Well Wishes for a Newlywed

Today my beautiful sister-in-law Ashlee married Darin Knapp. They are both graduates of the Marriage and Family Therapy masters program at BYU, which bodes well for them, I think. I always thought that Ashlee looked like Reese Witherspoon, but I suspect that her love life will proceed much more happily and peacefully than Reese's. A few weeks ago one of Ashlee's friends wrote around to Dave and his sisters, asking for well wishes to include in a bridal shower present for Ashlee. Dave, being Dave, had the following to offer:

"I wish that your appreciation of all the Knapp puns will never get old.*I wish that none of the wards you move to will require any copious amount of therapy, just dollops.I wish that Darin will always have more hair on his face and less hair on his scalp than Ashlee.I wish that it will not be too long before Darin realizes that, in the tradition of men named Darin, he has unwittingly married into a family of witches.I wish that you will forever diversify your dinner recipe portfolio.I wish to see mommy-daughter Irish step dancing videos going viral on YouTube in ten years, but for good reasons.
I wish that your children, and your children's children, will be Celtics fans. And Celtics players.
I wish that, when you utter the line "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," it's just because you're traveling by car. Not tornado.
I wish you all the good things that will be wished to you by my wife, who will feel compelled to write serious things.
And lastly,
I hope you daaaaaaaance!
*What do you call a sleeping bag with you in it? Knapp sack! What do you call it when the back of your neck gets really cold? Nippy Knapp Nape! What would you call it if your family moved to Mumbai and went into law enforcement and had a car race as a fundraiser for your squad?The IndianKnappPolice 500!"

I have to admit that I don't totally get the humor behind the "family of witches" wish, but I have confidence that it's very clever (regarding the Kansas one, that's where they're moving for Ph.D programs this fall). Anyway, I gave a lot of thought to what my well wishes would be for Ashlee, but that thought generally took place late at night while nursing a baby and away from a computer. So now, in honor of Ashlee and Darin's 8-hour-old marriage, and because my husband was entirely correct that I would feel compelled to write serious things, here are my wishes for the family's newest bride:

1. I wish that you will always be able to see your husband as Heavenly Father sees him, a soul of infinite worth.

2. I wish that you will take joy in your husband's happiness.

3. I also wish the reverse: that your husband will take joy in your happiness.

4. I wish you many opportunities to work together, and the satisfaction of seeing that you are a good team.

5. I wish that you will take delight in the way your husband lives his life.

6. I wish that you will occasionally but continually find yourself surprised by and admiring of something your husband does, says, or thinks. 

7. I wish for you a husband that doesn't freak out when a baby comes and boots him from the center of your attention.

8. I wish for you a husband who gets ever so slightly emotional when he holds his new baby for the first time.

9. I wish for you a husband who supports you in developing talents and skills outside, as well as inside, the realm of house and children. 

10. Mostly, of course, I wish for you a family of in-laws as awesome as mine.

Congratulations, Ashlee and Darin! And to my love, te iubesc, sotul meu.

Guess what?

At this very moment, 5:50 pm, my girls are in the bathtub and Joshey is bouncing away in his jumperoo hooked to the bathroom door frame, being entertained by the antics of his older sisters. Which means that I have a minute to do my Happy Birthday Gabrielle post. Which is highly unusual, since this is usually the most chaotic time of the day. Which brings me to the following observation:

With all due respect to my wonderful husband, I actually handle evenings better when he is not around. He's in Utah right now at Ashlee's wedding, so it's Mommy and the Kids until Sunday morning, when I'll wake up with him next to me. Last night I was kind of psyching myself up for it, promising myself a trip to Blockbuster and ice cream, that sort of thing. But now I'm remembering something that I learned during the many late nights he had in the lab: I actually have the routine down quite well, and when there's not another adult around to complain to or to expect help from, I can execute the whole dinner-clean-up-bedtime with, dare I say, professional aplomb. But if Dave is around, I'm either grumpy because he's not helping in the way I think he should, or I'm overdramatic because I'm trying to impress upon him how hard I have it.

Now that said, I would still rather have my husband around in the evenings. And my girls certainly do, too. Daddy tells much more interesting scary stories than I do. But when I'm being totally honest with myself, life with these little rascals, even at 5:59 pm, is pretty great.

PS Ha! In the time it took me to upload this photo (from a couple of months ago), Cici inadvertently pulled up the shower knob, Polly leaped to the back of the tub, splashing Joshey in the process, Cici started squealing in terror, and the whole bathroom was in an uproar. Remind me never to use the words "professional aplomb" in reference to my mothering skills again...

No brakes today

Today was kind of a lousy day. I spent much of the girls' daytime awake hours out in public, which meant that I was nipping at their heels and hissing warnings for them to stay close to me, don't do that, don't get into that, stay away from that, etc., etc. During Cici's supposed naptime (no nap was had, another cause for despair), I decided that Polly had watched enough shows (and she had--she was into her second hour at that point). So I told her to "click the red x," and repeated the instructions several times until she did. But then she immediately tried to open up another window, so I tucked her under my arm and unceremoniously escorted her to the bedroom for some "quiet time." Well, it was anything but quiet--throwing things, shrieking, and finally yelling, "I hate Mommy!" Oh. Ow. She's never said that before. That really, really hurt, and I have to admit that I considered just curling up in a fetal position and waiting until it was time for Dave to come home. I guess it's a good thing I don't have the luxury to do that. I knelt down, told Heavenly Father I was sorry, and asked what I could do to make peace in our house. The thought came that I should get down on the floor and be doing something that Polly liked doing so that when she came out of her room--which she would, any minute. So I pulled out a big piece of foam board that we'd been coloring on the day before and that I'd been drawing a little town on, and I started drawing another house. Sure enough, Polly came out, saw me coloring, and I think it broke down the barriers between us. We still need to talk about how to handle things when it's time for shows to be turned off, but I think that conversation will go better than it would have.

Still, it stayed lousy till the end. Dave was going to Scouts and got caught in a speeding trap. Coming off of a major secondary road, turning onto the main thoroughfare, 7:15 pm. The speed limit had been 40 on the secondary road, and it inexplicably switched to 25 on the main road. The police were waiting right there where it switched, on both sides of the road, ready to catch everyone who came through. The police lady who pulled Dave over said that she was going to give him a break because she saw that he had three car seats in the back and thought he could use the money. So instead of writing him up for reckless driving, she just wrote him up for speeding. Thanks, lady. Only $75 instead of $100. Except that if you really had heart, you wouldn't be sitting in a speed trap in the first place.

No breaks today, Dave said when he came home and we were decompressing after everything. Except, being Dave, it was "no brakes."

PS Which REMINDS me, when I took the car in for an oil change this afternoon, we found out that we need new brake pads and roters, to the tune of $375. This, after an $89 oil change (with tire rotations, new air filters, etc., etc.). At least Polly and Cici don't care about this stuff.

Happy Birthday, Gabrielle!

It's actually not Gabrielle's birthday at all--not for another couple of months. But I'm giving her an early birthday present--I'm going to try to blog every day until her birthday. This first post will be done in a Joshua minute (which means that Joshua is fussing on my lap, so I only have a minute), but I thought I'd follow Gabrielle's lead and write three things about our day:

--I saw a baby bunny! It was just as we were leaving for an afternoon errand, and Polly was already carseated in. So sadly I was the only one that saw this adorable, tiny baby bunny nibbling on some clover and then shoot back under the honeysuckle where I presume she is nesting. So cute. I hope I always live in a place where these kinds of things can be normal.

--After dinner, I took the kids down to walk around the creek area that's down the street and through a couple of backyards. My rule has always been that the girls have to stay at the top of the embankment, on the grass, and this rule has worked for the past two years. But last week while we were with some other kids, I let Polly venture about two feet down the slope toward the creek to pick some wildflowers. Guess how long it took her to go the rest of the way down the hill and waist-deep into the creek? Two years of consistent nagging, down the drain.

--I got my hair cut a couple of weeks ago. Love how much quicker getting ready goes.

That's it, folks! Joshua minute over.

I Love Rachel.

You may have been an endurance runner as a, like, 8-year-old, but the race you're running now has me even more impressed :).

I Love Ben.

Benjamin, you are such an amazing brother--little and big. We hope this year is just as amazing for you.

I Love Abe.

Happy birthday, little bro!