choice

I've been thinking a lot lately about choices, excuses, and balancing all the things I WANT to do along with all the things I SHOULD do. I have a lot of ideas in my head - some useful, some useful probably only for me (which includes my sanity, as well as actual practical applications), many just plain frivolous.

I have been known - a long LONG time ago, very far away in the past - to make excuses for things. 'I would have done XYZ, but I was curing your salmon.' Roger got a lot of backhanded heat. My excuses were pretty much habit - I wasn't consciously trying to blame him, I just had gotten in the habit of not taking responsibility for my own choices. (Just for the record, according to Rog I have made great strides in this area as far as pushing the blame on him goes.)

More recently I had some painting hanging over my head to finish the remodeling in the living room. The door have been built for months, but I didn't get around to painting them. And it was the kids' fault. 'There just isn't a window of time long enough to get it done.' Admittedly, things require more planning to get accomplished now that I have three little helpers. But it's all about asset allocation. I thought this post on CJane Enjoy It explained the 'problem' well. Kari had a good one on this topic too. Yes, children change what I can do in a given time. So sometimes I need to choose to let some things go. Things might not ALL get done, or be done to a different level, but it's still my choice, and it's no one's fault. It's just a choice.

It is certainly more of an adventure to get out the door with 3 in my posse, but it's my choice to get things together and do it, or just be a potato and stay at home and whine about how I can't go anywhere because I have small children.

Thanks to Disney, and Roger, and Oma, and Kat making different choices, the cupboard doors are now painted. The laundry will be done again. The house will be picked up again, and Katie and Alex will detox from their movie overload. Now I guess I have to stop whining about not exercising. And I will need a reminder occasionally that it is a CHOICE to let the glass business rest for a season . . .

In case you're wondering, today's choice is pajamas, Bambi, hot chocolate and laundry.

max's first trip

Max got to take his first plane ride last week. We went to SLC overnight for my friend Betsy's wedding. Both she and her now husband were/are so sincerely happy. I had a great time finally meeting people that I had only heard stories about for the past almost 15 years! The intertwining connections were killing me - one gal was going to visit an old mission companion the day after Betsy's wedding. Her companion happens to be the daughter of my first mission president, whom I had actually met when she came out to visit her parents after she got released. This gal's father served a mission in Finland with my dad. Never mind 6-degrees-of-Kevin Bacon. That game has nothing on the Mormon 'It's a Small World.'

I even got to spend time with Erica - we currently live 30 minutes away from each other, but we don't actually spend any time together except for this trip to Utah. Silliness. I need to teach her how to drive north. :) It's a good thing we went together - the batteries on my camera died after one picture, so she has the official documentation of this trip on her camera.

Max was great on the trip. I just put him in the baby sling I got from Kari and he just hung out. Pretty mellow the whole time. Until the ride home from the airport, when he cried the entire time. At least he saved it until the end.

I think subconsciously I was sort of hoping/expecting that when I got home Roger would be totally cooked, the house would look like a tornado had just blown through, and everyone would be crying. Roger would then bow down and sing my praises the second I walked in the door: 'Kat, I just don't know how you do it. You are amazing.'

Instead, the house looked great, the kids looked great, everyone was calm. Alex wanted to hang out with me, but Katie was perfectly content to keep doing her own thing. Then they went to bed, just like normal.

I have to confess, I was a little disappointed. They aren't supposed to get along so great without me! This is my current job - I should be indispensable! The world should stop turning when I'm not around - since I AM of course the center of the universe.

Reality is of course much better than my crazy subconscious day dreams. It is great that Rog is so actually in the groove with his kids that things function pretty much the same regardless of which parent is in charge. Well, he did say they might not have been able to survive on hamburgers for too many more days, but otherwise, things were pretty much normal. :) Maybe it's time for me to start planning some more adventures . . .

future katie

At lunch the other day I saw a mother/daughter pair with a resemblance as strong as that between mom and Mag. The girl was probably 14 or 15. She was wearing all black, with the exception of the hot pink tight/black fish net combo on her legs and the pink flamingo purse she was working. I was struck by her because it wasn't even a school day and she was rocking her look, just on an outing to get lunch with her mom. Maybe she was going to cruise the mall afterwards, who knows. I was struck even more by the fact that she was confident enough to work that look, but not enough to tell the Qdoba girl what she wanted on her soft tacos - her mom acted as translator over the glass partition. Interesting.


I got to thinking of 'future Katie' the teenager. What clique will she fall into? Every parent - most particularly moms (but then again my sample group is skewed in that direction) - has different hopes of what group their kid will fit in with as they get older. Mag and I were laughing about how for us, we just hope our kids are smart. Others want their kids to be popular or pretty. I actually really hope Katie ISN'T one of those 'popular girls,' because of all the nonsense that can go along with it. Of course I want her to have good friends, but I don't think having friends and being 'popular' necessarily have anything to do with each other.

What I find most amusing about myself is that right now, I would be totally cool with helping 'future Katie' dye her hair blue or magenta or whatever color she wanted. Sheesh! It's just hair. But PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't try out to be a cheerleader! Be a jock or a nerd instead!

Or at least confident with yourself in whatever you choose.

christmas

Here are a few pictures from Christmas. Better late than never, eh?

Christmas Eve we opened presents from Grandmother and Grandpa Young. Katie LOVES her vest and has even slept in it a number of nights. This is particularly impressive, since I can rarely convince her to agree to wear something new. There's a fluffy pink poncho I finished knitting about two months ago that she still refuses to even try on! Max's quilt is adorable - it has little sheep stitched on the top.

Before we went to bed we put out 'reindeer food' that a friend gave us and Katie called 'reindeer, oh reindeer' to make sure that Santa's friends would know to come to Oma's house and have a treat when they got there.


The theme Christmas Day was mainly 'if Katie opened it, Alex wants to play with it' and vice versa. Alex really likes the doll house and enjoyed trying to sit on the picnic table, which believe me is not built to support his fine physique. Katie really likes Alex's Automoblix cars - we lost the rubber off one of the tires on Christmas day, but otherwise all the pieces are still intact over one whole week later!

These pjs really say it all: 'What Santa doesn't bring, grandma will!'

Max was blessed on Sunday, December 28th. The Reeses are trying to introduce some tall genes into the gene pool through the additions of Roger and Kalle, but I never really realize how short we are as a bunch until we're all together in a picture. Do I really only come up to Roger's shoulder?





Apparently, Alex is not quite ready to give up the plug. Let's put that on the top of his list of goals for 2009.

And here is Max carrying on a very important tradition . . .

candy

It's a good thing I took that candy poll, because the only dipped candy I made this year was a SINGLE pan of caramels, which were way too soft, and did not dip well. I'm just telling everyone that it was Mag's maiden voyage of dipping. It appears my digital thermometer is not the miracle invention I had pegged it to be.

I have been working steadily to remove the evidence - a soft caramel might possibly be even more delicious than it's firmer counterpart. Maybe I'll give them another go after I procure my tempering machine. I will for sure be trying the dipped marshmellows. I might even share the results.