The Top of the World

Steve and I are in Moab, UT right now. We are with a bunch of students from CPC having a great time. The other day we got some time to go hiking and we climbed to the top of the world.

See?



This was part of the trail that we had to cross to get to the top of the world. It was totally scary, not gonna lie. My heart rate was definitely elevated - not just because of the hike :) It took us two serious hours of hard work to get to the top of the world, an hour to get back down.



It was amazing.

More pictures to come!

Perfect Picture

Do you ever wish you could take a picture in your mind? Or a video to record exactly what you see at the moment you see it, like a memory that you could replay with exactly clarity? I could start carrying around a video camera with me wherever I go, but it won’t remember the exact feeling of that moment. It won’t remember the warm humid air, the sun sparkling on the world, the emotion that makes the memory significant…

For example, the other day I took the girls out to run a few errands and we met up with Steve at a park for lunch. First of all, the fact that we have the kind of life where this is possible, where I have a day to spend with my girls and Steve has the job flexibility to just meet up with us for lunch, is perfect in my world. And not something that a video camera would remember.

We ate our lunch and then the girls ran to play on the playground, everyone is happy. In a world full of crazy unperfected moments, this is what I would classify as a perfect mealtime.

The playground had a fairly big slide, as in high and fast with a significant drop at the bottom. Tryn, being such a big girl like she is, took off down the slide and stuck the landing like an Olympic gymnast: both feet planted, a little bent at the waist to catch her balance, and then straightened in triumph.

Just as Tryn landed Berlin got up to the top of the slide. This is when I wished I had a video camera. She sat down and prepared herself. Tryn, realizing that Berlin was nervous, stood at the bottom of the slide. She stretched her arms open as wide as she could, reaching up toward Berlin, straining until she was on her tiptoes she yelled, “It’s okay Berli! I will catch you! You can do it sweetie! Come on, I will catch you! It’s okay honey.”

Perfect.

The funny thing was that if Berlin had actually gone down the slide in hopes that Tryn would catch her, Berlin would have knocked Tryn flat on her back. Steve and I found this quite humorous and were glad when Berlin decided to forgo the slide.

Even if I had a video camera I was actually too far away to get a good picture of what was going on, and I probably wouldn’t have been able to hear Tryn’s little voice on the tape.

So I have my memory, which will fade overtime, until I might not even remember.

The Difference

I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks...so shoot me. Summer is entire too beautiful and wonderful and fabulous and BUSY to spend much time on the computer. This past winter my friend Erin Bennett decided to blog every day in February or March. When the first two weeks of July past and I hadn't blogged once I thought maybe I would try her tactic but in reverse. I thought it would feel very great to not blog one time in the entire month of July.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately?, I have such funny and fabulous kids that I couldn't resist. So, this might be my only blog for the month of July, or not...not sure. Without further ado:

The difference between Trynica and Berlin.










This past winter the girls were at a birthday part with about 8 other little kids their age. After eating cupcakes, Tryn was the only kid who was able to walk away from the table without a speck of frosting on her and without having to get her hands wiped. Berlin...not so much, ever. :)

What's Right and Wrong

I think most people who read my blog know that Steve, the girls, and I live in North Minneapolis. Also, if you know North Minneapolis, you know that we are the minority as far as race is concerned. When we first moved here and I spent a lot of time at home with the girls, sometimes my news for Steve at the end of the day would be, "Guess what? I saw a white person walking down the street today!" I am totally not kidding about this.

One of the exciting parts about moving here for me was the fact that we would be surrounded by people of different color and ethnicity. Steve and I talked about the fact that our girls would grow up thinking so differently about people who didn't look the same as them. Well, actually I should say they will grown up not thinking differently about people who don't have the same color skin or the same type of hair.

Steve and I both grew up in rural America where people of different ethnicities were not common. I remember knowing two people who were not white like me. Two. And I didn't meet them until I was 12 or 13 years old. Our hope for our girls is that they will see all people as just that, people. Nothing more, nothing less.

So today I took the girls to eat dinner at the deli at Byerly's in the hour I had between work and Steve's softball game. We got our "chicken and rice" as the girls call Asian food, and took a seat.

Tryn picked our seat and right after we sat down she turned around to look at the people sitting behind her. It wasn't just a *glance to see whose there*. It was more like *stare, stare, stare, not look away, stare some more*.

I looked at what had caught her attention and it was a Native American man who was facing her, talking to a woman. I told Tryn to turn around and that it wasn't nice to stare, all the while thinking, "She is staring at a Native American? She doesn't stare at African Americans, Asians, or Mexicans, but she's staring at a Native America?! What in the world?!"

But she wouldn't stop turning around to look at him.

Finally, I was getting a little frustrated and I said, "Tryn, please stop turning around and staring at people. It's rude to stare, which means it's not a nice thing to do."

And she turned and looked at me and said, "But Mom, he's wearing a necklace. HE's (as in men in general) aren't supposed to wear necklaces, are they?"

"Well, yes Tryn. Boys can wear necklaces if they want to."

"But Daddy doesn't wear necklaces, does he?"

"Nope, Daddy doesn't. But he could if he wanted to."

"But he's not supposed to, necklaces are for girls."

I love that although Tryn has never been around a Native American before, she didn't care that he had different color skin than us or that he spoke differently than us. No, the weird part of her day is that for the first time she saw a boy wearing a necklace.

Crazy Week

I didn't blog one single time in the past week.

It was a crazy and weird week. We took two trips to the ER for the worst flu our family has had. Steve had to be hooked up to an IV on Tuesday to get some liquids in him, he hadn't been able to keep anything down for hours and was so dehydrated. Berlin had a late night trip to the ER on Thursday because she was also not able to stop throwing up.

Tuesday a good family friend of ours, Michele, died rather suddenly from cancer. Her family and our family know each other from Open Door. Her funeral was on Saturday.

On Friday we had the most bizarre storm I have ever seen. It rained so intensely for an hour that this is what happened to our street:





Our sidewalk was underwater and we could not see the curb at all. Both of our cars got wet floors in the inside. Steve moved them during the rain and our Pontiac didn't work the entire next day while the engine was drying out.

Like I said, it was a crazy week.

Randomness for Sunday Afternoon

I am blogging twice in one day which is just bizarre since I often can't get myself to blog twice a week, but I have some random things...

1. This morning Berlin was trying to smash play-dough against her face in order to get an imprint of her face in the play-dough, something her father taught her. Awhile later she came up to me and said, "I have owie in my nose," while shoving her little finger repeatedly into her left nostril. I looked up there but could not see anything. She persisted though, that she had, "An ouchie up there." Finally, I plugged the right side of her nose and told her to blow and a big green booger sized piece of play-dough shot out and landed in my hand.

2. I have spent a leisurely morning sitting on the front porch reading a magazine while the girls played in the kiddie pool. I read an article that told me how often I should wash each piece of clothing that I wear. Jeans = 4 to 5 wears, blouses = 2 to 4, t-shirts = EVERY time you wear them for longer than 4 hours, and the list goes on and on. This is fun information because it makes me feel better about the fact that I don't wash my clothes every time I wear them. I do sometimes re-wear t-shirts (gasp!) once or twice before washing them though. Then the thought crossed my mind, "Who in the world sits around and does studies on this type of thing?" I mean, there were calculated reasons why it was okay or not okay to wash things after x number of wears...WHO gets paid to figure that out? Seriously! What a weird job.

3. The other day we had a thunder storm, which made Berlin very nervous. We were all sitting at the dinner table eating and Berlin kept looking out the window every few seconds - waiting for the next loud clap or flash of light. After several minutes of the storm, and after Berlin had actually started looking a little more relaxed about the whole thing, she turned to Steve and said, "I don't want more, Daddy. Push a button. Turn it off." Haha!!

4. I am really obsessed with Nutella right now. I might have to go to the store and buy some before this day is done.

5. The other day some of the HS students from where I work were taking a bus tour of North and we stopped by my house. A few people really needed to use the bathroom, but I couldn't let them in my house because it was too messy. *Sigh* I am having a really hard time getting this place under control since we came back from Nashville.

6. Right now Tryn is supposed to be having nap/rest time and she is in my room belting out her own version of "Jesus Loves Me" as loud as she can.

Sweet Cece's

While we were in Nashville Rollie and Cait brought us to a new ice cream place, Sweet Cece's. So yum. If there is any topping that you could think of to put on your ice cream I am pretty sure they have it.

My girls were amazed, not only by the sheer volume of treats at their eye level, but they got to pick whatever they wanted to put on their ice cream. Heaven.




My bff, Cait :)