for the children

From the title of this post, you may think I'm going to wax eloquent about the plight of the poor, underprivileged, starving children of the world. But I am not. This post is about me. In a swimsuit. A maternity swimsuit.

On Friday, I swallowed my pride, struggled into the one swimsuit that fit me--"fit" being a relative term here--and spent the day waddling around the Roy Aquatic Center with my girls and some of our friends. It's one of our favorite summer destinations and I figured it'd be easier to do it before I had the baby than after. Well, it was easier for me but unfortunate for the hundreds of other people who had to see me. Trying to get full coverage with the sunscreen was a spectacle in and of itself. Further adding to my humiliation was that I was there with my girlfriends, Linda and Casey. Linda is a mom of three and model and looks amazing all the time--and, of course, in a swimsuit looks like she's on a photo shoot. Then there's Casey who just gave birth to her fifth child a couple of months ago and is already a tiny little thing. I just kept telling myself that at least I had a good excuse for looking the way I do. And I tried to make it as fun of a day as possible. It was a perfect summer day, I got to relax and chat with my BFFs and the girls played like crazy which was everything I could ask for.

When we were getting in the car, Ella said, "This has been one of the best days of my life." I'm learning that a big part of being a parent is doing things that we may not necessarily want to do or ever choose to do. But we sacrifice our time or our pride to do them because we know it'll make our kids happy. I may even put on that swimsuit one last time to go back to the pool in the next couple of weeks--you know, for the children.

how's this for gross?

My husband and I have had on ongoing debate during our almost 12 years of marriage. Is it necessary to rinse the dishes off before putting them in the dishwasher? He says no, I say yes. And I say not just rinse them, but completely clean them with a brush--and, often, dish soap--until all traces of food, gunk and debris have been removed. I practically load the dishwasher with sparkling clean dishes. What can I say? I'm a clean-freak germ-a-phobe. I'm sure that anyone who has had the pleasure of scraping baked-on macaroni cheese off a plate or peanut butter off a utensil post-wash-cycle will definitely side with me on this one.

Well, I think my dishwashing zeal may have led to tonight's unfortunate situation. It was my night to cook for Supper Club (more on this fabulous setup in another post) so I was focusing on getting the food done, packed and delivered on time. In between, I was setting the table for my own little family to eat. Can you see what's coming? I opened the dishwasher to get out some plates and paused for a minute, trying to recall if I had run it this morning. They looked clean enough so I took them out and put them on the table. It wasn't until after we ate that I opened the dishwasher again only to realize in shock and horror that the dishes were, in fact, still dirty. Ewwww. I had fed my family on soiled, germy, disgusting dishes.

I spent the majority of the evening trying to remember just how well I had pre-washed the plates before loading them--oh, and also keeping myself from being sick. I figured they must have been alright if I had followed my usual MO. Then I just tried to erase the whole ugly incident from my mind.

My only consolation was that I got the double-cleaned, very sanitary utensils out of the drawer.

no picture today

I've been thinking a lot about my college days lately. I studied the arts, humanities and literature quite a bit during my time at BYU and loved it. I even went on a Studio Arts Study Abroad program with my sister for a spring term one year where we traveled to NYC, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, France and England visiting the great museums and architectural wonders of Europe. We studied art ranging from the very ancient to the shockingly modern but mostly doodled in our sketchbooks and attempted to watercolor anything close to aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps it was during those travels that I encountered an image that I have been conjuring up on a daily basis during the past few weeks.

What I've been thinking of is those little stone fertility statues that seemed to be extremely popular with ancient civilizations. You know the ones--the squat female figures with exaggerated bellies and breasts. Well, guess what, folks. Those weren't exaggerated. It seems that I am looking at an ancient fertility statue every time I look in the mirror. Yes, it depressing and a little humiliating that I have to go out in public everyday looking the way I do and trying desperately to find something--anything--that'll fit me. But, I keep telling my squat little exaggerated self (and I continue to remind my husband, just in case he fears that this body is here to stay) that this is a temporary situation, that it will be over before I know it (and probably before I'm ready for it to be) and that I am so blessed to be able to conceive, carry and deliver this precious little baby boy. So here's to my huge pregnant body--I'm going to live it up for these last three weeks.

So, like the title says, there will be no picture today. For obvious reasons.

check them off the list

Hogle Zoo and Lagoon. Check. Check. We have done them both for the year and we don't have to go back again (at least until next summer). I took the girls last week as part of our Summer School "field trip" program and it couldn't have been better. The weather was perfect for walking around, watching animals, standing in line, riding rides and all the other fun stuff you do with the hundreds of strangers who happen to be at these places on the same day you are.

First, the zoo. We went on Monday--low 70's and sunny. Highlights for us all were the white alligator (a.k.a. The Ghost of the Bayou), monkeys, snakes (yes, even for me, as long as they're behind glass), giraffes and cougars. We also almost saw a kid get zapped by the electrified fence at the camels and we were entertained by a little girl who stood next to our table while we ate lunch saying "chip, chip, chip" for about 15 minutes. I have to say, that was a little weird and Ella and I had a hard time not laughing out loud. We saw everything in about 3 hours and had a great time.

Next, Lagoon. Usually kind of a nightmare but not too bad this time. We went on Thursday with our neighbors, the Worcotts. It was Crystal's parents' stake day which is the only day to go (discount ride passes and free entrance passes). It was mid-to-high 60's, sunny and perfect. Ava loved the Dinosaur Drop ride but hated Puff (the roller coaster). She has reminded me several times each day that she did not like that ride but that next year when she's big she will. Ella went on almost all of the big roller coasters and loved Wicked, The Spider and the Fly, The Wild Mouse, The Bat and the white roller coaster. She says that pretty soon they'll have to call it the brown roller coaster since all the paint is flaking off. She also begged to go on the Ferris Wheel before we left so we had to do that (also not really popular with Ava).

The good news of the day was that we only got accused one time of cutting in line in Kiddieland which, for the record, we did not--kids behind were OK and understood the situation. Large, tatooed, irate mother did not and was not very nice. I told her that our kids didn't cut, that her kids should go in front of ours if she felt they were wronged but that it wasn't right for our kids to have to go clear to the back of the huge line that had formed after they arrived. I didn't get much of a response and the conversation abruptly ended. In the end, our kids and hers all ended up on the ride together so all the drama and trauma was completely unnecessary. I could step up onto my soapbox and go on and on about all the unsavory characters you run into at Lagoon (where do these people come from? I do not encounter these types in my regular, normal life. It's like everyone who lives under a rock climbs out and goes there on the days I go. It's so bizarre.) but I will refrain. We had a fun day, the girls loved it and are already asking to go back and we'll just leave it at that.

Oh, the other highlight of last week was that Tom took Ella backpacking on an overnighter with the scouts. They hiked up Adams Canyon here in Layton, pitched their tents, camped and hiked out the next morning. Ella did great and had a lot of fun--especially playing in the fire. This week, we're all about soccer camp, arts in the park camp and t-ball (it goes on and on). Poor Ava is stuck home with me while I either clean, read or take naps. That's about all I can do these days which is just fine with me.

By the way, countdown to baby day is now 24 days!

no offense taken

Sunday dinners are a little hit and miss around here. One week, I may be on the ball enough to have a roast in the crock pot and rolls out rising before I go to church. And the next week, I may be pulling leftovers out of the refrigerator, trying to get anything on the table before the girls need to go to bed. This past Sunday was somewhere in between. I threw together a quick meal of pasta, watermelon and Texas Toast (one of our family's favorites).

Elleke was the last to eat and as she was finishing and as I was cleaning up the dishes and kitchen, she said, "No offense, Mom, but that was the baddest piece of Texas Toast I've ever eaten."

Sadly, I had to agree with her. It tasted pretty gross to me too. How is it possible to mess up Texas Toast, you ask? Well, all you have to do is let some meat juice boil over into the bottom of the oven and then cook the Texas Toast in the smoky mess a few days later. It's that simple. And I guarantee it will ruin the taste of everything you bake, including Texas Toast. Let's just say that despite being a world-class, five-star chef in my own mind, I won't be getting my own cooking show anytime soon.

what a week

Like most weeks, the first week of summer has had its ups and downs. The highlights for the girls have definitely been our "Summer School" program and swimming lessons. And for Tom and me, it was not having to spend all day today in the yard!

I've been so surprised at how much the girls are loving planning the week, being involved with errands and shopping, working in their workbooks and having reading time. In fact, they are begging me almost everyday to be able to do their workbooks (we'll see how long that lasts...). It's nice to have something for them to look forward to, to keep them busy and to work on together. We also did our first scrapbook layouts in their summer memory books and they turned out so cute! We printed a picture that highlighted their favorite thing from the week, Ella wrote about it, I wrote Ava's and they decorated them with stickers. Such a fun activity--might as well start them early in my favorite hobby!

So, what, are you asking, did they do their layouts about? Swimming lessons, of course! They both loved going to their daily lessons at North Davis Gymnastics. Ella's teacher was Natalie and Ava's was Sarah. They both were little fish in the water, jumping right in without any hesitation and being game for whatever their teachers told them to do. Even though it was cold and rainy all week, they didn't seem to be bothered and just wanted to get there everyday. I have a feeling we'll be spending lots of time in the water this summer.

One more highlight of the week was my visit to the doctor. I'm now almost 35 weeks and am at that point where I'm pretty ready to be done. This has not been an easy pregnancy for me--I'm definitely feeling all of my 35 years--and although I don't have everything ready for the baby, I'm seeing the light at the end of a long tunnel and can see that this will all be over soon. In fact, my doctor said she would schedule my induction for July 11th as long as there is room that day and I'm ready. Hooray! Now I've got a day on my calendar to look forward to and prepare for. So mark your calendars, one and all, because I'm getting this baby out as soon as I can!

So, we had a lot of ups this week, but we ended the week on a down. Tonight while we were eating dinner, Ava was climbing up to get into her stool, slipped, hit her chin on the corner of the countertop and split it open. She is definitely our little accident-prone child. Any freaky or weird thing that can happen will happen to her. We haven't had to go to the emergency room until now, though. All the clinics were closed so we headed to the ER for a nice family outing. Luckily, it didn't bleed much, she wasn't crying or upset and she was amazing while they were doing everything. We couldn't believe it! I definitely expected a horrible, screaming, thrashing situation, but she was calm, happy, singing, cooperative and, believe it or not, actually fell asleep while she was being stitched up! Amazing. What a cutie. One funny thing about it all was that the ER doctor who was there was Matt Pollard, a friend that I've known since elementary school. So, all in all, it wasn't how we would have chosen to spend our Saturday night, but it turned out the best it could have. Oh, and Tom even got another tree in the ground after we got back (a darling little weeping cherry for the front)--only 4 left to plant! I guess we ended on a high note after all!