Hair Cut for Brayden

We decided that it was time to cut Brayden's hair. It didn't seem that long until it fell into his eyes. However, when we were at the salon and they wet his hair down and pulled it up it was LONG (at least for a well groomed boy). I sat in the chair and was caped, then held Brayden on my lap and was also caped.

According to the Polynesian tradition, you should not cut your baby's hair for the first year of their life. This keeps them "healthy". I think it has more to do with how hair is cut in a 3rd world nation than the timing of when it is cut. At any rate, we decided after 11 1/2 months Brayden would need his hair cut for all of the photos that will be taken in the next month.

In other happenings, Sabrina and Moira traditionally have the same sandwich everyday for lunch. Wendy got the girls their lunch then stepped out of the room for a minute. When she returned Sabrina proudly showed her what she made from her sandwiches. It took Wendy a second to figure out what it was. Here is a picture so you can place your guess.

If you look close you can see that she took bites in just the right places to turn them into a "R" and "L". Pretty clever!

Adam

Personal Revolutions

As posted previously, I've decided to go back to work, at least temporarily. The more I think about what I'm doing and why, the more I find myself unsure of what label to put on this decision. I'm working again, part-time, in the evenings, for how long? Trying to find the whole work/life balance has seemed elusive over the past two years since I first went back to a full-time job when Moira was one year old. I seemed to drift in and out of working like one drifting in and out of restless sleep. I quit when my balance was off and went back when I regained my equilibrium. In fact, the more I pondered why I did this the more I realized that I always felt this way. Even as a high school and college student attempting to plan out my five and ten year goals, ambitious achievements would top the list. But at the back of my mind was the ever present echo of wanting to marry and have children. I couldn't see how to do both then, and certainly the way is not any clearer now. I did, however, just stumble across an article that articulated my conflict for the first time. I saw myself in some of these women, though certainly not with their list of credentials. Yet, I too was drifting back and forth across the great divide that is career vs. family life.


My first job after three years of maternity leave was at a fast-paced, intense business with many egocentric men. I was only looking for a job. My employer was looking for someone who could keep pace with these high-flyers. After five miserable months I concluded that this environment was not healthy for me or my children. The stress I was under meant that all four members of our family never had a peaceful day. So I drifted out. It took five weeks to reestablish my balance and then I drifted back into another job. I stayed there for six months until my pregnancy became too difficult for my working body. I gave notice and went on bed rest until Brayden was born two weeks later. Then when my son was ten months old my employer contacted me about returning as a Christmas Temp. I considered the idea and decided to go back to work for a few months. Now that I have been working for two months I can see myself working until such time as I don't need it anymore. I drifted back into this position and when I no longer have any use for it I will drift away.

Where am I headed? My long-term goals are consistent, that hasn't changed. But the means I use to get there change as my needs and my families needs change. And I think that is the true definition of freedom: the ability to adapt to one's circumstances without outside constraints.

I know this seems too deep for this blog, but just thought I'd share. If it's too thick, you can come over and try the fudge that I made in my very Susie Homemaker home.

Follow-up on previous posts

Just to follow-up on some of the happenings in our family:

I took Moira back down to Primary Children's to follow-up on her thumb surgery. It was not releasing like they said it would. The doctor took a look at it and concluded that they had failed to cut enough of the tendon to release her thumb. On the good side, most of her thumb has released and when she does "pop" it up it doesn't hurt her anymore. He explained the procedure like this: With children they have to use anaesthesia for obvious reasons and as such they can't check that they cut enough so they have to use their best judgement. If they cut too much it causes the thumb to not retract, so our result is of course the more desired of the two. Our options at this point? Make her use it until it loosens up and hope she grows through it. OR Have her go back into surgery to have the last little piece cut. He advised just waiting, so I'm going to go with that option. At some point down the road if we decide it's not working then he will go back in and do the surgery. He would rather not have to do it because then his track record of re-do's will double. (He's only had one out of the thousands of thumbs he's done.)

Adam is no longer calling-free. They put in a new Elder's Quorum Pres. last week (recalled the EQ Pres. from our dissolved ward--haha) and he called Adam as an instructor. Adam is happy because he prefers teaching to responsibility. All I can say is that the Quorum should be pretty happy now since they won't have to join the High Priests for lessons anymore. *SNORE* I guess it was pretty boring (there's a reason HP's are known for sleeping).

I stopped doing babysitting/daycare, too much stress on me and the kids. Sabrina was starting to have behavior problems again. I think she's extra-sensitive to stressors in her life. When I was working full-time and had the girls in day care she started stuttering pretty badly. When I quit and we took her out of daycare the stuttering stopped completely in two days. She hasn't been stuttering this time, but she was acting out pretty severely. So I had to quit something to refocus on managing and mothering her. I am still teaching piano and working swing-shift for the Postal Service. They are not time and attention intensive the way daycare is. And Adam does a great job taking care of the kids in the evenings.

We are excited about spending Christmas in Washington this year. We will probably drive up to my parents on Christmas Eve and stay for a week or so. Long enough to celebrate Sabrina's birthday and then come home.

Halloween 2008

Just a quick post so you can see our costumes for Halloween 2008.

Wendy made Brayden's spider costume and Moira's fairy costume. Sabrina was going to be a blue dog, but yesterday she decided she wanted to be Belle instead. They both got gobs of candy. We did the trunk-or-treat at the church again this year. They were very good about saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you." We were most happy about that. Wendy spent so much time working on the kids that she was not able to get into a costume. I wore my graduation cap and gown complete with my ropes and honors medal.

Adam

Everybody does it...at least once

We are so glad to have Annalyn staying with us for a couple weeks. We can hardly wait the next 6 years until we have a built-in babysitter in Sabrina. Until then, we take our chances. Wendy and I were able to go wander through the isles of Wal-Mart and the local grocery store on Saturday because of Annalyn's kindness. No good deed goes unpunished, though. When we got home Annalyn had just left the kids working on a craft project to get ready for work. None of us expected what we found. It only took about 30 seconds to discover that Moira had more crafts on her mind than cutting out paper robots.


In the couple minutes they were left alone, Moira decided she wanted to try her hand at hair styling. She grabbed a couple fist-fulls of hair and snip-snip gave herself a haircut at the kitchen table. She cut off about 6 inches on both sides of her head. I tried to muster up some kind of repremand, but it didn't look too bad to me. Wendy, on the other hand, did not think it was that good. I will let you be the judge.

See, you can hardly tell. Of course, if you look at her shoulder you can see the abrupt length change to her back. We were truly fortunate that she only cut the sides and not the oh-so-typical bangs. Wendy demanded that I call up our hair stylist and get an appointment ASAP. The gal we normally go to was not working on Saturday so I made an appointment for Monday night. That simply would not do for Wendy so I called and rescheduled for that day with anybody that was available.

Not too bad for a patch-job. You know what they say. The difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is about two weeks. Annalyn felt so bad that this happened on her watch, but all I could do was laugh. I mean, we are talking about a 3-year-old. After all, who hasn't tried to give themselves a little trim when they were that age. I know I did - the night before school pictures.

Adam

Back to da grind, mon!

In case you haven't noticed the economy is not doing so good. The prophet's counsel sounds better and better with each passing day. The mantra of living frugally, avoiding excessive debt, and saving for a rainy day is now being touted by society in general. In light of all this, I decided to go back to my old job at the REC Center in Salt Lake as a Christmas rehire. Just for a few months to pay off the car loan. The best part is that I choose my own schedule and I don't have to do all the overtime calls that are a nightly occurrence during the Christmas season due to the inordinately high mail volume. I told Adam today that I might even consider rehiring as a regular if they offer it to me in January. They pay really well, it's a low-stress job, and it's part-time. So, for the next two months I will be spending Mon-Thurs evenings sitting in a chair, staring at a computer screen, and typing away like a mad woman in a massive room that's eerily silent except for the clickety-clackety of 1500 keyboards. I know you're soooo jealous!

Music, again

I got a new calling on Sunday. Actually, they called and asked me Friday night and then I was sustained on Sunday. I'm the Primary pianist. I know you are all shocked that I was asked to do this; it came completely out of nowhere! I've only had music callings for the last 5 1/2 years, not like I could do anything else you know! Forgive me if I sound a little caustic. I'm sure Adam would be feeling this too if he was called into the Elder's Quorum Presidency for 5 1/2 years straight (in three different wards, too). I told my friend Malissa that I am content with serving wherever the Lord called me and that if that meant music callings until the day I died then I was OK with that. But I guess the reality is that I'm feeling a little taken for granted. I do have capacities other than music and I would like to serve and expand my abilities in other ways. And just because other people have dropped the ball on developing their talents and abilities does that mean I have to pick up the slack for the next 50 years. ???

When I was set apart the bishop made some comment about wishing he was musically talented. I kind of got on his case, and the rest of the bishopric too, and said that I hadn't met someone yet who didn't have the capacity to be musically gifted if they chose to apply themselves. The Lord has given us all the ability to do many things and if we, through our agency, choose not to develop those abilities into talents than we miss out on the blessings and also reap the consequences for our weak stewardship.

Sorry to get on my soapbox but I actually gave a talk about this in Sacrament meeting about four months ago. It is a correct principle. I feel very blessed to have had a mother and father who both loved music and played the piano, imbuing me with a love for the instrument. And I'm grateful that my mom continued to sign me up for teacher after teacher as I pushed my way through more and more difficult pieces until I have reached the point where I can serve in the church and not have it be a struggle for me. But I resent church members, and leaders especially, who appear to take it for granted that some people have "got it" (musical ability), and that if they just pray hard enough those people will appear in their ward and the problem is solved. What I have "got" is 25 years of blood (paper cuts), sweat, and tears (fighting about practicing) under my belt until I'm able to perform music with such apparent ease that a bishop has no qualms about calling me to three music callings at a time. Whatever happened to asking people to rise to the call and magnify their talents through the application of prayer, fasting, and hard work? I told the counselor who called me that I had no problem accepting the primary calling as long as they understood that I couldn't play the organ in Sacrament meeting too. I'm still a nursing mother and I need to feed Brayden during the block (11-2 pm). When I went to get set apart, the ward organist was standing outside the bishop's office and made some allusions to the fact that I would be playing the organ for him when he was not available. Adam was quick to remind him that it couldn't happen until my baby was weaned. Thank you Adam! But that didn't stop the bishopric from bringing up my service as a choir director and reminding me of the fact that they don't have a ward choir because they lacked one. I told them that when they found a choir director I would be happy to join the choir!

Now that I've vented I need to go repent of my pride and resentful feelings. But I won't be answering my phone until next year!