geeky kid with glasses!). It was fun to watch. The other team would have been okay except they were missing the key skill of shooting the ball.

Now the girls game was a whole other story. The team Jessica played was HUGE. Our team came up to their shoulders. And they were talented. We think they must be from Union Hill and they must have been a good year older than our team. Their closest game this season they won by 30 points. Our team was very proficient at several skills: passing the ball to our teammates faces, rolling on the ground, and dribbling in the corner. It was a little depressing to watch. We did only lose by 28(I think- they stopped keeping score half way through the second half). Jessica and Margret (Anna and Jessica's friend) made our teams only 2 baskets.

Over all there were many more tears during the girls game. (Note there were tears during the boys game- just more for the girls.) Coen and Beckett loved being there- except for the buzzer- that was scary for both of my boys. Over all the crowd was friendly and cheered on all the participants and the refs were good at teaching while calling the game. All that you would hope a kids game to be.

Oh Where For Art my Andrea?

This week I saw a woman standing in front of the library with red spiky hair and holding a baby wrapped up in a bright orange sling and I almost said out loud "Oh look Andrea came to story time with us!". I was so excited until I remembered that Andrea lives in Utah and this was some other woman with red spiky hair.

I saw this and just had to share it. What a powerful message for all. How true it is that the desire to create belongs to all. I know I am not an artist but this video inspires me to continue to follow the very special creative urge I have been blessed with.

Also how often I not only take for granted, but hold in contempt the body I have been given- I hope to be more thankful for all that I can do, for all that I pocess, to be more aware of the perfect and amazing creature that I am.



PS- for those who don't know this is the Dieter that Beckett is named after. Alma heard him speak right when Beckett was due and came home and said "we are naming this baby Dieter" and if we lived in Hamburg I would have agreed, so he settled for it as a middle name.

Little Bill had juice pops yesterday, so of course his little mimic promptly started asking for them as well. I decided to get out this great pop-up set from Williams-Sanoma I bought just for moments like this. It is great when your real life is actually better than your imaginary life. I bought these before we were even married- hoping to someday make treats with my imaginary kids. We put in some strawberries and then poured over orange juice. I am glad that despite the tunnel of pain yesterday I took some time to do this with Coen. I think we will continue to make more of these through out the summer. I have lots of yummy ideas.

I Will Survive

I woke up today in pain. Actually it started last night but i was hopeful a good night of sleep would take care of it. But alas and alack not so. I kept thinking yesterday haw I hadn't had a bad day in weeks and maybe I was finally getting better. I should know better than this by now. So started the day with vicoden, and plan on taking it very easy today. Poor Beckett. He likes to be held all day and that is just not possible. Pain is starting to fade but still very pleasant.

I read a book in college called The Gift of Pain. It was very good. Maybe I need to reread it. Remind me why God designed us to have pain.

Now I know all of my faithful readers are wondering "How did Polly finish up the week long celebration of her wonderful self?" So dear readers I will inform you.

1. I was supposed to go to mom's and meet up with the sister types- but due to rain and illness that was canceled- which was a bummer/relief. I just have to comment here that the last 4 years or so Becky has canceled at the last minute every single time that we plan something for birthdays. (Hmmmm Becky a pattern? A conscience or subconscious wish to avoid us? Just saying it is getting suspicious.) Also last year this resulted in me going to St George ALONE WITH MY MOTHER. Which surprisingly was not the end of the world. I think the other sister types really backed out of this one because they thought my vacation idea was lame- HA (triumphant I told you so ha) it was not. Mom and I even had fun. ANYWAYS- I stayed home. OH- and to prove the the world is coming to an end and we have entered into some kind of twilight zone- NO ONE thought to call and tell me the zoo trip was canceled EXCEPT MY MOTHER. And she only thought to call hours later as I was backing out of the driveway with the car loaded and packed for the trip and Coen psyched out to see Lukey and Marshall ( I tried to add Charlie into the little I'm going to see Lukey and Marshall song, but he kept editing the girl cousin out- sorry Charlie you are a girl and there for less fun to shoot at.) For those of you who don't know the Conley sisters our Mother is never the thoughtful remember she has children type- very shocking and that both my sisters who call a billion times a week failed to call with this little tid-bit equally shocking.

2. Monday (actual birthday) Tried to go run errands in monsoon- which sounds unbirthday like but I love nothing more than a busy busy Monday that gets all my urgent have to dos out of the way preparing for the rest of the week to be lazy and fabulous. But Alas and Alack the monsoon drove us home. It was just too wet to keep dragging the boys in and out of the car. The rest of the day was spent watching our yard turn into a lake, reading and napping. I then made my favorite pre-marriage meals steamed broccoli and rice (only I added terriyaki chicken for the men in my life who don't think rice and veg is a meal). I knew I was having birthday cake later in the week but I still wanted a treat so I made ice cream sandwiches. All-in all a good day.

2. Tuesday- Becky called-apparently against our advice Cody still wants some of the thousands of red envelopes in my garage for his wedding announcements (don't ask- one of the "perks of your business going under is you get random crap like this in your garage). I told him he could wait a day because it was raining even harder and I wasn't going out. Period. Was a slacker the rest of the day totally sans guilt (my gift to my self).

3. Mailed Cody's stupid envelopes, in the snow, with three car seats in back because I had Summit, got pulled over by cop, panic, only brake light burnt out, Coen thrilled with the lights and sirens- me less so, snowing like crazy as I unload boys and reload boys, little trip takes 1 whole hour due to extra child. Cody someday you will have little babies and toddlers and even then you won't realize what I did for you today but I am sure JJ will, and she will fall to her knees and say why why did we make this poor woman do all this for 300 ugly red envelopes, why bless her soul. Due to above stress and weather ditch grandma and the library. Refuse to feel guilty (this was a great gift to self). Made lemon cream cake for birthday party on Friday.

4. Went to work- all you can eat sushi for lunch. Yum. At home- cleaned and made key lime cloud pie. Double Yum.

5. Birthday cake at work (while singing/cake eating going on drug rep keeps bugging me with sales pitch- and we even waited all of lunch in hopes that they would go away- only upside they may pay for dinner meeting for NAPNAP- and I got lots of leftover fruit salad for party at home- I hate drug reps). Got home and had hour of stress as we set up for and finish cleaning for party. All of family comes- lots of food and fun. I just love watching all the kids play together. And I let go of my self imposed guilt/perfection problems and embraced the frozen lasagna dinner because I worked that day and it was my party people. Cake was a big hit- pie was a little too tart.

6. That should have been the end of the week but Andrea felt sorry for the whole I had to plan my own party and make the cake and the dinner thing. Alma's only assignment was to call and invite his family- which he didn't do. (as a side note I have learned to embrace this part of my husband- refuses to plan any thing for my birthday and usually fails at the gift giving as well- any other time for gifts- valentines, Christmas, anniversary he does great -birthdays- ugh. for my 30th I was very specific about what party I wanted who I wanted to invite who was willing to help him plan- nada nothing zip. And this year as is typical- no gift (he told me later I can have a spa day) supposedly he bought a card, and a back up card in case he lost the first and he lost both- so not even a card. I will find them in a couple of weeks and put them in his sock drawer where he thinks he put them originally- with the pile of cards he has bought me over the years and lost before giving them to me, ahhhh Alma) So anyways she planned another little party at her house on Sunday with all our friends. So birthday week is really birthday 9 days?

Reading over this I can only guess that my dear readers will skip half of it because I can't imagine that anyone cares- Oh well I refuse to worry about what others think (part of the guilt free week gifted to myself).