Wheels

When I was pregnant with Ethan, the sedan we had (our only car) completely died after 12+ painful months of paying more for car repairs than we would have for a car payment. We bought a Mazda Tribute (with 4WD for those Boston winters). We put 85,000 miles on it over the next 5 years, 20 days and absolutely loved it. We never spent a single cent on a repair that wasn't part of regularly scheduled/expected maintenance (oil changes, brake pads, tires, etc).

HOWEVER, once I was pregnant with Colin, I started dreaming of a minivan. The only woman in America dying to have one? Probably. But I knew it would make life SO much easier. Jason, being practical and financially responsible (how boring), said, "Not until we have 3 kids. We really don't need it before then."

The Friday before Christmas we stopped at a car lot on our date and looked at minivans. Twenty-four hours later, we drove this into our driveway. I LOVE IT.

Ethan was sad to say goodbye, though. He's a sentimental kid. Oh, and he wants to upgrade to a limo when we're done with the minivan. A sentimental kid with aspirations, clearly.

And lest you think Jason finally caved to my whining, cajoling, begging, pleading...baby #3 is due July 31.

A Sad Tale

My mother-in-law desperately wants to see pictures of my kids, but she's coming to visit a week from Friday, and there's something I need to reveal now so she can come to terms with it before she arrives.

Jason and I are celebrating our 10th (!) anniversary next month. Shortly after we were married, I bought an avocado at the local Stop & Shop in Jamaica Plain, ate it, then planted the seed. For fun, I guess. I made several mistakes with it, but it managed to survive, even in our tiny third floor living room. It grew up to be tall and spindly and never developed a trunk (my fault). It turns out the avocado tree is not the most attractive plant.

Here's a random picture of it at about 5 years old.

It did better at times and worse at times. Sometimes it would seem to be almost dead, then suddenly have tons of new growth. Over the years, Jason decided it represented our marriage. My mother-in-law, Ann, totally bought into this. If she came to visit and it was doing poorly, she would assume we needed counseling. If it was doing well, she would be so happy for us.

At one point, I decided it was time to chuck the tree and start over, since I'd made so many mistakes with it. I thought it was just better to discard it and start fresh. Jason and Ann were deeply disturbed because (they said) this meant I was willing to toss a marriage aside that had so much history, even if there had been some rough spots, to start up with someone else. So the plant stayed.

At some point along the way Ann decided the plant not only was symptomatic of our marriage, but had control over it. We asked her to plant-sit it while we were in Europe for 10 days, and she said she "couldn't handle that much responsibility for your marriage." When we left town a year ago during the winter and forgot to bring it in, she was very concerned it would freeze.

Long story even longer, the avocado moved with us from Jamaica Plain, to Stoneham, to Durham, to our house in Raleigh. We put it out on the back porch, where it thrived. Jason lopped off the main part of the top of it, leaving only one tiny branch with leaves, and it took off. It finally developed a trunk, and flourished in the humid southern air. Jason took it as a sign that after 10 years of post-graduate training, we were in a better place than ever before. (I can't argue with that.)

Here it is around year 7 in our townhouse in Stoneham, outside Boston. It's in the overexposed area in the window.

And here it is today. In November, we had several nights in a row of below-freezing temps. We lost my basil plant, and then this. I'm not sure what to say. It was doing so well, and thriving so much, we just forgot to pay attention to it. The conditions were perfect, so we never had to water it, or even think about it. And then it was suddenly gone. Does the marriage allegory still apply?

Jason and I are still together, and I *think* our marriage is going to be okay without the magic feather. But maybe tomorrow I should plant a new avocado, just in case...

Firm Foundation

When we unpacked and set up our nativities this year, Ethan wanted to know the story behind them. I was going through each "character" and explaining his or her role. I said, "And these are the Wise Men," at which point Ethan interrupted me and said,

"I already know about him, Mom. He built his house on a rock."

I seriously doubt I'll be posting again until after Christmas, so Merry Christmas to all!!

A Lot Like Christmas

Every year I think, "This is the best Christmas with kids yet!" This year is no different. Ethan is so excited he's going to explode from it. I know there's an age where Christmas stops holding the same wait-up-all-night-most-exciting-moment-of-the-year feeling, but right now, we're right in the middle of that, and I love it. This time of year is always crazy busy, so of course I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. I'm going to ignore it for now. We spent the weekend buying a tree and getting it decorated. And we really did stretch it over the whole weekend, because last year we tried to accomplish it all in one Family Night, and it was nothing short of disastrous. Much more relaxed this year. I love the way it smells. I love that Target sells shatter-proof ornaments. I love that Ethan kept singing the chorus from "Angels We Have Heard on High" the whole time we were decorating the tree (which he learned in Primary today). Ethan keeps saying it needs more ornaments. Probably because Colin keeps taking them off. Poor Colin was such a trooper all day, despite a high fever and a miserable cough. Doesn't he look like he feels rotten? He does. We've never collected ornaments, but we figure since we have kids, it's past time to start. I love this time of year!

13 (point one!)

This morning, Jason and I ran the same half-marathon that he ran last year. I can't believe I actually went through with it! Quite honestly, usually I'm a quitter when it comes to things like this. It was the furthest I've ever run and only my 2nd race, so I'm pretty excited that I did it.

I had 3 goals: 1) To finish. Period. 2) To not finish last. 3) To finish in under 2:30. (I know that's not very ambitious...I'm slow and steady; I'm not looking to win any awards.) I'm happy to say I met all 3 goals. I was really nervous 2 weeks before the race, but pretty calm this morning and in the week leading up to it. I think part of me knew I was prepared and part of me figured I'd find a way out of it. The only thing I was worried about was the weather. It was cold...26 degrees at start time, but 19 degrees with the wind chill. It didn't end up being too much of a problem, though.

Thanks to Jason for being so encouraging about training, for running with me, pacing me, and talking to me. Thanks to my parents for taking the kids not only during the race, but last night, too, so I could get a good night's sleep. And to the fun women in my ward who were so willing to go running with me while I trained.

I may never run again. I'm really sore. But (obviously) so proud of myself!

"Shows Initiative"

Colin's really into climbing lately. And getting his own snacks. And doesn't seem to feel guilty about it, either.

Another Year

I've been blogging for over a year now, and it's brought to my attention that our lives are incredibly redundant. And I don't just mean the little things...cleaning the same dishes, washing the same clothes, fixing the same jam-and-butter-sandwiches-on-white-bread-with-the-crusts-cut-off, but the big annual events, too. I think I could just take pictures of my kids each year and superimpose them into the same scenes...pumpkin patches, beaches, sledding hills. We'd still do that stuff, of course, but maybe I could leave my camera home and stop trying to capture the moment.

All this just to say that we went to the annual NC State Fair (again, and will go again next year), that we rode the rides (again), ate fried food (again), and had tons of fun (again). You can see Ethan riding the slide last year, and below. And eating a deep-fried twinkie last year, and below (and in the same arena, even).

We did mix it up a little this year. First, we were joined by my parents for the first part of the night, and then by our friend Ryan and his 2-year-old son, Oliver, for some rides (above) and for the demolition derby. To be really honest, I didn't even know exactly what a demolition derby was. (It's bumper cars with real cars just in case I'm not the last person on earth to figure this out.) It was extremely entertaining. Ethan was really into it, and Jason had the time of his life. The car below was one of our favorites. This is right after they put out a fire under its hood. And it was still competing. It lost more than one tire, and was still competing. It was disqualified after the second fire, or the driver would have kept right on going. Crazy. All the pictures above are from Saturday night. Jason and I went alone on Friday night to check it out. We had a little friendly carnival game competition between us. One of the things we did was shoot 20-gauge shotguns at a paper target. Twelve people compete at a time. It was me, Jason, another girl, and 9 men. Guess who won? That would be me. I won a 12-pound frozen turkey. The funny thing is, I was the only one that needed help loading the gun. I shot a 12-gauge shotgun when I was 16 (and I was the oldest one there...you gotta love Idaho), but haven't picked up a shotgun since. It was either beginner's luck or I'm a natural with a shotgun. I'm not planning to find out which it is. Stay tuned for more state fair pictures...exactly one year from now.