Today I climbed a mountain...

So yesterday, got together with a friend and thought we'd head out to Provo Canyon. I've recently been exploring the idea that I could possibly be a 'nature girl' but that I really hadn't taken the time to find out. So, part of my excitement for spring was to be able to figure out how well old Mother Nature and I get along. Surprisingly, I think we can be friends!

Standing at the base of Bridal Veil Falls, I thought "well. now is as good a time as any, right?" and i said "let's do it". We got to the middle and looked down...the ascent wasn't nearly as stressful as the descent looked like it would be...but the top looked so close! Too close to give up on, honestly. How would I feel looking back, seeing the top and realizing it would have only taken a precious few more steps to sit at the top, on a rock outcropping about 3000 feet above the ground? Well, I won't ever know, because I DID get to the top. And it was pretty frigging amazing.

As I sat there, looking down, I had a revelation. Right there, at the moment I was sitting on the top of a mountain, I felt awesome-powerful, strong, re-energized, optimistic. Which is how we feel, when we conquer problems-those mountains of life, the ones that are disguised as molehills (or wait, is it the other way around?), the stumbling blocks that bring us crashing to the ground, etc. When we conquer those, life is good. It's climbing back down the mountain that is scary. Getting back on the ground, back to real-life. That's the real challenge. Taking that energy, optimism and willingness to work, climb and sweat for what we want in life-that is the scary sight we often see awaiting us at the bottom.

So. I took a rock from Bridal Veil. It's pretty big, considering I had to climb back down the way-slipperier-than-it-looked-or-felt slope. But I purposely chose a big one because I have a tendency to toss out memoirs-not things from my kids, but things I pick up that I think might be good to remind me of certain activities, experiences. But too often those things are small and get lost among the shuffle of daily life and i find myself with a pile of movie tickets, rocks, pieces of fabric or ribbon or cards that really....well add to the clutter of my life. A big black rock with a solid strip of quartz on the bottom isn't gonna get tossed as easily. And I'll remember. The biggest mountains we face are the ones at the bottom of the slope. Whether going up, OR coming down.

Yes. Spring made it. Fashionably late and ready to leave at the drop of a hat, as always here in Utah. :/

Text Driving

The new Samsung High Note:

"your world in harmony
There’s a good reason the SAMSUNG Highnote™ has a unique dual slider design. Two reasons, in fact – twin stereo speakers. Slide the face of the Highnote down, and there are the speakers. Slide the face of the Highnote up, and there’s the keypad. And if you don’t slide it at all, you can listen to a great MP3 player with exterior controls and a standard 3.5 mm stereo headset jack. With this phone, music lovers can start (or finish) any day on a Highnote."

My last phone, the Sony Ericsson Walkman--okay it sucked. That's all there is to it. Sure, it was pink and it was a slider, but yeah. It was a piece of you know what. Not the highnote. :)

It's kinda funny because I never thought I'd be one of "those" girls-the ones who are all stoked about the cool new phone that plays music and has GPS AND!!! (the coolest part) reads my texts out loud when I'm driving...because I'm a notorious text-driver and have luckily avoided many accidents due to my lightening quick reflexes...now I can put those reflexes back in the closet, since all I have to do is listen-and the lovely, robotic voice says "text from uh-man-duh hell-o how are you?" lol it's hard to describe what it sounds like but it's still pretty dang awesome.

Rainy day fun...

Well, a pretty quiet, drowsy, playdough and movie filled day.

After a week full of vomit, I'm okay with that...yep, some sort of bug ran through my kids...and by ran through I really mean out, in the form of projectile fruit smoothies, brown rice and raisins....among other gems. I'm pretty sure I washed 3 different outfits of mine in one night...ah, but that's a mom's job. I'm glad I had them, lol. On the first healthy morning, I was passed out on the couch after sitting up very late, listening for the tell tale moan from the bedroom, where the bucket on the floor was stubbornly avoided. As the grey dawn peeped through the sliding glass door, I heard scrunchy diaper-clad and sleepy footie jamma'd shuffles down the hall-i peeked my eye open to see Rosie, against looking around the corner, her brother behind her and trailing his blanket...she whispered "there she is jack......... *dramatic gasp* isn't she beauuuuudaful?" "yah mama sweepin" was the answer.....

it was pretty sweet...there's kinda nothing better than waking up to warm snuggly bodies, piled on top of you after a night of being a mom. lol.

Last night when I was putting Jack to bed he asked me to "quish" him--for some reason, since he was pretty little, he likes to be "quished", meaning he likes you to pretend to lay on him and squish him...well last night I obliged and he laughed and said "you quish me like a pay DOH!" :)

i love pay DOH.

Okay, now I know everyone thinks their kids are gorgeous....but really....well, I won't finish my sentance, but you get the idea. These are just a couple candids my friend Joel shot, while we were running around a park, doing a sort of practice "shoot" for the ones that will be coming up. I'll keep you posted! :)

Tulips and Butterflies

"when you're weary, feelin small, when tears are in your eyes, i will dry them all.... i'm on your side, oh when times get rough and friends just can't be found, like a bridge over troubled water i will lay me down"

I hope no one is ever annoyed or offended at my lack of punctuation/capitalization.

So, sometimes life gives you "tulips and butterflies". When I talk to Rosie on the phone, no matter where she is, she always says

"hey, hey mama-you know what would be a good idea? (i deeeaaa?) maybe you could catch me a butterfly or bring me some more tulips-waddyou think about that, because you know I love flowers huh?"

Honestly, it's been her theme since the seperation. It always makes me happy to listen to her chirp on about how much she loves me and loves flowers and butterflies. It's kind of a lifesaver to me, to hear that reminder of how I'm doing as a mom, how she's doing as a little girl, etc. So sometimes that's what happiness means to me--tulips and butterflies.

This morning, when I dropped them both off at their new preschool/daycare place, they ran down to the playroom. As i was leaving, i stepped down to kiss them and saw Jack, standing in front of a toy kitchen with a fake bottle of ketchup and a fake pickle. He turned and, with the most joyful face said, "mama, i good boy, i cookin!" Now the thing to know about JackieBoy is that he has the cutest voice ever--it's very innocent and he uses a lot of voice inflection--so everything comes out sounding super exciting. "i GOOD boy, i COOKin!"

Tonight we'll be off to the Sunflower Market to buy Kale, spinach and maybe (barf) chard/collards for our green smoothies. If you've never heard of them, I encourage you to check out greensmoothiegirl.com

You won't regret it, if you're open minded.