Fun stuff we do

Last week, we went on a family date to the "Celebrate Cayuga Lake" festival.  I'd heard about it through the MOMS club grapevine, but I wasn't exactly sure what it was going to be like.  Turns out, it was super fun.

It was held at the farmers market, so we got some delicious Greek food for dinner, and enjoyed a couple of live bands.  One duo does a kids juggling show, and they did a bit for us.  It was so much fun, that we might have to take Theo to their next one.

The other band was great as well.  The space right in front of the band was full of dancing children, which I suppose is not their usual audience makeup.  

There were also some birds of prey, chilling in a planter with their owners nearby.  There was paddle boarding, lots of doggies to pet, and beautiful weather.  It was the perfect family event.

Today, Theo and I went to the Story in the Park put on by the library.  We heard stories and songs all about dinosaurs.  A couple of weeks ago, it was all about bugs.  What will next week be?

After Theo got his dinosaur sticker (as seen on the back of his shirt below), we ran off to the library to choose a book for Mommy (The Hobbit), and to play with their deluxe kitchen.

Seriously, I have never seen such a well stocked kitchen in my life.  I kind of wish my kitchen were more like it.  There are baskets and baskets of food, and more kitchen gadgets than you can shake a stick at.  What kid needs a potato masher, pie crust crimper, functioning food scale, etc, etc, etc?  My kid, that's who.

Even though the library system and selection aren't great here, they toys are wonderful.

Moms, Softball, and Worms

I hear my baby cooing in his room while he's supposed to be sleeping, so I'll try and be quick.

 In my quest to make new friends in Ithaca, I joined MOMS club, which is sort of like a support group for stay-at-home moms.  There are various play groups a couple times a week at parks or a mom's home.  There are no kids allowed activities at night, like crafting nights or board game parties.  And there is an email network so moms can get recommendations on doctors or babysitters, or offer hand me downs to other moms.  Theo and I have only been to a handful of activities, but we really like it!  I don't know anybody that well yet, but it's nice to get out and play. 

Theo has been experiemnting with saying words, and it is suuuuper cute.  Here's a list of ones he has so far: ball, trash, shoe, mama, dada, banana, hotdog, salsa. These things are very important to him, apparently.

Sporting an oversized shirt from Grandma

 Corbin was invited to join an intramural soft ball team by the professor he researches for.  The team is mostly philosophy guys, so they are the Philosoraptors.  I love that.  Theo and I went to a game last week, and he loved it!  There were a lot of families who came to watch, so Theo had to hit up every snack bag, water bottle, coloring book, and open backpack that he could get his hands on.  He loved picking up the extra balls, and cheering for whoever was batting. 

Corbin is having lots of fun too. He's getting into the swing of it, pun intended. 

Our Reading Wormie is growing!  I'm almost to 4,000 pages, and I seem to be the only one cashing in my prizes.  I shouldn't be surprised, though.  I'm the one who came up with the list, so it's mostly things that I wanted anyways. 

Corbin has gotten me into Brandon Sanderson books, so lots of fantasy.  That's not a genre I've explored much, but I've enjoyed it thusfar.  I've read about a thousand pages of it, so I'm due for a little break.  Any suggestions for classics?

Don't let terrible logic get in your way

Theo's first Popsicle. Despite the face, he really enjoyed it!

Summer has finally struck, here in Ithaca, NY.  I'm beginning to understand the big deal about humid heat- it is the worst thing ever.  Dry heat I can take.  But this whole feeling like all I do is sweat is getting on my nerves.  Plus it rains half the time, which makes hiking and swimming and other fun summer time only activities impossible.  But the other half of the time when it's sunshiny and beautiful, there is nothing like the natural beauty of upstate New York.

I've been enjoying the magic of fireflies the past few nights.  I think part of the magic is, unless you've caught one and are looking right at it, there is no way to see one light up.  You have to rely on the corner of your eye to enjoy them.  I think I like the mystery in that. 

Two nights ago, Corbin was off at a gig and the baby was asleep.  I got to spend about half an hour just laying in my front yard.  It had been miserably hot that day, but the night cooled off and the breeze was lovely.  I watched the fireflies dance around me, and every once in a while a flash of lightning would go off in the distance.  Nothing goes better with lightning bugs than lightning!  I felt such peace being alone with my thoughts in that beautiful natural scene.  I think that night made all the yuckiness of the summer worth it.



I didn't mean for this to turn into a rant, but here it is. 

Sometimes I have terrible logic, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this form of it.  I was terribly sick back in January.  I also do not have health insurance.  As I was dealing with my pain, I knew that going to a doctor would have been the thing to do. Here's where the terrible logic comes in. I said to myself, "what if I go to the doctor, and he tells me there is something horribly wrong and I'll need surgery or expensive medication, or that I only have 24 hours to live? I'd rather just not go, and not know."  I was more afraid of the cost of getting better, than of being sick.

Fortunately it ended well for me and I got better. But what if it hadn't?  I could have been seriously ill, and I avoided the doctor who could have made me better.

In my allegory, sin is like an illness, and Christ is like the doctor.  In the past, I've applied the same terrible logic to my spiritual sickness.  I was suffering from guilt and pain, and instead of going to Christ through my Bishop (like the pastor of a congregation), I avoided him for a year or more.  I said, "Confessing my sins will be so shameful embarrassing! What if the Bishop takes away my temple recommend, or I get excommunicated?"  My logic was that working through the repentance process was going to be more painful than bearing my guilt.  But that was totally wrong!

I eventually did go to my bishop.  Telling him everything was heart-wrenching and embarrassing.  I'll admit that I wept in front of him.  But once I had spilled my soul out to him, he told me he loved me, and that Heavenly Father loved me.  I was not met with judgement, but with charity and council.  He helped me to see that I was still a good person, even though I had made mistakes. I was able to harness the full healing power of the Atomement, and to let go of the feelings of guilt and sadness.

Even though I was terrified to make the appointment, I see my visit with the Bishop as one of the most spiritual experiences of my life.  It was definitely one of the most rapid growing experiences, not without growing pains.  But the feeling of peace and comfort I felt after I'd been freed of my burdens was amazing. 

I guess the moral of this story is, don't hesitate to visit with your bishop, branch president, or ecclesiastical leader.  I was going to say, don't be scared of doing it, but you can be scared all you want.  My situation was, I'm sure, minor compared to others, but the principle holds true.  There is no reason to hold on to guilt and pain.  The bishop is there to help us come to Christ, in whatever way he can.  And there is no sin too big for Christ to take from us.  He loves us infinitely, something we can't even comprehend. 


Amendment: Bishops are there to help bring us to Christ.  We can confess to him, but we can also go for council on other subjects, even temporal.  I don't think we talk about that enough in the Church, which has lead to a stigma on going to see the bishop.  It has turned into something of a shame to talk to him.  I think people who confess to the bishop should be applauded for their efforts on improving their lives and coming to Christ, not judged because they've made mistakes. How can we change that tendency in the Church?

California: Part II

Saturday

This was the day of days, the event that started the planning of this entire trip.  This was concert day.

Corbin and I said farewell to our baby in the morning, and drove into the West toward Santa Barbara. We had planned on going to the beach before the concert, but decided against it due to traffic and a perceived time crunch.  Instead, we stopped at the hotel, went swimming, got dolled up, and left for the Santa Barbara Bowl.

 

 

(By the way, swimming was really really fun.  It was nice to just play and not have to worry about Theo jumping in and drowning.  I just hope we didn’t gross out the children who were also swimming, with our lovey-dovey tendencies.)

 

Corbin was a bit worried about the parking situation at the Bowl, but it worked out very smoothly and quickly. When it was over, we even got out quickly, thanks to a secret back exit of our parking lot.  Anyways, we walked up a beautiful wooded path to the Bowl, having to sacrifice our apples to the will of the security people.  We ended up just giving them to a couple girls working security, who felt bad about us getting rid of them since we were trying to be so healhy.  It worked out, though, because they were handing out Cliff bars just inside the gate. 

 

We had to wait a few minutes, but when it finally started it was a grand time had by all. The opening act was a bizzare Englishman, who was later joined by a few members of the Barenaked Ladies.  He was funny, but maybe a little too off the deep end for my taste.

 

Next, Guster game onto the stage.  I was happy to sing along with the songs I knew, and bob my head to the ones I didn’t.  Between the songs, their lead singer heckled a couple who were sitting in the very back in a corner.  They hadn’t reacted at all to the performance, so Ryan said he was dedicating the rest of the set to them, to make them happy.  They finally came around by the end of the set, with the help of two annoying women who came and danced by them.

Next was Ben Folds Five.  I don’t know much of their stuff, but it was a lot of noise for just three guys.  Plus, Ben Folds had the most epic rock piano stance I’ve ever seen.  Their bassist just about blew Corbin’s mind with the cool stuff he was doing, and has inspired him to try out some of his techniques.

 

Last was Barnaked Ladies, and they were quite a show! Between songs, their lead singer would do some white boy rapping, introducing the members of the band and talking about random other stuff like movies and the quality of the audience.  They would tell stories between songs as well, and their banter was hilarious!  One song has the lyrics, “I’m gonna walk, I won’t quit, till I get, to the bottom of your heart,” to which Ed decided to do a walking motion.  When the song ended he made fun of himself for the move, saying it wasn’t very rock and roll.  The crazy British man came out for the next song, and got everyone on stage to do the walking move.  I guess you had to be there, but it was really funny.

 

For their last song, the lead singer dropped a beat while the drummer came out from behind his drums, and joined the bassist for a choreographed dance and song.  I’ve never ever seen anything like that, and I busted a gut laughing. 

As the night got darker, it got colder.  I had forgotten to warn Corbin that it gets chilly by the ocean, so we were both freezing by the end of the night.  I didn’t mind, because of the beautiful view.  That night was Super Moon night, and we got to see it rise.  We also got a beautiful view of its reflection off the ocean, and I hope I never forget that sight.

 

Sunday

We woke up in our hotel early to be able to drive back to Redlands in time for church.  We made it with time to spare, and got to hug our baby tight.  We’d never spent so long away from him before. Seeing his big smile as he ran up to me was a priceless moment.

 

 

 

 

 We went to church and reunited with so many old friends.  Kyle Johnson ditched Sunday school with Holly and I to shoot the breeze.  Cathy Haimson greeted me by grabbing my shoulders and exclaiming, “Oh, Jules! Oh, Jules!” I love that woman! I got to see Chelsea Lovett… although I guess she’s not Lovett anymore. =)  We were also graced by a lesson from Carol Dyer in Relief Society.  I had been talking about her experience on the Cornell rowing team just days before, and she showed some pictures form those days in her lesson.  She is such a delight!  I was having major flashbacks to fifth grade, though, especially as Chelsea was reading quotes aloud.

 After we came home, and lunch and naps were accomplished, we spent some time hanging out in the back yard.  The kiddie pool was still up from the day before, and a certain small someone decided to walk in wearing his Sunday clothes.  So Grandma pulled all the children’s pants and socks off, and we had a spontaneous pool party.  I love spur of the moment moments.

 After dinner we loaded up the wagon with kids and went on a walk.  I love SoCal evenings, and I love walking around my old haunts in Redlands.  While we were out, Michele Rendler drove up beside us, stopped, and jumped out of her car to give everyone hugs and hellos.  I haven’t seen her in years and years, but it was such a delight. 

 We sure missed the Allisons and Kellie!

 

When we reached home, we were just in time to see Michele dropping off two containers of Baskin Robins ice cream.  She is so sweet, no pun intended.

 Jack and Lucy both took turns pushing Theo.  Such sweet cousins

We spent the night eating yummy ice cream, and playing games.  Corbin, Carlie, Holly, and I first played Scribblish, and absolutely laughed our heads off! I’m so glad we have this kind of relationship. (I’m realizing how grateful I am that my husband fits in so well, and is so well liked by my kin).

I didn’t want the night to end, because I knew we would be going home the next day.  I’m so thankful for the time I got to spend with Corbin’s and my families.  I love those folks with all my heart.  Kellie and the Allisons, you were very sorely missed.

 It's tough to say goodbye... to the van.

 

Monday

This day of traveling was very long, but sprinkled with tender mercies along the way.  My dad drove us all the way to the John Wayne Airport, and as we were pulling into the parking lot, I realized my driver’s licence was not where I usually put it.  After what seemed like hours of panicked searching through our bags and calls to my sisters to find it, I said a prayer, reached into my duffle, and pulled it out!  My heart skipped several beats, and we continued on our way.

The nearly four hour flight to Atlanta was a challenge.  I could tell we were all worn out (and I’m pretty sure Theo started teething).  I was getting a bit more plane sick than usual, which didn’t help the situation.  Theo also decided naps were for suckers, and didn’t end up sleeping the whole day.

Our flight had been delayed, and we were worried we wouldn’t make our connection.  But through another tender mercy, it was also delayed, and we had just enough time to make a pit stop and jump on the next plane.

The best blessing of all was on the second plane.  We were in a row with three seats, and the woman on the end found an empty seat in a different row so we could have an extra seat for Theo.  Bless her a thousand times!  It took a lot of pressure off of Corbin and I to let Theo have more wiggle room, although it was still a challenge. 

We made it to Syracuse, met up with Matt who drove us to his house and helped us get loaded into our car.  I can’t remember if I mentioned this before, but they babysat our car so we wouldn’t need someone to drive us the hour between there and Ithaca.  They were practically strangers, but they did it anyways, and we are so grateful.

We finally rolled into Ithaca at about 1:30 local time, and that was that.