scintilating dreams

I remember a time when I used to be ambitious . . . when I used to dream of being known, somehow, for my wit, my sharp prose, my brilliant children, something. I find myself increasingly settling for mediocrity--but I think it's a trade-off I'm willing to make, if it means happy and healthy children.

You're probably wondering where all this is tending . . . I think it's meant as an obscure apology for a blog posting that is not in any way noteworthy. I don't even remember everything I did this week. Busy, of course, trying to balance my newly schizophrenic life: home, school, back home again. But I'm really enjoying the job--the students I work with are great kids, smart and ambitious and all those things I vaguely remember being once upon a time. And of course, I enjoy my kids too. Most of the time.

I'm not sure that Thursday morning was one of those times. I took the kids in for pictures, hoping to get some nice shots of Evelyn in her blessing dress and Andrew in his smart black suit (A Macy's clearance find). I had some insane notion that I could handle both kids on my own--luckily, my mom didn't believe me and opted to come with me. It's a good thing she did, because the two of us together were barely able to keep Andrew under control (i.e., out of the photographer's gear and away from the backdrops, which Andrew persisted in seeing as some kind of elaborate tent just for him). We also took some pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes (Andrew as an elephant, Evelyn in her Tom Arma rhino costume--an Ebay find that I'm rather proud of). They were pretty cute. Of course Andrew, as obnoxious as he is, is still one of the most photogenic little kids I've met--he almost never has a bad picture when they're professionally done. (When I take his pictures, however, there's no telling). Evelyn, however, was less than thrilled with the experience. She had only just fallen asleep when we arrived at the studio. Surprisingly, they were ready for us as soon as we got there (a first, in my experience), so she was almost immediately rudely woken up by me putting her in her costume. We spent the rest of the shoot trying to keep her from crying, so I didn't, unfortunately, get what I really wanted: some good pictures of Evelyn smiling (a feat which I have yet to accomplish on my camera). I'm hoping that her Poppy got some good ones this weekend that he's willing to share.


We went down to Cedar City for a brief visit this weekend, leaving Friday afternoon and coming back this morning to arrive (late, unfortunately) for sacrament meeting at 11. (We were intending to be on time, but Andrew, our usually reliable alarm clock, surprised all of us by sleeping past 7). It was a nice visit--Bubby and Poppy got some face time with Evelyn, who was her usual charming self (well, aside from her arrival Friday night, when she was over-tired and cranky). Andrew ran around with his usual energy, thrilled to have so much adult attention. We helped pick Bubby and Poppy's garden, went to the Cow for drinks and ice-cream cones, went to Park Discovery, and moved rocks. Oh, and of course we ate lots of good food. I'm just sorry we couldn't stay longer, but Dan and I both had to teach today.

The only other noteworthy item for the week is the fact that potty-training is *finally* starting to take with Andrew. In the last four or five days, he's only had a few "accidents" in his diaper. (Almost ready for real underwear!). In fact, the last couple of days he's managed to take unattended moments to sneak into the bathroom and emerge, triumphant and pants-less, to announce that he's gone poop in the potty. The first time he did this, I didn't believe him until I saw the proof. But then he did it again while we were making dinner at Bubby and Poppy's. And today, during nursery, he told the nursery leader that he needed to go potty--and he did! This was the first time in a long time that neither Dan nor I had to leave our meetings to take care of a dirty diaper. And let me tell you, it was a nice change.