hairyshoefairy

Yesterday I was wandering around Target (yes, again - I know, I probably have a problem) looking at some shoes I’ve considered buying every time I’m there but they aren’t on sale yet so I haven’t and I stumbled upon the most charming shoes.  I haven’t been so excited about a pair of shoes in a while.

Don’t get me wrong, I still get excited any time I get new shoes.

Or I get new shoes for Peanut.

Or I see anyone else get new shoes.

But these were extra exciting to me.  They were a fantastic mustard yellow and had a vintage 30’s feel that I absolutely adore with a sweet button closure and everything.  And?  They were just my size.  I hesitated because I’m trying not to spend as much money, but I looked around a bit and they were literally one of a kind.  I didn’t find a single other pair that looked like them in the entire shoe department.  It must have been fate.  Even though they weren’t on sale I had to snatch them up before they were purchased by someone else (it isn’t like they were terribly expensive anyway since they were from Target) and I’m so, so happy I did.  They are the perfect addition to my wardrobe!

Sorry for the bad lighting, but aren’t they so cute!?  Usually I opt for a little higher heel, but for this style these are perfect.  I’m still squeeing!

My mom has a friend from high school who we all affectionately call “Jo who’s insane.” And actually I think her kids add the little “who’s insane” bit to my mom’s name, too when they talk about her. Growing up JWI’s kids and my family played together quite a bit and now JWI’s daughter who is my age has a little girl, A, who’s Peanut’s age (they were born one week apart). On Tuesday my mom came over and we had a little water party with all the girls. Even Teeny came.

Peanut wears these golf ball things as necklaces.

A got a hold of the sunscreen stick and put it all over her face so she’s super shiny. :)  Isn’t her swimsuit the cutest?

We had lunch and let the girls remember each other from last summer (click and scroll way down). We talked and laughed while the little girls played and found a snail in a bush. They put it in a bucket and gave it chips and a pickle to feast upon. Yum!

JWI brought the cutest pool ever. It’s a great big frog! Peanut was a little wary at first, but eventually jumped in and had fun.

They had a Slip’n’slide set up and after the first couple of runs with us moms the little girls began sliding down themselves, though we had to give them a push to get going.

A saying “Cheese”

JWI’s mom found a fun old water toy. I guess it used to be used for t-ball. The ball floats on water, you push the pedal, the ball squirts up, and you can hit it with the bat. We didn’t use a ball. We just let the little girls squirt each other, which we all found quite amusing.

After lots of hard running and splashing we sat in the shade and ate special Dora popsicles. The little ones liked “washing” theirs in the froggy pool.

JWI owns an awesome embroidery business, Falcon Embroidery, and made the little girls the cutest hats. A’s says “Princess A*******” and Peanut’s says “You can call me Peanut.” She LOVES it. She wears it all over now. Thanks, Jo!

When it came time to go (read: naps were calling) Peanut and A gave each other lovies. We had so much fun, we’ll definitely be playing again.

Cousin A called me on Monday to see if we wanted to go on a little walk/hike with her family that night. I was glad she called because I was a little at a loss for what to do for Family Home Evening. This is something we haven’t really done up until now because Peanut was so little and NYDD was always coming home late, but now NYDD has a more set schedule and Peanut’s learning so many thing so we thought it was time. We met at their house and drove up Big Cottonwood canyon just past Solitude to Silver Lake. There’s a little boardwalk we walked around. It was really beautiful. It’s been so long since we’ve been up a real canyon and it was significantly cooler there than in the valley. Peanut giggled when I had to carry her over the patches of snow on the path. She’s never really seen snow before and was a bit surprised to find it slippery, cold, and wet.

After walking around we headed back to Cousin A’s house for popsicles and played Guitar Hero. NYDD and I had never played it before so it took a minute or two to figure out the timing and everything. What a fun game! I think I need to own it! While the little girls played we talked and laughed at funny youtube videos. Eventually we had to get home because NYDD has early mornings, but I think we should have joint FHE every week. It was the best!

Before we moved Lauren told me her family was coming to Salt Lake in June for her BIL’s wedding and asked if I would watch her kids while they went to the ceremony.  I said “Of course,” and today we got to visit Temple Square downtown and play with some of our friends from California!  When I told Peanut she was going to see Karen she got super excited.  She’s missed playing with Karen at church and at playgroups.  We were running a little late so I half dragged half carried Peanut from our parking spot to the temple.  She was such a good little runner and thought it was really funny.  We didn’t see the Kitchens anywhere in the waiting room so we sat down to watch for them.  A few minutes later they came rushing through the door.  When Peanut and Karen saw one another they squealed and ran to each other.  It was the cutest thing!  After not seeing each other for about a month they were thrilled.  Lauren and Nathan headed to the sealing room and I took Grant and the little girls into a kids room to play.  They colored and had so much fun.  I think they really missed each other.  After the ceremony we took some pictures and chatted while the photographer took pictures of the other side of the family.  I met Nathan’s parents who were very nice and they sweetly asked if we wanted to come to the luncheon.  Though Peanut and Karen were having so much fun I decided to forgo the luncheon because I needed to run a couple of errands and Peanut was swiftly coming up on nap time which I’m sure wouldn’t have fostered any good behavior.  It was so nice of then to ask, though.

Lauren and Nathan, Peanut and I are so happy we got to see you while you were here!  Hopefully next time your trip won’t be so wild and crazy and you can come visit us for a little while.  We’ll definitely want to visit when we head back to CA for NYDD’s graduation.  We miss you guys!  Thanks for asking me to watch your cute kids.

While living in California we only saw our families a couple of times a year and that was hard because we’re close to our families. We love them and want to see them more often. That’s one of the reasons we decided to do our fourth year of school here; so we could be closer to family.

Can I just tell you? It has been wonderful!

It seems like we’ve seen more family in the last three weeks than we saw the whole time we were in Oakland. I know that’s probably an exaggeration, but that’s what it feels like, and I’m loving it. My Aunt C and Uncle R and their family and their two daughters and their families all live within a mile or two and we have been playing (hence the lack of blogging lately - sorry).

We had dinner with them a few Sundays ago and my two girl cousins both have daughters Peanut’s age so we’ve been getting them together to play. Here’s a little of what we’ve been doing.

We went to Wheeler Farm, looked at all the animals, and had a snack.

Notice Peanut’s “pack-pack” which she absolutely loves. It makes her like Dora, don’t you know. She even sings the song.

We went to Aunt C’s house and had a water day. The little girls ran through the sprinklers and we all ate lunch outside. Then we went inside and all made a heap of enchiladas together so we could each take a pan home for dinner that night. Now that is the way to cook.

K

Peanut

B

O

B and O

K and Peanut

Cousin A and I have also been running errands together and we also went swimming in the pool at her apartment. Peanut freaked a bit cuz she’s never been in a real pool before, but Cousin A’s daughter B is a total water baby and we all had a good time cooling off. Sorry no pics of these fun things.

I love being so close to these fun girls now! They are so nice and I think our girls have fun together, too. I’m so lucky!

We also live semi-close to a lot of NYDD’s family now, too. A while ago we went to his sister’s house for a picnic with some of his brothers and sisters. Peanut loved playing with her cousins and it was fun catching up with everyone. We had such a good time and hope we can do it again soon.

So our new church ward (which I keep accidentally calling a branch after being in one for 3 years) is in a building that was built 50 years ago. It was built by the people in our area at the time and they even enclosed a time capsule. Yesterday they had a tri-ward (the three that meet in our building) pancake breakfast, were going to open the time capsule and enclose another one in it’s place, and had a little program. Oh, and President Monson, our prophet, was there.

It started early at 7:30, but we dragged ourselves out of bed and made it. We gathered around the steps of the building where chairs and a podium were set up and waited for Pres. Monson to arrive. After a couple of minutes his car drove up and he and his lovely wife Frances stepped out and made their way up to the podium.

We all sang “We Thank Thee, O God, For A Prophet” as they walked up, shaking people’s hands and greeting everyone.

The program began and our opening song was actually “We Thank Thee, O God, For A Prophet” again. We had jumped the gun on that one. They talked about the building and shared a few pictures that had been blown up to a big size. It turns out they couldn’t find the old time capsule. We all had a good laugh about that. A week or so before the program they looked for it where it was supposed to be to make sure everything in it was still okay but the space was empty. I guess when they were building they had it ready and put in place, but the construction continued after leaving it there and it must have been moved around while they finished. Anyway, it wasn’t where it was supposed to be so they looked around with a little camera and couldn’t find anything. They even hired a guy from the University of Utah to come with some equipment to help find it but his machine broke and he won’t be able to come back to find the capsule until Wednesday. I still chuckle to myself when I think about it. Oh, well. We still put in a new one with pictures, newspapers, magazines, and lesson manuals. President Monson shared some wonderful stories and helped mortar in the new time capsule. He was so friendly and patient. He shook hands and greeted people again as he left. He was going to stay for breakfast with us, but I think he had to make it to another appointment. It must take him ages to go anywhere. Everyone wanted to speak with him and shake his hand.

After the program we went around the building to the parking lot and had a big pancake breakfast. We still don’t know many people but in the crowd we did recognize a familiar face. In California we had some couple missionaries in our branch and one set of them finished their mission about 2 months ago and headed back to Utah. It turns out they are in our stake! Again, it’s a small world.

I’m glad we went to the breakfast. It’s the first time I’ve seen the prophet so close. There was such a wonderful feeling as he spoke and I felt overcome with love and peace. President Monson truly is a man of God and I’m grateful he is willing to serve and lead our church. We are so blessed.

I know, I know. I’ve totally been a bloggity loser-head lately. We’ve settled into our new apartment which we’re really loving, especially in the hot summer since it’s a basement, and nobody’s sick or barfing anymore. I just haven’t been motivated to blog for some reason. I’ve also been doing some other things which I’ll post about later - I promise - but I had to share what spurred me into posting tonight after an unintentional week-long hiatus.

We all went out tonight running a few errands and after a Target trip I dropped NYDD of at a shoe store to find some sneakers (usually a very long errand as he’s going to be a foot doc) and I took Peanut over to Old Navy. Near the entrance I passed a woman with a sweet little baby in her cart and thought she looked vaguely familiar but brushed it aside as I’ve been “seeing people I know” from California everywhere and it’s never really anybody I know because they’re still there and I’m now here. So anyway, I continued shopping and let Peanut grab a pretty chain of beads to play with and keep her happy. A little way into the store I passed by the same woman again and again I thought “She is so familiar.” She even looked at me with familiarity and as we passed she asked if she knew me. I said, “I don’t think so, but you are kinda familiar.” I began to wonder if I knew her from blogging and thought she might be Lady of Perpetual Chaos, but I was too much of a chicken to ask. She was gutsier than I and asked if I blogged.

Guess what?

It was totally her and her cute little one Babs. She recognized Peanut most and that’s what made her ask. So we stood there in the middle of Old Navy and chatted like we’d known each other for ages. It was so funny. Eventually her husband and other daughter, Lolly, showed up (I would have been more likely to ask her first about blogging if I’d seen her with Lolly, after all, who could mistake her darling red hair?). I, of course, pulled out my camera and snapped a picture of us because I’m a geek like that and was just so excited to meet her on accident.

We talked about fun places to shop and eat and have plans to get our kiddlets together to play. She’s going to help me figure out my fireplace mantle - more on that later - and I’m going to fix her hair.

Eventually, after much gabbing, NYDD called because he’d found a pair of shoes and wanted to be picked up again, so we chatted a little longer and eventually Peanut and I waved goodbye.

Thinking how fun it was to accidentally meet L of PC Peanut and I headed out to the car and it wasn’t until I was buckling Peanut in that I realized she still had on the cute little string of beads I let her play with (read: slobber all over) in the store. Oops. **Note: Embarrassingly this is not the first time I’ve accidentally shoplifted, but that’s another post for another day.** I unbuckled Peanut, ran back in, dropped the necklace on the closest shelf without looking at anyone, and rushed back out to the car before I could be discovered. Peanut, of course, thought this was all fun and games and giggled the whole time. Apparently I was so excited about meeting one of my online friends my brain turned off. *sigh* Mommy brains, I guess.

Anyway, thanks for chatting with me tonight L of PC. I’ll try to email you this week so we can play.

Important!!

Also, as part of our errands tonight we finally changed our cell numbers. I emailed a bunch of people in my contacts list with my new info (address, too). If you didn’t get an email and think you should have let me know. I promise I didn’t leave you off the list on purpose; I just have mommy brain as evidenced above. And I still love you.

It rains a lot in the bay area, but after living there for three years I can count on only one hand the number of times I’ve heard a crack of thunder. Even then I don’t need all my fingers to count. I’ve forgotten how much I missed a real summer storm.

I’ve always loved storms. I remember being a little girl curled up on my grandma L’s lap, snuggling into her chest, watching the dark clouds grow as a storm rolled in. Usually wrapped in blankets we would sit outside in her rocking chair letting the wind toss our hair as we watched for lightning and listened for the rumble of thunder that would follow until the cold rain chased us inside.

As I grew older, even as an adult, I could often be found outside when a storm was rolling in. I would sit outside our house in the same rocking chair I used to share with my grandma (she passed on when I was still a little girl), wrapped tightly in a blanket, with my eyes on the sky watching the slate blue and gray clouds form and reform. I would feel the cold gusts of wind in my hair and listen for the deep sound of thunder. I always felt free and safe at the same time and the feeling always reminded me of my grandma.

While in bed in the middle of the night last night, after years of not hearing it, I pressed myself closer to my sleeping husband and listened intently as the deep rumbles of thunder echoed in my chest again and again during a nighttime summer storm. I closed my eyes, smiled to myself, and remembered.