Seven Things Sunday

Phew! This week has been exhausting. Here are 7 things we did this week:

1. Lilyanna went to her friend's birthday party. After 2 days of school being cancelled due to frigid temps, some playtime with friends on Saturday was a blessing. Getting her face painted like her beloved white tiger was a dream come true for her!

2. After 2 days of those aforementioned frigid temps we then got a large snow storm on  Saturday. The roads were awful Saturday morning, but alas, the school district's science day did not get cancelled. Nathaniel was not happy about having to slip and slide through the storm.

3. Friday night was the opening of  the high school's production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". Now the last time I saw this show was on Broadway, so I went in with very low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised, though, and enjoyed the show very much. Their Bud Frump was better than the Broadway version, IMO. Benjamin was one of the Junior Executives and in the chorus and had a great time dancing and singing his little heart out. And then Saturday's show was cancelled due to the snow. (NOT THE SCIENCE DAY, just the play. Grrrr.)

4. Earlier in the week, Nathaniel deigned to get his haircut before his audition for his school's production of "The Sound of Music". I took lots of pictures of the process and kept trying to convince him to stop at each phase, because he had kind of a cool emo thing going on. Alas, he didn't think it would be authentic to the period of the play.

5. Nathaniel was cast as one of the children in the Von Trapp family. I believe he was typecast, as Kurt is the incorrigible one after all! ;)

6. All of my careful trip planning for this summer fell apart this week. We were supposed to spend part of our trip this summer visiting our relatives in Spain, but they discovered this week that they have a conflict the only days that we can be there, so in a flurry of fb messages, phone calls, texts, and emails, we managed to purchase tickets for a few weeks from now so we can visit the Spanish relatives in the Western United States while they are visiting other relatives. We're really excited to see everyone, but figuring things out almost cured me of my omnipresent wanderlust for the week. (Almost. I was back at it today to try to figure out where to go for the days we would have been in Spain. I know. We should all have such "problems".)

7. Warren got not 1, but 2 jobs in the last couple of weeks! Fingers crossed and prayers said that all will go well for him.

BONUS:

8. I had my first mammogram yesterday. After the first couple of pictures, I wondered what all women were whining about. (Unless they are relatively flat chested women. That would be awful.) THEN they did the sideways pictures with the arm up and all manner of contortions and just OUCH!! The technician gave me chocolate afterwards, which did help assuage my shock at the whole thing. But still, I think at the very least a good dinner beforehand should have been warranted. Oy. This was also on the same morning of the icky, slippery roads. The upside of all of this was that everyone else had cancelled, so I was in and out of my appointment before my appointment was even supposed to begin. Silver linings, you know. 

Seven Things Sunday

1. All passports are in and tickets to and from Europe are booked!

2. Thanks to my French language cds that I listen to in the car and a lot of research of where to eat in Paris, I now know how to ask for directions and more importantly how order cream puffs, and croissants, and baguettes, and tartines, and macarons, and crepes. I have gastronomic plans and priorities, people! Also, no thanks to my freshman son's otherwise fantastic history teacher who knew Benjamin was going to Paris this summer and said, "Honestly, with the current political climate, I'd be more afraid of France than the Middle East right now." So, I got to talk him down off the ceiling from that idea.

3. In other news, I am super grateful for modern technology that makes it so easy to keep in touch with family far away and in the midst of a crisis.

4. I am also grateful to live in a place with fabulous hospitals and whatever kind of care I may need all within easy distance. This is not a thing that most of my relatives have.

5. Took the little miss to her first salon experience and Sweet and Sassy. If you've never been, it's like everything pink and glitter exploded in one place and left behind a staff who totally gets little girls, and pretty hair-bows. Lilyanna was pretty much in heaven. It was a little overwhelming to me, but she was super happy AND relented in letting us donate her hair. For reasons I could never get to the bottom of, she was very hesitant about hair donation.

6. Caleb started his first Spanish class this week. When asked how he knew so many basic vocabulary words already, he said, "Because my sister used to watch a LOT of that crappy show Dora the Explorer". Charming, no?

7. Week one of healthier eating is yielding results. Which is encouraging, but still hard to stick to. Especially on snow days. Snow days seem to scream for hot chocolate. And whipped cream! And Doritos. Mmmm.... Doritos....

"A nest for birds, There ain't no words For the beauty, splendor, the wonder of my HAIR"

I can't stop quoting the musical "Hair" in reference to Caleb. So here is the song that is stuck in my head every time hair is mentioned. This is from the Broadway revival a few years ago. (Amusingly, I just remembered being in NYC at the time. We were celebrating our 10th anniversary and had been to see a different show the night before. The next morning we were standing in line at the TKTS booth trying to decide whether to see another show or go to the Manhattan LDS temple.  There wasn't much available that morning, so in the end our choice was Hair or the temple. I would like to say the answer was obvious, but I did pause for a moment. This is why it's good to marry a better influence. ;) )

I mentioned the other day that Caleb was going to get his hair cut in preparation for Halloween.  Here is the after:

I guess a picture of the before would be nice, too:

But here is my favorite part of this story. Caleb gathered all the hair from his haircut and brought it home in a plastic bag.  After we got home we finished up his school work and then his friends started coming over after school. Each time the doorbell rang, he'd invite his friends back to see his new pet.  He was showing them this:

Yes. That's his hair. Yes. It's in an animal cage.  Most people initially thought it was a guinea pig until Caleb would whip off his hat to reveal his freshly shorn head.  He told this story tonight to his drama teacher and she said to him, "You are what we love best about drama."  True dat.

The Meeting

At the end of this month, Todd and I will have been married for TEN YEARS.

Frankly, I find this unbelievable, but then I look at the fact that we have an 8 and a half year old.

The other day I mentioned something about Todd to a friend and he said, "Where did you find this guy?"

My response: "Girl's Camp"

Naturally.

People usually stare for a minute while they try to process the next thing to say to a response like that.

For those of you who don't know, Girl's Camp is a five day camping experience for all the young women, ages 12-18, from our church. Several congregations (called "wards") from a geographic area (called "stake") gather together to do such a camp. The summer of 1980, my mother and Todd's mother had both been asked to be leaders for the camp. Several of the leaders brought their families to the camp the weekend before all the girls arrived, so they had extra man-power to help set everything up and get it ready for the invasion of giggling teenage girls that would follow.

Camp was at a small island in the Delaware River called "Treasure Island", if you can believe such a thing. Todd and I both have memories of travelling from the NJ side of the river to the island with all our stuff in green boats driven by boy scouts.

I was four. Todd was five. Todd's older sister, Melanie, was there also. (I wonder if his younger brother was there, too... I don't remember him being there, but he was a toddler at the time. Hm.) Melanie had beautiful long blond hair. I wanted pretty long hair more than anything else, but my mean mother wouldn't let me have it because I refused to let her brush it. (Ha!! I showed you, MOM! I've had long hair for years, and I DON'T BRUSH IT. So There.) Anyway, I spent the weekend following Melanie and her pretty long hair around. Melanie's favorite game seemed to be, "Let's make Todd cry." It looked like fun to me, so I joined right in.

So my earliest memories of my husband are of him being a cry baby. ;) (I suppose by right, his earliest memories of me should be me being mean, but fortunately he has a spotty memory.)

One morning he and his Dad went down to the showers. The walls didn't go all the way down to the cement floor, which meant that Melanie and I could grab at Todd's ankles from the outside while he tried to take a shower. I remember running away through the woods with Todd's Dad yelling at us to "Cut it out!" and Todd crying. Melanie and I giggled the whole way.

The Sunday that we were up there, we had an outdoor church service where Todd, Melanie, and I sang "I Am A Child of God" for all the adults. I'm sure that we were adorable. I do remember thinking that it was very pleasant to sing with a boy who wasn't afraid to sing out AND sing in tune. (Even then, I was snobby about that sort of thing.)

And that was it. My Dad and I went home and Todd Smith didn't come back on my radar again until I was seven and he was eight.

But that will be a story for tomorrow.

The Wedding

Nicky-poo's wedding (I've been calling him Nicky-poo for years now. He's too tough to smile in any pictures taken in the last decade, but he responds to Nicky-poo. Go figure...) was a black tie affair. This meant that my boys were the cutest things EVER in their tuxes. I have millions of pictures of the kids and I think one picture of the bride. And none of Nicky-poo my brother-in-law. Because kids are cuter.

Okay, I also took a few pictures of grown ups. Jenny and I left the pool early to begin the transformation process from beach bums to elegant ladies. It took hours.

I told Nick that I loved him so much I would brush my hair before coming to his wedding. Then Jen went wild with a curling iron. It's fun to have sisters in law.

Seriously. Cutest Boys EVER. My three monsters and their cousin, Charlie were the life of the party. They kept the dance floor awesome all night and were completely unabashed in their enthusiastic dancing. I'm so proud.
Check out the totally hot guys I live with. You know you're jealous.

Tell me these ladies aren't gorgeous!! That's my niece and her Momma. Beautiful ladies.

More beautiful girl. It's so nice having a niece to shop for.

What to do when it's just too much party to handle? Pull out the board game you conveniently happened to pack along with you, of course.

You have to like a beautiful bride who is confident enough to be photographed with a pink plastic pig. Welcome to the family, Erica.

Me and Jen post party and back in our comfy pajamas.

My weirdo

I was singing while playing the piano this morning when Nathaniel came up to stand by me.  I felt all warm and fuzzy that one of my most favorite people was standing with me while I did one of my most favorite things.  I turned at one point to gaze lovingly upon him, and discovered that he was sucking on my hair.   He had picked up a few ends of my long hair and stuck them in his mouth without me realizing what he was doing.  I grabbed my hair back and said something profound like, "Ew, gross!".

  I should have known better, though, because for little boys that is like the ulitmate compliment.  For the next several minutes I had to keep dodging my head around to keep my hair from him while still playing and singing.  I could have simply stood up, or swept my hair up in a knot on my head...but it was  more fun this way.

And besides, who am I to complain?  I bite and lick people with alarming regularity.  

But only if I really like them.

Hm.

"Oh, Nathaniel! Can you come here for a minute?"

Do you ever...

...have one of those days where you are so tired, that when you run your fingers through your air-dried hair and realize that it feels weird considering you just washed it that morning, you also are able to think back and realize that you forgot to actually wash your hair in the shower that morning?

Or is that just me?

hm...

I decided to save a few bucks and get my highlights in Wyoming instead of waiting until I get back to my fru fru (yet fabulous) salon back home. My sister made the appointment with the stylist that she and our other sister use. I maybe should have taken that as a warning. I am currently....blonde. Well, a heckuva lot more blonde than I have ever been in my life. I have that weird "AAACK!!!" reaction every time I go past a mirror. Todd says it makes me look younger. My mom says it makes me look less pale. (I think these are supposed to be compliments, but what they imply about how I was looking before....) So far nobody has reacted by screaming. Though, my sons had that best reaction, I think.

"Mom. What did you do to your hair?"

TMI, I'm sure

This evening we are doing family pictures with my family here in Wyoming. You all know that I can hardly be bothered to brush my hair, let alone do anything to it. But for family pictures, I usually try to put forth a little effort. (Yes, I know I wore a baseball cap at last week's pictures, but I didn't realize we were doing pictures!)

Anyway, this afternoon I took a shower and then used my sister's hair dryer. I have probably blow dried my hair less than ten times in the almost ten years that Todd and I have been married. So it probably shouldn't have surprised me quite so much when I wandered into the bedroom wearing a towel to *ahem* wake Todd up from a nap.

I draped myself on the bed next to him as he woke up drowsily and we had this conversation:

Him: Why are you wearing a towel?

Me: Because I just took a shower.

Him: But your hair is dry.

Me: (Bemused) Because I used a blow dryer.

Him: Do you have a fever?

Me: (A little put out.) No.

Him: (Confused) Do I have a fever?