Anniversary Celebration-The good life

Friday we celebrated our 12th anniversary. At 1:00pm my brother came to watch our two youngest kids and Tim and I took off to Salt Lake City. Our friends picked up all the kids around 4pm and watched them the rest of the time. Thank you all for your help! I needed this day sooooo much.

First we went to ACME Burger Company. I had a winter squash bisque and a lamb burger on a sweet potato bun. The soup was incredible, the burger, though good didn't blow me away because I am not a burger fanatic and I don't think any burger could wow me. For dessert we had a scoop of guava ginger honey sorbet. Tasty!

We next went to Tony Caputos foreign market, bought some Chris Blue Chocolate, and two other dark chocolate (70 %) bars (Scharffen Berger and Green and Blacks, to see the differences in flavor, we are still enjoying that, but will finish that tonight. I think we have started a new decadent latenight indulgence in our marriage.)

We also picked up a baguette with some artisan balsamic vinegar, and some cheaper chocolate for the kids.

Next we went to Blue Boutique. . . and will refrain from going into detail about that! Then we went to IKEA. Going places that you usually go with your kids makes for an even more dramatic example of how much easier life is without kids. It was enjoyable and relaxing. Tim and I could sit and talk about plans for rooms and not wonder, where are the kids. . . are they climbing on stuff they shouldn't?

We ended our day together with Sakura, a Japanese restaurant with a grill and sushi bar. We had soup and salad and shared three sushi rolls. It really hit the spot for us.

This experience drove home something for me. That is, that life can be more fun than it has been for me lately. IKEA is as fun as I think it should be. . as long as the kids aren't there. Have you ever had the experience where something sounds like fun and a good idea, then you get there and it is just stressful and not fun? You wonder why your idea of how fun it should be and how fun it was just don't match. I think it is because in my image of the activity it is missing an important element. The reality of kids. That has happened a lot lately to me. I got in a slump thinking life just isn't fun.

I learned from this date, it is just because life with kids adds extra challenges, (extra joys too) but I need to allow for that and know the quality of these experiences will be better as kids get older (and are either more fun to have with or can stay home) I was also reassured that Tim and I can have a good conversation when kids aren't there to interupt and we aren't tired out of our minds.

The question I leave you with is, is it better to just be kind of depressed thinking life just isn't that fun, giving up and giving in. . or being grumpier at your kids realizing that they are to blame for the lack of quality of your enjoyment in a lot of things. I have felt more positive in some ways the last few days, indulging myself more, but have less tolerance for my kids interupting and whining at the same time. Hmmmm. Which is more healthy?

I need to say however,in defense of kids, they can make life more fun too. I remember the first summer Tim and I were married we went on a camping trip. It was a lot of fun, but I was a little jealous of the family next to us with a bunch of kids. They seemed to be having a party with so much fun company of kids. We went camping last summer and it was like what I hoped it would be. I am excited to go on a trip to Washington with our kids and I know they will add a lot of fun to the experience. Kids do add a lot of joy to life too. Just not to IKEA.

Death and Taxes

I had to call the IRS today to straighten up something I screwed up on on our taxes. Tim did the taxes just fine. It was my little part of filling out the SSN#s that was done wrong. It took an hour and 15 minutes to straiten it all up. After waiting on hold for the next available representative for 15 minutes, explaining the problem being put on hold while they solved the problem, I was hung up on! So I called again, waited 15 mins again, explained the problem again, waited for 1/2 an hour more while they fixed the problem again and that was that. At least the second person had the wisdom to get my phone # in case we got disconnected.

The moral of that story? Don't get your kids' SSN#s off of the copies of last years tax forms. The copy wont show the numbers correctly. It WILL save you time to just look at the actual Social security cards themselves in the long run. The tax guy was kind enough to give me some advice. "To avoid this in the future, make sure you check the documents before sending in the tax return" As if the hour long wait wasnt' enough to drive that one home for me.

Mother's Day and So much more.

Today is both Mother's day and our 12th Wedding Anniversay. Since I don't want to spend this special day on the computer but I do want to commemerate it on my blog somehow I will just post some pictures and call it good. In honor of my Mother I would also like to point to a previous blog I wrote about her, for anyone who might have missed it.

http://uff--dah.blogspot.com/2008/04/lessons-from-my-mom.html

The beginning of the best 12 years of my life.

Those who call me "Mom"

Signs of Spring

I know spring is here when it is warm, when blossoms peak out and so do my toes. Time to take off the cozy socks and boots and throw on the sandals. This seldom comes without a realization that my feet have been sadly neglected. As much as I want to throw on my sandals, there is no way I am going to until I give my feet a little TLC first. Mostly I am referring to my toe nails needing a fresh coat of paint or too. It is frustrating though when you want to wear your sandals today but your toddler is already halfway out the door and you don't have time to paint your nails so you just put on your sneakers again and promise yourself PEDICURE TONIGHT!

Bears are Smarter than Humans

I say this for one reason. Bears sleep through the winter. I know this is instinct on their part and not intelligence. I would ask at this point, why couldn't God have created humans to have this instinct too but I think he has. I know that I don't want to get out of bed in the morning when it is cold outside . Do I act on these instincts? NO! For some stupid reason I think I would be better off getting up and out of my cozy bed to clean my house and feed my family. Maybe it is part of that huge portion of our brains that we don't use.

I think that if we as humans could admit to ourselves that we aren't so different from the bears we would all better off. Maybe if we could make an agreement to at least not expect others to get out of bed all winter (I think we could just limit hibernation time from January 1 to March 21 because Christmas is really worth being awake for) this human hibernation thing could work. Think of all the car accidents and illnesses and discomfort we would avoid. Are these 3 cold tedious months really worth being awake for? Let's be honest with ourselves.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!

Today is looking like the beginnning of the end of a long cold winter. I imagine we have more snow ahead but there is a HUGE patch of brownish green grass on my lawn. Good enough for me for now. Hooray!

I also realized the other day that it was 6:00pm and it was still light. Another sign that there is warmth and light ahead. Today is a sunny day and a bit warmer than it has been too. Sam has been sick all weekend but appears to be back to his smiley fun self today so I think I will take my kids out and get us all some much needed vitamin D, fresh air and exercise. I don't think I have ever been so excited to see the the coming of spring.

Later same day.

Ok...so it isn't spring yet. I took my kids out to walk and ride their bikes around the path at the park behind our house. They wanted to go back within 10 minutes. Actually I will be honest...I wanted to go back in 10 minutes. My kids were crawling along on the bikes they insisted on bringing and everyone was freezing. When Lincoln refused to ride his big wheel anymore I knew that was the end of it. But all in all I think I got more sunshine and fresh air in that 20 minutes than I have in the last 3 months total so it is a good thing we went. Next time no bikes though.

(picture was taken by my brother David Sandberg)