Really, a year?

So, a lot has happened in a whole year. Most of you who will read this already know the major details, like, we moved to Colorado last August so Matt could start teaching at UNC in Greeley. We are expecting a baby in one month, due date May 16. We now own a minivan, live in a house, and our kids play city league soccer. Life is a little different than in NYC, but it's been good.

I have had some stuff happening with the pregnancy which has made it necessary to stay home and slow down, so I decided to update our blog. I figure that's a good, stay at home, resty kind of thing to do.

I will not attempt to update on everything I have missed. But instead start with the most recent special event for our family. Margaret turned 8 and was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Before the baptism in her new dress, provided by Grandma Margaret.

The family at our chapel, me looking pregnant, Stella having just woken up from a nap. Grandma Margaret & Grandpa George came all the way from California to be here.

Dad and daughter. What an awesome blessing for Matt to baptize his first daughter!

Little namesake moment. What a wonderful Grandma we have!

Grandma Margaret & Grandpa George at our house.

Our day started out with soccer games in the most beautiful spring weather. Then we had time to clean up and get ready for the big event. At the chapel we were surrounded by our new friends we've been so lucky to meet here. We also had the pleasure of having our dear friend Marin drive out from Utah. Everyone came back to our house for food and treats and to congratulate Mags on her special day. When we asked her how she felt, she smiled and replied, "Wonderful!" I know it will be a memorable day always for me and I hope it will for her as well.

This free digital slideshow created with Smilebox

I'm not making any promises about what's t come . . .after all I only have a few weeks left of this pregnancy, so there may be another pause in posting, but if I do end up putting up some more pictures, tidbits, recipes, or who knows what, won't that be fun?

A Strong Will

Want to hear about a recent crazy NYC adventure? I posted a story over at Segullah. It's funny and thought-provoking too. Don't get scared away because it's kind of longer than your run-of-the mill blog post. I just couldn't leave out any of the juicy details.

A small side note involves how stinking exhausting it can be to try and get your kids to eat. You know, eat good food. Well here's a picture for you to enjoy and a shout out to Tim. He kept Cole and Stella while Matt and I sang at our stake Christmas concert the other night and he got Cole to eat an entire plate of rice and beans. "A triumph of the night," he said. "It took everything that I had." He took a picture to prove it. So glad he did.

No Way Jose!

Join in the latest discussion at Segullah

Featuring a story from the insightful and delightful Margaret Gayle!

Photo circa 2007 (when this story came to pass)

Cole Quotes

A few months ago I started writing down funny things Cole said. Because he's funny and sometimes I can't remember why at the end of the day. My brain's not what it used to be . . .short-term memory loss and such.

Anyhoo here are a few favorites:

• At Christmas when people would ask him what he wanted, "I want a car that has a remote control that when you push the button it drives by itself." (make no mistakes, not just a remote control car . . .)
• He was asking me if we could go to a friend's apartment with the whole family. I said I wasn't sure if we were all invited or if he was just going to have a playdate. He made some sense of that, "That's because we have a bunch of peoples in our family. There's Stella and Margaret. There's me and you and Dad. That's a bunch."
  
• "I just love hugging and kissing Stella more than anything in the whole world."
  

Who wouldn't? I mean look at that face!

• This was before we had even visited Santa, before Christmas had come but the holiday season was in full swing. Out of the blue one night during scripture reading Cole said, "Santa Claus is my favorite person in the whole world." Margaret, older and wiser and feeling spiritual because of the scriptures I guess, asked, "Even more than Heavenly Father and Jesus?" With no hesitation Cole said, "Yep. in the whole world."
• Singing to the little drummer boy, "Rumble bum, rumble bum, rumble bum."
  
• For one last funny, and hey, it's even Santa related (I see a pattern emerging) visit Blog Segullah.
  

MARATHON-Legs, Mind, Heart!

Cheese! Triumph at the ING Hartford Marathon!

Disclaimer
Okay, okay you were dying to hear all the details of the marathon and now it's been over a week and you're not so interested anymore, but I still want to write it all down. So beware, long post ahead! Don't worry if you've lost interest. I won't feel bad if you don't comment! :-)

If I've talked to you, then you know the race was awesome, great, amazing. Those are three of the most common descriptive terms I've used when people ask me, "How did it go?" Here's why:

Pre-Race
We took Peter Pan bus lines from Penn Station to Hartford, Connecticut. Margaret and Cole were just a little bummed that the bus we ended up getting on was actually a Greyhound and there were no pictures of Captain Hook or Tinkerbell on the outside, but there were comfy seats, and a bathroom, so if you ask me, it was all good.

In it for the long haul.

The freeway had construction, accidents, and holiday weekend traffic, so it took us more than an hour longer than it was "supposed" to, but we saw glorious fall foliage and I held Stella most of the way and kissed her cheeks over and over.

Thought you'd want to see the cheeks I was kissing all day.
Cole likes to kiss them too.

The guy across the aisle from me also struck up some conversation about wanting to be a good family man, like my husband, even though "black people" have a hard time keeping their families together. (He whispered that part under his breath, so as not to offend . . .himself?).

We walked from the bus station to the Expo center to pick up our race packets. Mags and Cole for the Kids K and me for the marathon. The expo was not as exciting as expected, but they gave us cool orange drawstring bags to carry our stuff in and one table had free cheese cubes to sample. I kept noticing all the runners around me, with their sinewy legs and amazingly fit bodies. I started to worry a little, maybe I am not actually ready for this race; I don't have sinewy legs, they still have cottage cheese; I don't appear amazingly fit, my belly is postpartum squishy. But then I noticed a few more people like me and remembered that I had done all the necessary prep, there was no way I would not finish this race.

We hooked up with our friends, the Ortons. Emily and I trained almost every single step of 340 miles together. We have talked about pretty much everything you can imagine during all those miles and runs. And in fact, here is a shout out to her . . . You Rock! I love you! It would have been miserable without her. She drove down with her family (husband and five kids) a little earlier than us and they were swimming at their hotel pool waiting to meet up with us for dinner. We were also waiting for the Astles, Carol came on most of the long weekend runs with us, but is speedy, so did other training without us and had a different race goal (finish in under four hours). We were also planning to see Reagan and Jake and their friend Deanna, as well as Jordan and Erin Colby. Jordan and Erin were stuck in traffic, so they missed dinner. Randy, and Carol made it to join us and we chatted for a few minutes on the street with Reagan and Jake before they head back to their hotel to rest up for the big day.

Luckily we found City Steam Brewery for dinner. They put our three families (nine kids between us) in the back room with the pool table, where we could still hear the live Jazz, but everyone else didn't have to hear us. We ate pasta (of course), bread, and ordered more than we needed in the way of kids macaroni and cheese or chicken finger dinners.

Afterward we took a quick dip in the hot tub, let the hubbies keep the kids down at the pool while Emily, Carol, and I went to get to bed.

From top, clockwise: Eli, Margaret, Me, Sarah jane, Cole, Matt hot-tubbing it at the Hilton

Up in the "runner's only" room we finally heard from Erin and Jordan that they had made it to their hotel. Hooray, we set up a meeting place for the morning and went about our pre-run preparations. I was anxious and excited so we did a little bit of chatting before I could finally get to sleep. My alarm went off the next morning and I didn't even want to stay in bed. Four months of training, hours of running, a hundred little details prepared . . .I couldn't believe race day was actually here. During the night Matt had slipped a card and gift under the door. I took it into the bathroom to read since my roomies were still snoozing in a bit, and cried. In the box he had left a necklace with a little "M" charm, for marathon mom. More than the token, it was the realization that he had supported me through every single run and though often called me crazy, really did admire my dedication.

After dressing, putting on glide, packing up our gels, filling our water belts with sports beverages, and pinning on our numbers Emily, Carol, and I met up with Erin and walked to the start line. Our families were still cozily bundled at the hotels, but we made our way through the masses of runners while someone was giving gurgled announcements over a loud speaker and found the back of the pack. Emily acknnowledged that when they said, "Marathoners, this way," they meant us! The sky was clear and blue and the air was brisk. I knew I wouldn't want my long-sleeves forever, but I was glad I had them then.

Erin Colby, Carol Astle, Me, Emily Orton, pre-race

Race
I didn't hear the gun but everyone started moving toward the start, so we followed. Hundreds of people lined the streets cheering and music blasted. I knew it would be a challenge to keep pace at the beginning of the race, because we would be just so darn excited and I was right. We ran around the big park and some of the Hartford streets and I kept checking my watch and holding everyone back. The Orton family found one of the first cheering stations where they smiled, jumped up and down, took pictures and held up home made signs. After a couple of miles Carol left us so she could reach her goal, and just after four miles Erin had to leave us as the half-marathon course split off from us.

So Emily and I followed the runners, the volunteers, the orange arrows on the streets and ran. One section of the course is an out and back on a beautiful Connectict road. I'd describe it as somewhere between suburban and rural, not to mention breathtaking. These homes were surrounded by giant maple and oak trees in an array of colors from green, to yellow, to orange, to fiery red. Some of the leaves had begun to fall and litter the green manicured lawns with their splashes of color. They had pots of mums on the windowsills, cheery orange pumpkins on the porches, corn stalks leaning against their mail boxes, and happy supportive people cheering for us in their driveways. We ran past kids having Saturday morning soccer games and families drinking hot chocolate after having slept in their backyard in a tent. Idyllic, yes! We talked about it together and to some of the other runners we chatted with along the way, "What are we doing in Manhattan?"

Another thing I loved about the out and back is that we were able to see and cheer for the leaders coming back the other direction, running, no exaggeration, twice as fast as us. We also saw Reagan, Jake, and Carol all right on track to reach their race goals.

People playing live music plus a few DJ's were spread out along the course to help us stay motivated. A young band rocking out, a fifty-something acoustic guitarist keeping it mellow, a middle-aged band covering Neil Diamond all contributed to the party-like ambiance. By the time we were hitting our painful, we still have a long way to go part around mile 18, we had a lot of positive energy stored up from all that had gone before. I received a call from Nate who's in Finland around mile 10, Matt texted me about the Kids K, we met runners from Boston, Los Angeles, upstate and asked questions of people wearing team t-shirts.

Cole and Mags, pre-race.

Cole and Loretta running the Kids K dash.

Margaret posing at the start line. She came in about 15th out of 80.

Impressive focus, no? She ran the 1/2 mile.

We talked politics and came up with some ideas on how to solve the world's problems. All of that filled us, so after being lead back into downtown via service roads, past railroad tracks, and up steep on-ramps that sucked a bit of life out of us we were still able to keep running. Next highlight, we saw the Ortons cheering for us again at mile 22. Emily made a quick stop to peek at her baby Lily and then had a spring in her step. Following that was a table of still cheerful volunteers holding signs and directing us to an aid station with gummy bears, sport beans, and fresh fruit. An orange wedge never tasted so refreshing.

Although my hips were stiff, knees hurting, right glut knotting up, quads burning and I could feel a couple of blisters forming on my big toes there was just NO WAY I WASN'T GOING TO FINISH! In fact none of that even mattered because my spirit felt totally unconquerable. Emily and I recalled a sign from the beginning of the race, my favorite. It read, "Legs, Mind, Heart." I called Matt as planned at mile 25. He told me they were waiting less than a mile away. Emily got choked up, which in turn choked me up and we told each other to stop crying so we could still breathe. I thought I might cry at the end, but because I'd be so spent or in so much pain, but really I was crying because I felt- triumphant!

Around the next bend as we approached our last stretch of road Matt, Margaret, Cole, Stella (sleeping in the stroller) Carol, Reagan, and Jake were there cheering, jumping up and down, holding signs, taking video. I veered over to kiss Matt and hug Mags and we soared up the road and around the corner to the finish line. We heard the announcers were applauding the runners coming in at this point, saying, "We saw the leaders come in two and a half hours ago. These people have been out there running for FIVE Hours! It takes a lot of dedication to do something for five hours." Amen! :-) They called out Emily's name and I looked up at them, wanting to hear my own and one of them put his hand over the mic and said, "What's your name?" Emily and I both called it out together and they repeated, "Heather Herrick. Way to finish it together ladies."

Emily Orton and I, finishing it together!

Post-race
We took our medals, hugged, and Emily said, "We just did that!" As we walked over to get water she said, "So, that took us four months!" Emily and I were both drenched in sweat, some of it already dry and forming salt lines around our foreheads, but the smile on her face and the tears in her eyes were BEAUTIFUL! Our families came running around the corner past the water station where more hugs were shared, photos taken. Matt asked me how I felt, "Amazing!"
"Are you proud of yourself?"
No hesitation, "YES!"
Then he kissed me, even though I was sweaty and gross.

We hobbled to the food tents and took one of everything: yogurt, cranberry walnut cookie, cup of mac and cheese, cup of apple crisp, potato chips, apple, banana, bagel and cream cheese, and fruit cup. We had to eat as we walked back to the hotel so we'd have time to shower before check out. I did have an adrenaline drop, and got really nauseated during that walk, but after showering, stretching, and eating every last bit of food off that plate I felt good again.

I'll spare all the details of a very long bus ride home, but even that couldn't dampen my mood too much.

More cheek kissing of Stella and Cole would sit by me, now that I wasnn't "fweaty".

Natalie and Victor invited all of the runners and their families to come to their place where she'd prepared a delicioso pasta dinner, with homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert. We swapped stories from the day and compared battle wounds, talked politics and took turns holding each others' babies.

Left to right: Jake, Deanna, Reagan, Me, Emily, Erin, Carol
Enjoying dinner at the Monreals, gracious hosts extraordinaire!

So all in all, it was AWESOME, GREAT, AMAZING! Thanks to everyone who made it possible. Let's do it again soon . . .errr okay, not too soon!

Margaret's Big News

From this . . .




to this!

Read all about it at Segullah

Enjoying the Moments

A moment I enjoyed this summer.
And a bonus for you to see how the kids are getting cuter by the day.

So I missed my blogging day at Segullah in August. But I was able to be the first one for the month of September. Head on over and join the discussion about how you are able to enjoy parenthood more and worry less about getting things done.

Can I Sit On Your Lap?

A Sweet Mess

So, we've been tired, busy, running races, having birthdays and stuff. We have left you in the blog reader lurch, and we're sorry. We'll try to do better.

I blogged at Segullah today. Read it, enjoy!

Pictures to come back and look for soon: Margaret's birthday; Stella's blessing; Heather, Natalie, Carol, Nicole, and Jake's half marathon;and maybe more.

HIGHLIGHT

My daughter, Margaret, loves to talk. She loves to pontificate on the details of every event in her life. She pretty much does the same things every day - morning shows, pre-school, play ground, meals, and bedtime.

Since I don't see my kids all day long, when I get home, I try my best to take time and ask them how their day went.

From Cole, I usually get a very LOUD and fast couple sentences that have something to do with dinosaurs, horsies, or trucks. He delivers it with such breathless urgency that it sounds like he just finished a world-record 100 meter dash.













From Margaret, I get a minute by minute, friend by friend, activity by activity account of the entire day. With her commentary added in, it can take quite a while to get it out.

Recently, I tried to put a healthy 'boundary' on her description of the day. I asked her to share the HIGHLIGHT of her day. She didn't quite get what I meant. I defined, and she delivered.....after much thought. She likes boundaries, and I like brevity(although I don't use it). It's a win-win.

Since then, her favorite word is HIGHLIGHT. "Daddy, you're home.....what was the HIGHTLIGHT of your day?", or "well....I played at Petra's house for a while, and the HIGHLIGHT was when....". It's quite amusing to watch her little head realize she is using a grown-up word, and see her filled with pride as she emphasizes her new found vocabulary.

Last night, I came home around 10 pm, and had not seen the kids all day. Mom and the kids were asleep. I peeked my head in the kids' room, and to my surprise, Margaret was awake, quietly singing along with Maria on "I Have Confidence". She was thrilled that I discovered her. After a very busy week, I felt she needed some 'daddy' time. I asked her if she wanted to get out of bed and talk for a minute. So even though it was way past her bed time(she's is a night owl, just like dad), we went out to the front room and had a little catch-up.

I asked her how her day went(with healthy boundaries). Her HIGHLIGHT was movie-night with Mom and Cole. Specifically, watching the family Robinson throw coconut bombs at those pesky pirates. And what would you guess, the first question for me out of her mouth was, "what was the HIGHLIGHT of your day, Daddy"?

I sat there for a moment, with Margaret on my lap, deeply thinking about what I could share. I then had a sudden rush of sadness and disappointment knowing that I did not have a HIGHLIGHT that day. Not knowing what to say, I told her that my HIGHLIGHT was talking to her right then. Because it was.

She gave me a big hug/little hug and big kiss/little kiss(the routine she created when she was two). That moment ended up being the HIGHLIGHT of my week.

I guess we all have days, every now and then, void of a HIGHLIGHT. But Margaret always has a HIGHLIGHT. She can always find a moment of wonder or excitement, even in her own monotonous schedule of morning shows, pre-school, play grounds, meals and bedtime.

I am always learning so much from her goodness and wisdom. I am going to try to have HIGHLIGHT- filled days, every day. Even if the one HIGHLIGHT is a simple conversation with someone I love.

Share a recent HIGHLIGHT you've had.

Shifting Gears

Stella is three and a half weeks old now. More than one person has asked me if it has gone by fast. The answer to that is, no. When days and nights blend together with only brief periods of sporadic sleep to separate them, time does not fly. That is not to say I haven't enjoyed her very much. There's nothing much sweeter than holding a warm cuddly newborn up against your shoulder and breathing in the pheromones, or love hormones as I like to call them. I think these love hormones spread over to Matt as well when I'm nursing in bed in the middle of the night. He seems like the perfect husband and father during that time.

My question is, how come they don't seem to extend to my other two kids? I love them dearly, now don't get me wrong. But these hormones afford me oodles of patience as I am bouncing a fussy baby alone in the middle of the night. So why is that patience instantly tried the moment Cole climbs onto my lap to kiss the baby while I'm nursing? Is it the split personality phenomenon? The way that my relatively agreeable, obedient two-and-a-half year old has suddenly turned into the most contrary child on the planet. His automatic response to every request or directive is, "No!" or "I don't want to!" I've had to come up with things he wants to do even less than what I've asked him to do, so he'll choose my original request just to spite me (pretty ingenius, no?). I knew a change was coming, but I forgot how taxing it can be on a sleep-deprived mama. Margaret, who was referred to as PMG (Perfect Margaret Gayle) by our brothers and sisters when she was a baby and toddler became a different person when we brought Cole home from the hospital. We named her alter ego, Margarita, the evil twin. It passed, as I'm sure Cole's mood swings will. So I just have to keep reminding myself of that.


At least, or I could say at most Cole and Margaret LOOOOVE baby Stella and want to kiss her, hold her, entertain her every chance they get. All disobedience and moodiness has been turned to me, and thankfully I am mature enough to handle it . . .if the love hormones are lingering.We will find our new groove. Right?


Speaking of love, Matt and I celebrated our 7th Anniversary last Saturday. I'm surprised he hasn't posted about it. Too wrapped up with his reality TV I suppose ;-). However, he did not disappoint. He made reservations at a beautiful little restaurant called New Leaf Cafe in Fort Tryon Park near our house. Grandma Margaret was still here, so we had a built in babysitter and enjoyed a night out. I did my hair and put on make-up for the first time in a couple of weeks and even squeezed into a pair of nylons (gag, but they do hold in the extra baby squish that's hanging around my middle, so that's a good thing). We ordered appetizers (calamari with mint coolie, lump crab cake), dinner (sirlion tip/short ribs in a rich stout sauce, duck in a blood orange sauce), and dessert (chocolate tart with homemade Tahitian vanilla ice cream and apple upside down tart with homemade caramel ice cream. Everything was presented beautifully and oh so tasty.)

Here we are presenting skinny faces, although admittedly at this point in our marriage we're both feeling just a tad bit "fat".

And here we are in front of the lovely New Leaf Cafe.

And in honor of our 7th anniversary may I present:

Seven Reasons I don't have the "Itch"
(Be cautioned, you may feel jealous after reading this!)

1. Matt makes occasions special (a random sampling: homemade spa night for Valentine's Day, redecorating while we're away in Utah so that the place is beautiful when we come home, daddy/daughter or son dates on Saturday)

2. He makes a mean chocolate mousse.

3. He calls on his way home from the train to see if I need him to stop and get anything at the store (he's willing to get anything I need, like a bag of peanut m & m's if it's been one of those days or simply a gallon of milk).

4. He puts me to bed and then keeps Stella in the other room and cuddles her so I can get at least a couple of good hours of sleep every night.

5. He works hard to make time for our family, making sure to fit in FHE, even if it can't be Monday, and planning another night home every week to be here so we can do the laundry (and lately it has really been so HE can do the laundry, not WE).

6. Throughout the year he keeps a list of ideas for Christmas gifts and gives me the best surprises. Something I may have mentioned wanting or needing in September shows up under the Christmas tree. It's not that I need gifts, but this is an example of how incredibly thoughtful he is.

7. I'm making Matt sound perfect, but he's not. And that's the seventh reason I don't have the itch. He just tries hard, and we work hard together to make our family life one that brings us joy and peace. We enjoy life together and help each other learn from what's happening. Life is good, it's fun and I have a partner who is patient when challenges come up, but also who celebrates with me when things are going great.

I love you Matt! Happy Anniversary!

Set the Beeper

Does this look like the face of a boy who would whack his sister? I think not! But do not be deceived.

I haven't posted at Segullah for a while, but you can read a funny from Cole there today.

The Segullah blog has started a category that gets a post or two a week called, "Slice of Life."

I love it! Feel free to send me stories like these anytime. Hope you enjoy.