Catch Up (not mustard)

My summer class ended last night, and holy cow...

For this last one, I was going to class for 2 1/2 hours Mon-Thurs and doing 2-3 hours of homework each of those days, so basically it was like having a 20-hour per week part time job. Overall, we managed fine and Michael picked up the slack where there was slack to be picked up, but the last week (when all of my assignments were due) I lost it. No housework got done except laundry, and while the laundry did get washed, it never got put away.

When I think about adding in 20 more hours plus lesson planning plus grading...Working friends, how do you do it? I need your experienced insight.

Anyway, as you can tell, this here blog has not been a priority this summer. So where to begin on the updates?

:: My hair is brown again, transitioning back to some shade of red. Some people I know have had the same hairstyle their whole adult lives, and they amaze me. I think I average about six months before I start itching for a change. Sort of related: This post by my brother is funny.

:: I bought a punch pass that can be used at any Raleigh community pool, so between that and swimming lessons, we've been spending 4 out of 7 mornings at the pool every week. I have discovered that I really like the pool at Chavis park. It's shameful how rundown it is, but it's always near empty, it has a water slide and a splash park, and the lifeguards are super relaxed about the rules.




:: I've been keeping up with running even though I hate it. I've started taking the boys to parks that have a sidewalk loop around the playground, and then I just run in circles while the boys play. It's super boring, but at least I don't have to get up at 6:00. We've also spent a lot of time at Pullen before swim lessons.


:: We took a vacation between classes to head home to KY/TN, and apparently this is the one photo I took the whole trip:


Looking back at photos, I realize I never did an "Eli got baptized post." Poor second child...I have three and a half weeks until school starts, and four weeks before my next class. Hopefully I can catch up on a few things around here!

We Are Observant

This morning, I got in the shower at 7:15, and an hour later as I was finishing up my hair and make-up, I thought, "It sure is nice to be in a phase of life where my kids are old enough to get themselves ready for church."

At 8:55 as we entered the church building, I heard Michael say to Eli, "Why aren't you wearing your church shoes? You shouldn't wear tennis shoes to church."

I glanced at Eli, then Rylan, and as my eyes went from Rylan's feet to his face, I realized that although he was wearing church shoes, he was also wearing an orange shirt with stains on it and brown pants with a hole in the knee. Not church clothes.

I turned to Michael and said, "I think we failed as parents today."

Rylan with our good friend Shelvia

 
Sadly, this is not the first incident like this. A Facebook post from July 2012:

We tore the house apart this morning looking for Rylan's church pants. Finally gave up and put him in an old pair. Got to church and Michael says, "Eli's pants are really short." He was wearing Rylan's pants! We are awesome parents...

A Real Grown-Up

Lately, I've been feeling like a real grown-up.

Yes, at nearly 33 years old, it's about time.

Despite this conversation, I am positive that the aspect of my personality that Michael hates the most is my tendency to put off doing anything I don't like to do, to beg him to do it for me, or to decide not to do it at all. For example, I hate talking on the phone, so if I need to call someone and don't have their email address, it could be a good long while before I work up the motivation to call them. This drives Michael crazy - especially when the someone needing to be called is a babysitter, the missionaries, our landlord, an insurance company, etc. This is also why nothing ever gets done around here: I pass those types of jobs on to Michael, and he never remembers to do them.

After almost 10 years of marriage, I've finally accepted that Michael is never going to remember to get anything done, and I've got to start acting like a grown-up. I can't promise that if I owe you a phone call, you'll hear your phone ringing anytime soon, but I have done all this in the past two weeks:

• Got the van inspected and the registration renewed all by myself for the second year in a row even though the car repairman at Meinicke called me honey and the DMV is hell on earth.

• Dealt with a flat tire with only a quick phone call to Michael. Once again survived being called honey by a car repairman.

• Filed a claim with Capital Area Transit after my bike fell off the bus. (More about this later.) Was definitely patronized, though all the men involved refrained from calling me honey.
  

• Survived a PHONE interview with a reporter from the New York Times. And today I will hopefully survive a photo shoot.

And in other grown-up news, I practiced taking mirror shots of myself with my iPhone so I could show you all my return to brunette status.


My dad is a natural redhead, and I inherited his milky skin and freckles but not the red hair that makes up for it. Sometime in high school, I decided to remedy the situation, and after sixteen or so years of varying shades of red, I had forgotten what my natural hair color looked like. Now I can tell you: It's a very boring brown. But as my hair stylist pointed out, at least it's not grey.

Michael's response: "This is kind of a sad day."

Dear Family and Friends,

It's time once again to summarize what's been goin' on with us this year. I'm super slow this year, so I'm taking the eletronic route. If you would like a hard copy of our family picture, just let me know and I'll be happy to send one.

At the beginning of this year, Michael started questioning whether or not he wanted to continue working for Plus Three. He applied for a job with another company, but when his bosses at Plus Three found out he was considering leaving, they offered him the position of Vice President of Technology. After accepting this position, Michael decided it would be a good idea for the company to consolidate their technology department in Raleigh, NC since it is a large techology center and relatively inexpensive. This was also a good excuse for us to move back to the South, where the weather is finer and the people are friendlier. Unfortunately, our decision to move coincided with the burst of the housing bubble, so we are living in an apartment in Raleigh while waiting for our house in Maryland to sell. If any of our friends or family are thinking of moving to Silver Spring, MD, we know of a beautiful house with a newly remodeled kitchen for a great price!

Until we moved, Michael continued to teach Seminary to grumpy teenagers at 6:00 in the morning, but now he works with hyperactive Webelos in the Cub Scouts program. This will be good practice for him so he can show our boys how to win all pine wood derbies when they are old enough for Cub Scouts. Continuing his trend of speaking at conferences, he added Norway and Chicago to his scoreboard this year. We feel lucky that he has done much less traveling this year – since moving to Raleigh, he no longer has to make bimonthly trips to New York.

In June, Erin wrapped up a year and a half as Primary president but was pulled right back into Primary as soon as we moved. She now has the less demanding job of Primary teacher for the seven-year-olds. Erin absolutely loves Raleigh and is enjoying exploring the city with her kids. She also started a blog a few months ago to record her experiments with environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and socially responsible living on a budget. Recently, she did an interview about her blog for the quarterly publication of a small non-profit called Co-op America. Check out www.consciousshopper.blogspot.com to read more about her adventures with going green on a budget.

Cole is our handsome five-year-old. He continues to impress us with his intelligence – he now reads well enough to participate in our morning scripture study. He is also an excellent artist and practices his drawing skills for several hours a day. Cole has become a huge fan of rock and punk music. His favorite bands are Fall Out Boy, Weezer, Jimmy Eat World, and Rise Against. He and Eli have started a band called the Banders. In the band, Cole plays a five-string ukelele and lip syncs, and Eli bangs on laundry baskets and break dances.

Eli loves to play the drums and has converted many laundry baskets and trash cans into drum sets. On one sad occasion, he decided that ink pens would make perfect drumsticks – until they exploded all over the carpet in our new apartment. Eli is our most daring eater and insists that he likes spicy food. Michael, Cole, and Eli got to try ice cream with toasted ant sprinkles at the Bugfest in Raleigh this year (yes, you read that right, and yes they were real ants.) Cole, the pickiest member of our family, did not like the ants, but Michael and Eli said they weren't too bad.

Rylan continues to fulfill his role as the cutest member of our family. You may remember from last year's family Christmas picture that he was born with a full head of black hair. After a few months, his roots started to grow in blonde and the tips turned a golden brown, giving his hair a cool highlighted look. Because of that and his natural curls, people were always asking if we took him to a salon. Erin was extremely sad when Rylan finally got his first haircut a month ago. Rylan takes after his father as a huge fan of anything technology-related. We can't get a good picture of him because he goes crazy with excitement whenever he sees a camera. He also loves phones, laptops, and DVD players, but so far has shown little interest in watching TV.

We enjoyed seeing all of our family and many friends this holiday season and wish you all a happy New Year!

Love, Michael, Erin, Cole, Eli, and Rylan