A Rememberance

Last week Chris' mom finally ended her long struggle and returned home. We are grateful that she is no longer in pain, but we will miss her. This Easter, we are grateful to have the knowledge that Christ conquered death and that Grandma Carol will too.

Chris and I spent several days going through pictures of her and creating a memorial slide show (which I won't attach here, since it is close to 20 minutes in length, but please feel free to ask for a copy if you want one). It was both wonderful and sad to spend this time remembering her.

As we started to go through her pictures, it really stood out how beautiful Carol was throughout her life. It's easy to see where Chris gets his looks from, as well as where my children get their flowing blond locks.

No wonder Carol was always happiest when spending time with her grandchildren. She was so proud of them. Coworkers and friends who had never met Emily and Jane instantly recognized them at the funeral. Partly because her house and work space were covered with pictures of them and partly because the family resemblance is so strong.  (I, on the other hand sometimes am asked if I'm my children's aunt). 

Carol worked for many years as a reference librarian. She loved books. Every Christmas and every birthday, she would either deliver or send a bag of carefully selected books for the kids. She made it a point to research the highest rated children's books and to get recommendations from her librarian friends before giving the kids books. We will miss her wonderful selections and treasure all the stories she's shared.

I don't remember Carol ever being prouder than when Emily began reading to her. She has passed on a love of reading to our kids. Emily can often be found well past bedtime with her book light on, absorbed in a book. 

Carol was a great mom to Chris and his brother, Brian, teaching them all the important things: Love the Lord, honor your elders, get a good education, and always put family above all else. 

Carol was fortunate to have Walter by her side through it all. He has been her husband and companion for 44 years and in the last 6 months, he has spent nearly every waking minute with her, easing her pain, providing care, and being her tireless companion.

Carol will always be loved, remembered and missed. We look forward to the day when we will see her again.

Wintry Mix

Last week, we went to the annual ice festival. The city created giant sledding hills in the middle of downtown. The kids had fun sledding and roasting marshmallows until... well, they didn't have fun anymore, which is what typically happens when we do something fun.

(Here Emily and her signature day-glow pink earmuffs are standing in line to go down an ice slide. Was it worth the wait? She must have thought so.)

It was pretty cool while it lasted. 

On another note, Chris has started a new job. He is working for the state military department as a civilian engineer. His job has something to do with working with contractors on facility upgrades. If he told me more he'd have to kill me. Not really, but it sounds cool. It is less pay, he had to leave a job he loves, and we really miss being able to work in the same building. However, it has brought a lot of peace for him and for our family and we are very happy he has this opportunity. The DOT has filled his old job with one of the most capable engineers I know, which made the transition much easier on Chris' squad members and, thus, on Chris. 

The most awesome part of his new job is that we still get to see each other for breaks and lunch since he is right across the street (here "across" means about a third of a mile away). That means we can meet in the middle and go for a walk a couple times a day (which lately has taken place in a blizzard - come on spring! hurry up!). 

Incising a Riot

For the last couple years Emily's classmates have been losing more teeth than they do in an episode of "Moonshiners". Emily has felt left out. No making it on the lost tooth board at school, no gap toothed smile, no lisp.

Last week that all changed when Emily finally had a wiggly tooth. After a good bit of effort, she pulled it herself. She would let neither Chris nor I touch it. She came running out of the bathroom, blood streaming down her chin, a gory tooth in hand and an exultant spring in her step.

It being bedtime, she wanted to make sure she was fairly compensated for her dental loss. Now at our house, we don't believe in the tooth fairy. It's just too silly. So this note, although addressed to the tooth fairy, was really for Chris and I.

(Dear Tooth Fairy, 

I lost my first tooth and I will have candy or money.)

We put her to bed, but as we were getting ready for bed, we heard a ruckus in the hall. We opened our door to find this note along with her lost tooth pillowed on a strip of toilet paper. She wanted to make sure we didn't forget. 

We didn't forget. I'm not sure what the going rate for a tooth is, but Emily awoke to a buck and a roll of Smartees she forgot to eat from her Halloween stash. She decided that was ample compensation for the pain and suffering of losing a tooth. 

She still has a few too many teeth to be featured on Moonshiners, but tooth #2 is already starting to wiggle. One down, nineteen to go!

One Man's Floor is Another Man's Weekend

Last weekend was one of those rare times when we get a day off for a holiday that requires no action on our part. No baking of class cookies, no purchasing of presents, no preparation of a giant meal or out of town guests. So we decided to celebrate in the way that Home Depot suggests - by putting in a new floor.

Here is the before shot. Notice the slightly pinkish linoleum. What the pictures don't show is the scarring that has come from eight years of living with said linoleum. It was a treat for the eyes, let me tell you.

This renovation idea was all well and dandy until the day before our project started. I got a miserable cold. But in our family, we don't let that kind of thing stop us. So while the cold was killing my nasal passages and stalking Chris, We tore out the unsightly linoleum. There now. Isn't this better?

Then we covered the entire floor with orange wires that promised to keep our cold feet warm even on the worst winter day. 

Then we covered that with some orange junk. Something about uncoupling the tile from the subfloor and independent movement. I'm just the unskilled labor here.

                                      

Finally, Saturday night saw the laying of the first tile. It was considerably later on Saturday night than originally planned and we were both really starting to feel the effects of that darn cold virus. 

Nonetheless, we worked all night. From the placement of this picture, I can tell you that it was about 1:00 a.m.. We worked until 3:30 a.m. when we realized we were officially too stupid with exhaustion to measure tile anymore. I heartily apologize to the next owner of our house in the event they tear out the trim behind the fridge and realize the tile is cut a bit short. I was tired. Mistakes were made. Mostly by me. 

But by Monday night, we once again had a functioning kitchen. This is my favorite moment - the dishwasher being replaced. Let me tell you, after 5 days of cooking on the grill and in the microwave and having to resort to doing dishes in the bathroom sink, this was a beautiful sight.     

                                

And then we were done. Kind of. There's still a bit of trim work for us to do. And by "us" I mean "Chris". I am after all banned from caulk products since the Harney Street bathtub incident of 2004. But we won't talk of that.

Here's our lovely new travertine floor with a marble medallion. (And by the way, those orange wires under the floor are delightful).

Thanks, Chris for an adventure in tiling. Also, thanks for making everything an adventure.

A Chilling Tale

This past weekend requires documenting. Unfortunately, the only pictures that exist are a couple of overly backlit cameraphone shots that could be either of us or bigfoot. It's impossible to tell.

Chris and I like to get away for our anniversaries. Even if it's only one night. Even if it's two weeks after the fact. This year, we found ourselves more stressed out than usual. I was long on work and short on vacation time. The prospect of driving 450 miles to get away for 36 hours seemed a bit daunting. We almost decided not to go this year. But we did it anyway. Why? Because it's important. Because we have the kind of marriage that's worth putting effort into.

We dropped off the kids with my parents (thank you so much Mom and Dad! We owe you BIG!) and went to Salt Lake. We froze our butts off in single digit temperatures trying to catch some of the downtown ambiance. We drank not one, but two, hot chocolates within an hour so that we didn't die of hypothermia. We ran to our dinner reservation after we discovered that running restored blood to our limbs. We ate over-hyped mediocre yet trendy food while we laughed at the uppity couple sitting next to us. We finally gave in to the demands of our frozen fingertips and noses and drove to a movie that was less than a mile away. We end-of-season clearance shopped our hearts out on the way back to RS and we ate a number of Mrs. Field's cookies which shall remain undisclosed.

We had a fantastic time. Thank you Chris for being the kind of person that makes every trip to the outlet stores and every meatloaf sandwich an experience worth remembering for the rest of my life. I love you!

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright

Welcome to my Christmas post. I'm always struggling between staying positive in my posts and having a realistic record of our lives. After all, I don't journal or scrapbook. My kids don't even have baby books (gasp!). So, this blog is it. That having been said, I will always remember this year as the one where I was mostly absent from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It's one thing to work a little extra, it's completely another to have your boss' boss tell your boss one week before Christmas (about projects that were already fast-tracked and already causing you to stay late every day) that three projects "WILL be done by Friday".

I think I saw my kids a grand total of about two hours last week, and most of that was trying to get them out the door in the morning. I sang "Sweet Baby Jane" and said goodnight over the phone most nights. Other nights, I prolonged Chris' hectic day by asking him to keep the kids up just a little while longer so I could say good night in person. Last week was miserable and I fear it will repeat itself soon if things don't change at work. 

The one silver lining to this cloud is that the Governor, in a last minute act of unexpected charity, gave us Christmas Eve off. This hasn't happened for years, and may not happen again for awhile, so we decided to make the most of it.

The day before Christmas Eve started with church

And ended with a trip to my folks' house for dinner and opening of "a couple small gifts"

On Christmas Eve, Emily helped me with baking both Jesus' Birthday Cake (It's our tradition to replace cookies and milk for Santa, since our kids don't believe in the bearded guy) and dessert for Christmas dinner. 

The finished product:

After enjoying some Christmas eve sandwiches

we indulged in Jesus' Birthday Cake (no - we don't sing "Happy Birthday". That would be weird)

Then we let the kids' open their one gift on Christmas eve which is ALWAYS pajamas and yet, somehow, ALWAYS a surprise. This continues to baffle me. But who am I to squash their excitement?

They got bathed and pajama'd up. 

and we went out to see lights. 

in our very own.... drumroll.... Christmas eve snowstorm! 

How cool is that? Chris was especially excited to hear his favorite electronica rendition of "Carol of the Bells".  

Then the children got all nestled snug in their beds (what was I saying about this blog not being sugar coated? I guess it just went out the window) and Chris and I hauled out the loot. 

That's a lot of stuff, folks. 

The next morning we woke up to 

                                 

a white Christmas!

                                  

Jane's big present was a table and chairs. 

Emily's big present was an ipod. We have since learned that this device may herald the end of her ever hearing another word we say. We have started to institute rules about when and where headphones are appropriate. I sense many more rules to come.

Chris got me a beautiful diamond necklace and for those of you who were wondering what the last gift on my list ended up being - it was luggage for Chris. 

The loot was as plentiful as the girls' enjoyment of the morning. 

Then, since we had both snow and a new sled, we had an opportunity for a Christmas morning moment that made Norman Rockwell wish he could come back to life just so he could properly capture it. My camera will have to do. 

(it was both excessively cold as well as excessively difficult to take pictures with gloves on)

Then we headed home for some hot chocolate and some time with our Christmas presents. Also for a workout which did not turn out well on account of the Christmas overindulgences. There I go again with the honesty. Workout nausea aside, it was a fantastic Christmas. One that set the bar high for next year. 

A Post for the End of the World

Today is our 12th anniversary. On account of the world ending today, it could very well be our last. But barring the end of the world, I hope we will have many more to come.

I am so glad Chris and I found each other because otherwise, we would just be two people who never had anyone to laugh at their respective jokes.

Happy Anniversary, Chris! I love you!