Precious Time

I’m on the flight home, in Denver after a short layover, ready to take off. I just thought I’d post these pics from today. Eliza and I spent the day with Mary. She is so beautiful.

So, yeah, today we just sat around and stared at her. I was happy to soak up before I headed back to Utah.

Her forearm is the length of my pointer finger!!!

I loved how she was holding onto my thumb.

Sigh, just wishing for time to stand still. 

We got to the hospital this morning around 12:30. Joseph dropped us off on his way to go shadow a doctor. Joseph joined us a few hours later after he was done with that. 

Just amazing looking at her tiny head compared to his hands!!

Little Mary Joyce is perfection.

And her grateful parents know it. They are excited for her to come home. 

She is up to 3 lbs 11 ounces. To be ready to be discharged, Mary has to be 35 weeks gestation (she checked that off today) to be 4 pounds, and to be eating well on her own. She's doing really well on those last two, but it will still probably take another 7-10 days before she is ready. 

She woke up before I left for her 5:30 pm diaper change and then feeding (to be done feeding by 6). She is on a 3 hour rotation and is supposed to be done eating at 6 am, 9 am, noon, 3 pm, 6pm, etc. 

I was glad to see her cute little eyes open! Awake and looking at her mama! 

I miss you little Mary! I had never held a baby that small before, and it was precious to me. When we see her again in July (when Joseph and Eliza come out to Utah for family reunions) she will look like a totally different person. But we'll be sure J&E send us pictures everyday so that we get to see her as she grows. 

Visiting Mary

I spent the day in Ohio with Joseph and Eliza. We loaded up their bikes and then drove out to campus. Joseph went to a class presentation thing, and Eliza and I went to see Mary. Mary's little corner of the NICU...

Her NICU crib. 

Peeking in on that sweet little head ~

She is so tiny! 

I thought this was a gorgeous photo of Eliza holding Mary. The joys of motherhood captured in a photo.

Joseph joined us after his lecture.

Mary in my hands on one of my turns. 

Eliza stayed with Mary for a bit while Joseph took me on a tour of campus. Then we met up for lunch in the med student break room. The ward has been taking good care of them. We had some thai noodles and potstickers for lunch. 

(...and a few cookies that they have for free at the NICU check in table...) J&E started ping pong until some other students came in and they started visiting with them. Then we started a game of 3 person pool - Eliza was balls 1-5, Joseph 6-10, and I was 11-15. We tried to hit in each other's balls. But then I'd scratch and J&E would each put a ball back on the table. Then Eliza would scratch and we'd repeat, then J would scratch, haha, we are never going to finish this game!

Joseph is good, he gave us some pointers. He said that some medical students are craaaazy good. Yeah, around 5:15 we gave up and headed back to the Wexner Medical Center so we'd be there for Mary's change and feeding. Awww, the little angel.

I thought she looked like an enshrined Catholic Saint. 

So cute. She is just a little head sticking out of a pink blanket. Little Buddah. 

Little Mary's foot next to my hand for comparison. SUCH TINY FEET!!!!

She was wearing a little Charlie Brown onesie today. They said that my sister Camilla's daughter, Xela, who lives about an hour away, came by last week and gifted them these preemie onesies. Another size comparison - her little angel head next to my hand - AHHHH! 

Oh my gosh, we are just speechless looking at her. 

She gave me a grin in her sleep!

Back to peaceful slumber and meditation. 

We said goodbye to Mary, and then J and I got their bikes for a ride.

We rode by "the shoe" for a picture, and got photo bombed, haha

Then we rode the bikes along the Olentangy Trail back to their home. It was a 6+ mile ride, took about 30 min. It was really nice! Smelled so green and damp and earthy. Reminded me of Costa Rica.

Eliza drove home and had heated up a dinner for us to shared after we got back.

Corey sent me some pics of the kids at home. All is well there. Kids reading in a hammock. 

I'm not sure where the hammock came from, but looks fun!

Mel has been an amazing help, and Christian has been there too, and made everyone pizza last night and made dinner again tonight. Maybe we can hire them to be our live in maid and chef?

Corey got me a flight home tomorrow. When the flights were all delayed coming in yesterday, he was worried I might not arrive until really late and that I'd want more time, so he cancelled the flight home he had for tomorrow morning. He booked another flight though and so now I'll be leaving around 7:30 pm tomorrow and I will be back in Utah after 11 pm. 

Delayed

Well, I'm at the Dallas Airport with time to blog, yay. It's 4pm, my flight is at 6:40 on American Airlines.  I flew out on Delta, but that flight out of SL was delayed cause of weather and traffic control here in Dallas. I was supposed to leave Dallas for Ohio at 3:51, so with my delayed flight, I was going to miss the connection. But since the cause for the delay was stuff in Dallas, I kinda figured the flight out of Dallas would be delayed as well. I didn't know it was until after I landed (cause I didn't know my password for Delta so I couldn't get connected to the Wi-Fi. A nice guy next to me looked up my flight on his phone, it showed it still departing at 3:51. He looked up on the DFW airport app where I would need to go, and I took a quick video of it and made my plan of attack: We were arriving at gate E14, then up the escalator to level 3, go to skylink, Terminal C, down the escalator back to 2, hurry to gate C37. The DFW app said it would take me 14 min. I did a good hustle after getting off the plane and am pleased to report that I would have made it. I did it in 10 min, woo. But the plane at that gate was going to Mexico, so then I checked where my new flight was departing from. Terminal B. So back to Skylink. Now I'm at gate B44 with time to kill. I thought I'd get to meet Mary tonight, but I won't be arriving in Ohio until after 10 pm, drat. That's ok. That's too bad I'll be keeping them up late. Unless they stay up that late already. 

Corey was very nice to arrange all this for me. Mel is up taking care of the kids and filling in the "mom" role while I am gone. Yesterday I wrote up three papers for her with all my alarms the calendar events that she would be in charge of, letting her know I was ok if she decided to blow off the soccer practices today. I think I'll publish this right now and come update later if anything else happens. I have too many blog post tabs open, I'm going to finish August in this next hour, go me. Ah, they just changed our gate from B44 to B38. Hmm, I got a good set up here though so I think I'll keep pluggin' away. 

I do feel hungry but I'll be fine, I'm going to stick it out until tomorrow, or I'll eat some of the pumpkin seeds I packed. I haven't bought any food cause I'm too cheap, and cause being able to water fast is really easy without the distraction of prepping food for anyone, so this is my chance!

6:23 pm... boarding soon. I just finished Aug 2024, yay. Sep Oct Nov are done, so now I just need to do December, yay, good job me. I'll be arriving in Ohio late tonight. I talked to Joseph on the phone and he said that the NICU is open 24/7 so we're going to go see Mary tonight! Joseph is done with school, so he is good to party late into the night and sleep in in the morning, haha. Plus, he pointed out that 10:30 Ohio is just 8:30 in Utah, so it won't be too late for me either. 

~ 4 HOURS LATER ~ (or 3, depending on if you're going by local time or actual time elapsed...)

Well, here are pics from when I met my granddaughter!!!  Joseph got her out of her NICU crib.

Then I got to hold her! I held her sweet little head while Joseph held her hands so she wouldn't scratch her face.

Oh my sweetness...

Well this is amazing. She is so so so so beautiful!!!

She looks like a Wride. She could totally be one of my babies. She has the Wride look, except she's missing the proud Wride nose. She had Eliza's cute little nose. Mary's sweet profile. 

Oh my goodness... Baby heaven for real. We are all smitten!! I'm excited for the rest of the kids to meet her! We most likely will not be coming out here to Ohio, but in July for sure they will meet Mary, when Joseph and Eliza come to Utah for the Hibbert Reunion and then Park City. Mary and Ethan & Bella's babies are definitely going to be the centers of all attention! So sweet. We will come see you again tomorrow, Mary!

Re-creating a Photo

Yesterday at church, since K was wearing this red dress, I had an idea to recreate a picture we took of Natalie on the church lawn when she was 3 years old. This is what our final looked like.

First we looked at Natalie's picture... Natalie remembered that the blog post was on her 3rd birthday, so that is 2016, found it. 

We had K lean over, both of her hands on this side, good....

Well, the smile is a bit goofier, and her hair reminded me a little of Madam Mim in Disney's Sorcerer and the Stone, haha...

But we'll say that is good, we got a match! Someday I'll make a fun memory matching game with pictures of the kids, it will be fun. It was fast Sunday today. I felt really good after fasting, and then ate too much, doh. Abi stayed home sick today. Sophi and Natalie didn't have violin, so it worked out ok.

I also went to visit my parents yesterday. I had texted my dad to see if I could receive a father's blessing. I haven't had one for years. On our date night, Corey mentioned when Ethan gave him a blessing (I think in Florida?) and in the blessing Corey was told that his life is right on track, like nothing has gone wrong or been messed up (like by Movie Mouth not succeeding) so that gave Corey some comfort, and he's also gotten blessings from his dad quite a bit when he's stuck with this latest project to help him with work. And so I thought I'd like a blessing... I've gotten some from Corey before the school year, sometimes, if we remember. But back to school blessings are also a several week process, cause we got a lot of kids, and it drains Corey's energy and he can only do like two kids each Sunday. Anyway, by the time the kids are all done, I've usually forgotten about me. He's given me blessings before baby deliveries, so that's been a few years too since Katharine was born. Anyway, it was nice to go over to my dad's and have that blessing. Next time I'll remember to record it. 

And most exciting, on Saturday night Corey got a plane ticket for me to go out to Ohio on Tuesday, aka tomorrow, yay! I'm excited to be able to meet little Mary! Today was spent getting ready. I am packing light, so it didn't take me long to do that. Mostly I wanted to make sure things were good here so I wouldn't feel guilty about being gone for 3 days. Melodie is here to help, and Christian is going to be coming up too to help a few times, like tomorrow when the boys have soccer practice and Mel has to go to work (she teaches piano in Riverton). I wrote out a checklist for Mel for each day for the alarms that I set, with the things on the calendar and the times that I wake up the kids, etc etc~ Owen trumpet on Wednesday, that's the only real necessity, I don't mind if they miss soccer this week. The morning routine might be busy, but Mel said she is ready for the task. I caught up on laundry so they should be good with that until I'm back. Today, before I had packed yet, I also spent time blogging, lol. Kinda like when you need to pack for an extended trip and so you decide the top priority is to organize legos, right? Just taking care of the non-essentials. So, I blogged, and I am pleased to report that I finished February! yay. I worked on Feb some yesterday and finished today, just had to finish the last week. Now to quickly pack my stuff into my backpack, and see if Corey can get my laptop to work... it hasn't been working since Newport. When I tried to go to the internet, it says it can't load the page, so I'm not sure what's wrong there. Hopefully Corey can fix it so I can blog during my layovers. Ok, goodnight!

Soccer

I woke up too early this morning. I laid back down and tried to fall back asleep, but didn't, so when my 5:30 alarm to go on a ride in Draper went off, I got dressed to go. I did Ann's and Rush for the first time this year, fun! And when I was on my way home, I saw that Corey had just left for a ride. So... I drove to the trailhead to say hi. I thought he saw me drive past him, cause he checked his phone right after I did (I thought he was checking Life 360 to verify). I waited for him at the trailhead, but he never came, and then I looked and he had passed me - on the little paved temple quarry trail where he was out of my view. Was he avoiding me??? Cause I went to Corner Canyon without him? I thought I'd chase him down to still say hi and to show that I hold no hard feelings. It about killed me, I was behind him, he didn't have headphones in and I said "Corey!" a few times but he didn't turn and look at me. What the heck is going on?!?! So then once we were by the power plant, I was able to hurry and ride up beside him, he seemed genuinely surprised I was there. Ok, good, so he wasn't avoiding me. I said I'd ride up to the 1st bridge with him. I did, then I thought "Ok, fine, I'll do avalanche hill..." and I did, then I thought "ok, I'll go until the 3rd bridge" and I did, then I paused, Corey said he'd come back with me. I didn't want him to miss out on his ride, so we kept going. We went past Lisa up to Techy, and THEN I was really done and we headed back. My bike was doing something weird where the cassette didn't catch the chain and my wheel wouldn't turn when I pedaled. I was just air pedaling in vain. But then it would engage now and then. If I coasted at all it disengaged. So not sure what happened there, but Corey took my bike down to Salt Cycles after we got back. (Thanks sweetheart). So, I've probably had too much recreation time today already... I probably missed my chance to go climbing, doh. 

Well, after a morning of biking, Corey worked in the front yard, edging and mowing (Sophi helped with the mowing). I got kids going on tasks inside, then I took Owen to his soccer game at 12:45. There was a lot of sun but it was a nice temperature, in the mid 70s. I dropped Owen off then had to go get gas. By the time I got back, I had already missed him scoring a goal! He had like 10 more shots, but didn't make any of those, despite me having my camera ready. 

He's a good little player.

Abi took Peter to a b-day party at 1, then she brought Daniel to his game. Owen and his friend Afton, who came to cheer him on, went home with Abi, and I got Daniel and Katharine. K wasn't too interested in the game, so I didn't get any pics of Daniel, sorry buddy! One thing about watching him play though, that I thought was kinda cute and funny, is how he kinda hops and skips around when he runs after the ball. It's cute. He's not as intense of a player as Owen, but that might be the difference between 1st and 2nd grade teams versus Owen being the older of the 3rd 4th grade division. We watched Daniel play for 3 of the 4 quarters, for the other one we went to the slide. After Daniel's game, we went to Costco, which is always harder with kids. I would not have bought rice krispy treats or fruit snacks if they had not been with me. I'm sure their siblings will be grateful. Corey booked a flight for me to Ohio tonight. I'm going on on Tuesday. He got that one way flight with miles and working his travel magic. He hasn't gotten the return flight yet, but it will prob be Thursday, cause Peter wants me back for his kindergarten program on Friday. So it will probably be short, but I'm excited to meet Mary and see where Joseph and Eliza are living and will be spending the next 4 years. 

Baby Heaven

I got these cute photos from Joseph and Eliza today. 

Do they look like they are in baby heaven or what?!?! Look at those smiles. They are totally smitten. Eliza has been discharged and Joseph told me that when thy go to bed each night, they talk about Mary and look at pictures of Mary, she is all they can think about. (Well, Joseph is trying to think about his final too - it was yesterday but he got an extension to take it Monday). Cute little Mary is filling out and getting cuter and cuter every day.

She had a nasal tube to her stomach to give her more food at each feeding, cause she falls asleep, as most preemies do, cause it takes so much work to eat and they get so tired. Mary is back at her birthweight of 3 lbs 6 oz. She needs to be 4 lbs before she can be discharged. And Joseph said she's also been having little episodes where she forgets to breathe. She had a few of them today. She has to go 5 days with none of those before she can be discharged too. But she's doing great and my heart is happy to see Joseph and Eliza loving being parents. They are a week into understanding how much love their parents have for them. Corey and I talked on our date tonight (at Bandits) about me going out there to meet Mary. He's going to look for flights for next week. 

I did so some Simple Abundance reading this morning. I was feeling so good at the end of January when I was reading it everyday. I got off the wagon a little bit in Feb, as I was focused on family anniversary prep. I have been touch and go since then, so I have not been feeling the simple abundance of life. Instead I feel like I'm complicated lack of life - going crazy with obligations and interruptions and seeing so much need and not having the mental strength or resources to take care of all that needs to be taken care of. The trip to Newport probably took a bit of my strength. After we got back I felt like I needed a nap everyday. And I didn't want to clean or do anything for a week. I just sat around and read "Shackleton's Stowaway". You wouldn't know that cause I haven't blogged anything yet. I have not been taking time to record my thoughts. I need to get back into Simple abundance and back into blogging and back into being homemaker. I hoped I would/could do some of that today. The older girls were home from school, so last night I wishfully planned of taking off and going to the library. Just do something to have today be my "bday" personal day that I didn't get on Monday. But then Lily told me she scheduled a drivers permit appointment at 9:40... Ok fine, that's ok. I figured I could take her to that and still get in a few hours of something. So we went, and unfortunately, Lily was ignorant of the need for her to bring necessary paper work (birth certificate, social security card, etc). I didn't think of it until I was parking the car. I had dropped her off at the door, and maybe seeing her walk in empty handed triggered the thought. I walked inside and asked her if she had anything. She replied "No... what was I supposed to bring?" Doh, too late to have that discussion. She was so proactive in setting up this appointment, that maybe I was like "Ok, she's all responsible and she's got this!" Instead of bailing out right away, we waited for 20 min or so, and then we were called up to the counter. The gentleman who helped us was very nice, but gave us the bad news that she couldn't take the test or proceed with anything without those official documents first. They were giving her an official document, so they need to see official documents. Ok, well that's that then. I tried to be encouraging and told her that one of her siblings forgot their paperwork too (had to look it up - it was Wesley) So then we came back home. She wanted to go right out again, but I didn't want to, and thought instead of us solving this problem right away, that it might be good for this "learn by experience" moment to last a little longer. Corey said he'd take her on the way to Blue Note Band. There were no open appointments, but Lily said they take walk ins. They were on their way at 2pm. Lily needed to be at band at in American Fork at 3:30. They waited and waited, but weren't able to get in in time, so that was fail #2. I ended up not getting any personal time. I made sure kids did their chores (we're trying to kick that back into gear) - this is how that is going when I make kids do some of their tasks before going to play... Daniel was weeping as he did his math.

Abi did her stuff so I drove her to a friends house, cause I still needed the car. That was at 3:30, got back and around 4:30 I thought I'd go for a quick ride, tried to go from Grit Mill up the canyon, but only made it to Lisa, not to ruins or techy, before I had to get back to take Sophi to a birthday party. Maybe one reason why I like bike rides is because it is my only time without interruptions (well, if I remember to put my phone on "do not disturb") Busy busy, and the kids have been calling "Mom mom mom!" so much today (esp Daniel), I felt like I was going crazy. N asking to make muffins even though she hadn't practiced yet. Abi had to make cookies for a stake dance that she wasn't going to, but Lily went after she got back from band. Feeling like if we could hire a maid, then things would be better, but no $ for that... Yeah, I'm not seeing much simple/blessed abundance, just the heavy load. Maybe I'm grumpy cause I ate too much ice cream yesterday and today? I went down to pick up our bikes on Wednesday, and K was sad when we were headed back home without going anywhere, so I stopped to buy ice cream (to try to use as a potty training incentive for her) but we ate to much, and then yesterday it was gone cause some sneaky kids ate it without permission, and everyone denies it too, which is what I really am annoyed with. If you're gonna be brave enough to steal it, be brave enough to admit it. I decided to try and vent to Corey tonight on our date about all the things, esp just this struggle of faith and trust with his career, and he kinda laughed saying that he's glad I'm frustrated, cause when I pray, I get results. But that's the thing - I feel like we've been praying for help for decades! ...and we're still here, stuck and lacking. Again, because I'm focusing on the lack. "Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend..." - Sarah Ban Breathnach. Seems like this is a lesson I have to keep learning over and over again. There is more to that quote, here's the whole thing: 

"Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend...when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present - love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure - the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth." - Sarah Ban Breathnach

Sigh, I need to practice gratitude. I still struggle with it 15 years later, since my first urging to change my view about our life (aka repent) in Oct 2010 with President Monson's message on gratitude. 

Ok, so I gotta focus on the positive! Here's one for today: Owen's teacher sent me a sweet note: 

 

I have to tell you what your sweet Owen did today. I had a little girl that was really upset and she went outside to go to recess. Owen approached her and asked you look like you’re sad. Would you like to play with us? It made her day she smiled the rest of the day with a big smile. Thank you for raising such a sweet young man!!!! 

I was able to pause and feel gratitude after reading that. Thank you Owen, and thanks to his teacher for sharing that. 

Hooray for May

It is May - the last month of school, hooray! Of course, first step is surviving Maycember, deep breath. We'll take one day at a time. This morning was good. I got up early, went bouldering at Ft Union by myself (Lily didn't get up). The girls were on their way to school after I got back, but the boys were still asleep, so I did a little bit more exercise in the basement. Then got the kids up and out the door. Peter wearing his boots - those are nice cause he doesn't need help tying, plus it makes Wes and Peter both feel loved. Daniel has slip on shoes too. 

The kids all look out for each other really well. Natalie helped Peter make this cardboard computer, which I thought was super cute, keyboard and everything. 

The kids have been very creative lately with some markers that Natalie got from a friend, and using that with the big carboard boxes that the Ikea shelves were packaged in, has given the kids lots of material to be creative with. Daniel made a phone for himself. Katharine was upstairs entertaining herself with the markers after the boys left for school. I love how she holds the markers!

Eliza's mom has been out in Ohio this week to visit and see baby Mary. A photo of the new family at the hospital ~

Sweet Mary with her eyes open and looking toward the camera! She is doing great. There are no concerns for her right now. They don't know how long she'll be in the NICU, she just needs to gain weight and be eating well. It will be a few weeks. 

Guess what? There was an earthquake in Utah today. It was at 12:14 am last night. I felt it, texted Corey, then went to bed. I checked the news first thing this morning and sure enough, there was a 3.9 in Heber!

And apparently I looked that up at 4:34 am. (I shouldn't be up that early!) That's the 4th earthquake I've felt. First was in Chile in 2011, second time was Utah during covid - March 2020 (magnitude 5.7), 3rd time was on a trip to Tahoe (that was 6.0) and then today was the 4th time, a 3.9. The one that felt the strongest was the covid one. I remember I was on our bed with Peter, Corey was in Texas with Abi, and I just started counting, cause I've heard that earthquakes last for about 15-30 seconds, so it's to check how long we have to go. Anyway, so yeah, that was an exciting way to start the day. 

I'm starting yet another chore board to try and help us all work hard, stay on task, and for me to be consistent in following up with them. 

For ridiculous new on the current US President, this part at 6:19 shows him saying that the US constitution is a declaration of unity and love and respect. (He's crazy!) Corey and I check in everyday on the news, Corey watches and reads more than I do, but he keeps me in the loop.