The last 10 days

On Tuesday the 8th Scott had a performance with the Consortium Ensemble at St. Paul's Episcopal Church downtown. I don't know what got into me that night but I decided that I should go even with Patrick which, if you've ever seen a 10 month old boy in action, was a questionable decision. I also invited some friends to attend that also have a baby that is 6 months old. There we were, at the back of the church, letting the babies crawl around on the floor and trying to silence them while at a performance. I think the Orem library was a better location for Patrick to attend the concert with me but, we made it work at St. Paul's anyway.


Earlier that same night I decided to try and squeeze in seeing the lights on temple square. I also decided to not bring Patrick's stroller. Good thing I at least bundled him up really snug in a Patagonia suit thingie. I met Sue and Olyvia there with their babies. We were supposed to meet up with Julia a bit later. Before long, I got a text from her that they were on their way. I used the "talk to text" function on my iPhone to tell her to meet us at the nativities. On temple square they have nativities from all over the world set up. They are beautiful and my absolute favorite part about the décor there. Anyway, so I wanted to talk to text to let them know where to meet us and Siri heard "meet us at the titties" instead of the nativities. When I read the text I fell into hysterics. I doubled over in obnoxious laughter and captured the attention of many by standers. I couldn't help myself...it was just too funny.


After the temple lights and the concert, Mark and Sue came over to taste test eggnog. I purchased every variety that is being sold at Smiths and let me tell you, conclusively, Southern Comfort is the best eggnog around.


On the 9th, we drove down to Orem to celebrate Matt Nielson's birthday at this all you can eat sushi place. The company was divine and the sushi was pretty lousy.


On the 10th I had a very full day at work. We had our region meeting, an awards lunch hosted by the SBA, and then our team got to go to Boondocks to celebrate our victory in a little mini campaign. Laser tag, go cart racing, video games, virtual rollercoaster, arcade games. It was a blast to get out and party with the team. I missed little Patrick though. I'm not used to being away from him all day. That evening, we met up with the spouses at Fuji Japanese Steakhouse and Doug (my boss's boss) treated us to dinner. I chose the location based on the fact that it's a hibachi place and who doesn't love to watch their food being cooked? So entertaining! It's also always fun to see my coworkers with their better halves. It seemed like everyone was pleased with the meal and we just had a grand time laughing all together and making plans for continued success.


On the 11th, we went to see the Salty Dinner Theater Christmas show, A Christmas Carol. It's fun to actually attend a Salty show once in a while, not having been involved in any other way.


On the 12th, Scott and I modeled for pictures for the upcoming Salty Season. He posed as Romeo and the Phantom and I posed as Christine (of Phantom). It was fun to get dressed up and get our pictures taken. I'm excited to see how they turned out.


That evening I met up with Andrea and we went to the Dicken's festival. It was loads of fun to see Katie sing and see all the fun merchants/ vendors at the event. I purchased a few things including some pastries. yummmmm.


On Sunday we had a very average day. Scott stayed home and slept all day because he wasn't feeling well. I went to just the 3rd hour of church to do singing time. We played Sing or Dare. So many of the kids chose dare but then were all bashful about completing the dare. Do kids these days not know how to properly play truth or dare?! You chose dare and you have to take it...duh!


We had our first big snow storm of the season on Monday. It was so bad that I couldn't even get up the incline to Kathie's house in the morning and Scott was running really late from all the snow shoveling. I worked from home all day and was ever so slightly less productive because of that. We couldn't even break up the day with trips to run errands or anything because the snow was coming down ALL DAY LONG. The best and brightest spot in the day was when Patrick woke up, I could see that Scott was busy shoveling and I thought I may as well get Patrick ready for the day. Suddenly, Patch noticed that Scott was just outside. He started slapping the window with his little hands and making noises at Scott. Eventually he even waived at him. So adorable. I think it's safe to say that Patch loves his daddy.

In Stitches

My parents are in town this week we've had lots of Christmas fun.

On Sunday night, Mom and Dad came to our house for dinner right as they arrived in Utah. I made chicken that was seasoned with left over cranberry sauce. It turned out well but I suddenly found myself wondering if my food was good enough to serve my parents. I can't recall serving them dinner very often and was a little nervous about this experimental meal.

 On Monday, Mom and I tried to go to the new aquarium because it was free day but the line wrapped around the building (ridiculous) and that night we had plans to attend Scott's cousins husband's a cappella concert. So, we turned around and grabbed dinner with Scott at Cafe Rio and headed to the concert. The venue was an Episcopal church and they had a cry room where I could take Mr. P so he could just crawl around and make noise and play and yet I could still hear the concert and see what was going on. IT WAS AWESOME! Why aren't there more cry rooms...everywhere? Movie theaters especially. I'd love to go see a movie.

Wednesday, Scott had a concert at the library in Orem. His group did quite well and Patch was crawling around a bit. He also had a bit of fun testing the acoustics in the room and I had fun trying to keep him quiet. When Scott's group finished a particulary jovial and rambunctious number, Patch sat on the floor, turned to the group, and clapped for them with the audience. He just learned to clap last Wednesday so, this was rather exciting.

Thursday night was probably the highlight of the week. We attended the Christkindlmarket at This is the Place Park. It's a German style Christmas market/ fair thingie. It was SO much fun to see all the crafts and German things...and food! Not to mention that President Uchtdorf was there to award a medal to the Candy Bomber! So many local German celebs! Mr. P was bundled in a little snow suit and looked adorable! Bonbon was there with us and it was a great ladies night.

I have to share a funny story. One night, we were just sitting at home chatting. I was decorating the tree and Mom and Scott were talking on the couch. We were discussing the large amount of Christmas decor that my mom has and noticing that we're about to need additional storage for our growing supply of decorations. I mentioned that I want to go to the Container Store for one of their events. As I was reading the description we all started laughing and couldn't stop. The idea that the highlight of their event is to have "wrap stars" show people how to wrap gifts and then the grand prize would be a gift wrap organizer just got us laughing. It sounded so silly once I started saying it out loud. Scott then noticed that I had hung a Christmas banner with masking tape. I felt a little silly about that too. I just said "I just wanted to get it up" followed by a that's what she said joke. My mom then turned to me and said "who is she and what did he say". I was laughing so hard I cried.

12 hours

Since Thursday, Scott and I spent 12 hours on the road. First we drove two hours to Preston Idaho for Thanksgiving with his family and then back home Thursday evening (Scott had work on Friday) and then we drove to Alton for Scott's Uncle Ed's funeral. It was a lot of family time and a lot of time on the road but it was worth it.

Thanksgiving was lovely. We drove to Doug and Heather's on Wednesday evening. Patrick decided to wake up at 3 in the morning and was awake for about an hour. Scott woke up with me to help out and we wound up downstairs in their great room as Patch crawled and explored, happy as a little clam. He was particularly fascinated by Atlas, the dog. Finally, we got Patch back to bed and we all slept until about 6:30 when we woke to get ready for tree hunting. I LOVE TREE HUNTING! I'd never had a real Christmas tree until Scott and I got married. The tree history:

2011: My first tree hunt. We drove with Doug and he played this really silly recording of old random Christmas songs. It was fun to get to know Doug better and tell stories on the drive with him.

It was a little more sparse than the fake tree we had growing up but, it smelled amazing and it was a blast to hike through the snow to find it.

2012: Scott and I JUST moved back to Utah and into our apartment in Taylorsville. We were a bit strapped for cash at that time and missed the family tree hunt because we did Thanksgiving with my side of the family but, Scott surprised me and went out to get us a tree the day before Christmas. It was tiny and sat up on a coffee table in our little apartment. It lifted my spirits to have a lovely little tree!

2013: Our first Christmas in our first home. I'm not certain that I captured a full photo of this lovely tree but I did string up popcorn and captured a tiny segment of that tree. I ran all around town trying to find red wooden beads. I wanted it to look like strings of popcorn and strings of berries. I settled on these beads from Target. We'll see if I keep using them.

2014: I was great with child expecting Patrick. I felt like the virgin Mary all Christmas which was cool and imagined myself riding around town on an ass...I mean donkey. We did Thanksgiving with my family again and missed the tree hunt so this one was purchased at a tree lot down the road. I think we paid $80 for it which, at the time seemed obnoxious but, when you figure the price of fuel to get to Preston and add in the cost of the permit...you're almost at $80 but the experience of hunting down and hauling your own tree?...priceless ;)

 We were expecting my parents to arrive at any moment when this photo was taken. The house was in perfect order and presents were wrapped under the tree. That sled was our gift to my mom from an antique shop up the road.

Can you see the image on the TV screen? It's a video of a fire crackling. hehe. mmm so cozy. And there I am sleeping...again. I guess I really like napping next to the Christmas tree.

As for 2015's tree...that will have to wait until later...you know...after we get it decorated and such.

Abundance

When I pray, I often thank God for the abundance in which we live. We have so much. So so much.

I could go on about that but, for now I'll share good news. I'm thankful for this news and that is....

I had a huge loan book today. This means that I'm dangerously close to winning a trip to Florida that will be all inclusive and paid for by the bank. I've been working so hard to get to this point. I'm focused. I'm determined. I'm working smart and I'm working hard.

We changed our schedule recently so, Scott brings Patrick to his nanny, Kathie, at 7 am. I begin working from home at that time. This gives me a couple of hours to do administrative stuff that I find myself pushing off usually. I work my tush off during the day so that I can leave the office and get Patch by 3 pm and just enjoy the rest of the day either running errands or playing at home. We've been doing this for a week and it's working rather well.

I have moments of "wow, I love doing this whole working thing and mommy thing" and there are some times where I'm completely overwhelmed thinking "how can I possibly do both? How can I be the mom and the wife that I want to be and still be the banker I want to be?" Somehow, right now, I feel that I've found a balance.

Patrick has a bit of a cold so these last few nights have been rough. I've been waking up with him more frequently. It's bitter sweet. It's a treasure to cuddle with him but when he gets agitated and has a hard time falling asleep it can be frustrating. I guess this is motherhood.

Tomorrow, I will begin the live fit challenge again. I will focus on clean eating and hitting the gym every day. I will not log onto Facebook and waste time there. I will dedicate myself to continue etching this pattern of success into my work life. I will make my time there as valuable as possible. I will then be free to enjoy home time. It will be worth it.

Catching up

Since June of 2013?
I was in the following productions, back to back:
Carousel, Bonnie and Clyde, Cinderella, Altos-a Mafia Murder Mystery, Shrek, I was supposed to be in Company (more on that in a minute) and Heritage Singers at This is the Place Park (TITP).

So what happened with Company, well, in June of 2014 we found out we were expecting. The character I was set to play, Kathy, is one of the girlfriends of the main character and being 6 months pregnant wasn't going to make too much sense ;) So, I bowed out of that show and began nesting. But then I couldn't help myself and simply had to audition for Heritage Singers. Scott and I spent the Christmas season 2014 caroling through the streets of TITP dressed in period costume (coincidentally, those costumes were used in the filming of the Work and the Glory films).

January 2015 rolled around and I focused on making final preparations for baby Patrick's arrival and on February 1st we went into the hospital. I was fairly certain that I was in labor and that they would not have to send us home. I was right. I went in 5 cm dilated and we welcomed Patch at almost 8 PM.

Here we are, almost 10 months later. I'll reflect on some highlights:

In May, Scott and I decided to be crazy and do a Salty Dinner Theater show together-Sherlock Holmes. I was just coming off of maternity leave and heading back to work...oh and we had a newborn. With the help of family and friends, there was someone to look after Patch during each of our performances. Well, we had him with us at a few of them but, he didn't move much or make too much noise at that point so, he was easy to cart along.

Here he is at one of the rehearsals:

In June we went on a road trip to Montana to perform a charity show for Salty Dinner Theater, a revival of Cinderella. A couple of weeks after that, we took a trip to Park City with some friends and stayed in a lovely town house over the weekend. Great fun! The day we returned from that trip, Bonnie, Stephanie, and I did a fancy breakfast with Andrea to celebrate her birthday and we presented her with a book that we made of memories from when Katie and Kenna were just little tiny girls; a time that Andrea does not remember well for it was a rough few years for her.

In July, we hit up Taylorsville days, Patrick started eating solids, we had the family camp (organized by us at Wolf Creek where the camp was in HORRIBLE shape and I demanded a refund...we got it), and Pioneer Day.

In August, Patrick took his first international trip for Uncle Brent's birthday to Mexico. What an adventure. It was a week of fun, delicious food, and relaxation on the beach. Melissa and I may have snuck onto the resort where the wedding party was staying. Two words: worth it.

On September 2nd, Uncle Brent's birthday, Patch began crawling. We managed to keep it all together after he became mobile and Scott even threw me a super fun Fiesta birthday party. We were also able to use our Lagoon passes to attend Lagoon-a-Beach one day. Brent and Ana flew out to surprise me while we were at the Utah State Fair. They came to celebrate my birthday and see our home. It was such a treasure to have them here. I also began rehearsals for another Salty show in September. I was in The Salem Witch Trials. I brought Patrick to all of the rehearsals and we may or may not have rehearsed at a church.

In October, I was basically performing every single night. Every chance we got we used our Lagoon passes and hit up the park. I also arranged for someone else to cover my performance on the night of the Pumpkin Walk in Logan so that Scott and I could travel to his parent's home for our traditional apple harvest and Pumpkin Walk event. Around Halloween, I went to Scott's work's family Halloween event, Frightmares, Kate's performance of Beauty and the Beast, and we hung out at home on Halloween. We carved pumpkins, busted out the fog machine, played scary music, and had some friends over.

Since late August, I've been getting together weekly with some ladies in our ward for lunch on Fridays. It's a blast and we take turns getting together at someone's home and swap stories about our little babies. Patrick now seems so much older than the other babies because he's the only one that's mobile. Soon, this will not be the case.

Here we are in November. I cannot believe that Patrick is almost 10 months old. He is such a happy little man and we love him a whole lot. More on that later.

I suppose I'll post more pics later also.