Hittin' the Road (warning: this is a travelogue... which is okay here, because it's not Fast and Testimony Meeting)

Yesterday we returned from our first major family road trip since our move to FL from UT back when we only had a 1-year-old Allie. I had committed earlier in the year to sing with the Chamber Singers at the Washington National Cathedral in our nation's capital, the performance having been this past Sunday, singing prelude for the Evensong service. Of course after committing, I realized how challenging the activity may be, with me being nearly 8 months pregnant and having all three kids with us this time. Last time we sang at the Cathedral was in 2007, when I wasn't pregnant, and Kevin's parents came to babysit the kids at home while we flew to DC for a few days. Since we knew we'd have the while crew with us, we decided to make it a week-long road trip.

We loaded up the car with PB and J and fruit, snacks and suitcases, and a CD case-full of movies and music. The girls filled their backpacks with books, paper and markers, and we hit the road last Wednesday-- drove 9 hours to Charlotte, NC to stay for the night before moving on. As we continued to drive further north, the gradual change in foliage and landscape was a welcome variation from the typical sand pines and palmettos of the central Florida coastline. I loved the lush forests of North Carolina. Truly. If we had an extra week of vacation time, I probably would have lobbied to have us spend it all in that state.

The following morning we drove to Natural Bridge, VA. Had we not hit some nasty traffic on the way, we would have explored more in that area, but the congestion, due to an accident AND roadwork, knocked out over an hour of our free time. We at least toured the caverns at Natural Bridge, once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Drew made it difficult for Kev to enjoy the cave very much, since he insisted on just... well... being two-- a typical monkey attempting to run everywhere and climb everything. From the caverns we drove a bit farther north to Lexington, VA and spent an hour there, first seeing Southern Virginia University, and then walking the grounds of Virginia Military Institute where Stonewall Jackson once instructed.

We then drove nearly an hour northeast of Lexington to visit with our old BYU Wymount friends the Lassens. Erika graciously fixed us fajitas, and we spent the next several hours laughing and eating and watching the kids catch fireflies out in their backyard. Neither Erika nor Matt have changed a bit in seven years. GREAT friends... I miss all those Wymount buddies.

Friday morning we began our drive to Washington DC, stopping along the way to tour Thomas Jefferson's home Monticello in Charlottesville, and then making a quick stop at the grounds of the major Civil War Battle of Chancelorsville. Just before reaching DC we stopped at George Washington's Mount Vernon just before closing time, taking the very last (and slightly rushed) tour available.

Saturday was our big "museum marathon" walking day, starting out early and trying to hit the museums the kids had an interest in seeing. We spent the morning alone in the American History Museum, making sure to see the two items Allie and Sami wanted to see-- Dorothy's ruby slippers and Lincoln's top hat. After eating hotdogs and pizza in the shade on the lawn outside the museum, we made our way to the Natural History museum to see the T-Rex on Drew's list, as well as the exhibit of gems that captivated our girly girls. However, when walking from the back to the front of the museum, we walked right past some people that, out of the corner of my eye, looked like the Diehls, another family from our Wymount days. So I turned and, realizing it really was them, said, "Hey! Is that the Diehls?!" We hugged and chatted in the atrium for an hour while the kids played. It was incredible to run into them... in DC, of all places!

After taking the kids to the art museum for a short while, we went back to the hotel for a quick swim before leaving to have dinner in Rockville, MD with the Gibsons and Ryan Glasser, a friend Kevin worked with at Harris until his decision earlier this year to pursue a postdoc, and his girlfriend Marigny. We walked down to a square a few blocks from their apartment for dinner. After a late dinner and then taking the Gibsons back to their hotel, we all didn't get to bed till after 11pm. Needless to say, the kids were all a bit grumpy when we woke them up for Sacrament Meeting in the morning.

After attending the Capitol Hill ward, we went back to the hotel to each lunch and let Drew get a nap. Kevin took the girls out of the room while Drew slept, walking them to the grounds of a nearby museum to have their own "Primary", since they had to miss Primary at church. When they returned, we woke up Drew and piled in the car heading for the Cathedral. While the choir rehearsed at the High Altar, Kevin took the kids on a tour of the museum. Then all the family members and congregation members took their seat in the pews and we began the prelude. The kids were fantastic! I did not hear a peep out of them the entire time we sang. And even during the service, while I could see they were bored and wiggly, I only heard one or two noises from them. Of course, Kev had to bear the brunt end of the stress of keeping them quiet and contained, but he did a great job. Once the (incredibly long) postlude concluded, we left for the hotel, hoping to just have sandwiches for dinner, but almost immediately upon arriving in our room, the fire alarm sounded and we were evacuated. So we ate at a nearby cafe instead, with Allie crying nearly the entire time about how her tiger and blanket were going to burn up and would never be replaced. Of course, there was no fire-- the two clues being I never saw nor smelled any smoke, and we never heard sirens... ever. We were soon able to return to our room (only by walking up the stairs to the 5th floor). We changed our clothes and drove down and parked near the Potomac to walk around the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, as well as the Washington Monument (and to catch glimpses of the White House and Capitol). With all the miles of walking we did that weekend, my hands and feet still haven't fully recovered, in terms of swelling. I'm currently donning elephant feet... literally.

Monday morning we said good-bye to DC, and made the 9 1/2 hour drive to Savannah, GA. Tuesday we walked from our hotel to get on a Trolley tour of the city. We knew that with the kids, Kev and I wouldn't be able to explore all the things we wanted to, so we highlighted the things that would be of most interest to the kids. The Jepson art center was it, and it was right around the corner from our hotel. While the kids played in the children's activity area for a couple hours, Kev and I took turns touring the galleries and then discussing the art. The center was cool and clean and fairly quiet-- not busy at all-- so our kids pretty much had free-reign. After a quick dip in the hotel pool, we grabbed the stroller and walked to dinner. We then walked down by the river, where the girls were given "Savannah roses" from one of the many people making and selling them throughout the city. The sweet lady offered to take our picture in front of the bridge, and then told the girls about the history of the Savannah rose while she made one for each of them. Then we went for some ice cream before trekking back to the hotel for the night.

Before driving home yesterday morning, we once again walked down to the river to catch the ferry across the river, just riding it right back to our original port without ever getting off. And then we were on our way home!

Honestly, I am completely exhausted, and have let the kids watch an awful lot of TV and movies today. I have a week's worth of laundry to tackle, and the kids had already managed to destroy a perfectly clean house in less than an hour after walking in the door. But, you know, the trip was worth it-- even with the fits each day that we had to endure. I though a lot about the purpose of family trips (which, most definitely, are NOT "vacations"). Truthfully, Allie is the only one that might remember any of this trip, but Sami and Drew will most surely forget the whole thing eventually. The memories are for Kev and me. But rather the purpose is to strengthen family relationships, to strengthen our family bond. Because, really, if we're going to spend eternity together, we had better darn-well like each other.

Know what I mean?

Some Recent Videos

Here are videos from the girls' dance recital in May. They go to Gateway Academy at First Baptist Melbourne. Hence, the cross in the background... and the Christian-based music... and the modest "costumes" (that the teacher found at Ross, mind you, instead of those expensive "real" costumes you have to order-- love it!). Anyway, just copy and paste these addresses to see the videos.

Sami (Dance Exploration)-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wg7TS3KLoo

Allie (Ballet 1A)-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWdh74vPwyU

Allie (Jazz 1A)-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnbIcZ1Tc90

Also, this weekend we had a choir concert-- our typical lighter summer program. I chose to do a solo-- "Adelaide's Lament" from Guys and Dolls. It was a ton of fun to do! I miss performing like this on a regular basis... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftvWTAS9frc

My Eyes are Puffy

It has been a while. A long while, admittedly.

Life has overwhelmed me to the point where I don't even know where to begin-- what to tackle first. So, oftentimes, the bigger, but less urgent tasks (such as documenting our lives) gets put on hold. I'm not sure if I ever prioritize correctly, which leaves me feeling extremely inadequate. And then I read about all that my wonderful friends are able to accomplish in a day-- clean the house, bake a birthday cake from scratch, take kids to school and activities, sew new curtains, read a book, AND post on Facebook-- and I realize I'm completely deficient. My house is an organizational and decorative nightmare. Toys and art projects are strewn throughout the entire house, compact as it is. I try to keep up with it, but the girls draw new pictures "worth saving" everyday (and their box where they place those pictures is constantly overflowing... even after I sort through and empty it). And no matter how many toys we give to Goodwill, someone is always giving them more-- new little toys from Easter, toys their own kids are too grown up to enjoy anymore, or stupid little toys from McDonald's.

And the minute I sit down to write something that I feel would be therapeutic for an ailing psyche, I have my oldest child whining about how she is hungry and wants breakfast.

Nevermind the fact that I have been weeping about my weaknesses since last night. Nope, not important.

I'm not saying all this to elicit any kind of compliments or comments on how "great" I am. Honestly, as Kevin told me this morning, no matter how much people try to encourage me, the only way I'm going to feel better about myself is if I feel good about who I see, not if others feel good about who they see. And I don't have the greatest view right now-- I'm neither sitting on a high peak, nor is my valley much to look at. Seems a bit of a barren wasteland.

No, I'm expressing all of this because it brings me some solace to do so. If it depresses you or makes you feel sorry for me, I'm sorry. But I just have to do it-- have to sort out all of these negative thoughts.

I realize what I have working against me. Being six months pregnant saps me of a lot of energy, and being the bishop's wife leaves me to parent alone a lot (which I'm used to after having been a Scoutmaster's wife for over five years). In the past two months, I have battled two cases of bronchitis and two cases of strep among my kids as well as sinus infections for Kev and me, leaving me unable to leave my house for much other than doctor's visits and prescriptions. Add on top of that, the normal school/dance routine, plus a recital, and choir concerts for me, and you have my life.

And while I should be getting us all started on cleaning the house (since we're leaving on a plane for San Diego tomorrow), instead I'm sitting here writing.

And I'm left again to question my priorities.

Truthfully, no matter what choice I'd make, I'd still question my priorities. Did I make the "right" choice? Am I going to suffer from it? Are my kids going to grow up needing therapy because I chose to sit here and write something (first time in months) instead of starting the family on chores?

And now that I look at things, the answers to those questions seem pretty simple simple... and silly. Obviously, when I'm doing my best to tend to the needs of my family (and myself), there's no real "right" choice. If I have to put off printing out and sorting hundreds of photographs so that I can help a sick child, so be it. Or if that means I can't get to the grocery store to get the ingredients to make a more stellar meal, leaving me to burritos and spaghetti (or even ordering out), so be it. Or if I have to sacrifice having an orderly house so that my kids can enjoy their millions (and billions) of toys and art supplies...well, at least they're happy. And of course, no child in their right mind is going to grow up with psychological issues because of any of that. No one would go see a therapist because their childhood home was a bit disorganized or not decorated according to the latest trends, or even because the bathrooms weren't spotless... unless, of course, they have OCD.

And I certainly don't believe that the Lord would walk into my home and shake a disproving finger at me for missing a few months of writing our family history because of illness, doctor's visits, and pure exhaustion.

Everything that needs to get done will get done. I just need to have some patience.

I also need to get my tail into the kitchen to have to some breakfast. I'm starving.

Ultrasound

If you haven't heard yet, I had an ultrasound this morning, and it went great! I haven't spotted for over a week, and the blood clot that was so visible a week and a half ago couldn't even be found. I thought I'd post a video of the little tike bouncin' around my womb.

Welcome, 2011!

I feel so incredibly lazy. Dr. Foster told me to try to stay off my feet until the bleeding subsides. Trouble is I feel normal-- I'm choosing my words very carefully, because if I say "fine" that would mean I don't feel bad. And I do feel bad, some days being worse than others. I say "normal" because I feel exhausted and nauseated... the same way I do during the first trimester of any pregnancy. But on top of that, now I feel just plain lazy-- sitting here on the couch letting Drew watch PBS Kids for hours. I need to wash towels, but they're just lying on my bedroom floor waiting to be cleaned because I'm trying to obey my doctor. And as much as I hate to admit it, so far his advice has already helped with the bleeding. Haven't had much since I talked with him and decided to take him seriously. But the ultrasound I had yesterday was also reassuring, even though that's where they discovered the unidentified mass in my uterus that could be either a large blood clot or a fibroid. We also saw the heartbeat-- 163 bpm, nice and strong. What a relief! Honestly, with all the spotting I was beginning to think the ultrasound wouldn't find a heartbeat at all.

Because of the nasty nausea I've been experiencing, I was afraid that my birthday this year would be a bust. Since it was on a weekday, there was nothing super fancy about it really. But my kids chose to whine less throughout the day (still not sure if that was intentional or not...), which was the best present they ever could have given me. For dinner we took a risk and went to a Thai food restaurant, because (oddly) I had been craving it all day.

But I always love the first couple weeks after taking the pregnancy test. That's the one time in the entire pregnancy where I'm pregnant without having any symptoms of pregnancy yet. We actually found out the week following Christmas-- a week Kevin also had off from work. We spent a day at the zoo that week, getting suckered into a tour of the Ron Jon Cape Caribe Resort, which we took a couple days later. We also took a day trip up to St. Augustine, since we were pretty sure the girls would remember nothing from the last time we were there, almost four years earlier. We toured the Castillo de San Marco, as well as the Pirate Treasure Museum, where Drew found a barrel full of foam pirate scimitars. He killed me the way he knew exactly what to do with one, that I bought him two-- one for him and the other for his opponent. He put them to immediate use, sword-fighting with Sami and helping Sami chop off Dad's head in the stocks. Seriously, he just "knows" this stuff, with very little outside influence. I mean, it's not like he's spending hours a day watching G.I. Joe-- on the contrary, thanks to two older sisters, he's quite fond of Tinkerbell and Cinderella. Barbie's up there, too.

The week after I started to feel sick, we flew to Utah, to spend six days playing in the snow with Grandma and Grandpa Smith and the kids' Clegg cousins. Grandpa left out his childhood model trains that he had set up at Christmastime. Surprisingly, Drew didn't destroy any. In fact, he loved watching them, as well as sounding the whistle. He slept in that room as well, and "sleeping with the trains" was what convinced him that sleeping in that big room all by himself was okay. All three kids loved sledding and throwing snowballs. Although, Allie needed to be coached a bit in snow-etiquette-- you know, like don't throw a huge chunk of ice in someone's face, especially when you're less than a foot away from them. Sami was a good sport about that one. We all really enjoyed the family time, and were reminded of how much fun it would be to live closer to everyone. So... that means everyone just needs to suck it up and move to Florida. Houses are cheap, people! Especially ours... now.

We didn't have too much time (and I had little energy) to see all of our beloved Utah friends, but we did get to spend one evening with Sarah and Jeremiah and their cute, feisty little Pete at the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Very few people were there, so the kids had full reign of the place. Even though tending to our wild children left us little time to chat, it's always good to see their faces.

Well, it has taken me three days to get through this post. I started on Tuesday, but have been so tired that I haven't been able to get very far without nodding off. And, yes, now it's Thursday.

I still feel lazy.

But my friends have been very kind-- bringing us dinner (thanks, Heather and Stephanie... and thanks in advance to Kendra), taking the girls to and from school (thanks, Kendra and Jill), and hauling Allie to dance (thanks, Michele). And Kevin, in spite of being very busy with work and his calling, has helped with laundry and the dishes and in nagging the kids to clean up. I'm very blessed.

And now Stephanie just called and offered to take Drew to the park with her and Heather and their two-year-old boys. I love it! So humbling as well... Angels truly are among us.