Runny noses, piano lessons and cancer...

-- Ruby seems to be coming down with something...again. She had a cold/runny nose/ear ache for  3 weeks. She was healthy for a mere 9 days, and now her nose is running again, she's running a fever and not sleeping well. Poor thing. And if we are going to be honest here, I'm kind of feeling sorry for myself here, too. When she doesn't sleep, I don't sleep. And I don't really like that.

--- Today I went to Helaman Halls to bring a printer to one of my Chicago Mia Maids who is now a freshman at BYU. Walking the Halls was nostalgic for me, and it was also hard to believe this little 15 year-old girl of mine was now an official adult.  It was fun to see her in her new element and the best part was when her roommate thought I was her 20 year-old friend stopping by. It was awesome. I hope I still look 20 in 10 years.

--- Today Cade wasn't nearly as happy to do chores and homework when he got home as he was the other day. I left to go to the temple a little while after he got home. Our babysitter reported that he happily did it all when I was gone. So this must mean he needed space from his mom. Are we really already there? That makes me sad. At least it's good to know he's a self-starter. Just sad to take in that he seems to be happier when I'm not around. I'm deciding to take this personally.

--- Cade starts piano lessons tomorrow. This is very unfamiliar territory for me. I haven't yet decided what my attitude about this will be -- there's a number of different philosophies. There's a. the "you must take lessons until you are 18 years old and I don't care what you feel about it!" philosophy. Or, b. try it out for a few years and see how you like it.  Then c. you don't have to pick the piano, but you MUST choose one instrument to play d. uhhhh?  I had been feeling lately that I should expose him to it and then see where it goes. It has amazed me how hard it has been to fill callings for primary pianists and I suppose this is my way of doing my part to help insure there are pianists in future wards.  I heard about this fabulous teacher who lives quite close who charges hardly anything. She's talented and also amazing with the children.  I told Cade about it when Savannah was at the dinner table and said it like this:  "Now Savannah, please don't get too jealous, but I've signed Cade up for piano lessons. When you are 7, you can sign up for piano lessons, too, okay?"  It worked like a charm. Savvy was visibly bummed that she got left out of this "special" treatment, so Cade decided he wasn't going to throw a fit about it or mope. So I guess we need to get a keyboard or something until I can make a commitment to a piano.

--- Savvy finally got to go to her dance class today. The car battery (thanks to my dear, sweet neighbor) was fully charged and the car was able to get us out of the garage for the first time in 2 days. She loved the class, reported that her teacher was super nice and told me next time she wants the class to last longer.

--- A dear friend of mine told me yesterday she has breast cancer. It has really brought perspective back into my narrow-minded little world. I'm devastated for her, but she is young, optimistic, prayerful, giving and a very healthy woman otherwise. She will beat it. I just wish she didn't have to go through with this. It is a tough journey; one that hits so close to home.

Tuesday Evening Musings

--- Today I got to spend the day with my little sister and niece. I had to chuckle watching my little sis hobble around. Rebecca took the bunion plunge and had a double bunion-ectomy this past Thursday.  She swore she wouldn't go through with that for another 10 years. Her feet started really bugging her again so she went to the doctor and was told her recovery would be less extensive than mine, but she'd have to do it soon because her foot was on the verge of being as bad as mine. So she quickly made the decision to go through with it. We've had very different experiences thus far. Her doctor allowed her to have 2 done at once. My doctor absolutely would not because I needed one strong leg to get around because my left foot wouldn't be able to have any pressure on it at all for 7 weeks.  I loved the anesthesia, Rebecca doesn't care much for it. I felt no pain, Rebecca has felt both pain and nausea from the pain meds. I cried when I saw my new foot unwrapped for the first time. Rebecca was thrilled and her foot didn't look weird really at all to her. I started out with a cast,  and used crutches and a wheel chair. Rebecca was able to walk on them the same day, but has used a walker (the idea of seeing her with a walker puts me into hysterics) and a wheel chair and crutches, but prefers now to walk. There's more but it just goes to show even if you've experienced something, it's likely to not be experienced the same by someone else.

--- You know that dance class Savvy was so excited about? Well, it started today. And just as I had the girls all loaded up to go, the van didn't start. A passenger door had been left open from the night before and ran the battery dead. Try telling a 4 year-old dancing queen wannabe that she can't go to dance class. Fortunately having cousin Bailey to play with quickly distracted her from her overwhelmingly painful devastation.  With the help from my brother-in-law Jake and neighbor, I was able to charge the battery.  Hopefully tomorrow we can get around!

--- I'm REALLY excited to pick up my paintings I had gallery wrapped at BYU.  I ordered them from a dear friend and fabulous artist and dropped them off over a month ago to get done. This has been a long time coming. I love art that speaks to me! Betcha can't guess which one is going in my kitchen:  http://lesliegraff.com/ {Click on Portfolio, then Domestic and check out her series}. In fact, I think it's high time I start hanging up all sorts of art on my wall. I'm done enjoying the new color of the walls and am ready to take the plunge in putting holes in them in order to personalize my home. For some reason I can go weeks and weeks without hanging my stuff back up after painting, and then in a matter of hours have all my wall-hangings up and I'm scratching my head wondering why in the world I waited so long to do it.

-- Speaking of wall-hangings, on my organization blog I expressed very openly my feelings of disdain about a certain wall-hanging in our home that takes me far, far away from my happy place. Kyle recruited several people to back him up on this wall-hanging. It's pretty one-sided at the moment. I think I may need to rebut soon. My girlfriend Jessica made a hilarious post on her design blog here regarding the matter as well. Entertaining if nothing else. I refuse to accept that antlers are in though. ugh. However, i would consider it a victory if I were able to only display the antlers and not the animal.

-- Sunday evening the kids and I returned home from the Hunter Family Reunion in Downata. Kyle headed further north with his brothers and father and uncle and cousin ( I think I got everyone) for their annual backpacking trip. My sister-in-law Kristen joined me on the ride down, and the drive zoomed by!  Right before we left on our trip I made a last-minute stop at the library to check out some books on CD. I got a couple Ramona books and Harriet the Spy. They were hits. If fact, last night after scripture and prayers I asked if they wanted to take a field trip to the car to listen to another chapter. They were thrilled. Why haven't I taken more advantage of Books on CDs for my kids before?

--- Downata was a great place to reunionize (Blogger is telling me that is not a word, but I am choosing for it to be a word). There were accommodations for everyone.  I've learned by this point that you don't really sleep well when you take trips with kids and sleep in the same room as them, so I didn't go into it expecting to get much sleep. But even with that expectation, I was highly let down the first night. Ruby wasn't happy about not being in her little dark cave at home. The next night went slightly better, but what made the difference is Kyle slept on the "outside" of the bed which meant he took care of her, and I got a little more sleep that way. Though we were leaving the reunion early, I was ready to get some sleep. I must be getting old. Or just wise. I so cherish a good night's sleep. It seems so rare these days and I'm willing to do anything to attempt to get it!

--- I really enjoyed going to the pool on Friday in the early evening at Downata Hot Springs-- it was quiet and Cade and Savvy swam to their hearts content while my heart stayed calm because I could see where they were the entire time. No hunting for my chillins in a sea of faces and bodies.  And, the water was nice and warm. Saturday we had a blast on the slides. Cade went down one called Black Hole and decided it was creepy, so he just went down the friendlier one after that. I had to try out the creepy slide for myself. It was pretty thrilling and I was honestly pretty impressed  Cade went through with it. Savvy unfortunately didn't have great luck going down the slides for the latter part of Saturday. Kyle and I had taken turns watching Ruby at the campsite/cabin and being with the kids at the pool. When I was with the kids, they turned Savvy down on the tall pool slide for being too short, even though she had already gone down at least a dozen times with Kyle in charge earlier. It was a new life guard who didn't believe she could swim.  I couldn't blame her though. Savvy is so small it's hard to believe she's capable of getting to the wall on her own.  What was heartbreaking was Savannah coming down the steps of the slide after the life guard told her she couldn't go down. She was heartbroken and in tears.

-- While in Downata, Ruby was trained inadvertently to take naps in an un-darkened room.  As a result: the dear child is sleeping in her room upstairs in her crib!  She has been sleeping downstairs in the guest bedroom in her port-a-crib for the last few months due to her need for darkness, and my desire for her to sleep well. It was perfect timing because we were able to get my niece to take a nap in the guest room this afternoon.

-- My rock star big sister Melody qualified for the Boston Marathon again! She ran her marathon in Pocatello this past weekend in 3 hours and 11 minutes. She placed 3rd in her age group, 6th among the women and 21st among the men-folk and the lady-folk. And she woke up twice to feed her 6 month old baby the night of her race. She's definitely earned her title this past weekend of being "My Crazy Running Sister."  She's starting to get me thinking about signing up for a half marathon in November. I like Half Marathons. They are the perfect distance.  No pain. Able to enjoy the entire way. Long enough to help me commit to running on a regular basis.

-- I'm SO excited for our friends the Spencer's who recently delivered their sweet little Abby. YAAAAAY!

-- Cade came home from school today and did his homework and reading completely independent of me. How wonderful would it be if this were the beginning to how the after-school routine will go with him from now until he's 18?  Glorious I tell ya. Glorious.

-- I need to get my hair trimmed when Kyle comes back. Don't let me forget, okay?

We're Back!

Heyyyyy! 

So glad you could stop by! We're home from a Family Reunion up North. 

Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!