Office Party

Hunter (Darth Vader), Sabrina (Cheerleader), Rob (Quarterback), Hannah (Sleeping Beauty), Emma (Vampire)

Halloween just wouldn’t be the same without some sort of costume trouble. Hannah’s crown was sitting on the stairs and as I was running down them calling out, “Let’s Go!”, I accidentally stepped on it and broke it. I hugged her and said, “I’m so sorry sweetie.” She was really good about it answering calmly but sadly, “it’s ok Mommy.” I cut some pink ribbon to tie in her hair and we ran out the door.

Rob’s office party was a lot of fun. It was the first time the kids had actually been inside to see Daddy’s office and that was what they were most excited about. We went trick or treating down the hallways, ate a yummy dinner, played games, and watched part of “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”The kids were all very cute in their costumes and got lots of compliments. We are still waiting for word on the status of the scheduled Trunk or Treat for tonight. Rumor says it may be canceled due to the dirty air. The atmosphere would be great though. The moon glows an orange-red color that would be perfect for the festivities. 🙂

Preserving our Blessings

At the last General Conference I just loved the talk that was given by Elder Henry B. Eyring. He always has a wonderful talk, and I look forward to hearing him speak. This time he spoke of the importance of preserving memories of the blessings we see in our lives daily. At the end he sums it up by saying, “Tonight, and tomorrow night, you might pray and ponder, asking the questions: Did God send a message that was just for me? Did I see His hand in my life or the lives of my children? I will do that. And then I will find a way to preserve that memory for the day that I, and those that I love, will need to remember how much God loves us and how much we need Him.”

I would like to get these sorts of memories recorded for my family too. Whenever I think of it I like to ask the kids to tell about their happiest time from that day while we eat dinner. Tonight:

Hunter said: “During the Primary Program at church.” Which was very cute. The kids sang their little hearts out, and had their parts all memorized.

Emma said: “Making presents for Sabrina.” After church the kids were playing they were in a little clubhouse under the stairs. Sabrina was the queen and they made special gifts for her and a paper crown decorated with glitter and beads.

Hannah: “Thinging in a pogam.” Singing in the program- The soon to be sunbeams came up front and sang with the primary,”I’m trying to be like Jesus.” Hannah didn’t sing any of the words, she just stood there and smiled; happy to be standing with her best little friend Krista looking at all of the people smiling back at her.

Sabrina: “Happy.” She loves this new word that she learned a few days ago! Today was the first time she was in her nursery class for the whole time without Mom or Dad there too. Big day for her and us!!

Rob: “Making the apple pie, and snuggling on the couch with Mommy watching TV.” Rob has not baked a pie in a very long time. In fact, it’s been about a year I think. It was so delicious too. We always love his pies! At least three of us do. Hunter, Hannah, and Sabrina all gave their slices away after a few bites, but the three of us were happy to eat their leftovers. We had our short together time watching “Ebert & Roeper.” That’s always nice.

Amy: “Watching the primary program, walking to my visiting teaching appointment, and eating Daddy’s pie.” I love seeing the kids do their program and it brought back happy memories of when I was doing that last year as the secretary in the primary presidency. I miss that calling. -It was a nice day so instead of driving the half mile to see my sister, I walked.

Sabrina’s Style

Sabrina brought me this dress and was so excited to wear it! This is a dress that Heather (my sister-in-law) made, yes she made it!!, for her daughter Ciel years ago. I love this hand me down. It is still so cute and fallish that I couldn’t pass up the chance to share some pictures. I wish I could have taken them without the yucky kitchen background, but I’ve learned that spending too much time messing with locations or poses makes your models cranky!

Bar Widow

As stated in the post below, I was a “bar widow” for the summer of 2005. This meant that Rob was technically home for the summer, but nobody knew it. He could have holed up in the library or something, but since my parent’s basement is pretty soundproof from the chaos in the rest of the house it worked for him to study in there. He was in that basement bedroom studying all day; reading, taking sample tests, writing, and stressing out. Then he drove to Stockton every night (almost an hour away) for the BarBri class. This class is essential to preparing for the California bar, and he took it very seriously. It was brutal.

I was kept sane by staying with Nana and Papa who would help out a lot with the kids! Also, in the middle of it all, we found out that we were expecting baby Sabrina just days after Hannah started crawling at six months old. I put myself in denial about what that would mean for me, and dove into finding our family a place to live in LA. I did tons of research online, where were the best schools? a low crime rate? a decent commute? I drove down with my Mom and Hannah and we stayed at Auntie J & Dan’s house while we looked around. We timed the drive, checked out neighborhoods, called realtors and scanned the papers for rentals. Unfortunately we didn’t find anything from that trip so I went to plan B and started calling bishops in the area and friends of friends etc. Finally, I found a bishop’s wife with a lead! Someone in their ward was taking a year to practice law back east and wanted to rent out their house while they were gone. Ta da! They sent us pictures and told us how great the neighborhood was. We felt like it was a good fit, and signed the lease by fax. Luckily, it turned out to be just as nice as we had hoped and our blind faith paid off.

When the bar exam was over we started preparing for our move to LA. We settled in and loved our new community. The hours at the firm were a very hard adjustment for all of us. In fact I still have a tolerate/hate relationship with all firms. Regardless of where you work there is an unpredictable schedule and lots of surprise late night shifts. If getting through law school weren’t so expensive I think most people would never choose to work there, but when you finish school with undergrad debt and then law school debt, you do what it takes to pay the bills. It’s like having to pay for two homes, one that you live in and the other that houses your opportunity for a career. The firm takes good care of you financially and gives you lots of little parties and perks to keep you from saying “I’m outta here!” It’s what has been called the “golden handcuffs.” Once you go in it’s hard to leave behind. Although we are determined to not buy into the lifestyle and use these as our big earning years to pay things down to a more manageable level and then Rob can get a job with better hours, etc. So until then I have morphed from the “Bar Widow” into my current status as the “Firm Widow.” My next title had better be more glamorous!

Las Vegas Getaway

This last week was an especially rough one for Rob at work. He’s been working on a deal that was originally supposed to close on Friday, then it was bumped to today, and who knows when it actually will close, but it has been one of those killers trying to meet the deadlines. Every night last week he got home as early as 11:00 pm and as late as 2:00 am. I suppose it was lucky he didn’t need to pull all-nighters which he has had to do before. Anyway, the weekend came and we were faced with a blessing and a curse. There was another work obligation… in Las Vegas. There was a conference that Rob was signed up to attend. Luckily, we were all able to go and the firm paid for our rooms.

We made the four hour drive and arrived at the Signature at MGM Grand. We were all excited to find that our rooms were beautiful! We had adjoining rooms, one for the kids to sleep in and the other for us. From the balcony we could see the airplanes taking off and landing which was so exciting for the kids, and luckily not noisy enough to make it annoying. One of the favorite features was the TV that raises up out of the desk, fancy! I have to admit I wasn’t too excited about the idea of packing everyone up for a one night stay that would mostly be me and the kids in the hotel room, while Rob went to the the conference and a fancy dinner. It turned out to be a lot of fun for us though.

I ordered pizza and the kids and I ate, played games and watched the movie, Bridge to Terabithia. I warned them that it was very sad, but they insisted that it was one they wanted to watch. It was sad, but also a great story. I’d recommend this one for the family. About half way through the movie I took the little girls in the other room and put on Baby Einstein Farm Animals. They loved that one and had fun watching as they jumped on the big bed. Rob returned around 10:30 pm to find me and Emma crying on the couch at the end of Bridge to Terabithia, Hunter lounging on the floor seemingly unphased by it, and the little girls sitting quietly with me knowing that if they fussed at all I would put them to bed.

After we put the kids to bed, Rob and I snuggled up to watch Deadliest Catch Season One. We have gotten into this show since we expanded our cable a month ago. It’s the true definition of a reality show, following several fishing boats as they make their way through “the vast Bering Sea” to find crab. It sounds like it wouldn’t be very interesting, but somehow it is fascinating and we just had to go back and find season one, since we came in on season three.

The next morning we woke up and prepared for our trip home. But before leaving we took a long walk to see the lion habitat at the MGM Grand and then on to M&M World, where we were all left drooling. Sabrina literally was, and left the store sucking on a bag of M&Ms with a chocolate goatee. Having exhausted our knowledge of family friendly attractions near the hotel we headed home.

There was something surreal about the experience of leading our little kids through the hotel casino to get back to our van. There was a walkway running through it and on all sides we were surrounded by people planted at their slot machines with their hands poised over a button feeding quarters, mindlessly pushing the button hoping for a big payout. It was sad to me because none of them seemed to be having any fun. In fact most of them sat alone. Not quite the kind of fun you see in the images of Las Vegas playing on TV.

It was a great trip for our family though. We made some fun memories and I stocked up on hotel shampoos, lotions and soaps 😉 The return trip took us six hours because we hit a lot of slow traffic so we’re glad to be home now. It’s back to the old grind…

Toddler Talk

If you ever ask Hannah what her favorite ride was at Disneyland, she will always say, “Duh gondolas.” We rode on a ferris wheel at California Adventure that had the choice of a stationary or swinging gondola. I took the little girls on the stationary one and Rob took the big kids on the swinging one. I don’t know if it was the ride or the word that made the big impression on her, but she mentions the gondolas just about every day!

Sabrina’s favorite thing right now is Barbies. Or as she says, “Bah-ees.” She just can’t seem to get enough and carries them around with her whenever she gets the chance. Hannah is also very into them, but Sabrina is our first girl to take such an interest at such a young age. She has that mommy instinct for sure, and loves all things baby too. She is constantly bringing me little blankets and wanting her Barbies or babies swaddled up. Such cuties!