Boys will be boys!

My mom has always told me, jokingly, that if she knew how "easy" raising a boy would have been versus a girl, she would have traded my sister and me in a long time ago. Maybe one boy is a whole different ball game but these days, raising two little boys is hard. It's fun and entertaining, but it's hard. However, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I live a life of burp and fart jokes. I live a life where the words booger and bum are used as often as the word and. I life a life of wrestling and running and dancing and screaming. A life of scrapes and bruised heads - a life of wild animals and too many documentaries about predators (of the sea, the sky, the savannah and ancient times.)

I also live a life of gigantic hugs, the kind that knock you over. I live a life of joy and humor at crazy knock-knock jokes. I live a life where the mundane is exciting. I life a life where, when I ask my two year old what planet he lives on, he tells me planet belly button.

Last night, after dinner it felt like I had a glimpse of what is to come and let me tell you, it was awesome. I was at the kitchen table working on a project. The boys were taking turns dancing in the living room and helping me - requesting songs for their dad, the DJ to play. How many four year olds ask for "bust a move?" Mine does. At some point the dancing stopped and Elliott joined me at the table, building things with my scraps of paper and Wyatt was sitting on the counter playing DJ with his dad. We were laughing and talking about nothing. It was like I had a 17 year old and a 15 year old in my house telling me about school and working on their history homework - not two little squirts waiting to dance to beyonce's "single ladies" sung by the chipmunks because hey, that's funny.

Sometimes I am so anxious to get on with things, to move ahead, to forge on. I'm ready for school and homework, organized sports and science fairs. Then I stop and realize woah - that's too fast. Life is too fast. I like the cuddly wuddly monsters and want them to sit on my lap forever.

Until they fart on me. Then, they can find their own seats.

In a different room.

And bring me a can of air freshener because yes, it is that bad.

On Being Married....

I have book club this week.  The book that was selected for the month by Angela, our resident editor, was a true break from the norm.  Rather than a novel, she picked a book about marriage.  A self-help book maybe, I'm really not sure.  The book is titled, Passionate Marriage (by David Snarch) and as the title implies, the book was a bit of an "exotic" book to read.  Especially for a girl like me, who when it comes right down to it, is a bit of a prude - uncomfortable watching movie kissing (even by cartoons) and doesn't necessarily use the word passionate to describe much of anything.

Anyway, the gist of the book is to talk about something called, "differentiation," or how good you are at being an individual in a relationship with your spouse.  The more differentiated you are, according to Dr. Snarch, the better relationship you'll have in all aspects of your married life, if you get my drift (it is called passionate for a reason).

Are you a partner who does things his/her best interest (stand up for your values, be true to yourself and your beliefs, etc.) to make you a good person in return motivating your partner to be a good person and to both treat each other with love and kindness and respect?  Or, are you "emotionally fused" to each other and so dependent upon the other's acceptance, permission, opinions that you lose yourself in your relationship and end up just being angry at everything (and everyone)?  Or, are you somewhere in the middle, just getting by but not really creating a long lasting friendship and relationship with the person you've chosen to spend the rest of your life with?

It's of course, a lot more complicated than I've laid out in a paragraph - and getting along with your spouse is much more complicated than a book could ever detail.  But the basic ideas of 1) how you were raised directly impacts how you treat your spouse and 2) the strengths and weaknesses you bring into your relationship need to be constantly evaluated and evolve over time and 3) it takes A LOT OF WORK to be happily married and have a fulfilled and lasting relationship are things that any couple could benefit from a little time exploring.

So, I read the book.  It was a bit too graphic for me in the passion department, but the ideas put forward about marriage and responsibility really opened my eyes.  I decided to make Ross read the book and in the last week or so as he's been reading it, we've had some really great discussions about life, love, our marriage, and how we treat each other on a daily basis.  More importantly however, what we can do to make our marriage better.  It's been eye opening and inspiring.

I love my husband.  I love that he listens to me (when he's not watching football) and that he treats me with respect.  I love that he takes the full responsibility of providing for us financially and that he appreciates me and what I do at home with the little monsters.  I love that he's a good dad and that he spends so much time with his boys.  I know that there are times, more frequent than they should be, when we take each other for granted.  But, it make me happy to know that we really do have each others' best interests at heart and that we know that we need to be constantly working on our relationship and continue to become better friends and partners in our lives.  We are after all, in this for eternity, so the more time we spend figuring all this marriage stuff out now can only benefit us down the road.

Happy Birthday

Today is my mom's birthday.  She's spending her birthday at the doctor's with my brother.  He's really sick and getting an iv.  She could have either spent her birthday at work or with my sick brother.  I'd pick the sick kid, too.

Probably because I have too much time on my hands and because I don't want to clean up all the toy food that has been strewn about my family room floor for the sake of playing "restaurant-paleontologist-Phineas and Ferb truck stop on a trailer-spy" I was looking through my photo archives for a good picture of my mom and realized that there isn't a picture of just my mom.  There are only pictures of my mom with other people, particularly her kids and grand kids and most of the time, someone is sitting on her lap.  That got me to thinking about my grandma because in nearly every single picture I have of my grandma someone is sitting on her lap, too (Like I said, too much time on my hands).  So then I started looking at all the pictures I've got on my computer of my mom and my grandma and started to cry - because I'm pretty much a moron that way.  And then, the more I looked, the more I noticed that my mom and her mom hold little squirts in the same way: sitting up, facing forward, fingers clasped around tiny little bellies.

 

I don't have any idea at this point what any of this rambling has to do with my moms birthday.  Nothing really because that's just how my brain functions.

 I guess it means I love my mom and I miss my grandma.

Happy Birthday, Mom!  

AWOL

Every once in a while life moves faster than the blog.  And the fact that I've been doing this for 6 years doesn't help much...sometimes there just really isn't a "story" and the thought of creating one just makes me tired.  And, life makes me tired, too.  There's been a lot of action the last week or so - physical activity, mental and emotional trauma and joy, arguments about bigots and morons, little kid magic shows, book reading about relationships, pumpkin patch picking, crafting, football game watching, and the list goes on and on and on.

Anyway - here are some pictures  - just so the few of you who read this know that we're alive and kicking.

The Sewing Summit

My good friend Erin is an amazing "sewist".  She makes capes and quilts and mug rugs (oh my!)  She is also part of a very creative blogging/sewing circle of women around the country (and in Canada) and with that as inspiration she and her friend Amy decided to create a conference - they called it "The Sewing Summit" and it started last night downtown at the Little America Hotel.

I've worked on the back-end of many conferences in my life and know how much work goes into the planning, organizing, and coordinating of such an event.  It's a ton of work.  I'd been bugging Erin to let me volunteer to help out for weeks and weeks and she finally gave in to my nagging and decided that I could run their registration table on opening night.

I spent most of my day yesterday meeting other very talented and creative women who came in from all over the country to be inspired and meet each other.  Most of these women are bloggers, having never met each other in person, but spending a lot of time being friends with each other and chatting online so it was pretty funny to see some of them just downright giddy to finally meet each other.

It was truly a lot of fun and I was so happy to be able to help.  Thanks Erin, for the experience.

 

I love where I live

Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a homebody.  I love to travel and experience new aspects of life but these days, I prefer those travels to be closer to home, and done via road trip instead of in a plane across the ocean.  I'm sure there will be a day, particularly when the boys are older, that the four of us will hop on a plane and go on some grand adventures.  But for now, I'm content to drive through the canyons quite literally in my backyard, and soak in the beauty that is fall in Utah.

On Sunday we headed out for a quick drive.  As soon as the Chick fell asleep we turned around and headed back because a long nap in the car doesn't really count as a nap in his book.  Even still, the colors and the beauty of the mountains overwhelmed me, as it does every year.  Is there really anything more splendid than a mountain on fire with the colors of fall?

I think not.

Because I'm lazy, the only camera with me was on my phone, but I still managed to capture a few shots of the gorgeous mountainside.

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!!!!!

 

 Phew!


They did it!


The Wolverines won a game.

IT was a nail biter but such an important victory.  If there was one team to beat, it was the team we defeated last night. The boys played great.  The team was healthy.  Everyone was back in their original positions. The stands were full to the brim with cheering fans and I haven't yelled and screamed at a football game so much for quite a long time.

The end, as with all the games we watch, was so stressful that I just couldn't watch.  I held the chick tight in my lap and buried my head in his hair because I just couldn't watch them lose again.  I just kept repeating into my boys head, "We have to win.  These boys have to win.  They deserve to win.  These are good boys.  We have to win...." As the opposing quarterback threw what we were all sure was to be a catch and run into the end zone for a touchdown and another loss, one of our teams defensive linemen caught the ball and ran it back for a touchdown.

We all jumped and screamed and carried on like fools.

I was so nervous and then so excited that thought I might throw up.  I didn't have to worry about that though, because my little Chickadee puked for me.  All over the two of us.

Good thing the game was over....we had to leave!

My mom texted me that the end of game celebration was grand and the boys were so excited they were just beside themselves.  And in true, excited boy fashion, the sang on the bus the whole way home.

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye!