Changes

I discovered one of my favorite poems from my college days when I was taking a British Lit class. It was actually introduced to me by a roommate previous to this class, and when I read it, I pretended I knew exactly what it was saying."Wow, that is really great." I told her. But I had no idea what it meant.

Until my British Lit class where I was assigned a small analysis presentation on the poem. After digging a little deeper, and understanding the context of the poem, I realized how great it really was.

This morning, we got the phone call from our landlady and neighbor who shares the duplex with us, that her husband passed away last night. These are the neighbor friends who helped the girls pick cherries from their tree, who would give them lemonade, who would say they wished their granddaughter came to visit more often and then give the girls stickers. As we got the news and I've noticed things out the window today, I recalled the poem and read it again. It so perfectly describes how one can suffer, while others (unaware) continue on with their lives--the parents walking their kids to the corner for the school bus; Georgie, the elderly lady who lives across the street, heading out in her white 1990 Volvo to who knows where; and our girls, playing and fighting and eating and whining and laughing and singing, as if nothing ever happened.

Musee des Beaux Arts

W. H. Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

And for any of you who are in the boat that I was in--completely clueless as to what the poem says--here's a short explanation:

The title, Musee des Beaux Arts is referring to the Museum of Beautiful Art (my rough French translation). The poet is in the museum looking at two paintings: The Fall of Icarus by Pieter Breughel and another painting. He's mentioning all the things going on in the paintings, how life carries on and no one even notices the legs in the bottom right of the painting--Icarus from Greek mythology who had wings made of feathers and wax so he could escape Crete. His father warned him not to fly too close to the sun, but he disregarded his father's warning and his wings melted. He fell to the waters and drowned. And no one even noticed.

I find it interesting that our neighbor passed away last night with it being so close to Easter, our celebration of the resurrection. I think Sunday will seem a little more "real???" for us. This death is also so close to the birth of our new little one, and it makes me think of some more poetry--only this time put into music: Jack Johnson's "If I Could."

"If I Could"
A brand new baby was born yesterday
Just in time
Papa cried, baby cried
Said "Your tears are like mine"
I heard some words
From a friend on the phone
That didn't sound so good
The doctor gave him two weeks to live
I'd give him more if I could

You know that I would now
If only I could
You know that I would now
If only I could

Down the middle drops one more
Grain of sand
They say that
New life makes losing life easier to understand
Words are kind
They helped ease the mind
I'll miss my old friend
And though you gotta go
We'll keep a piece of your soul
One goes out
One comes in

You know that I would now
If only I could
You know that I would now
If only I could

Birth, death, life . . . lots to think about.

PS On a lighter note, we never found the mysterious stink, but after a thorough sniff test in each room, an extensive kitchen cleaning, and a little help of some lemon essential oil diffused into the air, the smell is gone. At least for now . . .

Question of the Day from Claire

Mom, are we real?

The Mysterious Stink

Well yesterday was a long, full day, empty of blog posting, as you might have/have not noticed. And today, while I should be blogging a real post, Rhett and I are on the search for a mysterious stink somewhere in our apartment.

The worst part is this: in order to actually find the stink (dirty diaper? rotten food? dead animal?) we actually have to do the smell test. It causes a little anxiety knowing each whiff in might be the last before you get that awful stink full face on.

One time, when we had to do the smell test, the stench was so bad, Rhett actually puked. At least he was able to hold it in until he got to the front porch and then upchucked outside.

I'll let you know how tonight goes.

Business . . . as usual . . .

What's been going on in the life of Rhett lately? Well, aside from being a great (and busy) father, he's really been growing his business.

Last October-ish, he finished putting together his website: www.barneyip.com. My sister Katelyn worked with him and put together his awesome logo. Thanks Kate! And yours truly helped him edit his website and fine tune it (which we're still working on). I am proud of the work he's done on it. It is a great website.

In the first of February, he was able to finally move into his own office (the construction and renovations were finished), and he has really enjoyed his cozy second home about four minutes from our apartment. Just today, he got his logo decal put on his door. I think it looks awesome!

And finally, you might be wondering, well, after all this, how is business going??? My answer is this: It's going REAL. Yeah, it doesn't make sense, but that's the best way for me to explain it. It's real. He gets phone calls: some are potential clients, some are not. And then some of those potential clients are serious clients that need product protection, and some are not. It's slow, but it's also busy and exciting.

Rhett has also been doing a lot of community volunteer work. He's been . . .

*delivering weekly Meals on Wheels for the past six months, 

*he is on the Board of Directors for the Liberty Lake Library Foundation,

*he is a member of the American Bar Association Intellectual Property Section Trademark Litigation Committee, 

*he's also a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, 

*and a member of the Washington State Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property, 

*and also a member of the International Trademark Association,

*he's been asked to write an article for the NWLawyer (a magazine for WA lawyers), 

*and just recently, he's been able to participate in writing an amicus curiae brief for the Supreme Court (which is a document presented to the Supreme Court regarding opinions about a certain case in hopes of swaying the Supreme Court one way or another).

Rhett works hard, and he does such a good job of taking care of all of us. We love him and are grateful for his good work ethics, his dedication to his family, and his positive attitude. We are lucky to have him.

Sunday Morning

We are still working on a routine for our Sunday mornings now that we have church at 11:00. When it was 9:00 church, we'd get up and rush to get ready. With a few extra hours to spare, this is what goes on in our home:

Breakfast--a nice one like scrambled eggs, french toast, or pancakes. The challenge is to always remember to pull the girls' hair back out of their faces so they don't get food in their hair. Rhett did Summer's ponytail today. I about died when I saw it, and I made sure she knew it was only for breakfast and play time, and not for church.

Then we put Pyper down for a nap, hoping she'll take one before church. Sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't and just ends up sitting in her crib playing and chatting away. While she "naps," we practice conflict management over things like the purple slippers with the sparkles or the pink baby doll, or whatever seems popular in the moment.

The girls play nicely for a little bit, while Rhett and I get ready. Here they are dancing to Primary songs.

In between play and other things, they get washed up for church. Sometimes they get individual baths, like today, and other times, they get community washings (like in this picture that wasn't taken today). 

And finally, about 10:00ish, we make sure everyone is starting to get ready. No matter how hard we try, it always seems that we are heading out the door too close to 11:00. 

But it's okay. We are just glad we made it!

Well, it's 11:37 pm . . .

And I still haven't posted for the day. This non-functioning camera is really getting me frustrated. I'm going to have to take more pictures on my phone, I guess. And I'm going to have to figure out how to put videos from my phone onto the computer. This new age technical stuff is tough! (Okay, so it's really not my strength--that's what the problem is.) 

Anyway, we just got back from an Alex Boye' concert--some friends offered us free tickets for the evening. It was fun and quite entertaining (and our friends offered their daughter to babysit!), so it was a nice evening out.

And this morning, fearing it was our last chance to pay a babysitter for three kids instead of four, we went to a morning matinee of "The Croods." Let me just say, we laughed, we cried (okay, I bawled through half of it), and we loved it. 

Since I don't have any pictures of the girls, I guess the next best thing is a picture of our soon-to-be newest member of the family.

Here I am, about three weeks ago:

And here I am now:

I am feeling well, though I'm definitely s l o w i n g down. I'm quite tired during the day, and quite uncomfortable at night, so it's tough to get good sleep. 

I'm nesting a bit, finishing up that last of projects, trying to get organized, and still trying to fit the girls on my lap (though Pyper doesn't quite get it--she will continually try to sit closer and just ends up bouncing off my belly each time she scooches back).

I'm feeling like this "Seven Days of Us" has been a bit of a flop. I'm hoping to either revive it soon, or just cancel it, and do it again when we have working electronics (or a working brain!). 

We'll see.

Due to Technical Difficulties . . .

Well, we're still trying to figure out our camera situation, so in the meantime, here's a little clip from my phone of Pyper in February while we were visiting my sister in Utah.

I was trying to post the clip I took tonight, but no luck.

I'll keep working on it.

But I do love Pippy's enthusiasm.

It's about Pip-time

Lately, it seems Pyper has just exploded in personality. It is so fun to watch her interact with the girls, explore things on her own, make preferences to toys or other items, etc. 

Her vocabulary consists of "meh," for more, "da da" for dog, "bebe" for baby, "ha ha" for hot, "p p" for poopy, and "da da" for dad (we differentiate this from "dog" by what she is pointing to). :)

She absolutely love dogs, and will watch out our glass doors for the neighbor dog whenever she gets a chance. When she hears them barking, she will take off running to the doors so she can see them.

She is now sixteen months old. She has four teeth (all of which came in only a few weeks ago), and Rhett's trying to get her to say "huyuck" like Goofy because of her front top teeth. I don't think she'll do it though. 

She loves helping me unload the dishwasher and will open the silverware drawer so she can stack everything she pulls out of the machine inside the drawer. She also drinks from an open cup (went straight from me to an open cup), feeds herself, will wipe off the tray with a wipey or spunge when she's done, and will blow on her food if it's hot. She loves using a spoon or fork to eat with.

Here are some pictures . . .

She is such a pleasant girl. Most of the time, she is smiling like this.

She loves to color like the older girls. Rhett and I think it's hilarious when she parks herself in some random spot so she can lay on her stomach and color. You can see in the picture she's kicking her feet back and forth too.

Second day of pigtails (looking out the window for the dogs). 

I got these foam sheets at the dollar store. The girls love to play with them in the bath. Once they are wet, they stick to the wall. Pyper knew this, and proceeded to stick every single one on top of the other. She would pound it to the wall, putting her whole body into it sometimes. One at a time. It was hilarious.

This is Pyper's FAVORITE thing to do--cuddle with dad. He is absolutely her favorite thing (even more than dogs).

Check out those teeth!

She was on this kick for a bit trying to balance things. One time she balanced two cups. I tried to get a picture, but I missed it. Here she is balancing her carrot stick in her sister's water bottle.

She has just started opening her mouth and walking around, shoving her hand in it, when she wants to eat. She'll say, "Aaaaaah," as she wanders to us, indicating she's hungry.

She has also become quite the tease. She'll look at us when we want her to do something, then she slowly backs away, staring at us the whole time with a huge smile on her face. Then she'll turn and run. She is so funny.

And sorry, but no videos for now. The computer is telling me there's an error, and I have no idea what to do. :( I'll try to get it figured out and post some later.

Seven Days of Us

Well, it's that time of year again. I was thinking about how fun (???) it was to do a post for seven days straight last year. It was exciting to take the challenge on. And I think I'm going to do it again.

Pyper will start us off tomorrow by debuting "Seven Days of Us."

Birthday Celebrations

My birthday celebrations started a week early by a (somewhat) surprise trip to Seattle for a girls get-away. IT WAS AWESOME! And well-timed. I flew over and Rachel and Heather (best-law-school-buds) drove up from Portland to pick me up from the airport. We had lunch, caught up on life, checked in to our super-nice hotel, and relaxed. Then we met up with Andrew and Christy Borders, and little Lindy, for dinner (other Spokane friends). Here is Christy and Heather--this was Heather's first time trying sushi. 

On Friday, we headed to Pike's Place and enjoyed the market. It was a lot of fun for me to see the crafty people working away at their art. After Pike's Place, we relaxed at the hotel again. It was soooo great!

On Saturday, we searched around and found a Chinese Reflexology Foot Massage shop where we went and got a "Foot Massage" for a sweet deal. The massage therapists actually started with our heads, our shoulders, our arms, our legs, and then went to our feet. It was so relaxing.

And here we are on Alki Beach with Seattle in the background. After our foot massages, we headed to the beach to stroll around. The sights were beautiful.

It ended so fast--Sunday morning I flew home. I was happy to see Rhett and the girls. I sure missed them. And Rhett did such a good job of taking care of them on his own--from Thursday to Sunday. As soon as I got back to Liberty Lake, I rushed off to choir. And when I got home from choir, Rhett was making cookies with the kiddos! He never burned out. He did great. I appreciate his support and willingness to send me away for a weekend to relax and recharge. And thanks Heather and Rachel for planning a great trip!

My birthday celebrations continued to yesterday (my actual birthday) where I opened my gifts and cards from the family. I was actually quite sentimental as I opened them--I shed a few tears. And when I told Rhett how I was thinking about my mom and how she was holding me for the first time today (yesterday) thirty-one years ago, and how much her life would change because of ME, I got a bit emotional. Maybe that means I'm getting old. Or maybe it just means I'm pregnant. Or maybe it means I'm just growing up and realizing how much our kids mean to us, and how much we mean to our parents.

After I got myself under control, we headed out to the Spokane St. Patrick's Day parade.

Half way through the parade, I left to go to a writer's workshop. It was a birthday present from my mother-in-law, and it was one of the best workshops I have ever been to. I left feeling so inspired, encouraged, and guided in my writing goals. It was a great birthday gift.

I haven't done much pondering on my last year, though I remember my goals and aspirations to do something totally new during my 30th year, to create new experiences and memories. As much as I wanted to go diving for pearls, or to travel up north to see the Northern Lights, I didn't create any memories like that. But I did have a lot of new experiences and I did make some great memories that I will hold on to. I guess that's what happens with life, whether you plan them or not--new experiences and memories are made. That's a pretty cool thing.

Monday Night Family Home Evening

I'm not sure who was giving the lesson on Monday night, but it ended up being a great discussion!

Me: "Girls, do you know what the Word of Wisdom is?"

Girls: "No."

Me: "Heavenly Father told Joseph Smith, and Joseph Smith wrote it down in the scriptures. And what it tells us is how to best take care of our bodies. Claire, what can we do to take care of our bodies?"

Claire: "Eat."

Me: "Good. Summer, what can we do to take care of our bodies?"

Summer: "Sleep."

Me: "Good! Claire, what else can we do?"

Claire: "Drink."

Me: "Good. Summer, what else can we do?"

Summer: "Eat."

Me: "Summer, what can we eat that is good for our bodies?"

Summer: "Carrots and bananas and broccoli. But we don't eat sugar because it can make us sick."

Claire: "And we don't eat crayons or markers."

Me: "Good point, Claire. And what does it mean when we take care of our bodies?"

Claire: "It tells Heavenly Father that we love Him."

Summer: "And it helps us to be healthy and strong and not sick."

Me: "That's right, girls. Good job."

Trip to Utah

These are a few pictures of our trip to Utah. On the way to Jill's, we stopped at Temple Square. It was so neat! I've been there multiple times before, but this was the first time to get to experience it with my own little family. It was a completely different experience, and I had to try to keep my emotions under control the whole time. 

Rhett and I particularly liked the area in one of the buildings dedicated to service. This was a great quote that I wanted to remember:
"When we concern ourselves more with others, there is less time to be concerned with ourselves! . . . The more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls. We become more significant individuals as we serve others. We become more substantive as we serve others--indeed, it is easier to 'find' ourselves because there is so much more of us to find."  Spencer W. Kimball

Claire got to go to preschool with Noah for a few hours, so Summer got to play with the play dough. Summer was being very careful not to mix the play dough colors. I was in the other room, and this is what she made. She was proud of her project, and proud for not mixing. I was proud of her work too!

Here's a snapshot of us ready to go on a walk to the park. I love it. I love Noah and Pyper smiling at each other. I wonder what people thought as they saw us all--with a wagon full of kids and a double stroller fully occupied . . . and a pregnant belly! What a sight!

Jill was such a good sport to push the girls on the swings for me. They loved it and begged for more. She had so much more energy than me. Thanks Jill!

It was wonderful getting to spend so much time with each other. And it was so fun to see the cousins interact and play together.

Jill, thanks for being a great hostess and letting us stay with you for the weekend. We loved it. And as Kronk from "The Emperor's New Groove" would say, "Let's not wait until the next family reunion to get together!"