Blessings

An empty tomb. The realization of the resurrection is among the greatest gifts to mankind. It has been special this year helping Gracie understand more about it.

My parents and sister, Thea who sacrificed a sunny spring break to visit us in our still-frozen northern tundra. It was beyond sad saying good-bye on Saturday. We had such a wonderful visit. Our week together had a great balance of getting out and doing things and relaxing at home. Of course, I'll be posting lots of pictures and reports soon.

The promise of Spring. By the end of the week, the temperature is supposed to be inching into the 40's. Naturally, it is currently snowing. Everything still looks very much like winter here. But I see pictures of Spring where y'all call home, and I know that we only have to wait a little longer.

Blessings

My Mom, Dad and Sister, Thea who will be arriving tomorrow night. I am soooo excited! I'll be taking a little blog break for the next week. But we'll be back next weekend.

A time out today. Cori saw that I was a little frazzled. He pulled the pillows off our bed and put them on the floor in the sunshine. I relaxed there for a little while this afternoon. I needed it.

Blurb. I just ordered the book I made of the first year of Delovely. I am so very happy with how it turned out. I hope it looks as nice when it arrives on my doorstep in a week. I'll let you know.

My sister-in-law Tiffany who celebrated a birthday this week.

A new piano. We played on it yesterday. It arrives Wednesday. After 2 years without one, it will be heaven to have a piano in our home again.

The Good News First

Grant has started sleeping through the night. He has done it for the last three nights in a row. I know better than to believe that it will now last forever. But I'm so happy.

Its a good thing that I've been getting more sleep because he is now 5 times more fussy during the day. I don't know what to do. He wakes up very happy, eats well, and then later goes down for a good morning nap. When he wakes from that first nap it begins. I feed him. Happy. I hold him for a little while. Happy. I put him down in any one of 5 or 6 different places/positions so I can do something else. Fussy. Yelling. Crying. Discontent. Relentless unhappy noises. I pick him up or give him undivided attention. Smiles. I put him back down/go back to what I was trying to do. Tears. Is he teething? Quite possibly. He doesn't have a tooth breaking through yet, or the tell-tale bump in his gums. I've tried using baby orajel and Tylenol just to see if it would help but there wasn't any change. I bundle him up or keep him in his room where there is a space heater to make sure he is warm enough. I've used gas drops in case of a tummy ache. The only thing that makes a difference is somebody (it doesn't even have to be me or Cori) picking him up and holding him or being in his face giving him undivided attention. He has always had a somewhat temperamental disposition, but has been decidedly worse this week. What is going on? Any suggestions?

Despite needing to scream into a pillow a dozen times a day, I can't help myself when it comes to loving on this little guy. He's just too darn cute. By the way, he was yelling his head off about 30 seconds before I got the camera out for these. You can still see a little tear on his left cheek in the first picture.

Dear Journal

A few life lessons have been reincarnated in my life lately. Several times. The most obvious of the group made its first reappearance last Thurs. The simple situation was that at about 3:30 in the afternoon, I got a call from Cori saying that he wouldn't be able to make it home in time to have dinner with the missionaries at 6. This wouldn't have been a big deal at all except for three things: 1) I had to pack dinner up for the missionaries the week before and turn them away because Cori had been (necessarily) detained at work. 2) I've been a missionary. 3) I had been struggling with this helpless feeling that 90% of my life was at the mercy of other people and I felt the superhuman need to exert myself to make this dinner happen.

So I told Cori not to worry about it. And I meant it. I'd find someone else to join us. I started calling around to see which of my friends would come over with her husband to have dinner with us. At 4:15 came the call from one of the missionaries saying that they would have their zone leaders with them. Suddenly, my dinner party of 4+Grace was turning into a party of at least 7+Grace and Cori when he would come home. I had put dinner in the crock pot that morning. The crock pot was looking really small. And no one was calling me back about joining us.

Enter Doubt, stage right. I started thinking that maybe I should call the Elders and tell them I'd take dinner to them at the Church. Maybe I should just buy them pizza. I knew that this just wasn't a big deal, and I shouldn't be getting so worked up about it. But still nagging at me was the need to be an agent free to act and not constantly acted upon (2 Nephi 2:26) by the needs and schedules of the people around me. And the difference was mine to make. Into my mind came the voices of past experiences counseling to plan with faith, work like crazy, and trust that my deficiencies would be made up with Heaven's help.

I did. And it was a sweet little experience for me. (I say 'little' because, again, I know this wasn't a big deal) While waiting for anyone to call me back, I found some ways to stretch out the simple meal I had planned. Then in the blessed nick of time, Amy C* called me back and we worked out a plan for them to join us. We had a delightfully full dinner table, and like the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, everyone had seconds and there was still some leftover for Cori to eat when he got home.

I have had this 'go for it'/ 'just do it'/'have faith' mentality on the brain ever since, and more incarnations of the lesson keep surfacing.

Friday night, Cori and I went skiing. We found a little black diamond run through some trees (yes, skiing through trees at night sounds like a ridiculous thing to do, but it was lit. sorta) that looked fun, but was full of small icy moguls. I've never really learned how to ski moguls. I get down them pretty well when the run is open. But when my path is punctuated with immobile obstacles, I get hesitant. Our first time down the run, I took it pretty slowly and felt like a complete beginner by the time I got to the bottom. On the lift ride back up, I asked for pointers so I could ski it better.

The 2nd time down was even worse. I was over-thinking everything. I took a pretty good fall. Cori suggested that we go ski somewhere else, but I wanted one more go.

For try #3, I decided that I would just point my shoulders down the hill and go for it. It was so much better. My body actually knew what to do. I just needed my brain to let go of it. I felt both exhilarated and exonerated.

Later that night while we were reading scriptures, Cori asked me what I thought about 3 Nephi 13:34 (also found in the Sermon on the Mount in Matt. 6) where the Savior says, "Take no thought for the morrow...Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof." As we talked about this scripture, all my experiences over the past week came together: the importance of living in the present, the danger of over thinking and worrying and doubting, the need to plan and then work, the importance of faith, the power of letting go and just doing, the identity of being an agent free to act. It snapped into place and I saw all that the Lord had put into my daily life to teach me.

Wordless Wednesday: Play Time

A Great First

Last Saturday, we took Gracie skiing for the very first time. She is pretty adventurous and totally loved it! Cori volunteered to keep Grant and take pictures so I could do the honors. And thank goodness for our telephoto lens.

She wasn't afraid at all on the chair lift. She just relaxed and occasionally said things like "Mommy, it is sooooo beautiful outside!" or "This is weelly fun!" I just held her between my skis on the way down. She laughed for about 3 minutes strait the first time down. At one point she said "Faster mommy, faster!" When we got to the bottom, we found Cori and Grant and she wiggled out of my grasp to try skiing by herself to her dad. He was only 5 feet away, and the slope was completely flat, so she made it. She got to spend a good hour in the skis, and maybe only half of that skiing. That was just about right for me. Plowing while bent over holding a toddler is a pretty good workout. Sadly, her last attempt at solo skiing ended with a bonk on her head. But she is ready for more. Her Papa Jeff comes out next week and we're planning another ski day. Next time, we're going to get one of those rubber wedgies to hook the front tips of her skis together. That should make it even more fun for everyone.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

This Fall, BYU Law School will be adding a very special person to its ranks. My brilliant, witty, cello and piano playing, arts loving, computer programing, ski chaperoning, mathematically minded, devout, and deserving sister, Sara! Hurray! I'm so proud of her. Moreover, I'm so excited for her (and a wee bit jealous). She's lived in places from Hawaii to Boston, but never in a place quite like Provo. I've had P-town on the brain ever since Sara called me with the good news. Sis, here's a little list of things you must do there, besides study and work like there's no tomorrow:

• Attend the devotionals in the Marriott Center. They are broad casted all over so it will be tempting to to stay in the Clark, but go!
  
• Go to soooo many performances at the HFAC. I was generally impressed, or at least entertained, by the stuff I saw.
  
• Take advantage of the International Cinema. Free. Fun.
  
• Hang out with my friend Jessika. She's a fellow former Alias fanatic, winter sports fan and a wiz in the kitchen (be sure to peek at her Lion House rec. book). Y'all would have a bunch to talk about. And she's just a lot of fun to hang out with.
  
• Smile at your red graduate parking tag EVERY DAY.
  
• Eat at Cafe Rio, the Pita Pit ( on Bulldog I think, by Panda Express), the hamburger place on the corner of Freedom and U. Prkwy, the cafe at the MOA, and Magleby's (if only just to eat their cheesy biscuits while you wait to be seated) every chance you get.
  
• Go to a football game or two.
  
• Shop for your groceries at Macys.
  
• Play on the baby grand Steinway that is tucked away in one of the practice rooms in the basement of the HFAC. Its usually free after 11PM.
  
• Next spring, admire the magnolia trees along side the sculpture garden and the west side of the HFAC when they are in bloom.

There's so much more that I will be remembering, but that's a good start. Of course, you'll be in daily proximity to several memorable landmarks: my infamous thinking tree by the bell tower, the tables I spent so many hours studying at in the Law Library (not to mention the ginormous flight of stairs that Brett A. stunt-rolled down while the library was packed. You'll laugh when you see it.), the piano in the main floor stadium seating classroom of the Law Library where I practiced for my lessons so often because the practice rooms in the HFAC were booked solid by all those pesty performance majors :), and all those gorgeous magnolia trees. But I mentioned them already.

Congratulations Sara!