Seasons of life

I feel so thankful today for all of the roles I get to play in my life. Today, for the first time in probably 11 years, I had my first performance as a dancer (as part of the Tango with Colette performance group). I was gone for most of the day, and it was SO much fun...getting all dressed up, having a photo shoot, you know...especially as we prepare for our performance at the Emmys in a few weeks...so neat. I loved it.

When I came home, I was just in time to put Joshua to bed. After he was all tucked in with his teddy bears, I laid down on the floor next to his bed and held his hand as he fell asleep. His bears are always covering his face and all I could see was the cute outline of his dark, fuzzy hair, and feel his sweet, pudgy little hand twitching around my fingers as he fell into a deep sleep.

After Joshie was asleep, I came downstairs and snuggled Eli in my arms while he drank his bottle, and we listened to Seth read "Ramona the Pest" with Hannah on the couch next to us. Then we got those two bedded down (everyone by 6 p.m....fantastic!) and my wonderful husband gathered food for our dinner and sat with me to eat and watch a movie and just snuggle. The house is a little messy, and we're up a little late, but the range of experiences I had and roles I was able to fulfill today just amazes me.

Between church callings (EQP for Seth, RS teacher for me), marriage, three kids, and tango (working and dancing), I feel like I am super busy and exhausted most of the time. In the Church we always talk about "seasons" of our lives, which I've usually taken to mean that people should do only one thing at a time (be a mom, go to work, volunteer, do family history...those sorts of things), but I am constantly amazed -- and SO thankful -- that this "season" of my life includes more, and oddly enough these various roles seem necessary to keep each other balanced: dancing helps keep me sane by keeping my own personal identity while being a full-time mother, which also helps me to find joy in being a mother; at the same time, being a wife and mother helps keep me grounded and focused throughout my involvement in the Tango world...which is good cuz I think I'm really going to enjoy the excitement and flashiness of dancing on t.v. :)

In addition to this, I am SO SO SO incredibly blessed to have such a fantastic husband who is SO trusting and supportive of me in all of this. Throughout this busy-ness we have to work together more than we ever have in our married life and we are closer and more thoughtful of each other because of it. I just depend on him and love him so much. I couldn't do anything that I do without him, and of course I wouldn't even have the opportunities I do have without the Lord. And that gratitude is what drives me to support Seth in his calling and fulfill my own, even without a lot of "spare time", because I realize that all of these roles are gifts from the Lord and I don't want to take them for granted or let Him down. And so we come full circle! I'm so thankful for the Lord's hand in my life. I couldn't have planned it half as well myself.

Hannah

Hannah has been pretty funny lately. She is obsessed with Rapunzel and long hair. She uses everything from blankets to measuring tapes tied around her head to imitate long hair. In fact I went to pick her up from her after-school aerobic dance class on Monday and I saw her out there dancing with her skirt on her head (don't worry, she had been wearing pants under the skirt). When they were choosing partners for the last part of class and an older girl skittered away from her to partner with someone else, I suddenly realized...WE HAVE THE WEIRD KID! Ahhh! :) Nah, it's fine, she has lots of friends in her kindergarten class. Maybe the kids just have to know her to appreciate her imagination. I'm glad she's comfortable with herself and not bothered by their reactions. She's so funny.

A funny story: In my family growing up, we liked to scare each other. All.The.Time. We got it from my dad. I think it's stress-relieving for him. Well, I kind of miss that, because although Seth has a great sense of humor (see previous post), he's not much for surprising people.

Anyway, one day last week or so, Hannah woke up on the WRONG side of the bed. She was SO grumpy I'm not sure she even slept IN a bed. Super crabby girl. Usually Seth walks her to school, then heads off to work, but he wasn't quite ready this particular day, and I wanted Hannah OUT of the house so I didn't bother waiting for him, I took her myself. Most of the way there, she was walking (stomping) yards ahead of me on the sidewalk, turning around every few seconds to give me dirty looks and growl at me. After awhile, a bicycle came up behind me and I thought, Oh this will be funny, it's going to scare Hannah to death! Sure enough, as it rode by her she jumped a mile and turned around to look at me, panicked. But she saw me laughing, and snarled at me "It's NOT funny! STOP LAUGHING!" And continued on her march.

So then I decided to have a little fun myself. I sneaked up behind her on the sidewalk, grabbed her around the shoulders and growled. Of course she jumped and yelled as I stood there laughing, but -- believe it or not -- she began to laugh, said "You scared me! That was fun!" and held my hand the rest of the way to school, happy as a clam! As we were walking back home that afternoon, she said, "Remember when I was grumpy this morning, and you scared me and then I was happy?!"

I'm so glad I finally figured out what to do when my kids are moody. This could make life a lot more enjoyable!

Seth in his sleep....

I consider myself to be luckier than most women. My husband not only has a good sense of humor when he's awake, he's also hilarious when he's asleep. Occasionally he treats me to some very interesting conversations/shows/etc during the night, and I am always thankful I was awake at the right time to witness them. Here are a couple of incidents from this past week.

The first few days of the week I am at tango practices so late in the evening that Seth is usually in bed asleep by the time I get home. Some night earlier this week, maybe Mon or Tue, was one such night. I quickly got ready for bed, leaned over and gave Seth a kiss on the cheek as I got into bed, and he (totally asleep) started talking to me in his best "tough guy" voice. First he just mumbled "thank you!" with kind of a giggle (if you can imagine a tough guy giggling). Then he says, sounding smug and tough, "If I have an eruption, you'll know what to do. And who to call." Since that makes no sense I of course asked him to repeat himself, which he obligingly did two or three times. Then I started laughing, which he must have found offensive, because he came back with, "What's so funny? Rarr-rarr-rarr!" (some sort of weird lion growl)...."Looks to me like you're looking for a punch in the face!" I thought I was going to die laughing but I did my best to stop since you never know what he'll do in his sleep and I was afraid he actually might punch me!

Then yesterday we went shopping at Costco and got some new pajamas for Joshie and Eli. We also got a new dresser at IKEA that we were up late putting together, and our room was such a mess we just slept downstairs, me on the couch and Seth on the floor. Of course the living room was also a mess because we still had so much Costco stuff out. Well, apparently it's not safe to leave anything out near Seth while he is sleeping, because we woke up a little after 5:30 this morning to tend a hungry baby, and as Seth was stumbling around mostly asleep, trying to get a bottle for Eli, he noticed something tight around his upper left thigh. That woke him up enough to wonder, "What the heck is this?" And in the dark I see him pull off Eli's new pajama shorts!!!!!!!! I'm talking size 12-month shorts here, all the way up around Seth's leg! He of course had NO idea how on earth they ended up there, and when we though to check later today, sure enough he has totally stretched out one leg of Eli's new pj's that he hasn't even worn yet!

Sometimes I think this man is crazy... but he sure keeps things exciting! Love ya honey! ;)