Busy Days!

Wow, despite the fact that spring refuses to come around here, our schedule hasn't let up much. Mitch is playing baseball, Jake is playing Lacrosse, and Madeline is playing soccer--that equals 5 practices and 4 games a week. This Saturday, we have soccer at 10:15am, baseball at 11:00, and Lacrosse at 11:00am, all at different places. I'm not sure what we'll do when Tyler is old enough to be added to the mix! Anyway, it's all fun.

We've had crazy weather in this part of the country. Tulips are blooming, trees are blossoming, but we have snow on the ground. I'll admit, it's a bit depressing. I've got to figure out some way of not letting it get to me--I'm willing to mow the lawn and weed again, if we could just have some sunshine.

We had a fun Easter weekend. Pete was on call for most of it, so we stayed home until Sunday after church, when we headed up to the cabin to catch the last lift so that we could stay over at the cabin with our friends the Harmsen's. You may recall my struggles skiing in to the cabin last weekend. For our family to ski into the cabin, Mitch, Madeline and Jake are all on their own (and they are great little skiers), although Jake was loaded down with a backpack. I also carried a backpack with food in it, we all wore pajamas under our ski gear so that we wouldn't have to pack much, and then Pete carried Tyler in the Kelty backpack. He dropped us off at the cabin (much easier this time around, and sunny), then he headed back down the mountain to help our friends. Amy, the wife, had only skied one time before, they had two little ones to ski on their own and twins to carry in backpacks, plus their backpack full of clothes. Pete ended up carrying one twin on his back and the backpack on his front. They all had a good laugh about it and we had a fabulous time hanging out in the evening and then skiing all day on Monday. Thankfully Jake remembered that he and Mitch had practice Monday night, so I headed out at 2pm with my boys. Pete got the cabin cleaned out and helped our friends down from the cabin. It was quite an adventure!

We also had a fun Easter egg hunt and brunch on Saturday afternoon with the Wolfenbarger's and Hopkin's, some of our friends from high school. It's fun to see our kids playing so well with our friend's children, plus they got all sugared up and that's always fun. Sarah is the cookie master, she made these delicious sugar cookies that were decorated so cute, my cookies never look or taste like that!

As for the more important aspect of Easter, the focus on Jesus Christ, we had a great sacrament meeting/testimony meeting in our ward. Pete bore his testimony about the inspiration of his Uncle Lowell, diagnosed with MS 25 years ago, but who managed to stay positive and teach anatomy to med. students at the University of Michigan, despite being a quadriplegic. When we lived in the same ward, Pete's uncle and aunt spoke on Easter Sunday one year, and we were both extremely moved by his uncle referring to a scripture in which we, after this life, will stand to be judged. That may seem a strange scripture for Easter, but Lowell described how grateful he was that he would one day "stand" before God. Something I take for granted sometimes, but such an amazing promise. Anyhow, another dear friend, who recently lost a second baby during her second trimester also bore her testimony of the comfort of knowing about eternal life and the strength of community we have in helping one another with our burdens. I have felt that so keenly, with all of the kindness extended to my family as I recovered from my surgery, the blessings of friendship and family in my life. It was a nice way to focus on the spiritual aspect of Easter.

One last thing to report--Jake was a smashing hit as Paul Bunyon in his school play! He even got to sing a solo. He has a great little voice and turns out he's a pretty good dancer too! The whole class did a great job!

Well, it's 2:30pm and I'm still in my pajamas--it's always better to clean in pajamas, plus, I kept thinking if I didn't get ready for the day, I might actually exercise. I think I'll give up on that idea for today!

Finally figured it out!

So I finally downloaded a playlist and checked to see if I have a pulse! I've realized most of my favorite songs are ultra mellow! Check out the KT Tunstall song--one of my new favorites from The Women soundtrack. If anyone has any tips on how to download music from iTunes onto my playlist--let me know. There's another great, happy song by Lucy Schwartz called Count on Me that I would love to put on my list that's also from that soundtrack.

Turning the Corner

I am happy to say that I am finally feeling like my old self after surgery, almost that is! During my recovery, I have had ample opportunity to exercise my mind. My body? Not so much. I've read lots of books, amongst them a biography of Abigail Adams and a page turner by Wally Lamb. I also read Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (I'll double check the title) and a Bobby Pendragon book, as well as a murder mystery by Patricia Cornwell. Total of books read since surgery equals 8 (refer to book list for other titles)! I've also had lots of time to think about how I'd like my yard and house to look. I've had lots of time to imagine myself looking healthy and hot--now I get to move on it!

Saturday, I let Pete talk me into going up to our cabin at Alta. That may not seem like such a big thing, but you have to take two ski lifts up the mountain and then ski down into the cabin. Like I said, I haven't had a lot of exercise lately, and after a huge snowstorm with lots of powder, getting into the cabin was a real challenge. I fell more than I have since I first learned to ski at 15. At one point, I thought I'd just lay in the snow and take a nap, I was so exhausted. Thankfully, a skier almost hit me, motivating me to get up and into the cabin. We had a great time, even if I was a bit frustrated by my trembling, muscle atrophied legs. My weakness motivated me to try and get going again. I had really wanted to bike the marathon this year--I'm not sure I'm up to that yet (I haven't completely given up hope though). I have decided that I need to start moving, so this morning, I put in a new favorite movie, The Women with Meg Ryan, and rode my bike and then walked on the treadmill. My goal is to finally shed all of this extra weight I've accumulated and get healthy! I am going to start training for the Century Ride in Logan in June, even if I can't do the marathon bike ride in a couple weeks. It's nice to feel like I can do these types of things again. It's frustrating to feel tired after making a grocery store run. The other plus is that I think my surgery has accomplished the goal of making exercise easier for me. My post children body necessitated many trips to the restroom and made exercising in public a bit embarrassing. It was nice to notice the difference in my physicality as I've been skiing, biking and running. That makes it worth 6 weeks of inactivity!