Is It Naptime Yet

Not much.

Really? You haven’t been extremely busy and not at your house a lot.

Well, I have been busy but it just seems like a blur. Like we’re living life, but I haven’t got the foggiest clue what we’ve done.

I think Jon’s car was in the shop last week. Yes, yes it was, and luckily it only cost around $250 and not the annual $900 or more. We took it in Monday and got it back Tuesday afternoon. Since life was so crazy we went to China-A-Go-Go Monday night, to celebrate the new position, and to have dinner and left overs for other nights of the week. It worked out that we ate them Tuesday after Eden’s dance class. She doesn’t want to do this last session for some reason, and having me go watch her is what she now wants. Wow, how her attitude has changed. She likes class, for the most part, and she wants me to go watch her.

Wednesday is a total blur. I’m pretty sure I went to Trader Joe’s sometime last week, but I’m not sure and it would have been Wednesday if any day.

Thursday was Earth Day so we went to UNLV for some events, but it got rained out. We then went to the Barrick Museum for some Bring Your Child to Work Day activities, but all the elementary kids were there since the rain was to heavy to be outside for the Earth Day activities. It was pretty crazy, but eventually the girls got to paint a picture and have some fun. Then more errands and back home.

Friday we went to the park with the homeschooling co-op. We’d been doing things all week, but the girls hadn’t really gotten to be outside and see any friends. I think I also thought it would be nice to go hang out with some of the other moms. We had a wonderful afternoon at the park and my sister Carolyn stopped by since it was so close to her work.

Saturday was rehearsal. I actually took Eden with me so Jon could go on his date with Lilah. She wanted to go to the Springs Preserve, and the earlier the better since it’s getting warm, for the most part. Eden was so well behaved and just sat quietly and watched us dance, or did her own thing. I completely forgot about her at times and everyone was so impressed with her.

Sunday was church and Family Home Evening with my family.
Monday we saw Oceans with the co-op and fed the homeless with Carolyn and her work.

Now I’m going to be neglecting the girls so I can start sewing for the play.

So I guess we are pretty busy in the Blake house. I hope to remember to do fun things with the girls so they don’t go completely stir crazy.

So what have you been up to?

I’ve only been to California a handful of times. Most were for band or choir trips to Disneyland or Knottsberry Farm. My last trip was to San Diego with Jon when I was pregnant with Lilah. So it was 7 years ago. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we decided to do a weekend trip where we enjoyed a session at the San Diego Temple and shopping at some famous outdoor shops. We mostly window shopped but we did buy a few things, a shirt, necklace and a sea shell. It was our last vacation before we would be tied down with a child, and our last hurrah as a couple. With the San Diego trip we visited Mission beach. It was my first time to a beach, and since it was March, I dipped my toes in the cold ocean for the first time when I was 19, and only because Jon made me. I really don’t like natural bodies of water, I’m just not a fan, and I really just wanted to see the ocean.

Now my weekend.

This past weekend Anna and I decided to take a trip to the LA Fashion District so we could buy fabric for the play. It’s debatable whether we really saved money going, after you factor in gas and hotel, but the selection of fabric there is much larger than Vegas, so we were able to get some fabrics there that we could not have found here, and since they’re for the ball gowns, it was totally worth it.

We got into LA around 11 pm on Friday night after taking just one detour. I really do not like driving California’s freeways. They’re so different from Las Vegas and foreign, luckily Anna’s iPhone navigated us and put us back on track. Anna’s father had gotten us a nice hotel room at The Westin, down in LA’s business district. It was really nice, and we got to ride in one of the two elevators used in the filming of True Lies. We had a mostly quiet night and then woke up at 8 am to get up and ready for the day. We ate breakfast, figured out how much fabric we would need for the the cast and then hit the Textile area of the Fashion District.

It was crazy. Some stores were very organized while others had as much fabric has they could hold with just a narrow walk way to get around. There were just rolls and rolls of fabric everywhere. We found most of what we needed at one store, then other things at a few other stores.

After two trips to the car we ate some wonderful Greek food, looked around and bought some sun glasses then made our last rounds in the textile area to buy zippers and other things we almost forgot before we packed up and headed to the beach. It was a very busy day. We had been there from 12:30 till 5:30, walking around the whole time except for the hour we took our lunch.

Since we were so close to the beach, and I had only been there once, Anna decided we had to go to the beach. Then when I told her how reluctant I was to put my feet in the water for the one and only time at 19, she decided we then had to put our feet in the water. (She was wearing shoes and at first did not want to worry about taking off her shoes.)

I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to the beach, but once I saw the coast, I was so excited to be there. It waned off I little as we tried to get in and park in this little $1 an hour parking lot that was kinda annoying. Anna and I just walked the beach, took pictures, and I called Jon and the girls to tell them I was there. Anna also took a picture of me talking to Lilah and e-mailed it to Jon so he could show the girls where mommy was.

As we walked across the sand we let the waves catch our feet. It was a little chilly in the air but the water was surprisingly not cold. I didn’t mind putting my feet in the ocean water and I look forward to taking the girls to the beach for their first time in a few weeks, and us all swimming in the ocean for the first time together. When we headed to the pier I found some sea shells and rocks that I thought the girls would enjoy and they now look forward to finding their own sea shells, I think almost as much as they look forward to going to Disneyland.

We got back on the road at 7:30 pm and headed to Vegas. Our California visit was completed with a stop at In-N-Out and the spotting of a high speed chase taking place on the Southbound Highway, as we traveled North. It was complete with a helicopter and three or four police cars following with their lights and sirens blasting.

I dropped Anna, and all the fabric, at her house around midnight, she’ll get to move it into her new house later this month, and I got home around 12:30 am, kissed my girls, and climbed into bed with Jon.

Me at The Westin in our 17th floor room overlooking downtown LA.
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Anna and me inside one of the elevators at The Westin.
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The sign telling us that this elevator was used in the filming of “True Lies”. (It’s not the one we took the picture in, but we did ride it up to our room the night before.)

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Anna and me at the beach with our Fashion District sun glasses.

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I caught Anna walking the beach. I liked how her shoes were draped over her shoulder.

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Look Hunny, I put my feet in the water!

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Anna had a better idea to prove I put my feet in the water for Jon.

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I love you Jon. (This might look a little messy. Half way through I thought, “Why is it so hard to write my name?” Then I realized I was writing it left handed.)

Like past years the girls and I had many different Easter activities. We dyed eggs with their cousins on the Wednesday night before Easter and enjoyed pizza at my moms house. I forgot my camera, so those memories will have to be in my head.

April 1 we attended Carolyn’s work Easter party. The girls dyed eggs, decorated cupcakes, colored bunny ears and hunted for eggs. We then had to check the plastic eggs for ants since Lilah remembered having ants coming out of her eggs from the previous year. This year we only found three ants. I forgot my camera once more, but borrowed Carolyn’s work camera, so I’ll get those pictures when she has time.

We then had an Easter Egg hunt on Friday with our unschooling group. The girls had lots of fun finding eggs and playing with their friends. I loved sitting and talking with the other moms, and once more forgot my camera.

This year Jon and I thought it would be fun to dye some eggs using natural dye. We treated it kinda like a science experiment and had the girls write down what colors they thought the spinach, carrots, pomegranate and blueberries would dye the eggs. They guessed the standard green, orange, red, and blue. We had done a little research, but not enough, so they turned interesting colors, but not at all what we expected. Since I found a blog that describes exactly what they did, we’ll now be prepared to use natural egg dye more successfully next year. (The spinach was basically the color I thought it would be, the carrots we used were baby, so they didn’t have their peel and did not work at all, then we should have cooked the blueberries, and pomegranates were just something we had on hand.)

The Easter Bunny brought the girls some fun stuff: movies, little notepads, and most importantly candy. I got the crazy idea to make the girls some skirts for Easter. I figured out my own pattern, basically 6 rectangles sewn together, and made them each their own tiered skirt. Since I was unable to work on them during the week as much as I would have liked, I stayed up till 3 am finishing them Easter morning. Lilah’s Easter dress didn’t fit, which I suspected would happen and why I decided to make the skirts. Lilah wore her skirt Easter Sunday and Eden wore her Easter dress. After staying up till 3 am sewing I decided my house was a mess so I tidied up a little and went to bed at 3:30 am. Luckily it was General Conference Weekend, so I only had to be up and not up and dressed for church.

The Easter Bunny hid some eggs inside the house so the girls found those and then went outside. This year we let the girls eat as much candy as they wanted on Easter Sunday, then they got to keep 7 pieces to eat later and we tossed the rest. Eden ate all her candy, but Lilah was very distracted with other things and ate very little of her candy, so I gave her till Monday night to eat all she wanted.

Sunday we had dinner at my parents house and another egg hunt with the Kemple cousins.

Lilah has declared Easter her favorite holiday and really enjoyed it all. I loved Easter but did not like all the hard boiled eggs we had since we dyed eggs three times.

I loved hiding the eggs and making it a little more difficult and I loved watching the girls grow. How they change so much in just a short year.

Lilah with our naturally dyed eggs
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Eden with our naturally dyed eggs
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Our eggs. Jon hollowed an egg out and dyed it will green tea the week before.
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Easter baskets.
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Easter morning.
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Easter egg hunt at our house.

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Girls showing love.

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The skirt I made Lilah. (I wanted them really long since everything you find for girls barely touches their knees now.)

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Hunting eggs at Grandma Harvey’s house

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I just loved the look on Lilah’s face

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Happy girls at the end of a long Easter day.

Over a year ago I had gastritis.

It was terrible and one of the worst things I’ve had to go through.

Ever since that’s happened I’ve been paranoid. If I get a stomach ache I take some Tums and pray that I don’t get sick again. I haven’t had it again, but I’m still very sensitive to any stomach pain.

I also worry about being too stressed. When I signed up to do costumes for the Wizard of Oz, since I got the gastritis after a a week of sewing, I worried that I would get sick and be in utter pain once more if I did too much. Everything turned out fine, but the nagging worry is still in the back of my mind.

Which leads me to this week.

Tuesday night I started having a stomach ache, so I took some Tums and fell asleep on the couch around 11:30 pm. I woke up around 12:30 am and was awake with stomach problems till 3:30 am. It wasn’t fun. I know it was food poisoning of some sort. I’m the only one who was sick and it lasted for less than 24 hours, even though I was still getting better and regaining my strength for the last 12, and we had eaten some fast food Monday night. But in my mind, even though I know what caused it, I now wonder and have the worry about what will get me sick. Every food could be the next culprit to giving me unbearable stomach pain, and keeping me up at night. Now a weekend of pain isn’t that bad, but this weekend I’m going to LA with Anna, so it would really stink to be sick.

I don’t like to think of myself as a worrier, but I don’t want my weekend to be ruined. I really want to enjoy my time with my friend, alone, shopping, and eating out. (We’re shopping for fabric for the play, so it’s not all fun and games.) It’s the thought of eating I don’t like. What if I get sick and my poor pregnant friend has to carry bolts and bolts of tulle and satin to my car, while I stay huddled in the fetal position in the passenger seat, or in a public bathroom? Ick. It could happen, the chances are slim, but I was just sick.

I think I’ll pack some extra tums just in case.

My sister Andrea made some blankets for the girls for Christmas, she had our family. We got them in March. 🙂 For the full story you can read her blog post.

Here are the girls with their blankets. They sleep with them every night.

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Here is Jon in his suit. It was after he came home so he had to put the tie back on, he didn’t wear it all day just for the interview, and so it’s a little crooked, and the shoes are his regular ones, since he didn’t want to wear his nice ones all day either or put them on for the picture.

I don’t think this picture does justice. He’s so much hotter in person when he’s wearing the suit. I wish he needed to wear suits all the time I think he looks so nice in them.

A month ago her husband told her about a new position he wanted to apply for. It seemed wonderful as they discussed the different reasons why he wanted this position and the benefits to it both professionally and personally.

It seemed perfect, so he submitted his application just before the final deadline.

After submitting the application it was decided he needed a new suit. He hadn’t bought a suit in over 12 years, and the last one was for his mission.

It was time for a new suit.

They saw it as an investment. An investment for the new position he was applying for. An investment for his future. An investment for their family’s future.

The whole family went. A family of four must have been a sight in this men’s suit store, but it’s what they had to do. They picked out a nice suit, shirt, 2 ties, shoes and a belt. They wanted him to look his best.

It was a large investment, but he looked so good and it fit him just right.

The phone interview came first. But instead of being a phone interview it was an in-person interview since he worked with the institution already.

What do you wear to a phone interview?

They decided the suit would be a little much, so he just wore his regular business casual attire, and they hoped a final interview was on the horizon.

Within two days he had been asked back for a final interview.

She was really happy because it meant that he was still in the running for the job and because he’d get to wear his suit.

The final interview came and went. He wore his suit and looked like a million bucks, but was a little less sure of this interview.

They waited to hear about the position, but over a week went by and no news.

She knew he hadn’t gotten it. They must have offered it to the other interviewee. She tried to contain her sadness since she was so hopeful for the new possibilities this job could provide for her family.

Her hopes faded for the future she had envisioned and seemed so close at hand, but still so distant.

Then she saw his instant message pop onto her screen.

Him: So do you want me to call you or should we talk over IM?
Her: whichever you want.

She just wanted to know, yes or no, yes or no, and her heart raced in anticipation of the answer that she knew he had received and was waiting to share.

Him: It’s easier over IM. 🙂
Her: I figured, with calling other people hear too.

Please, just tell me if you got the job or not.

Him: I could use the cell outside.
Her: Just get on with it man!
Him: You sure?
Her: sigh

His teasing was a good sign, even if she wanted to jump through the computer screen and just shake the answer she new was coming out of him.

Him: Blank left a message and made me an offer. We’re meeting later to talk details. Now I wish I had shaved this morning.
Her: lol Yay!
Him: 🙂
Her: sigh

This time it was a sigh of relief, not annoyance.

Him: What do you think: should I accept?
Her: Yes Yes Yes
Him: 🙂 I guess I’ll accept then.
Her: Lets celebrate by going to Disneyland.
Him : 🙂

So that’s it. Jon will begin a new position on April 19th. I’m so happy for him and I look forward to our future with anticipation.

Good things are happening.