This past Wednesday I went up to the Legion of Honor in SF to check out the Cartier exhibit with my friend, Dyan. The pieces were absolutely stunning!
There were a wide variety of jewels, from diamond tiaras to necklaces shaped like snakes (one was even linked internally, so that the segments MOVED like a snake), as well as many gorgeous brooches and mystery clocks, where the hands are suspended. Even Livia was oohing and aahing in between licks of her lollipop (I ended up having to give her two in order to make it through the entire exhibit in peace. I know, bad! But it was so worth it). The jewels were intricate and exquisite, and the exhibit was overall very fascinating.
But then that evening I visited a friend of mine who just had a baby. And as I held that 4-day-old little girl in my arms I was reminded what true beauty looks like. Enchanting as those diamonds were, I found that perfect, pure little face infinitely more captivating. There is something about babies, particularly newborns, that makes the whole world seem to pause, and suddenly nothing else matters quite as much as that wonderful, new little life.
I think I need that reminder every once in awhile, to help me remember that what I'm doing, at home with my daughter every day, IS significant. That no matter what's going on in the world, or what possessions I may or may not have, raising and loving a child is the most important contribution and the most significant privilege of my life.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Day 29: Hopes, dreams, and plans for the next 365 days
By this time next year, Livia will be three years old. I hope, very much, that by that time she is fully potty trained. I hope she has learned greater obedience. I hope she has learned so much more about this fascinating world in which we live.
I hope that Chase will be done with the GMAT, and we can move on with our lives. (This includes the hope that he will do awesomely well on that blasted test)
I hope that Chase and I will have gone on a fun vacation, just the two of us. Preferably to Europe...but I think that falls more under the "dreaming" category.
I hope that we will have a second vehicle. I swear, once I have a car to use everyday I'm going to feel like a 16-year-old getting his first set of wheels. Ahh, freedom!
I would LOVE to own a piano within the next year. But again, dreaming...
I think I can plan on being in California for the next year, but after that I really have no idea where we'll end up.
I hope Chase will get a promotion. I hope we'll save more money. I hope everyone in my family will be in good health. I hope I'll continue to improve myself. And I hope that you, all of you reading this blog, will have a fabulous year!
I hope that Chase will be done with the GMAT, and we can move on with our lives. (This includes the hope that he will do awesomely well on that blasted test)
I hope that Chase and I will have gone on a fun vacation, just the two of us. Preferably to Europe...but I think that falls more under the "dreaming" category.
I hope that we will have a second vehicle. I swear, once I have a car to use everyday I'm going to feel like a 16-year-old getting his first set of wheels. Ahh, freedom!
I would LOVE to own a piano within the next year. But again, dreaming...
I think I can plan on being in California for the next year, but after that I really have no idea where we'll end up.
I hope Chase will get a promotion. I hope we'll save more money. I hope everyone in my family will be in good health. I hope I'll continue to improve myself. And I hope that you, all of you reading this blog, will have a fabulous year!
Day 28: This year, in great detail
Let us be frank. You do not really want to hear about my entire year in great detail, nor do I want to spend the time to share it. If you've read my blog for any length of time, you already know pretty much everything of interest that I've done this year.
Since my life is essentially centered around this dear little girl, I thought that I would instead show her progression over the past year.
April 2009--1 year old
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
Since my life is essentially centered around this dear little girl, I thought that I would instead show her progression over the past year.
April 2009--1 year old
May 2009June 2009July 2009August 2009September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010--2 years old
Has she grown up, or what?!
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010--2 years old
Has she grown up, or what?!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Day 27: This month, in great detail
I'm afraid I'm not feeling up to the "great detail" thing today. How does one write about an entire month in great detail in a blog post? Tomorrow I'm supposed to write about this past year...seriously??
In any case, April has been a good month! Here's a list of things we've been up to:
In any case, April has been a good month! Here's a list of things we've been up to:
- General Conference. We're still trying to catch up on talks that were either drowned out by a certain boisterous toddler or accidentally slept through.
- Livia's birthday! She still asks to blow out candles at least once a week.
- 4 other family members birthdays. Lots of reason for celebration!
- Chase got in some good biking.
- I spent a lot of time blogging everyday.
- Volunteering at the elementary school.
- Playing with friends.
- Welcoming the arrival of Livia's soon-to-be friend, Ava Mayfield. Congrats, guys!
- Skeet shooting and hanging out at Happy Hollow.
- Lots of reading, playing, and baking with Livia.
- Errands, cleaning, and laundry. Woo-hoo.
- Tonight we're going to the temple, tomorrow I'm going to the Cartier exhibit in SF.
- LOTS of working and little sleep for Chase.
- Lifting weights while watching Biggest Loser (seriously motivating).
- Planning and giving Sunbeam lessons.
- Overhauling our budget.
And that is our month in a nutshell.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Day 26: Your week, in great detail
Let's see...on Monday we mostly hung out at home. After FHE Chase and I had our first GMAT study session together. Since I'm being so kind as to help him out, I insisted we start with sentence correction and study on the couch. I like to be comfortable while I study, though Chase prefers a desk and hard chair.
On Tuesday Livia and I went over to our friend's house, where she played with baby Matthew and I got to chat with Mary. I did laundry, was visited by my lovely visiting teachers, and we had night 2 of GMAT studying.
On Wednesday I watched two adorable little girls in the morning, and worked on a sewing project while Livia went over to their house in the afternoon. I had my last day of volunteering in an elementary school, helping ESL kids get ready for state testing. It was really nice to volunteer again, and a big thanks goes to Kristin for watching Livia every week so that I could! One of the girls, when I told her it was my last day, asked if I would be her 3rd mother (she has a step-mother). Flattering, but kind of weird, too...
Oh, and of course more GMAT. That night we started number properties. It starts out basic, with reviews of working with negatives, sets of integers, primes, etc., but oh my goodness, as soon as I started seeing variables my brain just about shut down! I literally have not done math since high school, and I never liked it then. Not that I can't do it...once we got into it I was able to figure out the problems, and did just as well as Chase, but I couldn't help feeling tortured by every passing minute.
On Thursday Livia and I hung out at home again, and then I went to my ballet class in the evening. We're getting ready for our mini-recital, and I'm enjoying learning all the choreography, since usually we just do a series of exercises. We were supposed to study again that night, but Chase fell asleep on the couch at 9:20 pm. I tried to wake him up, but he just grumbled at me, and ended up not coming to bed until 5:00 am.
On Friday I watched my niece, Ella, most of the day as her family moved across town. Livia enjoyed playing with her little cousin, and then we all went out to eat that evening. We were supposed to study again, but Chase fell asleep on the couch...again...and this time didn't come to bed until 6:00 am.
On Saturday Chase went skeet shooting with some co-workers, and Livia and I ran errands. That night we actually studied for the GMAT! Our goal was 4 days a week, so we made it. Phew!It was math again. I may or may not have complained. A lot. But we ended on some sentence correction problems, to see if we could remember what we'd learned, and I'm happy to report that I got 100%! I haven't done any sort of schoolwork since I graduated college, so it felt really refreshing to study, learn, test myself, and do well. Next week I think I'll continue studying the verbal portions with Chase, and read a book or something while he does the math. We ended the night by pigging out on junk food while watching an old Hitchcock episode on Hulu. Good times.
On Tuesday Livia and I went over to our friend's house, where she played with baby Matthew and I got to chat with Mary. I did laundry, was visited by my lovely visiting teachers, and we had night 2 of GMAT studying.
On Wednesday I watched two adorable little girls in the morning, and worked on a sewing project while Livia went over to their house in the afternoon. I had my last day of volunteering in an elementary school, helping ESL kids get ready for state testing. It was really nice to volunteer again, and a big thanks goes to Kristin for watching Livia every week so that I could! One of the girls, when I told her it was my last day, asked if I would be her 3rd mother (she has a step-mother). Flattering, but kind of weird, too...
Oh, and of course more GMAT. That night we started number properties. It starts out basic, with reviews of working with negatives, sets of integers, primes, etc., but oh my goodness, as soon as I started seeing variables my brain just about shut down! I literally have not done math since high school, and I never liked it then. Not that I can't do it...once we got into it I was able to figure out the problems, and did just as well as Chase, but I couldn't help feeling tortured by every passing minute.
On Thursday Livia and I hung out at home again, and then I went to my ballet class in the evening. We're getting ready for our mini-recital, and I'm enjoying learning all the choreography, since usually we just do a series of exercises. We were supposed to study again that night, but Chase fell asleep on the couch at 9:20 pm. I tried to wake him up, but he just grumbled at me, and ended up not coming to bed until 5:00 am.
On Friday I watched my niece, Ella, most of the day as her family moved across town. Livia enjoyed playing with her little cousin, and then we all went out to eat that evening. We were supposed to study again, but Chase fell asleep on the couch...again...and this time didn't come to bed until 6:00 am.
On Saturday Chase went skeet shooting with some co-workers, and Livia and I ran errands. That night we actually studied for the GMAT! Our goal was 4 days a week, so we made it. Phew!It was math again. I may or may not have complained. A lot. But we ended on some sentence correction problems, to see if we could remember what we'd learned, and I'm happy to report that I got 100%! I haven't done any sort of schoolwork since I graduated college, so it felt really refreshing to study, learn, test myself, and do well. Next week I think I'll continue studying the verbal portions with Chase, and read a book or something while he does the math. We ended the night by pigging out on junk food while watching an old Hitchcock episode on Hulu. Good times.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Day 25: Your day, in great detail
If my dad saw the title of this post he would laugh and warn you all to run to the hills.
Back when I was in middle school we had a family tradition every night at dinner to go around the table telling everyone about our day.
Perry would say "It was fine," and that was all.
Laura would describe a few things that happened.
And then it was my turn. "Well," I'd begin, "on the bus this morning..." and then "In 1st period we...." and so on through ALL 8 periods of the day. My dad used to cut me off after 15 minutes or so, and I would get so mad! Apparently I'm rather long winded.
SO, to spare you all, I will not go through EVERY detail of my day (aren't you relieved?), I'll just pick and choose a few things. (See Dad? I've learned. Maybe.)
It being the Sabbath today, we went to church. For once we were close to leaving on time. And then Livia asked to sit on the potty chair. Now, I knew very well that she wasn't actually going to go potty, but how can you say no to something like that?? So she sat on the potty. And didn't go.
We had a few more brief power struggles before we left, on such topics as which diaper to wear (because apparently she doesn't realize they're all exactly the same), and whether or not she could bring her maraca to church (definitely not). Finally we were on our way, and ended up being just a few minutes late. But at least this time it wasn't because of me!
Three of our sunbeams were not happy about being left by their parents today. One took a few minutes to calm down, another took all of singing time to stop crying and asking for his dad, and the last never made it and left with his mother, presumably to go take a nap.
Livia took a nearly 3 hour nap this afternoon, an extremely rare occurence for her, and Chase and I took the opportunity to take wonderful two-hour naps of our own. There's something about a Sunday afternoon that just requires a nap.
We went on a walk this evening after dinner, since the weather was far too gorgeous to pass up and we'd all slept away the afternoon. Livia insisted on wearing her rain boots. When we finally got outside she decided she absolutely had to have her umbrella. Halfway down the walkway she realized she didn't have her sunglasses so we had to go back again. All of this paired with her church dress made quite the outfit! And I know it's ridiculous, but I pick my battles, people! And with this girl, I have to.
Livia learned how to spell her name today. Only she doesn't realize that's what she's doing. She has a new toy that sings songs and talks to her, and you program it online to say the child's name. One of the little songs spells her name, and today she sang it to me! L-I-V-I-A! But sometimes she does get confused and says L-I-V-W-X-A. At least she's got that part of the alphabet song down, right? Now if only I can get her to recite this when I ask her to spell her name...then people will think she's a genius! Bwa-ha-ha!
My new plan to get Livia to eat food...any food...is to limit her to 16 oz. of milk a day. That's half of what she usually drinks, and while I've had to deal with lots of milk tantrums over the past few days, it's totally working! She has been eating noticeably more, and when she finally realizes she's not going to get any milk, she'll ask for yogurt or crackers instead. This is big. She even ate zucchini at dinner tonight. 5 whole pieces of it! Sweet, sweet success.
It was a good day. Not terribly eventful, but nice. Don't you just love the Sabbath?
Back when I was in middle school we had a family tradition every night at dinner to go around the table telling everyone about our day.
Perry would say "It was fine," and that was all.
Laura would describe a few things that happened.
And then it was my turn. "Well," I'd begin, "on the bus this morning..." and then "In 1st period we...." and so on through ALL 8 periods of the day. My dad used to cut me off after 15 minutes or so, and I would get so mad! Apparently I'm rather long winded.
SO, to spare you all, I will not go through EVERY detail of my day (aren't you relieved?), I'll just pick and choose a few things. (See Dad? I've learned. Maybe.)
It being the Sabbath today, we went to church. For once we were close to leaving on time. And then Livia asked to sit on the potty chair. Now, I knew very well that she wasn't actually going to go potty, but how can you say no to something like that?? So she sat on the potty. And didn't go.
We had a few more brief power struggles before we left, on such topics as which diaper to wear (because apparently she doesn't realize they're all exactly the same), and whether or not she could bring her maraca to church (definitely not). Finally we were on our way, and ended up being just a few minutes late. But at least this time it wasn't because of me!
Three of our sunbeams were not happy about being left by their parents today. One took a few minutes to calm down, another took all of singing time to stop crying and asking for his dad, and the last never made it and left with his mother, presumably to go take a nap.
Livia took a nearly 3 hour nap this afternoon, an extremely rare occurence for her, and Chase and I took the opportunity to take wonderful two-hour naps of our own. There's something about a Sunday afternoon that just requires a nap.
We went on a walk this evening after dinner, since the weather was far too gorgeous to pass up and we'd all slept away the afternoon. Livia insisted on wearing her rain boots. When we finally got outside she decided she absolutely had to have her umbrella. Halfway down the walkway she realized she didn't have her sunglasses so we had to go back again. All of this paired with her church dress made quite the outfit! And I know it's ridiculous, but I pick my battles, people! And with this girl, I have to.
Livia learned how to spell her name today. Only she doesn't realize that's what she's doing. She has a new toy that sings songs and talks to her, and you program it online to say the child's name. One of the little songs spells her name, and today she sang it to me! L-I-V-I-A! But sometimes she does get confused and says L-I-V-W-X-A. At least she's got that part of the alphabet song down, right? Now if only I can get her to recite this when I ask her to spell her name...then people will think she's a genius! Bwa-ha-ha!
My new plan to get Livia to eat food...any food...is to limit her to 16 oz. of milk a day. That's half of what she usually drinks, and while I've had to deal with lots of milk tantrums over the past few days, it's totally working! She has been eating noticeably more, and when she finally realizes she's not going to get any milk, she'll ask for yogurt or crackers instead. This is big. She even ate zucchini at dinner tonight. 5 whole pieces of it! Sweet, sweet success.
It was a good day. Not terribly eventful, but nice. Don't you just love the Sabbath?
Day 24: Whatever tickles your fancy
Have you ever noticed how a piece of equipment/machinery can evoke rather strong emotions from within you? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has been sorely tempted to throw their computer out the window when it froze in the midst of writing an extensive paper (and of course you hadn't saved it and this was before automatic saving by the word processor). Ever had photos get lost/corrupted? Ever had your GPS steer you wrong and you got totally lost when OF COURSE you had to be somewhere very important?
Now granted, the real anger/sadness/frustration comes from the loss of time or other valuables, not the machine itself. But you still find yourself glaring at that machine with utter loathing...for at least a few minutes.
I have an almost obscene dislike of one such machine, and that would be my brother's truck.
All of my brothers love this old truck, and will defend it til the day it makes its way to the great garage in the sky. But I rather despise it.
Let me give a few little experiences I've had with this truck to shed some light on the matter:
- The truck once stalled TWICE in the middle of an unprotected left turn. Pretty sure I saw my life flash before my eyes.
- The gas gauge didn't work, thus resulting in one LOOONG, cold night spent on the side of the road in middle-of-nowhere Utah before either my brother or I had cell phones. We ran out of gas around 2:00 in the morning, and it wasn't until sunrise that I could flag someone down to help us. Mis.er.ab.le.
- On a trip home to California, the clutch overheated multiple times, each time resulting in a long, hot wait in the car until it decided to work again. And, of course, most of the road between Provo and my family's home in the high desert is, in fact, desert. Hot, blistering desert.
My brothers insist that such occurrences ONLY happen when I'm in the car. That their dear, beloved car can somehow sense my dislike and acts up on purpose. Maybe they should name it Herbie???
My younger brother came home from college this week, and what's the first thing he did? Take a picture with said truck. He seriously missed it??! It boggles my mind. But in any case, I've vowed never to ride in it again. If they insist on loving this blasted machine, then I suppose that's their business!
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