Summer in review...

Just so you know we've been alive these last few months...
Here we are taking the Rapid downtown to hear the Cleveland symphony play a Fourth of July festival...the kids liked the journey as much as the concert and fireworks. As soon as the concert ended it started to pour and we joined the hundreds of people trying to crowd back on the train. What a night!

Here's Hadley hugging her friend Emme after "This is Kirtland." Hadley is planning to be it in this year with her Grammy.

Of course...we did lots of swimming i.e. Christy moved in! :)

Hadley had a fun mother and daughter book club. Here they are dressed up like Laura Ingles Wilder after they read Little House on the Prairie. Hadley's going to resurrect this costume and wear it for Halloween. [Thanks mom for sewing the pioneer trek clothes, so I can look like supermom with hand-made costumes for my kids! :)]

Catching an Indian's game.

Don't the kids look happy?

Baseball America's favorite pasttime.

Twin's day! My hip chairman and 3 of my dermatologist friends.

New bikes!

How Hyrum liked to ride his new trike. :)

Zoo time...

butterfly jungle.

monkey love! I love Hyrum's face in this picture. Like he's telepathically communicating with the monkey statue. He's truly gifted! Of course all of that while I'm about ready to fall asleep from trecking around the zoo all day!

So now you see we were alive last summer...just out of touch! Don't give up on us!

Something easy, something new..

Just thought I'd share a fun new way to get my kids to eat fruit. This really takes just 30-60 minutes...even with the layers. Easy to make while cooking a main dish.

We called it "rainbow jello" but if you want to use more conventional jello colors, you could call it what you like! I'm probably the only mom pressured for time, so I use the shortcuts to make the jello set-up faster. Feel free to ignore if you are one of those mom's that is looking for ways to spend her time! :)

Rainbow Jello
1. Bottom layer:
Small lime green jello
Dissolve fully in 1/2 cup boiling water
Mix in 1 cup of ice for 1 minute
Filter/Scoop out big pieces of ice
Add 1/2 can crushed pineapple (drained)
Let set in fridge for 15-20 minutes

2. While setting:
Small blue raspberry jello
Dissolve in 1/2 cup boiling water
Mix in 1 cup of ice for 1 minute
Filter/Scoop out big pieces of ice
Cut banana slices - can cover with 2-5 drops lemon juice to keep color
wash and cut strawberries
line up banana slices on bottom layer
cover with layer of sour cream
Spoon strawberries onto sour cream layer
Spoon cooled strawberry jello over strawberries

Chill until fully set (1-2 hours)
Enjoy!

The marathon...that almost wasn't

After 18 weeks of daily training (including 20, 18, 16, etc. mile runs) Jeff prepared for his payoff--running the Akron marathon last Saturday. After a relaxing Friday night and a high carb dinner he was looking over the race instructions when he read..."all runners must pick up their numbers in person by 10:00 pm the NIGHT BEFORE the race." Huh? What? Why?! We looked at the clock (9:10 pm) and knowing that Akron was 40 minutes away....Jeff and Christy hopped in the car to get Jeff into his race. I booked them a hotel room on their way down and after a few phone calls (with some insulting words from the race director) and a 10:05 pm arrival to Akron a special exception was made for Jeff to pick up his number early Saturday morning. WHEW!! After all that hard work...it almost didn't happen!




But, he made it! He ran the marathon in a great time and we were all there to cheer him across the finish line! What a great accomplishment! He has had this goal for a long time and now he's done it. Of course, after meeting some of the maniac runners there, the question is...when and where is he going to run his next marathon?!?





This experience again reminds me of why I married Jeff. He's the kind of person that is consistent in a way that balances my inconsistency...and someone always up for a new challenge. Life is always interesting at Jeff's side!!!

Possessed?!

So, I will start this blog by admitting that I have had a bit of a transformation...and for some of you this may come as quite a shock. In fact, I may need to change that to MOST of you might find this quite a shock. But, since I've been living it for over a month, I think it might actually be a viable change in my persona that I have to share.

Dermatology has been a fun and challenging change. No longer as physically demanding as my internship but more intellectually demanding. I'm reading medical literature again, memorizing lists of differential diagnoses and drug side effects while presenting and writing papers again. It's hard, but I like it...better than last year that's for sure!

The only problem is that I happen to be a wife and mother at the same time. For those of you that also fill these role you know that they can easily consume every waking moment of your existence -- and you still could have more to do. So to survive the demands of my residency and feel like I'm not just a mean-stressed-out mom, I have started waking up at 04:00.

It's great--it's quiet and I can read without any guilt. I can shower without wondering what surprise the kids are going to come up with and I can actually exercise again. Nothing monumental...just a few miles 3-4 days a week when I don't have early conferences. It's like heaven. I can't believe I never learned this secret before!! I've always been a night person (as my roommates Marty and Sarah and anyone else who knew me in college can testify. Actually, Marty and Sarah are probably is no longer reading this as that have fallen on the floor with laughter and disbelief. I had a wee bit of a reputation for sleeping in at BYU! :)

It's great, I feel like I'm living my life on purpose and when my kids wake-up at 07:00, I can spend all my time with them. I have such better control of my time and accomplish 3-4 times as much as I used to do at night. The only problem is, now I'm afraid I'm going to continue to morph into my mother (who regularly got up at 04:00 when I was a teenager. Of course that was before she moved it up to 03:00 as a senior, of course that was when we were just going to bed. :) I remember frequently promising myself that I would never be as crazy as my mom...but I guess the high fiber wheat bread, making my daughter practice the piano, folding clothes while watching a movie, and driving while nursing a baby (okay...I haven't adopted that one yet!!!) are all signs that I am eating all my teenage words and becoming just as crazy as my mom.

Oh well...I guess that's life...just thought I'd share :)

Great quote...

...I make it my business to try to pick up bits of wisdom wherever I can find them. I am enjoying my week of vacation after a very relaxing, perfect weekend at Kelly's Island with Jeff (unfortunately left my camera in the car when we packed our belongings on our bikes and took the ferry out to the island...great time, no pictures) I am spending some fun time with my kids.

Yesterday was Hyrum's day to plan...and so of course we went to the zoo and ate ice cream.

Today is Hadley's day, and after a visit to Petland (I know, I truly love my kids) we came home to eat Chipotle and watch "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." When Grandpa Gary took the kids to the library last week...Hadley gravitated to this DVD and has been begging to watch it. So this is where I picked-up a little truth. If you remember back to the 80's, Tula's nurturing Greek mom says, "The man is the head of the family but the woman is the neck. She is the one who turns the head." Isn't it so true? Well, now we're off to make cookies...Ciao!