City Folk

Kate is here for the week. 

Emma arrives tomorrow and we will have six of our seven home together for 2 or 3 days before the older girls return to jobs and preparing for the next year of college. Jane is here a little longer and it's been sweet to see the 'little' girls interact like teenagers. 

Everyone grew up so fast.

Matt had to work yesterday, so the girls and I headed to the city.

 

 

 

Kate & Jane had never been to The Met and there was a Van Gogh display I wanted to see while it was still in town : Irises and Roses.

 

 

It was beautiful, simply beautiful.

 

 

I am not a fan of everything he painted, but you'd be hard pressed to find me snub my nose at anything with an iris. Kate and I discussed the things we liked about the series and noted some of the nuances of that particular phase of Van Gogh's life and how it impacted his art. 

Subtle color changes and blends, flashes of white amid stark black, yet wavering outlines.

The beauty and intricate details he saw in the ordinary and we speculated how much his madness played a part in what he saw. 

 

 

As we talked, absorbed in the paintings, I heard a man mumble something to me and turned to look at him. 

He was one of those people that seem to be straight out of a TV show about people in an art gallery.

He was tall and skinny- with a tweed jacket (in July), round glasses and a salt and pepper goatee. He probably had a pipe in his pocket that he smoked organic tobacco in and a pocket watch he picked up from a flea market, that he wishes his granddad had passed down to him instead of all of those pairs of blue corduroy bell bottoms.

(I may possibly be giving the guy more of an imaginary backstory than is needed.)

You see at least 10 versions of this guy at every museum in the city.

 He said to me "Yes, I didn't note before how the  madness dictated the line work. I see it now."

I just smiled and inched away as I tried not to laugh at how my just off the-turnip truck art assessment that I was quietly sharing with my equally turnip truck trained daughter impressed this cliche' of a New York gallery attendee. 

I guess that means we're cultured now.

 

 

 

 

NYC in 31,600 Steps

Emma, Kate and Jane came home for UEA weekend.

(In Utah, there is a fall recess so the teachers can attend a training workshop- that exactly zero teachers I know attend. Teachers need a break, too.)

Since it was just a short trip and the weather was going to be amazing, we packed a ton of things in our two full days together.

 I love, love, love  street art.

Bryant Park

We caught the morning bus to Midtown and spent Friday sightseeing, shopping and visiting the Museum of Natural History. 

Yes, this guy is famous. 

No, we did not get his autograph because he's a statue and doesn't actually come to life and ask us for gum-gum.

Also, he doesn't like to be touched by fans.

Worst. Dinosaurs. Ever.

19,600 steps- over 9 miles of walking that day. 

In the past month, I've been committed to getting my daily goal of steps in. The dog is going on way more walks, and go figure, he's managed to get house trained. He fought going outside, but since I wasn't going to turn around and return home until he went potty, he  gave up and quickly realized that going outside got him a treat.

Smart dog- feisty and bratty, but smart.

It took him about 4 days of consistent long walks and going outside to discover the joy in marking things.....every 10 feet. He also attempts to pee on any dog that he isn't trying to bite.  

We're very popular with our neighbors who have dogs.

Walks with Badger are not super fun right now, but he's getting better.

This is why you tall people should never date short people. 

I was glad to see that after a solid month of walking every day (except for when I was sick) I was able to keep up and it wasn't even that hard for me on Friday. 

Saturday was another story.

We all had Jell-o legs, but we also had theater tickets, so we forged ahead. 

We were able to get tickets to Phantom for a really low price and everyone had a wonderful time.

I will be forever thankful to my friend, Wendy Koller for showing me how to get the cheapest theater tickets, so that now, when we have guests, we can actually afford to go to shows. 

It was fun seeing each of the girls connect with and react to different scenes, I was crying during my favorite scene, where Raul's life is being threatened unless Christine vows her love to the Phantom. 

Emma & Jane have been to three Broadway Shows, Kate has been to four and Romy has been to two. I've lost count, but I think I'm at six or seven. 

Five years ago, I'd have sold a kidney for the chance to just attend one Broadway show in my lifetime.

It makes me so happy that my kids get to experience it and that they know we're all very lucky and blessed right now to be able to do this. 

We had Doughnut Plant for breakfast, NY cheesecake for lunch and Popeye's for dinner.

Super healthy.

It's a good thing we got in all of those steps.

We made a Popeye's convert out of Kate. KFC is lovely, but oh, Popeye's.... 

There isn't one close to our house, thankfully.

The girls flew back to Utah on Sunday, and Kyle and Rebekah came over in the evening to play games. 

We barely defeated the zombies, but Wanda had to die, in order for the rest of us to escape.

RIP Wanda, the roller skating waitress who had no weapons save a frying pan. 

You had to die because you sucked.

I' m not dead yet.....

We sure do love Kyle and Rebekah and can't wait for their baby to be born this spring. 

I might possibly go crazy with baby gifts for them, and since they are like younger brother and sister to us-- I get to be Auntie to their baby and Aunties spoil children with presents they don't need.
That's the rule.
 I read it in a book somewhere.
Probably the Bible, so it MUST be done.

Today, a cold front has blown in and the kids are bundled up in coats and I have to figure out how I'm going to get those steps in when the weather is just too cold.

Matt has finally succumbed to that awful sickness I had 2 weeks ago and he is home, in bed, coughing and dying. 

I've got 50 pounds of apples that I'm going to make pie filling with and can this week, and we have the big ward party coming up this weekend. I'm in charge of decorations, so I'll be busy making Halloween crafty messes all week.

Life isn't quite the same now that the kids are getting older. 

It's strange how much time and energy went into just managing the chaos when they were all small and home all of the time. Now, people have routines, jobs and everyone wants some alone time to decompress each day. The house is quieter, there aren't toys to trip over and plates of cookies don't get eaten within 20 minutes of my taking them out of the oven. We work out where the cars are going to be and aim to have at least one night a week where we can all be together, but usually we can only manage to have most of us together.  We are all very busy with our individual things and it's a strange season. 

I guess I think they are all strange.  I'm one of those people who wakes up every day and life still surprises the heck out of me.  

I always have the same sense of wonder at how each miraculously ordinary day unfolds, even when things are terribly predictable and obvious to others. 

Eh, I don't hate that about myself. 

The world is crazy wonderful, even when it's quiet and boring and cold.

Cousins

 

 

Matt's cousin, Lisa, came all the way from Renton, Washington to visit us and to see New York City for the first time.

Because it was the first week of school, we couldn't go into the city every day, but we did manage to go in enough times that I think we all had our fill of the noise and traffic. Matt and Lisa hit the city one of the days, I went the next day with them and we saw the Museum of Natural History until we were all so sick of walking that our legs nearly fell off.

 

 

We made her play board games every evening. We taught her how to play Small World, Ticket to Ride and Munchkin, as a thank-you to our family for having her stay, she surprised us with a gift of Dominion and Set.

 

 

We've really just gone over the deep end with our board game geekery, but what a happy deep end it is. Lisa kicked our butts in most of the games, but I did manage to dominate in Flux that last night she was here.

While she was here she made her family's favorite recipe for orange biscuits. Sweet yum, those were fantastic.

We talked her into making them twice. :)

 

What a nice visit we all had, it was a hectic week with school starting, but Lisa was really nice about going with the flow and we had a great time with her. 

I was a real mess that first day school started and it was really helpful to have someone here to keep me grounded. I also got a call from one of my amazing other mothers, Joie and one of my new friends in our ward, Tara, invited us to go have lunch. I swear these women were all inspired to hold my hand and keep my head on straight while I worried myself into knots that first day of school.

So, that's two house guests we've had since we moved-- when are YOU coming to see us?

Home?

My house is so quiet.

All of our kids are scattered about, spending time with other family.

This happens every so often when you have a "your's" "mine" and just -call- them- "our's" family.

We kept things orthodox Brady Bunch here and did not have a mini version of Matt and Chris. The world simply cannot handle that much sarchasm, and can you imagine if we had?

We'd have a 3 or 4 year old child now

. That's something to shake your head about.

Romy is  Alice, always

We thought about it, we seriously considered it and prayed about it. We even looked into a specialist to see what our chances of having a baby would be if we had some 'reversals.'

 It never felt 100% right, but for awhile, the idea of it made my heart squinch with longing.

One day I was sitting in Relief Society and Ruth was giving her lesson. She was talking about the joy she gets from her grandchildren and the fun she has in being able to spend a day or even a week with one of them, just caring for them and being in a season of life where she can say yes to every little idea a child can think up, the ideas that make Mommies feel guilty that they have limits sometimes

Ruth had peace and as she spoke I was filled with peace.

We were not supposed to have an "our's."

Life was going to take us places where we needed to be able to move and do things and we were supposed to move towards the grandparent part.

It isn't that part yet, thankfully.

My oldest baby will be 19 in a few weeks, the youngest will be 11 in a few days.

There is still plenty of time before that part begins.

But they are all gone right now, and I can't hear Spongebob, or legos being dropped or giggling.

This weekend I did hear that cry from the concrete and Matt and I followed it.

We went into the city to the Cloister's Museum.

Matt, admiring the frescos

Mormon in a sundress....

I do get double takes when I'm wearing a tank top with a t-shirt under it.

I  pretend they just think I'm fashion forward and looking fine....

This was original structure from a stable.

 Cows and pigs an stink.

 Incredible.

The Book of Revelations, one of Matt's favorite items at the museum

The stained glass was breathtaking. Some had scenes that made no sense, like one had a scene with monkeys building a table. I have no idea what that had to do with any religion, but it was interesting and gave me something to research.

Beautiful, amazing and perfect.

It's a building that was donated by Rockefeller to the city and it is filled with Christian artifacts. There were elaborate sections from ancient monasatries that have been incorporated into the architecture, a stunning mideavel garden and so many tapestries, sculptures and sanctuaries.

I am a museum junkie and this one was spectacular.

If you're ever up here and want to go, get there before noon so you can take advantage of the free parking, it filled up after lunchtime.

The kids start returning on Friday, everyone will be here for Parker's Birthday.
 It's been strange having the kids scattered everywhere, but it's nothing we haven't been through before, it was just that I felt more like WE were not scattered as well.

It's not home yet.

 The house is feeling more and more like "us" and I don't feel like I stick out everywhere we go. I'm driving places and running errands, even exploring but there is nothing about New Jersey that feels familiar except church right now, and even church is missing the faces that I love and miss so dearly.

I spoke to Doreen this week on the phone. I haven't been good at calling people in Utah for fear that it would break my heart too much and when I got off the phone with her, sure enough, I cried and cried.

I miss my friends, I miss my neighbors and I miss my kids.

I know this is where we are supposed to be, I get these reminders and glimpses and moments where the Spirit peeps in and says "You'll see, I promise...it will feel like this only bigger..." and sometimes I chase him right back out and tell him I'd rather mope.

I need to reach a place where it's okay to be 'big' happy here, but I'm not there yet. I have great days and happiness, I'm not trying to say I'm miserable, but I'm not really open and feeling like baby bird can spread her wings and fly yet.

I know I am where we are supposed to be, I know that God has brought us here, but oh, it's so very hard to be so far from the home I love.

......and watching this makes me miss my Dad, the Texan Tevye.

 :)

Excuse me while I go hide in the closet and eat a cake today.