Doha preview

It's hot today. For reference, wunderground.com tells me that it's 100°F here, with a "feels like" temperature of 115°F. So of course we had to go outside to feel what that feels like—just for reference.

Mumbly mornings

Last night we did not have a thunderstorm, but Phoebe remained terrified of the non-impending storm all night long and throughout the morning hours. 

See, the kids stayed out late playing night games (kick-the-can and things of that nature) and they noticed that they sky was simply crackling with energy. The clouds were resting about 60 miles away (the storm was over Athens) but we could see the lightning in the clouds on the horizon. The kids were very excited about this—it was quite neat to watch, but felt a little strange because we couldn't really hear any thunder (whether it was too far away or whether the cicadas and katydid screeching simply covered it up, we will never know). 

Phoebe was completely freaked out. 

She wouldn't go to bed. And then when she did finally go to bed she woke up a few hours later in a state of panic over our inevitable doom. 

We tried to explain that the storm had dissipated before it made it to us. We didn't see a drop of rain or hear a single crack of thunder. We looked out at the stars—see how clear the sky is? We looked at the weather forecast—no storm.

We tried lullabies. We tried nightlights. We tried prayers. We tried melatonin. We tried stories. 

We tried simply sleeping snuggled up beside her. 

She remained on high alert. 

Miriam's Organ Recital

Our stake (largely through the efforts of Sister Hammond) arranged a farewell organ recital for Miriam this past Sunday. Miriam has played for stake conferences, our ward, the Magnolia (Spanish) ward, stake Easter events, stake Christmas events, and so forth. She has loved getting to use her talents in this way. Sister Hammond keeps a little sign with (a paraphrase) 1 Corinthians 10:31 on the organ, "Do everything for the glory of God" to help remind her while she plays the organ that...that's why she's sitting there. 

Miriam also feels that music contributes to worship, with variations and flourishes helping people listening to the same old song feel something new and different and—God willing—divine. She has, at times, received pushback for playing classical music during postlude, which she thinks is rather funny because much classical music was written for worship. Our current bishop more or less gives her free reign but that doesn't mean everyone in the congregation approved of her choices (and, boy, did she hear about it...but she's pretty good at ignoring superfluous advice). 

One of Miriam's favourite composers is Bach (despite her program last night being full of French composers). He began most compositions with the inscription J.J. (for Jesu, Juva, meaning Jesus, help) and ended them with S.D.G. (for soli Deo gloria meaning glory to God alone), indicating that his music was his worship. It sounds like he was a fan of 1 Corinthians 10:31!

Procrastination

"I need to call the doctor to make an appointment for you girls," I said to Phoebe and Miriam while we were playing with play dough in our rather empty basement. 

"Oh, for what?" Phoebe asked. "Please not for shots."

"For shots, actually," I said. "I don't remember which ones. I just have a note in my calendar that says to call the doctor to schedule a couple of shots for you. I remember that when you had your check ups you both had the first shot in a two-shot series, so now it's time for the second shot."

"Aw, man!" Phoebe said. Then she asked brightly, "Can you make the appointment for Sunday?"

"Why Sunday?" I asked (not even bothering to tell her that the doctor's office is closed on Sunday). 

"Because I don't like shots," she explained.

"How would making an appointment on Sunday help that?" I asked.

"Because I know I'm only four and I don't have a good sense of time, but I do know that yesterday was Sunday so that means I have a bit of time to go before it's Sunday again."

"I see," I said. "You'd like to put this off for as long as possible."

"Yeah."

"I'll see what I can do."

Their appointment is for Thursday, which is still a good ways off!

Is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?

We left to pick Zoë up from spending a week at Rosie and Austin's house right after church on Sunday last week. She had a good and busy time at Rosie's house—they went to a stake primary activity, a water park, a fun farewell party at a playground for one of Rosie's friends, and did a lot of other fun things! 

Rosie and Austin were kind enough to drive down and meet us in Chattanooga (we took a 5-seater car and left Miriam and Benjamin at home because our van is...the way it is) so it wasn't too far of a drive. 

We met at a park by the zoo and the kids enjoyed playing with each other for a couple of hours (even though it was hot) while the grown ups visited. 

Because it's June (June, June, June)!

Last night when we went to bed we didn't have to set an alarm for the morning and this somehow felt significant. Not in an "Oh, boy! Now we'll really get to sleep in!" way (because Phoebe exists), but in a "When was the last time we didn't have to set an alarm because we had somewhere to be the next morning?" kind of way and after reviewing our calendar, it turns out that the last time we didn't have to set an alarm was, in fact, in May. So perhaps it is significant that we didn't have to set an alarm last night (even though Phoebe diligently woke us up in the morning). 

Here's a little smattering of what went down this month:

Last Fun Friday

Phoebe was as pleased as punch to get her ribbons from last night's swim meet—especially her speed breaker ribbon (because it's rainbow coloured). She did not want to "spend" her ribbon to pie a coach in the face (even though I explained that she would still get to keep her ribbon).

Last day of swim team!

The moment Phoebe's been waiting for all summer finally arrived! She is the proud new owner of—not one but—two shiny new ribbons (with more coming tomorrow)!

Summer of Stings

After Phoebe got stung (which was shortly after Zoë got stung) this summer, I ordered a big pack of sting relief pads. It's really just gauze soaked in lidocaine or something, but at least that's something. 

Andrew thought it (re: the box size) was overkill because the kids don't get stung that often, but I was like, "At the rate we're going this summer we're definitely going to need these!"

Cut to today...

I had just finished feeding the kids an early (3:00) dinner so they could be ready for their swim meet later this afternoon (when they prefer to subsist on junk food) and they went outside to let out some energy. 

The peace and quiet of the house was interrupted by some other-worldly screaming. Andrew and I made some mad-dashes from various corners of the house to get to the front door to see what could possibly be happening out there and met Phoebe leading a weeping and wailing Alexander to the front door. 

A bug landed on the back of his head and he had the audacity/instinct to reach back and scratch where it landed. Ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom...ba-da-BOOM! That nasty creature administered a double dose—one for his head and one for his finger.

The Utah Shipment

On Tuesday morning three wonderful young people (from Miriam's seminary class...not from our ward) showed up to help us haul our Utah-bound stuff up to our U-haul moving pods. Our driveway is steep so this was rather a herculean task, but we managed to have the job done in a little under an hour (which felt pretty incredible). 

Here's Benjamin walking down the driveway with the two young men who showed up (we also had a wonderful young woman show up):