Scotland Part 1 (Maybe the one and only part, we’ll see)

I’m sure everyone is on pins and needles waiting for pictures and stories from my trip to Scotland. It was a 10 day trip, so I will mainly hit on the highlights.  I take that back, I am going to begin with the worst part of the trip…the flight.  We flew from Salt Lake to Paris, then Paris to Edinburgh.  I couldn’t sleep on the flight, then the layover in Paris was pretty terrible.  Nate didn’t have “papers” for his insulin pump and no one in security at the airport (in Paris) seemed to know what to do.  It took us 45 min, but we finally were cleared to fly. We had a couple more hours, then we flew to Edinburgh.  By the time we got there it was late afternoon, so we got our car and set out to find the place we were staying.  In this whole process we lost 7 hours and I didn’t sleep on the plane, so basically I was exhausted. 

The following day was Saturday and one of the highlights of the trip to Scotland.  We wandered the streets of Edinburgh for part of the day and we saw much of the city.  Toward the end of the day we wandered into the National Gallery of Scotland. We looked at the exhibit they had on dance and explored the main floor, but it was close to the 5 o’clock closing, so we didn’t venture upstairs.  As we were leaving I picked up a brochure.  I opened it and couldn’t believe my eyes.  It said that my absolute favorite painting was on display upstairs. We immediately turned around and headed back upstairs so I could see it.  It is a painting by John Singer-Sargent named “Lady Agnew of Lochnaw.”  In fact, back in the day when I actually considered studying art in college (ha!) I used that painting as one where I imitated an artist’s style.  I couldn’t believe I was actually standing in front of the painting.  It was incredible.

I could just start rambling and tell you all the reasons this painting is fantabulous, but I won’t because you’d be bored. Instead you can look at it and if you don’t appreciate it, well, I am afraid you are beyond help. 

Wow, I am super duper long winded.  I guess I can stop for today.  So…..To Be Continued.

 

Oh Baby!

Why do babies have to grow up so fast?  Pete turned 3 over the weekend.  To celebrate he went camping with Nate and Jake at the Fathers and Sons campout.  It was his first time camping, and he had a ball. Then on Saturday we had a little family get-together with pizza and cake and ice cream. 

Pete is such a fun kid. I have the luxury of spending my days with him and I love it. We get to play every day.  I won’t lie, he makes it hard for me to get any real work done around the house. That is okay though, because he is growing up too quickly.

Here are some pictures of Pete from when he was born until he was a couple months old. I know that to most people my little 2 1/2 lb baby may look a little alien-ish or whatever, but I think he was adorable and perfect.

These pictures are from his first year. First Halloween, first Christmas, the Bumbo which was a big part of our life.

He is always entertaining us with his goofy ideas. I’m sure it helps that he has all of us as a very willing audience.

This is one of my favorite pictures of him. I love his eyes and his cute chubby cheeks.

Like I said before, we spend our days together and as you can see he is oh so very helpful with the tasks such as dishes. Most of the time I love it, except when I am in a hurry :)

This picture totally captures my happy, sweet Pete.

There have been several chances recently for me to think about the blessing of being a mom. I remember pretty much the whole time I was growing up my mom had a stitchery hanging in our house. I didn’t comprehend the significance of the words then but, over the last few years I have thought back over those words several times.  It was part of a poem called “Babies Don’t Keep” by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton.  The last stanza says “The cleaning and scrubbing can wait ‘till tomorrow, But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep! I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.”

There have been so many times over the last 3 years I’ve wished I could make time stand still. But my babies keep growing in spite of my yearning for them to stop. How do you ever capture enough moments?

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a Mom. It is one of the hardest jobs, but nothing could make me happier. 

Happy Birthday Pete!  I love you!

 

It’s About Time

Okay folks.  I know, it is about time for my once-a-quarter blog post.  Here is the deal.   I know that last time I blogged I was sad because I couldn’t find the cable to my camera.  Well, the lucky woman that I am, hubby got me a new one!  Guess what…can’t find it.  I KNOW!!  Can you believe it!?!  Being the organizationally-challenged individual that I am I have now lost 2 cables in the last 4 months. 

It wouldn’t be so bad except we went to Disneyland and all the pictures from Disneyland are on the camera to which the cable is missing.  I am really pretty bugged, if in fact you couldn’t tell.  So, the Disneyland post will have to wait.  On to other things.

I have a friend named Julie.  I have been friends with Julie since high school.  In fact, I think I survived high school because of Julie.  Julie and I went to different universities, we lived hours away at times and there have been large breaks between us talking, but it never fails to amaze me, when we get together it is like no time has passed at all.  We just get each other, you know?  No pretense, no watching what we say, afraid we might offend.  It is just easy. 

Lately I have missed Julie.  I have called her a few times when I have been thinking about her, and frankly it has been times when we have both really needed to talk.  We finally found a chance to get together and had a great time.

Not only did we get together, but our youngest boys played for the first time (that they would remember) and they loved it.  They were hilarious together. 

We went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point.  My sissies and Mom came too.  Yes, the triplets were there!  It was so fun.  It was a perfect day.  The only problem is that perfect days end too. 

I really hope I don’t let so much time and so many missed opportunities pass before I see my friend again.  Seeing her made my heart happy.

 

Pete showing us the pony.

Pete and Julie’s son Porter

 Maddie, one of Ju’s triplets

Molly,  another of the triplets

Hunter, the last of the triplets

Pete and Nat’s son McCoy looking at the horses

Nate’s Truck

About a week and a half ago I was waiting for Nate to get home from work. He was taking a long time.  I figured he was stuck in traffic. Then I  got a call. It went something like this:

Nate:  “Kris, I got in an accident, I am almost done with the police. Can you come and get me?”

Me:  “Wait. What? You were in an accident? Are you okay? Where are you?”

Nate: “I am okay. I am just down the highway, not far. You’ll see the emergency vehicles. I’ll watch for you. Bye.”

Click.

That is my husband, a man of few words.

He was headed south on 89 right by the Jefferson Center and someone who had been headed north turned left into him.

His airbag went off.  His left arm got hurt somehow. His neck and back have been hurting.  As a result my heart has been hurting. 

Nate never complains. Not about being stressed or that he doesn’t feel well. He never lets me dote over him, even when he is sick in bed.  Now I know he hurts and I don’t know how to help.

The truck was totaled. That made Nate sad.  He liked his truck.  Those of you who know him well are thinking he would revel the chance to buy a new car. He would, but he is busy and he is facing not having a car until he finds one. Once they paid us for the truck they took away the rental. His process usually involves looking and thinking about it for a while before he takes the plunge.

The wreck reminded me of something I shouldn’t ever have to be reminded of.  I love Nate so incredibly much. My life would be nothing without him in it.  Since the accident I have spent much more time thanking my Father in Heaven for Nate, and that he was not injured any worse in the accident. I love you Nate.

Oh, and icing on the cake was the $700 we spent on the tires the day before. Nice.

Another Reason I’ll Keep Him

Here’s the thing.  I am not a good gift picker-outer.  I always try and think of something marvelous for my honey, but alas, gift picking-out is definitely not one of my talents.  Nate on the other hand is a pro.  He is always finding the most fantastic gifts ever.  Which, of course, makes me feel terrible when I give him whatever is my pathetic gift. 

Not only can I not pick out gifts, I can not keep them secret.  This is not because I spill the beans, but I am just not sneaky enough.  Case in point.  One year I thought I was oh so sneaky.  I was giving him a futon for his office.  So, I had my parents purchase it and keep it at their place until right before Christmas, when, while we were away one night, my sister and her husband moved it into the back of our basement. So, Christmas morning comes and Nate has gotten a curio for me.  It was beautiful.  I then escorted Nate downstairs to show him his gift.  He started laughing.  Apparently when my sister and her husband had put the futon in the basement they leaned it right up against the curio.  So, when Nate had gone to get the curio, he subsequently saw his gift.  NOT SNEAKY. 

This past Valentine’s Day was no exception.  Nate got a new keyboard for my computer because a certain unnamed kidlet has wreaked havoc on mine.  He also did this for me. 

 

                      Think we have enough hot cocoa or cereal?  Me either.

Being organizationally challenged as I am, this pantry has been the bane of my existence.  He made me shelf/drawers.  Rolling shelves?  I don’t know what to call them but they are marvelous! 

I am the room mother for Em’s class, and frankly whoever thought that I would be a good candidate for that was not in their right mind.  So, by the time I was done with the whole V-day party for her class I was done done.  I did get him a windshield washer thingy that they sell on TV, but I got it at Walgreen’s (pronounced Walgrins by most around here).  So, pretty much a great big FAIL on my part.

Which continues the saga of Nate=awesome gifts, Kris=lame gifts. 

 

Christmas and Birthdays Wrap Up

Here is the deal.  I have yet to find the cord to hook up my camera to my computer.  I know everyone is thinking, “Why didn’t you just use your computer’s card reader?”  The thing is that the card in my camera doesn’t fit in my card reader.  I know this because I got it stuck in my computer once.  When it didn’t seem to click in right I thought sticking it in further with my nails would help.  It didn’t.  Don’t do that.  So, luckily I am married to a very computer savvy man (surprise) and he was able to retrieve it.  Point of the story, I can’t get the pictures off my camera yet.

I have a few pictures on my other camera that I will share with you. 

First was my birthday.  No pics.  Sorry.  Maybe there will be some later.

Then Christmas.  I only have a few pictures and because of the early morning nature of present opening, I am hesitant to share any with you.  There is one that is moderately acceptable.  Here you go.

Nate’s Birthday.  It is always hard to figure out how to celebrate Nate’s birthday. The whole ‘New Year’s Eve’ thing gets in the way.  We did try to go to a Thai restaurant, but they closed early.  Weird.  So, we found somewhere else to eat and then went home and had pie.  Yes, he gets birthday pie.  He even orders it himself.  This is not because I won’t make a cake, he prefers pie.  Pie from the bakery down the street.  If it makes him happy I will not complain.

 

We celebrated J’s birthday and E’s birthday on their actual birthdays at home with cake and ice cream and then on the Saturday between by going to ‘the diver place’ (the Mayan) with Grandma and Grandpa McGuire.  A fun time was had by all. 

 

 

 

Whew.  There.  And now I shall sleep. Don’t wake me.