Dia de Accion de Gracias

Some things are just said better in Spanish. Like Thanksgiving Day. In English, if we dissect the words, it means "day of giving thanks." But the Spanish word for the holiday, "Dia de Accion de Gracias" has, in my opinion, a better meaning, "accion" meaning "action," or "Day of showing thanks." Cute Pip asked me this morning, "Que quiere decir Dia de Accion de Gracias?" and I was able to talk with my kids about all the blessings we have and how we can show that we are grateful.

Last night we attended a multi-denominational Thanksgiving worship service. I felt so uplifted hearing many religions testify about gratitude. And it made me realize that there are many blessings that we take for granted. Here's a little list:

pure water
electricity
health
safety
education
shelter
the ability and the opportunity to work
clothing and shoes
transportation
our beautiful Earth

This morning I celebrated Thanksgiving and good health by doing a Fartlek. It felt great! I was missing the International Thanksgiving 4-miler that I've done half a dozen times with my family, but not too much since the temp in Provo was in the teens this morning.

Feliz Dia de Accion de Gracias!!

Resurrecting summer

Yesterday I went running in shorts. Outside. In Detroit. At the end of November! The kids loved it. I loved it. It felt like heaven!


We are coming off over a month of being sick. Squeak brought a severe cough/sore throat home from school. She shared that with most of us. I kept her home for a few weeks and sent her back for two days. Then she brought home pink eye. She also shared that with us. And a cold. As a result of the chest/nasal congestion, we all got ear infections (me too!)--except for D. He has not been sick at all. I've been doing these great affirmations for him during hypnosis--along the lines of, "Your body is strong and resistant to disease." This is the guy who used to catch everything. Well, not anymore! It was the least I could do to repay him for the fantastic hypnosis he did for all three of our babies' births. If you have not tried hypnosis before, you should. We are believers over here at our house!


I've started a "Moving Dos and Don'ts" post in my head. I would love to finish it, but I can't until our move is over. And we are still in limbo. During the moments when I feel really frustrated, I have to keep reminding myself that although this is hard, there are many, many challenges that would be more difficult, so chin up!! We had to go to court for the eviction hearing. The attorney for the bank was really nice and actually was kind of on our side, and the judge ended up ruling to postpone the hearing for 90 days. Then they dismissed the case because we are trying to buy this house. The seller's agent for the bank is a thorn in our side (if we could cut him out of the picture, things would be so easy!), but everyone else has been very helpful. We are hoping to have some stability soon!

That old, familiar thrill is back

Back in the old days when I had plenty of income for me, myself, and I, as well as Bruno, Mountain Bike, Road Bike, Subaru Dream Car, Vacations Galore, Unlimited Marathons and Triathlons, Retirement Accounts, and Just About Anything I Wanted, I LOVED winning ebay auctions. That thrill of winning at the last second was so exciting!! I would watch the auction for days and then swoop in at the last second and win, much to the other bidders' surprise. A glorious victory! Even after Marriage and Medical School Applications came on the scene, I still enjoyed my little ebay victories. But Medical School kind of squelched all that, because that's when the income went away. And the student loans began piling up.

Four years. That's how long I went without buying myself a single pair of new shoes. Even running shoes. I had fortunately found a few pairs on clearance right before D started school, and thanks to REALLY decreasing my mileage during school (and the hand of the Lord), the shoes lasted all the way through--what a miracle! But the last pair was worn all the way through the tread, and if you know anything about joints and running shoes, you know that it's a lot cheaper (and better) to replace your shoes than your joints. I thought I might find some new shoes on clearance at a sports store around here. My searching proved fruitless. I thought about ordering from my favorite online running store, Roadrunner Sports. Too expensive! Then I remembered my old friend. So I hopped on ebay and found multiple pairs of my favorite shoe (Nike Pegasus) for about half of retail price."I'm in!" I thought.

D sat there and watched me as the auction came to a close. My heart was racing. I had my watch timer ticking so I knew exactly how many seconds were left. I put in my bid, clicked once. Just one more click to "confirm bid." But I waited. And waited. Just three seconds left. I clicked to confirm my bid. "You are the current high bidder." And then, "Auction has ended." And I was the winner!!!! I had won the auction by eight cents. Ah, that glorious, sweet victory! I felt like a hero!

Then D looked through the bidding history and noticed that the other high bidder's last bid had been placed eight hours before. "A hollow victory!" he proclaimed. Nobody else was sitting on the edge of their seat to witness my victory. A slight let-down. But, hey, I still got the shoes!

Halloween!

I think this is the earliest I've done a Halloween post. I'm just always running behind. But we all have our talents, and tardiness is mine! We were all skeletons (I copied the idea from my friend Susan who did it last year)--So fun! The costumes were a lot of work--I drew all the bones and then cut them out and ironed them on and I'm still working on reinforcing with stitching--so much work that we will re-use these for YEARS.

We went to a Halloween party at church on Friday night

Another talent I have that I've passed on to my kids is that I'm not photogenic. Of a dozen or so shots, I couldn't find a single one where we all look good. Oh, well. Just look at our costumes!

 

So Halloween was on Sunday this year, and I wanted to keep the Sabbath day holy, and I didn't feel like running around trick-or-treating would do that, so after a bit of brainstorming, I decided we would dress up in our costumes and take treats to people we like. First stop was D because he happened to be working that day/night. We had so much fun taking treats to people that I'd like to do it again. Too bad Halloween only falls on a Sunday once every seven years!

My Sunbeam

 My Squeak was one of the youngest kids at church and it was the big day where all the kids, ages 3-12 sing and speak in front of the whole congregation. I was so proud! Despite her young age, she knew all the songs by heart. She knew them so well, in fact, that she has taught them all to Pip and he sings many of them too. We're so amazed at her sharp mind and her ability to remember things.


D and I watched our little Sunbeam from the audience in wonder. During the entire 45 or so minutes, she looked all over the place except for at us. She yawned a few dozen times. She hung her arms over the ledge of the raised stand where she was sitting. She looked at the little kids to the left and to the right. And she sang nothing except for about five words of the very last verse of the very last song. WELL! There's always a surprise, I guess. My kids just never cease to amaze me!!

 We like going to the parks to enjoy the beautiful fall. I also like to avoid unpacking toys, to keep life simple.

 This is Tio Mike. He brought his lovely family (including my lovely sis-in-law Shelly) to visit. We had so much fun! We hope they visit again!!

 He was getting some serious air on this little bike but my slow camera couldn't quite capture it.

 Squeak and Pip loved playing with "las primas"--we have a fabulous backyard!

 I spent some time with the kids at a local orchard and pumpkin patch. We had a lot of fun. We sure miss the family orchard though!!

Eighty-six

I feel pretty good about the fact that for most things I don't just follow the crowd. Yay for me! But one day I decided to do what everyone else is doing and get on Facebook. Lame, I know. It was right around the time I had Squirt. It was a very overwhelming time. I uploaded maybe three photos and that was it. Friend requests trickled in, but I didn't have time to message anyone or even view many profiles because my life was so complicated. But I would still log on every few weeks. Until THE MOTHER OF ALL MOVES (which, by the way, is still in process). I got on Facebook the other day for the first time in months. Eighty-six friend requests (yay for me!). I didn't have a chance to respond to more than a few because everything is so crazy. I just can't get into Facebook. How do people get on Facebook multiple times a day?

We are still SQUATTERS!! This is month number two of not paying rent. What an awesome blessing!! (We did make an offer on the house though.) We still haven't unpacked much, except that it has started getting colder so I pulled out some warm clothes. I would estimate that 75% of our stuff is still in boxes. Good thing, because we just got a court summons for an eviction hearing. Come on, people, how could anyone throw this nice little family out on the street??

D got us a treadmill--now I have a way to run during the winter. Sweet! Even sweeter is that the treadmill was free. Go, D! I also got D the lovely (expensive!) suit in this photo for free. Go, T!

The fall colors are gorgeous. Every time I go outside, I'm in awe. We love going for runs and watching the squirrels busily hoarding their winter stash. We're taking advantage of our time outside while it's still easy to go outside. Halloween is coming up, yippee!

Phoenix Fun!

 These are old photos from our trip to Phoenix for D's graduation in June. Better late than never!

 

 We are all thrilled about D's accomplishment. And I have this to say--he was the hardest-working student in his whole school. I know because I saw it all. Way to go, babe!!

 My brother Bry drove up from Tucson. He and his family were so helpful and supportive during our time in AZ. I love the cut-off heads and my kids' expressions in this photo.

 D's parents also came (also a great support to us during med school) and D was hooded by his dad. So fun!

 D with his study buddies Martin and Dustin. They were a lifesaver--thanks, dudes!

 Reenacting a study session??

Can't quite come up with a caption for this photo...

Me pretending like I earned a little bit of the glory

 I love Pip's little ruddy cheeks. It was so hot!

 We went to a fancy dinner. We got to take our cute little baby because she does not like to be separated from her mami. It made me feel extra fancy to leave during dinner to breastfeed.

 Study buddies and wives Celeste and Melinda. What great gals! Thanks for the fun times, friends!

 We visited our wonderful neighbors Kris, Sahana, and Samik. We miss them so much!

 

 We stayed with our favorite Lora who we also miss dearly. We loved being together and catching up. The kids got to see their lovely Siri again, and we hope to see the rest of the clan next time we're in town.

 Pip slept in Kaj's room and emptied his drawers into the pack n play. Thanks for sharing, Lora and fam!

 We also got to visit Sid and Bobbi, our Phoenix family. Bobbi taught me how to make yogurt, Lebanese-style.

Quote of the year

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"

Leonardo da Vinci

quoted by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf in this talk--words that were truly meant for me at this time in my life! What a wonderful, inspired man!

Migration and Reproduction

I have so many blog posts swimming around in my head that I would someday like to share. I'd like to blame my circumstances for my inability to be organized, but when I think about it, it's probably just a personal problem.

But anyway, here's something I've been thinking about--migration and reproduction. That pretty much sums up what I've done for the past five years. Maybe add in a little bit of competition and education and vacation, but mostly I've been in what we like to call "survival mode" for what feels like a really long time. Moving, moving, moving, new baby, moving, moving, new baby, moving, new baby, moving... So I thought about other migratory animals--whales, geese, salmon, etc. And I settled on the monarch butterfly for my personal analogy. Monarch butterflies spend their entire existence in migration and reproduction, yet they are beautiful and amazing creatures.

They don't care that they weren't able to plant a garden last year (or this year!) or start cloth diapering again since the move (since it still feels like we're moving) or complete a runner's quilt made of race t-shirts or train for and compete in a Half-Ironman or write a book they've been dying to write or even finish that mission scrapbook (truly the eternal project!!)... I have all these IDEAS!! I'm working on being a finisher. Those monarchs, though--they are content in their existence of migration and reproduction and we admire them anyway!

Aren't they amazing?? They travel over 2,000 miles...

"Was?"

A few weeks ago I overheard some people talking. Something like, "It was a wonderful summer, wasn't it?" "Oh, yes, it certainly was." And I thought, "'Was?' Has the summer already gone?" SAD! The trees are still mostly green, but the nights and mornings are cooler which can only mean one thing--it's time to move our basil plant inside. Oh, how we love having fresh basil (thank you to the wonderful previous tenants here who left it for us!!). Anyway, despite the uncertainty about our housing situation, we've really enjoyed Michigan this summer. I love the humidity and the gorgeous green trees. Feels like home. My hair and skin can breathe again after so long in a dry climate. Ahh!!

The latest on our living situation is that WE ARE SQUATTERS!! We are living in a bank-owned house and paying rent to nobody! I used to think that D and I were pretty talented at scrounging (dumpster diving, taking stuff from people's garbage piles, getting toiletries for free, gratefully accepting everyone's hand-me-down clothes and furniture, etc.) but I feel like we've reached a whole new level here. Now I just need to figure out how to get utilities for free... I'm kidding--kind of. Our rental house was foreclosed on September 2. I was able to finally get the bank to talk to me before it happened (I had tried before but they wouldn't), so we were assured that we would not be out on the street--we would have at least 30, probably 60+ days before we'd have to leave. The bank hasn't asked us to pay rent. So we are doing fine, still not unpacking much more than the bare minimum. We don't know if we will stay here for a short time or a long time, but we're enjoying the neighborhood--we really have great neighbors.

I'm running with the triple jogger 4-5 times per week, YEAH!! Still trying to figure out how to lose those last two pregnancy pounds. Let me know if you have any advice (and if you tell me to stop eating chocolate chips, forget it!!)

Some recent shots of my peeps:

Our sweet baby

the aftermath of Mud Day

Squeak and "Baby Julinna"

Goldilocks--what lovely curls!

More happy Mud Day faces