Missing My Cute Girls

The other day I missed a phone call from my mom. I got a call a little bit later from my husband telling me the jist of why she called. Isobel wanted to buy some glasses like mine at the dollar store and my mom wanted to get them for her. They were the lowest power possible for reading glasses and so Bryce said it was fine. When I had a minute between appointments, I called my mom to ask her why she called. She said, "Oh, well, I talked to Bryce and we got it all worked out." Obviously my mom is afraid of me. So I let her off the hook and told her that I already talked to Bryce. I told her that although the glasses themselves are fine, I would prefer her to not use the lenses. Bryce has perfect vision and he doesn't understand what it's like for those of us who don't. I very nicely asked her to take out the lenses. When my dad got home, he took them out...and emailed me this picture:

What do you think? Does she look like me?

When I called Isobel that night, she said, "Do you have $35?" I asked her why. She said, "To put some plain glass lenses in these frames." I had to tell her that if she needed glasses, our insurance would pay for most of it, so I couldn't spend $35 on plain glass. I'm so not fun.

When I talked to Eva, I asked her about her day and was getting a little motherly. I said, "Eva, It's almost 10 o'clock, shouldn't you be getting ready for bed?"

Then I (teasingly) asked, "Did you eat all your vegetables today?"

"No. Grammy doesn't have any vegetables."

"Oh, no! I guess she'll have to go buy some at the grocery store."

"No. She only has $2."

Poor mom felt like she really had to explain herself for that! (Mom's been out of town for a couple weeks) But I just thought it was so funny! I'm sure Mom told the girls she only had $2 because they went to the dollar store and they could only each get one thing :)

Thanks, Mom for having fun with my kids! I sure miss those girls.

(Please check out Share's blog for a cute story about Eva and her "birthmarks".)

...now it is our favorite time...

Signing Time! Rachel Coleman came to NMSD last week and Isobel and I got to go see her. She talked about her experiences: being a mom to Leah and Lucy, how Signing Time got started and why, and she performed some songs. She asked for kids to volunteer to sign with her -- you guessed it - Isobel's hand went up each time. Isobel even got to sign on stage with her for 2 songs! Isobel was so happy that she got to use some of her signs and she got to hug Rachel. She even said she wanted to move to wherever Rachel lives because she is so nice.

Is anyone else amazed at how short she is? :)

Sweet Prayer

Ok - I don't know about you, but I tend to have a very negative memory. I need to work on remembering more of the good moments with my kids instead of the blaringly-loud bad moments. Here is my attempt to remember one such moment that just happened.

Isobel and I were having a discussion about thinking possitively and also trying not to feel isolated when surrounded by people who have different standards. Then I asked her to say the prayer. She didn't feel like she could. So I told her how much I appreciate her prayers and how thoughtful they are. Eva piped in, "Me? You like my prayers?"
"I love your prayers, too."
"But you were talking to Isobel, right?"
"That's right. Would you like to say the prayer tonight?"
"Ya!"
She then proceeded to be thankful for the day and that she wouldn't have any bad dreams...
"And if I do have bad dreams, let me run to my mom's room. And bless that we can be a good family. And that we can be nice. ..."

It was a very sweet prayer.

(I might add that last night she had a bad dream and ran into my room. After about an hour of me not sleeping anymore and her very much asleep on me, Bryce took her back to her room.)

I will miss moments like that. The prayers, the snuggles in the middle of the night (although rather annoying in the half-asleep state), the well wishes as they drop me off at work, the hug requests, the story requests...

Yesterday I was home with just Isobel for a few hours until Bryce and Eva got back from the campgrounds. She said, "I love having time with just you."

Remind me to take more of that time when I get rushed and busy with work and all the other distractions. I want to remember the sweet (and silly) things my children do and say.

Eva Ruthie Tootie-toot

That is what Isobel lovingly calls Eva...

Eva turned 5 on Monday! Holy cow - does that make me old? Bryce and I pretty much let Eva have free reign on her big day - since it's the last birthday she has at home - next year she'll be in school on her birthday. We asked her if she wanted to go to lunch and she said she wanted to go to Bobcat Bite. It's a great hamburger joint, but we asked what she liked there and she said "hot chocolate and fries." Well, if that was her only request, we could go somewhere else. So we went to Denny's but their hot chocolate machine was broken! So we went across the street to Village Inn. Here Eva is - happy as a clam - with her hot chocolate :)

It's a crappy picture because I took it with my phone and she doesn't hold still well :) I wish you could see her outfit. She is wearing this tye-dyed shirt, a plaid patchwork skirt, and two-tone checkered pants - wow!

That afternoon, for her birthday party, we had 10 little girls over to dress up, dance ballet, paint pictures, have snacks and cake. All her choosing. The girls and I (and Karen - thanks for joining me:) danced to Josh Groban for a long time. It was great! At the end, when I was SO ready for the parents to pick up the kids, I decided to let the kids go crazy and we listened to the Twilight soundtrack (thanks Share). They totally loved it! I was exhausted and needed a time-out when we got home, but the girls (mainly Eva) had a great time - so it was worth it. Good thing birthdays are only once a year!

It's funny, now that Eva is 5, she will do her own seatbelt and wipe-flush-wash her hands. Yeah!

Here are some of my favorite things that Eva says lately:

HEY! There's a ROAD-RAILER train! (It's called the Rail-Runner, but it has a picture of a road runner - very confusing)

Mom, you and I are twins - only, your hair is stuck to your head and mine hangs down a little bit.

Mom, I'm going to be hot if I wear a short-sleeved OR long-sleeved shirt.

Eva: How do I look today? Mom: Cute. Eva: Mom, you are supposed to say it like "Eva, that's SO cute!" Mom: Oh, (giggle) sorry. Eva, you are SO cute!

I am sure there are way more - but that is all I can think of at the moment. Please feel free to leave some of your favorite Eva quotes in the comments - she'll love reading them!

WE LOVE YOU, EVA!!

Western Regional EI Conference FUN!

So I spent 4 days in Colorado Springs for a conference. I'd never been there before so we made the most of it. I stayed in a resort with my supervisor, Kristi. When we arrived on Wednesday, we did some research to find out how we wanted to spend our evenings and getting out to move around.
The first evening we found a great creperie and I ate a crepe filled with ham, swiss, and spinach. MMM...
The next night we invited our group from NM to go to Garden of the Gods and hike around. All these ladies are SO fun! We ran around and looked at the huge, fin-like red rock formations with Pike's Peak in the background. Seriously, check out the site - you won't believe these rocks.

We had planned to all go out for Stacy's and Kristi's birthday dinner - but there was a little miscommunication. Apparently there was more than one Macaroni Grill and their car followed the GPS and we followed our own knowledge. We found the right one - they found the one that was closed. Oops. It was a fun to have dinner with my friend Paula from Utah :)

We had to book it out of our last session on Friday to get to Seven Falls before they closed the gate at 5:15pm. We climbed 224 stairs up the side of the falls (that you can see in the picture) and then down and went up the 170-something steps to the better view. Kristi took pics of us and sent them to our husbands - how sweet is that? I guess I should have looked cuter for Bryce ;)

Then Kristi, Sally Ann, and I went to this restaurant with food from Nepal (that we saw around the corner from the creperie). The food on the far left corner was mine:) I had mango chicken and bread with cherries, cashews, and coconut - oh man - it was awesome.

Across the street was a store with clothes from India and Nepal. Sally Ann and Kristi loved dressing me up in this crazy wrap-around skirt/dress thing. Kristi didn't have Barbies, so she was acting out on me. I'm used to it - Share loves to dress me up. Oh - and I did buy the skirt.

Kristi and I had a great visit on the way home and I finally finished listening to Inkheart (I left Santa Fe with only like 1 chapter left and an 8 hour drive ahead of me...I'm telling you, we had a good visit:)

All in all, it was great to have such fun people around and to get out and see some beautiful things. AND eat killer food! I didn't even mention the food at the conference - too much great food all day. I think I need to start running again ;)

The SLC Half Marathon

Most of you who have been dying to know how the half marathon went have either already talked to me or seen Share's blog. If you want to know and see some good pictures, check out her post - it's killer.

THE BIG RACE

Our outfits were so fun and although I wanted to die the last couple miles, I felt really good once I was done. Now Share is trying to convince me to run in the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay next year. Anyone who's up for a crazy long run thru the mountains of Utah - check it out and let us know if you're in ;)

Sisters in (the other) SF

A few months ago, at Bunco, our friend, Angie, told us about her and Sara planning a trip to San Francisco the middle of February. They were planning to go see Wicked and play for the weekend. Angie has a house there and said there was room for anyone who wanted to come. I made it my goal to convince Karen to go with me - since they were leaving the weekend after Karen's BIG birthday ;) (Don't worry - I'll never tell your age;)

Once we finally decided and started making plans - it was looking better and better. About a month before we left - at Bunco again - we were talking to Debbie about it and she was in! We all rode together to the airport - already starting to laugh a lot and tease eachother incessantly. Here we are - waiting for our flight - trying our hand at being serious instead of silly. No luck. (Angie, Me, Debbie, and Karen) We gave up at the normalcy and went for the fun! This was the start of a glorious tradition of behind pictures - most of them starring me. (Sara is by Angie - don't you love my luggage?)We arrived late in the evening Thursday and met Sara's friend Shonny at the airport. With all 6 of us, we had to rent a mini van - which didn't fit in the garage. We went to bed after admiring the house and choosing bed buddies. I got Karen - of course - and hoped I wouldn't accidently cuddle with her. Thank goodness we had a king size mattress :) In the morning we found out why Angie got this place - look at the view! (Taken from the roof - note the Golden Gate Bridge in the top right corner.)We were only blocks from the wharf and Ghirardelli Square - where we had to buy lots of chocolate and ice cream. We walked down Lombard Street, enjoyed sour dough bread, went to the aquarium and wax museum, played at Musee Mecanique, saw silver men "statues", shopped for stoopidneers, and laughed way too much!

(Here we are on the Wharf - near where we watched a man "hiding" behind bushes and scaring people :)Debbie and I are very good at being sea stars - I think we could pass as their twins - what do you think?Here I am at the wax museum with Beetlejuice - aren't we cute together?

At the wax museum, they had an electric chair for you to try out. I did it first, and then insisted that everyone else try it. The lights flash and sparks fly and then - cold air shoots up your bum. Can't you tell by Karen's reaction? That was unexpected :)Here Karen is getting beat by an arm wrestling machine - the one in Princess Diaries - I lost, too. That man was TOUGH!What trip is complete without a photo booth picture? I love Karen's face in the first one. Personally, I like the second one the best. Please note Debbie's name tag. She found it on the ground on the pier. It says "Dr. Vandersheldon" and she wore it ALL day. I mean, if she put on her sweatshirt, she took off the name tag and replaced it on the sweatshirt. She wanted everyone to be sure of who she was. (Although she could never remember the name right:)Don't these "sun glasses" look great with my sweater? Dang, I'm cute!We sat by a drag queen on the bus - who complimented Karen's eyes - on our way home from Wicked - which was AWESOME! We did more shopping. I got to go to a huge fabric store that had the softest fabric I've ever felt - yup - $100 a yard! Karen and I wanted to buy a shirt that said "I heart SF" - but then, living in Santa Fe, it could be misunderstood. We ate tons of treats and the biggest cream puffs ever. We saw Coraline in 3D and walked all over. We went to China Town and bought some fun stuff for the kids and saw super cute things that we would never buy.

We ate dinner at Angie's favorite place - House of Nanking. It was funny because I ordered the soup - the one thing that didn't have onions in it - and then Angie asked the waitor to just bring a few different things for the rest of them to share. Well, there was some miscommunication and another waitor brought our food out and divided the soup into 6 tiny portions for us to share. Then our origional waitor came out and said - No, that was just for her! Then he told me I'd have to eat all six bowls! Hehehe. They really were yummy and I only ate 3 of them ;)What's a trip to San Francisco without riding a cable car? or pole dancing?

Overall, I would say we all had a great time. We all got along really well. We were able to tease and joke and laugh and laugh and laugh. We were even laughing on the plane ride home. What a wonderful time! I think we all felt like silly girls and enjoyed every minute of it! Thanks for letting us invite ourselves to your house, Angie. Thanks for having a BIG birthday for us to celebrate, Karen!

I heart SF!