Today I'm Thankful

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

I didn't really do much to celebrate today. It's hard to continue celebrating holidays outside of the country of origin. For example, on October 6th Andrew had me try to guess what holiday it was.

"What day is it?" he asked.

"Ummm...October 6th..." I said.

"But what holiday is it?"

"I don't know."

"It's the 6th of October!"

Silly me. How could I have forgotten? Perhaps because here it's just another day of school and work with no parades or fireworks or late-night neighbourhood parties. So today was Thanksgiving and there was no turkey, no family gatherings, no long weekend.

Zing! You've been pwned!

A few nights ago Emily was over and somehow my cookie-baking skills came up. I tell you--some things never die! I don't remember how the topic of cookies surfaced, but Emily was sure to remind me that my cookies are hard and insinuated that perhaps cookies should not be so.

"Well," Rachel said matter-of-factly, "Cookies are hard."

"Rachel, you just don't know any differently," said Grandpa. (*zing!*)

Today I…

• Ran approximately 7 miles (11.25 km) from Bridal Veil Falls to my house. And didn’t even die.
• Got bonked in the mouth by the head of a very excited Miriam (she was still asleep when I left to go running and thus hadn’t nursed yet) and spent the next ten minutes or so spitting blood out of my mouth.
• Nursed Miriam.
• Showered.
• Worked the remainder of my 10 required hours and wondered if I could possibly take another part-time job and not go crazy.
• Played witch and vampire with Rachel for a little while.
• Went to the temple with Andrew while the girls played at my parents’ house.
• Made peanut butter cookies with Rachel’s help while Miriam destroyed everything in the kitchen waist-height and below.
• Did the dishes.
• Bathed the girls and braided Rachel’s hair.
• Read stories to the girls and sang lullabies.
• Blogged.
• Read the scriptures. Not all of them. Just some.

I read somewhere that you should never put more than 10 things on your list-of-things to do. If the to-do list gets too long then I start feeling overwhelmed and when I feel overwhelmed I cope by napping. That doesn’t really help get things done. My life is also rather unpredictable. Getting bonked in the face wasn’t on my list of to-dos for today…and sometimes washing mountains of sheets that have been vomited in the night doesn’t get put on my list the night before, either. (Not that this has happened recently).

I used to not bother with making to-do lists at all but have been making an effort to be more…purposefully productive…I don’t know if it is actually working but I’m definitely limiting my list of to-dos to only ten items and I rarely accomplish them all, which reminds me…I need to wash whites before tomorrow.

All about Rachel

Right in the middle of a peaceful dinner conversation, Rachel stood up on her bench and announced:

“Excuse me, please! I have a favourite letter and it is R…and 2. I have a favourite animal and it is a pig. I have a favourite princess and it is Sleeping Beauty. I have a favourite colour and it is pink. Thank you!”

Then she attempted a curtsey, sat down and started eating again. I did all I could to stifle my laughter. This child can be so…random.

For example, we were walking to church a few weeks ago when someone sneezed. I think it was Daddy.

“Bless you!” I said.

“Sneeze you!” Rachel said, “I like to say ‘Sneeze you!’ instead of ‘Bless you!’ because when someone sneezes it makes more sense to say sneeze instead of bless.”

All about Meme

I know Miriam’s birthday is only a few weeks away but I’m afraid that if I wait any longer I’ll forget all the cute things she does. No, really. My mind is like a sieve.

Tonight at dinner she was so sleepy. She’s been sleepy before, of course, but we’ve only gotten to the point of sucking-thumb-while-resting-head-on-table.

Today she went all the way.

A day on the town

The girls and I spent the day on the town—Provo, that is, more specifically within a two-mile radius of BYU.

Just Half

On October 30th I'll be running "The Halloween Half," a half-marathon (13.2 miles or 21.25 km) down the Provo Canyon. I've been running fairly consistently since July and recently found a new running partner who also wants to be a quasi-serious runner. We go running a couple of times a week at the track and on Saturday morning we'll be doing our first "long run."

I've never actually trained for a big race before, so it's nice to be paired up with someone who has a little more experience. Brother Gillespie set us up. He just ran the St. George Marathon, coming in at 3:51:36. He was a little miffed that he didn't run it in under 3:35:00. That's the qualifying time for the Boston Marathon for his age bracket--he ran the Boston Marathon while we were in Egypt, so either last year or the year before that--and I imagine it's something he'd like to do again. Anyway, he knew that we both wanted to run and that we both needed to work our running times around our motherly duties, so he introduced us saying, "Nancy, this is Wendy. Wendy likes to run. Wendy, this is Nancy. Nancy likes to run, too."

We've been running together ever since. She'll be running the half-marathon with me. More exactly, she'll be running the half-marathon with her husband and I'll be tagging along as the third wheel.

I decided to run for a cause to help me keep going, to make every footstep mean something more than just me...running down a canyon...for "fun." My inspiration for this came from my friends Amy, who also runs for causes, and Tamsin, who is always doing amazing service projects and is simply a service-oriented person, and a dear anonymous friend, who recently was diagnosed with bladder cancer but I haven't asked her if I could disclose her name so she'll remain anonymous.

I've started a campaign at charity:water to earn money for water. My goal is to earn $2,500 by October 30th. $2,500 is enough money to fund half a well that will bring fresh, clean water to 300 people.

Clean water is very important to me--things have a way of becoming more important to you when you have to do without them. In Egypt we carted drinking water to our house week after week after week. It's back-breaking and tiresome work. Our water, though, was bottled water from clean springs in desert oases, not the contaminated water many of the locals were drinking. We saw people swimming in the Nile, drinking from the Nile, fishing in the Nile. We, on the other hand, were afraid to get a drop of non-treated river water on us. The Nile is polluted and snails harboring a parasite called Schistosoma run rampant in the murky water. These parasites cause a disease called Schistosomiasis, which causes an array of complications, most notably bladder cancer, the most prominent cancer in men in Egypt.

Bladder cancer aside, Schistosoma is a terrible disease to contract. According to Wikipedia, "among human parasitic diseases, schistosomiasis (sometimes called bilharziasis) ranks second behind malaria in terms of socio-economic and public health importance in tropical and subtropical areas" and puts and estimated 600 million people worldwide at risk; the disease is endemic to Egypt and approximately 70 other developing countries.

Water free from contamination for drinking, bathing, and cooking is crucial for villages hoping to eradicate schistosomiasis outbreaks as complete avoidance of the parasite is the only way to prevent contracting the disease. (While controlling the schistosoma population is possible, through the introduction of crayfish, for example, that seems to cause another set of problems).

Anyway, that's my rant on clean drinking water. To sum up, I'm hoping to raise $2,500 by October 30th.

I realize I'm starting a bit late starting this whole thing considering it's already October 5th. I fully intended to begin campaigning on October 1st but my plans changed when I was stricken with the stomach flu. I'm finally back in full-force, though, and went running yesterday for the first time since being sick. I think I should be good to go by the end of the month. Plus all campaigns are automatically given a 3-month window so you'll have until December 30th to donate in case you forget.

Go to http://mycharitywater.org/halloweenhalf to donate now. Have your friends and family donate, too!

Emily and Morgan sitting in a tree...

This weekend we were all feeling a little listless. Luckily it was a wonderfully relaxed General Conference weekend. We just took turns sleeping, throwing up, and getting engaged. Actually...only Auntie Em got engaged.

Morgan came down from Idaho this weekend, collected the ring from Karen--a family heirloom given to Karen by her mother instead of the necklace she was intended to receive because Grandma Anderson didn't believe that "Reid would ever buy [her] diamonds;" he's stayed true to that prophecy on principle and hasn't ever purchased a diamond ring for Karen--and presented it to Emily on Saturday afternoon. They went up into the canyon for a drive and got out to walk by the river. That's where he popped the question. She came home absolutely beaming. 

Emily said she couldn't be happier with the ring. I'm happy that tribute to Grandma Anderson will always be displayed on Emily's finger--it was the perfect fit, looks dazzling, and Emily is already thoroughly relishing the sentimentality of it. I think it's special that the ring has gone through three generations of women and hope that Emily can pass the legacy to a daughter of her own in the future.

I took a few pictures of the cute couple late this afternoon. Unfortunately not many of them turned out--Andrew is much more skilled with the camera but he was dozing away the afternoon in a fever-induced stupor--but a couple of them were really cute, I thought. These two are giddy with joy.

 

I suppose that was the main excitement of the weekend. We got to spend a lot of happy time visiting with family...when we weren't, you know, spending time visiting with the toilet.

The date is (almost) set for December 21st, which might seem quick, especially since we feel like we just met the boy, but Morgan and Emily have known each other since May and are both sure about this. Plus, we just spent the whole weekend with Morgan and think he's great...and probably destined to catch the stomach flu. (Sorry, Morgan, and anyone Morgan comes in contact with in the near future).

Magic to do, just for you

I didn't wash any sheets today, which I'm really happy about--it's the first time since Monday that I haven't washed sheets. That means that Rachel is feeling better. Unfortunately, I now have the stomach flu. Fortunately, I am much better at throwing up in the toilet, which, Rachel will tell you, is the best place to throw up.

She's still milking her illness as much as possible. She left the dinner table tonight claiming that she had to throw up. She didn't. But she held her head over the toilet (which is the very best place to throw up).

A few days ago she spat a vitamin into the toilet. When I asked her why she told me it was because she thought she had to throw up, but all that came out of her mouth was the vitamin. Funny how that works considering she was sucking on a vitamin.

Yesterday I tried giving her medicine again. She flat out refused (with a huge temper tantrum).

"Please let me give you some tylenol," I pleaded.

"No! I don't want any!"

"It will help you feel better."

"I don't want any."

She's got a cough in addition to the stomach flu, so I tried offering her a spoonful of honey.

"I don't need honey! No, no, no!" she yelled.

For lunch she wanted a tortilla with cheese. I had her on the BRAT diet by this time (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) and told her she could choose from those things. She insisted she wanted a tortilla. I decided to use this as a bargaining chip.

"I will give you a tortilla if you let me give you some honey, too. It will help your cough."

"No, mom! I don't need help with my cough."

"Why not, Rachel?"

"Because I just want to get better magically, okay? No vitamins, no honey, no tylenol, no cough syrup."

"Sweetie, sometimes our bodies need help getting better."

"Well, I want my body to get better magically."

"Listen. I'm not going to give you a tortilla unless you take a spoonful of honey. End of story."

Eventually I got her to take a spoonful of honey and I think it made her throat feel much better because later in the day she asked for another spoonful when her throat got all scratchy again.

She's feeling much better today, although she's still not quite 100%. To get her to rest in the middle of the day is like trying to waltz with a bear--she simply won't do it. I spent almost the whole day sleeping and I'm already feeling much better. It's almost like magic...

After this week...we might need therapy

Before I left to go running this evening I turned to Andrew and said, "Are you sure you can handle it?"

I barely survived the day and a solid run was just what I needed to pound my frustration out.

"Of course I can handle it," he scoffed, "I'm the dad, not a babysitter. Besides...they're sleeping."

"That's true," I told him, "But I'm the mom and I hardly handled today well."

"Oh, I can handle it!" said the ever-confident Andrew. Famous. Last. Words.

When I returned from my run Andrew was sitting at the kitchen table looking like he was about ready to tear his hair out.

"So, how'd it go?" I smiled.