My Masterpiece

Success! Thank you to Nancy and Julia Child, my pastry chef mentors.

Sometimes Demolition is a Beautiful Thing

In case anyone has been wondering what Dan's been up to in his spare time (there's so much of it, you know!)... this is it.

We hired a landscape architect to draw a plan for us in the spring and we're now in the second phase of our demolition. Doesn't it look great? Dan made a lot of progress on the demolition while his Dad was here. They pulled out the fence and basketball standard, the concrete surrounding it, and a LOT of bushes. Yesterday we continued the destruction. The kids helped pull out the curbing with a sledge hammer and pry bar.

The good 'ol pickup truck has been an essential tool in this process. It's amazing what a truck and a big strong chain can do. Not to mention a lot of backbreaking manual labor. It's amazing to look at the root ball on some of these shrubs. We're more sure than ever that our former homeowners paid someone a lot of money to design and install their yard in 1985 and then thought that was all that had to be done for 20 years.

We've apologized to all of our neighbors for the noise and ugliness and promised that things will soon be looking a lot better. To most I'm sure it looks horrible but to me me it looks great because it means that we're finally on the road to beautifying our yard and the exterior of our house. Hooray!

Captain Underpants

Gavin has decided that he's ready to be big. It's been rather sudden and quite a surprise because we tried the potty training thing last winter without success. We jumped up and down and clapped our hands every time he produced. We had a great sticker chart with treats and rewards. We hurried off to Target for him to chose a Thomas engine whenever he filled a row on the sticker chart. Once we even ventured out in a pretty significant snow storm because as they say, consistency is key! We were determined. The Potty Watch played it's tune and flashed its lights when it was time to go.

It didn't last.

One morning about three weeks ago, after contentedly peeing and pooping in diapers night and day, he went into his room and put on some underpants (which had been in his drawer for 6 months). I asked him if he was going to be big and go on the potty. He said "Yah.". Amazingly, he stayed dry the whole day. And the next. He's had just two accidents in three weeks and he's often dry in the morning after sleeping all night. Unbelievable!

It seems that he's been capable all along but simply needed to make the choice that he was big.

A Special Treat

I spent the weekend in San Diego with Lisa. It was so much fun and such a special treat. Several weeks ago she mentioned that she was going to visit Dad and Nancy. Since I knew my in-laws were going to be here and would be able to help with the kids, I decided to invite myself along. I'm so glad I did. We did all of our favorite things: dinner at the "grassy knoll" (see photos), Del Mar racetrack and our favorite Mexican restaurant afterward, the open air market and other fun shops in La Jolla, we saw "Hairspray" (we all gave it 4 stars), dinner with Celeste and Steve, a individualized pilates session with Nancy, the beach....

No trip to San Diego would be the same without amazing food. Dad worked his magic on the BBQ, including pizza on the grill (it was unbelievable.) We had great Chinese takeout at our favorite spot on the water, I had the BEST chile relleno and chile verde in Del Mar, warm popovers in the morning, and per my request, Nancy gave Lisa and I a lesson in the art of a successful pie. I was so inspired by her apple pie and homemade vanilla ice cream that I wrote down her recipes and came home inspired to make them. I've been home less than 24 hours and I'm almost ready: I bought 5 lbs of apples today but I still need to get a pastry blender. This is monumental for me: although I'm pretty good baker, I have a very bad history with pies. I gave up on making pastry years ago after my strawberry pie turned out to be strawberry soup. Another time I caught my oven on fire while baking a key lime pie. I'll never forget that one because I had the neighbor kids over at the time. The house was filled with smoke, my smoke alarms were going off and I had flames jumping out of the oven. Baking soda saved us all that day!

I was also able to read my book club assignment while in San Diego (Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf). I'm so glad that I took it with me because it was a bit of a hard read and required a lot of concentration. Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness writing style (some sentences take up nearly a page) requires an unusual attention span. I'm afraid I wouldn't have gotten as much out of it if I had tried to read it here. I'm looking forward to discussing the book with my friends.

The weekend was great. It was so nice to get away after being home all summer (most of it while feeling horrible), the weather was gorgeous (when is it not in San Diego?), Dan and the kids were having a ball with the in-laws, and I was able to do some things that I haven't done in a long time. It was a very rare and special treat!

Train Ride

Grandpa and Grandma are visiting from Virginia and we spent last weekend with them in Park City. Saturday they treated us all to a fun train and hay ride. Gavin was absolutely beside himself. He's obsessed with trains, particularly the one that lives on the Island of Sodor. At least we can justify the hundreds and hundreds of dollars we donated to the Thomas empire 6 or so years ago.

We sat outside in an open car for most of the train ride, ate a great dinner, and stopped for a hay ride. The kids got to watch a ferrier shoe a horse and even got a chance to sit on the horse (who was named "Rowdy"). We ate cobbler out of a dutch oven and listed to some cowboy poetry.

We all had a lot of fun!

What's up with the Toothfairy?

The toothfairy has been making frequent visits to our house. Jolie yanked her front tooth out on the 4th of July and then her brothers helped the other one come partially out a few days later. They were down on the floor wrestling (what, people roughhouse and wrestle in this house? really???) and one of them head-butted her on their way up. It pried one corner of her remaining front tooth loose so it was hanging a bit slanted. I have to say that I was glad to see that one go a few days later. Dan had to do his dental-floss trick to help her with it. Thank goodness for Daddy. I made them go upstairs and I was still cringing and doing deep-breathing until she came down with the tooth in her hand. That kind of stuff is just NOT for me.

Tristan twisted another loose tooth out on Saturday so we had a lot of surprises for the toothfairy Saturday night. Unfortunately, she didn't come. We're not sure why, but there was a huge wildfire raging in Southern Utah along the I-15 corridor so we think maybe she wasn't able to fly that night. Dan told Jolie he didn't think the toothfairy would come on the 4th because of the fireworks, so all the teeth were saved until Saturday. What a disappointment that she didn't come. Fortunately she made good on her responsibilities Sunday night. This is a photo of the letter that Tristan wrote to her.



"Dear Toothfairy,
I twisted my tooth out on the 4th of July. My dad thought you would get killed in fireworks so I had to do it today. My dad pulled out another tooth today.
Sincerely,
Jolie
P.S. Tristan wrote this note and he has a loose tooth."

(Note to self: Practice spelling with second grader during summer vacation!)

Back in the Life of the Living!

Yes, it's true... Michelle is back in the life of the living!

I'd like to apologize to all of my blog admirers (numerous as they are) who have been disappointed my my absence over the past 2 1/2 months. I'm sure they've all gone elsewhere for their entertainment by now.

The good news is that I'm back, literally, to the life of the living! I can't tell you how hard May and June were for me. It was really, really bad. For those who have been through this horrible sickness, you know that it's more than just throwing up here and there. Let's just say that my life has been completely dysfunctional and it's a miracle that we made it through. The blog is only a small example of what I've neglected the past eleven weeks because I've been focused on one thing and one thing only: surviving through the day.

I would have loved to post some cute photos of the 4th of July, kids holding sparklers and all that, but I'm afraid the 4th holds another significance for me this year: it was the last time I threw up. Strangely, I'd like that to remain my memory of the 4th... Dan pulling over on our way to an Independence Day breakfast so that I could vomit in a vacant lot on the side of the road. It's only a good memory because it was the last and final time. I'm determined for it to be!