A Date, busy season & Fun

In my Easter post, I mentioned that David and I were able to go on a date to the Lamb of God with some friends. It was a lovely performance, and I loved being there with David. 

 I had asked my mom (last minute, she's the best) if she would watch the kids because we were going to be out late. She agreed, so I drove the kids to Morgan on Friday night and came back to pick them up Saturday morning. David had to work, but we were able to sneak in a morning date at Tangie's Cafe in AF. 

We have wanted to go to Tangie's Cafe since the first few months that we lived here in Lehi. It's right on American Fork main street and you drive past it on the way to the temple. They have kind of weird hours, especially for a young working couple (and then a couple with a brand new baby). Over the years, we've mentioned wanting to go there, but just never have. When we woke up that morning we realized we could squeeze in a morning breakfast date. As David was looking up options on his phone he mentioned Tangie's and I jumped on it! It ended up being perfect. A cowboy style cafe that spoke to Lehi's roots. It reminded me of the cafe in Lyman (a real cowboy cafe) or the little cafe in Ephraim growing up. It made me happy that it's survived through all the change it has surely seen. 

I've been reading a book about FUN and how making space for "fun" can help you create a healthier, happier, well-rounded life. Some of my fun factors include doing new things and doing spontaneous things. I sometimes try to substitute real fun with food, like "Look how much fun we're having, do you want an ice cream cone?" In that case, the food is not truly fun. However, I realized that I can get that same feeling of connectedness and happiness when we are spontaneously trying a new restaurant (that we've talked about for years). 

I had fun with David - he's my ultimate fun magnet and I'm grateful for this little bit of time we got to spend together in the busy-season-that-will-never-end-2022. He's been working so hard, and my last report from him was that there still isn't a light at the end of the tunnel, but maybe we are rounding the last big curve that you have to go around before you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. So here's hoping for that because the kids and I are missing him and he's weary from working so much and so hard. 

The other night David got home from work late but Austin was still awake, and I told Austin that he would come in to snuggle him as soon as he changed. It took David a minute to change and when he went to Austin he was just sobbing in his bed because he was missing David so much. That's when I realized that although this is not MY hardest busy season (the kids are at good ages and we are keeping busy) it really is hard on the kids to not see their dad. We will all be glad when summer comes and we get to spend more time with this guy that we all love best. 

Pre-Busy Season

We can feel the impending doom of Busy Season looming near, and so before it hits - we've done some fun things together to take advantage of being able to have David with us.

I'm being dramatic, in that I'm (Shantel) feeling better about the approaching busy season than I ever have before. The kids are at great ages. I'm feeling confident about our schedule. I don't have a million things (design-wise) hanging over my head like I have in previous years. But even all the confidence in the world doesn't mean that we're not going to miss this guy while he's working long hours this year.

A few highlights from our Pre-Busy Season shenanigans:

-Austin Date

 -Lydia Date

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-Family Bike Ride

 

-Natural History Museum of Utah

David is such a good dad to these sweet kids, and I'm grateful that it's important to him to spend a little extra time with them now - because he knows that he won't be able to spend as much time with them over the coming months. We all love this dad of ours, and he always manages to make each one of us feel important and valued. 

I know that I'm grateful that I have him by my side through this journey we are on. He works so hard to provide for us, and sometimes that means that his job requires much more time and energy. But even though it's demanding, he always has enough time and energy to show me that he loves me and our family. 

Busy season isn't our favorite time, but in some ways it makes me all the more grateful for David. Even so, we're already looking forward to summer! 

A lunch date.

It's no secret that David has been putting in a lot of hours at work lately. He pushes so hard through the day and somehow still has the energy to play and show how much he loves us when he's home. He tries to make sure he either gets to see the kids in the morning or at night and I can't express how grateful I am for that. The kids love him and being able to see him at least once a day is going a long way - even though they miss him. Lydia's taken to asking when she gets to see him again and then blocking his way to the door and telling him she doesn't want him to leave. (Seriously, I know it makes it hard for him to leave when we're all begging him to stay - but we just love him so much.) 

This week he was passing from Salt Lake to Provo (to a client's office) right during lunch time so he stopped and took us out to lunch at SLAB pizza just around the corner from us. We'd never been before and it was pretty good, although - no plates or knives which made cutting up pizza for kids a little difficult. (And I'm pretty sure they just threw the extra 1/4 pizza away because we only ordered 3 slabs. David and I were both shocked! And we spent a good while later than night trying to figure out a better business model for them.) But it was SO nice to see him during the day, especially with good food at a fun restaurant. We all loved it. 

We're half-way through March. So just another month of being superbusy+Saturdays. Then maybe another month past that of being superbusy but minus the Saturdays. (I hope!) Then Summer! We can make it until Summer, right? Except that I already feel like it should be summer. (It's really the Saturdays that push the busyness over the edge. I think if we can make it until we have Saturdays back it will go a long way. 

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I had terrible dreams last night. Just really weird and upsetting. Austin woke up and David went and got him and brought him into our bed, but I was having a hard time shaking the yucky feelings and stress from my dream. David stayed in bed longer than he should have and just held my hand (with Austin between us) until I was sure that all of the bad-ness wasn't real and that everything was really okay. And when I told him that in my dream I made a mistake and owed someone 55 thousand dollars, he told me that even if that was real life he would help me find a way to pay it. I laughed and asked if he had that extra money laying around, but he told me that he'd get a loan from the bank then get a second job to pay it off. I can't believe how lucky I am to have such a loving and hard working man to call my own. He truly is my best friend, and when he's gone all day I just can't wait for him to come home at night because I never feel as happy or as loved as I do when I'm with him. He walks in the door amid chaos and he turns everything to happiness. (Even when he's had a hard day at work, he never takes it out on us. I wish I could say the same thing about myself.) 

I guess there's not much of a point to this post other than record our fun lunch date and to remind myself how lucky the kids and I are to have such a hard-working and loving Daddy in our lives.  

Brain Dump

I just watched a video clip that showed up in my facebook news feed. It showed a herd of elephants standing in a small river. One of the baby elephants suddenly gets swept downstream and the mom charges down the river to save her baby. The next minute or so is spent watching the mom struggle to help her child to the bank of the river until one of the other elephants (the father?) comes over and together they are able to get the baby back up to the safety of the shore.

Insert many, many tears.

The fact that this video clip brought on so much emotional turmoil probably speaks to my mental state lately.

Life is so weird, looking back over the past couple of months I only remember the happiest times and feel like we are doing great! Then I start to remember about how many days we were only able to get the absolute minimum done: survive. The days that the dishes were stacked up, the tv was left on, and the laundry left un-done. I guess we are doing a pretty good job of simultaneously having wonderful adventures and enjoying our life - and feeling like we are barely keeping our heads above water. Can those two things happen at the same time? I don't know.

David's been working a lot over the last couple of months. *sigh* Busy Season strikes again. He's been such a champ to make such an effort to see Lydia and Austin every day, even though he has to work so much. He either tries to go in late so he can see them in the morning, then works late that night - or he tries to go in super early so that he can get home before they go to bed. I know that his work is taking massive amounts of energy and I'm continually amazed at how much time and energy he devotes to making sure the kids and I are all taken care of and aren't feeling lonely or neglected. We are on the count-down to the end of busy season and we are looking forward to summer when things won't be as busy. (Two weekends left - hooray!)

I love blogging and feel sad that this poor little space has been so neglected lately. I enjoy blogging and appreciate having this space to verbalize my thoughts and feelings while at the same time being able to record our lives together. I've had a few RLD clients that I've been working with over the last several months and that, combined with the massive amount of Primary stuff that I do on the computer, has pretty much taken all of my computer time. I feel like I always have something that is "really important" that I need to be working on, and I promise myself that I will blog later that night even though I know that I won't because I know I will be too tired. Today, I'm putting off design work and finally sitting down to blog while Lydia and Austin are napping.

I can't stand the thought that Lydia might think that I like the computer more than her. Sometimes when I'm working on completing a task on the computer, I find that I've completely ignored her trying to tell me something even though I'm sitting right by her as she watches a "show". It breaks my heart and makes me want to put the computer away and never pull it out again. I love her so much. Sometimes I look at her and my heart just wells up with how much I love her, and it makes the times that I let her down that much harder to bear. Here's to learning from my mistakes and working even harder to be the mom that my littles ones deserve to have.

Last week one of my friends posted about a study that her favorite professor at BYU was doing about memory and the pregnant/postpartum brain. She was asking for people who would like to take part of the study. I can't tell you how much I love stuff like that. (Throw-back to when we used to do taste-test studies in the NFS building at USU to get free Aggie Ice Cream tokens!) I totally jumped on the bandwagon, barely making the cut with Austin's age, as they were only accepting up to 6 months postpartum. I did a survey online, then had to go to BYU for the second half of the study. We made a lovely day out of it and got to campus just in time to hear the bell tower chime 12 o'clock. We counted the dongs, and then enjoyed the music that came afterwards. Lydia was enchanted and loved the experience (she even counted the 12 gongs all by herself!) We walked across campus and enjoyed the sunlight and fresh air, and although it was quite obvious that I didn't really belong there anymore - I loved being back on a college campus. The study itself was interesting and fun - and Lydia and Austin were great for the college students who were there to watch them. I was a proud mama as they told me that my children were darling and had been perfect. (Ha!) To top it off, they gave me $40 for participating. Yay for more money to put towards our Thanksgiving Point Memberships. After the study we met up with David who was in Provo working on a client and went out to lunch at Chik-fil-A, which was delicious and such a fun treat.

This last weekend we made a trip up to Idaho Falls for my cousin's wedding. We went up Friday morning and spent the next couple of days enjoying the happiness of family. We stayed with Jenna and I loved spending the days with my sister and Lydia loved spending the days with her cousin Camille. My mom and dad and brother Matthew were all there as well and I just loved the whole thing. David couldn't come because he had to work - but I'm so glad that we made the trip. Austin didn't sleep great, but he did roll over for the first time so Idaho Falls can keep it's "magic" status. I don't know what it is, but Austin just loves his Aunt Jenna. He laughs and giggles (and apparently rolls over) more than almost any other time. I guess I can relate, Jenna can make me laugh more than almost anyone else as well. The lack of sleep made for some of my not-the-greatest parenting moments, and we were late to the temple for pictures, but overall I'd say the weekend was a smashing success.

My Grandma Walker hasn't been doing super well lately and is in a rehabilitation facility in Ogden for three weeks. She's been up and down for a while now, but a couple of weeks ago - she had gotten so bad that she couldn't even feed herself. But then, she snapped out of that low stage and the doctors are trying to help her get better. She hates it at the rehabilitation center. Hates it. She just wants to go home. But they are working wonders with her! They have her in physical therapy and she is using her fingers better than she has been able to in years. I don't exactly know how, but they've gotten her off of her oxygen tank which she's had for years and years. (David said that he doesn't remember ever seeing her without it, I can't even remember how long it's been.) They are helping her body be able to take care of itself again, which is amazing, but she's just so miserable. It's so hard to see her like that. We stopped to visit her on our way up to Idaho Falls and then again on our way home. Both times we left, she started crying about how much she just wanted to go home. (I think it was also very hard for her to miss Chris and Tara's wedding - I don't know that she's missed any of her Grandchildren's weddings before.) My sweet Grandma has done so much for me, I just keep wondering what I can do for her at this point in her life? I wish that we lived closer so that we could spend more time with her. I just hope that she knows how much she is loved.

I know that this post is pretty jumbled and rambling - but I feel so much better for having been able to sit down and write whatever came to my mind. I have a whole bunch of pictures that need posting, but that will have to wait for another blog post. Some of our friends have invited us to a Chocolate Chip Cookie tasting party, and it's about time to wake up my sweet sleeping children from their naps in order to get dinner eaten and get ready to head over. (More on the many, many, chocolate chip cookies we have/are about to consume later, I'm sure.)