14, seriously?

I'm in the gym today, on one of the machines and as I stop to take a break between sets I'm approached by two men. One of them older, one probably in his late 20's. The younger one said:

"I'm sorry to bother you, but we've been having a little discussion and we were wondering if you could clear it up for us?"

"Okay?" I answer.

"You see," the older one goes on, "neither of us thinks you are old enough to be working out in a gym..." he wasn't rude about this, he was being perfectly polite, "I think you are 14, my buddy here thinks you're 16."

"HAHA!" I laugh. "You're both wrong, I'm 26."

They blanked. I just snickered.

"Wow. You look really young." says the younger guy.

"Yeah, I get that all the time," I say, then I laugh again. "In fact I'll be 27 soon, and" for added measure I add, "I have three kids."

The older guy started laughing, and says, "well you are so tiny, I never would have guessed."

"Thanks," I said.

"You'll love it as you get older," he said rubbing his gray hair.

"I think so too," I smiled and they walked away.

I laughed again, I couldn't help it. I know I look young, but 14? Seriously?

I don't know you tell me, do I look 14?

Hmm.

As I'm leaving with my boys the younger guy (who's standing by the front desk) yells out, "Bye teen-mom!"

hahahahahahaha...

2 big 2 fast.

Today I'm celebrating,

the birth of the world's most delicious child.who's cuddly, easy going, and a big tease.

Who's let me nibble his scrumptious cheeks everyday for the past two years.

and even likes it.

Why does he insist on growing up so fast? I want to keep him my baby forever, and he just won't let me...

darling, delicious, beautiful boy.

Happy Birthday Ethan.

found

do you remember the check that i tore the townhouse apart for last week.


this morning i found it.



yeeesssssssss.

4 years ago

I brought this precious little man into the world.

I had no idea, just no idea what was in store...

Happy Birthday Carter-man.

I love you.

More me.

I learned how to relax again this weekend. That sounds really weirdly bizarre, but it's true. I didn't realize until this weekend, when nothing could bother me, that I had completely forgotten how to relax for the past... well a long time, anyway. Stress has been the theme of my days, and in consequence my life, for far too long. And for no good reason, it seems. This weekend something happened. Something and nothing. Nothing substantial happened to create this change, but there was a change. On Saturday I felt, great. I felt totally relaxed. I had a mountain of school work, a house that needed cleaning, a husband who was in class half the day, three antsy kids, and somehow nothing bothered me. I drifted around getting things done, and feeling like life was pretty darn good. Then the hubby got home and I found that the same stress less state had ballooned out to enclose him as well. He was somehow equally relaxed. The feeling extended into Sunday, which is usually a very stressful day, and I discovered how delightfully restful it can actually be if you let it.

Hannah is off school this week for fall break. I woke up at five a.m. (which is when I usually go running) and my back hurt really bad. I went back to bed. Craig went to work and I slept, in. It was so nice. I didn't have big black circles under my eyes when I emerged from the covers at 8 o'clock. I thought those were going to start to be a permanent fixture. My kids slept in too. The little darlings, they were tired too. Hannah woke up at 8:30, Carter at 9:15 and Ethan... he's still asleep. It's 10 o'clock. I did my reading for class and edited a short story of mine a bit, and now I'm writing this blog. I am so relaxed I'm wondering if there is somebody else inside my skin. Is it possible? At the same time, I feel more like myself than I've felt in a very very long time. And that, my friends is a good feeling.

ps. my second born turns 4 tomorrow.

niece reese

I have a new niece!

Reese Lauren Baird.

9.5 lbs.

Sheesh! Way to go Tarah!

You are a queen.

Check out this chubby little darling.

If only I could hold her right now.

95%

I tore the townhouse apart today.

When the movers moved our stuff into this crackerbox a few months ago and put the crib back together, it was discovered that they had broken off a certain piece that held the railing on. Kind of important. Anyways, the mover guy taped up the side (good and safe, you know) and told me to fill out a form. Then I went through a ridiculous process that ended, finally with a check of 90 dollars to order the new part with. I still haven't placed the order, because school started and well, yeah. Life is insane. Then I lost the check. Or someone did. I tore the drawers apart looking for it, but to no avail, and then promptly had a breakdown when Craig got home from work. Lucky lucky him. It wasn't so much about the check either, (it's only 90$ after all) but what the check represents. The chaos of this house we live in, the way everything gets so dirty so fast when you are living on top of each other, how stuff is literally spilling out of every closet, how I don't know where anything is, and I really miss my rolling pin that's buried somewhere in a box in the garage, and it feels like we've been living this way for a really really long time. It's that I spent 5 and a half hours at the park yesterday, yay for good weather again (low 80's!) letting the kiddos play so I could study, and I am still way way behind on my school work, and my house is a disaster. Nice.

Craig reminded me of something the sealer said to us in the temple when we were getting married the other day. He took our rings in his hand, he said they were all shiny and new. He said pretty soon they would get scratched and beat up, that life would getting really hard and we would get beat up. Boy was that prophetic. I had no idea how hard it would be to have a family. But I am grateful, because through all the tough stuff and chaos, we've stuck together. The payoff is coming, I can feel it. I'm looking forward to it, and our new house. All 2850 sq. feet of it. In just a few. more. months.

In other news, Craig wrote a big paper on Saturday. He started it at 8 pm, it was due by 11pm. 7-10 pages. Yikes. He got his grade back today.

95% The professor wrote a bunch of praise to my genius of a husband that ended with: "a first rate analysis."

I hate him.

but not really.

Carter-isms

This was written by Craig.

The other night after the kids had gone to bed, Carter came out and I was teasing him that I though he was a dinosaur. In a very serious voice he replied, "I'm not a dinosaur. I have a bum and a pee-pee. Dinosaurs just have tails." And actually, that may be the only difference.

Tonight, Cori vacuumed up a marble, which got stuck in the fan. That caused the vacuum to sound REALLY bad. This allowed me the pleasure of completely disassembling it in the garage this evening. The only way it could have been more disassembled would have been if I had melted it down into a blog of plastic. Once I got the fan open and got the marble out, I turned it on briefly to make sure it was working before I put the thing back together. I'm not sure if you've ever turned on a vacuum motor when it's out of the vacuum, but take it from me, it's really loud. The kids were out there playing while I was doing this, and after the really loud noise, Carter ran up to me and yelled, "Bloody Hell! What was that?!" I think he's been watching too much Harry Potter. He even said it with an English accent.

cheesy.

carter has become a bit obsessed with self portraiting lately.

my camera is filled with all kinds of these little gems.

man i love this kid.

ps. my beautiful big sister is coming to see me today. yay!