Live Life to the Funnest!

I was populating the previous post with pictures of people (I’ll alliterate if I so choose) when I ran across all of these pictures.  Holy crap my life is fun.  I have the best life ever!  Look at all this fun:

Roasting marshmallows in full ninja costumes.

Wearing animal print from head to toe.

Dinner out with my lovely bookclub.  Note the photobomber.

Watching tiny Jude attempt to play guitar.  Not a prodigy.

Daily wrestling and acrobatics.

Turban ala Nathan (my long time bud from LA)

Three hamsters on a treadmill.

My book club reading my favorite women’s sociology book.

Taking a popcorn bath for no reason other than Hush brought home a huge bag of popcorn from the Jazz.

Impromptu multigenerational jam session, Mimi singing lead on Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line.”

Dressing all professional (minus the pink hair) and landing a new college teaching job.

Going on adventures to hidden streams.

Wearing a wig on a date for no reason whatsoever.

 

Going to weddings.“Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell.”–Ernie Hem.

Making CRAZY hair.

Wearing synthetic dreads for a week.

Coaxing this whole family into bowling on Thanksgiving.

Stuffing kids in the top of closets.

Going on a Ninja Training Adventure.  (Jude thinks Hush is his ninja training master and they have to do special training activities, man things.)

Making Christmas Treats

Collecting a whole family of Cheetah loungewear.

Finding my own action figure!  (Seriously, did they copy me??)

 

Pretty much I am the happiest ever ever.  Things aren’t perfect, they never are.  But my squad and I are living life to the funnest.

-Rumi

Late Halloween and Fall Post

Fall felt like this:

Rather than words to describe our first two months together we have videos and music.  We have projects.  We have events.  We have peaceful hearts and happy children.  Here’s a month late picture of our first two months.

Music:

We are borrowing Nate’s drums until one of the other sisters demands we bring them back.  Turns out Hush can also play the drums.

Mimi has started lessons.  She’s surprisingly good already!  I’m also taking guitar lessons.  I’m terrible.  Jude’s started guitar too, though it is probably a bit early for that because of the tantrums involved.

Events:

Remember that day all my dreams came true?  No, not my wedding nor my three children’s births.  That day my whole family NAILED our Oz costumes.  I nearly cried with joy when Mimi, without prompting nor coercion, asked to be Dorothy for Halloween.  The little boys were on board with Tinman and Scarecrow.  And if she is Dorothy, that meant I got to be Glinda! 

Look closely at the skirt, do you recognize it?  Much better use of that fabulousness, no? 

It must be noted that also without coercion Hush jumped right into the fantastic Cowardly Lion costume my mother made.  How incredible is it that I found a man who knows the value of a fabulous if slightly embarrassing costume?  He rocked that Lion.  It was full commitment, without protest.  A man has to be very secure with himself to be the ONLY man in costume at the Ward Trunk or Treat.  It was a dream come true.

Projects:

Hush and I have been developing a land art project.  We came up with some ideas and out came the pen and pad to work out possible designs.  This required some research at the junk yard.

We are getting closer to a finalized plan.  Right now we’re working on a labyrinth. 

Fall is also costume time.  When isn’t costume time at my house?

 

And of course the daily wrestling sessions.

 

Ok, I think that covers most of the fall things.  Record updated.

 

The Winter of Discontent, Made Glorious Summer

First snowball to the face, courtesy of Mama.

My friend Shakespeare wrote in Richard III “Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this son of York,” meaning times were sad at the loss of the King but made better by the new King Edward of York.  Living in Utah at the advent of the snowy winter season, I too marvel at how gloriously delightful the dreaded winter can be.

I was terrified of winter.  I still kind of am.  But finally, FINALLY I understand what all those idiots were saying when they parroted “I love the different seasons!”  I used to roll my eyes and brag about living in California where we really only have two seasons:  pretty warm and kinda cold.

My view right this second

I’ve discovered the allure of the seasons.  Today Hush took us all sledding at Sugarhouse Park.  As Silas tumbled out of his lap on the sled Hush said to me, “Last time I held Silas and went for a slide it was at the water park.”  With each season brings an entirely different set of activities, but also a radically changing lifestyle.  My life in the winter is completely different than in the summer and even in the fall!  I had no idea how well that would suit me (for the time being, don’t worry mom I won’t stay here forever).  I get bored and I like things mixed up frequently.

Obligatory temple lights night

The snow has fallen here and it seems as though it will stick.  I drove in the snow for the first time last week.  I sent my little children walking to school bundled up like Ralphie.  They built snowmen during recess.  Californians, can you imagine?  I had NO idea how people functioned in the snow if they weren’t going directly to the ski slopes and home again.  In the fall I asked the 6th grader who leads their walking group, “What do you guys do when it snows?”  She responded, confused, “We wear jackets.”  And so they do and off they march to school throwing snowballs.  Bizarre!

The animal hats are hits.  Jude loves shoveling snow…for now.

The day to day routine becomes a whole different event.  We’ve developed an excellent getting ready area system and have adapted to not going outside.  We spend the afternoons in front of the fire with hot chocolate.  I leave the house at most once a day, sometimes not at all.  We use different rooms more than others in the winter.  Also, I have been regularly congratulating myself at my foresight of marrying before the winter so that I have Hush to handle the stuff I have no idea how to do.  Men are good at winter: he handles the firewood chopping (people do that!  ha!), he scraped my car so I could drive it or most often he just drives me around as my personal winter chauffer.  He says things like “Winter is for Romance.”  We’re holed up in our happy warm house and he keeps the heat on so high it really does feel like glorious summer.

Winter is for Romance.